Recording - June 2018 - 16

CJ VANSTON Derek Smalls
On Recording
violinist," and you ask how long they've
been practicing and they say, "five minutes,"
that's the issue. You have to take the
time to learn these tools, whatever it is
that you're using to create your music.

I've been a Steinberg Cubase user
for 18 years, and I always have Pro
Tools guys coming into my studio
and being amazed at what I can do
that they can't.

I get that all the time, especially when
I'm in Logic doing swipe comping, which
is this amazing process that I love... hey,
can I share some gear tips while we're
on the subject of mixing?

Absolutely!

Well, first of all, I don't have a console.
I have a big rack with some great mic
gear... I have some BAE and Universal
Audio preamps and compressors that I
use on nearly everything. I have killer
microphones-nothing vintage, by the
way... I don't like mics that break, and
sound different now than they did half
an hour ago. I don't share the fascination
of using 50-year-old equipment.
On this record, I used a lot of
Audio-Technica AT4050; all of Derek's
vocals were recorded with it. I love that
mic because it's very beautifully neutralsounding... I'm not generally looking for
a 'sound' from a mic. A lot of guys are
looking for mics with personality; I want
a very clean mic that lets me shape the
personality that I want.
I learned that from Greg Ladanyi, and
that's how he felt about tape. "Going to
tape is this unquantifiable magic, my
stuff comes back with this warmth on
it"... His attitude was, if I want warmth,
I'll put warmth on it. I don't need to go
to some inferior format that's a pain in
the ass to use, to get some unquantifiable
'magic' that really isn't magical.
Anyway, as I said, I don't have a console. What I do have is a Mackie Control surface with eight faders and one
master fader, and I would say that it may
be the most valuable thing in my studio.
16

RECORDING June 2018

Everything is almost always in touch mode,
and I start mixing from the second a part is
put down. So, when I do a vocal, I immediately comp that vocal, fix what I need
to, punch in little parts, get the effects and
compression that I want... I get the vocal
where I like it, then immediately write automation. I get all my levels where it's just
right with the track.
When you do overdubs, how many
times will you have to listen to that vocal
again? A hundred? Don't wait until the
end to get it really right; do it now,
and enjoy the finished sound as you go
forward. You can always tweak it later.
If you want the acoustic guitar here and
the electric guitar there, put them in
place now. Take time to get the drums
sounding good-tell the band to go to
lunch and take the time to get a good
drum sound, because you're going to
have to hear it a hundred times. At all
stages of the process, what you're working
with should sound like a record!
That's why I love using a control surface.
In touch mode, you're getting it in place
as you go, as opposed to a big analog
console, where the mix will be a little
bit different every time you bring it up.
Being able to pick up where you left off
is really important.

Also important: mixing in the box.
On a given day, I might work on five or
six different songs. If Derek says, "Hey,
I changed the lyric on this song, I want
to re-sing the bridge"-boom! There it
is, exactly how it sounded yesterday.
It's not 'recording, then engineering,
then mixing'-it's always mixing, it's
always integrated. That's incredibly important to me.

You also scored all of the strings?
Where were they recorded?

I did most of the arrangements with
help from the brilliant Christopher
Anderson-Bazzoli and Robert Gates,
for everything except the title track
"Smalls Change," which was Chris
Walden. They were recorded in
Budapest.

A lot of my favorite bands
released albums last year, and
it seems like they've all gone
'pop'-they're squashed to hell,
almost mono, and muddy. And
then I get to an album like this,
and it's wide, it's gorgeous, like
you're sitting in the middle of the
soundstage. And these strings
would make Sinatra jealous!

The Snarky
Puppy Horns

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