What kind of sessions do you generally do here at Hyde Street?
I've done a lot of different stuff over the years. I'm one of those cats who likes songs more than styles, so I've worked in a lot of different styles of music. I've been super lucky to work with some really great people: George Clinton, Jello Biafra, Augustus Pablo, Louis Johnson, Fishbone, Taylor Dayne, Depeche Mode. All sorts of cats. I like being an engineer more than a producer, actually, and I think that's helped me work in a wide variety of styles. I really enjoy doing hip- hop sessions, and I do a lot of work with Hieroglyphics and Del [tha Funkee Homosapien].
What sessions do you remember as being particularly good, or particularly awful?
Well, I don't really have awful sessions, I don't think. I've had sessions that tried my patience, with stuff not working, or feeling that you're fighting the equipment. One reason is that I don't just work with anybody who wants to work with me. Maybe back in the day I did a lot more of that, but after this amount of time I have the ability to be a bit more choosy about the folks I want to work with. So if I get a vibe that makes me feel uncomfortable, I'm likely to say, "No, I don't think this is going to work out." Rather than trying to do it and later regretting it. Now, that has very little to do with musical style. It has a lot more to do with personalities. You can be an Irish jug band and I will still have a good time recording you. If you have good songs, that's really what it's all about.
How do you get most of those clients?
Mostly it is word of mouth. People will either hear from a friend, or have picked up a record that I engineered, and will contact me that way. Also you meet people on sessions. Especially working with the P-Funk crew, I've met some very talented people and have maintained relationships with them. Clinton sessions, P-Funk sessions, are always super fun.
Yeah, tell me what that's like.
It's kind of crazy, because you never know what to expect. Often-times these sessions will happen after shows. They'll play a six-hour set and then load in and want to record the rest of the night into the next day. There isn't a formula that anybody follows, you have to be ready for anything, from basic tracks to mix. I learn so much working with George Clinton. He's probably the most even-keeled producer I've ever met. He's not one of those guys who says, "Okay, I need you to play this, this way." He surrounds himself with people he likes, people who have a style that he's looking for, and pretty much lets them develop the song.
So George is mostly directing traffic?
Kind of, but more just there, nodding his head and smiling. If he's not hearing something, or not liking what he hears, it's not a critical thing, but he says, "Well maybe try it more like this. More on top of it," or, "More behind it." He's never like, "No, no, this is how it has to be." Those sessions are among the funnest I've ever done — they're so freeform. Just keeping up with the musicians, making sure everybody's happy, which is really the main job of the recording engineer, I think. A lot of engineers fancy themselves producers, and a lot of artists complain to me about that. Like, "The engineer wouldn't let me do this, or try that," and I think that's crazy.
So you're pretty open-minded in sessions.
Yeah, my favorite thing is to involve the band as much as possible in the production process. Which, for me, means getting them behind the board, moving faders and playing with the EQ. Especially with regard to arranging a song in the mix. With a lot of hip-hop, for example, people just track all the grooves, with everything everywhere, then go through and do the mutes. I've found through the years that it's easier for me to show someone the rudiments of the console automation, and then have them do their mutes. I'm never very far away, so if they get into trouble, I can come in and help them out. But to me that is so much cooler than trying to translate what they're looking for. "You tell me where it needs to be muted and I'll mute it." As a result, I think the band gets a lot more comfortable with the process, and begin to understand the studio a lot more. As we build a relationship, and continue to do work, I can have them do more and more of my job. [laughs] That leaves me free to do other things, the not-so- monotonous things.
When you work with Pro Tools, do you do any mixing in the program?
Yeah, I do. What I try to do in Pro Tools is, prior to the mix session, get it mixed as close as I can, so it sounds pretty much done. Then when I bring it in here, I set all the faders at zero, and then assign each of the channels out individually. So I essentially have the same mix.
So the board is just doing the summing.
Essentially, although I'll use the board to do little tweaks at that point. I'm not a huge fan of digital EQ, which is one of the reasons I like to do it this way. Digital EQ doesn't have the phase shift and the distortions that a good analog equalizer has, so I prefer using the EQs on an analog console. But Pro Tools and digital does some great things. Compression, for instance, is great in the digital domain.
What do you like using for that?
I've been using the Focusrite D3. When I do use digital EQ, I use the Waves Renaissance, which I think sounds very natural. It sounds warmer than the Focusrite does, not quite as brittle. But if you use too much, you really start to notice it quickly. You've got to be pretty subtle with the digital EQ, comparatively.
Do you mostly cut frequencies in digital, or does it go either way [cut/boost]?
I'd go either way, probably more likely to cut something before I boost something. That's for digital and analog EQ.
