Recording - September 2021 - 46

Some years ago, I wrote an article for RECORDING that likened
mixing to cooking. [The Art of Cooking Up a Good Mix!
October 2014] I still stand by that comparison: it is all about
having good, healthy, fresh, and locally sourced ingredients,
adding them to the pot in the right order, and most importantly,
doing so in the right proportions to make sure that in the end,
you can taste all the flavors. When you are cooking, you do
so with love, passion and dedication to perfection, and the
outcome you wish for is that your meal will please all the senses,
create or bring back memories, and leave you satisfied,
satiated, and loving life!
You don't want to overcook or undercook things either, and
you have to be careful about certain ingredients. For example,
low end is like salt: you need a little bit in everything, and it can
make or break things, but if you add too much of it, you can
ruin everything. Reverb is like cheese: it makes everything nicer,
but if you add too much
of it, you are covering up
the natural substance and
changing the whole relationship
of the flavors.
I love cooking, and I love
mixing. I spend more time
in the studio than in the
kitchen, but regardless of
where you do the stirring,
a good meal takes time,
and AngelHeaded Hipster
was no different. The whole
process took producer Hal
Willner and me four years.
We started mixing the album
about one year into it, and
we had no idea it would take
that long to cook. Two years
in, the mixing process bloomed and blossomed into a matrix of
30 tracks with multiple versions, revisions, and multiple revisions
of multiple versions. Hal and I got into the swing of things and
developed an efficient workflow, especially when it became
clear that for some tracks, we would need mix approvals from
managers as well as the artists (something Hal typically never
dealt with because most artists were in such trusting reverence of
his musical taste and production).
Thirty songs, four years and two studios
I mixed all of the thirty-plus songs, including outtakes, by
myself or with Hal. No artist was present at any of the six sessions.
We mixed almost everything at EastSide Sound in New
York City, one of the longest-running studios in NY, active since
1972. I am the chief engineer at EastSide, and most of my
personal equipment lives there. I know the studio like the back
of my hand-the speakers, the room, and all the ins and outs
(literally and figuratively!). We mixed about three or four songs
at Flux Studios in New York because they were equipped with
the same Focal SM9 speakers I was mixing on at EastSide (I
have since switched to an Adam monitor endorsement). I mixed
the whole album on the SM9, cross-referencing my mixes on a
few smaller speakers and headphones. Working with speakers
you know and trust is half the battle when mixing. The room
and the console also matter of course, but the speakers are
your first point of reference-the translator of waveforms to
air that your ears can read. As discussed in last month's column,
studio choice is essential, so when we were up against
the wall with deadlines and EastSide was too booked-up to
get in, I called Flux, gave them a list of plugins I needed to
have installed on their Pro Tools rig, headed over there with my
two Glyph Technologies hard drives, and got to work.
As discussed last month, EastSide Sound was then equipped
with a 72-channel Harrison Series 10B analog console, with
digital control and total recall. I could automate faders, inserts,
sends, aux sends, etc., and everything would come back in
seconds even months later, keeping the signal path and summing
100% analog. This
unique and unrivaled
design was perfect
for
this project because we
knew we would have to
recall mixes and make
changes at the speed of
digital, but we wanted to
mix the album in analog.
Glyph Technologies hard drives
Cosmic Dancer
The first track mixed
was the first song
we recorded: Nick
Cave's 'Cosmic Dancer'.
I routed all the channels
from Pro Tools to the
board and used the EQ
on the mixer, along with
some additional outboard EQ, compressors, and Lexicon 480
and MasterRoom II reverbs. The initial mix came out great, but
little changes here and there to the arrangement over the next
few months, including overdubbed bass clarinet and psychedelic
effects processing on the string section, made it evident to
me that I had to find an even more recallable way of working.
The hybrid approach
I decided to adopt a hybrid mixing style: I would do EQ
and dynamics with plugins in Pro Tools, but I would output
everything to the console on individual channels set to 0dB and
recall my panning on the console.
After recording U2 and Trombone Shorty in New Orleans,
Hal needed me to send the band a good rough mix that same
day. So, I made a mix on my laptop in my hotel, which served
as a starting point for the final mix later.
This prompted me to streamline my process further to be able
to go from an in-the-box mix to a console mix quickly and easily.
I made two complex mix templates with tons of aux tracks that
served as conversion templates to go from in-the-box to console
and vice versa (by changing all the outputs of my channels and
RECORDING September 2021 43

Recording - September 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2021

Fade In
2021 Summer NAMM Report
Solid State Logic: UF8 Advanced DAW Controller
The Ascending Spiral: Soundtracks, Sound Design and Saw with Charlie Clouser
KRK Classic 7
Plugin Outlet: Empirical Labs Big FrEQ
Inside the Box with Joe Albano: EQ in the Box
Plugin Outlet: FabFilter Timeless 3
Focal: Alpha 65 Evo
Session Log: The AngelHeaded Hipster, Part 9: Mixing
Austrian Audio: Hi-X65
Plugin Outlet: BABY Audio Smooth Operator
Reviewed and Revisited: Ableton Push 2
Plugin Outlet: Overloud GEM Voice
Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: Who Is the Mastering Engineer? A Producer’s Opinion
Reviewed and Revisited: Avid Pro Tools 2021.6
Amphion: BaseTwo25
Plugin Outlet: Massenburg Designworks EQ
Readers’ Tracks
Output: Frontier
Fade Out: The Identification of Spatial Audio
Recording - September 2021 - 1
Recording - September 2021 - 2
Recording - September 2021 - 3
Recording - September 2021 - 4
Recording - September 2021 - 5
Recording - September 2021 - 6
Recording - September 2021 - Fade In
Recording - September 2021 - 8
Recording - September 2021 - 9
Recording - September 2021 - 10
Recording - September 2021 - 2021 Summer NAMM Report
Recording - September 2021 - 12
Recording - September 2021 - 13
Recording - September 2021 - 14
Recording - September 2021 - 15
Recording - September 2021 - 16
Recording - September 2021 - Solid State Logic: UF8 Advanced DAW Controller
Recording - September 2021 - 18
Recording - September 2021 - 19
Recording - September 2021 - 20
Recording - September 2021 - The Ascending Spiral: Soundtracks, Sound Design and Saw with Charlie Clouser
Recording - September 2021 - 22
Recording - September 2021 - 23
Recording - September 2021 - 24
Recording - September 2021 - 25
Recording - September 2021 - 26
Recording - September 2021 - 27
Recording - September 2021 - 28
Recording - September 2021 - 29
Recording - September 2021 - 30
Recording - September 2021 - KRK Classic 7
Recording - September 2021 - 32
Recording - September 2021 - Plugin Outlet: Empirical Labs Big FrEQ
Recording - September 2021 - 34
Recording - September 2021 - Inside the Box with Joe Albano: EQ in the Box
Recording - September 2021 - 36
Recording - September 2021 - 37
Recording - September 2021 - 38
Recording - September 2021 - 39
Recording - September 2021 - 40
Recording - September 2021 - Plugin Outlet: FabFilter Timeless 3
Recording - September 2021 - 42
Recording - September 2021 - Focal: Alpha 65 Evo
Recording - September 2021 - 44
Recording - September 2021 - Session Log: The AngelHeaded Hipster, Part 9: Mixing
Recording - September 2021 - 46
Recording - September 2021 - 47
Recording - September 2021 - 48
Recording - September 2021 - Austrian Audio: Hi-X65
Recording - September 2021 - 50
Recording - September 2021 - Plugin Outlet: BABY Audio Smooth Operator
Recording - September 2021 - 52
Recording - September 2021 - Reviewed and Revisited: Ableton Push 2
Recording - September 2021 - 54
Recording - September 2021 - Plugin Outlet: Overloud GEM Voice
Recording - September 2021 - 56
Recording - September 2021 - Inside the Studio with Mark Hornsby: Who Is the Mastering Engineer? A Producer’s Opinion
Recording - September 2021 - 58
Recording - September 2021 - Reviewed and Revisited: Avid Pro Tools 2021.6
Recording - September 2021 - 60
Recording - September 2021 - Amphion: BaseTwo25
Recording - September 2021 - 62
Recording - September 2021 - Plugin Outlet: Massenburg Designworks EQ
Recording - September 2021 - 64
Recording - September 2021 - Readers’ Tracks
Recording - September 2021 - 66
Recording - September 2021 - 67
Recording - September 2021 - 68
Recording - September 2021 - 69
Recording - September 2021 - 70
Recording - September 2021 - Output: Frontier
Recording - September 2021 - 72
Recording - September 2021 - 73
Recording - September 2021 - 74
Recording - September 2021 - Fade Out: The Identification of Spatial Audio
Recording - September 2021 - 76
Recording - September 2021 - 77
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