age 17 and
fell into odd jobs around NY until I was 19,
playing bass and drums in bands to pass the
time. I got into mastering, basically, when
a good friend walked into the Taco Bell I was
the assistant night manager of in New York
and told me he was moving to California. I
told him I was going with him and two weeks
later, we boarded a plane together. I didn't
know a soul in the city and had almost no
money, but my friend was going to PIT at
Musician's Institute and I found a post for a
runner position on a bulletin board there. I
made a call and got my first studio gig
working for free, coffee engineer I called
it, on the strength of my phone voice believe
it or not. Three months passed, some staff
shuffled at the studio they asked if I wanted
to apprentice in the mastering department,
that was at Sony west coast. The rest as
they say...
2) You've re-mastered and restored some
classic blues, folk and country albums (i.e.
Muddy Waters, Son House, Big Bill Broonzy,
Son House, the Carter Family)... tell me
about one that sticks out in your mind. What
is the process like compared to working on a
contemporary release?
Re-mastering and restoration are such
different animals from traditional mastering
and are in fact themselves two very different
things. While restoration attempts to bring
the material back to the point it was prior
to degradation or storage, re-mastering
involves taking those restored elements and
preparing them for release. The bulk of the
restoration work I did with David Mitson back
when those titles you mention were done; it
was about preserving history more than
generating sales and we had decent budgets.
Cost is a major concern today. The current
restoration/re-mastering process, except at
the highest levels or with select specialty
labels like Sundazed or something, is as much
about avoiding costly problems and surprises
than everything else. Anyone that's done it
will tell you its like trying to shave an
angry sheep, it's GOING to go wrong, it's
simply a matter of when, and before you know
it, there's blood everywhere. Most of the
re-mastering I do these days is in the form
of individual tracks for film and TV
soundtracks and the lion's share of the
restoration I do currently has more to do
with poor recording techniques than time and
storage degradation.
3) What's your favorite piece of gear?
(No, you don't have to just pick one).
This will sound like a cop-out
but, my ears and experience; everything else
is expendable when it really comes down to
it. I have some pieces I love the sound of
and anything that runs through my room gets a
bit of their vibe inherently but nothing I'd
take a bullet for. I can tell you my sound
has a lot to do with Steve Firlotte, Leif
Mases and Tim de Paravicini, in some obvious
and not-so-obvious ways.
4) I know you've mastered releases
exclusively available through iTunes... How
has various codec algorithms (i.e., MP3, AAC)
affected the art of mastering? Is there a
difference when you're preparing audio for CD
vs. a lossy file format?
I think
in this day and age - people understand what
they're getting with a download and add to
that - that the quality of the modern codecs
are pretty good. You don't master for the
lowest quality format the release is going to
see, you master for the highest,
understanding that the higher quality
ingredients will yield a better sounding
sauce once it gets run through the ringer so
it's not really an issue. I actually have
way more considerations when going to vinyl
than I do for compressed digital formats, and
that said - even those are minimal if you
use the right lacquer guy, I use Dave Cheppa
@ BQS.
5) Where do you see audio formats/media
headed? How much work do you
do in 5.1, DSD (Super Audio CD),
etc?
I've done a few surround
titles, they're a ton of fun. SACD was a
on-starter, though I like the concept of
multitrack DSD recording becoming the "new 2
inch" for the big studios. If I were a major
artist I'd demand it in the recording stage -
the sound is superior to anything available
today. As far as DSD releases - there's a
niche market there, though it's probably
about as large as it's ever going to get;
DVD-Video is the way to get surround to the
masses for now. The format wars have
successfully killed/staved off replacements
for the CD in the music world - DVD-A/SACD
and now DVD-HD/Blu-Ray - who knows when
someone will figure out this game doesn't
yield many winners.
6) What's the number one problem you face
with DIY/home-based recordings? Mixes in
general?
Distortion caused by too
much junk on the
buss or poor gain staging within the DAW,
both generally attributed to user
in-experience. My advice - when in doubt -
leave it out, do a lot of referencing and
then trust your ears. Keep your focus on
getting a nice even balance and placement of
sounds within the stereo field, not the
loudest mix on earth (that comes later). You
get that bit right and everything else you do
will be easy - a little EQ here, a little
reverb there - every element will lay in nice
because you'll have room for it. Then you
bring it to a house like mine (or yours) and
drop the whammy on it with the juicy stuff!
By doing so - you give your music the benefit
of that engineer's experience with hundreds
or even thousands of prior releases. A busy
master engineer will be doing a couple to a
few hundred projects a year so if they're
been around awhile, that will quickly add up
to a priceless amount of knowledge they can
use to inform the decisions they make when
working with your material, simple as that.
7) Who's another mastering engineer/mix
engineer you admire/respect and why?
Like so many others, I apprenticed under a great mastering engineer for years before I knew clients could trust my judgment; listening and listening to master after master in the studio. David Mitson was
my principal and he was just incredible and I
admired his teaching style. He showed me how
it was done, not how he specifically did it.
I studied the technical background,
experimented, and learned what MY ears told
me to do with the skills I had acquired. I
was never required to "ghost" him or imitate
his style, I was allowed to develop my own
and for that I am eternally grateful. That's
how I earn my living today; the way that I
work is just a natural extension of the way I
hear and respond to music because of the way
I was taught.
8) Where's all this music business headed?
Is it the end of the
world or just the beginning?
I don't know and yes - how's that for a
'union guy' answer! Seriously though - The
deeper reality is that things are just
changing more than ending or beginning. I
equate a lot of what goes on today with
what's taken place in the past. The singles
market of the 60's brought us the album
market of the 70's brought us the singles
market of the 80's brought us the... see
where I'm going with this? One thing is for
certain, artists will always seek to express
themselves in new ways, which means, as an
engineer, I'm always in for a ride! Bottom
line, artists create out of compulsion, not
desire; you just can't shut that off so there
will always be music to prepare for public
release, regardless of the format or how it's
bought.
9) What are you listening to lately?
The CD (yes I said CD, I don't own an iPod)
in my home system right now is a band I just
finished a record for called Something For
Rockets, it's the second release I've done
for them and it's everything a second album
should be, a very natural progression from
their first disc - I love this album. My car
is 40 years old and its stereo features,
among other things, a broken cassette deck
and a blown rear 6 x 9 so generally bounce
between KLOS, KJZZ and Power 106 on most days
to and from the studio to satisfy the three
primary aspects of my music tastes. I've
also been checking out a TON of new bands on
Myspace - that continues to surprise me as a
pond of newness. Myspace really has become
the stomach of the music business.
Everything's churning around in there
providing little bits of nutrients for the
entire music industry!
