The Creative Music Recording Magazine

Patrick Carney
The Black Keys & Producing

Dub Music Special!

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Lee “Scratch” Perry
The Super Ape of Dub Speaks!
Scientist
Hopeton Overton Brown - Dub Master

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Adrian Sherwood

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Dub Syndicate, On-U Sound
Emch
of Subatomic Sound System (d
Amy King
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Canada’s Grant Avenue, Gordon Lightfoot

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Kyle Crane
Whiplash, Drums, Sessions, Tours
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Jon Castelli
Mixing Khalid, Macklemore, Ke$ha

Ray Moore
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Columbia Records, 1957-1995

Peterson Goodwyn
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of DIYRE in Behind The Gear

Gear Reviews
AMS RMX16 reverb, SSL XL-Desk,
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Eventide Omnipressor, and many more!

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$ 5 . 9 9 N o . 1 3 6
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A p r / M a y 2 0 2 0
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 Hello and
welcome to
Tape Op
12
14
24
32
38
44
Letters
Patrick Carney
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Emch
Adrian Sherwood
Scientist
#136!

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52 Amy King

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56 Kyle Crane
60 Jon Castelli
66 Ray Moore
p a g e

80 Peterson Goodwyn in Behind The Gear

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82 Gear Reviews

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102 Geoff’s End Rant

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Dub. Even the word is a technical term from the studio, making a copy
of a recording to another media. But what do we mean when we talk
about dub music? Musique concrète, later works by
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The Beatles, and many other sources may

stake a similar “studio-only” claim, but dub
originated from the mix consoles and tape decks of Jamaica, with roots
tracing back to events in 1968. These were songs that only existed on
vinyl and tape, through an inspired intersection of technology and
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creativity, and not simply based on live music performances.

Practitioners like Lee “Scratch” Perry, Osborne “King Tubby” Ruddock,
Errol Thompson, and artists like Augustus Pablo and Keith Hudson
embraced this new style.
(a

For anyone excited about making music and capturing creativity in

the studio, dub is not something we can take lightly. Dub, the “toasting”
that followed it, and legendary DJ Kool Herc’s move
to the Bronx from Jamaica all helped forge
the basis of hip-hop. The effect of this music on everything
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we do in the studio to this day is immeasurable, so welcome to an issue

where we focus on dub music. It sounded like the future when it first
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appeared, and its impact continues to change the future of music today.

Larry Crane, Editor

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Lee “Scatch” Perry’s Black Ark Studio in Kingston, Jamaica, 1978.

photo by Adrian Boot <www.urbanimage.tv>
 The Creative Music Recording Magazine

Editor & Founder

Larry Crane
Publisher & Graphic Design
John Baccigaluppi
Online Publisher
Geoff Stanfield
CTO & Digital Director
Anthony Sarti
Production Manager & Gear Reviews Editor

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Scott McChane
Gear Geek at Large

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Andy Hong
Contributing Writers & Photographers
Cover photo of Lee “Scratch” Perry by Geoff Stanfield
Michael Carney, Luke Awtry, Adrian Boot, John M. Schultz, Steve Barker,
Aya Muto, Roman Sokal, Benjamin Washington, Dave Middleton, Doug Fearn,

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Vic Svorinich, Jonathan Saxon, Scott Evans, Dana Gumbiner, Garrett Haines,
Greg Gordon, Don Gunn, Dylan Ray, Chris Koltay, Brian Bender, Mike Kosacek,

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Justin Mantooth, Jeremy Wurst, Scott McDowell, and Vince Chiarito.
Editorial and Office Assistants
Jenna Crane (editorial copy editor), Jordan Holmes (reviews copy editor),

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Thomas Danner (transcription, online),
Maria Baker (admin, accounting), Jay Ribadeneyra (online)
Disclaimer
TAPE OP magazine wants to make clear that the opinions expressed within reviews, letters, and
articles are not necessarily the opinions of the publishers. Tape Op is intended as a forum to
advance the art of recording, and there are many choices made along that path.
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Editorial Office
(For submissions, letters, music for review. Music for review is also
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reviewed in the San Rafael office, address below)

P.O. Box 86409, Portland, OR 97286 voicemail 503-208-4033
All unsolicited submissions and letters sent to us become the property of Tape Op.

Advertising
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John Baccigaluppi
916-444-5241, <john@tapeop.com>
Marsha Vdovin
415-420-7273, <marsha@tapeop.com>
Subscribe online at tapeop.com
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(Notice: We sometimes rent our subscription list to our advertisers.)

Subscription and Address Changes
Can all be made online at <tapeop.com/subscriptions>.
(a

Back issues can be purchased via <tapeop.com/issues>. If you have

subscription issues that cannot be fixed online, email
<circulation@tapeop.com> or send snail mail to
PO Box 151079, San Rafael, CA 94915.
Please do not email or call the rest of the staff about subscription issues.

Postmaster and all general inquiries to:

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Tape Op Magazine, PO Box 151079, San Rafael, CA 94915

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(916) 444-5241 <tapeop.com>

Tape Op is published by Single Fin, Inc. (publishing services)
and Jackpot! Recording Studio, Inc. (editorial services)

www.tapeop.com
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8/Tape Op#136/Masthead
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 It’s a balance, as bigger
print size means fewer
articles per issue. I think the
contrast on the new paper
stock is actually better
now, with less glare. And
respectfully, if you have an
original issue #1, you might
Tape Op has changed. When I first subscribed to Tape Op not be that young anymore, and like Larry and I both, you
years ago, I looked forward to every issue. There was a lot might not have great vision these days either. I need glasses
of useful information; plenty of hands-on pragmatic to read now, as do many folks as we get older. -JB
suggestions on how to get the most out of the gear I had,
As I stood in line at a department store, a page went out
and what gear might improve and speed up my workflow
over the PA system for a price check. Immediately, I was
in the studio. That is no longer the case, taken in by the fact that I was standing almost directly
sadly. The magazine now consists almost entirely of
under one of the speakers and heard it at a low volume. At
fawning and virtually useless interviews with celebrity
the same time, I could hear the page in back of the store
engineers discussing their long, hard – but inevitable, of
from one of the speakers at least 100 feet away, and it
course – rise to the top of the field. I fail to see the point.
sounded much louder than the direct one above me. This
I really enjoyed the article on Norbert Putnam [#135]
as I recently recorded an album with Turquoise Willie at
Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. Norbert
designed that studio in an old school gym. Great room
and gear in the heart of the Delta!
Neil McDonald <neilcm30@gmail.com>
I totally agree on the importance of Area Code 615’s
music and presence in Nashville back in the later ‘60s and
early ‘70s. With any article we are constrained by the
amount of space in print, the amount of time an
interviewee and interviewer have, and simply (on my end)
what the writers turn in. I always hope that our readers dig
deeper into what is presented in Tape Op. Pick up a copy
of Norman Putnam’s book, Music Lessons: A Musical
Memoir, for more stories and information! -LC
Regarding the End Rant [“The Guessing Game,” about
remote mixing] in issue #134: For every solution, there is

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The gear reviews are okay, but they usually focus on high- a problem. Sometimes we can go through a pile of stupid
created a huge, wide, stereo perspective that got me ideas and winnow them down to something useful. So,
end gear. The old “best-bang-for-the-buck” approach that
inspired to try and duplicate it in my own home studio. I’ve

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was the earlier focus is long gone. Yesterday, my email here is my stupid (and probably obvious) idea. Feel free
heard this effect applied to vocals, as well as different to ignore or implement; these are just the thoughts of
inbox included a reminder for me to renew my subscription
instruments, on several recordings. It isn’t just simply someone who read your rant three times and pondered
to Tape Op. I will not be doing so. I cannot justify the
panning a dry signal to one side and delayed on the other; how to move forward.
paper and energy that goes into producing and delivering
rather what I was hearing was the “wash” of the lowered Perhaps you could incentivize good behavior? You’ve
a publication that offers so little. I hope the magazine
volume direct sound and its ambience near me, followed by

)
regains its original focus. I’ll take a look online from time listed the desired behaviors:
a louder, delayed “bigger room wash” milliseconds later. I 1. Submit a rough mix that represents the current status.
to time to see if things have improved. I hope they do.
am sure there are professional reverb units that can

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Gordon Kaswell <gordon@efn.org> 2. List the desired improvements. (A Top Five list?)
replicate this effect, but is there a formula to follow? How 3. Have an invested party present for mixdown to
We’re always sorry to see a reader go. As the founder and is this done in a professional mix setting? I’ve tried to print
provide guidance. To qualify for this incentive the
editor, I will be the first to admit that the content and the dry [signal] and pan to one side, then delay the other
invested party must provide both negative and positive
direction of Tape Op is always in flux. I’m proud that the to the opposite side, but I’ve also run it through a reverb
coverage is much wider than when I started Xeroxing the unit and delay as well, and then messed with the time
first issues – but are you sure you’ve really examined the settings. Still, something just isn’t
breadth of what we cover and who we talk to? It’s not sounding right. It was so much easier to hear this
(d feedback regarding progress at each session, as well as be
prepared (and authorized) to sign off on the finished mix.
Incentives could include:
1. A discount for any/all of the above good behaviors.
always “celebrity engineers” by any stretch. That said, one subtle effect on my old Teac 3440, with that slapback
2. A shorter response time for receiving the finished product.
of the things I’ve never wanted Tape Op to be is a “how- effect from the record and playback heads panned left and
Shoot for
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Yeah, I know it seems unlikely.
to” hobbyist-orientated magazine. I believe there’s more to right, with the pitch control to vary the delay. It sounded
the moon and make it over the
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glean from talking to artists, producers, engineers, huge! Any ideas/methods would be greatly appreciated!
acousticians, gear builders, and such than one could ever Michael Klein <modernmythmedia1@gmail.com>
fence?
Michael Longeneker <kuruprionz@gmail.com>
assemble in a bunch of “How to Get a Killer Guitar Tone”
Things to keep in mind: You never heard any “dry” signal I feel like I’ve been reunited with an old friend. I was
articles. I also believe there are many lessons to be learned
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in the store. Both sounds were diffused through air and fortunate to have the first dozen or so issues. You folks
in the pages of every issue of Tape Op; and though it
modified by the time delay and phase relationships by the were absolutely at the ground floor of the home studio
changes over time, the real focus – creativity and art –
time you heard them; plus there’s the amount of sonic market – I felt like I was talking to a peer. The other mags
remains totally the same. How you perceive this, and what
overlap that occurred in the actual space. This is much were for the larger studio market. I remember thinking,
you take away, are completely up to you. -LC
more complex of a scenario than you are likely setting up “What a stroke of genius to have a mag for the little guy.”
Larry, I cannot tell you how great your magazine is to in a mix. These sorts of effects work well when captured
t)

I am so glad to see that you are still around. I went to

me, and the fact that it’s free only makes a great thing during a performance with amps and mics and such, or
recording college and built my own studio (floating 2x6
better. I have a Tape Op collection going back to issue #1, when applied with re-amping and real spaces. -LC
construction) in my basement. I was open for business
when I saw it on the rack at Tower Records in Ann Arbor,
I enjoyed the article about Norbert Putnam, but I was for a few years. Because of health reasons I can’t make it
(a

Michigan. I constantly reread all of the issues randomly

disappointed that it included no information about his down to the control room anymore. I had a recording
and rotate the order. One thing I would like to ask: I
work with the pioneering country rock band Area Code desk put upstairs, so I have something to do. I’ve been
would gladly pay an annual magazine subscription fee if
615. Their two albums were recorded at [Wayne Moss’] remixing old tracks (Hey, The Beatles are doing it!) and
you could go back to slightly larger print, as well as paper
Cinderella Sound around 1969, and included the (then) learning some new tricks. I must admit that just
that offers better contrast. My vision is not that bad, but
next generation Nashville rebels, including some of the yesterday Tape Op popped into my head. I jumped on the
I need magnifying eye-wear to read the newer issues. I
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same musicians mentioned in the article, as well as web and found you still lurking around. I am all signed
don’t have that problem with other periodicals. I suspect
Weldon Myrick, Bobby Thompson, Mac Gayden, and up (again) and ready to devour your mag.
there are other readers with the same problem. I know
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Wayne Moss. Their recordings opened up the minds of Terry Thomas <Thefabs325@gmail.com>
the magazine is available online, but I don’t like staring
many producers, engineers, and musicians to the notion
at a computer after hours, having stared at one all day
long already. Please see if there is anything you could do.
that Nashville was more than just a country music town. Send Letters & Questions
Dick Weissman <r2s@comcast.net>
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Dave Wills <willscom@comcast.net> to: editor@tapeop.com

12/Tape Op#136/Letters/
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 As one half of The Black Keys with Dan Auerbach
[Tape Op #127], Patrick Carney has witnessed their
band achieve the sort of commercial success they
would have once considered impossible. But more
than “just” a drummer, Patrick is actually a guy who
found his way into this band by being into home
recording. Many of the early Black Keys’ albums
were “homemade” by the band, and they’ve been
hands-on with producing and recording ever since.
Patrick’s career as a producer has seen him work
with Jessy Wilson, Calvin Johnson, Tennis,
The Black Lips, The Sheepdogs, and *repeat repeat,
as well as Michelle Branch, Patrick’s wife and a very
talented musician in her own right. Dan and Patrick
had completed Let’s Rock in 2019 when I rolled up
to visit his Audio Eagle studio outside of Nashville.

“Music Needs to Come from the Purest

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Part of You”

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Patrick and Michelle at Audio Eagle

How did The Black Keys begin?
We grew up together. In high school we would fuck
around on my 4-track. Then Dan bought a 4-track, and
we’d fuck around on his. We’d bounce back and forth.
4-track cassette recorders?
Yeah. Then a couple years later, we were both making
music independent of each other. He was kind of in a
bar band, and I had an indie pop band. I had decided
that I wanted to become a recordist; I wanted to
record bands.
Were you more fascinated with the idea
of making the recordings than being
in a band?
I was more interested in making records, at the time. I
think most people just obsess with music. For me, it
wasn’t necessarily tedious practicing and learning
skills – it was listening and getting into the sounds.
How did the record deal come about?
I spent a couple weeks mixing this on headphones. Then It was always in my basement, except for Rubber Factory;
When I interviewed Dan I hadn’t
We had finished our record [The Big Come Up] completely
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Close the ranks. It feels safer sometimes.
That’s what we did. Actually I think it became our secret drums to be more distorted. Since then, I’ve run into
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I ended up buying a Korg digital 12-track in the a record and having fun. Around that time I bought
summer of 2001. I didn’t have any money, so I got a another studio setup. We got another record deal and
Sam Ash credit card. I sat with it the whole summer made another record. I got a Tascam 388 in 2002, and
of 2001, because I had lost the shitty job I had and we did our second record [Thickfreakness] on that.
I was desperately poor. I had a summer off, and I was Did that feel more copacetic to the
about to go to college at the University of Akron for sound you wanted?
my third year, not knowing what the fuck I wanted to It was a lot easier, for sure. Around the same time that
do. I just played with this recorder and I got pretty I got that, I also went back and did a couple singles
good with it. Dan was like, “Do you want to record my and songs on that second record on an Audio-
band?” I said, “Of course, man! Come over to my Technica [cassette] 4-track. It sounds fucking insane.
house.” He showed up and we waited on my front Fat Possum was a really cool label to be on, because
porch. It was a late, hot, summer day. The other guys the record advance for us was like $12,000. I ended
never showed up. Dan was like, “Shit, why don’t you up taking their old Tascam 85-16B 1-inch, 16-track to
play the drums?” I was a guitar player; I could barely knock $2,500 off the advance. I ended up buying a
play the drums. The only time I’d ever played the mixing desk on eBay; the matching desk for the 85-
drums was when I played with Dan years earlier. So, 16B; the [Tascam] M16. This one belonged to the
I recorded this demo. It was one afternoon for a band Loverboy. It was just a fucking piece of shit, but
couple hours, playing some songs I’d never heard; we ended up making Rubber Factory on this. Then the
covers, mostly. Then we got a fucking record deal, and next record we did on Pro Tools.
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I became a drummer! What spaces were you using during
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those different records?
9/11 happened; Dan had dropped out of school, and I that was recorded in this old General Tire factory in
was about to. It was a weird time. It was like, “We Akron. It was a factory, but the second floor was
should just start a fucking band, and this is it!” This offices and laboratory space. They’d moved out of
whole demo turned into a demo for a band, and we there in ‘86, and this was 2003 or 2004 when we were
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named the band The Black Keys. My brother made a in there. It was so polluted. When we finished the
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cover, and we sent it out to a list of probably about 20 record and were done with our lease, I just left the
small labels. We ended up getting an offer. Then I had mixer in there. They tore the building down five or six
to become a drummer. But our thing early on was that years ago, and the city can’t afford to clean it up
we’ll just make our own records, because it’s cheaper. because it’s completely filled with asbestos.
We also think it’s a fun way to spend our time.
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nutshell.
That’s the history of Akron in a
realized is that you guys had a band We ended up making all the records ourselves, up
and a recording before you played through Magic Potion. Dan didn’t have a studio until
your first show. around Magic Potion. At that time he started
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collecting gear. He’s a much different collector than
and had it mastered before we played our first show. me; I’m more of a cheapskate. When he got into it,
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That was the fun part. Then we toured that. We started he bought this 1970s Studer; a real desk with a big
getting some heat on that first record. The White power supply. I’d always been reading Tape Op and
Stripes, The Hives, The Strokes, The Shins and all those reading books, but I think it was around that time,
bands were hitting, and we were the second wave of when I was 25 or 26, that we started getting into the
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bands that hadn’t been signed. We got flown out to a nuance of how different records were made and we
studio in Berkeley, California. This guy, Jeff Saltzman started actually learning. We realized we were in a
– who went on to produce The Killers’ [Hot Fuss] record position where we could go make records with people
the next year [Not to be confused with Jeff Stuart who had made records we really loved, and we could
Saltzman in Portland, Oregon. -LC] – was a manager for learn a lot from them. We started to really take
Green Day for a while. He had started this studio; he advantage of that. But then we had a really miserable
flew us out and said he wanted to produce us. He experience at the Man or Astro-man? studio
recorded six songs of ours. I went back and listened to [Tape Op #9] in Atlanta.
them recently, and they sound good, but at the time Oh, the Zero Return studio?
we were like, “This is so produced!” We didn’t really Yeah. It wasn’t with the guys in the band. Those guys
know what we were talking about. We were so insecure were all cool. It was with an engineer who they worked
with letting someone else do stuff. with. We didn’t really know how to express what we
wanted. We kept talking about how we wanted the
to longevity. We didn’t sign to one of those big labels. this problem a couple times. Our second time we tried
We realized we were better suited to be on Fat to go back to a studio with someone else, and it was
Possum, the label we had admired since we were high just fucking terrible. It just wasn’t fun. When we finally
schoolers. We were allowed to operate in a way where had to go to the studio with someone else, it was with
success for us was not about getting played on TRL Paul Hamann [Tape Op #13] at Suma Recording in
[MTV’s Total Request Live]. It was just about making Cleveland. He passed away a few years ago.
P. Carney/(continued on page 16)/Tape Op#136/15
 Crazy history at that place.
Yeah. I think he got offended because when I was
describing it after we finished Attack & Release, I
described it as this dusty piece of history. But it really
was. His dad [Ken Hamann] had built it with him, and
when his dad passed away they had not touched
anything. It was amazing because we got to work
with Paul. Paul was not the kind of guy who had a big He’s really sonic in the way he records
ego. It wasn’t like, “You have to use this mic.” He had
his own way of working, and it was really cool.
Besides Ohio and that connection, was it
Pere Ubu records and such that drove
you to that studio?
What ultimately made us go there was the fact that it was
in Ohio, first and foremost. I actually didn’t really start
getting into Pere Ubu until around the time we made
those records. Right before we went in there, I started
listening to Dub Housing. When I grew up, my uncle
[Ralph Carney] was in a band called Tin Huey and
Thank you. It was a big deal. It was our first foray back
into the studio. It had only been six months; but you
have to remember that at that time we had been
going non-stop for eight years! We took six months
off. We went into Studio G [Brooklyn] with Joel
Hamilton [Tape Op #85]. Working with Dan and Joel
– that was the most fun part of the experience.
and produces.
Very sonic. I definitely learned a lot from him. His attitude
in the studio was just amazing and very encouraging.
We started writing bass and drums first. We basically
did a practice session for going to Muscle Shoals. We
made that BlakRoc record in June, July, and early
August. Then, in late-August, we went to Muscle
Shoals to make Brothers, which we had no material for,
really. We had a couple of demos. In a two month
period, we made this hip-hop record, and then we went
into the studio with Mark Neill [Tape Op #29].
properly, at the time. We ended up waiting for, like,
two or three weeks to get mixes back from Mark.
Maybe even a month. We finally got the mixes back
from Mark, and I said, “Man, they don’t sound fucked
up enough!” He’s like, “There’s so much distortion on
there.” I said, “Your ‘so much distortion’ is not my ‘so
much distortion.’” I don’t pull punches. I’m not trying
to be an asshole. I said, “No, I really think we need
to have Tchad [Blake, Tape Op #16, 133] mix this.
Tchad’s the guy who will get this.” We’d used Tchad
on BlakRoc for one song.
I interviewed him last year and he
talked about some of this.
I love him. I think our direction on the email was, “Hey,
Tchad; these don’t sound fucked up enough. Do
whatever you want. Just make them fucked up.” The
first mix we got back was “Howlin’ For You,” and it
sounded basically identical to how it sounds now. It
was like, “Fucking amazing!” At that point, I knew that

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made some songs with David Thomas. I was familiar Was it liberating to do BlakRoc the record was going to do something special for us. I

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with it, but I just missed it. I didn’t even listen to the beforehand, to see how you could remember calling our lawyer; she’s like a big sister to
Dead Boys first record until I was 30, and they’re from craft songs out of grooves? Dan and me. I said, “I think this record is going to sell
Cleveland! I think, at the same time, Dan and I were It was like spring training. I think we had exhausted every a quarter million albums.” It was all a big joke, because
both in super codependent relationships and we didn’t idea that we had when we were up there. I remember a former manager of ours said we’d never be the type
want to be too far away. He was also expecting his going down to Muscle Shoals and being like, “We don’t of band to sell a quarter million albums. Our reaction
first child. Danger Mouse [Brian Burton] was involved have anything!” Because of that, I think there’s a way to that was to fire him. We were like, “You can’t tell 25-

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in that record. The way that record started was we different energy to Brothers. It was mid-August and hot year-olds they can’t sell a quarter million albums!

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were going to write and record the instrumentals for as fuck in Alabama. It was just the three of us. Mark [Pavement’s] Slanted and Enchanted sold a quarter
an Ike Turner comeback record that Danger Mouse was wasn’t producing; he was engineering. million albums. We can sell a quarter million albums.
going to produce. He solicited us through the Ike How did you pick Mark Neill? He’s a Maybe not. But you can’t tell me no.”
project. We only got two of them finished, but it was fascinating guy. Don’t say, “No!”
six months of work. I actually went to L.A. and met Dan picked Mark. I think he read about Mark, maybe in
with Danger Mouse without even asking Dan. I was
just like, “Will you produce our records?” He came to
Tape Op. I remember reading the article about him.(d
Mark’s known for his studio designs. He designed Toe
So, we finished the record and Tchad mixed it. I had just
gotten divorced and was living in New York. We’d made
everything on the first record, second record, and third
Cleveland, to Painesville, really. It was right at the Rag [Tape Op #15, #88], and Dan was into that. On record pretty haphazardly, in a cool way. The last record
peak of Gnarls Barkley, and he said, “Man, this is really tour, in 2008, we actually ended up in San Diego at we’d done with Danger Mouse, but we only spent 11
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rural for me.” He kept having to take a day off every Mark’s home studio [Soil of the South]. We did three days on it. I thought, “What if we go back into the
four days and go into Cleveland! To this day, I would songs in one day. Two of them ended up on the studio for two more days and see if we can get a song
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still consider Brian one of my best friends. Everything
I know about production, I learned through him. With
Dan, we knew how to make songs and records. But I
think Brian really helped us see the light.
record, and one of them was on a Twilight soundtrack
[“Chop & Change,” from Twilight 3]. I liked working
with Mark. He’s peculiar and eccentric, which is
exactly like Paul Hamann or most people we end up
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that’s catchier than what we have on here?” I asked
Dan if he’d be willing to do it, and he said, “Yes.” I
asked Brian if he would produce. We ended up doing
the Late Show with David Letterman in New York in

In what ways?
Brian is not a sonic guy, necessarily. Dan and I
are heavily sonic guys. To a certain degree, we
would rely too heavily on sonics and not enough on
actual production.
t)
working with. He brought all his own gear to Muscle
Shoals, like an old Gretsch round badge [drum] kit,
some mics, and some preamps. He’s secretive about
it, which is a bit annoying, to be honest.
“What are those preamps?”
December to promote BlakRoc. Danger Mouse came
out, and in two nights – between like 7 and midnight
– we wrote and recorded “Tighten Up.” When we first
finished it, it didn’t sonically – or vibe-wise, maybe –
match up to the rest of the record. We sent it to Tchad,

Like, “The song sounds cool, but is it Yeah, “What are you doing?” “Oh, don’t come in here!” and Tchad kept tweaking it. Our initial reaction was,
being done right?” Mark’s allowed to get away with that shit because he’s “Okay, that’s not right.” We went to Dan’s studio and
Exactly. We learned a lot. The next thing we did was Mark, but if it’s another engineer? This whole thing is did another song, using kind of the same lyrics as
(a

Brothers; it was a weird time. Dan had put out his first about sharing. If you have a signature kick drum sound, “Tighten Up.” That’s when we were like, “Oh yeah,
solo record [Keep It Hid]. Dan and I are very close come on! Everyone’s got to share the knowledge. that’s it. That’s the single.” Our record was due in mid-
friends. It was a very weird time. We turned 30. I was And every single, tiny, incremental February, in a couple of weeks. Our friend, Leon Michels
going through a hard change in a relationship. You variable changes everything. – who ended up being in The Arcs with Dan and
get two men having communication issues, and it’s Everything! You can’t reproduce it yourself, even if touring with the Keys – is an amazing engineer and
basically the history of why most bands fail. I was just you wanted to. producer. He and I were drinking in New York, and he
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like, “I’m not going to let this shit be the demise of Mark’s known for doing a lot of research came over to my apartment. He asked, “What’s the
on how old records were made. single?” And I said, “I think it’s this one.” I played the
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the band.” Ultimately, Dan didn’t want to not do the

Keys, he just wanted to make other music. I think Yeah. There is a bit of mythology. Mark created some of song for him from Akron that we’d recorded at Dan’s
that conversation led to us, inadvertently, to making the finest-sounding recordings with us at his house, studio. He said, “Uh-huh. Anything else?” I played him
this hip-hop record. and at Muscle Shoals. The Muscle Shoals studio was “Tighten Up,” and he’s like, “You’re a fucking moron.
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The BlakRoc record? I love that record. completely broken. Nothing was really working That’s the single, clearly! The other one, don’t even put
16/Tape Op#136/P. Carney/(continued on page 18)
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 that out.” I called Dan and I said, “Leon says that the
song with Danger Mouse is the single.” Dan said, “Oh,
really?” I said, “Yeah, what should we do?” He said, “I
guess we should just put it on the record. Cool.” Once
again, I learned something there. We almost didn’t put
it on there, and then we have this song that becomes
our first hit. At that point the story arcs back into us
recording at our own studios again. El Camino is with
Danger Mouse, and so is Turn Blue.
Was El Camino done at Dan’s new Easy
Eye studio here in Nashville?
That was done right as he finished that spot. He pumped
all the money he made on that Brothers tour, which
wasn’t much, into that. He overextended himself to
do that. But it worked out. He got his dream studio
space. At that same time, for the first time ever, I got
rid of my studio. I moved to Nashville, and I had no
studio. That’s when I started working with Roger
Moutenot [Tape Op #20] a lot. We made quite a few
records together.
Records that you were producing?
Yeah. I would produce and he would engineer, or maybe
produce. We did bands like Tennis and Sheepdogs. I
had my own label, Audio Eagle Records, and I found
this band, Royal Bangs, from Knoxville and I did a
record for them. I learned a lot from working with
Roger. For a long time, it was perfect for me. “I don’t
need to have a studio. I’ll just go play my drums in the
basement and work with Roger.” But I missed being
able to go into a place late at night and listen to
music, or start tweaking a plug-in, or fucking with shit,
so I built this place. I had the space built out. Joel
Hamilton [Tape Op #85] found the API console; one of
two that was sold at the same time from Evergreen
State College. It was in perfect condition. When I first
got it set up, I didn’t treat this room. Then, after 10 or
12 years, I finally bought the ATC SCM150 monitors
because I’d used them at Blackbird. I thought, “I’m
going to get all the gear I want. Fuck it.”
How much recording have you done in
this space, at this point?
I’ve done quite a bit. I set this up in September, 2013.
We’d finished Turn Blue. I came back from L.A. and put
on Led Zeppelin II. I cranked it, and I thought, “That’s
not right! What’s wrong?” It turned out I needed a
subwoofer. I like to feel a record. That’s when I started
collecting and decided that I was going to try to get
some of the best gear I’d ever used in all these studios.
t)
Marc Neill had some 610 preamps – the only thing I
don’t have that I’d probably stab a motherfucker for.
The old Universal Audio ones?
(a
He was using them on Dan’s vocals, and for the
overhead. They’re fucking insane.
You’ve gone through a lot of prosumer
gear, but now you can buy the best.
The problem is that trying to get lo-fi to sound good is
not that difficult. But when you start to say, “I like the
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lo-fi crunch in this guitar, but I want the cymbals to
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not be trashy, and I want the low end to hit you in the
face,” that’s when you start to get into trouble if you
don’t have good gear. You might have something that
accidentally works, like [Richard] Swift [Tape Op #120]
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would have his way of putting tracks through an
18/Tape Op#136/P. Carney/(continued on page 20)
Echoplex that sounds fucking great. He found it, and Right. Dan has his Easy Eye label going,
it’s his fucking thing. Everybody’s out there looking for but it costs money to get people aware
a cheap way to do something like that. I find it’s a lot of the music.
of experimenting. I don’t regret any of it, because Yeah. I had a label for a while, in 2007 through 2010. I
ultimately everything I read in Tape Op I learned ultimately had to stop doing it, because I put out a
firsthand. Like someone says, “You can’t fix it in the couple records with some really close friends and
mix.” I’d think, “Bullshit you can’t! Watch how many their careers never materialized. I’ll help make the
plug-ins I can put on this.” Then, “Oh, shit. Yeah, you music and maybe give some advice here or there, but
can’t fix it in the mix.” I can’t be responsible for my friends’ careers. My uncle
It’s experience. Ralph [Carney] may have been the most talented
I think about this on a daily basis. If I were to meet my musician I’ve ever met, and he would financially
23-year-old self? Oh, my god; what a dumbass! Part of struggle for years. At the same time, there was no
the gear thing for me, as a kid in Akron and all the way man more musical. Aside from my dad playing me The
up through my 20s, was if you played a gig and got a Beatles, the intrigue is that my uncle was in this
couple hundred bucks in cash, one of the fun things for band, Tin Huey. In the early ‘80s we would go spend
me or Dan to do was get in our van and drive to all the the night at my grandparent’s house every Friday, and
music stores. For a long time, my studio was a shrine my grandma would put on the Tin Huey record
of like, “Look what the fuck I found!” Now, most of the [Contents Dislodged During Shipment]. It melted it
gear I’ve bought from Craigslist, friends of mine, eBay, into my brain – it was my favorite record as a kid.
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or Reverb. But everything that I have now is Then, when I was about seven or eight, this record
something that I’m attached to in some way. But I’m showed up and it had a picture of this guy with his
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not a big collector or anything. head against a woman’s chest; Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs.
From the beginning it was just to make I was very confused by it; the music is scary, but I
records. listened to it incessantly. By the time I was 12 years
Dan and I have been having these conversations about old I was a Tom Waits fan. I wanted to see how to
records we’ve made and what the expectation is. put music on this disc. I asked for a guitar, and my
)
Music is the most frustrating business to be in. The dad got me an electric Cort. The next thing I asked
music itself isn’t frustrating; it’s what comes after you for was a Tascam Porta 02, with no EQ, just the pan
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finish the song. and level, and my dad got it for me for Christmas the
I try to make people not have that next year. I mowed the lawn and did chores just so I
conversation with me while we’re could get an ART reverb. I was obsessed. When I was
tracking. “Don’t ask what will 15, I lied about my age and I got a job washing
happen when this gets done.”
(d
Yeah! It is the elephant in the room. You have to ask
dishes. I started buying everything I thought you
needed to be a band.
yourself why you’re in the room in the first place. You When you were producing Jessy Wilson’s
can’t be in the room if you’re worried about what’s Phase record, were you playing parts
going to happen after you’re in the room. That’s the and then cutting them up and
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beauty with Dan and I. Because he and I had nothing building them as a part of the writing?
else to do. We had no interest in college. I remember I fantasize about Dan and I going to the studio and
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I felt we were really successful when we sold out the cutting something to 8-track, 1-inch. That would be
Beachland Tavern in Cleveland, which is 150 people. I a lot of fun for me. Dan and I do play music in a way
thought everything after that was gravy. If your main that would work. But, for me, producing music
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goal for making music is, “I want my friends to have involves a lot of arranging and writing, to a certain
an interest in what I’m doing,” that’s a healthy thing degree. I have a workflow in Pro Tools that makes
to be worried about while you’re in the room. I think sense for me, even down to gridding tracks out and
it’s also healthy to be like, “Is this terrible? Is there writing in chunks. Getting a performance with drums
another way to approach it?” I’ll be 40 in a few and then building it again. I’m so open about it,
months. We’ve been doing this for 20 years, we’ve sold because it’s just the way I work. I like to show it to
millions of records, and I still don’t have an avenue to people because then it gets modified every time.
put out a record. How insane is that? When I talk to They’re like, “Oh, what if you did this?” I start with a
someone at Warner Bros., they’re instantly going down reference click track, and then I’ll figure out the
through the commercial values of the record. You can’t tempo of the song, or the idea. Even if it’s just two
be talking about that! You have to assume there’s chords and we’re writing it from scratch. Get the
going to be a couple hundred people, maybe a couple simplest beat with just some shakers and a kick and
thousand people, who are interested in this. If there’s snare so that I can get off of the click instantly. I
not a model for that to be considered a success, then don’t grid what I put down. Then it’s just a matter of,
you’ve lost your place in the world of making art.
“Let’s put some bass down, guitar, or maybe organ
Working on a Calvin Johnson record is just as pad.” Maybe now the drums are rubbing wrong, so
important as working on a Keys record. Calvin’s an idol maybe I’ll redo the drums. Before you know it, I end
of mine, a guy who inspired me to no end when I up with this groove, and then I can start writing.
needed it the most, and I got to make a record with Loop the whole drum part out as a big loop, write to
him with no expectations of money. If I can’t get help it, and then go back and cut a whole drum take.
with that then I might as well just be doing it myself. Maybe I’ll do three drum takes and I’ll comp.
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 So that it doesn’t sound all stiff and together and make something you’re really happy Not hitting a wet book?
edited? with.” Ultimately that’s what I did. Same with I’ll use maybe a little bit of duct tape and some
That’s the problem with music, so majorly. I don’t know *repeat repeat’s Glazed. Those are two drastically MoonGel. I’m good at tuning drums and getting that
if it’s just because I’m a drummer, but perfect timing, different records. I wrote both records with the sound. But I also just layer fucking handclaps on
to me, isn’t time, even though it’s “right.” Most artists. Calvin Johnson’s record [A Wonderful Beast], every snare, always.
engineers nowadays will sit there without even it’s like, “What does Calvin want to do? Calvin just You do, or tambourine.
asking, just moving, moving, and moving [the drums wants to make some jams.” I think he’s a great Tambourine on every song, and shaker on every song. And
in the computer]. It’s not fucking real. If you’re producer. When he steps in and has an idea, it’s like, congas and cowbell. Actually play it. Don’t fucking fix
working with loop, you have no choice if you use the “Oh, wow! I would never have thought of that.” But it. Slap the engineer’s hands if they try to do that. Let
loop. You’ve got to fuck it up. With the right I think, out of every record I’ve ever worked on, I can it rub against some fucking shit. I miss that so much
motivated singer and musicians, it’ll take a day to say that Michelle’s record [Hopeless Romantic], that in music. I catch myself listening to the radio like a
write a song and finish it. I like to have three days if record – more than any Keys record – changed my life fucking buffoon, expecting to hear something that I
we’re writing. I like to do at least one different because it resulted in a child! A beautiful little boy like. That’s the ultimate joke, on me!
approach to see; like completely inverse the tempo, [Rhys James Carney]. When you and Dan got together to work
double-time, and just fuck it up. To see what’s there. Awesome! on Let’s Rock, was there a recording
Sometimes I end up liking both, and sometimes we When I met Michelle, what was she doing? She was plan or how you were going to start
can swap some chords out and write a second song. getting the runaround majorly in L.A. “Go write with writing?
Right, or there could be a part two of the this person. Go produce here.” Which is really what No, actually there wasn’t. We’d only hung out with each
song or such. happens in Nashville now all the time too. To me, it’s other less than five times in the four years before.

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Exactly. I’m scared to start another record. I’m working on the laziest way of making music. I think the producer Is it good to get some space after so many

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something with Michelle; we’re in the depths of it, should write on a song if the artist wants that, but I years of working together?
actually. I just took six weeks off to get away. I’m think the idea of an A&R guy saying, “This guy’s a I guess the best way to describe it is that I only get a
chomping at the bit to get in there. I need to get away, great writer. Go write with them,” is totally nuts. chance to see my older brother once or twice a year.
and then when I do get away, I’m my most creative. I Michelle was doing that. I called Gus Seyffert [Tape When I see him, he picks it right up instantly. I didn’t
love to produce. When someone asks me what I do, it’s Op #118] and said, “Michelle wants to make a record really need the space from Dan, but our relationship
like, “Oh, I’m the drummer in The Black Keys.” with me. Will you do it with me?” I wanted Gus’s ears kind of ebbs and flows. When we need each other the

)
You’ve got to have the time and interest on it, as well as his musicianship, and I love being most, it seems to be that we’re there. He branched off
to produce a record for somebody. around Gus. I spent a lot of time on that record trying

It’s an emotional thing for me, ultimately. I tend to
choose bands that have some problematic aspect to
their career, like they got dropped from a label or they she is really happy with. If a record’s successful to
can’t get signed. A band like Tennis; I can’t take
complete credit, but opening a band like that up and
away from this kind of surfy sound. They were trying
to break into something moodier.
Would you go back and listen to previous
albums and think, “That’s cool, but
can they shift a little?”
to get sounds Michelle was happy with that weren’t
“poppy.” Ultimately, she ended up with a record that
happy as hell with them. Maybe if Michelle’s record
was my record, I’d make it a little more fucked up
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me, they all sound different; but all the artists are
sounding. Maybe if it was Jessy’s record, I’d make it
more fucked up sounding too. But I do sit there and
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try to get Michelle to the spot where she’s happy with
the record. Once she’s happy, then anything that’s
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doing the Easy Eye stuff, and I was doing Michelle’s
record. When we finally got to the studio, we never
really had these talks. The only talk before we got in
there was, “We can record at your studio, but I want
to bring all my drum gear over, including mics and
preamps.” I brought my Neves and had my engineer
Marc [Whitmore] set it up. We used the [Universal
Audio] LA-3As and 1176s, as well as some other weird
shit. I have this way of recording drums that’s
different than Dan’s. Dan uses mostly mono drums,
which I was way into for a while too. Mark Neill is the

I’ll listen to their previous albums, for sure. When I got bothering me I address. That’s how I do it. one who kicked that off for us. I still like that mono
asked to work with Jessy Wilson, it was initially It’s a collaboration. overhead squashed.
meeting with her and her former bandmate, Kallie Yeah. I don’t want to imprint some sonic thing like, Right, to maintain the core meat of it?
North. They had a band called Muddy Magnolias. I was “This is how I do stuff,” or, “This is what I do.” I like But unsquash the stereo overheads and give it some real
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not a fan of it, but I took the meeting as a favor to a to put on something like [Richard Hell’s] Blank dynamics. Our conversation about what we were
friend who’s a manager. In the meeting I was played Generation and fucking crank it. I can see the going to do, it didn’t exist. We started jamming, and
some demos; I stopped them and said I didn’t like similarities sonically between that and Shuggie Otis, then we just went in and listened to it and added
them. I was just honest, “I don’t really like this, but I in a way; just the ‘70s. At the same time, I like to hear some percussion. We kept trying to add keyboards to
like your voice.” Kallie wasn’t even going to be in the “Hoist That Rag” by Tom Waits, where it’s the whole this record, on every song. None of them fit. Neither
t)

band; she wanted to help manage the band. I gave my room throbbing. Everything’s different. That’s why one of us is a good keyboard player, but we’re
pitch of what I was interested in. I played everything music is exciting. obsessed with keyboards.
from Massive Attack to Al Green. “This is what I’m into Listening to a bunch of your You and Dan could go down a rabbit
productions and playing, I hear that hole and waste a lot of time trying
(a

right now. I’d like to make songs like that.” Jessy was
like, “Let’s try it.” We tried it, and she liked it. She you love a deep-sounding snare. parts out.
brought her whole band (at the time) in; music school Yeah. For me the drum sound is always crucial. There’s a We both kind of zone out in the studio sometimes, and
kids. I kicked them all out of the studio after the first very particular type of snare drum that I like, and we allow each other to do that. Then, if after an
day, because it was very clear that what she needed there are very many snare drums that I don’t like. You hour and nothing’s happening, we just go on. But
wasn’t going to happen in that way. know, like the ‘60s type of over-ringy snare sound? we’re both equally happy to fuck around with the
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As far as a live band? Utilizing a little bit more ring is something I’ve been sound for a long time. We kept trying to do these
The same guys who fucked up her old band. I didn’t want interested in lately. I used to just go super dead. keyboards, but they weren’t working. We kept
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them. That’s the problem with Nashville. There’re In what ways were you getting that adding guitar. I was sitting in the control room with
some really crazy players, but there’s also so much sound? a guitar, and Dan had a guitar, and we’d just layer
garbage. With Jessy, my main goal was, “Let’s write I like it dead, but I like to have a little snap on the top. guitars. Eventually we just decided to not put
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20/Tape Op#136/P. Carney/(continued on page 22)

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 keyboards on the record. This record was mostly
about us getting back in the studio for the first time
in five years. The last time we were in the studio, we
made Turn Blue. Dan was in the depths of turmoil,
really. He had a gnarly divorce going on.
With you guys, you gotta think about
this band. “Do I get this band rolling
again?” Is The Black Keys like that?
It’s my life. It’s Dan’s life too.
Right. But you have to ask, “Am I ready
to do all this again?”
I’m not ready to ever do some of the things that we’ve
done. We have trouble communicating sometimes; I
think this record we just got back in there. We started
talking and figured out what we wanted to do. My
main goal with this record was to make something we
were both really happy with. That was it. If there’s a
single on it, great! If there’s not, who fucking gives a
shit. I want Dan to be happy when he’s doing The

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Black Keys and know that it’s there. If I think back
about why he might not have been [into it] for a

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minute, or why he wants some space, it’s like, “Oh, I
get it. We finished a record, we went on tour for 90
days, and you’re in the midst of a divorce.” I should
have known better. Maybe I just thought, “Oh, it’s
good for him to get on the road.” It probably wasn’t.

)
It used to be for us that we would turn in a record like
Brothers and get an itinerary sent back to us. “You’re

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on the road starting in mid-May. You’ll be home for
Christmas, and then you’ll go back out.” We ended up
playing Saturday Night Live for the first time in January

(d of 2011. We were supposed to go to Australia for a

month and then Europe for two months, but we canned
the whole fucking tour. We paid $200,000 to promotors
to not go on tour. That was most of the money that
we’d made the previous year. But we just thought,
“We’re going to go home, and we’re going to go make
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a record. That’s what we like to do. We don’t want to

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do this shit.” And we went and made El Camino.

Everyone was like, “You guys are fucking morons! You
could have toured that record for another two years if
you wanted.” I’ve never looked at it like that.
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You have to keep an eye on what really

matters to you.
Everyone is so obsessed with this authenticity, and all
we’re getting is manufactured authenticity most of
the time. My relationship with music is that it’s all
t)

circumstantial. I happened to be born into this

household where my uncle was a musician. I
happened to grow up around the corner from this
talented singer and guitar player. It’s all
(a

circumstantial, but it comes from this very pure spot.

I know the things that I have sought out and
aggressively tried to get in my life never work out. I
think music needs to be made, and come, from the
purest part of you for it to transcend. r
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<theblackkeys.com>
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22/Tape Op#136/P. Carney/(Fin.)
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Lee “Scratch” Perry
Super Ape Upsets the Studio
by Geoff Stanfield

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If you are a music producer, mixer, label owner, songwriter, or electronic

music maker, you owe a debt to Lee “Scratch” Perry. He was, and continues to
be, a spiritual guide and compass for true artistic expression. He is a dub
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pioneer, the first to turn Rasta culture and beliefs into a popular music art
form, first user of samples, and a living work of art. You can thank him for
Bob Marley, as well as so many Jamaican artists that followed. At his Black Ark
Studio in Jamaica, (a studio that he says he was divined to build and
subsequently burned down because of evil spirits; the idea being that if he didn’t
t)
When I saw that Lee was making his way to Seattle to perform a new
version of this classic recording, called Super Ape Returns to Conquer
(a collaboration with Subatomic Sound System), I was all over it. It then
occurred to me that perhaps he’d be interested in doing an interview for
Tape Op. The night of the show I went to soundcheck, shot some video and
pics, and chatted with Emch from Subatomic. [See Emch’s interview in this issue.]

destroy it, it would destroy him) Lee Perry was experimenting with these sounds
and ideas. In 1973 Lee released Blackboard Jungle Dub, the first album consisting
entirely of dub mixes. It is still considered to be a benchmark of the genre.
Lee’s 1976 album Super Ape, under the name The Upsetters, is the
(a
My interview with Lee was to happen the following day at my studio.
After confirming with Emch, he mentioned that it would be a good idea
to try and talk to Lee that evening “just in case.” Well, as it turned out, a

quintessential dub record. The songs are great, the mix earthy, gritty, mystical,
and trippy. Horns, flutes, melodica, echoes, big bass, and floating on top of it
all is Lee Perry. Listening with a critical ear to the technical aspects of Super Ape’s
mix reveals flaws in all their glory. Horns are too far away, hooks are buried in
mud, and balances are out of whack. But none of that matters. Listening to dub
records from this era is a time machine look into the available technology,
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contingency plan was a good idea. By that point in the evening there had
been prolific amounts of ganja smoked by the man, and plenty of
backstage distractions. There were fanboys, hangers-on, a large Rambo-
style hunting knife, and a bit of semi-coherent conversation. At one
point he changed into a cloak, adorned his cap with battery-powered
Christmas lights, and with large spliff in hand gave a riffing sound-

which was pushed creatively far beyond its intended use. In the same way system MC-ish performance of “Cloak & Dagger.” As we set up for the
interview, Lee sat in a chair and I was left to sit on the floor in front of
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The Beatles pushed recording technology to new ends, so did the pioneers of
dub music in Jamaica. Spring reverbs, tape echoes, and the mixing console as
an instrument via pans, mutes, and volume rides – it all became an art unto
itself. Mixing was no longer simply about setting balances, EQs, and
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him. Between us was a large platter of fruit, with burning incense sticks
planted in several bananas. Lee had no interest in answering any question
directly, instead offering a roundabout rhyme, poem, or references to
Jesus and ganja, as well as some topics not fit for print.

committing a mix to a fixed format. It was a performance; a reinterpretation of

a song. It was dangerous, and it was inspiring.
 We were drinking rum, someone was drinking wine, I’ve heard you say you’re a fish.
someone was smoking cigarettes. Someone was You’re right, I am. Good.
smoking ganja. Illness is a curse. I wish nothing to be What’s the purpose of the mirrors on
ill. No Illuminati for I; I kill Illuminati, and kill the your shoes?
Luminati. I have no use for them. Really jumpy, like
You can see yourself in a mirror. That’s the first mirror.
the lady butterfly. I made a second mirror. You can look in the water and
Man, I could talk to you all night. Pure see your shadow. I had a vision of red, black, or white.
magic. I love your music. You change lives.
When you first started making dub Yes, pure magic. I fill the earth with magic. Maybe that’s why you love me.
records, what made you want to use Did you really burn down the Black Ark? From your first record to the last,
echoes and reverbs? The music’s so I thought it was your studio. it’s one big circle.
transportive, and it’s different than But to what evil it was. A vampire; a bloodsucker. It The music is perfect. I’m sure the music is perfect. I am
roots reggae, which tends to be sort filled me with fucking dread. a mystic. I am a fish. I am a chicken.
of dry. You made the Super Ape album in 1976, Can I take a picture of your hands?
Echoes make thing sound different. You can repeat and now you have Super Ape Returns If you wish. [See this issue’s front cover.]
yourself in echo. If you want to say one word, and you to Conquer. They do the work.
want it three times, you put it in three-times repeats. Super Ape is the world. Super Ape is the universe. Super When you’re ready, say you’re ready. Are you ready? The
I program; I command my word to be on top. And I Ape is God. music don’t make mistake, the music don’t eat beef
Are you the Super Ape? steak, the music don’t eat fish steak, the music don’t

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command myself to be The Upsetter. And I command
my song to be The Upsetter. And I command myself I’m the creator. If I tell you who I am, I would expose make mistake, the music don’t cry, and the music

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to be on top. the secret. I am a secret. Right? I am a secret from don’t lie, because the music is immortal, and the
It is transportive. It takes you to another the Black Sea. The Black Sea, you find me in the Black music refuse to die, and the music refuse to cry, and
place. Sea. You find me in the Red Sea. As if I’m in the Dead the music refuse to lie, because the music is not a
In space. In orbit in the galaxy. I program myself in Sea. Who am I? mortal being. Music refuse to be a human being.
the galaxy. Music will never be a human being because the music
Echoes. is the great supreme.

)
Echo and echo ameco. I am peco. Gecko. Why do you

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want to send your tupecko?
How old are you now?
Eight million, trillion, centzillion years.
Why do you keep doing this?
Because I’m the beginning and the end.
How did you come to work with Emch?
How he came to work with me, I don’t know. It just
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happened.
But collaborations have been important
l
for you.
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photos by
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Luke Awtry Photography

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L. “Scratch” Perry/(continued on page 26)/Tape Op#136/25

 I left feeling blessed to have interacted with
Lee, but was also a bit mystified by what had just
happened. It became obvious quite quickly that
my list of thoughtful questions were no longer
relevant. So much of what Lee “Scratch” Perry
does is improvise. He reads the room, feels the
spirit, and accepts divine intervention. I spent
years studying and playing jazz and improvising;
I just didn’t realize that these skills would be
expected of me in an interview one day. This was
like stepping on stage with John Coltrane, or into
the ring with Muhammad Ali. All I could think
was, “Pay attention and listen.” After a day to
reflect on how I failed to get much of an interview
out of Lee, I had a brief call with Emch to discuss
a better path forward. He suggested we talk about
the elements. After brief hellos and a tour of my
studio space, which he was very interested in,
I put Lee in a big gold chair for our interview.
After my first question he asked for tape head
cleaner (alcohol) and proceeded to light
his shoes on fire.
How did you make this Lee “Scratch”
Perry record, Super Ape Returns to
Conquer? Was it from existing
tracks you remixed or reimagined,
or did you try to recreate the
original record?
Emch: Scratch gave us the blueprint, but we were
reproducing his production in a way that isn’t a copy.
Lee
at hi
s Bla
ck A
rk St
udio
, 197
8. ph
oto b
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Boot
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26/Tape Op#136/L. “Scratch” Perry/(continued on page 28)
He always talks about not wanting to be a copy. We
did something new with it that represents his energy
and how he’s feeling now. I feel like what we tried to
do with …Returns to Conquer was create something
based on his own history, and then pull in elements
of the things that have evolved from what he created,
like making the bass subbier and wobbly. What we
hear in dubstep, as well as other music that has
grown out of what he’s done. I feel like if he made
the record 40 years ago, it’s still 40 years ahead of its
time anyways. Now we’re making it to hopefully be 40
years ahead of today.
At Black Ark you only had eight It gives me the energy of the earth stone; it’s rock stone.
channels to work with on the board.
We had four, at first.
Lee, when you originally mixed and
produced Super Ape, was it on four
tracks or eight tracks?
Well, to the surprise of the world, it was one thing I had
in mind. You call it the world, and the globe, and the
universe, and the creator, but we have one name for
the world. It’s Super Ape. Only one world, Super Ape.
One globe, Super Ape. One universe, Super Ape. One
magic, Super Ape. Super Ape is shit, as most of the
people complain about when they interview with me.
Shit is Super Ape, and not many people like shit.
Many people eat shit. I wanted to accept that this
night people eat shit. It’s playback, replay, feedback.
Record it. You play it back and listen it. You video it,
and replay it, and play it back. That’s hearing, seeing,
smelling, and tasting the invisible. Shit. Nobody love
(d
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anim
age.t
v>
to smell shit. Shit is the power and the glory. Shit.
Shit is the power and the glory. Shit. You can sound
like Bob Marley. [plugs nose and mimics Bob Marley
singing] Vanity is not a blessing, but the power of
temptation, yes? You keep it, if you have to. But my
shit is precious shit. In my interview with most
people, we talk about shit.
Talk about rock stone.
It turns me on.
It does.
For real.
What about it?
The earth love people, and people like rock stone.
When you were first starting to do dub
remixes of records, that was not a
traditional path. That was not what
people were doing. What made you
want to use echoes and reverbs, as
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well as deconstruct the music down
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to its core?
My shadow. My shadow. It inspires me to do everything.
My shadow looks at me and says, “What color do I
have?” If it sees black, I’ve got black. And God is
black. And don’t be flying in the room. Don’t be flying
on the moon. God. Don’t fly on the moon too long.
)
Emch: Shoot them down. Gotta shoot them down.
ot
Shoot them down.
Emch: I heard Lee say that a lot. People getting caught
up, especially singers, in the vanity of things; the
whole rock star side of things.
mp
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 The name I have for them is reggae duppies.
Emch: That’s ghosts; like evil spirits. But dub never was
intended to be pop music. It was like a spiritual music.
Soul music, pop music, rock music. Dub is. God made me
supreme. Supreme. Superman. Supreme superman
over duppies.
Yeah. I’ve heard you talk about killing
vampires.
A vampire is a duppy..
Emch: He wrote the song “Duppy Conqueror” for Bob
Marley because he told Bob he had a duppy haunting
him and it was the reason he couldn’t rise up and be
successful. He wrote that song and Bob sang it as a
spiritual cleansing to chase them away.
Duppies. Duppies. They want to get rich. They want a
ring to get rich. I’ll give them a debt met to life. I Emch: I think it’s his full philosophy. We don’t really talk
said no. I said maybe. May-be. But no! No! No! You
will die. Nah man, got killed and die. And they said,
“No more! No! More! Kill them dead.” They said, “Neh.
Don’t try you die!” And ooh; God belched.
That’s the end of the story?
That’s it. When God belched, he pooped too.
Emch, after having hung out with Lee,
if you were going to explain dub to
somebody who’d never listened to it,
what are the essential elements of
dub; other than Lee, of course?
Emch: Yeah, “Scratch” is the essential element.
The X-factor.
If you need another me, you can ask Harbor Shark. The
Harbor Shark lives around here. Maybe you could be That’s a very good point.
the Harbor Shark.
So, Lee, why do you trust this guy with
carrying on part of the tradition you
created?
You hide all the money in the bank. Let me give you
some money and give you a tip; but you’re going to You’ve had a long career. You’re still
have to earn the place, the Harbor Shark.
Emch: You want to cut a track called “Harbor Shark”
right now? Could be a big hit.
Next time you come back I’ll be ready You are very protected. You are on the water. If
and we can do that. I’d love to.
Harbor Shark Records Present: Lee “Scratch” Perry, the
King Fish, on the Harbor Shark label.
You’ve talked about being a fish, and water. That’s why we surf.
about Neptune. You can spread it next. We do not fear the Harbor Shark.
I’m a fish, originally. But I didn’t want to go in, so I
applied Harbor Shark.
t)
Emch: King Neptune is his father.
How do you work that in, your life in
the water? How does that sound in
(a
your music?
Life in the water give me seven times the power. It’s
a hidden light that tells me what I have to say. I
feel a bird, right? And a cat’s coming to kill my
special bird. My bird was a white bird and the cat
was black and it got jealous. It killed my white bird.
e
What do we do? We kill the cat! The cat killed my
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bird, and I killed the cat too. I got lost. I love cat
and cat loved me; but killed my bird. He’s jealous. I’m very old, you know that? We have super children out
The cat is black magic. Want to eat all the birds.
Want all the magic.
mp
What you give is what you get, I suppose.
28/Tape Op#136/L. “Scratch” Perry/(continued on page 30)
Maybe the cat was Bob Marley. He was a male witch. How long have you been away from
He killed my bird and I said, “You won’t get away. Jamaica?
Sooner or later, I’ll catch up with you.” I catch up on Well, it doesn’t matter, because there is something
black magic and I deal with black magic. I catch up inside the Jamaican people. You can’t be a hypocrite
with the black cat, black magic, and I decide I get and tell the people you love them. That’s true. You
even with the black cat. That’s just fun. Black Magic. stay away from them for a while. They want to be
Jay-Z teacher. used. Not them alone. Africans see it too, and most
Jay-Z? white people see it too. People want to be used too
Jay-Z and Beyonce teacher. Aleister Crowley. Ill, very ill much. That’s why I’m staying away from Jamaica.
inside. So they want to be Illuminati. Ill doom and Emch: A lot of people are jealous of his success. That
naughty. Illumi good. Illumi-gorgeous. Illumi- whole thing with the Black Ark, there were so many
copycats. Illumi-rat and Illumi-ratbat. That’s a people hanging around saying, “Make me the next
vampire. An Illumiratbat. Bob Marley!” They’re trying to take away energy;
Emch, how do you take Lee’s guidance energy vampires wanting him to do things for them.
and integrate it? Lee, you are very giving. I watched you
with your fans last night. You took
about music. A lot of times I do interviews and we the time to talk with people, take
don’t talk about music. This is how “Scratch” sees the pictures, and sign things.
world, and I think you’ve got to get on that Emch: I think that’s the thing he’s saying. You can give
m
wavelength. It’s osmosis. You just understand that to people who are going to give back to you, but if
worldview, and then you create accordingly. That’s you give to people who aren’t going to give back and
co
what “Scratch” does. He listened to the sounds of just take, they’re going to take advantage of that, and
nature and the sounds of God. That’s why his music they’ll drain your energy and blood.
has spirituality in it. In making music with him, to do It’s fun. That’s why I believe in God; he was a fish
it well, I think it’s not that we’re copying what he did; and then he made us to look like man. What else
rather we’re aligning it with his vision of trying to can I say?
create music that represents God, spirituality, and Emch: What does that mean for me? I was a wolf, and
)
nature. In doing that, we’re aligned with him and can I still look like a wolf? Didn’t complete the change.
ot
get along with him. Otherwise he’d be done with us. I got stuck here.
He’d suffer if we’re not paying attention. What happened, Emch? You played the Super Ape so
much your turned into the Super Ape? Talking fish,
If you have a pen, a black pen, I’ll write my name. Your singing fish, walking fish, computer fish. It is crazy.
(d
bodyguard is your music. If you’re in trouble, you’ll It will be out of this world.
remember something. Stress is a joke. Stress also is a Super Ape Returns to Conquer is not the
duppy. Stress. Stress is a duppy. You can’t survive first record you’ve done together.
without something to support it. Stress duppy. How did the collaboration with Lee
come about?
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here. You’re still influencing a new
generation of musicians and the
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music will live on.
you want to be a Harbor Shark, you can be the
Harbor Shark.
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This place feels good because of the
The Harbor Shark gives me protection. If you have a
pen, I’ll write that.
Emch: He put on an art show with me a couple of years
ago in Brooklyn. He’s done a couple of paintings. It’s
very interesting to me to see his creative process;
doing something other than music. It’s the same. He’s
creative all the time, just nonstop. Other peoples’
minds are on other stuff. He loves that superglue.
Apparently [Jean-Michel] Basquiat saw pictures of the
Black Ark, and that was a big inspiration for him and
his art back in the ‘70s. His art had a lot of writing, as
well as drawing, in it. He said he’d seen “Scratch’s”
studio and all the words incorporated into it.
of the sea, out of the water. Water is the life-giver, so
anything water gives only fire can destroy. With
water, there’s a combination.
photo by Adrian Boot <urbanimage.tv>
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 Emch: Just over time. I’m a student of Lee, like many truth and complain about the truth; I am no use to
people. Studying him and trying to support his vision. them. If you’re not in the root, you won’t find out the
I first did some dubstep remixes for him ten years ago roots. You have to be a root to find the roots. Dancing
with a band he was working with. They liked it; it was turns on anybody; to make people feel good. The
something different. I know Lee gets bored very music is magic.
easily, so I pushed him to do something different Do you and Emch have plans to do more
with the live versions as well as the remixes. What in the future?
happened eventually turned into what we have now. The future! The future is a Super Ape. The future. The
Lee doesn’t like to go back and do old stuff a lot. He future is Super Ape. You are the first person to give
doesn’t want to talk about the past. you advice. The thing about Super Ape; Super Ape
If there’s a market for it, no problem. comes from another earth. Magic. Around the world
Emch: Even when Lee sings the lyrics to his songs, he said magic. Men couldn’t stand up to the Super Ape, so it
to me, “Never do it the same way twice. It wouldn’t be took invisible forces to hold it up there. Even some
honest. It’d be copying the way you felt in the past.” Americans went to the moon. They didn’t end up
It’s always got to be some level of improvisation or going to the moon because we have a doom, a holy
something new. I think trying to make the music for doom. Holy doom. Everybody fights against the holy
the new album was a process of playing it [the original doom that turns them into maggots. Turn into
Super Ape] live so many times that you make maggot fly to torment them and turn into maggots to
something new out of it. So much music used to be eat them. This is the holy doom. And the children

m
that way, especially jazz. The history of music was doom. Then all the hypocrites to the doom, to eat

playing music based on other music. Lee loves a lot of
the ‘70s Motown. A lot of reggae songs would start out
with taking elements and creating something new. I
feel like they were combining elements of that
American R&B music with more African elements – like
jazz and European instruments – and they created their
co
their flesh and eat their bones and turn them into the
dust of ashes. [singing] You follow I? Going to the
sky, follow I; and don’t you lie, follow I. Go into the
sky to fly like a butterfly!
__________

)
own thing from the foundation of this music that was
a part of their history. It is not easy to interview Lee “Scratch” Perry.

ot
What does water represent in your music? Whether it is a defense mechanism for fending
That’s water. [points to the flames on his shoes] Spirit. off what he deems useless enquiries, or just a
What does that represent in the music protection of self, it is a perfect representation of
to you?
(d
what his music represents. Playful one moment,
Without water, you are no life. Water create life. Without
a fire, you are cold. You have water and iron, water
spiritual the next, spacey to the left, murky and
barely intelligible to the right. But through the
and fire. Iron, that would be in your blood. I am haze, the words are lessons, as well as an insight
banana man; I love banana. I believe in banana. The as to how he looks at history, mythology,
spirituality, and life. r
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banana is in the music. The banana come by ganja.
Ganja is the king. Fire is the king. I clean my throat ___________
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so that I may speak. Do you have any wine?

You’ve talked about the heartbeat of dub <www.lee-perry.com>
music being the drums and the bass. <subatomicsound.com>
Yeah. The heartbeat is the drum and the bass is the brain.
gm

The bass is the brain. The bass come up with “poom Special thanks to Maggie Bombard at Soundtoys for help
poom.” Poom poom. Without poom poom, you can’t with the current photos of Lee that open this interview and
have any children because the bass is saying “poom to Adrian Boot at Urban Image for the archival photos.
poom.” The most poo poo. You know poo poo? Well,
for you to poo poo, you need a hole to poo poo. And
t)

for you to go into a poo poo, you need a ti ti. So you

play a cymbal. Ti ti ti ti ti ti, and then poom poom. Ti
ti ti ti, bash. Poom poom. Ti ti ti ti pash poom poom
poom poom poom. [repeats several times] That poom
(a

poom make babies. The poom poom is perfect and

good for a generation to create.
How about echoes?
Bacteria. Not good. The music is nature. The music, is
nature, nature. It’s all about sex. What kind of sex you
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deal with? You have holy sex, you have righteous sex,
you have ungodly sex, you have good fuck, bad fuck,
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good luck, bad luck. Whatever kind of fuck you

choose. The people who interview me and complain
to me, people who have no sense. People who see the
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30/Tape Op#136/L. “Scratch” Perry/(Fin.)

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 of Subatomic
Emch
The funny thing was coming to New York – being into drum
‘n’ bass, hip-hop, and electronic music – we were doing
Sound System something that we didn’t have a name for. Dubstep was
what we were already doing, basically. We annexed some
Chemistry & of those names because people recognized it as a certain
type of sound. We had those same influences evolve into
Improvisation something different. Working with “Scratch” was cool,
because it makes sense for him to be involved in all that.
by Geoff Stanfield Everything I just mentioned, he’s at the root of. The
interesting thing about this album is that it came out of
us playing it live so many times. I’d be listening to our
shows in the car, driving around, and we heard it evolve
very naturally. Then I recorded Lee after a bunch of the
guys in the band got their parts down in New York. I went
down to Jamaica for a week and half, and we recorded all
of his vocals. We actually recorded so much more at his
place than [what showed up on] the album. In a way,
when we were getting the album, it was like, “Yeah, let’s
get this out of the way.” We’d been playing it for a year,

m
and then he wanted to record a bunch of new music and

co
do remixes of what we had on the album. Even though we
were already thinking past it, we were like, “Let’s put out
what we’ve been doing. Something that’s more
representative of the live show.” To him, playing live is so
important. The album is a good representation of it, but
there’s something about Lee’s physical presence. The show

)
is about creating a vibe, a connection, and a

ot
communication between people. That’s why it is like a
religious type of experience. When you get to the root of
music throughout the history of humanity, it’s always been
closely linked to peoples’ religions. There’s no religious

(d ceremony that doesn’t have music, throughout all of

history. In this day and age, a lot of people see a
separation, especially in America where people are
generally not very religious. Reggae is one of the few forms
of music that has a very strong religious component, but
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people don’t think of it as they would Christian rock. People
The don’t call it Christian reggae! When you go back to a lot of
Dub
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the influences on Lee’s music – Africa and the drumming

Issue – it’s like, “Why did we configure the band this way, with
the horns and the percussion being almost lead
instruments?” That’s the core. The drum and bass are the
gm

heartbeat for him, but the horns and percussion on top of

it are such important elements in his music.
It’s a human need to feel. I think that’s
why many people are religious;
to have that communal experience.
t)

I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Burning Man, but I

feel there’s a lot of artificial spirituality there. A lot of
photo by John M. Schultz people grasping. People are struggling to find meaning
<instagram.com/dubstar_aka_john>
(a

to their life. The interesting thing about Lee’s

Co-founded by Emch in 1999, When I listen to what you’re doing with worldview is that Rastafarianism is part of the Judeo-
Subatomic Sound System is a collective of Lee Perry, it’s still dub mixing. It’s not Christian tradition, but he’s got this whole idea of
musicians and others with a focus on combining Skrillex-style dubstep. being connected to nature. It brings it all together. It’s
the new and old technologies of music, as inspired When we did dubstep remixes in 2007, Skrillex didn’t more of an Eastern view. I studied a lot of philosophy,
by Jamaican dub studio work and sound system know what dubstep was. I actually ended up living and Asian philosophy tends to view more the
e

culture. Collaborations with Lee “Scratch” Perry with some guys from SMOG Records in L.A. for a little interconnection between people and society, that
[see the interview this issue] began over 12 years ago, and while, and they were telling me how Skrillex showed up we’re all interconnected, with the web of nature being
el

in 2017 their joint release, Super Ape Returns to Conquer, to their shows – they were already playing dubstep. He tied in. It’s the whole reason Buddhists are vegetarian.
proved to be a worthy slab of reimagined was like, “What is this? Teach me how to make this!” Lee, being vegetarian, said to me once, “People think
reggae/dub experimentation. That was years after we had already done dubstep if they eat the animal they’re going to get the energy
mp

remixes based on what was evolving with Lee. of the animal, but that’s a fallacy. We’ve got to respect
32/Tape Op#136/Emch/(continued on page 34)
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 the animals. They are our brothers.” That’s an
enlightened, global, universal worldview. That’s
underpinning the music. I said to him, “I can’t believe
how everywhere I go, I find reggae is popular.” People
who are into it are super dedicated. Reggae hits on
something universal. Connecting your heartbeat and
soul to something spiritual, that people can get no
matter where they are. With his music, I feel we can
incorporate other styles into it, and even get rid of a
typical band format. I was afraid when we did that,
even though he was pushing us to do more new music
at first. We didn’t go back to a lot of the old music, and
I was afraid that a lot of fans of his would be
disappointed. I wondered, “When we go play these
venues where people are coming to see a reggae band,
what are they going to think?” But they were receptive
to it, because it hit the core of what they were about.
You saw the show. My impression is that people don’t
think we’re bastardizing the music by doing a dubstep
version of Super Ape, or something that would make
you cringe. We can incorporate elements, because it’s
an evolution of everything he started. Tapping into the
wobble of a dubstep bass is getting into what he’s
trying to communicate. The ideas he talks about; what
are the sounds that represent those ideas? That
represent water? That represent being a fish? That
represent the strength of the Super Ape?
It’s amazing for you to have Lee’s
influence as you’re making music in
the genre. There’s nothing more pure.
It’s a pretty unique situation.
It’s a real honor for us, all the time, to be up there. It’s not
just inspiring because Lee created all this. It’s inspiring
because he’s the most inspiring person in the room out
of all of us. He’s bored already because we’re having a
normal conversation. He’s got to do something creative
all the time. It keeps all of us on our toes. Being around
him is a constant reminder of how important it is to tap
into that part of your soul and stay inspired. That’s more
powerful than anything he could ever tell us, like, “Play
this note,” though he does that sometimes. Last night
he was telling Troy [“Shaka” Simms], and sometimes
he’ll tell Larry [McDonald], “Do this beat and beatbox for
people.” He’ll have me make up beats or bass lines right
on the stage. He has no boundaries during our live
shows, in so many ways. He’ll stop the show in the
middle and write a song or change the whole set list.
Sometimes he’ll even be like, “That show was perfect.
t)
But tomorrow night we’re going to do this different.”
It can’t be perfect the same way. He definitely got
mad a few times when we were doing the Super Ape
(a
tour. I said he had to do it in the order of the album
– that was over pretty quick! [laughter]
I love that you’re doing shows on a laptop,
with such a minimal setup.
A lot of people think if you’re using a computer you have to
make music that sounds like a computer. Bleeps and
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bloops; an Atari or something. It’s just a tool. With this
band we’re trying to have interactive improvisational
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chemistry. Using the mixing board the way Lee was doing
it is using it as an instrument; like the conductor of a jazz
band. Too often you see the computers up there as a
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backing track and everyone’s playing over it. But that’s
34/Tape Op#136/Emch/(continued on page 36)
boring. It’s not playing off the energy of the crowd or the
other musicians. The amazing thing about studying what
he did on the Super Ape album, and trying to get some
of the sounds, there’s so much power in a lot of simple
tools. As Lee was saying, you start out with four simple
tracks. What do you have on a basic mixer? You’ve got
the EQs and the sends. I teach music at this school called
Dubspot – we’ve had Lee visit before. It’s “dub
university;” all these kids coming, inspired by the music.
So many people come in and say, “Oh, I don’t have this
plug-in or that plug-in! I won’t be able to make my music
sound like this.” What you get with a laptop now is
infinitely more powerful than what Lee had in his studio
40 years ago. He proved that with simple equipment you
can make world-class music that will last an eternity. The
music he made there people are still like, “How did he do
that?” You’re only limited by your own creativity and
inspiration. That’s something that a lot of people don’t
get. On the song “War ina Babylon” – he has this sound
in there. The bass line is [low] and this sound is up high,
like a Motown guitar doing “that” note. I’m a guitar
player. I’m very familiar with getting all kinds of guitar
sounds, but I could not get this with filters or wah
pedals. I know he does a lot of crazy sounds with horns.
I thought, “He’ll never tell me what he did. I think that’s
a horn!” I started messing around with a trombone. “Oh,
my gosh, that’s a trombone that’s filtered.” It’s just the
way he used the EQ. He didn’t have any filters back at
the Black Ark, just the mixing board and the EQs. What
most kids these days are trying to learn with computers
is to take synthesizers and do all this filtering or
subtractive synthesis to do sound design. Lee was
of using a sampler or filter.
As it was going down!
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basically doing sound design on real instruments, instead
I don’t think anyone was thinking that way, at the time.
It’s real mixing. The mixing is as much of
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the art as the making and recording
of the music.
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“Scratch” redefined the whole role of the producer. Nobody
ever thought of a producer as an artist. He was the first
dude whose face was ever on the album cover, just as
the producer. How come the producer’s on the cover? The next step is going to be some kid’s going to produce a
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Because he elevated the production to being part of the
art! That’s pretty mind-blowing. In this day and age,
when you look out at the landscape of hip-hop or
electronic music, guys like Pharrell [Williams], Kanye
West, as well as some of the biggest artists in the genre, makes for an interesting performance. That made it hard
they are producers. They came up as producers who are
artists. Lee is the prototype and blueprint of that. He
started out as a singer and got into production. He came
up as a producer and made all these hits for everyone
else, but he’s still doing his own thing. If you look at
Pharrell or Kanye, that’s exactly what those guys are
doing. The idea of a producer becoming an artist and
doing all his own production in a home studio, all that
surrounded the creation of the Super Ape album. Now it’s
43 years later and it’s commonplace. We found when
promoting the album to people that they almost didn’t
get how big of a deal it was, because it’s so common
now. They couldn’t conceive of a time when no one did
that, and how the guy sitting here revolutionized that.
It was like saying, “This guy invented the wheel.”
It’s mind-blowing when you think about
how it’s influenced so many different
genres, in terms of production,
mixing, concepts, and songwriting.
For the echo and reverb use alone…
And to be manipulated as it plays. The whole idea of
controlling the [delay] feedback is one of the big
differences between Lee and a lot of other people you
mentioned. I do these dub festivals, and I’ve had a lot of
guys like Mad Professor and Scientist perform. Lee
created all the music and all the mixing. A lot of these
other guys are producers. The Roots Radics were an
incredible band, and Scientist mixed it. He had some
great records with them. On his own, he’s as good as the
artist. But the thing about Lee is that he’s a music maker.
He’s a singer, he’s a producer, and he’s doing all of it. That
distinguishes him from other people. It’s also very similar
to what a lot of young musicians and producers are trying
to do today. Most people who are into music aren’t going
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out and learning an instrument. They’re getting a laptop
and recording software. They’re writing all the music,
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mixing it, and doing everything. The days of getting a
guitar, getting your buddy to get a bass, another one to
get the drums, and then forming a band; it’s
unfortunately rare. I grew up doing that when I got into
recording with 4-track cassettes. As a kid, living in
Seattle, I was very inspired by Jimi Hendrix, who was
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very into the whole production process. I’ve always been
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interested in producers.
You mentioned the 4-track. Was that your
first machine?
Yeah. In the late ‘80s, I had the 4-track, some guitar
pedals, and a delay. I remember taking some John
Coltrane, looping it with the pedal, and sync’ing it up
with a drum machine.
It’s a less “traditional” path to learning to
record. We’re seeing more of that with
people like Luke Temple [Tape Op
#126], Mac DeMarco [#120], or Richard
Swift [#120]. From lo-fi bedroom
4-track recording to recording and
producing careers.
hugely successful album on his cell phone. But many
people are working on their own, and they’re forgetting
about the chemistry of multiple band members. The
chemistry of people interacting on a stage is what
for hip-hop to gain popularity at first. If you go back to
the blueprint for dub and what Lee created, bringing
that out of the studio – which technology allows you to
do – that could be used to cross any music genre. The
whole style of dub mixing could be used in performance
to make performances dynamic again. After we played
this one venue, with a balcony behind us, my friend
said, “I was watching what you were doing, and I was
so nervous! You could fuck up at any point.” It’s true.
It’s one of the reasons I don’t smoke or drink on stage.
It’s like I’m flying a spaceship. There are a lot of knobs;
it’s easy to hit the wrong button and then it all ends.
But it’s okay if it does. You make it work. People
appreciate that. That’s how they know it’s not some
prerecorded, totally preset thing. It’s from the heart.
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 Versions & Evolution
Lee was remixing songs and putting out different
versions. American and European copyrights don’t
really allow you to do that. Lee will have a song like
“Chase the Devil” that he did with Max Romeo, and
then he did his own version, “Disco Devil.” It’s got
some of Max’s lyrics and Lee’s lyrics in it. It’s a new
song. On Super Ape he’s got “Croaking Lizard” that’s
got chatting; the roots of rap where Lee was doing
talking vocals over tracks. That’s three different
songs, all based on the same underlying band music.
That’s one of the things about dub; putting songs on
the B-side of 45s to save money. Instead of putting
out another track, it’s like, “Okay, pay the band once
and put out two versions of it.” That led to people
talking over instrumentals at sound system parties,
which laid the foundation for what eventually
happened in the Bronx with DJ Kool Herc – using
funk records instead of reggae records – and

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eventually turning into hip-hop.

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There’s an element of danger to the
music, if the artist likes that.
When I taught DJing to people at Dubpsot, one of the big
controversies was beat-matching with computer
software. Now it’s basically the push of a button. You
can set the BPMs for a track, hit a sync button, and it

)
lines up. You have to have some musical knowledge to

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make sure it lands on the one, but it’s pretty fucking
easy compared to what it used to be. A lot of people
say, “Oh, anyone can DJ now, because the software has
ruined it.” It’s like, “No! All these tools are making it

(d so you can focus on other aspects.” But, at the same

time, when I hear someone’s mixtape and everything
is “perfect,” I think, “Well, maybe this is just a Pandora
playlist. It doesn’t sound human anymore.”
People want a human interaction,
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especially in an age where everybody’s
on their smartphone.
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I think about that a lot; the idea of two turntables and a

mixer, and someone playing around with that. Being
able to turn that into a performance. Record scratching
and turntable performances turned into what heavy
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metal guitar solos were in the ‘80s. The idea that you
can take a mixing board and use it in a different way
– it’s an instrument now. You can push creativity in
many different ways. With computers, more people
need to push themselves to do something that’s fluid
t)

and inspiring – not be limited by hitting play and

letting it run. It’s very important as a music-maker to
DJ. You learn a lot. It’s interesting to play your own
(a

tracks back with other tracks that you love and see how
people react. You see how lining up tracks in different
orders helps. In the live show we do with Lee, I think
a lot about energy flow. His music has dark and light
songs. Major and minor; trying to go back and forth
between that. I gravitate more toward the dark and
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mystical, but you can’t have the dark without the light.
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<subatomicsound.com> <www.lee-perry.com>
<www.dubspot.com>
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36/Tape Op#136/Emch/(Fin.)
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Adrian I remember the first time I heard the Dub Syndicate album, Tunes from the Missing Channel, in 1984. I was used to
reggae being something earthy and warm, but here was a record that sizzled and popped with weird sounds, synths,

Sherwood
cut up spoken parts, and musical juxtapositions. I was hooked. I hold Adrian Sherwood and his On-U Sound
Records label (founded in 1980) in high esteem, and I’ve always wanted to talk to him about his studio life.
Sherwood’s work with Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, Creation Rebel, Mark Stewart, and so
Pay It All Back many others has changed the face of music. When he reunited with Lee “Scratch” Perry [see interview this issue] to
by Larry Crane produce the Rainford album, and its dub version, Heavy Rain, I finally got my chance to chat with him long distance.
Lee & Adrian in a still from the video for “Lies” by Sherwood & Pinch, ft. Lee “Scratch” Perry
direction, edit, and effects by Sally Sibbet

The
Dub
Issue

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I want to talk a little bit about your We had put together a band, all really last-minute, with What were your first recording studio
history. I got the impression that Prince Far I, a legendary Jamaican DJ, chanting over experiences?
your early work was actually doing the top. We were paying [for] a PA, and I was only My first studio one was through meeting artists.
live sound system gigs inspired by the maybe 19. I was leaning over to him and going, People always wanted me to run a session, and try
Jamaican style, right? “More hi-hat! More bass! Turn up the vocal!” And he and make some money however they could. I saved
said, “Look, you do it! You do it!” He wasn’t rude to
t)

Sound systems? No. To be honest with you, I was a up. One of the people I was working for was called
chancer.* I was a massive fan of reggae, James me; he was like a chummy rock ‘n’ roll PA man. But [Anthony] “Chips” Richards, who’s a famous
Brown, a lot of the black American funk and dance, we had a spring reverb, a [Roland] Space Echo or Jamaican character. He arranged for me to go into
Tamla [Berry Gordy’s Motown], and everything as a something, and he showed me, “There’s the hi-hat, the studio with Dennis Bovell, who did The Slits, The
(a

kid. But then I became quite obsessed with
reggae. I was lucky enough to get involved in the
business through a Jamaican friend who worked for
Pama Records in the ‘60s. I didn’t really have a
father; he was the person most like a dad to me,
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and there’s that.” I balanced it up, and put a little
tiny effect on the snare and on the lead vocal. After
the gig, people said, “Wow, that sounded amazing!”
I think people had listened to it sound so badly
[before]. I didn’t know what I was doing! That was it.
Pop Group, and other records as well. I paid the
musicians, and I hummed the bass lines to a bass
player. I made an album called Dub from Creation [by
Creation Rebel]. That was my first venture. I did it
thinking, “Well, if I lose the 200 pounds I’m

ever. He took me under his wing. Eventually I met You’d done releases? Had On-U Sound spending, it’s not the end of the world. I’ll have
musicians, cobbled together some releases, and started before that? some fun!”
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started a little label. We went to do some shows; No. I was involved as a junior partner in the Carib You’re not a traditional musician, as
the first show was at the 100 Club, a famous club Gems label. Then I started the Hitrun label. After far as playing an instrument,
on Oxford Street in England. that came 4D Rhythms, and then On-U Sound at correct?
Yep. the end of 1980. No, I’m not.
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38/Tape Op#136/A. Sherwood/(continued on page 40) *One who takes manipulates situations to their own benefit. (English slang)
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I love the idea of humming bass lines. What studios were you working out of “If I could make a record this week, I could probably
[laughs] then? How did you pick them and the have it out in a couple of weeks.” I wish I could
Traditionally with dub, one takes a song engineers? do that now!
and deconstructs it; stretch it out, add I’d work anywhere I could get a studio with an okay bit What kinds of projects have you worked
effects, and drop instruments out. of equipment in it. We were responsible for on in the last five or ten years?
But you’ve always made new creations popularizing Berry Street Studio. Gooseberry Sound I am trying to reorganize myself with the label. In the
built to be dub tracks. Studios was established; I had gone to Gooseberry, last five years, I built up a relationship with Warp
Pretty much, yes. I was involved in the whole dub scene, in and then, when that was very busy, I found Berry Records to reissue all my old stuff. They’ve been doing
one way or another, from very early on. We used to license Street. A lot of people followed me down the same a really good job. There are loads and loads of records
tapes from Jamaica in the mid-‘70s, when I was in my matrix. And with Southern Studios, that was where available. If anyone wants to check it, they can go
teens. A lot of the dub was created by record labels in Crass and Björk, [when she was] in Kukl, did all their online and have a look and see what’s been made
London – they saw that there was a market for it. I was first records. I basically popularized that as a control available. On the new release I did, I did a
involved with that. Someone would come over, like room for doing Lee Perry, and sessions like that, in collaboration with Pinch [Rob Ellis], a producer from
[Henry] “Junjo” Lawes or one of the producers, and would there. I’d work anywhere with decent monitors. Once I Bristol who’s a good friend of mine. We did two
have loads of dub versions left over from their songs. had a good engineer and knew what I was doing, I Sherwood & Pinch albums [Man Vs. Sofa, Late Night
Those albums, Scientist Meets… whoever or whatever, they could work anywhere. Endless]. And I did an album with Coldcut at On-U
weren’t real albums. People don’t actually know it. Chris You mentioned decent monitors. With Sound, Outside the Echo Chamber.
[Cracknell] at Greensleeves [Records] put them together the dub you’re working on, you need Right.
and gave them the names. He basically took a load of dubs to hear the low end, right? Is that I did and album [#N/A] with Nisennenmondai, the

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that had been mixed by Scientist [see interview this issue]. something you’d check out in a studio Japanese band. I’ve been trying to strategically
These people would evoke your imagination: King Tubby, before booking it? reposition myself in the market so that people even

Keith Hudson, Augustus Pablo, Scientist, and King Jammy.
What Chris did, he put together these albums and said,
“Oh, Scientist Meets… whatever,” with funny sleeves, and
people think they were actually conceived as a work! But
they were put together out of dub versions by the record
Yeah. You know as well as I, certain monitors sound
great when you listen to them, but you can take
them into another room and they’re too bass-heavy.
A room that you can trust and monitors you can
trust are essential.
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know that I’ve released anything. I don’t know if
you saw the album Pay It All Back Vol. 7 that we
released, but that’s highly recommended, if you can
get ahold of it. It’s a double vinyl, and it’s all
unreleased and forthcoming stuff from projects I’m

)
producer. People were sitting around, smoking a spliff, and Right. I feel like with reggae and dub, about to do. It’s also got a booklet with my
listening to this. Interestingly, the first wave of reggae you’re dealing with so much complete catalog in it, listing all the productions.

fans were the skinheads. They weren’t racist; they were
quite the opposite, working-class people who loved
reggae. They liked the happy and funny and gimmicky
records. But as soon as it became quite black – as black
awareness happened in Jamaica and America;
blaxploitation, the Black Panthers, Garveyism, and the
Rasta movement – the crowds moved away from reggae,
because it was too “black” for them. When dub came
along, along came a “Smokey Bear,” student-y hippie lot.
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information on the bottom end. It’s a beautiful little package.
Yeah. It’s a way of making the foot drum and the bass That sounds perfect. I know you worked
almost interlock; like two fingers interlocking. with Lee “Scratch” Perry in the mid-
What led other people seeking you out ‘80s, as well as on the recent Rainford
and asking you to produce them?
What happened for me was I knew Daniel Miller [Mute
Records, Tape Op #110] from when he was living at
(d album. He’s a very mercurial, one
might say. How do you go about
keeping him focused on a record?
his mum’s house and put his first ever record out [as Well, on this one, I had a bit more access to him, so I
The Normal]. He said, “Oh, I wish we did an electronic spent a week with him at home with his wife in
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It wasn’t about having a lot of lyrics rammed down their dub album together,” and we didn’t. Then I was Jamaica. We mapped everything out in his kitchen late
throats, and a lot of them could get off on the working with Mark Stewart, who he was a big fan of. at night, working on headphones at the kitchen table.
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instrumentals; the dubs. I made it for me as a fan. I was He asked me to do one of his first remixes, which was Then we brought it back here and did some more
a fan of Keith Hudson’s brand, a fan of Augustus Pablo’s “People Are People” by Depeche Mode. Then, after I microscoping, hooks, and made it more song-like.
records, and obviously a big fan of the early King Tubby did that, people started saying, “Oh, let’s get Adrian You did the rough versions of what he
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Meets The Upsetter – At The Grass Roots of Dub. I’d suddenly
met these great musicians, like [Eric] “Fish” Clarke, and
later [Lincoln] “Style” Scott, Errol “Flabba” Holt, Clifton
Morrison, and Crucial Tony [Phillips] in London. I just
started having some fun, as a fan. That’s how it went.
t)
in to do the weird remix!” They never got me to do
the A-side! [laughter] In those days, they were all
sniffed up idiots on cocaine; just fucking lunatics
everywhere. What they would do is put out ten
versions of a tune with a different picture sleeve,
wanted, initially?
No; lots of it was masters, recorded on a low-quality mic.
I also did some on a really high-quality mic, like a
Neumann U 87. I’ve got this mixture of really intimate,
raw vocals, straight in your face, mixed with other

Were you still having to hum bass lines
and guide it?
Yeah, I was humming the bass! Or someone else came up
with the bass line, or I’d come up with some lyrics.
(a
colored vinyl, and anything just to try and get a chart better-quality sounding songs. I also took some of his
position. For me, I was always brought in to do the hooks and augmented them with backing vocals.
wacky remix to help bolster up somebody’s chart That’s how we created the record.
position. That’s how my career went. I didn’t care, Were you playing him a rhythm in his

Some people are brilliant, brilliant songwriters. I’m a because I was just taking the company’s money to headphones to toast over to start?
“part-songwriter.” bolster up my company! Yes, yes. Some of the rhythms we did from the beginning.
What were some of the first records That’s an interesting parallel track, too. Actually “Let it Rain” was done from beginning to end,
where you felt like you got your style You were running a record label, that day. That was with the cello man, Ivan “Cello”
going, as far as putting these dub which is something you learned Hussey, Skip “Little Axe” McDonald, and my daughters
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records together? beforehand through the distributors? [Denise Sherwood Devenish, Emily Sherwood Hyman]
Probably by the time we got to Mark Stewart’s Learning I’d been taught to try and build a catalog. If you want doing the vocals. It was a very nice record.
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to Cope with Cowardice album, and Staggering Heights anyone to take you seriously, you have to have a Yeah, it’s really cool. I love “Cricket on
by Singers & Players. The early African Head Charge catalog. That’s how I was brought up. the Moon” and some of those tracks.
was trying ideas. By then, I was definitely in good Then you have a way to get those records They’re just so playful, the way his
control of it. heard and released. mind works, obviously.
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40/Tape Op#136/A. Sherwood/(continued on page 42)

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Adrian & Lee at BBC’s On The Wire, photo by host Steve Barker
Yeah. It’s cheap and affordable still. I use the Fisher
[Dynamic Spacexpander reverb], the same one that
used to be in cars, that King Tubby used. They’re quite
useful to get that crap quality, but really good... I
don’t literally mean crap, but rather non-cultured or
refined, like an AMS or something. It’s a nasty lovely
little edge. The color it brings: it’s only got one
sound, but if you put strings through it, it sounds like
an Indian Bollywood distorted thing. Or you put it on
a bass, or a guitar, or whatever, and that will cut your
head off. It’s wonderful.
That’s one of the amazing things, if you
look at the lineage from Jamaica. It’s a
lot of not top-of-the-line gear. Instead
it’s creative usage of that gear.
It’s like a lot of those wonderful things, like Cinema
Engineering [equalizers], Langevin [equalizers], and
all that. They were all, in their day, made for the

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common man; like your first Ford car. Everyone could
afford them. They weren’t really, really expensive

Look, I’ll say this; it feels like my ego... but I think it’s
the best vocal album he’s ever made. If you look at
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exclusive stuff. You can still get them, and they last
the course of time.
Computer plug-ins are quite
interesting, but it’s not a piece of
first, but it has a lot of great tracks on it. The third
hardware that’s going to follow you
one, Survival & Resistance, I think people don’t realize

it, I’m very proud of Time Boom [from 1987], but in
this album he reveals a lot of himself. It’s song-
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around for 30 years.
how that was made. It’s all made out of tuning.
No. If you look at my studio now, the computer keeps
There’re no synthesizers or anything on it. It’s all

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breaking down much more than the vintage gear!
oriented, and it’s got loads of fun and seriousness all made by mad tuning, and pitching, and bending.
Do you have your own private place set
mixed together. I’m very happy with it. No way! I’ve got to check that one out.
up nowadays?
Do you sometimes do sessions and bring That’s from about seven years ago. It’s a great album.
Yeah. I’m down by the seaside in a place called
people in, do some tracking, and How hands-on are you with work like
see if these parts land on different
projects?
that? Are you collaborating with an
engineer, or mucking around on a
(d Ramsgate [in England]. It’s a very interesting setup.
The houses are about 200 years old. They’re joined by
gardens. We kicked the wall down, and you go in one
I do, yeah. People have asked me that before. Well, not computer?
house and go out another on a different road, which
always. Very often I just start it thinking it’s for Well, I tell people what to do. I’m like a little conductor,
is very confusing for visitors. It’s very funky, and
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something, and then sometimes I’m not quite happy but I do use my fingers to shape everything, because
really nice. I’ve actually got my friend from America,
with it. I might leave it for a couple of years and I do it all analog. With the solo records I’m obviously
David Asher [THE PROCESS, David Asher Band]. He’s
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then revisit it, and if it’s still got something I really
like about it, then I’ll reinvent it a bit. That kind of
thing happens.
I really dug you solo album, Never Trust mixing process?
like a little Hitler. I tell everybody what to do, 100
visiting here, at the moment. He’s sitting in the
percent, and that’s exactly what we do.
studio near the house as we speak. Skip McDonald,
With analog, you’re talking about the
the great guitarist, is here as well.
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Are there any projects in the future

a Hippy, when it came out. It feels Yeah. But in the recording process I’m using the analog
coming up that you are excited about?
like a compilation record, in a way. desk as an instrument, recording that, and then plunking
I highly recommend that people look for Pay It All Back
I can see why you’d think that. It is, a little bit. I did it into another mix and playing things backwards and
Vol. 7, because that finally gives a guideline to what’s
make the sonics sound complemented to each other. forwards. Just trying to make it breathe, really.
coming next. I’ve got an album done with Horace
I used a lot of disparate parts. The whole thing was And utilizing effects?
Andy that’s absolutely stunning. I’ve got an album
t)

basically that you can rock to it. I can play it out,
because I’d suddenly put myself [his name] on the
front cover for the first time ever. I was doing gigs in
my name. I had to put something out with my name
(a
Totally.
with my daughter Denise [Sherwood Devenish],
Do you have a ton of your own tape-
which is wonderful. There’s a taster for that on Pay It
based effects and spring reverbs that
All Back Vol. 7. I’ve been recording African Head
are very distinctive?

Charge, and I’ve got a few other things up my sleeve.

on it, because being a producer without any record Everything, yeah.
I’m going to do another solo album myself. And 2020
with your name on it is a bit difficult, except for the What are some of your favorite spring
is the 40th anniversary of the label.
reverbs that you use for drums?
people who actually read the back of a sleeve.
Thinking back to the teenage kid who
Right. And your second solo record, Today I’m using a Grampian. [Probably a Reverberation
was you as a music fan, are you blown
Becoming a Cliché, was that a similar Unit Type 636.] I got that for next to nothing, and
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away at 40 years and all the releases

process? they’re quite expensive now. I’ve also got an old
you’ve worked on?
That one I got a little bit more song-oriented, using my Orban from America that cost about $300. I use that
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I’m just glad to be here still! r

friends like Dennis Bovell and other collaborators like for snare. It’s a very tight, small reverb. People don’t
LSK [Lee “LSK” Kenny] and other people I really liked. appreciate how good Orban is, but I love Orban stuff. <www.adriansherwood.com> <on-usound.com>
I thought I’d make a pop song-y version of the record. [Probably a Model 111B.]
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I think that second album’s maybe not as good as the It’s one of those light-blue ones?

42/Tape Op#136/A. Sherwood/(Fin.)

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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#136/43

Hopeton Overton Brown
is “The Scientist”
The
by Geoff Stanfield Dub
Issue
photo by Aya Muto

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 Jamaican electronics whiz kid Well, King Tubby’s [Presents The] Roots of Dub was an Usually it’s one take. Back in those times, producers
Hopeton Overton Brown got his moniker inspiration to me the first time I heard it. I liked what didn’t have the finances to be in the studio, so
“Scientist” from none other than one of dub music was going on. It was a good album to test the someone would book four hours of studio time, and
production’s founding fathers, King Tubby amplifiers that I was building, because of the you have to record all the parts and mix the record
(Osbourne Ruddock). As a teenager he began frequency response. right after that, all in four hours.
engineering and mixing out of Tubby’s, later At what point did you have an Yeah, it’s very different now!
moving to Channel One and Tuff Gong studios. opportunity to get behind the console? Yeah, that’s why I don’t want to spend six months in the
He is one of the genre’s most prolific and creative Well, I actually made him a bet after being at the studio. studio making one record.
forces, while also remaining a sought-after mix We had a workshop, and my primary thing was to help to How long are you typically taking with a
engineer and producer. In addition to his own wind these transformers, fix whatever televisions and project these days?
impressive, if not stunning body of solo work, he whatever amplifiers that would come in there. Then, by Well, it depends. I can do about 30-some mixes in about
has worked with Jamaican legends Bob Marley, being there, I started putting my theories together about 12 hours.
Roots Radics, Prince/King Jammy, Peter Tosh, and how to mix music. But prior to that, I thought I could Wow!
Horace Andy, to name just a few. Meanwhile, build a console. When I got out to the studio and first Yeah. Some people it takes them six months, and the
current artists such as Hempress Sativa, Ted Sirota, did studio work, I found that my theory in building entirety is one half-assed mix. Just like you hear all
and Khruangbin have all benefitted from his recording consoles was not really a one-man operation. I those albums where in a couple hours they were done.
otherworldly presentations of their music. To watch started talking to him about features he might like, Right. Well, there’s something to
him mix is like watching man and machine become things like moving faders and automation. To him, it was capturing a performance and just
one. His mixes are dance-like performances on the a joke. One day he made me a bet. He said, “I bet you getting it down. People could play

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console, and the sound pictures he paints are wouldn’t know the first thing to do.” Because I was then, too.
mystical and dreamlike. I tracked Scientist down and exposed to the studio by watching, and because I was an Yes.

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had the pleasure of digging deeper with one of electronic engineer at that time, he lost his bet, basically. People were probably more prepared.
music’s unique geniuses. What did you learn from him about Um, not really. There was no rehearsal. Whenever you
setting up the console that was were working with these artists like Bob Marley, they
What is dub? specific to dub mixing? made it right on the spot. The guitarist and the lyricist
Dub is the first electronic music where an engineer becomes I’m a self-taught person. I got to see what I learned and make up the song and learn the chord progression

)
a composer and an artist. I developed techniques to observed. “Okay, whenever I hear that sound, this is right on the spot, and within two minutes, tape
leave the mind while keeping the mind wandering. That’s how it’s done,” or, “This is how to do it,” whether I rolling, and we’re recording.

ot
basically dub. A composition from the engineer. had no knowledge of the studios back in those times Wow. I bet a lot of people don’t realize
I know it’s a popular genre, but to validate my theory. I read books about recording. I that. After you left Tubby’s studio
I’m always amazed at how many didn’t have any prior experience. It was a 4-track you went over to Channel One. You
engineer and producer friends who machine. By being there, I started using my electronic went from 4-track machines to
are not familiar.
Yes. Because here’s what: Straight-up engineering, you So, he gave me a wonderful opportunity.
record whatever band [you’re working with] and Dub mixing is such an extraction and a
(d
skills to evaluate the theories that I had in my head. having 16-track machines there.
Yes.
The records seemed like they got a little
nothing’s altered. Everything is just how the breaking down of the music to its bit more clarity to them. What do you
musicians played it. With dub, now we have to essential core. Would you say that think the tonality change in those
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recompose it. One element is the element of surprise. that is true? records were, or was it just your
How to keep it all together and get the listener Yes, because I have developed techniques of how to make growth as an engineer?
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hooked on one pattern, and also how to switch up the music not become monotonous. A lot of the time, Well, it was the engineering technique that I brought to
the pattern. Now what I can tell you is that every if you just mix the music and play it, it doesn’t have it. I was the youngest one. Everybody has had their
time you listen to a dub track, it never sounds exactly anything to keep the imagination going. As you know, own way. When I was around Tubby’s, I could hear all
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the same. Each time things sound a little bit remix was started in Jamaica, and then here comes the the defects that needed to be perfect, and every day I
different, and it is part of the reason why these hip-hop and everything, and it’s after remix. have a new formula for that. I’d listen to a mix and,
records last over 30 years; because I’ve developed Was it simply the availability of things “Okay, the snare doesn’t sound good,” and the reason
techniques of how to put things into the music so like reverb, tape echo, and phase the snare sounds like this is because it needed more
that each time you hear it, it’s a little bit different shifter that found their way into the bleeding. No compressors on anything, because
t)

each time. It’s always going to remain fresh. music? compressors ruin the sound. I tried a bunch of things,
When you were a teenager and had an No, no phasers. High-pass filter. but I was the hardest critic on myself. What sounded
interest in electronics and fixing TVs, What do you think drew you and King normal and good to other people, to me didn’t sound
winding transformers and repairing Tubby, as well as people like Lee Perry good. That’s what changed the sound at the studio. I
(a

components for sound systems in to those sounds? didn’t fix anything with consoles, or make a change to
Jamaica, how did that play into you Parts of it was it was unique. You didn’t really hear it on the console. What I did was to make changes to the
coming to work with King Tubby? any other record. A lot of people believed it was phasers recording technique. For example, back in those times,
Because I wanted some parts for the amplifier I was when it wasn’t phasers. We just set up the high-pass everybody believed that you should record flat, and I
building. I was introduced to King Tubby by a friend filter. Why does it sound like that? A whole bunch of came and I recorded flat. “Well, okay, the reason why
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who lived in my neighborhood. untold, unique techniques that I had to develop. Then, this record sounds like that is because it’s flat, and you
And getting some components from 30 years later, I am having an interview with you about don’t want bass coming through your hi-hat mics.” So,
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King Tubby? what I was doing when I was a kid. I learned to use EQ to get the bass drum out of the hi-
Yes. Were you splicing tape together of hat mics. Those changes were what helped those tapes
What was it about being there at the performances, or were they all one to sound good. “Okay, the drum mic doesn’t sound so
studio with him that attracted you to take and then the best one went to good at this position. Let’s try this position.”
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producing music as well as mixing? record?

Scientist/(continued on page 46)/Tape Op#136/45
 I developed controlled bleed. “Okay, I need this
amount of bleed on this instrument, at this frequency.”
So I put the whole thing together; you can hear drum
bleed. Before, I was believing, “Okay, this is a kick
drum. Don’t let the snare or the hi-hat or anything
bleed into the kick drum mic,” and I would gate it. But
when I go to listen to it, it sounded too stiff. I learned
to develop the different types of bleeds. As a result, if
I was playing the kick drum, I was listening to the
timbale mic. I’d hear a little ring around the timbale
mic, so I developed techniques to use all of that so
when I put the entire drum set together it becomes the
big, massive drum set that you’re hearing.
You mentioned compressors. Do you not
mix with any compression?
No. And I do not master. If you want to see a goddamn
monster come out of me, try mastering a song with
compression. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t make bass
fatter or do anything. The original idea of what
Now, when it comes to analog, analog gives you a fatter
bass? Garbage. The reason why it’s garbage is because
digital can go down to one cycle. No tape machine,
whether it’s a brand-new tape machine or not, can
produce one cycle. So, it’s telling you that if the digital
can produce one cycle, then, when you start to get in
the range of 20 cycles or 100 cycles, it’s going to
reproduce it better. This whole misconception that vinyl
sounds better than CD? Nonsense! Why? Because by the
time you record to tape, the best tape machine out of
the box – the most expensive tape machine – it
automatically becomes a second generation. And by the
time you’ve mixed it, that’s one generation down. By
the time you cut the stamper, that’s the next generation
down. By the time you go through the whole process
after it becomes vinyl, it’s several generations down.
There’s no way something five generations down will
sound better than a first generation. With digital, it
remains a one-generation process; you record at a
How many more people are there making tape machines?
Even SSL… they stopped making the [large format]
analog consoles. Why? Because it takes more research
and everything just to do one of those consoles. The new
platform is digital. They stopped making carburetor cars
not because it’s better, but because new cars they have,
with the fuel injectors, you don’t need to adjust timing
belts or anything like that. The computers run the
injectors and tell the injectors how much fuel and when
to fire the spark plug, precisely top dead center. They
don’t usually discontinue things because it’s better.
Good point. What about color and the
visual aspect of mixing? What are
some common things that you see
and go for, in terms of color palettes
and the pictures you’re painting
with sound?
Well, I know this might sound like garbage, but different
notes and different frequencies have different colors.

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compression means in electronics is completely current bitrate, which sounds better than vinyl. Here’s Like, for example, bass would be blue. High
different from what these guys think it is. the next problem with it. With vinyl, you have rumble frequencies, like hi-hat, would be white. That’s the

Compression in electronics refers to the attack and
release time. The first origin of a compressor had
nothing to do with the broadening and fattening of
sound. It’s limiting. For example, the first use of a
compressor, what they called in television repair, was
with turntables. You find you have to put in a sponge
or some dampening, or else the turntable’s going to
rumble. So, when I hear the verbal garbage about how
vinyl sounds better than digital, that’s nonsense. Then
the second thing about it is that I can walk with several
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color I see flash in my head. That’s what I see. It’s
where my imagination leads. The whole music,
painting, any of that, it’s something that happens in
your brain that has to translate to your fingers. An
artist might get a visual about that drawing and it’s

)
AGC, or Automatic Gain Control. They use the same hundred gigabytes worth of songs on my thumb drive. something that exists in their brains and get translated
technique in radio transmitters, because you don’t Who wants to drag around boxes and crates of records? into [their] fingers. The same thing with the thousands

want the microphone over-modulating the
transmitter, so they install a thing called an AGC
control. Then they also do the same to a tape
machine. You don’t want the volume to go past this
level or you’ll distort the tape, so that’s where it first
came in. Knowing that I know how to build a
Some people do not know how to accept change; they
don’t know anything else, and they’re stuck in one way.
As you know, I developed a lot of these techniques in
Jamaica, and a lot of people are still trying to
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and thousands of records I mixed. You’re familiar with
my discography. Is it a thousand? Tens of thousands?
How many titles have you released that
are under your name?

have certain knowledge.

compressor and a limiter, I can tell any engineer out What do you think about the idea that
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understand how I did them. And God bless me, I alone
there to put away the misconception; it does not make your brain has to make sense of
bass sound any fatter. I used the thing. I tried it, and a digital file, because it’s zeroes
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Man, I stopped keeping track. When you do the quick
math, just going back, bare minimum, was like five
songs a day. So, five songs a day in seven days, how
much is that? Thirty-five?
Yep.

it made the bass sound messed up, because now the and ones? Thirty-five times four, for one month; that’s what?
bass is not breathing. It’s not working at its natural Nonsense! Here, I did a study. I get two digital It is 1,680 songs per year.
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dynamic volume. What’s it good for? It has some recordings, and I do what a tape machine would do. Multiple that by ten years, bare minimum.
useful properties on vocals. Back in the day, it was The tape machine, especially if it’s not aligned All right, well that would be 16,800.
just a technique that I came up with for singers who properly, would start to lose the high frequencies. So, Yeah. And I know I would do more than five songs per day.
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sing loud and distort the tape. That’s all it was for. Not I get two digital recordings and roll off the high Yeah, so you divide that by what,
to make bass and mixes sound fatter; all this verbal frequency [on one of them] and make it sound a bit ten songs per record, and that’s a lot
garbage I hear coming from some of these people. more muddy. Then I get a group of people. Tell me of records!
Can you talk a little bit about some which one is digital, and which is analog? When I get Yeah, a lot of records that you see. And if you do that times
other misconceptions about gear? I the final, people associate warmness with high 20 years, then you see how fast the numbers rack up.
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also really want to talk about your frequency loss, saying, “There’s high frequency Yeah, that’s pretty amazing. Are they all
position on analog and vintage gear warmness.” That’s what happens with a tape machine out there?
versus digital equipment, because that is dirty or when it’s out of alignment. Everyone Yeah, some of them are out there. A lot of records now
you are somebody who took analog says, “That’s definitely analog! It’s definitely warmer!” start coming out with King Tubby’s [name on them].
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gear to its limits. You used it in ways When I show it’s two digital recordings, and that all I There’re a lot of false records under King Tubby’s name.
that no one was using it like that. did was roll off the highs like a tape machine would He didn’t mix all those records. I mixed those records.
Yeah, well the first thing I heard people talking about was do, or when you cut vinyl, this is what’s supposed to King Tubby’s Lost Treasure and King Tubby’s Dangerous
there was a Fisher reverb, and a Fisher reverb got that happen. Then everybody says, “Whoops!” Dub; King Tubby didn’t mix those records.
sound. Verbal nonsense. There was a Fisher reverb there, Well, I don’t think people necessarily I’ve heard you talk about people being
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and I mixed two songs on it, but the reason I didn’t mix know. programmed. Can you explain that?
any other songs on it was because it sounded noisy. Look here, this industry is one of the most misleading Well, each of us have a gift. It’s already been written
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It didn’t sound good. So, this whole concept that, industries. People just repeat what they hear the next 2,000 years or more before we’re having this
“Oh, there was a Fisher reverb on it,” yeah, but I didn’t geek say. Especially if that record reaches number one, discussion. I didn’t choose this job. This job chose me.
use that on any of the mixes. I developed techniques everyone’s going to say, “Yep, vinyl is better!” But Each and every one of us are born with a unique
using a console to get the reverb to sound like that. look here, how much more vinyl plants are there left? purpose. Some people are going to be gardeners.
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46/Tape Op#136/Scientist/(continued on page 48)

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 That’s what they’re good at. Some people will be digital console that cost $50,000 or one that cost people like the kids. They don’t have to like them all.
doctors, and some people go and fit in society in $5,000. Once they encode it at a bitrate and the total Other people like them. Other people like the records
different ways. I’ve come to the conclusion that harmonic distortion is at the same number, they’re that I work on, so just let it go!
something programmed each and every one of us to going to produce the same quality. It’s not like a It seems like you’re someone who’s
be a specific way. $50,000 console is going to produce a better sound constantly looking and learning and
What about some of the current records than somebody with a $5,000 console. wanting to keep going forward. So,
you’ve been working on? You’ve got Well, you would hope that a digital when you listen to a record you made
the Hempress Sativa record [Scientist console wouldn’t necessarily impart in 1980, are you able to enjoy it, or do
Meets Hempress Sativa in Dub], and any sound! you just hear the flaws?
the dub version of that record. You Well, the reality is ear crabs operating on peoples’ brains. I hear my mistakes of when I was just learning. It’s part
mentioned earlier when we spoke Okay, the thickness of our skull is, say, five of the reason why I influence all these different
that you’re working with Akon. millimeters. They can program robots to not go more people making records, because I’m the worst critic of
Yes. We are setting up a facility. I will be building some than five millimeters. This is precisely where we need myself. Like I’m building the digital gear I’ve done one
speaker units and amplifier units based on the skill this, with a tolerance of one, plus or minus one time or two times, and it’s not up to my standard. I
that I have developed over the years. percent. Go ahead and tell me to fly in a plane with a hear my one mistake. Do you know the reason why
So, is that something that you’ve kept couple feet of visibility. Here’s a quarter length of the people become good? It’s the reason why airplanes
doing, or did you put it on hold for a runway; they’ll put down the gear, lock it, and land. don’t fall out of the sky. It’s because the people who
while; the actual electronics and You can’t do that with analog! What happens if the build airplanes always see how they can make them
gear portion of the work? pilot’s drunk? better, and they’re the worst critics of their own
Hopefully the pilot’s not drunk on my

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I got distracted by the tours and mixing music. Actually, mistakes. That is why the technology reaches where it
every night I go home and still do it in some form. I’m plane. reaches. If the engineer were to say, “Oh, yeah; analog

building this unit. What people don’t understand is by
the time you see a cell phone or any electronic unit,
it’s been through several reviews. I was building a
high-pass, and I thought, “If you take the high-pass
on Tubby’s console and give it to anybody, it just will
not work with these consoles.” It won’t work. This is
Right. That’s where the digital technology is. The guys
can fly a plane or program all the information inside a
plane, and the computers are programmed, “If this
happens, do this. When you reach 10 miles, traveling
northeast 20 degrees, start to come down and adjust
the flaps at this angle.” You cannot do these things
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is good,” then you couldn’t imagine other things. Look
here, I used to fix televisions. There’s no money in
fixing televisions now, all right? Now we have flat-
screen TVs that give you better resolution than one of
those old analog televisions. They’re making these cell
phones with megapixels that can record good quality,

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a unit everybody wants, so let’s start with electronics. with analog. like a movie camera. So, which one is better? You’re

I started with digital electronics. I’m at a stage now
where I can build hardware. As I say, this whole entire
backwards way of doing electronics in analog is dead.
Here’s why. You want to make a reverb? That’s one
completely different circuit. You want to build a
microphone preamp? That’s a different circuit. You
want to build a noise gate? That’s a different circuit.
Each one of these components have different circuitry
and parts. With the digital technology, there just
needs to be an input and an output stage, and then
it’s whatever I program the chip to do. This is how it’s
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Nope. going to walk around with a million-dollar camera
So yeah, analog to me is like an antique car. Okay, time versus one of these new digital recorders, just so you
to move on now. don’t need reels and reels of movie tape. You just need
What do you think about dub’s second a reasonably-sized flash drive. That’s better things. I’m
wave coming out of England with Mad
Professor, Adrian Sherwood, and the
British dub scene, as well as some of
(d all for digital. I come from both worlds. Plus, we did
this when I was with Dr. Israel [on tour]. Everybody
played vinyl records. When we started digital, they
the new dub artists, like Subatomic started to hear the bass pop. Yes, it’s different;
Sound System. Are you familiar with everybody’s entitled to like what they like. I’m not
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these guys? gonna go back and say, “Well, then I want to be in
Yes. analog again,” because for me it’s a reverb unit or one
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done now. It’s more precise. It uses less voltage. Five
volts or 2.5 volts can run the entire thing. You don’t
need to have any big huge electric bill that generates
heat that just deteriorates the parts more. It’s lighter,
What do you think?
I welcome them. I like what they’re doing. If it weren’t
for them keeping the dub scene alive in the U.K., it
would have been not recognized. It wouldn’t have
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of those units. I know how to do analog. I’ve repaired
several of them, and digital is a new technology.
Almost every company who builds a digital console
started building analog consoles, because you need a

and everything about it is better. lived so long. So yes, I welcome them. I encourage different circuitry for each part of the board. When I
Makes sense. them to keep doing what they’re doing. go out to these concerts, I’m using all plug-ins. I’d
Well, again, there are people who don’t know things for This is probably an absolutely have to walk around with, “Okay, here’s my AKG
themselves. When I do these shows with a digital impossible question for you to reverb.” However, some of this analog gear does have
console, everybody said, “What?” But the technology answer, but I’m going to try anyway. a certain unique sound that digital doesn’t get quite
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got so good that you find the console I use at a live What are three albums that you feel right yet. For example, some types of reverb units that
show is a Midas M32. If you tried to do all of that on best represent your work? come close, people want to know, “Is that really
analog, you’d have to have all this extra outboard gear Um, there are so many of them that I don’t really have digital, or analog?” Just through the techniques I’ve
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and noise gates and all this different equipment. With a favorite, but the one that seems to be stuck in the developed in mixing so much music over the years, I
each piece of equipment, it just brings more noise into minds of everybody is that album Scientist Rids the can now manipulate the digital equipment to achieve
the signal chain and leaves more room for error. Now World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires. As you know, the same thing.
I can show up to the console, put in my thumb drive, there are thousands and thousands of songs I’ve Are there certain things that you still
recall whatever setting I had from last night, and it’s mixed from thousands and thousands of artists. After feel are not better digitally?
there in two seconds! You cannot do these things with a while, it’s not up to me. I’ve mixed songs that are Drums, real horns.
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an analog console. And then the price of analog? One number one. I don’t like the frigging song, but other Actual instruments?
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of those consoles are like $4,000 versus paying people like it. I don’t really have to like the song. If a Yeah. They still don’t get it right. It doesn’t have the
$500,000. The good thing with a digital platform is lot of people like it, and it’s an inspiration to people dynamics and some of the tones. I hear some of
it’s not like where a larger cost gives a better sound. around the world, let it be. I don’t look at the them come pretty close. A drummer like Sly Dunbar
It doesn’t work that way. The sound and the quality thousands of recordings that way. I just see them as [Lowell “Sly” Fillmore Dunbar]? I’ve seen them try it
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are pretty consistent. It doesn’t matter if you have a a next kid. That kid’s good, that kid’s obedient, other before when those just came out. He will use an
48/Tape Op#136/Scientist/(continued on page 50)
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 acoustic snare and an acoustic hi-hat, and there’s no substitute for these things
now. Some of them come close, but those who know the difference will want to
go back to real drums.
How do you conceive your mixes? Do they change? Are they the
same every time?
I don’t care what car you drive, it’s always going to have a wheel for it to drive on.
It’s going to have to have some kind of fuel to propel it. There are certain things
that never change. For example, the bass doesn’t change. The hi-hat doesn’t change.
All of the basic principles of EQ-ing; those things never change. The layout of a
console is key. I see a lot of people doing it. The reason why they’re not going to
get these things is because they don’t understand the basic layout of a console.
When I was going to school, my grandfather was trying to figure out why I could
not read. I could not read and write to the best of my ability. What he figured out
was that I didn’t know my ABCs! After I learned my ABCs, then I could read better
and write better. But is it possible to read and write if I don’t know the alphabet?
It’s important to know at least the basics of signal routing,
aux sends, and these sorts of things. Do you see people that
still don’t know this?
Well, here’s what I also see. Out of them doing it wrong, it creates a new way and a

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new thing. That’s why I welcome it. Even though I don’t quite get the way they’re
doing it, it created something new. Like I said, I don’t have to like it. Other people

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like it? Fine. I’m not going to like every recipe. Some people like eating monkey
brains. Some people don’t. Everybody’s entitled to like what they like. I’m quite sure
some people might hear mixes that I do, and they don’t like it. Okay, that’s your
prerogative.
It’s a fair point.

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Yeah.
I was speaking to your point about if you see somebody trying

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to do a dub mix and the way their setup is different than
you do; it’s not wrong, but they are not going to achieve
the same results.

(d
No, they will never achieve the same result. That is why one day I was considering:
should I design a console? It’s like the reason why everybody’s still puzzled about
how they built the pyramids. Modern-day equipment still can’t figure out how the
hell supposedly primitive people moved those huge blocks that are as big as a truck
at a tolerance of zero point one degrees aligned, and these people are supposed to
be “primitive” people. Now, if somebody could find books or knowledge about how
l

to build the pyramids, that would be wonderful. So, I’m sitting on a lot of knowledge
that I alone know about, and one day I might want to build a console with a proper
ai

layout. That’s key. That’s key.

Well, it lets you then come into the kitchen and cook. I always
think mixing is so much like making a good meal.
gm

That’s exactly right. Here’s why. I watch cooking shows, and I like to cook. You follow
the recipe, you buy all the ingredients, but guess what? It’s not going to come out
the same way as the guy who’s done it all his life. It’s going to come out with better
flavor and unique flavor, but if you’re looking for the same thing, don’t.
I think people like you who mix in a very creative and
t)

nontraditional way, in terms of the dub mix and that style,

it’s so much like being in the kitchen with the spice rack,
but maybe you just use one spice a little bit.
Mixing is just like cooking, because if you put too much pepper in, it’s going to taste
(a

peppery. If you put in too much hi-hat, that’s all you’ll hear. You have to find a
correct balance. But make no mistake. Before you can get to dub mixing, the
instruments, you have to like what you hear, and they have to be recorded to the
optimal first. That’s the first step. You can’t just take any little cheesy drum track or
recording and get a great dub mix. It doesn’t work that way. You can’t just record
e

with a crappy monitor or speaker system and expect to have the same results.
You’ve gotta have good ingredients.
el

Yeah. r
<www.facebook.com/dubbscientist> <www.dubmusic.com>
Thanks to Aya Muto at <www.rainorshinebooks.com>
mp

for taking photos.

50/Tape Op#136/Scientist/(Fin.)
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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#136/51

AMY KING VE RS AT IL E… DE DI CA TE D.

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M IN W AS HI N G TO
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BY ROMAN SOKA
PH O TO S BY BE N JA
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Grant Avenue Studio, based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, is a prestigious, fabled, and legendary credits that this was something I wanted to have my
ai

studio originally built by the brothers Bob and Daniel Lanois [Tape Op #37, #127]. In 1985, musician and name in. The older I get, the more I look back on life
and see so many scenarios that prepared me for this
engineer/producer Bob Doidge bought the studio; he has since kept up the quality and continues to career. Scenarios that are worth so much more than
maintain an excellent reputation. Folks such as David Bottrill [#19], Robin Aubé, and Mark Howard formal education.
gm

[#134] have called the studio home at times, and for the past 18 years Amy King has been working there, You studied naval architecture?
continuing the tradition of world-class engineers and producers. She constantly lends a unique, Boat building and oil rigs. I thought it was fun and I
professional approach to the sessions that occur there, and a background in psychology helps keep her enjoyed it, academically, but I knew where my heart
aware. Her list of credits is extensive, having worked with artists such as Gordon Lightfoot, Emmylou was. I’m so anti-recording school now, but it did give
me opportunity and connection. My goal was to take
Harris, The Tea Party, So Long Seven, and Tuba4. Additionally, she has also been involved with the
t)

a class and move back to Newfoundland to start my

philanthropic Make Music Matter music healing program. own studio, but I felt the need to send out some
You’re originally from Newfoundland. have been an unsolicited résumé when the time résumés here. I did that, and Bob Doige called me
You were taking psychology in school, came. Prior to RAC, I did some university in other back. Grant Avenue was right in the middle of doing
(a

and then you took a totally different
turn into engineering.
Yeah. I always had an interest in music, ever since I can
remember. I feel becoming a recording engineer/
producer is something that one trains for their entire
e
fields to appease my folks – psychology, philosophy, a Gordon Lightfoot record, when Gord had had a
and naval architecture – but from childhood I trained stomach aneurism. I never did move back to
to be a musician; classical piano and every instrument Newfoundland to start my own place. I got involved
I could get my hands on. I started messing around in a lot of projects here pretty quickly.
with equipment and electronics – it also helped that Grant Avenue has always had a high

life, and even once they become one it will forever be my dad is an electrician who loved teaching me. I quality standard of engineer. What
a learning experience. How many other careers on the became involved in the sound system and music does Bob look for in engineers?
el

planet give that opportunity? I did go to Recording program crew at church. Growing up in the early ‘90s, People will automatically assume that you get hired based
Arts Canada, but I view it rather as a waste of time I was mostly buying rock albums, and I loved them. on a course or great technical knowledge in this field.
and money. The benefit of it was introducing me to I started dissecting sounds and effects, and anything When they hired me, Bob said one of the biggest turn
mp

Bob – as he was one of the lecturers – so I wouldn’t I heard I’d wonder about. I knew from reading album offs about my résumé was the fact that I had taken a

52/Tape Op#136/A. King/

 recording course. It took me a while, maybe a couple of
years here, before I realized where he was coming from
on that. The reason he hired me was because I had
classical piano training; I knew how to read music, and
that’s a great skill to have. I knew how to solder; also a
very good skill to have in this business. And psychology;
that’s the biggest reason he hired me, as I had one or
two years of basic psychology knowledge. That is needed
on a daily basis. He could have taught anybody how to
learn the console and the gear. You can learn that from
a book. But how to deal with people, deal with artists – It operates in a linear fashion?
with a singer who’s having a bad day – and then how to The transport system is still just play, stop, fast forward, Do you have any particular gear at the
deal with all the dynamics that are going on in a band
itself – you need to be able to navigate that.
You’ve been here for how many years?
It’ll be 18 in September 2020.
You’re the longest-standing engineer If you get called to do gigs in other
here, right?
Other than Bob, yeah.
Could you describe the vibe of the
studio?
Not with the level of confidence I have here. For the
I could write a book about that. When these guys [Bob
Lanois and Daniel Lanois] decided to move the studio
here in the ‘70s, at the time they were recording in their
mom’s basement in Ancaster [Ontario, Canada]. They
outgrew that situation. They were working on projects
with Raffi and Bruce Cockburn there. I’m sure it was a
huge pain for them to convert this building from a
house into an operating recording studio. They had to
move plumbing and electrical. The number of miles of
cable in this building for audio is insane. Their decision
to put it here has made a huge impact on how people
feel about it and why they like to come here. Aside from
the history, the feeling when you walk in the front door
is like you’re coming home. Making music is such an
intimidating process for a lot of people; even people
who have been doing it for a long time. If they can do
it in an environment that feels like their own living
room, it takes down that wall. We feel sight line and
body language among band members is important. The
layout of the studio allows everybody to see each
other’s faces and read each other’s body language. That
certainly adds to the musicality of a performance. That
has a lot to do with the charm of this place. We are
pretty steadfast in that it’s all analog gear, for the most
part. That went out of fashion after some time, but it’s
back in trend and has come full-circle with the
t)
resurgence of vinyl and whatnot. We’re finding that
people are wanting to come here because of our old
tube microphones, as well as the analog console. Most
of our outboard gear is analog. Strange as it probably
(a
sounds, I feel this place is a living, breathing thing.
Anybody else who has worked here probably feels the
same way. It’s so embedded in our fibers, at this point.
We have been operating here since 1976, and I hope it
stays that way for another 42 years or more.
e
You use a lot of analog gear still, but you
use RADAR for tracking too?
el
Yeah. When I first started here, unfortunately they had
just stopped using 2-inch tape for the everyday You recently had some Massey Hall gigs [in
sessions because digital had come around. They were
mp
using Tascam DA-78s when I started, which I hate.
They were terrible. Three machines running eight It was a totally different setup for those. With the Massey
tracks apiece. The sync errors that I’d get every shows there’s often a video aspect as well, and that gets
morning; I don’t ever want to relive it. In 2005 we outsourced to different companies. This last one we did
converted to RADAR, which is a Canadian-made was being covered by a crew doing a documentary. We
digital hard drive [recorder] by iZ Technology. We subcontract Doug McClement at LiveWire [Remote
had one of the first professional studio-grade ones Recorders] to provide the backline gear for us for that gig.
here. We are on our second unit, and that’s what He’ll bring in his preamps and live mixing console. We take
we’re still running now. Bob says it’s the closest our feeds from the stage that we run into RADAR. We do
sound to 2-inch tape. That’s what people are after, a live mix using Doug’s board that we send Gord home
and operating it is very similar. with, so he can listen to it that night if he wants. Then
we do the final mix on our system here at the studio.
and rewind. It does have some small editing studio that you always go to?
capabilities. There are newer versions, which I haven’t My favorite compressor, and it has been for quite some
worked on yet, that are running Pro Tools in tandem time, is the Universal Audio LA-3A, as well as their 2-
with the operating system. 610 [tube preamp]. As for outboard effects, I’m a delay
junkie. I like the older ones, because I like that lo-fi
studios, are you versatile on other delay that the older Korgs have. Anything that’s a plug-
systems? Would you be able to jump in in or computer-based is almost too perfect. For reverb,
m
on a Pro Tools session? I like the EMT 250 or 240. In terms of microphones, I’m
co
a sucker for the old tube mics.
most part, if anyone calls to work with me specifically, Neumann U 47s and whatnot?
unless they’re out of province or something, I ask if I am. It’s cliché for me to say that – because it’s what we
they would consider coming here. This is my have here – but I get to use them every day. I know
wheelhouse. Doing sessions at other studios certainly them and know them well. They sound great.
requires some time to acclimatize to the gear, the Have you perfected how to get sounds out
)
room(s), the politics, and the overall vibe. Because of Grant Avenue, or do you feel like
I’ve been at Grant for so long most of my artists want there’s still something new to learn
ot
to work here, so it’s great for me. I have the all the time?
technology portion down to a science, where I don’t One of the cool things about doing this for a living is that
have to take any focus off of the artist ever, unless a every day you could possibly be learning a whole gamut of
another place to do a session, many studios are (d
problem arises that needs attention. If I were to go to
software based or in-the-box, and I don’t want to be
new skills, if you’re willing to do so. I’ve been here a long
time, but even just last week I was dealing with sounds in
the drum room that I’ve never heard before. In that case
using a mouse or dealing with any pull-down/sub it was based on weather and humidity level changes in the
menus when I’m recording. I want my eyes and ears building. I’ll never learn all the nuances in this building,
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straight ahead, so I can gauge the artist’s frame of and I’m cool with that. That’s part of the fun.
mind through their facial expressions and body What are your clients like here?
ai
language. Plus, if an artist or a band are on the live Here’s one week: On Monday I had a country band. Tuesday,
floor, playing and they glance in at me – if my an indigenous drum circle. Wednesday, opera. Thursday,
attention was on a screen or on anything but them, I jazz. Friday was classical piano, and the weekend was
believe that insinuates a sense of disinterest. At heavy metal. It is a giant cross section of every different
gm
Grant, our RADAR can operate without a screen, and type of music. Lots of indie rock. Lots of jazz. With that
all of my tape levels, monitor levels, pans, EQs, sends, comes every different type of personality you could
and so on are right in front of me when facing forward. possibly imagine. It’s funny, I’ve never been a big listener
The only time I have to turn my attention is if I glance of instrumental jazz, but I enjoy working on those
to my left for a moment to check on any outboard gear sessions. I try to make myself happy, and hopefully my
I’ve patched in. I am confident and quick enough with artists will be happy with it as well. I’m fortunate enough
our setup that if I have a band coming in to listen to that a lot of the artists I get to work with are already
a few takes of a tune, and I know for a fact there are coming in with a well-crafted song. The skeleton is
some edits to do, I can have those done whilst the already pretty great. I’m a sucker for the Phil Spector
artist/band are putting down their instruments and “wall of sound,” and I love the way that Coldplay records
are en route to the control room. If I was anywhere sound; yet I also love intimate single instrument and
else, it would take me a while to be confident with the vocal albums as well. The honesty of some of the early
kind of workflow I am fortunate enough to have here. recordings, when they didn’t have any multitrack to work
I am doing some mobile recording, so with that I’ll with and just one mic in a room; I love that. No amount
use Zoom’s LiveTrak [L-12]; the quality is outstanding. of production can make a bad song great.
I’ll use those for mobile, and I bring it back here to You’ve worked with Gordon Lightfoot quite
mix on our analog system. a few times. Was there any particular
challenge you were presented with?
Toronto], recording Gordon Lightfoot He had been in a million studios before;
live. Was that with the Zoom system? he probably had his own way of working.
A. King/(continued on page 54)/Tape Op#136/53
Absolutely. Gord likes things in a certain way. The first
day I met him it was, “Okay, Amy; we need to make
sure that his chair is exactly where it was the last time
he came in, and the ashtray has to be exactly where it
was.” I can understand that philosophy, and I respect
it. When I was a kid, my dad listened to Lightfoot.
From the sound of the voice, I always pictured a big
“lumberjack” looking man – almost a Paul Bunyan
character. When I came on board at Grant, they had
been right in the middle of recording Gord’s album
Harmony. This was when he took quite ill and was
basically out of commission for a long time. I
remember when he was out of his coma and ready to
get back to work; he was supposed to come to Grant
to discuss proceeding with the album. When he came
in, I didn’t think it was him – I thought it was a
random slight guy walking in the door. From my many
experiences with him now though, I can honestly say
he certainly packs a Paul Bunyan-sized personality
into that slight frame. I have become extremely
familiar with Gord’s catalog over time, and when I get
to sit in the same room or take a phone call from him,
it is still quite surreal. Bob has been excellent in giving
me so many great opportunities, but allowing me to
work alongside him with Lightfoot certainly is a
highlight. Last year, Lightfoot was to be the final
performer at Massey Hall before it closed for
renovations, so he called us to come in and record the
show. It was July 1st [Canada Day], and I can’t think
of a more Canadian thing to have done than record
Canada’s legendary Gordon Lightfoot at the iconic
Massey Hall on Canada day! I have many stories and
thoughts on Lightfoot, but one stands out: We needed
some serious renovations that we couldn’t afford;
otherwise the overhead cost of running this place
would have bankrupted us within a year. We weren’t
eligible for any funding, grants, or loans, so we started
a crowdfunding campaign to help. Gord came into the
studio (at no charge to us) and played a show for 12
ticket holders. We advertised the show and it sold out
in one day. Due to his generosity, we were able to take
care of a huge portion of what needed to get done.
During that lovely intimate show, when he started into
“If You Could Read My Mind,” I looked out at the
audience and there wasn’t a dry eye. Grown men were
openly weeping – it was certainly quite a moment.
When it comes to mixing, do you have a They came in for a couple days to run some rehearsal
certain approach when you begin a mix? tapes and workshop some new material. Emmylou is an
t)
If I’m working with an artist who wrote their song on a
specific instrument, I will usually start with that. But
every song has its own way that you’d want to
(a
approach it. I couldn’t really give a blanket answer for
that. From early on, I learned the mystery behind the You mentioned earlier that you’re anti-
“faders up” rough mix at the end of the session to
send the artist home with. So often those first instinct I am. I’m sure what they’re teaching is useful in certain <www.amykingrecording.com> <www.grantavenuestudio.com>
reference mixes are something that can’t be captured
again. Always keep a high resolution version of that
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rough mix somewhere – sometimes it ends up being
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“the one,” and it is awful if the only version of it exists what really matters. The ability to deal with people. The
as an MP3.
Have you met any of the previous
engineers, like Mark Howard or David
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Bottrill?
54/Tape Op#136/A. King/(Fin.)
Yes – both. I was a kid of the ‘90s. When I started to listen
to music, it was Top 40. Once my parents started
accepting the fact I was listening to non-church music,
I started to get into Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam,
Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Tool – everything
that was coming out in that time period. I was in love
with that scene. I fell in love with the sound of Tool. I
remember seeing David’s name on the albums, but I
never really connected the two until six years in. We
were doing a console repair and there was this
handwriting on the inside of the back panel, where all
the solder connections were. I asked, “Who’s
handwriting is that?” I know Dan’s, and I know Bob’s.
Bob said, “That’s a guy named David Bottrill. He worked
here. This was his first studio.” I just about hit the floor, your own judgment, or the fact that it takes time. The
because this guy is literally my sonic hero. I’ve met all
sorts of bands I grew up listening to, but I was only Absolutely!
starstruck when I met David Bottrill. I was such a giddy They also should teach disassociation of eyes and ears.
fool; I probably made a complete idiot out of myself.
Grant Avenue was built by Daniel Lanois
and his brother Bob, like you noted
earlier. You’ve worked a bit with
Daniel Lanois, right? What was that
like? Inspiring?
Stressful! He has, without a doubt, one of the most
recognizable sounds and styles of our lifetime.
Whether or not one is a fan of his particular sonic
approach, it is undeniable that he is a very talented
man. I still get nervous before any session, even with
folks I have worked with a lot, but with guys like him
that feel of “nerves” certainly is heightened. He knows
what he wants, he knows how to get it; he expects the
same, and quickly. He spent a long time converting
(d
this building into a studio. He knows the “nooks and
crannies” of the gear, of the room – basically the
molecular structure of the whole place! I sat right seat
to him a few years back. At one point he was asking
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for sources to be patched, routed, and cross-patched
that I had never done before, but I figured it out
ai
without looking like I had to figure it out. It’s times
like that when the words of Bob Doidge are a constant Amy, Bob Doidge, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris
voice in my head: “Unlike surgeons, don’t worry. If we
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mess up, no one dies.”
In one of the photos on your website, you
and Bob are standing outside with
Daniel and Emmylou Harris.
inspiration for anybody in the industry, regardless of if
you’re a woman or not. Her command of a room full of
musicians, many who could be deemed very
intimidating, proved she has their respect.
recording school.
aspects. But if you’re lucky enough to get out of a author: <romansokal@tapeop.com>
recording school and get a job in a recording studio –
there aren’t many left – what they don’t teach you is
ability to write legibly. How to clean a toilet. They don’t
teach you any of the real-life skills that you’re going to
Please support them and tell them
need on your first day of work. School seems to be all
about gear; not much about ears. Gear knowledge can
be learned from a book, and even getting hands-on
experience at school is not guaranteed, due to class
sizes. You can’t learn that way. You have to get out
there and do it. Like I said, having gone to a recording
course was almost a deterrent for me getting hired
here. Bob said, “You start out thinking that you already
know too much, and really, you know nothing.” In
school you think, “Okay, here’s an acoustic guitar. My
book says I should put the microphone here and then
roll off this and that frequency.” But the reality is that
you need to get down there, listen to the instrument
with your ears, and then decide where to put the
microphones. On every acoustic guitar, it’s going to be
different. They don’t teach you how to use your ears or
10,000 hour rule certainly rings true!
We’re such a visual-driven society. One thing that I
m
did want to talk about, and I’m probably generalizing,
but a lot of people will show up and their ability to
co
play their own instruments has completely declined
over the course of the last decade or so. People have
become so reliant on technology to fix their mistakes.
People don’t know how to tune their guitar by ear.
That’s a big problem. Where did effort and dedication
)
go? How about singing without assuming the use of
Auto-Tuning? That human aspect and that heart;
ot
that’s what translates to a listener. You can’t emulate
that. Technology can be great – and I know it’s going
to keep getting better and better – but we need to
be able to learn how to turn it off. I’m fortunate
enough that, for the most part, the people I get to
work with want the realness and the human aspect.
Most of the people I work with don’t even want to
play to a metronome, so the thought of quantizing
anything is completely out of the question. I love
that, to a certain degree. It’s so musical, in one
sense, if you can do it. r
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 Kyle Crane
Bigger Achievements
by Dave Middleton

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 I first met Kyle Crane at the airport in Austin before
a barrage of SXSW showcases in 2012, when the band I
was playing with flew him in from L.A. to be our
drummer for the week. Eight years later, Kyle is one of
the most in-demand drummers in Los Angeles. He has
recorded and toured extensively with Daniel Lanois
[Tape Op #127, #37] and Neko Case [#127], and has worked
with many others, such as M. Ward, Pomplamoose, Glen
Ballard, and Kanye West. He also served as Miles Teller’s
drum double in the critically-acclaimed 2014 film
Whiplash, lending hands, sticks, and blistering acumen
to its pivotal musical moments.
His first solo record – released this year under the
name Crane Like the Bird – is underpinned by a
collection of guest performances that reads like a Who’s
Who of both indie rock and modern jazz, including: James
Mercer (The Shins), Peter Morén (Peter, Bjorn and John
[Tape Op #65]), Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), M. Ward,
Luke Steele (Empire of the Sun), Sabina Sciubba (Brazilian
On some news show. She told me, “You can do music Oh, man. I think it’s pretty important.
there.” I said, “Really?” I asked my drum teacher How so?
more about it and he said, “There’re these guys – they So you don’t give up. If you go into situations with no
call them session players and they get paid to do expectations, then you aren’t going to get let down.
recording sessions.” So, during that thing they do in I don’t expect anybody to buy this new record, at all.
high school where you get to shadow somebody for a If you have that attitude then you can keep your
day, I said, “I want to shadow a session drummer.” sanity rather than thinking something’s going to
They looked around and said, “Uh, there are no catch on and then feeling defeated.
session drummers here.” As a drummer, how did you get hooked
The Virginia suburbs! So, Berklee into songwriting?
happened, and then afterwards you Well, I travel with a little two octave keyboard that’s
went to graduate school in L.A.? about a foot wide, and I’ll use MIDI sounds for bass,
It’s called “graduate certificate” at USC, which is drums, and guitar. I can sit on a plane, or anywhere,
basically like a Master’s degree, but only in playing. and write a song with it. It became a little world to
Why not just come out and play? escape to in between playing drums. I enjoy that
I wanted some money to come in, so I got a scholarship. more than watching television or whatever. When I
I wanted to land in a scene where I knew there were get off a gig, I’d go write songs instead of practicing
good musicians. the whole time on drums. I felt like my life became a
Did that work? lot more balanced when that happened. There was no

m
Girls), Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes), Brad Mehldau, and Kurt Yes. I met [session guitarist] Brian Green, who’s part of grand plan to make this album, early on. I was
Rosenwinkel, to highlight a few. I caught up with Kyle my band, Montë Mar. Brian plays on my record, and writing songs for my own enjoyment.

before an Oakland performance with Neko Case to talk
about the record and his career path. Kyle is a pure
performing musician, so we spoke little about the
technical side of recording. That said, his life is a case
study on how to survive and flourish in the modern music
co
he’s one of my main collaborators. How did you go about making a record
I heard you went around to 100 with all these first-rate vocalists on
restaurants and pitched them a live it?
music night? Well, I started recording the songs with no vocals. I
I did! It’s like if you ask enough people on a date, one recorded all the music – laying down the drums,

)
industry; no small feat, as most of us know. of them is gonna say yes. overdubbing the keyboards, and building the
How uncertain was that period? arrangements.

ot
You grew up in a military family, right? The Thirsty Crow was a steady gig, and for a while that How did you pair songs with people?
My dad was in the Coast Guard, so we moved around a was my only steady gig. Then they started to “When I See” was the first song that I finished
lot – pretty much always on the coast until he passed accumulate. Five years ago, before I started touring, instrumentally. Daniel Lanois played pedal steel on it,
away, and then we moved to northern Virginia. I had ten steady gigs a week. I had four every Sunday and Kurt Rosenwinkel did a guitar solo in the middle.
How old were you when he passed away?
I was 11. It was a week after his birthday. He was 35.
That’s an intense age to have that music industry in L.A.?
and then six others.
How do you feel about the current
(d That’s the one Conor Oberst sings on. It
has a fantastic guitar solo. It’s really
beautiful and unusual.
happen. I think it’s great. I think there are opportunities that It wasn’t comped or anything. He felt that whole thing
When you’re traveling a lot [because of his job], your exist there that don’t really exist in other cities. and did it.
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parents and siblings become your best friends, Do you feel it’s still necessary to live in a How did Conor get involved?
because you’re leaving every year or so. major market like that to do music? I was thinking of it like, “Who would sing this that I’m
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Then suddenly that was all disrupted. I do. I mean, there’s the whole film and television world. a fan of?” Conor came to mind. I was thinking of his
Yes. We were in Humboldt, California – this magical There are opportunities that pop up with that. You songs, like “Waste of Paint,” where it’s just him and
place where they filmed Star Wars [Return of the Jedi] have to search a little harder here to find what’s a guitar. He has that super honest voice, where
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and the Ewoks, as well as lots of scenes from the
second Jurassic Park film [The Lost World: Jurassic
Park]. And all of a sudden, everything changed and
we moved to a suburb in Virginia with no trees.
Did you start playing music when you
moved there?
t)
going on, and it takes some time to get in the loop.
It’s not like New York, where you walk into Small’s and
there’s jazz going on.
There’s that whole spread out
geography you have to deal with in
L.A.
there’s nothing commercial about it whatsoever. I
was recording with Mike Mogis [Tape Op #51], and
Conor’s wife [Corina Figueroa Escamilla] was
engineering. I said, “Corina, I’ve got this song. Can I
send it and see if Conor would be interested in
singing a part? I have a scratch vocal so he could

Well, I started in California when I was ten. I was in fifth But when you live there you realize where all the scenes hear exactly what it is, and see if it’s something he’d
grade and some kids were leaving class. I was sitting are. The kind of music that I play – and more or less be into?” She said, “I’ll play it for him.” Then she
there doing some math. I was like, “How come they write – happens on the Eastside. Whereas if you’re came back and told me, “He said he’s down.” So, that
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get to leave?” And some other kids said, “Oh, they’re into ‘80’s hair metal, you go to the Viper Room and was the first one. I’m so glad he was willing to do it,
in the band.” I thought, “Okay. I wanna be in the places like that. because it felt like it was actually possible.
band then,” just to get out of whatever I was doing. Would you encourage aspiring session Do you think if that one didn’t happen,
Someone told me, “Okay, well, you’ve got to sign up drummers to continue to follow their then the whole thing wouldn’t have
for an instrument.” I said, “Okay, drums.” That first hearts and not assume, “Oh, music’s happened?
band class, we didn’t have any instruments at the dead.” I don’t know… I’m obviously grateful to everyone on
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school so we’d play on the cafeteria tables. But the Definitely. You may have to play a four-hour jazz gig in the record, no matter how big or small a part they
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feeling of learning how to balance the stick, I
remember it perfectly. Then, in my junior year, my
mom said, “Hey, there’s this place I saw on television
called Berklee.”
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a hotel lobby to get 100 bucks, but you do that seven played in it. But Conor and Corina, I feel a special
times a week and you can pay rent with that, as well love for them for being willing. He said, “I like the
as buy some food. song; sure.” Not, “Who’s on it?” or, “What label is it
You think outlook or attitude matters on?” That’s the kind of person he is. He’s the only

She saw it on television? in a music career? singer that I wasn’t present for during the recording.
K. Crane/(continued on page 58)/Tape Op#136/57
 He had the scratch vocal and a stem of the Almost all of these artists, you only Do you now have grand producer-
instrumental. He and Corina sang it and re-sang it, know them because you cold songwriter plans?
and sent it back from Omaha. Everybody else, I contacted them to sing on your I want to keep making my own records. I have a
traveled out to their studio and was in the room. record? bucket list of other singers that I’d love to have on
Now you’ve got one song, with one Yep. Matt [Ward] asked me to tour after he sang on my the next one. In fact, I’ve already started recording
vocalist… record, so I started touring in his band, and I also the next one. Neko and M. Ward sang on it. Bill
We mixed that song and made it presentable. Then I had played on his record. [What a Wonderful Industry] Frisell played guitar. I’ve been chipping away. I
something to show – a finished product. Then I met With Peter, we did some Crane Like the Bird shows in have about 30 songs recorded that need a real lead
M. Ward in Denmark, when I was on tour with Daniel Europe where he sang lead vocals. vocal. And I’m writing in the meantime, too. I’m
Lanois. I mentioned the record to Matt [Ward], That’s pretty cool. not waiting on anything.
because I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time. I It was super fun. We opened for Neko, so there were Can I ask who else is on your bucket list?
said, “Hey, I got this record. I’d love to send you a only sold-out shows. I feel like I skipped the line, as Feist, Sufjan [Stevens, Tape Op #70], Jeff Tweedy
song and see if you want to do it.” He agreed, and far as other bands that I was in, where you grind for [#132], and Jeff Mangum [Neutral Milk Hotel, #11].
that’s “The Painter.” The last song on the album. years to even get to open for somebody. I felt like a You’ll keep making records until you
It kind of cascaded from there? spoiled kid. cover everyone!
I think after Matt, then I contacted either Luke [Steele] Has working so extensively with Daniel I would go down the playlist that I’ve made more for
from Empire of the Sun or Ben from Band of Horses. Lanois influenced you as a producer? myself, of my favorite singers. If I could bring Nick
That was right around the same time. They both said It definitely has. I did start playing him mixes as I was Drake back from the dead, that would be a bigger
yes. Luke [Steele], we did in Santa Monica, with Nick working on the record. Dan has a way of listening to achievement. r

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Littlemore, who does all the Empire of the Sun music. something and giving you some piece of advice <cranelikethebirdmusic.bandcamp.com>

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Then Peter [Morén] we recorded in Sweden, where he that’s this grand concept, and then you have to
does his vocals. figure out how to deal with it. It was funny, the way
Were you on tour there? he told me. He said, “It would be a tragedy, an
I was playing with Lanois. I got ahold of [Peter’s] email, absolute tragedy, if you didn’t capture what you did
and told him about the record. He said, “Yeah, come at Thirsty Crow [Kyle’s improv jazz gig] on this
to Stockholm afterwards.” We finished [the tour] in album.” He felt very strongly about it. That’s how

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Norway, so it was right there. Brad Mehldau and the long six-minute outro on
So, the moral is if you want something,

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“Kaleidoscope” came about. I thought, “Okay. How
you should just ask the person? do I work that spirit of jazz in?”
Yes! [laughter]

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58/Tape Op#136/k. Crane/(Fin.)

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Jon Castelli Were you from a musical family?
I’m from a musical family in the sense that they’re
Modern Mixing gigantic fans of music. My mother played violin
since she was a kid and my dad played the
a conversation with Doug Fearn accordion when he was a kid, but neither one of
them went on to pursue it. My brothers also both
played instruments when they were younger, but
they didn’t pursue music either. I guess my brother
Jon Castelli is a mix engineer and producer working out of his studio, The Gift still plays drums as a hobbyist. I wish that I was
Shop, in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles. Jon studied with Tony Maserati told to play the piano as a kid though, versus
for five years and has since constructed a dense body of work on his own with artists picking a horn or a wind instrument. The piano
such as Khalid, 6LACK, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Ke$ha, and Ariana Grande. I met would be a little bit more important to my career
Jon Castelli a few years ago and I was impressed with his skills, not only as a talented trajectory at the moment. I wound up picking up
engineer and producer, but also because he has that special quality that pushes him saxophone early on and finding a pretty deep love
to excel at his craft. I learned a lot about contemporary mixing techniques from and connection to Charlie Parker and John Coltrane,
talking with him, and I think his story will interest others. the jazz greats of the ‘60s. That’s my favorite
decade of music.

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What was your first experience with
recording?
When it was time to decide what direction in music I
would go, I was auditioning for the bigger
conservatories of their time. I had to record audition
tapes. My family didn’t necessarily have the budget to
put me in a studio to record them, so my dad thought
it would be interesting if he purchased me an
affordable Korg digital 16-track recorder. It sounded
terrible, but it got my head around the idea of
multitracking. I would find instrumental chord
changes that were already royalty-free recorded, and
then I’d find progressions that I was down with and
I’d solo saxophone over it. Then I stumbled upon the
effects section. I started putting random delays,
reverbs, and choruses on my saxophone. I thought it
was cool, but I never thought too much of it; that I
wanted it to be a career at all. I wound up at The

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Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, studying There’s a whole palette of skills that you
classical saxophone and music education. I thought I need to do this well. The recording

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would be a conductor or educator of some sort. In process, mic’ing, mixing, producing,
order to survive at school, I got a work-study job that and being a psychologist in the room for

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wound up being in the recording studio of the school. the artist. Do you have a favorite of those?
They would record all of the classical and jazz I like them all, in different capacities. I love recording live
performances and we would edit them together to music in a space that sounds good with good players. I
release on CD and via their website, which was
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fascinating to me. The first time I saw Pro Tools I
started cutting tracks up and manipulating audio in
seemingly unique ways (to me) at the time. I
do not like recording just a vocalist over an instrumental
track; that happens pretty regularly in the pop music
scene that I’m in. I will do that if I am producing a song
and it needs to be done, but that is not where I think my
thought, “Wow, I should do this for a living.” I called forte lies. Setting up a few mics and capturing a
my parents and brought it up to them. They were not
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performance in a space is one of my biggest passions. I’m
big fans of me dropping out of school. After a long into using ribbon mics and tube preamps, which I have
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conversation, they allowed me to do that.
There’s a lot more opportunity these
days for people to get their foot in the
door at a minimal cost.
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many of, thanks to the likes of you and your team. I do
love that it doesn’t seem to be where I exist, mostly. Until
today, I hadn’t set up a microphone to record in a few
months. I’ve been mixing for two months straight, every

Yeah! I remember that recorder probably cost only $500. day, which I’m thankful for. But the psychologist in the
The first time I recorded, it wasn’t, “Make this sound room part is actually my favorite. I love dissecting and
as good as possible.” It was like, “I know this can’t getting into the nitty-gritty of where peoples’ intentions
sound that good, so let’s get the job done and make are coming from. To me, that’s the biggest privilege of
it sound the best I can possibly get it.” what I get to do, as well as the most impactful. If done
t)

I think that answers how you got into
recording!
I did wind up getting an internship right away at one of
the bigger studios on Long Island. My mom had a
(a
well, you’ll get the best out of the artist in that
circumstance and in that session. Hopefully it’ll translate
to the world and the listener. That’s my favorite part. It’s
hard to feel purposeful when your job is so replaceable,

friend that linked us. I did get into a studio with SSL in a lot of ways. Especially in Los Angeles, there are
and Neve consoles very quickly after that. I was able hundreds and thousands of people who have talent – if
to understand the recording studio atmosphere at a you’re not available for the gig, someone else will get the
pretty young age. I was taken under the wing of the gig and do it adequately, if not more than adequately. I
owner of Cove City Sound Studios, Richie Cannata, think, for me, the purpose is found in helping the artist
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who was the saxophone player for Billy Joel at the translate their thoughts and emotions into a product that
time. He told me, “You should go in the room and sit will stand the test of time. That’s the most important role.
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behind the engineer. Don’t ask too many questions. When you start a project from scratch, do
Keep your mouth shut.” He maybe saw something in you envision the final product in
me, and he always wanted me in the room. Looking your mind and keep working towards
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back, that was unparalleled luck to have the ability to that goal, or does it evolve?
watch people mix and record every day.
J. Castelli/(continued on page 62)/Tape Op#136/61
 It is dependent on the situation. I talk about this pretty
regularly, because intention seems to be the most
distinguishing part of being a professional. The
ability to understand reference points and the When you’re setting up a mix, whether
intention of the artist, and get it over the finish line
at as high a quality as possible. I have to give credit
to the PMC speakers team, because I have recently
upgraded my speakers to this MB3-A [three-way] Yeah. First off, I have two assistants that do the
active model, and they get me to my end goal much
faster. I probably would say that 90 percent of the
time I hear where I want it to be before I touch it.
Part of that experience is listening to it in Apple
AirPods. I like to walk around my block for the first
three or four listens of the song to understand what
it’s like in the real world before hearing it on such a
hi-fi reference system. This way I can understand how
other people are going to digest it.
Can you give us a sense of how much you
envision the final product when the
artist might not be familiar with it or
comfortable, and how you get around
to convincing them?
The caliber of artist I work with on a production has not
been as high as it is on the mixing side of things. The
few production cuts that I’ve gotten with bigger
named artists, I have not really been in the room
with. I’m coming in more as the producer on a
“finishing touch position” on the team. You don’t
want to convince someone that your idea is better
than theirs, because that’s obviously very subjective.
But if you have any emotional capacity and empathy
towards the artist’s product, if you’re able to have
that connection, they’ll feel that too. You’re on the
same team, at that point, and you want the best for There are times when your process has
the product. I tend to wind up seeing eye-to-eye with
people, and I’m also only going to pick and choose
certain arguments in an attempt to “win.” A “snare
up” mix is not a fight I’m willing to fight for if it’s not that?
distracting from the vocal and the emotion of the Yeah, it’s part of my 80/20 rule. This shifted in the past
song. If that snare up mix takes away from the
rhythm and impact of the vocal, I’m going to explain
to them, “It’s getting in the way of the vocal, so
maybe we should lower the snare so it doesn’t take
over the vocal place.” That’s usually an easy win. If
you start by saying, “You’re wrong,” or hitting them
with more definitive language into why their decision
is maybe dumb or incorrect, it can run you down a
dark hole and they’ll probably never hire you again.
t)
You have to be malleable and go with the flow, but
also know that you’re the hired professional and
expert in the room. That’s a tough balance.
(a
That’s the psychologist, again.
Yes, exactly. With songs being as loud as they’re given
to mixers in this day, when I start undoing the
amount of limiting (and Ableton Live distortion)
without a limiter on and peaking, it starts showcasing
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imbalances in the mix that were hidden. You’re
unveiling problems, where, if you have the rough mix
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on you at all times, you can A/B the balance. I think
that’s a secret that not everybody does, which is to
constantly reference. You’re still giving the artist and
producer the balance they’re striving for, but doing it
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in more of a proper way with dynamics; then all of a
62/Tape Op#136/J. Castelli/
sudden you can see the deeper parts of the picture. I
think there are tools to get the balance and loudness
back that need to be studied and practiced.
it’s your own project or something
you’re handed, do you have a process
for exploring and figuring it out?
prepping part. It happens most of the time. Ideally
the session, whether it’s stems or a Pro Tools session
delivered to us, comes back sounding exactly like the
last listened-to rough mix. When I say “listened-to” I
mean by the A&R, the manager, the artist, the
producer, the sister, the brother, the mom, and dad.
Everybody involved who said, “Yes, this is the magic.
This is the one. Let’s get Jon to take it that last 5
percent and finish it off.” When [my assistants] Josh
[Deguzman] or Ingmar [Carlson] are setting this up,
I’m coming in at that place. Every once in a while I’ll
be like, “Guys, I don’t care about the rough mix. I
don’t think the rough mix sounds good, so put the
stems in and get my templating. Get it colored and
make it look nice for me. I’m going to mix it.” I’d say
that’s few and far between, because people have their
vibe injected into their rough mix, most of the time.
And, at the level I’m working at, it’s by great
producers so there’s no need to recreate it. Every once
in a while, I get to have a lot of fun and do a faders-
down mix of it. But the process starts there. As that’s
happening, I’m probably walking around, grabbing an
espresso, and listening on my AirPods to that rough
mix and understanding the intention of the producer
and artist.
to be fixing things, and there are
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other times when it’s enhancing
things. What are your thoughts on
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two or three years, where I spent the early parts of
my career working on 80 percent of things I needed
to do for survival and probably 20 percent things I
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felt passionate about. Now I’ve flipped it, and it feels
good, to be honest. I think 80 percent of my sessions
I feel passionate about. Twenty percent are, “I should
probably take that gig,” for whatever reason. In that
80 percent, there’s a lot less fixing, because the
producers are at a similar place in their careers, and
the artist is too. But, very specifically, I would say the
biggest culprit for having to do a fix is the bad vocal
recording. It’s pretty consistent. I’d say more than 50
percent of the time the vocal does not sound like
what would have been acceptable in the ‘50s, ‘60s,
‘70s, maybe even up to the ‘80s or ‘90s, for a passing
vocal sound. There is a lot of fixing there. I wind up
doing pretty bold reduction EQs, whether it’s from
boominess from bad mic placement, or harshness in
cheap capsule sound on a microphone – you’re on a
budget, and you have to get your ideas down in your
bedroom. I do broad reductions in harsh harmonic
frequencies, and then I recreate that area pretty
broadly with the Hazelrigg VLC-1. It rebuilds the
even-order harmonics on sounds after doing big EQ
reductions. I remember doing something on
Macklemore’s vocal. It was recorded bright. Ben
[Haggerty; aka Macklemore] likes his vocals bright.
That’s fine, but I wanted to do it in a more tolerable
way. I remember taking a linear phase FabFilter Pro-
Q and doing a reduction of a 7 kHz shelf down 20 dB
– a pretty substantial dip – and then taking the high
boost on the VLC-1 and cranking it. It was a makeup
of the information that was there, just in a better
way. I thought, “Wow, this is magical that you can
replace harmonics with a better version of those same
harmonics, all with a box that has the precision and
audiophile clarity that your tube gear has.” That’s
influenced my ability to fix sounds, and feel
confident. Not saying, “You need to re-record that
vocal.” That’s never going to go over well, for two
reasons: One, the song might be coming out
tomorrow. Two, the vibe is there, and you’re never
going to get that performance back again. That’s the
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only time I’m fixing. Another example would be out-
of-phase kicks and [Roland TR-]808s, or out-of-phase
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drums in general. It’s the first thing I look for. Are the
kicks in phase? Are the snares in phase? That’s the
first thing I do in a mix in general, almost every time.
Are you getting tracks that come in with
processing already on them, or are
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people sending you mostly dry tracks?
It’s a combination, but when I get the processed and
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the dry tracks separate, the processed is usually so
much further along than the raw vocal that there’s
literally no way that I could remake the vibe on the
raw vocal. I wind up using the processed one,
because I’ll never get the mix across the line if I start
from scratch. Maybe they did ridiculous amounts of
Waves Renaissance Compressor and RVox – whatever
people do with that plug-in. That’s stuff that I don’t
mess with at all. I’m not going to be able to recreate
it, so I use the processed [track] a lot of the time.
Especially if it’s a loud, dense pop or R&B track. If it’s
a more dynamic, organic track, I will always use the
raw vocal and do my own thing to it; but when things
are dense and already caked in with vibe, I use the
processed. When possible though, I will not use a
processed, effected vocal with their reverb and delay
unless it’s a deadline issue and they’re like, “This is all
we’ve got. We’ve got an a cappella, and it’s coming
out in a day.” It’s very rare that that occurs.
You’re relatively young, but still there’s
been a lot of technology shifts
throughout your career. How do you
see that changing the way you work?
I was very fortunate to spend five years being mentored
by Tony Maserati. Tony is the best at staying current.
He keeps younger engineers around him that show him
the most current tools to use. He’ll decide if and how
he wants to use it. He might use it in a completely
different way than an 18-year-old Ableton user is using
it, but he’ll still use the tool. He showed me that in
order to stay current, you have to know what the
youngest music makers are using. Where we both agree
beyond that is in understanding certain standards, as
well as respecting the gear and art that existed before
this new technology. He has a hybrid system, where
 he’s part analog and part digital. It’s all dependent on
the song that calls for being in the box, out of the box,
using a hardware compressor on the vocal, or using a
plug-in. What’s the turnaround time? Is the artist
going to be in the room? Is it going to be attended
with a producer? There are so many variables involved
in when to use which workflow. But if you’re mixing
two songs in a day and recording a vocal on one, and
you have this recall ability to do it in the box with the
newest technology possible, I don’t think anyone can
argue with that flexibility. I don’t see any issue
adapting with the times. That being said, I think that
calling yourself a mix engineer and not knowing the
difference between attack and release on a Pro-C 2
[plug-in] from FabFilter versus an [Universal Audio]
1176 classic model compressor; I don’t stand for that.
I think you should understand both sets of tools if you
want to actually call yourself a professional mix
engineer. I think that’s where Tony and I saw eye-to-
eye. In turn, he decided to coach me and train me. The
first time I ever worked with him on a mix was a Lady
Gaga song called “Marry the Night.” The vocal was
recorded on a tour bus. It sounded terrible. There was
nothing around 5 kHz, and there was a hum from the
tour bus at 60 Hz. He was working on it and getting
frustrated. He said, “I’m going outside to smoke a
cigarette. You fucking fix this.” He had just gotten a
Retro Sta-Level compressor installed in the rack that
morning by his assistant. I was like, “Oh, I’ve never
seen that before. Let’s see what that does.” I remember
putting it on and turning the input knob all the way
up until the needle was pinned, over-saturating and
distorting it. It faked those upper harmonics that
didn’t exist. He came in the room and said, “Oh, what
did you do?” He looked at the needle and saw the
needle pumping, and he said, “Huh, that’s cool. I don’t
think I would ever do that.” I don’t think he did much
more and it wound up being the sound of that vocal.
If I was using a plug-in, I would have turned the knob
up all the way. That’s what I try to do; break things
apart and put them back together. But visually in a
plug-in, if you’re breaking something apart and putting
it back together you have this visual thing in your
mind, like, “Oh, why am I boosting something so high
or overdriving something so much?” But when you
have a knob to turn and you’re not looking at a screen
the entire time, you wind up doing bolder moves. I’m
still working that out daily. The visual element of
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modern music-making can definitely mess with your
psyche.
How do you work around that?
(a
I actually have a trick where I have a hot corner for a Getting back to the recording studio,
screen saver that has a visualizer. After I make almost
any move, I put the screen saver on and I don’t look
at Pro Tools. It gets a little obsessive, but no one’s ever a project, how do you go about
complained. Say you’re doing a fade digitally in the
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box. You’re staring at that fade, and your brain is The last two years have been almost exclusively ribbon
already biased towards whether or not that fade is
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correct by the way the slant looks. But the slant has
nothing to do with how the fade is actually reacting in
Pro Tools. That’s one example. There are so many
psychological twists that occur by looking; but, at the
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same time, I would never forfeit the ability to edit
syllables, bad recording, bad edits, drums on the grid, almost everything. I’m super into pretty much their
and phasing without seeing it on Pro Tools. I don’t entire line. I’m looking to going back to the early days
want to go back to the ‘60s and have to record on tape. of recording where the design of the equipment was
To me it’s completely irrelevant. Unless you’re doing a done in order to capture the purity of the sound source.
whole project that is “of the time” on that medium for Having the ability in the box to manipulate to our
the sole purpose of it being that. I’m totally down to hearts’ content, I want to have the closest to a true
do that, but that sounds like a big headache for sound source as possible. Those sounds will not remain
anything modern. as pure, but I have all the harmonic content to mess
That was most of my career. I don’t want around with. I think that’s the opposite of what people
to go back to that! There’s no undo are doing today, where it’s like, “I want to record with
button on a tape machine. some vibe, and I want it to use a bunch of pedals and
There are people my age and younger who are going to capture the sound as is,” which is also great. Having
be mad at you and me for saying that, because they the ability and confidence to commit to tones right
want to go back to the legacy days and go to Capitol away is great, but I’m taking my own approach. I don’t
Studios and use a tape machine. think it’s better or worse than that, but I do love using
I run into people who focus on the visual digital tools in the box to manipulate great recorded
aspect of the music rather than material.
listening to it, to the extent that to If you don’t capture it right, you’re
them, they practically don’t even already at a disadvantage. Using the
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need the monitors turned on. right mic and the right preamp can
I think the reason you hire a craftsman mix engineer to make your life so much easier.
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work on your song is to leave in some of the mystery So much easier. I try to tell my friends that all the time.
and the mysterious frequencies that are “bad I’m at a unique stage in the mix process with a lot of
harmonics.” That’s what gives intensity, tension, my producer friends. They ask me, “What did you have
release, and all the things that make music human to do with this vocal?” “Oh man, not much.” Very
rather than sterilized background music. There’s a lot simple things. Then other times I have to say, “Man, it
)
of sterile music being made in the way you’re speaking was a lot of work. I think it would behoove you to
of, where it’s mostly visual. I’m trying to remain an invest in a great vocal chain.” I think condenser mics
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artisan and trust my gut and emotional reaction to the were created for recording to tape. At the time of tape
music, but also while using modern tools! recording, you were getting a lot of that saturation and
I think a lot of people are obsessed with tape compression that was dulling up the high end, so
getting everything “perfect.” If you go you wanted a condenser that would cut through. But
back to a lot of those classic records
that we all love and listen to, the
individual tracks, there’s a lot of bad
(d now that we’re in this digital medium, with high end
converters, we don’t need a condenser to cut through.
We can boost top end on a ribbon mic, so you’re
stuff going on there that doesn’t getting that fast transient ribbon response. The only
matter. issue is that if you put a ribbon mic right up next to a
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I know! The PMCs don’t lie. I can hear all the faults in a [Neumann] U 47, or a C12, or a Sony C-800G, it’s most
lot of early music. “Oh wow, they left that!” Those likely not going to compete in its raw form. You have
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things jump out at me on these speakers. Those are to do more work to it, but that’s okay. Get an EQ and
conversational moments. That’s something I don’t hear a preamp that you like; set that so it makes up for the
in micromanaged pop music these days. I think there’s excitement and energy that you’re missing from the
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a want for that. There’s a starvation for that Sony C-800, but with a beautiful Pultec passive EQ
imperfection in produced, tight, concise pop songs and sound. It’s competing, but it’s more realistic; it’s faster
arrangements. I think we’re lacking that, and that and crisper. It doesn’t fatigue you when you turn it up,
these new, modern tools are taking us a step away from but it still sounds poppy and exciting. I think there’s
that feel. Some of the tools I’m also talking about are one extra step to get it there, but you have more
with those smart EQs. The performance factor is kind of flexibility after the fact [than when] using ribbon mics
the same thing. You need imperfections in and tube preamps.
performance, and to capture the sound of, in order for Any thoughts on where you might be five
it to sound and feel real. to ten years from now? What are your
career goals?
when you’re doing a project from I think about it daily. I’m not one to plan for the future.
scratch or even just doing overdubs on I’m 32 at the moment; I think I’m supposed to think
about those things more. Career-wise, I want to be an
choosing the mics? A-list mix engineer. That is very difficult, because there
is already a group of A-list mix engineers who I highly
mics at my studio, The Gift Shop, in downtown L.A. We respect and who are fantastic at what they do. But I’m
have this beautiful wood hanger ceiling, and I have getting a little bit exhausted of the same sound
two DPA omni condenser mics that are fantastic at occupying the top of the charts in music. Whether it
mic’ing space. Other than that, it’s mostly exclusively be Top-40, R&B, or alternative and indie, it seems to
ribbon mics, and maybe on a vocal I’ll use my [AKG] be a similar gamut of mixers. I’d like to enter that
C12. I’ve been using AEA R44s, KU4, and R88s on within the next five years. I think I am very close to
J. Castelli/(continued on page 64)/Tape Op#136/63
 it. I’m sharing record credits with these people, and I
The Compex have a bunch of my own as well. I think I’d like to be a
compressor bit more of a go-to trusted mixer that has a slightly
different approach. Again, I say that with much respect
Loudness Goals
The TC Electronic Clarity M meter is helping me, in real
time, see this in front of me. I have talked to my mastering

in 500 series for their success and their craft. I think there is some new
guy, Dale Becker [Becker Mastering], about this a ton. He
gets so many things that are mixed at -6 LUFS [Loudness
format! perspective needed in this field, and I think I have it. Unit Full Scale], and it’s way too loud. I’ll get rough mixes
Is there anything that you want to talk at that. I’ve been shooting for a -9 or -10 peak LUFS; I
about that we didn’t cover that you feel haven’t had any non-approvals for any loudness issues, so
is important? I guess I must be doing something right by re-injecting
I actually do. I wanted to talk a bit more about an approach dynamics into the mix.
that I have – that I think is different – when it comes to
mixing. A pretty specific thing is my affinity and
infatuation with saturation, and why that is the go-to If you look back in the history of recorded
tool for me rather than a compressor, limiter, or an EQ music, you had recordings going way
right off the bat. All different kinds of saturation. I don’t back, even before tape, where things
mean using the same box for everything. Granted, I have were recorded to disc. That was 10 or 20
a D.W. Fearn VT-7 [compressor] on my mix bus at all percent distortion, but it sounds great.
times. I believe it’s 100 percent of my mixes in the last You need tubes to do that.
two years. That already is doing a nice saturation thing. There’s a tangibility factor to it. You can reach in and touch

m
But in the box, we have so many profound tools for the instrument. The records you’re talking about are
modern and vintage saturation. Where a lot of modern crunchy, and actually audibly distorted. I think the newer

music lacks it is in its musical content. We all know how
to make drums hit hard and vocals to sound over-
compressed, high-energy, and exciting; but where I find
a lot of mixes lacking are in the chords. Not just to me,
but to other peers and collaborators who I work with. If
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way of doing that is to inject just enough. Using plug-ins
with wet/dry knobs, I’m only adding maybe 10 or 20
percent of that effected signal. It’s there, and
psychologically you feel it, but it’s not the foreground of
the sound. Maybe I’ll leave the kick drum clean so the low

)
you think visually about the left and right hands of a end sounds expansive and deep, but I’ll saturate upper
piano player, I’m always trying to balance them: the right harmonics in the piano so I can reduce the lower mids to

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hand being melody most of the time, and the left hand get out of the way of the bass. Injecting a subtle amount
being foundational chordal and bass notes. Bringing the of that harmonic distortion into the piano, so that stacks
left hand up. The right hand is easy to keep in the up nice. You can stack your instrumentation and your
foreground. But, at the same time, not getting rid of
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impact. Saturation is my friend in that. I’ll do it in all
sorts of ways. I’ll use exciters and different style-
modeling of saturation. Most people ask me what
arrangement without aggressively boosting EQ. It’s hard
to be nuanced about the language here, because it’s such
a feel-based thing. I think I’m onto something, and I
wanted to express it here and let people ponder this idea.
compressors I use and what EQs I use, and I don’t have Those are good points.
a good answer for that. I always struggle to answer what I don’t necessarily want to mix like somebody else. I think
l

compressor I use, whether it be vocals or whatever. I’m a lot of young mixers are in the stage of their career
exhausted by compressors. Compressors should be used where they are emulating, and I definitely did that for so
ai

as an effect. The use of saturation is coming into the many years. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with
conversation more, and it’s funny, because that was that. But Tony, when training me, saw something unique.
probably all that was happening in the early days of He never wanted me to ghost mix for him and stay there.
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recording. You were pushing tubes, or pushing tape, and
you got that desired glowing sound, which was known as
saturation. You wanted to pin a console. You wanted to
pin a tape machine. You wanted that transformer
saturation. You wanted tubes to peak. As the tube’s
“The Compex became a legendary
t)
He always wanted me to have my own sound. I was able
to do that on my most recent release for Khalid’s Suncity
EP, which I mixed with my friend Denis Kosiak. Khalid
wanted smoother R&B lush mixes. I was able to inject
that fuzzy saturation sound while still keeping it bright,

and coveted piece. Easily the best
drum sound I had gotten in recent
memory.” -Chris Koltay, review of the
(a
getting hit harder, it blossoms, and seemingly the sound poppy, and competitive. As I get more clients and artists
is getting bigger and bigger. When I have the VT-7 on my of that caliber, I’d love to inject a bit of that influence
mix bus, if a client’s like, “Hey, can you turn the kick up?” into music. r
I don’t feel less confident in the ability to turn that up, <www.mixedbyjoncastelli.com>

even if I have the gain staging right. I know it’ll hit that
F760X-RS in Tape Op #108 wall a little harder, and it might squeeze a bit, but it’ll Doug Fearn is the founder of D.W. Fearn, makers of high end
still be punchy and big. Because of the saturation, there’s recording products. He was featured in Tape Op #37.
a safety net going on. Don’t be afraid to oversaturate <dwfearn.com>
things; but make sure that you make up for transient loss
e

after it, especially with plug-in saturators. I want to shift Tape Op is made
peoples’ brains on looking for the best compressor,
possible by our
el

limiter, and EQ before thinking about how balanced the

harmonics are. We have a lot of new tools. I love drums advertisers.
and I love vocals, but I also love music, so I’m trying to Please support them and tell them
q2audio.com figure out how to balance all of it in a fresh way.
you saw their ad in Tape Op.
mp

64/Tape Op#136/J. Castelli/(Fin.)

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 Ray Moore
Moore on Moore: Reflections on the Studio Life, Columbia Records, 1957-1995

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by Vic Svorinich
“Moore on Moore” is a somewhat misleading title as there isn’t much known about Ray Moore. An
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online search of his name will give you a lengthy discography and only reveal one picture of the man from fifty
years ago. For someone who has six Grammy awards with 18 nominations and multiple Gold records, it is a
surprise that Ray is a “virtual” ghost. In the music engineering world, however, Ray Moore is a giant. As a staff
engineer at Columbia Records for 38 years, Ray worked with everyone from Pierre Boulez to Johnny Cash and
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was a student of composer Karol Rathaus. I knew about Ray because he was the mixing engineer for Miles Davis’s
Bitches Brew, an album I wrote a book on [Listen to This: Miles Davis and Bitches Brew]. Through contacts with the
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engineering group, Friends of 30th Street (30th Street Studio was a studio Ray worked at and spent a great deal of time
trying to save), I was able to get in touch with him for help with my project. Then in the summer of 2018, a few
years after my book was published, his son Tom got in touch with me with an idea about a memoir on his life.
mp
 The biggest obstacle was Ray’s
failing health. At 86 his hearing and
eyesight were deteriorating, and in September
2018, a week before we started work, he was
diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. A decision
between surgery and chemotherapy, along
with his overall mortality, was weighing on his
mind. We spent many hours collecting his
thoughts on his career as well as going through
session logs that he kept while working at
Columbia. It was a therapeutic experience for
him, and an honor for me, to document this
man’s incredible life’s work. It also created a
friendship.
On February 8, 2019, Ray passed away.
With help from Tom, Ray’s son-in-law James
Rodgers, producer Tom Frost, and engineer
Don Puluse – people who had worked with
Ray at Columbia for many years – we were able
to put this project together, set the record
straight, and preserve Ray’s legacy.
Ray spoke much about the “golden age,” a
place where this piece begins, where classical
music dominated. Ray lived through this era
as a listener, musician, and engineer, and
getting the inside view of these historical
sessions, from a life lived session-by-session is
at the heart of the matter. So, here is the
heart, in Ray’s own words.
YcZ
Early Life
I should define my view of the golden age.
For me the golden age is the 20th century with
all its accomplishments, events, performers,
composers, writers, artists, and
culture.  Moreover, I feel the peak of the
golden age for the classical segment of the
music industry was 1960 to 1980. That peak
diminished as we approached the year 2000
for a variety of reasons. There were critics who
maintained that the classical segment was
dying out, if not dead already. I am reminded
t)
that Allan Kozinn’s article in the New York Times
[“Check the Numbers: Rumors of Classical
Music’s Demise Are Dead Wrong”, May 28,
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2006] stated that the classical music scene is
alive and well and still in its golden age.
Indeed, he maintains that the increased
attendance at classical concerts is greater than
in the [peak of the from] golden age 1960 to
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1980. He also cites the increased number of
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classical music venues that are on the scene
now, particularly in the New York area. He
did not mention that big record labels have
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dropped exclusive recording contracts with
symphony orchestras and [with] many artists
for new recordings, only keeping classical
repertoire alive with reissues. Smaller labels
have continually looked for classical
repertoire to add to the recorded legacy. It’s
true that much of the repertoire I could only
read about in college, I can now hear. I can’t
argue with attendance figures or the
robustness of the classical scene, varied
though it is, but I can say this: There is a lack
of marquee names that the media can nurture
into stars in the classical music scene today.
No names like Horowitz, Rubinstein,
Heifetz, Stern, Serkin, Gould, Walter,
Ormandy, Bernstein, Szell, Ozawa, or
Stokowski dominate the scene anymore,
making it difficult for the media to focus on
individuals [within] this diversified
scene. Hence, few heroes.
I was born in 1932. Sometime in 1936 we
moved from Astoria, Queens, to South
Ozone Park. We lived there until after World
War II. By this point, music was a moving
force in my life. Either on the radio or
[through] records I’d hear Benny
Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Artie Shaw, and
Ella Fitzgerald songs and ended up singing
the likes of “Goodie, Goodie” and “The
Music Goes Round and Round” not just at
home, but to the neighbors as well,
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especially the 17 and 19 year old sisters who
lived three houses away.  Even now the
younger sister still remembers “the crazy six-
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year-old” who sang to them.
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In 1937-38 I was fascinated by Artie Shaw’s
“Frenesi” and “Begin the Beguine.” I wanted to
learn the clarinet, but a trip to a music store in
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Jamaica, Queens, ended up with me taking
saxophone lessons.  The sax was easier, and I
could always switch to clarinet, the owner
maintained. I did fairly well with the sax, but I
developed a respiratory problem after several
months and the doctor suggested I stop playing.
So, in 1939 music took a back seat in my
life.  Life was filled with school, the 1939
World’s Fair, and stickball.  When the War
[World War II] started in 1939, I began getting
interested in airplanes and aviation.  After
Pearl Harbor [was attacked in 1941] I looked
for air war movies and I remember my
mother taking me to Radio City Music Hall to
see Air Force. It was my first movie in New York
City. The air war movies trend led to Suicide
Squadron, which was as much about piano
music as it was airplanes. I fell in love with
R. Moore (continued on page 68)/Tape Op#136/67
Richard Addinsell’s “Warsaw Concerto” and
decided to take piano lessons. In 1943 my
parents took me back to Jamaica [Queens] to
purchase an $88 piano, and my life in music
got underway.
My movie interests switched from air war
pictures to music pictures. Song to Remember, a
film about [Frédéric] Chopin, had a big
impact on me. I vowed to learn every
composition of Chopin’s that appeared on
the soundtrack album of the movie. During
the six years of piano lessons that followed, I
did just that. There were about 15
compositions of Chopin’s on that
soundtrack, including some of Chopin’s most
difficult. I was also working on other Chopin
pieces along with Liszt, Beethoven, Bach,
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Haydn, Mozart, Ravel, Debussy,
Mendelssohn, Grieg, and all the other greats.
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My hero was the virtuoso Vladimir Horowitz.
He was the main pianist on the scene during
World War II. My father would say, “How are
you ever going to be a Horowitz if you don’t
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practice your classical stuff?” I never became a
Horowitz, but I recorded him 30 years later.
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Horowitz was a character. I can remember at
that session he played one of the pieces and at
the end made a comment saying, “Not bad for
an old man.” I said, “Maestro, not bad for a
young man.” His wife was sitting in the studio
and he said, “Wanda, Wanda, did you hear
what he said? Not bad for a young man!”
While I did well in junior high school, it
afforded no musical outlet. High school was no
different. I had the opportunity to study music
theory and harmony, but there was no outlet
that would allow me to test any musical
togetherness. Once I graduated, I decided to
study music at Queens College and figure out a
career path. Could I become a concert pianist?
I remember thinking about it on New Year’s
Eve, 1949, listening to Eugene Ormandy’s
performance of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony #2
and [Cesar] Franck’s D Minor Symphony.
Although I didn’t have the knowledge then that
I have now, I made the correct decision not to
try to become a piano soloist. Instead, I would
work toward composing.
When I began college, I returned to taking
piano lessons with a teacher in Queens
Village.  After six years, I stopped taking
lessons from my first teacher when I had to
prepare for high school finals and Regents
exams. This second teacher was able to record
in her studio. She recorded my performance
 of the Chopin G Minor Ballade (Op.23) [Ballade
No.1 In G Minor, Op.23] in one take. It had
to be one take, because there were no options
of subsequent takes. There was a short pause at
a page turn, which I realized in later years
could be edited out, but that is another story.
Besides my college work and piano lessons,
I began writing what I hoped would be
popular songs with a high school buddy
named Al Swenson. He would write the lyrics
and I would put them to music. Over a
period of a year, we had written about ten
songs. Then the question arose: What to do
with these songs? Neither of us knew any
popular singers or had any connections with
tin pan alley folks. Since Al had a day job, it
fell on me to make a trip to New York City to
try to sell our songs.  What a harrowing
experience. I must have actually gotten in to
see five publishers who basically thought I was
crazy to try to sell these songs this way. I even
tried to sell them some of my own piano
instrumentals. One of the publishers even
joked, “Maybe if you add lyrics to your
instrumentals and make instrumentals of
your songs, we could talk.” When I told Al of
my day in the big city, we both realized this
was not the way to go. Al gave up and went
back to his day job completely, and I went
back to school.
The most important event of my college
career was a conversation I had with Professor
Karol Rathaus, who was my guidance
counselor as well as my music composition
and orchestration professor. Rathaus fled
Germany and eventually landed in Queens
after the Nazis declared his work “degenerate
art.” If he stayed, he would have been
executed. Professor Rathaus wanted to talk to
me about what I intended to do after
graduation. I told him I would like to go to
graduate school but couldn’t because I had to
t)
serve two years in the Marine Corps Reserves
during the Korean War. He said I could go to
graduate school when I returned and he
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would help me with that course of action, but
he wanted to know what I wanted to do in the
music world. I told him I’d like to write music
for movies, TV, radio, or write a Broadway
show. He had come from Europe in the mid-
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‘30s and went to Hollywood to write music for
movies, but he didn’t like it because the pace
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was so fast and the style was too commonplace
for his tastes, so he decided to come instead to
Queens to teach.  At this point he looked
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down toward his desk at the paper which had
68/Tape Op#136/R. Moore/
my college record on it and said, “You have a
great many math and science credits here,
would you ever consider looking into how
phonograph records are made?” I told him I
would, but I would like to keep the graduate
school option open with his help. I kept in
contact with Professor Rathaus until the end
of that year when I received a letter in which he
indicated he was very ill. The following year I
attended his memorial concert. So much for
keeping the graduate school option open.
I graduated from Queens College in
February of 1954 and went right into the
military. I went to naval radio school in
Washington, DC for three months to prepare
for active duty in the Marine Air Wing
Reserve. After completing this training, I
married my wife, Barbara Leigh, and as we
were returning to New York City from our
honeymoon trip, my uncle, Marine Major
Joseph Angyal, was killed as his plane crashed
on a training weekend at Floyd Bennett Field,
Marine Air Wing Reserve Squadron
VMF132. He was breaking in on Tigercat jets,
which were replacing the Corsairs, the
mainstay of VMF132. I was in VMF313 at the
same base (Floyd Bennett field) so my active
duty service was delayed by two months until
September 1954.
(d
I went on active duty at Cherry Point, North
Carolina which was a Marine Air Wing base. I
was placed into the Overhaul and Repair
squadron, where many of the Marine Air
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Wing plane fleet were maintained and
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repaired.  I found myself in the radio shop
there, but not for long. Colonel Lameroueax,
the Commanding Officer of the squadron,
told me to report to him one morning.  It
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seems, since I had a college degree, he wanted
me to think about becoming an officer or a
pilot and making the service a career. Well, at
five feet five [inches], I was too short for pilot
training and not interested in staying on active
duty any longer than the two years I was
required to do for my Reserve commitment.
He went to plan B then and asked me if I
would be willing to attend a civil service
training course in motion and time study. He
wanted there to be a Marine presence in this
course and was looking through the rest of the
squadron for college graduates to attend this
training, so I agreed to take the training
course. I completed the six-month course
and became a member of the motion and
time study department of the Overhaul and
Repair Squadron. This squadron had many
civil service employees integrated with
Marines. I worked in that department for the
remainder of my two-year tour of duty.
Before reporting to duty, I wrote to
Columbia Records to try to find out [how] to
work in phonograph record production. The
letter I wrote to Columbia must have kicked
around from office to office because I
received an answer from Mr. William S.
Bachman although I hadn’t addressed it to
him. But he kindly advised me on getting a
science degree, or an engineering degree, and
getting in touch with him when my military
service was completed.
I made arrangements to enter Brooklyn
Polytechnic Institute in the fall of 1956 and
got off active duty two weeks early and began
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this course of study. I informed Mr. Bachman
of my completion of active duty, but I didn’t
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hear from him until the summer of 1957,
when he said he had an opening as his assistant
if I was interested. In the meantime, I was
working at Kollsman Instrument Co. as a
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time and motion study man while going to
school at night.
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In September of 1957, I began working at
Columbia with Mr. Bachman in the
phonograph design area.  When he lost his
budget for an assistant, he steered me into a
job at Columbia Record’s Recording
Operations Department, which was a union
shop. At first, I worked in disk mastering. I cut
the acetates which were sent to the plant to be
processed into LP records.  I started first
cutting mono records, then graduated to
stereo records. It was 1959 and stereo was
beginning to grow, but the Recording
Operations department had other plans for
me. When a job for tape editor/mixer opened
up, they moved me into that because of my
music background. That really was the
beginning of my 35-year career in the
recording business. Although I still had
aspirations as a classical pianist, Professor
Rathaus had given me a suggestion for my
possible career future and he was correct.
Early Career,
Columbia Records
1960 was the beginning of my
editing/mixing career at Columbia Records.
We were on the fourth floor of 49 East 52nd
Street in New York. There was a supervisor’s
office and around that office were [about] ten
editing rooms. Their equipment was plentiful
and extremely well maintained, but I wouldn’t
say it was top of the line. Sometimes there was
some jerry-rigging going on. You’d [ask for]
a 30-inch per second tape machine and they
would come up with one. They wouldn’t
necessarily go buy one. They would doctor
one of their 15-inch machines to
accommodate 30-inch, and sometimes it
wasn’t the proper way to do it. We would run
into some problems, like the tempos wouldn’t
quite match from one machine to the other.
So, there were times when they tried to be too
creative when they could have easily bought
something that worked.
In the shop, no non-union workers were
allowed to touch the equipment, so the
producer wasn’t allowed to move you over and
mix part of the recording. Even sitting next to
you touching some of the faders, they just
were not allowed to do that. That was a union
restriction. We were determined to make [as]
great [a] record as anyone else.
My primary tasks as an engineer were tape
editor and mixer. Tape editing is physically
cutting the tape, and in some sense, putting it
together. Splicing is done for various reasons,
either to correct mistakes – which no artist
ever makes – or to change interpretation,
which is a possibility. Sometimes it’s done just
for continuity. For instance, things were
recorded piecemeal for a reason, and they
had to be put together later. But, by and
large, it’s to get a clean performance.
Sometimes in a recorded concert there may
be a cough or noise, which can actually be
spliced out if there is another take. But
splicing is something that’s not supposed to
be done, from what I can gather from talking
to many people. It is done, however, just as it
is in the movies. I think many people know
that a movie’s put together that way – that
there are many takes, and that certain things
are pieced together – but I don’t think they
t)
realize that the recording industry works
pretty much the same way. Once decisions
were made on the edits, it was my job to mix
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down the performance in preparation for the
album’s release.
Along with post-editing, I was part of many
recording sessions. In the early ‘60s and
throughout the ‘70s, I was on crews for
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remote sessions – sessions in studios away
from our main studios in New York. We had
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the work divided between a control man – a
fellow who takes care of the control board –
and people who maintain and run the
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recording machines – stop and start for
various takes and for playbacks. We also had a
supervisor. So, we had a crew of at least two,
sometimes three.
My responsibilities would vary from
producer to producer. For a recording
session, the producer is the “majordomo.”
It’s his responsibility to run the session to
“get the performance.” He’s there, if not to
get involved in the technical aspect, certainly
to be involved in the musical aspect – the
one-to-one relationship with the conductor
and/or soloist.
Some producers don’t get involved with the
technical aspects, either because they don’t
want to be bothered, or because they have
enough to do just keeping the music straight
and talking with the conductor about how the
performance is going and what they want to
redo. We had other producers who had
technical backgrounds, and while they didn’t
get involved in technical aspects during the
session, except if a problem arose, certainly
they had something to say about how the
session was set up.
The funny part of it is, if you listen to any
series of records from any company, you
begin to see some of the producer showing
through, regardless of the engineer involved,
because some producers have a set way of
(d
doing things through which, by a little arm-
twisting or a little persuasion, they achieve
their goals. There are producers who just
don’t really care as long as the sound is decent,
l
[giving] the engineer free rein. During the
ai
years that I was involved, we had producers
from both ends of the spectrum.
I have worked with producers who allowed
me more of a free hand as an engineer and
gm
others who were more controlling. Let’s put
it this way: if you have a free hand and a
producer that’s satisfied, it can be a good
experience. At the other end of the
spectrum, if you work with a producer who’s
very meticulous, both in the engineering
and musical sense, that can be helpful if you
are in agreement with his method, or at least
his results.
In the early days, we were using 3-track
machines. We called the track that would
appear on the left side of an audio space, the
A track. The C track [is] what would appear in
the center of an audio space, and the B track
[is] what would appear on the right side of an
audio space. In order to conform to the 2-
track stereo configuration, the center channel
had to become a ghost channel in that half of
R. Moore/(continued on page 70)/Tape Op#136/69
its signal level would be added to the left track
and half of its signal level would be added to
the right track. The result would be a ghost
center channel that would appear exactly
between the left speaker and the right speaker.
Hence, this mixing of the 3-track studio tape
has afforded us only audio space
placement.  As a musical performance is
achieved, adjustments are made on the three
channels governed by musical considerations
to make a 2-track stereo mix which is copied
to a 2-track tape machine, so that the mix is
captured and can be played back. In this
procedure, no recorded levels are changed on
the 3-track, because it acts as the source, and
the amount of each track’s level as it appears in
this 2-track mix is recorded to the new 2-track
m
mix. Finally, equalization, echo, reverb, and
other goodies enter into the picture. This was
co
our basic procedure.
We did Bobby Vinton’s “Roses Are Red
(My Love)” as a 3-track studio tape, where the
C split was accomplished in the studio session
)
half on A and half on B so C could be
devoted to Bobby’s voice only. Then 4-track
ot
recording gave us the option of having A, B,
C, for instruments and four [D]for a soloist.
Had Roses Are Red been done [on] 4-track,
Bobby’s voice could have been placed on four
[D]and the instrumental background spread
among A, B, C without needing the split of
C at all. That could be done in the 2-track
mix. 8-track and 16-track can be seen as
extensions of 3- and 4-track mixing. The
Glorious Sound of Christmas, with Eugene
Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra
[and Temple University Concert Choir], was
a remote location at Philadelphia’s Town
Hall building, also done on 3-track, [and]
mixed using a pop music mixing mentality
rather than a more straightforward classical
approach. Tom Frost was the producer for
Glorious Sound, and Bob Morgan for the
Vinton album.
Premixing was part of my job too. There
wasn’t much to do back when it was only two
or three tracks. We could manipulate three
tracks and get certain little nuances. But later,
with 16 tracks, what we were doing was really
recreating the whole orchestra. If we use many
microphones on a piano recording, we get
certain ambient sound fields, depending on
what microphones we chose. We had to exert
discretion in achieving what we wanted, and
what we thought the artist wanted, in his
recorded piano sound. Of course, 16 tracks
 could mean 50 microphones. For Carmina
Miles Davis & Teo Macero
Burana [Michael Tilson Thomas, Cleveland
Orchestra and Boys Choir], which is the
largest project I worked on, we used 50
microphones.
The mixing aspect is hard to explain without
going into lengthy procedures. The minute we
went to 4-track, all the compromises that had
to be made with two or 3-track by many of the
producers could be worked out. Say you had an
orchestra with a piano. In 3-track, that used to
be handled one of two ways: (1) We would have
a piano mic which would be superimposed over
the woodwind track and the balance had to be
right between the woodwind track and the
piano, because the other two tracks would be

m
the rest of the orchestra. (2) Some producers

co
would split the woodwind track and bring it to
the sides so that we had an orchestral balance
side to side, with the piano or other solo
instrument by itself.
The minute we had four tracks, we stopped didn’t realize it immediately, but as we removed Artists rarely came into the mixing room,

)
making those compromises. We put the solo sections of music, I began to notice that Harvey making the occurrence with Miles all that
instrument on one track, the orchestra on the

other three. When we went to 8-track, it
became a whole new ballgame. We could break
down the orchestra if we wanted, or maybe
better, we could have two tracks for the piano,
and the rest of the tracks for the orchestra. So,
we could get a stereo pickup on the piano to give
it breadth. The 16-track is an extension of 8-
track, where we could go completely wild. It
takes longer to mix down 16 tracks. If the
Brooks’ bass solos were the target of the
removals. That was a surprise. Teo would
normally have taken those out, but Miles was
hell bent on editing these tapes before I mixed
afternoon, Miles must have been satisfied
(d
it. He wanted these things out. After the third
because I didn’t see him in the editing room
ever again.
l
At first, I didn’t realize whose solos we were
taking out, Brooks or Dave Holland, until I
ai
ot
more peculiar. The only other person in my
experience was Gunther Schuller, who came
in to help mix and choose balances for a
march album that he had done [Footlifters: A
Century of American Marches. Columbia 33513].
He was also there for the last thing we did, 100
Years of Century Dance [Columbia M-33981]. But
most artists stay away from mixing completely.
Occasionally, they’ll get involved with the
splicing; they’ll be there to pick the takes that

producer wants to take the pains and say, found out about the politics; Brooks was a they want, or actually stay there and do the
“Look, at this particular point. I don’t like the producer at Columbia Records and wormed work. Organist E. Power Biggs [Edward
way it sounds,” he has a good chance of being his way onto the recording sessions somehow. I George Power Biggs] spliced. He would come
gm

able to fix that sound with [an] 8- or 16-track.
With 4-track, we were limited, 3-track, even
more so. 2-track, forget it. Mono, that was it.
So, with fewer tracks, the recording had to “be
right” or it was “wrong,” depending on the
t)
don’t know how Teo let that happen, but it did.
I guess Miles okay’d for him to come onto the
recording session and do something, and after
the fact he didn’t want any solos on it.
in, pick his takes, and actually work with one
of our engineers. But to edit out another
artist’s complete parts, like Miles did, was
unheard of to me.
Bitches Brew was recorded live to 8-track.

producer’s or artist’s outlook. In theory, the There were no overdubbed tracks. With the
more tracks we had, the better chance of being number of instruments included (trumpet,
able to do what we wanted to do. saxophone, guitar, bass, two drum kits, two
(a

In the late ‘60s, I began working with keyboards, and one track for miscellaneous),
producer Teo Macero and Miles Davis. One of and the relative closeness of the instruments
these projects was as editor and mixing engineer in a rather small studio for these forces, it was
for Bitches Brew. Teo told me that Miles never unavoidable to escape the appearance of
spent any time in an editing room. He would
e

instruments on tracks not intended for those

let Teo take care of the editing function most of instruments, or in other words, leakage.
el

the time. With Bitches Brew, however, Miles spent Hence, the guitar track, by virtue of the guitar
three afternoons with me (Sept. 24-26, 1969) being near the trumpet in the studio, had a
removing sections of music from the edited great deal of trumpet sound on it. What to do
mp

selections that Teo and I had put together. I in mix down? After deciding instrument
70/Tape Op#136/R. Moore/
placement in a stereo sound field, a method
was needed to prevent the instrument
placement to be clouded by the leakage of
other instruments on the track involved. This
was something we dealt with for years on a 4-
channel mix.  We had a piece of electronic
equipment back then called a Kepex [Noise
Gate, manufactured by Valley People], which
prevented sound from a track to enter into the
mix unless the level of the sound was of higher
level than a preset amount. For instance, [if]
the level of the recorded guitar was higher on
that track than the leakage level of the
trumpet, [the] guitar sound would be allowed
to enter the mix as well as the trumpet leakage,
but when the guitar is not playing, the
trumpet leakage level was prevented from
entering the mix because it should be below
the preset level chosen. This arrangement of
level control made the trafficking of sound
bearable in the mix. Of course, equalization
of each track, echo deployment, and
treatment of special effects when required all
had to be decided upon [for] each selection
on the album. After Teo and I set up each
selection with these parameters, Teo let me
mix each selection subject to his approval
upon listening to my mix in playback.
One of the special effects that appeared in
several of the selections was a tape playback of
a repeated note at a time interval governed by
the placement of playback heads on a device
Teo had our engineering department design
just for this purpose. It was a wild rig, and the
recorded noise in the chain was cleaned up
somewhat by using Dolby noise reduction in
the loop. Miles must have liked the effect,
because he frequently used it in concerts after
Bitches Brew. I never did find out how he
accomplished the effect live.
In recent years people who have revisited
t)
these Bitches Brew 8-track tapes – for the
purpose of remixing the performances for
new CD mixes – have made analyses of
(a
musical splices and musical repeats that puzzle
me. Without the analog 2-track tape of the
original mix playing, and seeing where the
splices in the music are, it is difficult to know
what purpose the splice served in the musical
e
scheme of things, be it level correction,
el
musical purpose or so on. I guess all history
has its revisionists.
At the beginning of 1970 I was mixing the
mp
album for the 4-channel version, more
popularly known as quad [quadraphonic].
During the mixing I was paid a visit by Bill
Cosby, of all people. It seems he was visiting
Macero in another mixing room, and Teo
mentioned to him that I was working on
Miles’s new album. Cosby, a devoted Davis
fan, couldn’t pass up an opportunity to hear
some Miles, so he poked his head into my
room to hear what I was doing. To say he was
surprised to hear Miles playing from four
speakers is putting it mildly. I was at the point
in the mix where Miles’s notes were repeated
through the tape delay around the room in a
sequence. Cosby was fascinated. Pity is that
this would be the only time he would hear it
that way, because the version that was released
to the public was the encoded stereo version,
which even [when] decoded properly never
quite worked well. The 4-track tape version
was released but was not pushed as a product
by our label.
Back then, all the sessions were staff
assigned, but I just happened to start working
with Teo and the next thing I know, we were
doing The Graduate soundtrack, as well as Miles’s
Sorcerer, Nefertiti, and In a Silent Way. So, when
Bitches Brew came around, he had me do that,
happened was that a producer would work
with an engineer at Columbia and start to
(d
along with Live/Evil the following year. What
make a team. Usually, he would try to get the
l
same people, if it was possible. All in all, the
relationship I had with Teo was professional
ai
and we certainly got the results we wanted, but
it was not always so rosy. For one, he liked to
listen to playback at extremely high levels, and
gm
I couldn’t stand it. I told him, “I’ll mix it, but
I can’t work with you at these levels without
earplugs.” In this case, he backed down.
Because of the complexity of the mix he knew
he needed me, and this would be the best way
to handle it. I knew he had trust in me because
of my musical background. It ultimately
worked out, since the album [Bitches Brew] won
a Grammy for Best Jazz Performance and
went Gold.
I guess you can say there were also times
where my job responsibilities could be labeled
miscellaneous. The Graduate soundtrack, which
Teo and I collaborated on before Bitches Brew
[released in 1968] was a case where we had to
get creative.  None of the producers at
Columbia wanted to work on the project,
because they felt there wasn’t enough music to
R. Moore/(continued on page 72)/Tape Op#136/71
create an album. They also probably did not
want [to] step on Simon & Garfunkel’s
toes. But for some reason Paul Simon and Art
Garfunkel didn’t want to bother with
producing the soundtrack. So, Teo and I
jumped in. How could Columbia not have a
soundtrack album for a blockbuster like The
Graduate? Well, Teo is a master at extending
music composition and he put all his talents to
the task. There were sound effects on the tapes
sent to us by the film people. We utilized
everything we could. The song “Mrs.
Robinson” existed only as 30-second clips,
one with voices and one without voices. That’s
all we had. On “Scarborough Fair” they took
a flute solo from the film people and inserted
m
it into the middle of the extended double
co
version, transforming it from the 3:07
original into the 6:25 version that appears on
the soundtrack. In total, we added about
nineteen to 20 minutes of program material
to make an album of reasonable length.
)
I remember The Graduate album especially,
because it posed a technical problem, which I
ot
was able to solve. I had just discovered that a
mono signal if delayed (in time) and played in
a speaker other than the original mono’s
speaker, does not show up as a mono in a
ghost center channel, but rather shows as a
signal spread between the two speakers in a
space (artificial stereo). If you add a different
equalization to each of these mono signals,
you increase the effect of stereo. Of course,
the amount of delay is critical (40 to 50
milliseconds). The technical problem was
instrument and voice deployment on the tape
sent to us by the film people. The voices were
on one track and all the instruments on
another. There were sound effects which we
didn’t want for the song mix. Normally, in the
song mix we would put the voices in the center
and the instruments on either side. So, the
technical problem was to separate the
instrumental into two entities. The solution
was this time delay just mentioned, plus
appropriate equalization to bring what
seemed like two instrumental tracks instead of
one. If you listen to the album, I wonder if
you can tell which song is not really stereo? I
won’t go into detail on how it was done, but I
will say that it required the original source,
three mono machines, and a stereo 2-track
machine to accomplish the solution.
 We created that album, Teo and I. Nobody
knew what we were going to do. When we first
got it, it was only about 20 to 25 minutes of
music from composer Dave Grusin. We
ended up with about 40 minutes of music and
a Gold record.
Although The Graduate is arguably an
exception, there’s little difference between
engineering a pop or classical recording.
There really is no such thing as a “star”
engineer. If an engineer knows what he is
doing, he can do anything because all he’s
doing is either creating a sound, copying a
sound, or getting a sound. Now, if someone
wants to make a piano sound like a kazoo, I’m
sure there’s even a guy who can turn around
and figure that out. If you’ve got a jazz
trumpet player, how different is his sound
from that of an orchestral trumpet player?
For various reasons, sometimes you have no
choice but to make certain edits. Sometimes
there are mistakes, sometimes in a concerto
the orchestra and the soloist aren’t quite
together. But then again, I’ve heard a lot of
78s where things weren’t together, and no one
seemed to mind. If the people who recorded
from 1900 to 1948 had been afforded the
same technical advances – to be able to splice
their performances – would they have done it
or not? You can’t go back to Liszt and Co.
There’s no record. But if they had the ability
to splice back in 1877, they probably would
have “cheated” the public then. I really
wonder how letter-perfect Liszt, Chopin, and
Beethoven were.
This may be surprising, but the musician
himself usually has nothing to say about the
engineering beyond, “I like that sound,” or,
“I don’t like that sound” – and that may or
may not be valid. I have been surprised that
some artists are unable to realize what good
t)
recorded sound is. Some of the artists get
involved in “sound” because they are
accustomed to hearing their instruments in a
(a
certain way, and they want to hear it that way
on discs. No one ever sits in the same
relationship to a piano, a fiddle, or any other
instrument, as does the player. Therefore, it’s
very difficult for them to know what they
e
sound like 15 rows from the stage.
el
If the artist doesn’t care about mistakes and
wants the performance to go out that way, it
can [be released] that way if he’s strong willed
enough. If somebody is contracted to do a
mp
72/Tape Op#136/R. Moore/
performance and he or she is satisfied with the
performance even with mistakes, and the
artist is big enough, I don’t think any
producer in the world could force a correct
performance.
Remember one thing, though: it’s not the
engineer’s decision as to what should be
spliced. There have been occasions when I
actually acted as an A&R man or producer
and spliced things after the fact, but these
haven’t been many. If [the artist or A&R
person is] working with a producer who
wanted certain things, and I knew what he was
looking for, [but] he wanted to do something
which rubbed me the wrong way musically, or
is going to make a bad splice, I might say, “I
know what you want to do, but if you do it my
way we’ll have a successful splice versus not
having one.”
As engineers, we would usually work with
producers. The producer had overall
responsibility, except for the technical aspects
such as making sure there were no flaws, and
that things weren’t phased, or there were no
noises that could distract a listener. The
engineer is really responsible for these things,
but the producer had the final say. If someone
(d
came in and said, “I’d like to take the first four
bars of take two,” you wouldn’t say, “Why are
you doing that? The first four bars of take
three are better.” Generally speaking, you
didn’t override the producer. Also, the
l
producer had to communicate more with the
ai
artist. And the producer was responsible for
[communicating with] the record company.
Although splicing becomes very
gm
impersonal, an engineer tries to put himself
within the frame of reference and splice
within that framework. If an artist is not that
zeroed in on wrong notes, you might
approach splicing differently. You know that
the artist may not mind as much if a wrong
note exists, so long as the feel is there. If you
know that about the artist, you probably will
splice the way the artist wants.
Splicing and inserts are a way of life with
many recordings. Along with correcting
mistakes, better performances of sections of a
selection are preferred over ones equally
correct but lacking in urgency. Not all
musicians, however, wanted to cut and splice
recordings. Artie Shaw came in to work with
me on some recordings that he had done with
his group, and maybe the label he was on
didn’t want to [release the recordings], or
something, but they gave him the tapes and he
wanted to hear them to see what was useful for
an album. I said to him, “If you don’t like a
certain section, but like it in another take, we
can splice it.” I mean, that’s how I made my
living for years. Splice the good one in and no
one’s going to know. But he wouldn’t do it.
He said, “No, we can’t do that. It’s got to be
one take. We can’t cheat. I’m going to pick the
best complete one if I do anything.” That was
a big surprise to me, but that’s where he was
coming from.
There is, of course, a basic difference
between recording performances on 78s and
the LP stereo era. Having to play accurately
m
for a full 78 side at a time is a little bit different
than being able to stop and start anywhere.
co
When I was studying to be a pianist. I knew
what the problems were and thought in terms
of a live concert situation where you should be
right at least ninety-five percent of the time. I
)
didn’t know tape would be coming in 1948, so
I just decided it wasn’t for me.
ot
In terms of ethics, everyone has his or her
own mind to make up as to whether splicing
and editing is valid or not. Personally, I could
be a purist. Certainly, I was brought up at a
time when those 78 RPM sides were supposed
to be right; I listened that way, and I’ve heard
enough good recordings that way,
performance-wise. Let’s face it, the way some
of those performances were recorded, there
were obvious mistakes made. But what
difference does it make? Since then, the
whole idea is everything has to be letter
perfect. I have heard the flair, the actual
interpretation. I would appreciate that more
than having something letter perfect note wise
that doesn’t go anywhere.
Not to sound subservient, but it is the role
of the engineer to join with the producer to
make the artist comfortable, not so much to
make ethical decisions for the artist or
producer. If you are editing a big orchestra or
a jazz band, 20 pieces, and someone says, “I
don’t like the sound of my trombone,” the
producer should be dealing with that. He’d
say, you’re hearing the trombone, I’m
hearing the overall project, so that’s what it’s
going to be. But as engineers, we set up the
sounds, and in reality, we made a lot of
decisions that we hoped would put the
producer in the right direction.
 The engineer is also not responsible for
reading the score. There’s always a producer or
assistant for that. The conductor is interpreting
a composer. He is following to the best of his
ability what the composer had in mind. An
engineer can read the score, but that’s not his
job. His job is listening deeply. I’ve seen it in the
pop field where engineers have been known to
push their producers out of the way and
become producers, but I never did that. If it
happened for classical music, it was pretty rare.
Once, engineer Don Puluse and I were in a
room and arranger Don Costa came in. He
was used to working with the people who did
jazz records. I was setting up some
equalization, and he said, “What are you
doing?” I said, “I’m making a record,” and he
said, “I thought we did that in the studio.” I
never forgot that. I knew what I was doing, and
I was contributing to that record, but he was
correct. It was my job to read around a
producer and an artist to get what sounded
best technically. I never neglected what an
artist or producer was trying to do; what I’d do
was an enhancement. I wasn’t fooling around
with the product or trying to be a rock star.
Ray Moore with Igor Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex recording session
Stravinsky Conducts the Opera Society of Washington, Washington DC, Jan. 1962.
t)
(a
e
el
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Mid-Career, Columbia:
The 1970s
During the ‘70s at Columbia, I won five
Grammys for Best Engineered Recording
(Classical), and one more in 1981:
1970: Stravinsky: Le Sacre Du Printemps.
Boulez, Cleveland Orchestra
1973: Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra. Boulez,
New York Philharmonic
1975: Ravel. Daphnis et Chloe. Boulez, New
York Philharmonic
1976: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue. Michael
Tilson Thomas, Columbia Jazz Band
1978: Varese: Boulez Conducts Varese. Boulez,
New York Philharmonic
1981: Isaac Stern’s 60th Anniversary Celebration
album, Zubin Mehta, New York
Philharmonic
During much of this time, I worked with
producer Andrew Kazdin. I had 13
nominations in that decade, 11 [of which]
when Andy was producing.  The other two
were with Tom Shepard and Jay Saks. There
were four years (1972, 1974, 1975, and 1976)
where we had two nominations. It is difficult
to win a Grammy when you are running
(d
l
ai
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R. Moore/(continued on page 74)/Tape Op#136/73
against yourself, but in 1975 and 1976 we
managed to win even though we had two
nominations. Besides the four double
Grammy nomination years, we had
nominations in 1970, 1973, 1977, 1978, and
1980. When I look through the list of titles
that are included among the Grammy
nominations from that decade, that whole
decade passes before my eyes again. There
were two nominations with the Columbia
Symphony Orchestra, one with Aaron
Copland conducting, and one with Michael
Tilson Thomas conducting.  We got a
nomination for an original cast recording of
Candide [(1974 Broadway Revival Cast),
Leonard Bernstein Conductor] and one for
Zubin Mehta conducting the LA
m
Philharmonic with Pinchas Zukerman as
soloist [Béla Bartók, Pinchas Zukerman,
co
Zubin Mehta – Violin Concerto No.2, CBS
Records, 1979.]. The repertoire these
nominations covered was Bartok: Concerto for
Orchestra, Dance Suite, Wooden Prince, Violin Concerto;
)
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring, Petrushka; Orff: Carmina
Burana; Bernstein: Candide; Copland:
ot
Appalachian Spring; Ravel: Daphnes & Chloe;
 Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue; DaFalla: Three
Cornered Hat; Varese: Ameriques, Arcana, &
Ionisation. I also worked on a great many other
projects that didn’t receive Grammy
nominations and with several other
producers during this decade, including
Richard Killough, Steven Epstein, David
Behrman, Richard Einhorn, and John
Corigliano. The last three are composers who
worked for a while as producers at Columbia.
Some of my most successful work was with
Pierre Boulez and either the New York
Philharmonic or Cleveland Orchestra. In
total, we had eight Grammy nominations and
three awards together. Boulez was a private
man, tightly guarded, and almost
unknowable. For all the time spent in the
recording sessions together, we barely spoke.
My relationship with the maestro was unique
in the sense that I was the one physically
handling his work, and there was an unspoken
trust in me. He was a taskmaster and was very
good at what he did. His musical ability – to
make a score live –was great. He was one of the
best conductors ever.
In those days I also worked a lot with
producer Tom Frost. The two of us worked
well together because of our musical
background [Tom had studied music at Yale]
and we both appreciated the music. Not
everybody did, and not every engineer had the
same music background as we did. It was never
mechanical. It wasn’t just a dry process. I knew
what I had to do with Tom’s edit choices and
was able to carry it out. Knowing the music
allowed us to work more efficiently in the
editing room together. At times, I may have
interjected opinions about an editing
decision, but I never overstepped my
boundaries with Tom. I didn’t need to. One
of the reasons I loved working with Tom was
t)
because our ideas coincided most of the time.
Tom started before me and taught me a lot
about getting a good room sound in the
(a
studio. When he started out, everything had
to be close-mic’d. When you go back to the
late-‘40s and early-‘50s, the sound was
established by the engineers because they were
looking for efficiency, and closer mic
e
placement seemed to be better, they thought,
to efficiently catch the sound. But then the
el
tastes changed, primarily because of certain
producers and their aesthetic ideas. It was less
of an engineering problem, because in the
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74/Tape Op#136/R. Moore/
early days there was always a concern of hiss.
Hiss was created from the sound travelling
through different electronics, amplifiers,
microphones, wires, and so forth before it got
to the recording machine. They call it the
signal-to-noise ratio. In order to avoid a lot
of hiss, you got closer to the source, or the
instruments themselves, allowing a better
ratio. But gradually as the equipment got
better, people like Tom urged them to move
the microphones farther away, because now
the sound had a better signal-to-noise ratio
and you could now get away with that. Things
gradually changed with the tastes of producers
and engineers, although many engineers
continued to favor close-mic’ing.
There are different recording philosophies.
There are engineers who go overboard with
zooming in, and others who layback 30 rows
and just let the microphones pick up any
balance the conductor wants. I’m somewhere
in the middle ground. Many European
recordings aim for “concert realism” – having
two microphones 15 or 20 rows back and
letting the conductor balance. Back in the
days of the old Mercury Living Presence
records, it was, “Let the conductor balance.”
and the hall has any kind of quirk, as
Philharmonic Hall does with no low end,
(d
The trouble is, if you use two microphones
you’re not going to hear the cellos and the
double basses if you’re 30 feet back. I was
l
sitting in that hall in the early days watching
ai
these fellows just sawing away, and I couldn’t
hear them! What kind of realism have you got
compared to what the conductor really wants
gm
and hears on the podium? But if he comes
back to you and says, “Where are the cellos,
double basses and violas?” and you say, “They
got lost in the hall,” how valid is that for a
recording? That’s the other side of the coin.
By recording this way, we could create a
performance that was just as valid as a concert
performance taking place in a hall. In fact, to
my way of thinking, many times more valid.
Because if there’s anything I hate, if there’s
anything that puts me to sleep, it’s attending
a performance I can barely hear. If I can
barely hear the singer, the enunciation, or I
can’t hear the soloist versus the orchestra, I
lose interest.
During this time, I worked with Richard
Killough on Leonard Bernstein’s recordings
of the complete Sibelius symphonies. Editing
the original Lincoln Center recordings, and
mixing the result to stereo 2-track, was a
memorable undertaking because of the
sound qualities of Avery Fisher Hall and
trying to please Bernstein’s concept of
sound, but we got the job done and the
collection was released.
Killough and I also worked on the
complete symphonies of Carlos Chavez,
which Dick [Richard Killough] had recorded
on location in Mexico. In this case there were
six symphonies we had to try to match in
terms of sonic continuity although they were
m
not all recorded in the same location or the
same time frame.  Chavez visited us in our
co
New York studio to hear what we had done
with the six symphonies. But what amazed me
most was Chavez’s businesslike approach to
getting performances of his more current
)
compositions, I realized then that there was
more to being a composer than I ever
ot
imagined.
Killough got me in the studio to record
Vladimir Horowitz on several dates near the
end of Horowitz’s time on the Columbia
label, including his last session. We actually
shipped his Steinway from his New York
apartment.  I had worked with Richard on
quite a few Horowitz recordings over the years
but this one was special. We had recorded
Horowitz in four-channel format.  Why
record a piano in four-channel? You need
only to hear the difference in the four-
channel playback for the answer. But the
powers that be above Richard never listened to
the recordings and didn’t allow this product
to be released in the quadraphonic format.
Horowitz would make suggestions if he
wanted to improve something, and he knew
exactly what he liked and didn’t like. This is
also something Tom Frost recalled when
working with him on all those Grammy
sessions the two made together. There were
times where he felt he over or under
emphasized a note, or two, and he wanted to
have it corrected. If he was playing a lyrical
section and he made it a little too percussive,
and when you put it together, it didn’t quite
work, he wanted us to counteract that kind of
effect. We could either adjust the loudness
levels on one take or another, or with
equalization, we could make it more or less
bright. You could get quite a bit of difference
on the piano in terms of tone production. It
was really his suggestions more than mine or
Tom’s we had to carry out.
Horowitz had strong feelings about studio
recording. He felt that recordings really didn’t
give a true picture of him, and I basically agree
with him. I think that’s true for a number of
reasons, whether you’re talking about
splicing, piano sound, or the ambiance of the
place in which he was recording. The
ambiance of the hall or the studio affects the
artist. If he can’t hear what he wants, and he
starts making compensations for what he
wants to hear, it affects his playing just as it
would if he were playing on a bad piano, or a
piano he’s not really happy with. For all those
reasons, yes, it’s hard to say that you’ve got the
real Horowitz on disc.
When I recorded him, I had four
microphones 15 feet away from his piano, and
I had two more practically 25 feet away from
the piano. I felt that the people from our
company who had done his work before got
too close, whereas Horowitz felt that they
surrounded his piano “like tanks.” You don’t
necessarily want to overload the piano that
much, but he was strong enough to actually
overload the microphones. The piano has got
to breathe. If someone is playing very
forcefully, and you have the microphones
right on top of him, that, to me, is not a true
picture of what he’s doing. You must go back
to the 15th row in this particular case, not
because you can’t do it the other way, but
because you want to hear a different sound.
If you have one instrumentalist, it’s
probably better that you’re farther away so that
he can blend as he would in a hall rather than
to be on top of him, and then try to rebalance
t)
later, because you can’t do it. With orchestras
you can’t do it. If you’re close enough on one
instrument in an orchestra, that’s a whole
(a
different ball game than trying to get a
pianist’s sound on an instrument and
regulating all those things. Besides, in
orchestral recordings we use mics specifically
for ambiance for the overall effect.
e
I don’t know whether it’s the microphones
we used, the placement of the mics, the
el
pianists we had, the pianos, or the 30th Street
studio, but most often pianists seemed to be
left hand heavy. Usually it’s very difficult to
mp
subdue a left hand enough to get a melodic
line out. In the Concert of the Century, where
Horowitz play the Rachmaninoff [Andante
from Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor,
Op 19, with Rostropovich] and the trio [first
movement from Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A
Minor Op. 50, with Isaac Stern and
Rostropovich], we had many microphones set
up in various places. In mixing that 16-track
recording down, even though it’s three
instruments, I tried to carry through the
certain way Horowitz projected the melodic
line in his right hand because with the
microphone placement we had, we could very
well have made him sound left-heavy.
In 1974, I was in one of the largest recording
sessions ever, with Michael Tilson Thomas
conducting Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the
Cleveland Orchestra at Masonic Hall. The
forces involved here were a 400-piece group
including an enlarged orchestra, two choirs,
and several vocal soloists. Usually Andy
[Andrew] Kazdin, the producer on this
session, would use 8-track 30 ips tape
machines for an orchestral recording, but
here he used 16-track 30 ips because of the
forces involved.  There were 25 different
audio setups for this composition. One and
(d
25 were the same and in fact we used the same
performance for both. To expedite time
during the session, we had extra people there
to make the changes in microphone
l
connections to the recording inputs for each
ai
of the audio setups. We had 52 microphones
available.  At the end of each number, our
human switching system for changing
gm
microphone inputs was deployed. It was quite
an effort. So, while Richard Nixon was
stepping down as President, we were putting
the finishing touches to the session.  The
editing and mixing of the recording into the
2-track final was extremely lengthy due to the
forces and the 25 selections within the piece,
but it was fun.  We received two Grammy
nominations in 1975, one for Carmina Burana
and one for Ravel’s Daphne and Chloe. We won
for the Ravel, but for my money Carmina Burana
should have won. The people who vote never
know what is actually involved in a project.
Most of these sessions throughout the ‘70s
were on remote as opposed to the studio. We
would record in Town Hall in Philadelphia,
Masonic Temple in Cleveland, or
Philharmonic Hall in New York. It was a
R. Moore/(continued on page 76)/Tape Op#136/75
straightforward process. At least two tape
machines, a console, microphones, and
cables. There’s no ironclad way of doing a
record. All you need is patience, a certain set
of ears, and knowing what you want to get. It
takes a producer and engineer with ears to get
these things right.
One of the things that Andy did at
Philharmonic Hall, because of the hall’s lack
of reverberation, was take took two tracks of
his 8-track and [make] them reverb tracks by
taking two sets of microphones and placing
them [onto] the back of the hall so he could
get reverberation from the walls. We would use
that in our mix. So, our 8-track was really a 6-
track. There were times when he took one
m
track of the 8-track and hoped we could get
enough reverb. Philharmonic Hall is not a
co
good hall. It’s dry and brassy. It doesn’t do
strings well. But the New York Philharmonic
wanted to record in its hall, so you had to find
a way to make the hall sound like something. It
)
was not so much I didn’t like recording there,
you just have to find a way to do it. At
ot
Manhattan Center, Town Hall in
Philadelphia, or especially the Masonic
Temple, you can put microphones down and
you can just record because the room is good.
Manhattan Center is a big ballroom with
parquet wooden floors and fancy balconies.
In other words, a lot of uneven surfaces,
instead of a regular rectangular place.
However, 30th Street was a large rectangular
place, but it did have a parquet floor and was a
good size. Any floor that [is] not just a single,
uniformed surface – like linoleum or cement
– will reflect sound better. It gives variety in
the sound’s reflection. Unfortunately, when it
got around that Manhattan Center had such
good acoustics, everyone tried to record there,
so it got expensive because of its demand and
we didn’t use it so much anymore.
Live recordings can still have a good deal of
editing, but usually not as much as studio
recordings. Many times, the liner will notes
say, “From either live performance or
performances.” Now, if an artist goes around
the country with a certain concert that he’s
doing, [and] it’s recorded three or four times,
and these things are intermingled in a final
product, is that a live performance, or not? If
it’s taken from live performances, but not the
same live performance, is it a live
performance? Let’s put it this way, that sort of
 thing is done. Sometimes corrections are
recorded after the concert and spliced into
the performance, and by and large, only the
producer, engineer, and artist would know
for sure. If you have the same concert done in
four different places, the artist will usually
choose which one he wants it to be. If he
prefers the way he plays [on multiple
performances], he’ll choose and leave it to the
legal department, or the packaging
department to decide what it should be called.
If the artist says, “I like the first half of
Chopin’s “C-Sharp Minor” on September
21, but the second half from December 2,”
it’s possible to splice the performances. If
you’re going to say “live performances” it
doesn’t much matter that it’s not the whole
thing which has been taken, but rather half.
Obviously, this sort of thing does happen.
Any live concert recording that we did at
Carnegie Hall was going to be just the way it
was there, without all the applause at the end
of sides, because the producers felt that
applause is disconcerting on a disc.
A recording and a live experience can have
their differences. Sure, the microphones are
picking up different things than your ears.
But again, it depends on how you listen to a
recorded performance. What are you looking
for? The hall noise, the performance, the
piano sound? Of course, the microphones
may paint the piano sound. They’re going to
hear, maybe, more of the high frequencies
than you are. Forget about sound.
Performance-wise, what you remember of a
concert and what you hear later can
sometimes be startlingly different. It depends,
too, on how you approach the concert and
how you listen to a recording: no matter how
critical you think you can be at a performance,
there may be certain times when you get
t)
diverted from listening to everything.
Some artists realize that they don’t have to
play quite the same way for a studio recording,
but most of them seem to feel the minute they
(a
get in the studio they’re going to play a certain
way. It’s difficult to play two different ways;
one for concert and one for the recording
studio. The idea is to get the artist to feel
e
comfortable performing in any way that he
wants. If he acts like he’s playing to an
el
audience, we get far enough back so he’ll be
projecting out to the microphones. There are
people who say, “No, you get in close. You’ll
mp
76/Tape Op#136/R. Moore/
get a better piano sound.” That’s subjective.
Some pianists like to hear a close-recorded
sound because they’re accustomed to hearing
the piano right in front of them. Many times,
with the music rack out, they’re getting the
sound right at them. That sets their point of
view as to how a piano should sound. It’s very
difficult to play a piano and at the same time
imagine hearing what the piano sounds like 15
rows back. They have to assume that they’re
projecting in a certain way, and they develop
that after a number of years. If you get very
close to Horowitz with microphones, you are
not giving him his just desserts. Maybe he’s
not playing to those close microphones but
sending out that sound to the 15th row.
As for fiddle players, there are some who
like to hear a fiddle the way they hear it,
whether you agree with them or not. The
fiddle’s next to the player’s left ear, and no
one else in the world hears it that way. Now, if
he wants to hear it that way, we can make the
recording sound that way, but I don’t think
the rest of the world will want to hear it. At
least I wouldn’t want to hear it [that way]. It’s
a funny frame of reference. Players get so
involved with their instrument and the way
anyone else hearing it another way. (d
they hear it that it’s hard for them to think of
Singers can’t really hear themselves quite
well in the studio because the sound comes
from inside them. They find it difficult to
l
know what they think they sound like. They’re
usually surprised at what they hear, as we are
ai
when we hear ourselves talk on a tape playback.
Many times, we say, “I don’t sound like that!”
or “I didn’t think I sounded that good.” But I
gm
have noticed that artists will push for the way
they hear themselves play – if they’re of a
strong mind – that it has to be that way, and it
may not be in the interests of good sound. To
me, being two feet from a violin has never
been the greatest sound, let alone eight or ten
inches, because the violin doesn’t have the
chance to breathe. It’s a very bright sound,
which is not really a fiddle sound.
When you record pop music, getting a good
mix is fairly straightforward. Typically, you
put a lead singer in the middle and you put
the other instruments on the side. It’s pretty
straightforward stuff. It became a little more
complicated when you had four tracks where
you had a lead singer on one track and [the
band on] three other tracks. You had to be a
little more resourceful with what you did.
Classical is a different ballgame, because if
you’re doing an orchestra, you have to get all
the instruments to 2-track. We eventually
went to eight tracks in classical and then
sixteen. For something like Bitches Brew, I put a
set of drums on the left side, a set on the right
side, I had Miles all over the place and in the
center, the bass player sort of centerish, [and]
pianos are on either side. For classical 8-
tracks, you’d fill in one track with strings. The
right-side strings you’d put on another track,
and you might be covering them with two
microphones each. If you had woodwinds,
depending on how many tracks you have, you
might have those as a group. If there’s a lot of
m
say, oboe, you might record that to one track
to get the oboe out. The brass you would
co
usually pick up on a couple of microphones
and designate them to one or two tracks.
The biggest change to how pop music was
recorded was that many producers wanted to
get as many tracks as possible, so they could
)
manipulate the latest group of instruments.
ot
In classical, multitrack was not used unless you
had a big orchestra or chorus. It wouldn’t
really affect a solo instrument or duet or
quartet. We often recorded to 2-track stereo
right away. The engineers would measure
everything, the height, and make diagrams;
otherwise you’d get in trouble with the
editing. By the time it came to the editing
studio, it was too late. Sometimes we had to
pull tricks to make the sound match the
different takes if it wasn’t done carefully in the
studio or hall.
Multitrack recording was a new skill. At first,
people balked at that, saying, “How are you
going to keep track of 16 different things at the
same time?” We were used to 3- or 4-track
recordings, and that was just a skill we picked
up. Being a musician certainly helped dealing
with multitrack recordings and mixing, but it
did demand a higher skill. You can be skilled
at mixing three or four tracks to stereo, not
that it’s a no brainer, but it’s pretty
straightforward. When you start adding other
elements, it requires learning the music a little
bit more.
 Late Career
By the late ‘70s, I got into more producing,
and also became president of the New York
chapter of the Recording Academy [National
Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
(NARAS), now The Recording Academy] for
six years, from 1977 to 1983, and again in
1989. The Recording Academy is something
that was created to give out awards of
importance (Grammy awards). Unlike the
RIAA [Recording Industry Association of
America] whose job it is to give out Gold
records, the Recording Academy wanted to do
something about the different categories of
music and give out awards for excellence.
They did not have a rock category before
1979, and one of my first orders of business
was to get one. Once we got it, we decided to
throw a celebration at Madison Square
Garden and give an award to The Who. I gave
the award to Pete Townsend and his statement
was, “Why are you blokes doing this for us?”
It’s funny, because none of the other
members said a word.
As for producing, I spent a lot of time with
the pianist Ruth Laredo. I did four recordings
with her as a producer in the ‘80s. And the
reason for that was because Columbia kept
promising to do a certain repertoire that they
never fulfilled, and she finally got fed up with
them. Through 30th Street I was friendly with
t)
Keith Holtzman from Nonesuch Records. I
asked Keith if he’d be interested in having
Ruth on their label, and he said of course, so
(a
he had me produce her three times with
program material featuring Chopin, Samuel
Barber, and Tchaikovsky. We also did an
album called Such Good Friends with music by
Brahms, Schumann, Mendelssohn, and
e
Clara Schumann. They were very
straightforward sessions. She knew what she
el
wanted and was very good and very prepared.
Producing should be a hands-off
experience, which was the case with Ruth.
mp
You’re sitting there with the score, she does a
take, you mark the take indicating if
everything was fine with it or if there’s a
problem. Then you decide to do another take
to see if the problem gets cleared up, and if
not, you try to do an insert. That’s what a
producer does: he rides shotgun with the
artist. Ruth would say, “Is it that bad?” Then
she’d say, “Yeah, right. Let’s do that again.”
The producer’s the groundskeeper, keeping
things right. It’s much the same as producing
a conductor. Let’s put it this way, the
producer works in conjunction with the
conductor as to what should appear on the
record. They pick takes, the producer comes
in with the editing engineer and puts that
together. They’ll take a score and say, “Take
three was good here, until here.” So, we have
to [find] something [for the other sections].
That may be an insert, or another take. But
the producer marks off his score so that when
he comes into the editing cubicle, we know
exactly what we need to do. None of the
conductors I ever worked with ever came into
the editing cubicle. That’s what the producer
is for. The producer acts as the conductor’s
liaison. The conductor will put a lot of faith in
(d
his engineering staff. He gets a copy of the 2-
track to see if it’s to his liking. There could
have been times when something needed to be
a little louder and that would call for a slight
remix and a splicing job, but nothing unusual
l
ever happened in my experience.
Mixing, on the other hand, is a hands-on
ai
experience. You have either a 4-track or an 8-
track tape, depending on the hall you were
working in on the road. Usually, Andy
gm
Kazdin, for example, opted for 8-track and
mic’ing each section [of the orchestra]. The
producer and/or the conductor decide on
what takes that they want of the score. What the
engineer does in post-production is find
those performances that they want and splice
them together into a performance. You splice
the performance and then you’d mix it. The
session tapes would not be in a form that
could be played back in 2-track, in stereo,
because they’re not weighted [mixed]. For
instance, you may have strings on one
particular track and that has to be blended
with the other instruments in the orchestra.
That’s what entails mixing. That’s what gets
the performance into the coherent mass in
stereo that you hear when you listen to it. If a
R. Moore/(continued on page 78)/Tape Op#136/77
conductor would come in to hear the original
recording before the mix, he would never be
able to hear his original performance by
listening to those 8-track tapes. There would
be some things out of whack or too loud or
too soft. You’re trying to fill a concert stage
with a 2-track recording between your left and
right speaker; you have to tweak the levels of
the instruments between left and right. That’s
what we were constantly changing when we
were mixing.
The last Grammy nomination for Best
Engineered Recording (Classical) I received
was for Glenn Gould’s 1981 Bach: The Goldberg
Variations. It was the last recording made at the
30th Street Studio. I was not at the session but
m
worked on the material in post-production.
When Gould worked with Andy Kazdin, he
co
would habitually want to get in touch with
Andy, and he knew he worked in my cubicle,
so he would call a lot. When he called and
didn’t get Andy, he would talk to me for 10 or
15 minutes, but nothing to do with music.
)
Either he was having trouble seating at a
ot
restaurant, or medical problems, anything
but music. And I’d hear this litany of things he
had a problem with until he talked himself
out. He was a very strange, finnicky guy.
The session started off as a 2-track, very
straightforward. In the studio there was no
room to change the soundfield because you
had nothing else to work with. Andy may have
recorded it with four microphones. But if
they were doing digital, they wouldn’t
necessarily do a multitrack with a piano. They
would use a 2-track digital recorder.
Putting the microphones in the proper
place and getting a good instrument to start
with was the key to getting a great sound for
Gould. What we used to do at 30th Street was
put two microphones on either side of the
piano, fairly close and aiming at the strings.
Then we’d take two microphones and put
them further back from the piano to get room
sound. Four mics. That’s how we recorded
Gould in the past. If you’re going to a 2-track
recording, you need to find the blend with the
four mics. It’s all in the ears. Glenn wouldn’t
come back and say, “I don’t like the piano
sound.” I’m a pianist and I know the kind of
sound that I want for the piano. I fool around
with it until I get the sound that I want.
Gould did not participate in any of the post
production. Years earlier, when we recorded
 him in New York, he was never there for
mixing. I’ll say this: all these artists have the
right of disapproval if they don’t like
something. So, in a sense, they don’t have to
be there. They can hear what the final product
is, and they either buy it or want changes in
certain spots for one reason or another. So,
they really have [some] control over what does
go out. If they’re vehemently against what
we’ve done, the thing gets redone until it’s to
their approval, musically or sound-wise.
Gould picked his takes. When I spliced for
him, he would actually not only pick his takes,
but pick splice points, where he thought they
would work. If he wanted to change a
performance from within, say, a fugue or a
prelude, he had this uncanny knack of being
able to dictate where it should be changed
within a 98 percent degree of accuracy.
Gould would also do takes several times in
the studio in radically different ways. It
wouldn’t be a matter of “getting the right
notes” with Gould. It would more often be a
matter of a concept with him, and, perhaps,
mixing the concepts, if he wanted some kind
of effect. He might play it through and say,
“Okay, I’ll combine these two and do another
take.” Or he might actually say, “What’s the
point of doing that? We can splice the two.”
There was a difference in concept from many
years ago, when he would write it off and do it
all over again, as opposed to his later years
when he knew what splicing could do.
I think many times a lot of artists are afraid
of what’s going to happen when they splice,
that tempos will change or that the
interpretations won’t be what they would want
at a given time. They would rather redo
things, like in the 78 days: “I’ll get the full side
right.” But when they see what can be done,
they change their style of recording. When the
t)
producer says, “You don’t have to do that; we
can take it from here,” the artist begins to
realize what can be done, and it starts to affect
(a
his or her way of recording. I’ve seen that
happen with a good number of artists. I can’t
think of any soloists at the moment, but I can
think of some orchestras and the different
philosophies that have been adopted. Years
e
ago, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, it was a
lot of “Go from here to here, here to here,
el
here to here.” In many instances, depending
on the nature of the piece they were doing, it
would be continual inserts. In other words,
mp
78/Tape Op#136/R. Moore/
with a collection of, let’s say, 13 dances, they
would do each one. Rather than perform
them all straight through, they would start
and stop, whereas other orchestras would do
a full take, or maybe two takes, and then make
the corrections.
The late Gould recordings were some of my
first experiences with digital recording and
the beginning of a shift in the recording
industry. When digital came in it was
experimental. We had different equipment;
the mastering system changed. The typical
album in those days allowed about 20 to 25
minutes of music per side. If you wanted to
put more, you really had to lower the volume
and you had to worry about the stylus
skipping. If you had too much bass, the stylus
could skip out of the groove. You had to be
aware of all this stuff while you were editing or
mastering. When it came to compact discs,
you had 74 minutes’ worth of music. It was a
whole different perspective. We thought about
that 20-minute [LP] side. We were very
careful of what we put together to make that
side exciting and interesting and have
different tempos and key signatures to make it
flow. When you got to 74 minutes, it was a
(d
different consideration. Now you were filling
the space. You had different decisions to make
based on the format.
In the ‘80s, the recording was digital, but
the mixing was still done analog. The music
l
came from a digital source but went to an
ai
analog console. We didn’t have digital
consoles yet when I was there. Then it was sent
to a digital machine for the final recording.
We used digitized tape, so there was no more
gm
splicing and cutting tape. It was different. The
tricks that you learned from splicing tape were
no longer applicable. I think the quality was
better. I never noticed any better aspect in
analog. Digital is more consistent. You could
get the same results twice. With analog, a fly
could get in the ointment. Also, the
frequency response for a digital system is flat.
The analog is not flat at 20,000 cycles. Just by
that alone it’s theoretically more accurate. It
was a new world. Things were really starting to
change when I left. If I went into a studio now,
I would be lost.
I stopped working at Columbia in 1995. I
was there for 38 years. Columbia began to
change once Kazdin was cut from the staff and
he became freelance. Then Boulez left the
New York Philharmonic to go to Europe. We
did some recordings with Zubin Mehta, who
took over, and we had some nominations with
him, but the magic was gone. Four of the
Grammys I have are with Boulez. When you
get nominated for a certain kind of program,
like Philharmonic and Boulez, then the magic
name is gone, you have to get new
nominations and have the Recording
Academy members realize that you’re still the
same person. You had to do it all over again.
As I mentioned before with the Tilson
Thomas record, we should have won the
award that year, but we were also nominated
for a Boulez record of a Ravel program, so
that’s the one that won. I was still mixing the
m
Philharmonic in the ‘80s as part of the
engineering team with Mehta, but at the time
co
he didn’t carry that kind of image. Let’s face
it, the Grammys are well meaning, but it ends
up being a popularity contest.
Columbia was also starting to downsize. At
)
one point they had at least 95 engineers,
including maintenance people, mastering,
ot
editors, and studio people. Then it dwindled
down. They had transformed Studio B into
their publishing house, and sometimes
recorded outside of CBS at other studios.
Times were changing.
Beginning in the ‘80s, Columbia was doing
a lot of refurbishing of old stuff to put out
digitally on CD. They stopped carrying an
orchestra. They didn’t have the New York
Philharmonic [NYP] anymore and stopped
recording orchestras altogether by the late-
’80s. The NYP used to be under contract.
They went freelance with any label that wanted
to record them. So, by then, we were trying to
get a better mix or a better sound than what we
had originally. When we used to do things for
LP, we would mix things that would
accentuate the high end because we knew that
it got rolled off when it was mastered. We knew
there was a problem with the high frequencies
in mastering. When we finally went to a digital
situation, we didn’t have to equalize the high
end. We kept it more even as it was originally
done on the recording. Fixing what we did for
LP in the digital age, so we did remixes on
some of that program material.
At Columbia we had a union contract that
didn’t require retirement at age 65, but the
industry had been changing, and Columbia
was bought by Sony. Sony had no reason to
stay with the status quo of how Columbia was set up, Ray Moore with Les Paul and Rick Derringer
and made it well known they wanted to get rid of
their older people. So, if you could retire, you
would retire. I was 63, and I could have gone until I
was 70, but there was nothing left of what used to be.
The working model of Columbia was changing
anyway, even before Sony bought it out. Once Sony
bought us out, although we were a well-knit group,
we splintered even before I retired.
I never considered taking another stab at being a
concert pianist – a Horowitz – not so much
because the golden age had passed, but because
performing for me now occurred in the studio,
behind the scenes, and I’m more than fine about
that. After I left, I wrote a hell of a lot of music and
taught piano for 17 years at a music school in

m
Ridgefield, Connecticut. I started in 1997, two
years after I retired.

co
YcZ

On May 25, 2019, the Moore family held a service

)
celebrating the life of Raymond L. Moore in South Salem,
New York, where he had lived for 57 years. For the occasion,

ot
Ray’s son Tom, daughter Sue, daughter-in-law Melissa, and
son-in-law Jim Rodgers all performed music that Ray had
written and arranged throughout his life. Surprisingly, none of
this music was ever formally recorded or heard outside of his
family. While going through his belongings, Ray’s family found
(d
all of his sheet music, meticulously notated, in boxes. His music,
l
and the performances by his family, were fantastic. Like the
music he recorded by other musicians for most of his life, Ray’s
ai

style was eclectic, emotional, original, and highly professional.

It was a fitting finale for Ray, who began his life with
gm

aspirations as a composer and performer. On the back of the

service’s program, the family added a quote by Jackie Robinson
(Ray was an avid baseball fan): “A life is not important except
in the impact it has on other lives.” This can be said for Ray,
t)

who devoted his talents to fulfill the aspirations of many artists

and create joy for countless listeners. r
(a

Additional Sources:
Frost, Thomas. Interview with the co-author. March 21, 2019.
Harvith, John and Harvith, Susan Edwards. Edison, Musicians and
the Phonograph: A Century in Retrospect. Westport: Greenwood
Press. 1987.
e

Puluse, Don. Interview with the co-author. February 24, 2019.

el

Tape Op thanks Jonathan Saxon for proofreading and research.

mp

Ray Moore at home

R. Moore/(Fin.)/Tape Op#136/79
 made a video on how to do it. At the end I said, “Hey,

Behind The Gear

Peterson Goodwyn of DIY Recording Equipment
This Issue’s Do-It-Yourselfer
DIY Recording Equipment (DIYRE) is
a cool company, making great, easy-
to-build DIY studio gear. I’ve
written a few enthusiastic reviews of
by Scott Evans
it does, I can feel okay about saying the “silly” words,
because I know I’m backing it up. I’m not trying to
sell anyone something where they don’t know exactly
what’s inside.
if you want to get the parts, I’ll sell them to you.”
That was how the business went for the first two or
three products.
At some point, things got more real.
That was really with the Colour format.
That was your first original design too,
right?
Yep. In 2012 I hooked up with somebody I met on the
internet; Link Simpson, a designer in Canada who I’ve
still never met. He had the engineering degree and
was into audio. We linked up with the intention of
making something cool and unique, just for DIY. We
came up with the idea of a multi-stage saturation box.
This is where all that time making gear for a
community and being very public really paid off,
because I wrote a blog post about [this idea], and
somebody in the comments wrote, “Why not make it
modular, so that you can put in whatever saturation

m
their kits for Tape Op, and I was If that fat, open, summing mixer is you want, and plug them in and out?” That is the core
glad to get an hour of DIYRE founder actually just a bunch of resistors, you idea of the Colour format. Link had to withdraw from

Peterson Goodwyn’s time to talk about
how he ended up on this path.
What is your personal electronic
background?
say that.
Right, exactly. And there absolutely can be magic in
a box full of resistors. I would feel weird saying,
“This is magic. Don’t look inside!” But I’m totally
fine with saying, “This is magic, and it’s just a
co
the project, so I decided to learn about circuit design
and PCB [printed circuit board] layout. I would say I
spent a year full-time doing something that, no joke,
somebody with a background in it could have done in
a week or two. But you know, that was my degree.

)
Practically nothing. I have a philosophy degree. I bunch of resistors.”
That [product] launched via crowdfunding in 2014. It
came into this as a drummer who got into studio The first DIYRE product was the L2A, a was our first 500 Series module, our first active thing

work. Around 12 years ago I stumbled on this
small but fledgling world of DIY gear. I bought my
first soldering iron to build a Hamptone HJFP2
mic preamp.
A Tape Op mainstay!
That’s right! It started with the Tape Op article. The kit
was $800, with a built-in power supply. At the time,
that seemed like almost a charity price for a high-
quality two-channel preamp.
You’re very open about the learning
that you’ve had to do for your
ot
re-amp box. Tell me about getting that required power. That was really the beginning of
that to market. the company.
I launched the [DIYRE] site in 2010 thinking, “This will
How was the Colour received? It’s
just be a wiki and a blog about my hobby.” Then I
(d
moved to Philadelphia; I was trying to make it as an
audio engineer, and I was not making it. I thought,
“Okay, I’ll make a really simple kit and maybe that can
obviously still going strong.
It totally blew me away. We had 500 preorders. It’s
picked up since then. Other people have jumped on
the format and designed Colours; and now people
supplement my income a little bit.” There were some
even design other pieces of gear, like the Louder Than
designs shared on GroupDIY, and Jensen had a white
Liftoff Chroma, or HRK has gear that accepts Colours.
l
paper about making a re-amp box with a transformer.
My dream was that it would be taken up as a format,
I started with those things and moved parts around
ai

and it’s been rewarding to see that happen.

products, which is great. It’s really until I got something that seemed cool and useful.
All the DIYRE kits are strikingly
easy to experience imposter Then I was almost paralyzed by imposter syndrome. I
affordable. Does that mean you have
syndrome in this world. hid [the design] on my site. I just put it on the wiki
to compromise on components? If you
gm

At first, that was just the truth of it. I didn’t know much,
and the whole project was an experiment to see if I
could learn enough to make the next kit. There’s
definitely a point with any expertise where the
challenge becomes, “How do you not think and talk
like an expert?” Because your customers and audience
t)
like it was any other project, and I said “order form
were making a $600 DI box, would
here.” I got 30 orders in the first month! It was just
you use a different transformer, or
a blank, die-cast guitar pedal box with a transformer
that kind of thing?
and jacks all wired together with hookup wire. No
No, there’s not a compromise on parts. The biggest
circuit board. It was pretty flimsy, but it got people
costs in audio equipment are the retailer, the
excited. For the next year or two, I iterated on that.

distributor, and assembly. After that, it’s probably

aren’t experts. I try to stay as grounded as possible in
that, because that’s what I saw missing when I
started the company. There was no voice saying, “This
(a
Learning how to design a circuit board. How do you
support and returns, and somewhere down there is
finish metal? How do you label it? Just learning the
the bill of materials. When you buy from us, you’re
very basics and releasing every new improvement I
not paying a retailer’s or a distributor’s 30 percent,

is not that complicated! I can do it, so you can too.”
Also, there’s a tendency when people try
to speak “every-person-speak” that
they resort to snake oil language.
That’s something we wrestle with a lot. In order to
describe what something does, you do have to get The second product was a summing box. There was no
e
had. I was enacting “lean” principles simply because
I needed to keep making sales to have money to make
the next batch.
At what point did you then try a second
product?
nor are you paying for the assembly. We have a very
different return policy, because once people start
soldering we can’t take returns. We don’t have the
thing where people buy a bunch of gear just to demo
it, because that’s expensive for companies. Having

all that out of the cost structure lets us spend more

into the mushy, subjective language. For better or chassis. It was just a front panel: everything was
on materials while keeping a lower price. I’m sure
el

worse, “shimmery,” “punchy,” and “fat” are the best mounted on the panel, and there were bus wires that
that we pay more for parts than companies making
descriptors we have. Usually in our product listings, were actual wires flying across the back that
more expensive equipment, because we can. Also,
there’s a paragraph about the subjective sound, and everything got soldered to. Again, I was inspired by
we have nowhere to hide. You can put a dinky little
then the technical. For me, that’s what I always somebody that had a blog and had done something
non-shielded transformer in a DI box and charge
mp

wanted. By being open about what’s inside and what similar. I made some tweaks. I added the bus wire and
80/Tape Op#136/P. Goodwyn/
 $200, and 0.5 percent of people will open it up
and see that. We ship you the parts, and you
know exactly what you’re putting in there. We sell
the DI kit with the Cinemag transformer for $150.
There isn’t a better transformer than that. It’s like
$60 for the transformer. If that were going to be
distributed by another company, it would have to
be at least $300.
Your kits all have a classy design
aesthetic. The packaging, the
typography, everything. But you’re
not a trained designer.
I think that comes from having a bit of an eye, but
also really knowing my limitations. I know I’m not
a designer, so I keep it really basic. It’s black and
white. I look up rules for aligning things and stick
to that. I didn’t really have an ego about the
design, so I’d just observe best practices and keep
it as simple as possible. I think that’s served me How many people work with you?
the steps in the guide. But that was really driven
by an internal need to have smaller quality control
steps in the kitting process for each kit. So we do
a small sub-kit, and we weigh it against the gold
standard of each sub-kit that we keep forever. We
have written down the acceptable weight
tolerances for each sub-kit. We have an internal
wiki with standard operating procedures for
making every kit and sub-kit so that everything
happens in the same order, every time. We have a
standardized process where we have some number
of everything on the shelves. You can’t just take a
box off the shelves and start kitting. We use a
counting scale to weigh things out. If you’re
making 50 kits, you weigh out 50 of the parts.
That’s like a built-in quality control, so when you’re
done with the kits, all the parts should be gone.
Processes like that.
all doing their tiny little jobs; they’re all perfectly
compensated, and they’re not sweating. Then you
try to do that with three transistors, and they’re all
like, “Oh, my god! I’m going to have to work really
hard to amplify this thing.” That’s when they get
non-linear.
Do you find that you’re able to hear
that?
Oh, yeah. Hear it, measure it, you name it. It’s hard
to put these things into perspective, but if you put
our 15IPS mkI and mkII modules side by side, you
wouldn’t say, “My god, they’re completely
different.” My response is more like, “If I listen
closely, I hear a little more richness in the upper
mids on this one. This is the one that I’ll choose
to track everything through.”
Anything else new in the works?
The big thing is a rackmount Colour. Where we’re at
right now is that it’s a single rack unit two-channel

m
pretty well. Four other people, part-time. It’s a pretty amazing processor; that, along with the same mic preamp
Can you talk about your metal crew. It’s all people who have done recording or do from the CP5, as well as an optional line input with

manufacturing and what you’ve
learned?
The way it’s done now is we make the designs, then
it’s manufactured in Taiwan. But I’ve been through
the whole process of literally doing it on my
music, and this is a good side gig for them. There’s
one person in charge of assembly, a guy in charge
of making the kits and ordering inventory,
marketing, and then there’s a three-person
marketing/design team. We actually do scrums
co
a separate input path that doesn’t touch the
preamp at all, and three Colours. Basically, it’s a
CP5 and a Colour Palette mkII right next to each
other, with a master mix knob. The last nut we’ve
been trying to crack is this mechanical thing where

)
grandfather’s drill press in the basement, to renting [framework development] together on designs and we want you to be able to unscrew the front panel
a co-working space and doing it manually on a projects. with thumbscrews and pull out the whole front

ot
vertical mill, to learning CNC machining and doing Are you the only full-time person? panel PCB like a drawer, so you can swap Colours
it on a relatively cheap CNC machine. I learned a How many hours do you work? without taking it out of the rack.
ton from that. The biggest lesson I learned was Yeah. I don’t work crazy hours; I’m not a startup Can you tell me a little bit about your
that there was no way I could run a sustainable
business while doing the manufacturing myself.
How is the quality of the overseas
work you’re getting?
anymore. I have a pretty good work/play balance.
I don’t even crack 40 hours a week. You can (d
publish that. I’m very proud of opting out of that
[lifestyle].
prototyping process?
We have [prototypes] made up in Taiwan by the same
company that will be making it.
So you send CAD drawings to Taiwan
I was getting metalwork from a couple companies in What are your best-sellers? and they do one-offs for you?
New Jersey for a while, and it was nice to have In terms of volume, the L2A re-amp box is still Yes, which is expensive. But, in my experience, there’s
l

them close by. But, I hate to say, the turnaround number one. Then the CP5 Mic Preamp kit. After no point in prototyping something not at the place
ai

was longer and the quality was lower. My that the little SB2 summing mixer is our third best- that’s actually going to make it. So that
impression is that the surviving American sheet seller most years. Then the Colour format, as a [prototype] comes in and we play with it. The last
metal manufacturers live off of a few big whole. one, the PCB could get stuck in the rails; so with
government projects, and if they can squeeze in a So, what’s in the pipeline? this new one, the PCB is mitered on the corners. I
gm

little guy like me, they will. I honestly found it This year it’s been five years [since Colour launched]. had picked big thumbscrews because it’s fun to do
hard to even get quotes. So, yeah, the quality is We wanted to revisit the first three Colours, which big screws; but they felt badly weighted visually on
quite good. have stayed the most popular; probably because the front panel, so we went to a smaller thread
When you send plans to Taiwan, does they’re the broadest cross-section of saturations size. And it was a little bit too difficult to push the
that include etching and silk- you might want. The original ones each had a little front panel in. We didn’t want people to feel like
t)

screening and everything?
Yes. Now I know what a bright dip versus a regular
anodizing looks like, or 180 grit sandpaper finish
versus powder-coated or sandblasted. I’ve done all
(a
thing that did some sort of sound, but they were they were going to break something. So we found
surrounded by pretty transparent housekeeping a different connector with a lower insertion force.
circuitry, basically modern op-amps. We redesigned In the end you’re going to see it and think, “It’s so
them to have only discrete Class A circuitry. Now simple! I could have done it in a day.” r

that, which taught me how to spec it correctly. If
I had just gone right to ordering it from China, I
would have [potentially] spec’d tolerances that
were way too tight and paid more for no reason.
How do you accurately package all
e
there’s nothing that’s not vibey or colorful. The www.diyrecordingequipment.com
DNA is the same, but they’re more refined.
Technically speaking, there are richer harmonics.
And subjectively speaking, they’re more nuanced; a
Tape Op is
bit more complex in character. made possible by

those kits? Going all discrete makes a lot of sense,

Oh, man; that’s been a real journey. I have two for that “there’s no magic here” our advertisers.
el

people who do it who are really good at it, but it’s thing. Please support them
all about the processes. There’s a lot of quality It’s funny how the fewer transistors you use, the more and tell them you
control. We split everything into sub-kits, which is interesting things get. In an IC [integrated circuit] saw their ad in Tape Op.
great for the end user, because they correspond to op-amp, there’re at least 25 transistors, so they’re
mp

P. Goodwyn/(Fin.)/Tape Op#136/81

Universal Audio
Apollo x4 audio interface,
UAD-2 Satellite Thunderbolt 3,
& UAD v9.10 software
With the release of the new Apollo x4, UA keeps the hits
coming with a revised and expanded desktop interface
utilizing the recent conversion upgrades found in its
rackmount sibling “x” range. At a little less than twice the
footprint of the Apollo Twin [Tape Op #121] form factor, the
x4 offers twice the I/O and utilizes a high-bandwidth
Thunderbolt 3 port for connection to modern Mac computers.
The x4 is backward compatible with Thunderbolt 1 or 2 on
Macs with the proper adapter, and machines running Windows
10 (and up) with Thunderbolt 3 cards are supported.
First, a quick detour to talk about an essential update to
the UA Console software: recent updates to the UAD software
platform allow for Channel DSP Pairing; stretching the
available resources across multiple SHARC processing cores.
Put simply, Channel DSP Pairing lets you build more
substantial chains of UAD plug-ins on Console inputs when
tracking in real-time. More dedicated processing resources for
tracking means more happy engineers. Channel DSP Pairing is
a free upgrade that benefits not only the “x” range of Apollos
but every Apollo except the first-generation FireWire-enabled
models. This is huge. With a few easy tweaks of the new
settings in Console, you can now optimize Console sessions
towards either more virtual channels or larger plug-in chains.
Despite this added convenience, there are tracking
caveats and a few gotchas that weren’t readily apparent at
the outset (but ultimately made more sense as I got used to
this new paradigm). For instance, Channel DSP Pairing is not
available at the highest sample rates of 176.4 and 192 kHz,
and is only applicable to the DSP available in Apollo units
themselves (UAD-2 Satellites don’t add any additional
t)
Channel DSP Pairs to the overall count). Also, DSP can only
be paired within each Apollo unit individually. These minor
restrictions aside, this new feature works transparently and
automatically when enabled, plus you can leverage all of
(a
that multi-core horsepower for real-time low-latency
tracking – I found this especially helpful during overdubbing
stages. I could stack up Console strips to my heart’s content
(within reason, of course – Console will still indicate if
you’ve exceeded DSP resources).
Managing all of this Apollo horsepower can sometimes
e
seem a bit mystifying at first, but the UA support site is a
tremendous resource, with lots of clear and accessible
el
documentation. Semi-pro tip: I’d recommend starting with the
“Managing DSP Resources” article on the UA support site.
While we’re talking DSP horsepower, I wanted to mention
mp
the latest rev of UAD-2 Satellites, now featuring Thunderbolt
82/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/
3 connections. UA was kind enough to send us one of their
new external DSP accelerators in the heftiest variant available,
with eight SHARC processors inside. A modest and compact
piece of gear on the outside, the Satellite has rapidly become
a must-have in my mixing and mastering workflow. Using it
to supplement my onboard Apollo DSP is plug and play, as the
Satellite has two Thunderbolt 3 ports, allowing it to be
positioned between either multiple Apollos, or (as in my case)
between my rig and a Thunderbolt 3 dock. I tested
connectivity and throughput with the TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3
dock from CalDigit [#104], and one of the latest MacBook Pro
laptops – everything worked as expected. The OCTO Satellite
isn’t flashy – at about the size of a cigar box, it has no
external controls or functions beyond a power switch – and no
I/O beyond the two Thunderbolt 3 ports and the power supply
connection. Despite its modesty, having the OCTO in my setup
is the single most significant change to my workflow since I’ve
started using UAD plug-ins. The OCTO Satellite is like adding a
supercharger to an Apollo – or a third-stage rocket booster.
I’m now mixing with a much greater sense of freedom of
choice, and having multiple instantiations of processor-
hungry plug-ins (such as the AMS RMX16 or Thermionic
Culture Vulture) is no problem for this heavy-lifter.
Okay, back to the x4. The x4 comes in only one UAD DSP
“size”: the 4-core Quad-core processor version. So, as an
owner of the previous-gen Twin Mk II (w/ the same Quad-core
DSP inside), I had to consider if an upgrade was truly needed.
There are two factors at play with the x4 that make the answer
relatively straightforward for me: the dual headphone cue
outputs and the increased Unison preamp count (up from two
in the Twin, duh). Having only one headphone output and
two Unison mic pres in the Twin could sometimes limit its
usability for say, mobile drum tracking, but the x4 feels like
(d
“the porridge is just right.” I could certainly make a case for
UA’s latest and greatest AD/DA conversion on that list. But
how I intend to use the x4 (primarily as a mobile-rig extension
my rackmount x-gen Apollo system) renders the previous two
features much more significant. Having the ability to build
two independent cue mixes, and track through four Unison
l
emulations gives me much more flexibility with my on the go
mobile tracking. The minor tradeoff is that the x4 takes up a
ai
little more room in any mobile go-bag, but it’ll still easily fit
in a backpack, even with the power supply. The design
language and metering follows the previous generations of
gm
Apollo Twins, but I did notice that the case ventilation of the
x4 hardware seems to be improved.
Be advised, UA doesn’t include a Thunderbolt 3 cable with
either the Apollo range or the UAD-2 satellites, and not all
Thunderbolt 3 cables are built alike! When
considering any Thunderbolt 3 Apollo or UAD-2 accelerator, I
would do some research in choosing cabling: I landed on a
high-quality and affordable T-bolt 3 cable from CalDigit that
does the trick nicely. But the new x4: It’s an Apollo. What’s
not to like? “That price tag!” I hear you yelling from the back.
Fair point. But for engineers invested in the UA ecosystem,
consider that its little brother, the Apollo Twin X, is a mere
$400 less for effectively half the I/O – or that the rackmount
Apollo x6 is $400 more, and has only two Unison inputs as
well. In summary, I dig the x4. As a mostly-mobile
premium interface, it stacks up quite nicely against its
siblings in the wonderfully full house that is the Apollo family.
(Apollo x4 $1799 street, Satellite Thunderbolt 3 OCTO
Core $1199 street; uaudio.com)
-Dana Gumbiner <danagumbiner.com>
Avedis Audio
E12G 500 Series graphic EQ
Built for the 500 Series format, the Avedis E12G has 12
bands, instead of the customary ten found in many graphic
EQs. The additional frequencies provide for 12 kHz (filling the
gap between 8 kHz and 16 kHz found in some EQs) and 22 kHz
adjustment. Controls detent at zero and have a range spanning
+/- 12 dB. Smaller changes start with a broad Q that
proportionally narrows the more boost or cut is employed. The
EG12’s input stage, called Ingenius, was developed by former
Jensen Transformers president Bill Whitlock, making it ironic
that it’s an integrated circuit. Avedis notes this section
exhibits excellent common-mode rejection while using fewer
junction components. The result is a clear, natural sound input.
Otherwise, there are no IC chips in the frequency bands (nor or
in the audio path), which is uncommon among most graphic
EQ designs. Each band has a Class A preamp, making the
fidelity of this unit on par with studio-grade rack gear, as
opposed to inexpensive, live sound versions. In bypass, the EQ
m
still channels audio through the input and output stages – a
Jensen output transformer coupling to the outside world.
co
Avedis sent a pair, so I tried them on a mastering project
and was immediately surprised that E12G’s self-noise, even at
maximum gain, is on par with my Great River MAQ-2NV
mastering EQ but louder than a Maselec MEA-2 [Tape Op #93].
On a 2-track mix the Avedis EQ is open and natural sounding.
I will caution that boosting the top two bands may seem
)
seductive at first, but moderation is in order. Although the
fidelity is outstanding, these would not be easy to recall. The
ot
sliders are full-range; not the precision half-dB Grayhills I’m
accustomed to. I suppose nulling to test tones might work, but
it would still be coarse.
I wanted to know how the E12Gs would fare in tracking and
mixing applications. Fortunately, Greg Gordon (Ghost, Slayer, Jet,
Oasis) lives nearby, and he agreed to test them in some sessions.
He described the E12G as super tough, tight, with punchiness in
the lows and lo mids. When tracking kick drum or mono room mic,
the E12G possessed improved presence and clarity over a famous
graphic EQ. On guitars, the high bands provided a sense of
definition and image control. While the low punch is fabulous for
heavy styles, we both appreciated how the variable Q remained
natural and not over effected, even with large changes.
The sliders all have the same red centerline. Many are
accustomed to a distinguishing mark on the 1 kHz slider.
Colored bands for each would be easier to identify in a hurry.
Although detented, the sliders’ tracks seemed over lubricated.
As of publishing this review, Avedis has addressed this with
treated ball-bearings and removing excess grease from the
original manufacturer, so the E12G’s sliders now are more
deliberate when centered, reducing the risk of accidental
changes. Finally, care is required when installing the modules.
Screws at the top and bottom require some angling to pass the
front opening of most 500 Series cases.
My favorite quote from Greg about the quality of Avedis gear
is, “Ask anyone with good ears what are you grabbing in case
there is a fire, and they all say my (Avedis) MD7s [#116] and
E27s [#121], then my kids, and then the dog (in that order).
Yes, though this may seem hyperbolic, the point is clear;
Avedis makes future-classic gear, but it’s available now, with
new parts, and customer support!” I concur. Although I had a
pair of EQs for this review, even one module would be an asset
in recording situations. The Avedis E12G has made me re-
evaluate what I thought was possible in a studio graphic EQ.
($850 MSRP; avedisaudio.com) -Garrett Haines
<treelady.com> w/ Greg Gordon <gregordon.com>
 GIK Acoustics
acoustic foam panels
GIK Acoustics is known for its beautiful, effective,
professional room treatment solutions, so you may be
asking why an acoustics manufacturer of their stature would
bother to offer foam panels at all. Though it may be true
that foam treatment is not as dense or effective across the
mid and lower frequency range as fiberglass and rockwool
treatment, foam can be quite helpful in taming higher
frequencies that might be causing flutter in a boxy room –
like a home project studio for example. Another bonus of
foam is its lower cost.
We’ve all seen the cheap purple and gray colored mattress
pad treatment stapled to the walls of small rehearsal spaces
and home studios – the new 23.5-inch square GIK acoustic
foam panels are definitely not the knock off egg crates you’ve
seen before – they look REALLY good! These elevated,
lightweight foam panels come with a choice of the same
beautiful, modern “diffusion plates” found in their higher-
end treatment options (choose between Impression [Tape Op
#127] and Alpha series designs with multiple color options).
Combined with the 2-inch thick foam, the machined cut,
veneered fiberboard plates not only look good but help in
shortening decay times of frequencies in some of the low
midrange through the high midrange (mostly between
around 300 Hz through 5 kHz).
My pile of gear/editing “suite” is currently occupying our
breakfast nook at home. It’s the worst space one can imagine
for listening or referencing, with room dimensions (width,
length, and height) that are almost exactly the same, and
frequencies bouncing off surfaces everywhere. Similar to
other foam treatment, the GIK foam panels are intended to
be mounted on the wall with spray adhesive. This can cause
some conflicts if you don’t own the space or don’t intend to
install these permanently. At $49 a panel, I wasn’t too
worried about having to replace the treatment when I moved
back into a more permanent mix space, but thankfully, GIK is
planning to offer an upgrade soon with an option that will
allow you to use nails on tabs for wall mounting.
Initially, I asked for four Alpha series panels in a white
square pattern – think Danish design implemented in a Death
Star wall pattern. I intended to mount two of the panels on
each of my sidewalls at the first early reflection point, but
after further consideration and testing, I found the four
panels worked best placed together in a geometric design on
my back wall. Combined with a few DIY bass traps and
rockwool sidewall absorbers, I was able to wrestle the more
gnarly room modes into submission. The real key for me is
that the GIK’s truly defined the room as a music/listening
t)
space in a tasteful way at a super-affordable price. In
addition to home studios and B rooms that may be on a
budget, I can see these panels being a benefit for taming
commercial spaces (offices and restaurants), and for home
(a
use (reflective living rooms, home theatres, gaming rooms,
etc.). I have to mention one more time how damn cool these
look! Check out the web site for finish and pattern options.
Browsers beware; at this price, once you look, you’re sure to
buy. ($49 direct; gikacoustics.com) -SM
e
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el
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you saw their ad in Tape Op.
mp
AMS Neve
RMX16 500 Series digital reverb
The decade that had the most impact on my musical
growth and development was the ‘80s; it was a ripe and
fertile time for new recording technologies and techniques.
Many artists seemed quite intent on pushing new
arrangements and writing boundaries, while simultaneously
being influenced by new technology. Peter Gabriel [Tape Op
#63], Kate Bush, and producer/artist Trevor Horn [#89] are
perfect examples of people that were embracing much of this
new tech, including the products coming from Advanced
Music Systems, or AMS. They claim their DMX 15-80 Digital
Delay Line (released in 1978) and RMX16 Digital Reverb
(1981) were the first microprocessor-controlled delay and
reverb units commercially available, and they sounded unlike
anything else available at the time.
Fast-forward four decades, and AMS Neve have reissued
the RMX16 in a three-space 500 Series module; this mono
in/stereo out processor includes not only the nine original
algorithms (Programs in AMS-speak) that shipped with the
original RMX16, but also the additional nine that could be
added by using a bar code reader wand and a printed sheet
of the extra Programs! All of the control parameters of the
original unit are on hand for editing each Program. The
original’s row of iconic, red, LED readouts for numerical data
has been replaced with a small, four-row OLED display, and
the processing is now 32-bit, with 24-bit converters on the
input and output running at a 48 kHz sample rate. These
updates make the Programs shine as never before; I was
curious if AMS Neve had attempted to model the sound of
the original unit’s 16-bit converters and 18 kHz bandwidth.
It turns out that the RMX16 employs pre-DSP input-stage
(d
modeling that truncates the captured 24-bit samples to 16-
bit samples, and then applies an 18 kHz roll-off filter to
copy the original unit’s sound – but to my ears, this is a
unit fit for 2020!
Programs and parameters can be accessed or adjusted
with a data entry pot (sliver and beautifully sculpted as on
l
the original!), as well as with the keypad for even finer
parametric entry; the data pot adjusts most parameters in
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values of ±10 with each step of its rotation, whereas
specific values can be entered via the alphanumeric
keypad. 100 Preset slots are available for saving edited
gm
versions of Programs.
So, how does the new RMX16 sound? In a word, glorious!
I’m lucky enough to regularly use two different original
RMX16s at a couple of studios here in Seattle, as well as the
Universal Audio UAD plug-in version, so I’m well acquainted
with the sound of these units. It’s a sound I love that I also
find entirely viable and relevant, certainly not something to
be consigned to the annals of early digital processing history.
The Programs of the RMX16 are exactly what one would
expect if they had had any familiarity with the original unit,
or indeed the UAD version. There’s the tiniest difference in
sound and frequency response between the original hardware
and the new piece, but that’s likely due to age in the
components of the original unit that I was testing against
than anything else; the code for the algorithms is the same.
Ambience, Plate A1, and Room A1 sound incredible on drums
with a liveliness that newer reverb units and plug-ins seem
to lack. Perhaps it’s due to the much more simple nature of
how these algorithms are constructed – they don’t seem to
get overly complex as to take up too much space in a mix –
only the right amount that will leave more room for other
elements. Whatever is happening in the RMX16 (there’s no
Gear Reviews/(continued on page 84)/Tape Op#136/83
modulation on the tails of these reverbs, so that’s a big
difference when compared to Lexicon and many other digital
reverbs from the same era), it’s a beautiful thing. The Delay
program offers up to 1.6 seconds of delay that sounds
incredible – funnily, delay time is set on this Program by
adjusting the Predelay parameter, not Decay. The Image
program is another secret weapon for vocals – a dash of this
on a send from a lead vocal and the singer is transported to
another dimension.
One of the signature programs on the RMX16 is “Nonlin2”;
this is AMS’s take on the Hugh Padgham [#55] / Phil Collins
gated reverb that was manually created for Peter Gabriel’s
song, “Intruder,” using the SSL Listen Mic with its massive
built-in compression with a noise gate. Yes, that sound
became dated and a bit of a punch-line (“In the Air Tonight,”
anyone?), but it can still add a lot of life to a snare track
when blended in subtly or give a vocal dimension and space
without washing it out in a ton of decaying reverb.
Obviously, it’s no secret I’m a huge fan of the RMX16 sound
– I don’t necessarily care about the “ideal” reverb – I want
m
to be excited by an effect if I’m going to use it in a mix. Does
the RMX16 sound like the most glorious, perfect
co
room/hall/plate simulation I’ve ever heard? No, of course
not, but that’s not the point – this is a reverb/effects
processor designed to add a character and unique sound that
may be unattainable in any other way. In that, it exceeds
perfectly! ($1295 list; ams-neve.com)
-Don Gunn <dongunn.com>
)
TASCAM
ot
SERIES 8p Dyna 8-channel mic pre
Tascam released something that will interest growing
studios. The SERIES 8p Dyna offers 8-channels of mic pres with
1-Knob analog compressors, phantom power, eight analog
outputs (on DB-25 or TRS), dual optical outs (8-channels at 96
kHz via S/MUX, less at higher sample rates), and Word Clock
I/O. It is designed to connect with a TASCAM SERIES 102/ 208i
or other S/MUX-equipped audio interfaces. Although a
patchbay would be efficient, it’s not required. Inputs are XLR
combo jacks. You can set up and be recording in minutes.
I began by comparing the 8p Dyna preamps against those
from a competing interface. In my opinion, cost cutting on the
mic pre is commonplace in interface design, causing noise and
distortion creep in. That’s not the case with the 8p Dyna.
Tascam uses their HDIA (High Definition Instrumentation
Architecture) microphone preamps, which have a better signal-
to-noise ratio and less distortion. I found a noticeable bump
in the upper-mid presence with the Tascam that I didn’t hear
on the competition’s preamps. On drums, the 8p Dyna helped
the snare stand out. There was not much difference in the high
frequency range, making it a wash between the two for
overheads. However, the competitor exhibits a small bump in
the low end that the Tascam does not. The Hi-Z instrument
inputs on the Tascam (channels 1 and 2) seemed darker than
mic channels. Not in a bad way, it’s just that the difference
between it and another interface was more pronounced when
using the instrument inputs. The low end on the Tascam had
a very “brown” nature to it – think round, classic rock sound,
while the competition’s DIs seemed more neutral.
Comparing against the preamps on our Sony MXP-3036
console (known to be transparent, high-headroom – the total
opposite of beloved vintage designs) was not a fair fight. I
wasn’t surprised that a large-format analog console would
have more depth, but I was surprised at how much more high
end information the Tascam possessed over the Sony. Well
done, Tascam!
 Each channel has a dedicated compressor Tascam has
dubbed “1-knob”: a one-knob affair (for threshold) with a
fixed 3:1 ratio. I’m not sure of the attack/release times, but
it suited bass DI very well. Enough transient information
got through to maintain the articulation while the release
was not overly pumpy. Set fully counterclockwise, the knob
hard bypasses the compression circuit. I don’t usually track
with compression, which makes this bypass feature vital
to my workflow.
The 8p Dyna has two Word Clock BNC connectors: one
for IN, the other THRU/OUT. Both have selectable
termination (75 ohms). Incorrect termination can cause
jitter (the very noticeable kind). No need for tee
connectors or terminal barrels.
Now some minor gripes: There are no pads on input
channels. My drum overheads were clipping the 8p Dyna
even with gain at minimum, which certainly had a lot to do
with my drummer’s love of playing with miniature baseball
bats combined with large diaphragm condenser overheads
with hot outputs – but it was an issue. As a workaround, I
could either use my console’s line inputs, or even better
simply use in-line XLR attenuators (Parts Express sells these
for $9 each). The compressor takes some time to set, as
small movements on the pot could make significant changes
to the threshold.
There are a lot of quality components crammed into this
single rack space unit. The 8p Dyna’s preamps probably sound
better than those in your current all-in-one interface (they did
in mine), and compression on each channel is a bonus. Add to
that 8-channels of S/MUX expansion, and one can immediately
boost high resolution channel count. Its small footprint and
feature set make for a versatile addition to any growing studio
while also providing excellent value for the money.
($549 street; tascam.com)
-Dylan Ray <blackwolfroom.com>
Pedal Crush (book)
(d
Kim Bjorn & Scott Harper
This book, subtitled Stompbox Effects for Creative Music
l
Making, is a welcome guide to how the conversation around
instrument pedals and recording has evolved over the past
ai
few years, especially with the introduction of simple
interfacing solutions like the EXTC [Tape Op #100] from Radial
Engineering, Casa Distortion’s PEDALpUNK! [#117], or the
Meris 440 Mic Preamp [#103] with a built-in effects loop. It’s
gm
easier than ever to use pedals for tracking and mixing, and
they can bring a wide variety of color to the table.
Pedal Crush is simply the most comprehensive look at
guitar pedals I have ever seen. Beautifully photographed and
meticulously researched, I believe it is an incredibly useful
t)
resource for producers, engineers, and sound crafters alike.
Inside are tips and tricks, interviews with some of the artists
that use the pedals, plus some of the manufacturers and
brands that created them. It was inspiring to browse through
(a
pages, tempting me to go online and start hunting for some
specimens I was not familiar with!
So, whether you are trying to help a guitar or bass player
craft a special tone, or looking to bring something that a
plug-in everyone else has can’t deliver to a mix, you will find
e
Pedal Crush a fun read and essential reference guide for all
things pedals! Written by Kim Bjørn and Scott Harper, with
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other writers – including Tape Op contributor Alex Maiolo!
($66.51 direct; pushturnmove.com) –GS
mp
84/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 86)
Eventide
Omnipressor dynamics plug-in
A huge part of Eventide’s identity lies in their lineage in
modern recorded music and the resulting imprint these
contributions have left on the landscape of record making.
Imagine your record collection without the H3000, or the
Reverb 2016 [Tape Op #48], for that matter. The list goes on
and on and extends to the present day with the H9000. This
is all information anyone can note, but my favorite thing
about these products is the renegade nature behind them. For
a company that makes such hi-fi and cutting-edge gear, there
is an informed “fuck it” vibe here and again, or bravery, if you
will, with a willingness to take risks sonically and otherwise.
The original Omnipressor is a perfect example of this spirit.
Invented by Richard Factor [#130], it was introduced in the
early ‘70s; first, with the notorious white faceplate layout
(that by all accounts was nebulous and confusing), followed
by the more common 2830 format, then a redesign by John Paul
soon thereafter. Check out Richard’s video on the history of the
m
Omnipressor <www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6upBgu61hE>. Even
with the last upgrade in both functionality and usability, it
co
still shipped with a pretty intense disclaimer: “Your
Omnipressor loves you and wants to be your friend. If you don’t
understand it, if you don’t fondle its controls properly, it will
cause you hours of confusion, and tempt you to dash it on the
rocks or put it in a sack and drown it. PLEASE READ this
applications section before blaming your Omnipressor for
)
malfeasance or deviltry.” See what I mean? Pretty daring for a
ot
young company back then. It was the first compressor with
sidechain capabilities, and the first to sport a lookahead
feature. The above alone is enough to get me interested. And
the whole idea spawned from a chat that Factor had with Mark
Weiss, who was using something called a homomorphic filter
to forensically scrub the Nixon tapes? I’m downloading now!
Compression is one of the more divisive topics in audio; there
are as many opinions, favorites, and techniques as there are
engineers. When I was coming up, there was a host of folks
doing cool weird shit with compression that seemed “outside”
of the techniques that I was taught. I became enamored with
the recordings of Tchad Blake [Tape Op #16, #133] and Brian
Paulson [#78] and started trying to use compression as more
than just a tool to fix problems. Following their examples, I
began abusing compression, and it has been a part of my
technique ever since. This was before Empirical Labs’ founder
Dave Derr [#33] left Eventide to take the Omnipressor idea in a
new direction with his ubiquitous EL-8X Distressor [#32], so one
had to work harder to get some misbehavior to happen, like
pushing all the ratio buttons in, etc. If this is your bag too, stop
reading now and buy the Omnipressor plug-in. Describing what
exactly an Omnipressor does isn’t so simple. This “dynamics-
modifier” claims to control all facets of a source’s dynamics, with
variable attack and release times, a built-in gate and sidechain,
finished off with a wet/dry mix control. It’s incredibly effective
as a dynamics controller, and the amount of control is such that
we can create musical and exciting artifacts that are not easily
achievable in other processors. From peak limiting to all out
dynamic reversal, and everything in between – it’s all in there.
Even less sexy functions, like gating and expansion, are insanely
effective and can be pushed into gnarly territories.
I was mixing a record recently for a band with a spectacular
vibe. Sadly, the drummer’s performance was, shall we say,
anemic. No worries. I pulled out the Omnipressor, and within
seconds I turned a lackluster performance into something with
pizazz. High Bias engineer Evan Michals walked in as I was
mixing and said, “That drummer is a beast!” Problem solved.
 m
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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#136/85

 I’ve had similar luck expanding material with too little dynamic
variance. This is particularly effective with guitar and drums
but also super handy for making a bass line weave in and out
of a mix. I really love what the Omnipressor does to vocals. I
use the infinite compression setting on the vocal bus with the
wet/dry mix knob to dial in some parallel compression, adding
character while allowing for easy placement even in dense rock
mixes. The user interface is faithful to the original and can be
a little befuddling. The Omnipressor can do so much, and its
controls are so reactive and unique, that it’s easy to push it to
extremes and get lost. Thankfully the presets are good starting
points and a radical way to figure out how the Omnipressor
actually works. I’m not a preset guy at all but in this case,
presets can definitely be a boon to the unfamiliar venturing
into the enchanted forest that is extreme dynamics. The
wet/dry mix control also lets us get the perfect blend between
the aforementioned extremes and a dry signal. I’m constantly
surprised by how cool something that is heavily processed by
Omnipressor can sound; if it’s too mangled or over the top for
a song, I can blend in some dry signal, and the result is
downright gratifying – I can get all the character I want while
retaining definition. The Omnipressor shines on synths and
drum machines. If you make electronic music, buy this plug-in!
If it’s not obvious at this point, I really love the Omnipressor
plug-in. I’d also add that it seems to be light on my computer’s
processor. I’ve been using it as a gate a lot – it’s my favorite
for drums. All in all, the Omnipressor is a stellar dynamics plug-
in capable of a staggering amount of tasks from the functional
to the extreme and, at this price, it’s a steal.
($149 street; eventide.com)
-Chris Koltay < highbiasrecordings.com>
Raising Jake Studios
SideMinder stereo width plug-in
Described as a “Dynamic Stereo Width Maximizer,” SideMinder(d
was developed by Jeff Rippe, former president and chief engineer
of Rocksonics, and current mixing and mastering engineer at
Raising Jake Studios. This is not a plug-in that adds synthetic
stereo to a mono track; instead, it brings out the width that
l
exists in stereo audio to begin with. SideMinder adjusts the ratio
ai
between left/right side audio and the sound in the center that
shares L/R, while retaining the same average output volume. It
also looks ahead at the audio for phase incoherencies, and
dynamically narrows the stereo image where issues occur. But
gm
still, keep in mind that stereo width can also be increased.
The standard SideMinder plug-in is easy to use. A Width
Adjust fader slides between stereo and mono, a Width Limiter
allows for gradations between Slow or Fast Release, and the
Bass Mono knob can be set between 30 and 300 Hz (like
summing low end for vinyl cutting). The Output Correlation
t)
meter helps give an idea of how much of your signal has phase
issues, plus it remains active when bypassed (smart!). There
are no presets included, but then again, SideMinder is simple
(a
to set, and it’s easy to hear changes with a quick bypass.
On the other hand, SideMinder ME is the “Mastering
Edition,” and contains a lot more controls and features while
using more CPU power. The “# Bands” selects one to three
frequency bands of stereo with crossover control adjustment.
Each band has Width Adjust and Width Limiter controls that
e
can go “Advanced” for deeper control. Level Trim is for
balancing the band volumes if needed, and Band Solo
el
buttons allow us to hear what is happening in each frequency
range. ME presets include MaxWide, WideNSolid, Vinyl, Safe
Mix, Safe Track, and 2-Band Safe. I’d suggest starting with
MaxWide and bypassing off and on to hear what SideMinder
mp
ME is capable of at its extreme.
86/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/
What do I use SideMinder on? Reverb returns: I can reduce
the center image and make the reverb sound far wider left
and right. This type of mid/side processing is powerful in
that capacity, and can help clear up my mixes yet still have
them sound deep and wide! Pads: Those virtual synths and
keyboards almost always sound like phase cancellation hell
to me, and the ability to control those problems while
making them sound wider (if desired) is a treat. Even
vintage polyphonic synths have issues, and SideMinder can
help when mixing.
I can imagine an amateur mastering engineer going
crazy, adding width at unusual frequency bands, and
basically destroying a mix with this tool. But I could also
see a mastering pro using SideMinder ME only as needed,
and in subtle ways, to solve many problems. I know I’d be
wary of slapping it on a digital mix bus, as I feel I should
be sorting everything out before that point. But I also could
see this being useful when I’m working on archive and
restoration work and attempting to pull the most out of a
2-track recording.
m
This is an affordable and amazing tool, and since I installed
mine I rarely print a mix without a couple of instances of
co
SideMinder in action. If you understand what I’m talking about
here, you likely need one or both versions of SideMinder!
Available as 64-bit VST2, VST3, and AAX formats for PC, and
VST2, VST3, AU, and AAX formats for Mac OS 10.11+.
($24.95, $39.95 for ME, www.raisingjakestudios.com) -LC
)
Highland Dynamics
BG1 Stereo “Re-Issue” compressor
ot
I first met Bryce Gonzales about five years ago through our
mutual friend and pillar of the Los Angeles music community,
Jonathan Larroquette. Jonathan is a longtime manager, fixer,
and fixture at Jack Waterson’s renowned music shop, Future
Music. Between Jack and Jonathan, there is basically no piece
of interesting gear they haven’t seen. From the most esoteric
Japanese lawsuit-era spaghetti logo shit, to the secretly good
Rolands that are still cheap, to the killer pro audio time forgot.
When they tell you something is rad, it’s rad.
I was sent pictures of three particularly interesting-looking
compressors, two of which ended up being the last pair of
Bryce’s original run of four hand-wired BG2s [Tape Op #113], the
other was a totally custom one-off based on a hybrid RCA BA-
6A / Universal Audio 175B compressor/limiter circuit. It was
built into an airline salvage chassis and looked one notch less
bonkers than it sounded. He brought them by and we had a
fun hang and chatted about good design and awesome
records. I bought all three immediately and, in the five years
since, have used them on almost every record that I’ve mixed.
You can hear the BG2s in parallel with the entire mix for Bing
and Ruth’s No Home of the Mind.
Bryce came by the studio recently for a visit, appearing
at the door with a smile whose size was rivaled only by the
massive power transformer he was grasping, one-handed,
protruding out of the back of the compressor we are here to
discuss. The Highland Dynamics BG1 Stereo “Re-Issue” is a
design Bryce has been working on and refining since his
days at Tape Op’s own John Baccigaluppi’s studio. If you
stalk the right Instagram accounts, you can see Bryce
leaving in his wake a series of cool one-off compressors
with a BG1 designation amongst lucky engineers around the
world. This particular new iteration makes some
interestingly useful additions to the circuit, and marks a
formal run of the compressor under the auspices of Highland
Dynamics, hence “Re-Issue”.
 At its core, the BG1 Stereo “Re-Issue” is a 2-channel
variable mu limiter based around Bryce’s interpretation of
an Altec 436C Compressor Amplifier circuit. Each channel
has controls for input and output gain, nine position
switchable attack and release time constants, a three
position switch for threshold (high, medium, and low),
and switches for Input Impedance, Feedback, and
Compression bypass, which is not a traditional bypass –
this switch simply disengages the sidechain tube so you
can use the circuit as a fabulous line amp, to be sent into
distortion at your pleasure. Additionally, there is a Hold
switch – a la the famous EMI/Abbey Road mods for the
Altec 436C – so that the user can “hold” an amount of gain
reduction to prevent an audible bump when signal first
reaches the unit in slower time settings.
The Input Impedance switch selects between 150 or
600 ohm input impedance, which makes the BG1 “Re-
Issue” capable of driving a mic without the need for an
additional preamp (or it can add additional color with line
level sources), and the Feedback switch changes the
circuit behavior between stock Altec and the EMI mod –
similar to the same switch in the BG2. The three threshold
settings allow the user to raise the threshold enough to
optionally drive the compression circuit from the smooth
stock setting into harmonic saturation. There’s a link
switch for easy stereo use, and Bryce has added a
sidechain filter switch to the front panel as well to remove
low end from the detection circuit. In operation, all this
makes for a tremendously malleable tube compressor that
simply can’t be made to sound bad.
The arrival of the BG1 “Re-Issue” happened to coincide
with a wrestling match between me and a particularly
resonant piano. The piano recently had a full hammer
replacement, so there were several intensely sharp higher
harmonics that would ring in a dissonant way on certain
notes because the felt was still wearing in. I was trying a
combination of extremely high-Q, tuned notches with
some multiband compression in FabFilter’s Pro-Q 3 [#132],
some tape saturation to try to slow down the transients,
compression, and some global shaping EQ, etc. One of
those dumb plug-in chains that gets ten deep but still isn’t
quite doing what’s needed. Replacing that with the BG1
“Re-Issue” immediately solved all the textural problems
those plug-ins couldn’t. Add a little EQ and print.
One of the more interesting features found in this “Re-
Issue” are the time constants. Per Bryce, he wanted to
make it go from as fast as he could get it without artifacts,
to north of ten seconds. This leads to some particularly
unusual possible applications. The slower attack times
mean that transients won’t set off the detection, and the
t)
extremely long release times mean that really gentle and
good sounding averaging is a breeze. In effect, it feels like
parallel compression in one box without the need for a mix
knob. Recently, I’ve been using this on my two bus in
(a
concert with a fast solid state limiter for that classic
fast/slow combo, and this compressor absolutely rules in
that application. Bryce told me he’s been using the slower
settings to do live to 2-track recordings to a Nagra tape
machine, and it excels at that too.
e
Bryce, like many of the best designers in audio history,
is also a talented engineer. Larroquette put it beautifully
el
when he told me simply, “Bryce has the same goals as we
do.” He wants to make tools he can use for his own
recordings. The BG1 “Re-Issue” has been incredibly
flattering to nearly every source I’ve thrown at it as Bryce
mp
is refining its harmonic texture in the crucible of his own
recording work as well. This compressor has been examined
down to the component level in this “Re-Issue” and is voiced
a little differently than the BG2. The copy on Highland
Dynamics website says, “This BG1 used [the] 6SN7 [tube] to
drive the output instead of the 6CG7 [tube]. This isn’t a big
difference, but the 6SN7 always sounded better to me so it’s
in this. The two capacitors in the signal path are K40Y-9
paper-in-oil caps.”
This quote is so wonderfully emblematic of how Bryce thinks
and speaks about equipment; I had to include it here. He
describes the harmonic texture of this amp stage and a junction
point in a circuit with the kind of certainty that everyone will
understand what he’s talking about – as one might understand
if he were addressing a room about blueberry pancakes. Surely
everyone here must know how blueberry pancakes taste; that’s
a shared human experience we can all relate to.
Even in a studio where there are already a beloved pair of
BG2s, the BG1 “Re-Issue” is getting just as much love but in
different applications. Whereas I tend to gravitate towards
smacking the BG2s a little harder, with the feedback set to
m
Altec style and the impedance at 150, to push into that
classic chimey Altec midrange for guitar or for that super in-
co
your-ear vocal sound, the BG1 “Re-Issue” tends to live more
for me on buses or piano/Rhodes/synths in British Feedback
mode, giving a gently flattering lift to anything a hi-fi tube
circuit can benefit from. And again, the additional time
constants on the BG1 “Re-Issue” opens up a range of
applications that further differentiate the two and set it apart
)
nicely for stereo duties.
In an era where the milieu increasingly embraces the
ot
convenience of digital for a myriad of defensible reasons, I
find it ever more important to celebrate those people
keeping the light on for our analog forebears. Bryce Gonzales
(d
is, in my mind, absolutely one of the brightest lights
designing and building today. He creates the tools I use daily
that make my work sound better. Funny enough, Brad Allen
Williams, the reviewer of the BG2, bought a pair for his studio
after his time with one, and I am thrilled to be adding this
BG1 “Re-Issue” to my collection as well.
l
($3495 street; highlanddynamics.com)
-Brian Bender <brightandguilty.com>
ai
Fluid Audio
FX80 coaxial powered monitors
gm
I’ve been using the same nearfield studio monitors for
almost ten years now. My main pair is no longer in production,
and my alternate pair is from a company that shut down – and
I’ve been concerned about what might happen if any of these
break. Over the past few years, I’ve grown accustomed to the
sound of my monitors, and I think I understand them well.
When the opportunity came up to check out something new I
was ready to dig in, but also a little bit nervous.
I had not heard of Fluid Audio before, but it turns out
they’ve been around for eight years now; the product of ex-JBL
engineer (and musician) Kevin Zuccaro. One of the features
that make the FX80 somewhat unique is its coaxial design.
With the FX80’s, the tweeter is suspended directly in front of
the woofer cone, instead of being mounted above or such in
the cabinet separately. This alignment is said to improve off-
axis response, resulting in greater imaging and depth. Each
FX80 contains two Class D amplifiers, with DSP to control the
crossover network and user-adjustable options (more on that
later). The 8-inch woofer and advertised frequency response of
35 Hz - 22 kHz (± 3 dB) caught my attention, and I was excited
to hear how they would sound in my studio.
Gear Reviews/(continued on page 88)/Tape Op#136/87
 Though the FX80s are compact, they’re still larger than
both my other monitors. After getting them set up and
aligned properly, I began listening to some reference tracks.
I enquired with Fluid Audio about a break-in period, and was
told that a little wouldn’t hurt, but they should be ready to
use right out of the box. Over the next few days of use, I
didn’t really notice a difference.
The FX80 has both TRS and XLR balanced inputs, plus
unbalanced RCA inputs. There are also DIP switches on the
rear of the monitors to adjust the EQ to the room. I felt the
FX80 lacked a bit of lower mid-presence that I was used to
with my current monitors, so I increased the mid-EQ
(centered at 1.5 kHz) by 1 dB, which got me into more
familiar territory. The user’s guide was not entirely clear to
me, so I had to look at the back of the monitor for
clarification. I asked Fluid Audio about this, and a few days
later a close-up image of the rear of the monitor appeared on
the website. Hopefully, the image will be added to the user’s
guide – often the back of a monitor is not easily viewable
after installation.
New monitors take a while to get used to and after a
month with these, I’m really starting to see where they are
helping me. On a few recent projects, I was listening on
some larger systems that could produce lower frequencies
and was hearing more sub frequencies in my mixes than I
wanted – they came across as muddy. This meant my usual
monitors were not reaching that low. The FX80s, on the
other hand, extended a bit further than my current
monitors and allowed me to hear enough low end so that I
could clean it up. My mixes started sounding better to me
on the FX80s. Sure, I could get a subwoofer to my current
monitor setup, but with the FX80s I felt the sub frequencies
were represented well for my needs, and I heard where to
set my high-pass filters properly!
(d
I also feel that with its coaxial design, off-axis response
and imaging is better with the FX80s, and the listening sweet
spot is wider than with my other monitors. I can roll back in
my chair and the sound doesn’t change drastically, whereas
with my other monitors I’ve learned there is a specific spot
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where I get the best stereo image – I think this is going to
be beneficial when listening to playback or mixes while the
ai
artist or band is in attendance.
While they do look a little different than most traditional
speakers or monitors, the FX80’s co-axial design doesn’t
gm
really sound different to me – nor would I want or expect
them to. When mixing tracks or listening to playback, we
depend on our monitors to provide an honest representation
of what has been recorded. Sometimes I use the FX80s for a
“second opinion” while other times they are my primary
playback option. Either way, I’m happy with the mixes I am
t)
getting so far.
Auditioning new monitors isn’t something I like to do
often, but it’s comforting to know that there are affordable
options out there that can produce good results. At this price
(a
point (a mere third of what I paid for my other pair of
monitors) the FX80s definitely exceeded my expectations.
($249/ea MSRP; fluidaudio.com)
-Mike Kosacek <doubledogrecording.com>
e
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possible by our
el
advertisers.
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you saw their ad in Tape Op.
mp
88/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/
Arturia
AudioFuse 8Pre interface
Arturia expands its AudioFuse line of USB audio interfaces
with the 8Pre, a versatile single rack space unit eight input
preamp/audio interface that has up to eight channels of
ADAT I/O, plus USB-C connectivity. My testing for this
handsome “dual-mode” unit included use cases as both a
standalone interface and an eight-in/eight-out 24-bit/96
kHz ADAT expander for my other interfaces.
The hardware is finished in a restrained matte black with
contrasting bright orange rack mount ears, which double as
desktop feet (of a sort) when installed in a vertical
orientation to the sides of the 8Pre. The orange color “pop”
of the Arturia’s rack ears makes for easy identification in a
busy rack. All controls are effortlessly accessible, clearly
labeled, and all correlate to one dedicated function. The
pots are high quality, and critical function buttons are
backlit, which is a massive plus in a dark studio. The first
two channels have XLR combo jacks duplicated on the front
m
panel, another rack-friendly design element that is always
appreciated. All eight inputs have the same combo jacks
co
addressable on the rear panel as well, and the first two
channels have dedicated insert loops via two pairs of TRS
jacks – sweet! The remaining outputs are all TRS, and the
rear panel is rounded out with word clock I/O and two pairs
of ADAT I/O (both pairs need to be connected to address all
8 ADAT channels in 88.2 or 96 kHz). That’s a fair amount of
)
ins and outs!
Driver installation and set up on a Mac is a snap (Windows
ot
is supported as well). Like the original AudioFuse [Tape Op
#123], the power button doubles as a convenient shortcut to
launch the AudioFuse Control Center app when connected via
USB-C (the Control Center isn’t available when connected via
ADAT only). The 8Pre must run in either USB or ADAT mode
but will address Control Center mix, preference, or setting
changes over USB when setting to ADAT mode. Did I mention
that Arturia includes all the required cabling (USB C-to-C, or
A-to-C)? At this price point, you’d expect a stingy approach
to the in-box materials, but nope.
In my testing, I used the USB connection to update
firmware and fuss with a few settings in the Control Center
software. After cabling everything up correctly, I switched to
ADAT mode and disconnected the USB cable. I can verify that
the 8Pre performed quite nicely as a “standalone” 8-channel
expansion for my existing interface. Though the 8Pre is
limited to 96 kHz, you do get a full eight channels at that
resolution, provided you have four ADAT/TOSLINK cables
connected. I used my existing master clock in my setup, but,
of course, the 8Pre could be used as the master clock in any
installation. Two 8Pres can be cascaded/chained over ADAT
or attached to a single computer via USB, and the Control
Center will address them as an aggregate device.
The 8Pre’s mic preamps punch way above their weight. In
my review of the original AudioFuse I noted that its path
sounded much better than I’d expected, given its
affordability, and that the quality of its A/D and D/A
conversion was on par with interfaces above its price class. I
also mentioned that the onboard Arturia DiscretePRO
preamps sounded incredible, and justified all of the hype in
the marketing literature, which states, “Our interfaces give
you the most vibrant, accurate sound around, with practically
zero noise even at max gain, and enormous dynamic range.”
This all holds true for the 8Pre – they even provide an
individual DiscretePRO preamp performance certificate for
every unit sold.
 Arturia has done a stellar job of tuning these boxes for minimal noise with maximum gain, and
the inclusion of two inserts on the first two channels is super useful. If the value represented here
wasn’t seemingly enough, Arturia throws in a “greatest hits” bundle of their software effects and
virtual instruments ($800 value) to sweeten the already sugarcoated deal, including TridA-Pre (A-
Range style preamp/EQ), 1973-Pre (British style preamp/EQ), V76-Pre (German tube style
preamp/filter), Mini-Filter (recreation of Moog’s Ladder Filter with LFO, envelope, and step
sequencer), Comp FET-76 (Class A FET compressor), Delay TAPE-210 (tape echo), and Analog Lab
Lite (software instrument with a selection of more than 100 Arturia V Collection patches). For folks
just getting serious about recording their band, or even some fussy old studio rat like me with an
existing rig and workflow, the AudioFuse 8pre is an undeniable win at this price point.
($799 MSRP; arturia.com) -Dana Gumbiner <danagumbiner.com>

Kludge Audio
511 500 Series Germanium mic pre
In my experience, germanium circuits are not for the faint of heart. Not for playing it safe. Not
for those seeking clarity, or wanting to retain transparency. This type of design is for the engineer
looking for certain textures on the front end while committing to a sound. The Kludge Audio Model
511 Germanium mic pre is a 500 Series, dead simple preamp with a single knob for gain and a single
switch for phantom power. I also reviewed, and now own, the Kludge Audio Transwarmer [Tape Op
#128] – another simple design that builds on nontransparent character designs of yesteryear.

m
The first aspect I noticed with the 511 is that it has a surprising amount of gain. I was barely
turning the knob up – a dynamic mic in front of a vocal was typically only in the nine o’clock

co
range. The sound was dense and upfront right away on all sources. When used conservatively, it
has a hefty tone with a little bit of upper midrange bite. Next, I noticed that even when the gain
stage was relatively clean and safe, there was a subtle softening to the louder transients, and when
I pushed it a little further, it was definitely imposing its character and soft clipping nature to
anything that passed through it. This helps push elements to the front of a mix, and is well-suited
for the hands of an experienced engineer that knows the line between just right and too far.

)
For a rock vocal recording, I split the signal for a test. One side went to a Neve 1272 mic pre
followed by a vintage Urei 1176LN; my go-to vocal chain. The other side went only to the Kludge

ot
511. After fine-tuning my standard vocal chain with good results, I matched its average volume
with the 511’s signal and recorded the two separate tracks into my DAW. Looking at the song’s
softer verses and louder choruses, I noticed that the two waveforms appeared very similar. This
was evident even in the loud passages where the 1176 was doing its thing. The 511 was also
compressing the vocal, but in a different way than my standard signal chain, and without the
timed attack and release character from the compressor. In solo, the 511 track was robust sounding
with a pleasing upper mid-tone that pushed the vocal forward in the track. In the most dynamic
(d
parts of the song, the Kludge began to saturate the vocal, but it’s not as noticeable in the full mix
– unless you crank the gain into full limiting/saturation land. This isn’t that buzzy sounding
l
“preamp gone too far” sound. It’s a nice distortion that sounds unique, like from an overdriven
tube pre or a silicon transistor pre, making the 511 pretty versatile. If you are short on compressors,
ai

or simply don’t like to use traditional compression while tracking, this pre is somewhat of a combo
deal on its own. I loved it on vocals, but it really revealed its character on bass guitar and sources
like a jangly, slightly distorted guitar amp. The 511 can barely soften any source to help find its
gm

place in a mix, or – like I mentioned before – it can dig right into full-on distortion and limiting.
If I was to criticize anything, the phantom power switch has no indication of what position is
“on,” so be careful when using ribbon mics. An output attenuator wouldn’t hurt either, and would
make the saturation of the unit a little more flexible, but an external in-line pad could remedy this
too, I suppose. That said, I do dig the super simple design. If you’re looking for a mic pre with
loads of character that can do extra duty as a subtle to an intense compressor and/or saturator,
t)

this will do it. For a high-end mic pre, it’s not at all too expensive, so try it out!
($529 MSRP; kludgeaudio.com) -Justin Mantooth <justinmantooth.com>

Kazrog
(a

True Iron plug-in

I’m sure you’ve read countless interviews and reviews in Tape Op mentioning how analog
gear can impart “depth,” “weight,” “sheen,” or that elusive “glue” to a track or a mix. Much
of the time, these discussions revolve around the classic preamps, EQs, and compressors of the
‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. In the past few decades, many of these vaunted processors have been
e

modeled as plug-ins – adding more attestations and remonstrations to the inexhaustible

analog versus digital debate. Meanwhile, indie plug-in developer Shane McFee (Kazrog) worked
el

closely with composer/producer Devin Powers (Powers Music) to model the individual
transformers that are integral to the sound of those lauded pieces of gear. The result is True
Iron, an AAX/VST/AU plug-in that lets one route audio through emulations of six different
transformers that are found in vintage devices made by Ampex, Urei, Neve, Rhode und Schwarz,
mp

Siemens, Neumann, and Telefunken.

Gear Reviews/(continued on page 90)/Tape Op#136/89
 When F. Reid Shippen [Tape Op #125] and I visited Devin Powers at one of Devin’s studios
last year, I saw a fraction of the golden-era gear he owns, including the most impressive
collection of tube limiters I’ve seen (or even knew existed in one place). Devin also walked
us through his back rooms, while explaining the virtues of the specific transformers he has
stockpiled and showing us his custom multichannel transformer interfaces that inspired this
plug-in. I wish I had a video of the tour to share. Instead, I suggest downloading the True
Iron user guide from the Kazrog website to read the history of the transformers modeled in
the plug-in.
History aside, how does the plug-in sound? As Reid opined to me, “True Iron works exactly
like vintage transformers work. Sometimes it’s meh, and sometimes it’s magic – and when it’s
magic, it’s really magic. It’s night and day on this new Kenny Chesney record.” This is coming
from a guy who has an enviable gear collection, including several pairs of bare transformers
wired to his patchbay for outboard processing. On the other hand, I don’t have any experience
with audio transformers outside the context of recording or mixing through the transformer-
equipped gear. But I can agree with Reid’s sentiment. As with most audio processors that I
love, I know quickly when True Iron isn’t sonically appropriate for the project at hand; but when
it is, it’s easy to find its sweet spot without much fiddling.
The UI is simple to use but deceptively deep. The main controls are a six-position switch for
transformer choice, a Crush knob for gain, a Strength knob for saturation/nonlinearity, and a
wet/dry Mix knob. Smaller controls let us toggle Crush ×2, Unity/Boost level, Morph even-

m
harmonic saturation, and DNA advanced modeling.
While setting up the initial mixes for the new album by Chris Brokaw Rock Band (Come,

co
Codeine, Lemonheads, Drop Nineteens, Juned, etc.), it was a challenge to find “space” for the
many layered guitars and an electric bass that was rich in distortion. Meanwhile, the vocals were
sounding too pristine in comparison. As Chris noted, the mixes weren’t gelling. (This wasn’t for
a lack of analog. The songs were tracked using API, Avedis, and Hamptone preamps. Additionally,
the drum mics were recorded through original Empirical Labs EL-7 FATSO Jr. [#24] channels; the

)
guitar and bass amps through TL Audio compressors; and the vocals through Retro Instruments
and Highland Dynamics processors.) I tried various plug-ins on the vocals and instruments, and

ot
I patched in several analog processors on the mix bus. After Chris mentioned that the vocals
were still not sitting well in the mix, I instantiated True Iron on the track. It took less than a
minute of turning the Crush and Strength knobs, while cycling through the six transformers, to
realize we’d found the right effect for Chris’s vocal. We settled on the Haufe V178 transformer,

(d
which adds a broad harmonic sheen at lower volumes, but pushes heavily into the lower-order
odd harmonics when driven hard. Like magic, Chris’s voice gained heft when it needed to,
without me having to add (or ride) the level. On Claudia Groom’s vocal, we chose the UTC O-12,
which emphasizes all of the even-order harmonics; but from the odds, only the third harmonic
becomes conspicuous when the transformer model is driven to saturation. This extra “sugar”
l
worked perfectly for Claudia’s beautifully sung vibrato. On the mix bus, I applied the Western
Electric 111C, which seems to have the biggest sweet spot of all the models, where it adds even-
ai

order harmonics before it reaches a steep ramp-up of the third harmonic into wooly distortion.
Adding Drive subtly and blending wet/dry, I was able to repaint some of the lower-midrange
muddiness that I hadn’t fully eradicated from the mix, into upper-midrange depth, without losing
any weight in the mix. At this point, the mixes were gelling, and the vocals were sitting properly,
gm

but I found one more use for True Iron. In front of various delay and reverb plug-ins, I placed
the UTC HA 108X, which emphasizes the third harmonic from the get-go. As you turn up Drive,
it gets extra thick with odd-order harmonics. For each delay and reverb, I tweaked the amount
of Drive and wet/dry Mix in True Iron to vary the texture of the effect.
While setting up True Iron on these mixes, I appreciated that the plug-in offers a dedicated
t)

delay-compensated bypass that switches between in/out modes with a volume ramp,
facilitating A/B’ing when the current setting is subtle or transparent enough that a pop caused
by jumping from in/out state would hamper comparison. On the other hand, I grew tired of
looking at a large skeuomorphic rendering every time I opened the plug-in, and I eventually
(a

switched to the generic editor view offered in Cubase. (At least the UI scales on high-DPI
monitors under Windows OS – something that most plug-in publishers haven’t figured out yet.)
Also, the plug-in’s bandwidth is only 22 kHz. Even if your session is at 96 kHz or 192 kHz, any
audio processed through True Iron will be down by 3 dB at 20 kHz. (If you use the wet/dry Mix
knob, the dry signal will pass through at full bandwidth.)
Transformers distort the signal – plain and simple – but sometimes, that distortion is magic,
e

especially when the harmonic energy of a track or song is redistributed in a musically dynamic
way. True Iron is capable of doing this, without any complicated controls or difficult-to-decipher
el

meters getting in the way. Granted, the plug-in isn’t appropriate on everything, and it isn’t a
panacea for poorly recorded tracks; but I bet you’ll find many instances where it will bestow
some of the desirable traits associated with analog gear – depth, weight, sheen, and glue – to
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your mixes. ($49.99 direct; kazrog.com) -AH

90/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 92)

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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#136/91

 Steinberg
UR22C USB 3 interface
A few weeks ago at the airport, I noticed a Best Buy
vending machine ready to dispense various electronic
goodies like laptop chargers, headphones, lightning
cables, and an audio interface. I’m sure that
somewhere in the world there’s a gas station that has
one for sale – they’re everywhere! So, what makes the
Steinberg UR-C series interfaces better than the rest?
True USB 3.1 SuperSpeed with USB-C (why can’t
everything move to USB-C?) connection for both
computers and IOS devices; REAL 32-bit (up to 192
kHz) capability; high headroom Class A Yamaha D-PRE
preamps; Core Audio, ASIO, and WDM compatibility;
MIDI I/O; latency-free monitoring with free DSP
effects; sturdy, rugged full-metal casing; free DAW
software for MAC/PC (Cubase AI), and iOS (Cubasis LE);
plus added connectivity/controls depending on the
model. The UR-C family includes UR22C 2x2 (reviewed
here), the UR44C 6x4, and the UR816C 16x16
interfaces. A special-priced UR22C Recording Pack (not
reviewed here) includes the interface, plus headphones
and a condenser mic.
Out of the box, the UR22C is the sturdiest portable
interface I’ve ever handled. At roughly six-inches wide
and deep by two-inches tall, it takes up less room on the
desktop than most hardback books. Its dark gray and
black steel chassis looks at home next to most laptops
and iPads. Though its front panel offers a lot of options
for its size, the UR22C’s rugged controls and inputs (two
combo XLR/TRS (line/mic/DI) jacks, plus a single
headphone connection) are neatly arranged with clear
(d
markings and LEDs. Note: Channel One and Two’s inputs
also allow for DI connection, selected via a Lo-Z/Hi-Z
switch. Small rotary knobs for Input 1 and 2 gain, plus
Mix and Headphone levels are easy enough to turn. A
larger Output knob controls monitor level to the pair of
l
TRS Main outputs on the rear panel, and there’s a Power
Source selector. The UR22C is meant to be bus-powered,
ai
which definitely saves on desktop space, but can also be
run on external power. A wall wart charger can be used,
but the power connection is via micro USB, so one can
also use a portable charger to run this interface –
gm
genius! USB-C, MIDI I/O, and global +48 Phantom power
round out the rear panel.
Included in the packaging with the interface are a
USB-C to USB-A cable (thank you), a Startup Guide,
software download information, and product license
t)
cards. I found installation instructions and
implementation to be simple and fast on my MacBook
Pro running Sierra. I’m not (yet) a Cubase user, but
configuration of the UR22C in Pro Tools was about as
(a
easy as an interface set up could be. After a quick visit
to the Audio MIDI Setup application on my MacBook, the
UR22C showed up in Pro Tools as a true 32-bit interface.
Additional software requires the use of a Steinberg’s
eLicenser control panel to authorize their products; A
e
USB-eLicenser stick ($27.99 street) or software (Soft-
eLicenser) can be used. I’m sure that bus-powered
el
constraints explain why Steinberg didn’t add a low power
USB-A accessory connection for dongles like their USB-
eLicenser or an iLok, but it would be handy. Note on
connections: a Lightning to USB Camera Adapter [Tape
mp
Op #128] is required for iOS devices.
92/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/
In use, I was both blown away with the UR22C’s simplicity
of operation, and the quality of capture. The Yamaha Class A
D-Pre preamps are clean and fast with surprisingly good
headroom. I usually avoid using built-in interface pres, but
every source I recorded through the UR22C’s pres sounded
smooth in the higher frequencies, capturing transients in a
very natural way – having the ability to record portably at
32-bits/192 kHz didn’t hurt either. The DI also exhibits the
preamps character – or rather a lack of character (in a good
way). Direct electric bass guitar sounded round and warm,
with the right amount of punch. Did I mention the low noise
floor? These pres are as quiet as a mouse. Peak LED indicators
are located on the front panel directly above Channel 1 and
2 inputs. Pay attention to these indicators – with the UR22C’s
high bit rate, there’s no need to crank the input volume!
The dspMixFx allows access to the UR22C’s DSP mixer and
DSP effects. These tools are all hardware-based, so there’s
no latency. With the GUI, one can either monitor or print
the DSP effects, which include REV-X reverb, the Sweet Spot
Morphing Channel Strip and Guitar Amp Classics. The reverb
m
presets developed by Yamaha (Hall, Room, and Plate)
co
sound really polished. Steinberg’s Sweet Spot Morphing
Channel Strip offers surprisingly deep EQ and dynamics
control. Guitar Amp Classics (Clean, Crunch, Drive, and
Lead) are spot-on guitar amp simulators – I got some super
impactful results with an electric guitar straight into the
DI, and added a proper amount of midrange liveliness to a
)
bass DI track. I can’t wait to try some of the Guitar Amp
Classics on keyboards and vocals. The Channel Area includes
ot
a DSP high-pass filter and a polarity switch. VST versions of
dspMixFx for Cubase include additional features.
Though I didn’t get a chance to use the UR22C with an
iOS device, having this ability really has me looking at music
production in a broader sense – we don’t have to use
traditional methods to make good recordings anymore. The
UR22C is perfect for a quick, mobile overdub. The headphone
amp is stellar. It’s small enough to take anywhere. But don’t
let its size fool you, the UR22C is not a toy. With this box
and a few good mics, anyone can make a real high-
resolution record. Steinberg’s claims are true; it’s the
“perfect portable interface.” Suffice it to say, I don’t expect
I’ll ever see the UR22C in an airport vending machine!
(UR22C $189 street, Recording Pack $349 street;
steinberg.net) -SM
EUMLab
Pro Metronome app
Not everyone needs a click track, but even the best of
musicians can struggle at slower tempos on a Tuesday
morning in an unfamiliar environment with headphones
strapped on. If the band is tight, I shy away from
smearing headphones with nasty bleeping tempo
reminders. Pro Metronome is an easy to use yet advanced
metronome app for iOS and Android, with all the standard
functionality you might expect (tap tempo, click sounds,
etc.) plus advanced features such as customizable time
signatures, horizontal screen support, programmable
playlists, Inter-App audio support, Airplay compatibility
(for mirroring your iPhone display on a large screen or
projector), a practice timer, and multiple beat display
modes. The beat display modes are Pro Metronome’s best
features. You can configure unique visual cues like screen
flashes on all beats, or a bar count that triggers your
phone’s flash every measure. The GUI is elegantly simple
and easy to see in different lighting scenarios.
 During a recent tracking session, the drummer had his phone simply propped up
horizontally on a music stand, and with visual metronome cues only was able to fluidly guide
his band through tight performances while maintaining a natural rhythm and feel that never
came across as mechanical or rigid. This method helped to keep the other musician’s
attention where it should naturally be, without an unnatural electronically-generated blip
constantly flying around in their ears. In some instances, the band stopped following the
click altogether after only establishing the tempo at the beginning of the song.
My favorite feature of this app is simply that you don’t need an audio cue due to all
of the useful beat display options – no noise means no headphone bleed. I found most
performance results to be tempo cohesive enough for on the fly editing. Note: EUMLabs
claims a beat accuracy within 20 microseconds – not bad for a phone. Pro Metronome
may not be the right tool for every situation, but before sessions, I recommend
suggesting this app to clients that struggle with tempo. It’s a good training tool for
pre-tracking practice sessions but can be equally efficient in the studio if the fit is right
for the project. New features, like a tone generator and tuner, are typically added with
every update. I paid the $3.99 for advanced beat display modes, but trial/fee mode still
offers a lot of features, and there’s never any ads!
(free, w/ in-app purchases; eumlab.cn) -SM

Universal Audio

m
Avalon VT-737 Tube Channel Strip plug-in

co
The UAD VT-737 is a recreation of the renowned Avalon Designs 737 tube channel strip
[Tape Op #28]. At a glance, the basic features of the channel strip include a preamp section
with +45 dB of gain, a -20 dB pad, a phase reverse, a high gain switch for low output
sources, selectable mic/line modes, a DI, a selectable high-pass filter, various sidechain
features, a four-band EQ, and an optical compressor. Having never used the actual hardware,
I opted to give the UAD’s plug-in model of the VT-737 an objective test run while deep in

)
mix-land this past month.
First I pulled up the UAD VT-737 up on the lead vocal of the country rock mix I was

ot
working on, and dove into the compressor section of the channel strip. The compressor has
standard controls: Attack, Release, Ratio, and Threshold with input to the compressor
controlled by the preamp section. I found the compressor to be really thick and smooth
sounding in the upper mids. After some tweaking, I was able to dial in a nice vocal squish
with a medium/slow attack, medium/fast release, 3:1 ratio and a healthy amount of
reduction. I got similar results using the compressor on bass and backing vocals. The “X4”
feature on the compressor section helped to dial in quicker transient sources such as drums
(d
and picked acoustic guitar, but in general, I found the VT-737 most usable in songs and
sources where I could slow down the release time a little bit to let the compressor do its
l
job without heavy pumping.
The EQ section of the UAD VT-737 channel strip quickly became my favorite part of the
ai

plug-in. It offers a top and bottom shelf, plus two mid bands with Hi-Q and X10 switches.
The low shelf is spectacular. Only a couple dB on kick drum or bass was needed to make
them feel enormous in the mix – the “Brauer Bass” plug-in preset in particular sounded
gm

perfect on my bass DI. Moving to vocals, I gave the lead track a little bump at 15 kHz to
provide some clarity without bringing out any harsh sibilance. The high-pass filter set at
around 80 to 100 Hz helped to clear out some mud while maintaining the chestiness of the
vocal, and a little bump at 1.6 kHz brought the vocals forward. The mid bands are forgiving
– they can carve or boost liberally before tones start sounding plastic-y or overly processed.
The final EQ test I did was to throw an instance of the plug-in across my stereo mix bus. I
t)

gave the whole mix a little bump at 60 Hz and 10 kHz, followed by a subtle high-pass filter
at 30 Hz to get rid of some of the unnecessary sub information on this particular song. The
high shelf boost felt smooth and added clarity while the low shelf added weight to the
bottom without feeling overly boomy. Perhaps a bit heavy-handed for a standard mix bus
(a

EQ, but ultimately it sounded really good!

If you have access to the UAD Console capability, all of the features of the UAD VT-737
are available as a tracking tool when using the Unison technology. The DI emulation on this
plug-in sounds quite nice on bass guitar. My only (minor) gripe would be the output trim
jumps from -8 dB to -40 dB with nothing in between, making it a little pesky to make a
e

fine gain adjustment with a mouse while not messing with your gain staging from the input.
UA comments that though the labels may look odd, this simply indicates that the pot fully
el

attenuates. Overall, I found the UAD VT-737 to be a fantastic mixing tool – the EQ section
alone would be a useful tool for any mixer to have available!
($299 direct; uaudio.com) -Jeremy Wurst <coyotefacerecording.com>
mp

Gear Reviews/(continued on page 94)/Tape Op#136/93

 Solid State Logic
XL-Desk
Ten plus years ago I was the proud owner of a Neve 5104 console. I admit, it’s a far cry from a
vintage Neve sporting 1073 modules, but it’s what I could afford at the time and I liked its sound.
But as is the case with any piece of vintage equipment, it required constant love and attention. It
would behave well for days on end during tracking, but then the moment you needed to print a mix
an EQ would fizz out, something would magically become intermittent, or a channel’s level would
drop 10 dB. At some point, there was so much board tape on the console with “X”s on it to mark
bad channels, funky EQ’s, bad pans, etc. that I sold it “as is” to a guy that was willing to make a
project out of it. I want gear that sounds great and works every day. It’s not too much to ask, and
these days there’s a ton to choose from that meets these criteria. I feel I have been through it all
when it comes to different formats and workflows for mixing; in the box, all analog consoles, mix
surfaces/DAW controllers, summing mixers – you name it, I have tried it.
I like the flexibility of being able to execute recalls quickly when mixing in the box, but I also
enjoy using healthy amounts of analog processing. My fellow compatriots here at Tape Op know that
I’ve been on the hunt for a smallish format analog console with good routing options, can incorporate
500 Series modules, sounds great, and has at least decent feeling faders. The last point is a huge pet
peeve of mine. I’ll see an amazing looking console across the room at one of the trade shows, only
to walk over and grab a fader and be disappointed with its flimsiness. The problem is, many of these

m
consoles sound fine, but I would never purchase one due to this tactile letdown. Anyone who has
worked on a spaceship-sized Neve or SSL console knows how perfect it feels to push up a high-end

co
Penny & Giles fader. Now we’re mixing! Tape Op publisher John Baccigaluppi mentioned in a recent
conversation that SSL made a small format console that supported 500 Series modules. Upon some
quick internet research, I found that the XL Desk from Solid State Logic did indeed meet fit the bill.
The unit SSL sent me was a pre-production unit that had seen some miles. I had some issues with
certain channels not passing audio when the 500 Series button was selected, so I swapped and
reseated modules, ran some signal path tests and more to no avail. When I let SSL know via email,

)
I got a call 30 minutes later from Phill Scholes saying he could come up to Seattle from Los Angeles
to take a look on Friday. It was Wednesday. Friday, unfortunately, didn’t work for me, so he suggested

ot
he come up the next day. Sure enough, Thursday morning, Phill knocked on the studio door with his
tool kit and parts. Long story short, within a few hours he had the console up and running issue-
free. Friends, that is customer service. I was impressed.

(d
I will cut to the chase. There is so much functionality and routing flexibility packed into the XL-
Desk, that I cannot imagine a scenario where I would be stuck without an option that could meet any
task. It would take too much ink to go through every little aspect of this desk and I’d be re-writing
the manual anyway, but, for the sake of this review, I wanted to focus on what I find noteworthy.
At the top of this console is a 16-space 500 Series rack with an additional two 500 Series spaces
preloaded with a double-wide SSL G Comp stereo bus compressor. You can have the XL-Desk shipped
l
with up to 16-channels of 500 Series SSL EQ or order it empty to fill up yourself. The XL-Desk has 24
inputs, broken down into three channel types. The first 16 channels have dual input mono functionality
ai

that can switch between a main input source or DAW return. Channels one through eight feature SSL’s
VHD (Variable Harmonic Distortion) microphone preamps with line level input returns from the DAW.
The preamps on the unit are underrated in my opinion. They sound clean and transparent, but I loved
gm

using the VHD option to drive the signal from subtly saturated to full-blown fuzz for both tracking and
mixing. On these first eight channels, it is also possible to utilize the VHD option to drive existing
audio after the fact during mix. The knob lets us select continuously from second to third-order
harmonics and a blend of the two – pretty cool to have a solid tracking preamp and tone shaper when
mixing right at your fingertips! A personal favorite was blowing a second bass track into oblivion while
mixing it back in under the more traditional tone for a nice sonic halo and character. Channels nine
t)

through 16 are line input modules only, however, the channel’s corresponding 500 Series slots could
be filled with mic preamps. All of the first 16 channels offer standard Cuts and Solos with a Trim section
that includes a +/-20 dB trim and three function LED indicator, plus polarity, channel output post-
fader, insert, DAW return, and 500 (for accessing the channel’s corresponding in-line 500 Series slot)
(a

buttons. Other dual mono channel features include a stereo cue section with an ALT button that pulls
in an additional 16 inputs on mixdown, plus four stereo mix bus selectors (A, B, C, and D), and 100
mm faders. The last four channels before the center section are stereo.
The monitoring section is robust, with multiple source selection and options for three pairs of
monitors (with individual level controls) plus a subwoofer (bass management included) with a MONO
e

check button. CUT and DIM (with level adjustment) buttons sit directly below the larger Monitor Level
control. There are two foldbacks with independent levels and Talkback buttons (configurable as
el

latching or momentary). A standard headphone jack and mini-plug input for iPhones, etc. are also
provided. A Listen button and level control with built-in compressor adds the option to plug in a
listen mic in the live room so you can monitor conversations between takes – this feature also makes
for more wild compression sounds when used for other purposes. One handy feature is the HP
mp

(headphone) mix that can flip from a tracking setup (where someone may want a loud click track or
94/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/ their specific instrument a little louder) to the board mix where levels are more in context.
 There is also a master section for MIX buses B, C, and D that
features the borrowing of 500 Series modules (more on that
below), and Insert, Sum, and AFL functions. INS engages the
insert point normally associated with an external piece of
stereo outboard equipment. The SUM button sums the Insert
Return and the original Mix Bus feed together providing a
direct stereo input to the Mix bus. AFL allows the Mix Bus to
be auditioned in the studio monitors. As mentioned above,
each mix bus can “borrow” 500 Series processing from the rack:
9-10 feeds Mix A, 11-12 gets Mix B, and so forth. Did I mention
that the console comes with the famous G Series compressor
that is strapped to Mix A? Anyone that has used one of these
compressors knows what a special tool it can be for giving the
mix a nice “finished/all things in their place” sound.
The inline 500 Series modules can be “hard patched” to the
corresponding channel with a jumper cable on the back of the
unit or routed to a patchbay for maximum flexibility. By
selecting the 500 button on a channel you can use this
function, and by selecting the INS can access both inserts.
Inserts are routed via D-sub patching on the rear of the XL Desk.
Worth noting: there are a lot of D-subs on the back of this unit
(27!), which truly speaks to the plethora of routing options the
XL Desk has to offer. Keep in mind that after purchasing this
console you will still need a decent chunk of change for cabling
– dedicated XL Desk cabling packages can be found online. The
only XLR connectors on this mixer are for the talkback mic and
the main monitor output – mic inputs are all D-sub.
Though the all-analog XL Desk has no automation or recall
capabilities, the four mix buses and direct (pre or post fader)
channel outputs make stem creation, creative processing, and
recalls a snap. You can spit B, C, and D sub-groups out with
processing back into a DAW and 24 channels on the board post
fader back into the DAW as well. What does this mean? Well,
imagine being able to send those stems or tracks back to the XL
Desk, set the faders at unity (would’ve been nice to have a fader
null/disable button) and have the mix as it was, then make the
necessary level or processing adjustments and reprint. Considering
you will have to do pans, sends and recall any mix bus processing
that was going on, it is not “instant recall,” but it’s much closer,
while having the benefit of an analog summed mix.
If you are familiar with Michael Brauer’s [Tape Op #131, #37]
mix technique, multiple mix buses are largely his game. By
processing certain mix elements as groups (drums, guitars, keys,
vocals) with compressors, EQ, and effects either collectively, or by
using sends and then sending them all to A (or primary mix bus),
you can create new sonic opportunities and palettes. You could
also use the different mix buses to simply create stereo stems and
print them simultaneously along with the master mix. For
example, all drums to B, all guitars to C, and all vocals to D.
Because they all have dedicated outputs, you can get them back
t)
into the DAW while you are printing mixes.
We could write a book on this beast, but if you are at all
inclined to find out if this desk is for you, I would recommend
digging into the owner’s manual online to get a comprehensive
(a
sense of what this console is capable of.
Simple and small gripe: The faders are a little light, but
reasonably precise. They’re certainly better than the junk found on
cheap consoles, but not quite as sweet as a Penny & Giles fader.
I would consider replacing the fader caps to perhaps something a
e
tad weightier to compensate. However, the sonics are excellent.
The XL Desk has a big, wide-open sound that I associate with the
el
large format SSL desks I’ve worked on at the now sadly defunct
Studio X in Seattle and Joel Hamilton’s [Tape Op #85] Studio G in
Brooklyn. Those consoles feel firm, clear and precise – anything
but sterile, perhaps due to SSL’s SuperAnalogue™ signal path.
mp
Another aspect people love about SSL’s has always been the
flexibility in routing when mixing. I know a lot of folks that say,
“Track on a Neve, mix on an SSL,” but you could actually load
this up with some Neve 500 Series modules and use outboard
preamps to track and then have all the SSL routing flexibility
right there. A newcomer may not even know how to fully utilize
all the options here, but as you grow as an engineer, you’ll be
hard-pressed to come up with a routing scenario that could not
be accomplished on the XL Desk.
I brought up an older session that I had done with Seattle
singer Tom Eddy (from bands The Dip and Beat Connection) that
I’d halfway mixed but never finished. I was astonished at how
quickly the mix came together with the XL Desk. I wanted to mix
only using my EQs in the SSL’s 500 Series slots with outboard
compression and effects, which makes for far less back and forth
on the computer – set your outputs in the DAW and mix!
You can use the XL Desk with or without a patchbay. I tried it
both ways, but I preferred the maximum flexibility afforded with
the multiple signal routing options available on the patchbay. It
was a bit of a project to get (most!) everything patched and
dialed in, but, once I did, it made auditioning various processing
chains a snap. What I liked most about the XL Desk is that once
m
I got a sense of layout and functions, my workflow immediately
improved. Mixes came together much quicker, which is a huge
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benefit. Though I didn’t get to audition every scenario possible, I
can see that there’s a ton of potential packed into this small
footprint console. In addition to being a great centerpiece for a
commercial studio, the XL Desk is compact enough (40 x 32 x 10-
inches) that you could take it to a remote location, like a rehearsal
space, old barn, haunted house, or any unique space for minimal
)
effort tracking. With a few outboard mic preamps, monitors, and
an interface, you could have yourself a robust mobile rig with
ot
excellent sonics.
While this console does not have every feature of a large format
SSL, it has more than enough. The audio path of the XL Desk is the
(d
same as SSL’s flagship consoles, like the Duality and AWS [#83].
Though it lacks built-in dynamics on each channel (which you
could supply with 500 Series modules) and doesn’t have the bus
and channel count, for the money the XL Desk is loaded with and
features, plus its big console sound is incredible. Older SSL desks
hold a reputation for having a sweet spot (in terms of how hard
l
you hit it to pull out the true sonic character of the desk). I was
told by SSL that this is no longer true, and I thought the XL Desk
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sounded good regardless of where I had the faders.
For all the flexibility and convenience that working on a DAW
provides, I have spent the past few years trying to look less and
gm
listen more. I feel that more and more engineers (especially young
ones) are mixing with their eyes and not their ears. With the XL
Desk, you’ll find yourself closer to the golden days, by being able
to use onboard 500 Series modules with the ability to easily access
and integrate analog outboard gear – spin some dials for pans,
sends, etc. It takes a little practice to break old habits, but
ultimately it feels better to mix without a mouse. I feel more
connected to the audio and song by tilting the balance of power
from my eyes to my ears. It sounds so simple! It comes down to
how you choose to work and what your budget will allow for. There
are many advantages to working in the box – as conversion quality
and other aspects of digital recording have improved, it’s a viable
option – look to the adoption of digital mixing by pro mixers like
Tchad Blake [Tape Op #16, #133] and the aforementioned Michael
Brauer as examples. For me, there is still something quite
therapeutic about interfacing with console faders and analog
processing that others too still find essential and inspiring. The XL
Desk is a professional, accessible all-analog console that is all
things SSL in terms of tone and vibe – unparalleled in its flexibility
at this price point. And with the introduction of SSL’s larger, new
Origin console, we’ve seen a serious price reduction for the XL Desk.
($17,950 street unloaded; solidstatelogic.com) -GS
Gear Reviews/(continued on page 96)/Tape Op#136/95
 Gear Geeking w/ Andy…
In 2014, I wrote about Li-ion batteries and brushless
motors revolutionizing the cordless power tool industry,
and I mentioned a few of my favorite tools from Bosch,
Ryobi, and Milwaukee [Tape Op #102]. Since then, I’ve
acquired dozens more tools from these lines for my DIY
home and studio endeavors that now span the country.
In one location, I’ve standardized on Bosch 12V Max
<boschtools.com>, while filling in the gaps with items
from Ryobi <ryobitools.com>. In another, I’ve gone all
Milwaukee M12 <milwaukeetool.com>. My favorite (and
most used) tools are still the Bosch PS22 Driver and
PS32 Drill that I discussed here years ago. They have
plenty of power for home and studio use, and
importantly, they’re super lightweight — so even my
geeky arms aren’t fatigued after installing hundreds of
drywall screws overhead. My second favorite is the
Bosch 12V Max Flexiclick 5-in-1 Driver that comes
with modular offset and right-angle heads for tight
situations. Bosch has a brushless version of it now, but
I bought mine when it was only available with a brushed
motor. After a few uses, I found the tool to be so crucial
that I converted it to brushless (for more torque and
runtime) by swapping its body with one from a standard
12V Max brushless driver. I also own the Bosch PS42BN
Impact Wrench, which is great for driving lag bolts or
self-tapping screws; but it’s also surprisingly useful for
finessing small fasteners when it’s switched to low-
torque mode. I’ll quickly mention the oscillating multi-
tool, palm sander, jigsaw, reciprocating saw, vacuum,
worklights, and other Bosch 12V Max tools that I
absolutely love. They all fit into Bosch/Sortimo L-BOXX
Cases, and specific inserts for the cases are included
with the tools. With that said, I own three times as many
Milwaukee M12 tools as Bosch. Bosch North America
imports only a subset of the tools that are available from
Bosch Europe. Meanwhile, Milwaukee is expanding and
updating its catalog at a dizzying rate, and the brand
offers about ten times what Bosch N.A. does. Generally,
my Milwaukee tools have more torque than the Bosch
counterparts, but they’re also larger and heavier —
which also means they’re not as maneuverable. My
modular Milwaukee M12 Installation Driver, for
example, can’t fit into tight corners as well as my Bosch
5-in-1. In the past year, Milwaukee updated many of its
drivers and drills to what it’s calling a “sub-compact”
form factor. The new M12 Stubby Impact Wrenches,
and particularly the Surge Hydraulic Driver, have piqued
my interest. I have various cordless tools from Ryobi
that a typical homeowner would want, including some
for lawn and gardening. But what I’m most excited
about are the Ryobi P3100 Soldering Station and P305
Hot Glue Gun that I purchased recently. Both are
t)
awesome enough that I would recommend diving into
the Ryobi ONE+ battery system just for these two tools.
The soldering station can operate from AC or battery
power; on battery, it heats up to the selected
(a
temperature (400–900° F) in less than a minute. The
“pen” is comfortable to hold, and it’s shaped so it
doesn’t roll when placed on a flat surface. The base
includes a pen holder, as well as the battery attachment,
temperature control, and a small tub for a cleaning
sponge, brass loofah, or rosin. The glue gun also heats up
e
quickly and has a well-designed trigger for accurate
control — and it’s angled in such a way that it doesn’t
el
drip when it’s sitting idle! Hot glue is so useful in the
studio for tacking things down, and the Ryobi gun makes
it so easy to get a quick fix completed in a minute or two,
in between the countless other studio tasks that
mp
need attention. –AH
96/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 98)
Kush Audio
AR-1 compressor plug-in
“Why did the producer cross the road? Because that’s how
The Beatles did it!” I forget who first told me that joke, but
if you can relate to it the way I do, you’re going to want to
check out the new Kush AR-1 Vintage Mu compressor plug-
in. The Kush AR-1 is modeled after the Lisson Grove AR-1
compressor, which counts Michael Brauer [Tape Op #131]
and Nigel Godrich as megafans. I’ve never used the Lisson
Grove hardware, but I’m familiar with the Highland
Dynamics BG2 [#113] and BG1 compressors [see BG1 Stereo
“Re-Issue” review in this issue], which share a lot in
common. They’re all based on the legendary British-
modified Altec 436 variable-mu compressors used all over
the place on The Beatles’ records.
I’ve been fortunate over the past decade to work
primarily out of studios that have Highland Dynamics
compressors wired into the patchbay. The “secret” trick
I’ve learned is to use them often on everything and my
final mixes end up sounding better. The problem for me
is my personal studio has only one BG2, plus I prefer to
mix primarily in the box. Enter the AR-1. The moment I
inserted this plug-in I felt an instant of familiar joy. It
feels like Kush Audio has figured out how to replicate
the magic sauce that only my BG2 had been able to
deliver before. It’s a combination of harmonic richness
and weight that I’ve never felt from a plug-in before. It
packs a perfect wallop when used on a mono drum mic
and fat attack when used on bass guitar. Vocals come
out sounding buttery smooth, and it’s found a home on
the drum bus on most of my mixes since this plug-in
was released.
it’s hard to make any track sound bad. The compression
(d
These kinds of compressors are nearly idiot proof in that
feels gentle and even with large amounts of gain reduction
with result that always sound flattering in a classic “records
I grew up loving” way. The plug-in is much more flexible to
l
configure. The high-pass filter on the sidechain and the
wet/dry knob are welcomed additions, plus the
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attack/release times actually feel considerably more useful
than the hardware (thank you!).
I’m a Kush subscriber, so I got the plug-in the day it came
out, but at $99 it feels like a no-brainer for an analog-
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sounding compressor plug-in that brings the same smile to
my face that my BG2 does every time I insert it on a track.
($99 direct; thehouseofkush.com)
-Scott McDowell <fadersolo.com>
Chameleon Labs
560EQ 500 Series inductor EQ
Chameleon Labs has been around since the early 2000s,
when they made their mark with their popular inexpensive
British-style mic preamp and EQ, the 7602 [Tape Op #51].
John Baccigaluppi reported in his review of the 7602, that
when compared with a real 1073, “...the 7602 is pretty much
dead on.” In 2014, Chameleon Labs was acquired by Marcelo
Vercelli, but all their products are still “designed, engineered
and manufactured by nice folks in Woodinville, Washington.”
In the past, I’d used John’s 7602 (and the Neves of course)
on several occasions, so I knew what level of quality to
expect here. British-style sweet top-end shimmery high shelf
grind with hairy low end bulk, and perfect midrange Q points
for electric guitar, bass, and snare drum (anything rock ‘n’
roll, really) that can also easily push a lead vocal to the front
of the mix. Inductor EQs are objects of wonderful harmonic
beauty, and the 560EQ is no exception. After using a single
module on varied sources during a one-day mix session, I
bought it. Here’s why: it sounds fuller, wider, smoother, and
beefier than any of my seven British EQ-style/modeled plug-
ins (duh!); it only costs $50 more than my favorite 1073-ish
EQ plug-in; it’s compatible with all operating systems/DAWs.
(snorting laugh)
As with most 500 Series modules, the Chameleon EQ’s
black faceplate is crowded. Seven gold, silver, and blue,
milled aluminum knobs control frequency, frequency level,
and makeup gain/attenuation respectively. At the top of
the faceplate (next to a power indicator LED) is a high-pass
filter that allows for cuts at 40, 80, 160, and 320 Hz. Next
is the low frequency shelving filter (35, 60, 110, and 220
Hz). I love fighting a boost of the low frequency shelving
filter against the high-pass filter to bring out some gnarly
low end oomph on electric guitar (or any appropriate
source in need of girth). After is the midrange EQ (700 Hz,
1.6 kHz, 3.2 kHz, 4.8 kHz, and 7.2 kHz) followed by a high
m
frequency shelving filter (3.4, 4.9, 7, 12, and 16 kHz). All
frequency selection controls are stepped and include an Off
co
setting. Shelves and midrange filters have rotary +/- 15 dB
knobs. All three EQ bands employ Chameleon’s custom-
wound inductors. A post EQ makeup/attenuation knob (-
60/+20 dB) and an EQ Bypass button finish off the
faceplate. Note: this is an EQ bypass only – the high-pass
)
filter and makeup gain/attenuation controls both remain
active in Bypass mode. At first, I found this to be a little
ot
weird, and without a true bypass, it’s difficult to level
match. However, I treated this EQ module as a miniature
line level console strip. The 560EQ employs Chameleon’s
custom-designed input and output transformers, and with
the EQ bypassed, we get a versatile high-pass filter (super
handy for artfully un-clouding a source) paired with a
colorful trim function that adds a little transformer vibe
when summing from a DAW. Not surprisingly, there’s
something about a nice analog cut filter that leans in with
more vibe and smoothness than a plug-in.
The 560EQ is wrapped in a sturdy metal casing (no exposed
circuit board, thank you) and slipped easily into my 500
chassis. In use, I felt immediately at home with the 560EQ.
The small white lettering on the faceplate is a little hard to
see at first, but I quickly got the feel for this EQ. Though my
fingers often obscured the markings on the faceplate during
adjustment, auditioning fixed frequencies with the stepped
controls was decisively easy, and I preferred using my ears to
select the Q. These control knobs are tight (which is a good
thing in my opinion) – there’s no way I’m going to accidentally
move any settings here! I did find myself occasionally
grabbing the wrong level control for an associated filter, so I
added pairs of different colored round stickers to the EQ
controls and their correlating levels.
Every source bloomed in a groovy way with an artful
forwardness through this EQ, and I don’t recall any
discernable noise or hiss – it’s darn quiet. Though I won’t
claim the Chameleon will go toe to toe with a vintage Neve
1073 EQ, this unit does evoke an undeniable vintage
British-style character at a price point that most of us can
afford (less than the cost of two good plug-ins). We don’t
live in the ‘70s anymore. Gear is more expensive in our era
and we get paid less. I’m not apologizing to any elitists for
totally digging or recommending the 560EQ, and I’ll be
buying another one for my rack.
($349 street; chameleonlabs.com) -SM
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 Purple Audio
MC77 FET Limiting Amplifier
Andrew Roberts started Purple Audio and came out with the MC76
limiting amplifier in 1997. Informed by Andrew’s years as a tech, the
MC76 implemented the classic UREI 1176 Revision E compression
circuit using modern components and beefy build quality (see Tape
Op #117’s Behind The Gear interview). In 2002, Andrew released the
MC77, adding some welcome features, and that model remains
available today. And along the way, somehow Tape Op has never
reviewed these units!
Earlier this year I was shopping for a pair of hardware 1176-style
compressors, and my friends – including folks who have used a lot of
very fine gear – consistently loved their Purples. So, I bought a pair
of MC77s and I’ve been thrilled. I imagine most everyone reading this
has used hardware or software 1176s, so I won’t rehash their usual
applications, but in short you could do a lot worse than making an
entire record with an 1176 as the only compressor. I like the MC77’s
compression on pretty much everything, and it adds subtle, but
dammit-I-feel-it euphonic zazz too.
I again swung by Jack Shirley’s [#115] Atomic Garden Studios to
compare the Purples with Jack’s 1176s: a pair each of Universal Audio
Rev E reissues, rare Universal Audio AEs (Anniversary Editions), and
Hairball Audio Rev A Blue Stripe [Tape Op #84] builds. We tried them
all on bass, vocals, entire drum kits, snares... the MC77 sounded
indistinguishable from the Universal Audio Rev E. The Hairball Audio
Rev A sounded great but much dirtier, especially when we dug way
into its input with the attack in Off mode. One of Jack’s AE editions
was acting up, but we got enough out of them to decide that the AE
is its own thing and distinctly different from other 1176s. Jack really
liked the feel and build quality of the Purples.
The MC77’s newer features are useful, and I now miss some of them
when I use other 1176s. A (true) bypass switch on the front panel
makes it easy to level match your processed signal and compare it
with the unprocessed signal. I love this. There’s a sidechain insert
with a switch on the front panel; the obvious use is high-passing the
detector signal so that low frequency energy doesn’t end up stealing
the show. This feature is a big deal on an 1176. I like the MC77 a lot
on a parallel drum bus – for instance, sometimes I send all of the
close drum mics but no overheads or room mics to my MC77 pair with
the 4:1 and 8:1 buttons pushed for lots of fast crush – and a 100 Hz
high-pass filter on the sidechain makes a dramatic difference. In fact,
I bought a cheap Peavey stereo graphic EQ on eBay and left it
hardwired to my MC77’s sidechain inserts for this purpose. (There are
tons of nearly free single rack space crossovers out there too,
probably perfect for this purpose. Check eBay, Music Go Round, your
practice space dumpster, etc.). There’s also easy-access stereo linking
on the MC77, which I’ve played with but not really felt a need for day
to day, and LED meter lights that should hopefully never burn out –
unlike every other 1176 lamp out there.
t)
I have a few mild complaints: One, I’d like the bypass button to
illuminate, thereby illustrating a strong reminder than the compressor
is bypassed. Two, using the sidechain causes a compression change,
even without processing the sidechain signal. This is a quirk, and
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exactly something you get used to living without in plug-in land, but
it does make deciding “do I want to use the sidechain or not?” a little
trickier. Three, yeah, it’s 2020 – we all want blend controls for easy
parallel compression. None of these have stopped me from happily
using these compressors every session. My final “complaint” is that
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while mixing, I’ve been using my pair so much on parallel drums that
I can’t use them on anything else!
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The manual includes schematics and calibration instructions.
Purple products are hand-built in the US and come with a three
year warranty.
($1650 MSRP; purpleaudio.com)
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-Scott Evans <antisleep.com>
98/Tape Op#136/Gear Reviews/
Chase Bliss Audio
M O O D granular micro-
looper/delay pedal
Chase Bliss pedals have become somewhat of an
obsession for me as of late. Hopefully, it‘s healthy – I can’t
tell anymore. Ostensibly a two-channel micro-looping delay,
M O O D is Chase Bliss’ crowning achievement in weird-
making. It makes me so happy.
If you’re unfamiliar with Chase Bliss or their general vibe,
I would consider spending a little time watching a few of the
short video essays put together by the YouTube
reviewer/wizard “Knobs.” His videos aren’t so much
“reviews” as they are meditations. Mostly free of narration,
they give you a good idea of what kinds of supernatural
soundscapes are possible with Chase Bliss effects.
Where were we? Yes, M O O D, right. My relationship with
this pedal has evolved into complete willingness to give in
to wherever the pedal wants to go. While you can employ it
to create repeatable, defined (and musical) effects, M O O D
starts to make more sense when you recognize it as more of
a collaborator (or therapist, depending).
Let us talk the tech, huh? This is a mono, single-input,
single-output (TS/TRS) box with Chase Bliss’ familiar six-
knob, three-rocker, and two-stomp switch faceplate design.
In keeping with the rest of the Chase Bliss family, M O O D
has modulation and processing customization available via
the 16 dip switches on the backside of the pedal. The signal
architecture is divided into two internal paths controlled on
the left and right sides of the faceplate, respectively. The two
centermost knobs manage shared functions, like wet/dry
mix, modulation speed/intensity, and – most importantly –
a master clock, divided into harmonically interesting steps.
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The clock controls both the left side and right side of the
pedal, slowing or accelerating a processed signal. Another
innovative and experiment-provoking feature is M O O D’s
ability to pass audio between the left and right signal paths.
The internal routing is defined by the centermost toggle
switch and can (along with the copious sound-shaping
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possible in each of the two channels) quickly lead to
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musically meaningful morphing, delicate tunnels of
psychedelic spirals, and/or complete entropy. Usually, the
noises and phrases produced by this pedal are of a nature
that is wholly autonomous from the source, which is fed into
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M O O D’s input. While this probably sounds like a total
bullshit time-vampire within the context of a working
studio, I can’t stress enough how much fun (or how
inspiring) it is to play a pedal like an instrument. To take
that last thought even further, M O O D includes MIDI, CV,
and expression pedal inputs.
When trying to describe the then-new Eventide H910
Harmonizer to Brian Eno [Tape Op #85] and David Bowie
during the making of Low, it’s been reported that Tony
Visconti [#29] famously said, “It fucks with the fabric of
time.” In that same spirit I can’t begin to describe M O O D
in a traditional effects pedal context. You have to hear it,
and hopefully, fuck with time yourself.
($349 direct; chaseblissaudio.com)
-Dana Gumbiner <danagumbiner.com>
Leapwing Audio
StageOne Width & Depth plug-in
Leapwing Audio, makers of the exceptional DynOne
dynamics plug-in, now approach stereo manipulation with
the release of StageOne. With three distinct uses, this plug-
in is beneficial in mixing and mastering situations. An
uncluttered interface offers one column per process: Width,
Depth, and Mono Spread. All functions provide two controls,
a namesake slider, which spans zero to 100, represents the
amount of effect with zero adding no processing, while 100
is maximum and a second parameter that varies by section.
The first function comprises a Width section, offering a
slider control to adjust the strength of the processing while
its partner slider sets the high-pass filter (ranging from 20
to 500 Hz). Everything above the filter is processed;
frequencies below are unchanged. According to Leapwing,
Width was designed to help mixes with off-center panned
elements that are too dense. StageOne can remap the stereo
field towards (or beyond) the speakers while maintaining
mono capability. Repeated requests to explain specific
details were denied – trade secrets being what they are – but
in my testing, the Width results were convincing. I spent
months using only the Width section, in mastering mainly
on stereo mixes. StageOne could be more potent for mixing
purposes – that is to say, more of the effect could be
unleashed, especially if the tracks came from another studio.
It can do wonders on voice, especially backing
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vocals. Combined with the equalization, you can almost
sculpt the backing singers’ position to form a virtual semi-
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circle around the lead, for example.
I have a few pieces of analog gear that are remarkable at
what they do at the expense of narrowing the stereo field
(you know who you are). Usually, my choice is either not use
specific gear or engage and accept a more narrow stereo
field. In using StageOne, I level match the source mix with
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the proposed master and A/B them while adjusting the
Width control until we’re back where the mix started. I can
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think of several projects where I used a max value of 5 (out
of 100) on Width. I’m not trying to be pretentious –
unauthorized widening can get a mastering engineer in hot
water quickly!
Aside: I want to thank Leapwing for allowing my many-
months long evaluation of StageOne. Most Tape Op reviewers
work as full-time engineers; thus, we encounter a variety of
usage situations. Forcing a review to be done in two weeks
will likely fail to reveal product limitations. Conversely, in my
opinion the real power of some gear can only be discovered
over time. That’s where the Depth and Mono Spread
functions of StageOne come in. I honestly ignored these at
first – until I found a need for them.
Depth has two controls: Depth and Color. The Depth
slider determines the level of added reflections. According
to Leapwing, the reflection patterns have been
directionally optimized to create an enhanced sense of
depth in the sound field. Meanwhile, the Color slider
applies a custom tilt (think seesaw EQ) to the added Depth
reflections. Positive values boost high frequencies while
attenuating the lows. Negative Color values do the
opposite. The Color EQ only affects the Depth processing,
not the direct signal. In a mastering situation, I’ve found
Depth can help if there is an excess of boxy low mids, or if
a reverb’s decay is slightly shrill. It’s refreshing to approach
these common issues with a tool that is not necessarily an
equalizer in the traditional sense. In many cases, StageOne
was for me a less invasive, subtle correction, which is
welcome in the “do no harm” mastering paradigm.
The third function, Mono Spread, processes center
elements to make them sound thicker/ wider-but-still-in-
the-middle – you have to hear it to really get it. Mono Spread
uses a custom filter design to convert mono signals into
pseudo-stereo while maintaining mono downmix
compatibility. The Mono Spread slider controls the amount
applied. It’s partner slider in the Mono Spread section is
called Center Gravity. This tweaks a panning module for the
section. On an anthology release, I was able to match lead
vocals from an old song to be more in line the with majority of
the catalog by using the Mono Spread function. The result need
not remain in the middle; Center Gravity can steer the
processing to left or right. On a single release, I was able to
move a harmonica solo slightly to the left, thus making room
for the rhythm parts on the right. Short of a remix, this would
have been difficult to do without the help of StageOne.
Surprisingly, StageOne is not a resource hog, but it is not
necessarily lightweight either. I contend the high-pass value
control on Width section should go beyond 500 Hz to 20 kHz.
In Leapwing’s defense I’m the first person to make this
demand, including their alpha and beta testers – but I know I
am right. Finally, most stereo processors come from the land of
“Seductive Audio Candy.” StageOne can be easy to overuse,
resulting in an earache (or an unhappy client). Restraint is
advised.
In all honesty, there are other stereo processors available –
many for less money. But if your clients are discerning, they’ll
hear the superior results with StageOne. When you read about
big name engineers claiming they use StageOne on every mix,
they’re telling the truth... and I’m not a liar when I say that I
remain envious of their freedom to exceed five on the
processing scale.
($199 list; leapwingaudio.com)
-Garrett Haines <treelady.com>
Gamechanger Audio
Plasma Rack: High Voltage
Distortion Module
Gamechanger Audio is a Latvian-based company founded in
2015. Since then, they’ve released the Plus Pedal, the Motor
Synth, and this new line of Plasma distortions. With their
namesake as a constant reminder of what they are striving for,
each of the former devices has been designed from a
completely unique philosophy. So, what does the Plasma Rack
do? It cranks the incoming audio up to 5500 volts and
measures the continuous discharge of the plasma bulb. This
provides the user with a brutally heavy distortion and a hyper
quick noise gate. The xenon bulb isn’t a gimmicky feature to
make you feel like Thor wielding his mighty hammer – it is a
critical part of the device. But the Nikola Tesla coil-style
lightning bolts seen from the faceplate during processing are
some serious eye candy.
The Plasma Rack is enclosed in a single rack space black
chassis, with a window for the xenon bulb and two handfuls
of potentiometers, plus backlit switches. Primary controls
include a true bypass standby Power button, a -20 dB input
pad, plus knobs for Gain, Voltage (with modifier buttons to
adjust the amount of power sent to the Plasma tube), and
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wet/dry Blend. An EQ section offers a simple 3-band
(low/mid/high) that sculpts only the distorted sound or both
the distorted and clean signals (selectable via the Clean EQ
button). The Clean Gate is lightning quick, reacting differently
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depending how hard you drive the lamp. This gate can be
applied to the wet signal or the wet/dry signal. The back of
the unit offers both balanced XLR and unbalanced TS ins and
outs, three send/returns, MIDI in/thru/out, an expression
pedal input and a ground lift. Moreover, there are eight user-
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assignable preset slots and a savable boot-up state. One would
say this processor is DEEP!
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Engaging the Tremolo (tremolo/ring mod feature) button
was instant fun, controlling the rate of the modulation and
depth, which when turned counterclockwise puts the tremolo
out of phase/alternating between dry and wet signals. The
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Dynamic button enables the tremolo to affect either the
transients or the decay of the signal! Three different FX loops
are available; the first affects the dry signal; the second affects
the wet signal before the Plasma Tube; and the third affects the
wet signal after the Plasma Tube. Implementing a wah pedal
and a delay pedal in different effect loops expanded the tonal
sculpting further, not to mention the ability to switch from
instrument to line level. The Sustain button engages a subtle
compressor circuit – handy for lower voltages sent to the bulb
as the sound can fizzle out quickly. With the Voltage knob
increased, the compression sustain is not as noticeable.
Plasma’s Oversaturate mode is inspired by a rectifier-based
“octave up” circuit, but it doesn’t sound like one might think
– instead it rewards with a plethora of high harmonics, so that
when the voltage is cranked up it can obliterate the signal to
near static. Every instrument or bus required a unique setting
to find its sweet spot. Taming the Plasma Rack is executed with
the Blend knob, which can change to mix between a
wet/overdriven signal instead of dry. There’s full MIDI control
of the device and can use an expression pedal assignable to any
of the pots. Plus, with a click of a button, a second Plasma Rack
can be controlled using MIDI CC [Continuous Controller].
The sound of the Plasma Rack is a hi-gain distortion that is
noisy, broken, spitty, and almost alive like the sound of
electrical arcing. The use of this distortion provides heaps of
character and is not subtle. I had great success in destroying
drums and programmed beats, specifically in an electronic
music realm. On individual acoustic drums, especially snare, the
noise gate and blended distortion were helpful in creating a
unique thwack on the attack of the strike. Running an electric
guitar directly provided enough level to the D/A converters and
all the character that this box imparts. Where I feel the unit
shines is in the sound design realm, with its ability to mangle
the source into completely new territory while automating all
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parameters via MIDI. The Plasma Rack lends itself to heavier
genres in both guitar and synth-based music, however, creative
use with a liberal amount of the Blend knob can help it to sit
well in lighter music.
The Plasma rack is a unique distortion effect, with a ton of
routing and sound shaping options. It sounds unlike any
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other distortion I’ve heard and reacts to source material in a
unique way. Sound designers or, electronic and heavy guitar-
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based musicians would get the most mileage out of this
“lightning in a bottle.” The Plasma Rack is a mono device, so
if you are entertaining the idea of stereo, be ready to buy
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two. I believe there are many avenues to explore with this
new type of distortion/sculpting that will only be limited by
an engineer’s imagination.
($1499 MSRP; gamechangeraudio.com)
-Kevin Friedrichsen <greyroom510@gmail.com>
u-he
Satin plug-in
u-he’s Satin is a “tape simulation” plug-in unlike any other
that I have used. It’s not an exhaustive emulation of a specific
analog machine, nor is it a simplified saturation box. Instead,
Satin aims to provide a comprehensive tool kit of interactive
controls to create your own simulated tape machine sound.
Satin’s nearly two dozen parameters are a bit overwhelming
upon first use, but put in the time and you will be rewarded. At
the top of the interface, two large knobs control input and
output level with an option to engage a handy automatic
makeup gain, the latter allowing the user to increase input gain
for more saturation while keeping the volume consistent. Here
we can also choose between vintage and modern tape
formulations, as well as traditional VU style or RMS level (useful
for assessing perceived loudness) metering for input and output.
In the main section of the plug-in, we find three modes of
operation: Studio, Delay, and Flange – three plug-ins in one!
Next in our control panel are continuously variable knobs that
adjust tape speed from 1.87 ips (inches per second) to 30 ips,
and Pre-Emphasis; a parameter described as “addressing the
gap loss phenomenon.” A quick look at the manual is full of
further technical details on this, but in practical terms I found
that increasing the Pre-Emphasis amounted to a broad high
frequency boost. When used in tandem, Speed and Pre-
Emphasis allowed for a wide range of tonal shaping, from dark
and dense to airy and lean, and everything in between.
The Compander section of the main panel introduces a noise
reduction system with classic models from Dolby and dbx. I
found the Dolby A-Type to be flattering for most program
material and general use. Compander allows you to choose to
encode and not decode, or choose to mix and match different
units for some wacky frequency curves. The classic “Dolby A-
Trick” can be implemented here by choosing A-Type Mod as the
encoder with no decoder selected. The result is a hyped high
frequency texture that lends itself beautifully to lead and
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background vocals in need of air and presence. A wet/dry Mix
control allows the user to insert the plug-in and blend the
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Compander effect.
Further tweakability abounds in Satin’s service panel. The
tape portion has adjustments for Hiss, Asperity, Crosstalk,
Wow & Flutter, and Bias. Leaving most of these parameters
at their nominal settings usually sounded best on complex
program material to my ears, although I opted to turn the
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Hiss and Asperity all the way down for a lower noise floor.
Further adjustments can be made to Gap Width, Head Bump,
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and Azimuth. Again, I often left these at unity but did
experiment with a hyped bottom end with the Head Bump
adjustment – mixes that could use a bit of thickening, or
individual tracks like bass guitar and kick drum are perfect
candidates for this treatment. Finally, we can choose our
record and repro equalization circuit models. NAB EQ at 15
ips was a familiar starting point for me, and I immediately
loved the euphonic sheen and density it imparted.
Satin is now permanently inserted on my mix bus chain, and
I don’t plan to change that any time soon. I would encourage
mixing through this plug-in for a couple of hours and then
bypass it. You will immediately miss the subtle gluing,
thickening, and harmonic excitement that it brings to tracks.
There is a rare three-dimensional quality that my mixes take on
with Satin that feels similar to mixing down to a classic analog
1/4-inch deck. I won’t claim that it sounds exactly the same as
the real machine, but it gets me a lot closer to a finished mix,
and that in itself is invaluable. Available in AU, VST2, VST3,
AAX, and NKS FX formats.
(€129 direct; u-he.com)
-Vince Chiarito <hivemindrecording.com>
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100/Tape Op#136/Please Support Our Advertisers/

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Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#136/101

 Journey Into Dub
by Geoff Stanfield

Our heroes are flawed. Our

gods will let us down. But there is no
substitute for music that resonates with the soul when the
listener becomes one with the heartbeat, vibrations, story,
and spirit. Music that tells the stories of struggle,
forgiveness, and celebration. Spiritual music that is
accessible. A music that is so earthly, interstellar, and
heavenly at once.

Like many American kids, I was introduced to reggae

through the music of Bob Marley. It started with the
compilation album, Legend, which I later learned was a more
“pop/polished” version of Marley’s music, and then it bled
out from there to his and The Wailers’ other releases,
including Rastaman Vibration, Natty Dread, and Catch a Fire.

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This music had so much more going on behind it than the
typical albums a suburban kid from California like myself was

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listening to. Culture, history, rich storytelling, and – let’s be
honest – the copious amounts of ubiquitous ganja were
intriguing. I’d been to plenty of Grateful Dead shows and
was no stranger to sights, sounds, and smells of a concert
scene, but my first Reggae Sunsplash festival was another

)
thing all together! Like all artists and genres I take a liking
to, I go deep and immerse myself in the music and history

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until I feel I am well-versed.

When the time came for the plunge into reggae music, I

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found myself especially drawn to dub. For those unfamiliar
with the sub-genre, it is reggae at its most skeletal. Broken
down, rebuilt, and remixed from the core of the drum and
bass (riddim), with liberal use of time-based processing,
such as tape echoes, spring reverbs, and sound effects, in
order to give the music its signature otherworldly sound. The
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emphasis leans towards the groove and atmosphere and less

on the lyrical content or lead vocal, which is sometimes used
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only sparingly as another element in the mix. The history of

Lee “Scratch” Perry The Crocodile, Seattle, WA, 2019. Photo by GS. the genre is fascinating and deep. It is arguably the first
“techno” music, utilizing subtraction and extraction to
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create the foundation for a new form of music. Would even

the concept of a “remix” even exist without it? Ideas
Dub Echoes stemming from dub likely form the basis of most modern
This documentary film is a good introduction to the genre and the history of dance music.
the Jamaican sound system, plus it’s a decent overview of reggae and dub artists
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at that time. The history and cultural happenings in Jamaica that spawned this
music, as well as its impact on so much that came after it,
are well worth your time. -GS
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These dub pioneers are owed a debt. It is with them that
the mixing console became an instrument and engineers
became the artist, as they found themselves driving that
sonic spaceship through the haze, into uncharted galaxies of

Previously in Tape Op sound, spirit, and musical space. r

We interviewed Twilight Circus Dub Sound System’s Ryan Moore in issue #26,
and I’d highly recommend checking his records out. Expertly-crafted new dub
tracks, as well as collaborations with people like Michael Rose [Black Uhuru],
Big Youth, and Ranking Joe bring classic performers into Twilight’s future
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sound constructions.
Additionally, check out some of Bill Laswell and Robert Musso’s tales in issue
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#93. Especially interesting are the potentially blasphemous dub mixes of Dreams
of Freedom (Ambient Translations of Bob Marley in Dub), where muting Marley’s lead vocals
translates into a journey through an alternate universe. -LC
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102/Tape Op#136/End Rant/

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