Recording - May 2014 - 20

Doing It Wright

Jesse Wright of California Sound Studios
Interview by Lorenz Rychner

We wanted to know what a recording musician can expect when taking a project to a professional studio. We've long been acquainted
with the Wright family and their Lake Forest studio in Orange County, and have seen over the
years how musicians from the Southland and
beyond approach the Wrights to get their music to
the next level. Jesse Wright, son of studio founder
Frank D. Wright, helms most of the sessions these
days and took time to field our questions.-LzR

...from what you hear you can get an idea about what they are after,
but maybe their sounds aren't the best?
Right, or their sounds might be a bit outdated, so I can give them something modern. If it was a live drummer, Sound Replacer will keep all the
dynamics. If there were any timing issues, we'll look at that also.
So typically I will start by mixing and doing any necessary edits before tracking vocals. Sometimes everything is already tracked and ready for mixing, but
that's rare-ideally you get vocals in a great room with the best mic pre and
vocal mics, through the new HDX system which gives us a great sound.

First approach
What are some of the concerns people have
that make them look to someone like you to
take on their projects for completion?
Jesse Wright: I can think of many reasons, of
course, but one of them seems to be the sound of
the rooms. My Dad has built and soundproofed all
the rooms here, they sound really good, and that
can make a big difference compared to an imperfect home studio.
Are there any issues with the way an unfinished project comes to you?
It doesn't matter too much what DAW the project
comes from. I work with Pro Tools HDX, it's easy to
convert formats these days. It can come as an email
attachment, or-with really big files-sometimes I
get an actual hard drive sent to me. Even the flash
drives are getting so big that an entire album project can fit on one, like the 64 GB thumb drives.
What matters more is the sample rate and bit
rate. I usually start with 48 kHz / 24 bit. I don't
like to start higher, because at the end of the day
we have to come down to 44.1 / 16, and while
you can track at a higher rate, the conversion is
then so drastic that you can lose a lot in translation. If I get something in 44.1 / 16, that's fine too,
I can mix in that just fine. The only thing I try to stay
away from is working with MP3s. Sometimes that's
all I have to work with and I make it work, I can
even convert them back up, but if anything an
MP3 should be at least at 192 kbps.
What's the first thing you do?
Usually I will spend an hour or so mixing, so
that when they come in and do vocals over their
tracks it's a mix that's already sounding pretty
good. For the drums I have a lot of modern samples, I can use a program called Sound Replacer
[from Avid, makers of Pro Tools], I can go in and
put a really nice kick drum on there...
20

RECORDING May 2014

Adding vocals
How do you go about matching the right mic to a voice for somebody
who has never been here?
Right now we work with three vocal mics, and one or the other of those will
do it: An AKG C414 which is really good for hip hop, it will capture a male
rapper's voice very well; the Neumann U87 which is really great for anything-it's really difficult to not get a good sound on this microphone; and the
Avantone CV-12, it's a multi-pattern large-capsule tube condenser (www.
avantonepro.com). It's brand new and my favorite, came highly recommended-for example Taylor Swift just used it on her latest album. I've used it for
vocals, as a room mic for guitars-I've always gotten a great sound out of it.
Do you track with compression, without, or both ways at the same time?
I always track with compression, but that's the great thing about the new Pro
Tools, it's non-destructive, if I add compression here on my pre I'm not stuck
with that compression. Being a commercial engineer you want to keep your
options open-in case there's anything the artist wants to change. Doing it in
Pro Tools I can later either take it off altogether, or continually adjust it as we're


http://www.avantonepro.com http://www.avantonepro.com

Recording - May 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2014

Contents
Recording - May 2014 - Cover1
Recording - May 2014 - Cover2
Recording - May 2014 - 1
Recording - May 2014 - 2
Recording - May 2014 - 3
Recording - May 2014 - 4
Recording - May 2014 - 5
Recording - May 2014 - Contents
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