All language subtitles for MWTM Q&A #26 - Greg Wells

hello I am Greg wells and we are here in

the beautiful control room at Studio la

Fabrique we are at the tail end of doing

my first week here at mixed with the

Masters which has been absolutely

incredible and I hope they have me back

we did kind of an interesting approach

where I think I think it's safe to say

that most of the Masters that come here

will sometimes record a band or they

will just show the mixing process that

they do and and get into that with the

attendees that are here we all came up

with the idea of me showing up with an

artist that I'm working with and some

songwriters and we very bravely and we

pulled it off we wrote a song from

scratch here and then recorded it with

me producing the recording and then I

mixed it and then the last two days of

the seminar have been me listening to

the attendees work and being very

interactive with it commenting on it

from everything from mixing elements to

production suggestions to the

songwriting itself and and all points

micro and macro with that what we're

going to do right now is we have ten

questions that were chosen from readers

of the amazing sound on sound magazine

and I'm just going to launch into them

I've had a quick kind of read through

them and they're good questions here we

go so question number one is from Rob

and he asks how do you go about choosing

a mic for a vocalist I understand that

you try to avoid a mic that enhances the

bad characteristics of a voice but do

you choose a particular mic for a

particular vibe ie rock ballad pop and

can you please explain what it means

when someone says that a particular mic

takes

EQ well the vocal if you have a vocalist

on a track for me that is the key

instrument it is the

the general of the army it leads the

charge everything is there to serve the

lead vocal and when the lead vocal

sounds great and feels really confident

really natural it makes everything sound

better and I have really learned this

one the hard way I was guilty in my

early years of mixing and producing I'm

such a musician I just want to hear I'm

so what I mean by that it's like I'm

really interested in what's the drummer

doing what's the bass player doing

what's that synth programming what is

what patch is that what keyboard is that

that I would sometimes loose focus on

the lead vocal and at some point the

penny dropped for me that that actually

not only where my lead vocals not loud

enough but everything sounded better the

track sounds better when the lead vocal

is on the right microphone has the right

EQ has the right compression has

whatever needs to speak the clearest and

the most sort of unselfconsciously over

the track so Mike choice is super duper

important to me

sometimes the best mic is one of the

cheapest mics like a Shore 57 or 58

those are great vocal mics the short SM

seven is about a $400 US dollars Mike

it's fantastic

and at my studio I have all those mics

and I have a beautiful 47 and a 250

which is a cardioid 251 they're both of

those mics our new mics made by

Telefunken USA very much made to emulate

the original vintage mics and and they

have some extra ingredients in them and

the 47 has a tube that we can't even get

anymore there's sort of twiki versions

that I worked on directly with them I

find that between those two mics and a

couple of different mic pre choices I

have I have a lovely vintage 1073 which

is nice and creamy and kind of rich and

then I have

probably my favorite mic pre is made by

undertone audio the great Eric

Valentine's making fantastic gear I also

have his console I was his first

customer as a console owner and he makes

a mic free that is just ridiculous it's

unbelievable it makes a single space one

mic free with his EQ which is sort of

just glorious crazy EQ you can do all

kinds of things with including even

changing the phase with EQ and then he

makes a unit where it's just for Mike

fries with no EQ and I have both of

those those are big choices to make look

what's them what's the right mic pre so

you know microphones are very unnatural

things this whole recording process is a

very bizarre weird unnatural thing and

I'm never I'm never bored by how

unnatural we have to get sometimes to

make things just feel you know as

natural as possible to let the music

just come through the speakers so

microphones I've never seen a microphone

that knows how to record an S properly

or lots of consonants there are some

singers who are fantastic singers that

don't sound good on microphones they

have an S that can just rip your head

off and then there's some singers that

are there almost like photogenic on them

you know some people just have a quality

on camera not me but they just kind of

explode on Cameron they look amazing

even sometimes more amazing than they do

in real life some singers are like that

too on the mic there are definitely some

voices that that the microphone whatever

microphone it is loves and all of those

things are of the utmost importance to

me not only because I think most people

in the world only listen to the singer I

don't really care what the track is

doing with the accompaniment is doing

the accompaniment is really secondary if

of course there's no song without it but

it's there to support the vocal

how close the singer is to a microphone

is also really important most of the

time on modern pop music or any kind of

modern sort of commercial music the

singer should be pretty close to the mic

but sometimes the difference of you know

several centimeters a couple of inches

makes a big difference it changes the

vibe entirely the last part of Rob's

question can you please explain what it

means when someone says that a

particular mic takes EQ well I'm not

really sure what that means because you

know certainly all my all mics sound

different but it's the thing that your

miking that really sounds the most

difference so I don't know it's really

about the singer the source of the sound

and whether or not EQ is going to help

or not I would recommend recording

vocals with some sort of high-pass

filter in

some people are really bold with that

and they roll out you know like 120

Hertz and down I like to hear all that

stuff but I'll probably roll out 50

Hertz and down because you don't really

need that there's a very few singers

word those frequencies are going to help

I think I've covered that probably more

than I should have I'm giving

caffeinated answers let's go to question

number 2 from Mika how do you treat

drums in a mix I'm a drummer so I'm

really sensitive to that I have been

accused of over overdoing the drums

having louder drums then needed but I

think it's just my skewed perspective of

being a drummer and just sitting at the

drum kit for decades and kind of hearing

it that way

I do love the excitement of loud drums

if it's right for the song you know

again drums are accompaniment they're

also the foundation of the whole house

that you're building the drums sound

when you get the drum sounds right and

the vocal sounds right

first of all goal but then drums are

right next that just below the vocal in

terms of importance to me when you get

drum sounds right then you're kind of

off to the

and then everything it's much easier to

build out from there so there are many

many many many choices you can make with

drums there's such loud instruments even

when you play them quietly so there's a

lot of information being output room

mics can do a lot for a drum sound you

know there's the we did an amazing thing

here one of the attendees man who is a

great engineer and he was helping me

record the song that we wrote here and

he did something I've never seen anybody

do he miked the snare bottom in stereo

with two mics so if this is like here's

the snare drum and the kick is there he

made sure that they were both mics were

the same distance from the kick drum so

that we're not going to get some crazy

phase issue with the kick and I thought

that's a little eccentric but then I

heard it and it was really beautiful

turning up the stereo bottom had us look

makes me want to make the top of the

snare in stereo as well pretty cool

there's lots of experimenting you can do

sometimes the best drum sound is one mic

with a bunch of compression I think that

Micah's question was more about mixing

well it says mix oh I I know it was but

you know the way that you capture the

drums really informs how with the

choices you can make in mix land the

last thing I'll say about recording

drums at my studio in Los Angeles that

we have a think about 14 mics on the

drums that doesn't mean we use all of

them you can still go down to one or

three or whatever combo but it's there

as an option I like to collect stuff

like kind of like you know like it's

like the Hubble telescope like you'll

want to see everything and then I can

choose to do with each element what I

want to do with it but I want to make

sure I've got it in the best way so mix

wise it really is so dependent on the

track and there is no there is no one

answer for that I think you have to be

very sensitive to what serves

the song and the singer the most

sometimes sometimes quiet drums are the

way to go sometimes

super aggro drums are the way to go

sometimes loads of room mics are the way

sometimes Jackson five dry is the best

sound you know sometimes there's drum

replacement using I like to use trigger

by Steven slave that thing is just solid

it sounds amazing it's easy to use and

you can use his samples you can use

whatever samples you want to put in

there and that's a big help and it's

certainly a lot of the big mix engineers

all do that I'm not sure that they all

talked about it but I know I know for a

fact that pretty much all of them are

adding drum samples to mixes and I know

that to mention Eric Valentine again he

will do that but but it's usually quite

supplementary and he has a way of just

attacking the the drums and doing all

kinds of things with the actual snare

drum of the actual kick drum where it

kind of almost turns it into the

consistency of having a sample in the

mix it's it's really interesting there's

so many ways to go about it but you have

to be sensitive to what serve the song

we're all here to you know we're all in

total servitude to what's best for the

the thing that we're trying to make not

suck through the speakers okay question

number three this is from Anton reading

the literature on mixing audio semantics

terms like box mud and air are often

used but often have vague descriptions

or in fact are contradicted by other

authors how do you correlate the

objective characteristics of the sound

with the subjective descriptors what do

these three terms mean for you so you

know the one that I hate the most is

warm going for that warm sound like what

does that mean

especially with your in the world of

hi-fi home audio then when people start

talking about warm that usually means

they have no idea what they're listening

for maybe they're deaf I don't know but

you know it's different for everybody

like I will say all that sounds like a

record but there's no you know there's

no objective definition of what that is

it means something to me doesn't it's

not necessarily the same thing to anyone

else I certainly know what err implies

you know it's not not low frequencies it

means hello up there so probably you

know anything above like 15k and up

maybe 12 K and up that's sort of like

the tip tip tip top of what we're able

to hear I think men stop hearing around

19,000 20,000 vibrations per second

kilohertz and women can typically hear a

little bit higher 21k 22 K of course

sound continues way above what we're

able to hear and I feel like we can

perceive that somehow but when I really

like hearing it was more like you're

feeling it somehow so that's air air is

nice it's very easy to overcook too much

high-end information there's there's

something that I used to do that all the

time when I was younger I would use oral

exciters and I loved the fact that it

sounded really pristine really clear on

top that was exciting for me because I

grew up uh you know in a small town in

Canada where we didn't really have any

great Mike's a great gear I mean nobody

was recording anything was just live

bands and I was I spent most of my teens

playing a kind of a broken drum set

terrible guitars and everything sounded

very boxy muddy and no air and cold not

warm we were cold in Canada but um so I

did it I became obsessed with like kind

of super high fidelity and and when I

listened back to that stuff I was just

totally over blowing the top end so

there is a way to have things be present

and create that feeling of air on top

without actually cranking a bunch of

super high-end you got to really be

careful with that it's just like cooking

you just don't you know salt is nice

when you over salt the food nobody can

eat it the high frequencies are

definitely like that you got to do it to

taste you got to find the right balance

and there are different types of salt so

box I think box just means boxy like

kind of usually lower mids sort of ugly

frequencies I know I was hanging out

with Michael Brauer in New York at the

AES show last fall and he was telling me

the studio that he started at in New

York that they you know was that it was

the disco era and there were a lot of

dance records being made and pretty much

every engineer would just cut 300 Hertz

out of the mix to begin with it was the

first thing they do just take it out of

almost everything and that's definitely

in the area code of boxiness to me again

again it depends on the source it

depends on what you're cutting the EQ

out of yeah you know and then sometimes

that's the very frequency you want to

boost 300 Hertz 400 Hertz on a female

vocal is a nice thing to turn up if you

want it to feel a little rounder a

little fatter in tone down there

typically that's a dangerous frequency

to turn up and gives you sort of that

box down power on a female vocal it can

be the very thing that makes it just sit

perfectly in the track mud I guess mud

means the opposite of air and bass

frequencies are a funny thing you know

bass in particular you can it's nice to

have a big round fat low you know

sonorous bass it can also be really

boring can also really weigh a track

down like in my own way I feel like I

understand why Prince often would not

have bass in his songs I mean he was an

amazing bass player and he was a fan of

amazing bass players but sometimes

there's no bass in a prince track and

it's super funky

you know the song kiss is a perfect

example of that there's no Becks

just a crazy big drumbeat the bass drum

is the bass in that song I think and

low-end in general I really marvel at

how someone like chris lord-alge ii or

in a different way serving gaining of

how they get their tracks to feel really

full on the bottom and quite bottome

sounding but if you look at it on some

sort of analyzer there's not a lot going

on below I don't know 60 Hertz 80 Hertz

sometimes it feels low Andy but it's

actually not same is true in Skrillex

track sometimes with the bottom it feels

huge but if you're talking like really

really really low frequencies they're

not there and I think that that actually

somehow makes it feel bigger on the

bottom it's counterintuitive sounding

but it's fascinating

so again it's all balances I encourage

everybody to everybody through

experiment a lot I certainly have I

continue to every day it's humbling how

how much there is to learn and how every

song and every mix and every experience

in the studio is case-specific it's

they're all different even in the middle

of the same album the same singer or the

same band the approach is almost never

the same anyway let's let's move on

question number four Ahmet do you have a

working routine while mixing do you take

breaks or work start to finish I

definitely like to kind of dive in and

attack things pretty quickly and without

much thinking involved and then I like

to take a little break and that can be

just turning the speaker's up and

leaving the room and listening from down

the hallway or listening from another

room you know the thing that immediately

evaporates and I've said this before and

do in other interviews the thing that

evaporates fast is your objectivity and

if anybody doesn't know what I mean by

that it's being able to hear the

music like someone who's never heard it

before which of course is what that's

who we're making the music for we're not

making it for us we know what's going on

we've lived with the track we've been

working on its we're not going to buy

the record I mean we might but we'll buy

one coffee or two copies at most this is

for people that have never heard it

people that probably don't know anything

about music they just know if they like

something or not but they'd like a song

if they like a singer if they like a

line of the lyric that can be enough to

hook somebody in to a thing so

objectivity I think like them you know

once you hear something more than five

times that perspective really just sort

of gets drunk and you can't you know you

kind of like you still have to keep

working but so anything I can do to kind

of trick myself into feeling like it's

not my song or it's not my mix or not my

production is really helpful taking

breaks is huge listening to other stuff

too this is something I really advocate

and the great engineering producer Jack

Joseph Puig told me several years ago

that he makes a playlist of his favorite

sounding mixes and while he's mixing

whatever he's been hired to mix he will

go to that playlist and you know switch

the input and through the speakers he's

hearing other people's mixes from

records that he really adores and loves

and then he'll go back to his mix and

that can be a real quick

you know bucket of water in the face of

objectivity I sometimes I forget to do

it but almost all the time I do it I've

been doing it for years now in the

beginning the first couple years it was

so humbling just I was so far off the

mark in terms of the way other records

were balanced and and I like stuff in

the playlist that's really different I

mean I call it mixed reality playlist

there is everything from spikes tents

brilliant mix of a song called hella

good from no Doubt's Rocksteady record

fantastic fantastic mix very humbling

mix thank you spike for making me feel

like I don't know what I'm doing and and

then I have like you know

Public Enemies track nine-one-one is a

joke Terminator X did the most brilliant

tracks still does the most brilliant

tracks to you know rich cos these mix of

get gone from Fiona apples second album

when the pawn has a super long title all

kinds of stuff you know a chris

lord-alge ease mix of American Idiot by

Green Day

absolutely stunning jaw-dropping crazy

mix you know all kinds of stuff and so I

will listen to that and they all sound

different from each other and they have

different framings and different

perspectives and different takes on what

the bottom end means and how bright

things are and how dark things are but

it really helps a lot so I think more

than anything

making your own mix reality playlist is

like a PhD in in in the way record sound

it is unbelievably you learn so fast

especially when you go back and compared

to what the thing you're working on and

then go back to the playlist and listen

to other things it doesn't have to be

the same genre that you're working it's

nice to listen to like something else I

have on my playlist is Roberta flacks

killing me softly which was done in the

70s and it really sounds like it but

it's kind of a perfect record and

there's you can just learn gobs of stuff

from listening to great work done by

other people that more than anything I

think will help everybody with their

mixing jobs question number five Vaughn

how do you layer multiple guitars

meaning pan and EQ and if you record a

guitar amp with multiple microphones how

do you blend those two mics

until you get the right tone you know

again sometimes the best guitar sound is

just one guitar with one mic depending

on the song if you're doing

kind of a more polished rock thing or

like a real heavy kind of rock thing

there's nothing sounds like double

guitars and something I learned from the

amazing Terry date when we were working

with the Deftones in the early 2000s

he's a big fan of three guitars so he'll

do double track guitars right and left

and then he'll do a third one that he

talks up the middle not quite as loud as

the ones on right and left but it's

there I know that Bob Rock does a very

similar thing and he calls that the

thickener the third one you know on

other types of songs that is overkill

that would be too much so and then in

terms of panning like if it's sort of a

Deftones vibe if it's like you know kind

of heavy

just like wall of guitar then I like

pretty hard left and right panning

probably a hundred percent and or you

know sometimes it's more like 80 85

percent I usually don't pan any

instruments hard left and right I like

to feel like I'm listening to a

performance from a stage that's in front

of me it's just my particular the way I

like to perceive music coming out of

speakers but for like a heavy rock thing

hard left-right sounds amazing

especially with a third track kind of

tucked in the middle and then in terms

of you know microphone blending I have

to I know some people put three

sometimes four mics on a cabinet you got

to be really careful with phase issues I

think it makes sense to make the same

speaker so that eliminates some phase

issues you can at least tell that your

mics are the exact same distance or

almost the exact same distance virtually

the same distance from the from the

speaker I have a fifty seven can't go

wrong with a shirt fifty seven which

sounds great sometimes it's a bit too

bright and I the other mic is a Royer

121 which is just a gorgeous sounding

ribbon mic it's brilliant on guitar it's

just it's just an amazing thing it does

something completely different from the

57 and they're very complementary to

each other they really blend beautifully

I'm always

tweaking the balance between the two

always on every take it changes the tone

pretty dramatically and and it you know

like I keep saying with almost

everything it's really about the song

and what and so I will audition I'll

play along to the song I think that's

very important when you're trying to get

a sound you can do with drums too like

don't just get a drum sound if you have

something that you can play too you can

even just stay on input you don't have

to record it you can also record it but

get the sound while you're listening to

the thing you're going to play to if you

have that option that's that's really

helpful because sometimes something that

sounds fantastic in the room by the time

it makes it into the track that you're

doing it doesn't speak the same way

through through the speakers

I think it gives you sort of an

objectivity again to use that word about

what is the right town for it don't

don't just kind of pull it out of the

blue and like I said at the beginning of

this answer really the right amp the

right guitar part the right guitar

player through one amp and one mic can

be just as good if not better than

anything okay that's a halfway point

everyone take a little breather question

number six from Miguel I heard you like

to put a pull Tech EQ p1a on your master

buss if so how do you set it to create

the sound you want so I am a huge fan of

Steve Jackson's recreation of pole

technique use he he he's just done

amazing work for years concocting this

thing he got to know I forget his name

right now was Eugene's Jean the guy that

started pole Tech who I believe recently

passed away but Steve bought the name

and was completely faithful to the

original design of full ticket queues

and I I was a studio musician for other

record producers all through the 90s and

I really got to know pull Tech's in

studios and they do a thing that nothing

else does that I've ever heard and I was

ready to buy

one vintage one and that's right around

when Steve first went public with his

first EQ p1a I think that was the model

he had at first and I've used a few of

his different things over the years and

then I settled on these two mastering

versions of EQ p1 I swear there stepped

and that was on my mix bus for several

years I still have them I don't have

them on the mix bus anymore I use them

on tracking for all kinds of things from

vocals to bass to kick drum to they're

just magic Holy Grail crazy eq's what I

have on the mix bus now is something

that sends to my ear almost exactly like

the pull technique use and it is an

analog EQ but it is digitally controlled

it's called the better maker and it's so

convenient for me because I don't work

long hours and I don't work on the

weekends because I have 10,000 kids and

I want to be there and to be dad the

better maker the settings are saved in

my Pro Tools session so I open the

session I hear the little click and boom

everything is there not only does it

have a pull technique you section it

also has two other eq's that are just

kind of regular accused you can put

across whatever you want to do and it

also has the best high-pass filter I

think I've ever heard it's really

versatile it's a pretty amazing unit I

think it's called the two three two

something I love it and and I love those

pull text too but in terms of the speed

kind of a new hybrid version which is

what the better maker is was better for

me on the mix buss more for practical

reasons than anything but my favorite

setting on a pull technique you

especially for mix buss is 20 Hertz on

the bottom and sometimes that's kind of

a sharp sharp EQ or a more broad it

depends and then the attenuation which

I'm still not quite exactly sure how

that works but I know it scoops out

something it scoops that something kind

of creates

pays for a bigger bottom so I turn it up

20 Hertz probably like 3 dB which is

maybe more than most people would do it

I know CLA likes to do it 2 DB 3 DB is

quite fun sometimes I go to 4 and a

little bit of attenuation and it takes

out some of the wolf enos of the bottom

you just get this like gorgeous sexy

just crazy impact down low makes the

kick drum sound incredible same with the

bass and then on top I usually don't

intend u8 at all and I will boost it

depends sometimes it sounds really cool

you know if you're on a shelf to go 5k

and boost that boost everything above

that again depending on the source

depending on the song that's going

through it typically you know what is

the top frequency on that Mikey I think

it's 16 okay

maybe boosting that as a shelf it's just

incredible we'll talk about air it's

just magic sounding and if I was using

the original pull Tex on the bus then if

I needed any kind of mid-range stuff I

would probably do that in the box but

there glorious eq's and I highly

recommend if you can to have at least

one in your arsenal because it does

something that really nothing else does

question number seven Mota's how many

instruments should I have playing

together at the same time I'm looking

for tips for a good arrangement

especially those behind a lead vocal so

I understand the intent of the question

it's it's all about the song like I have

no idea is unfortunately is the answer

if it's a you know if it's if it's a

ballad if it's a slow song and it's a

sensitive thing you probably don't want

a lot of instruments maybe it's you know

a couple of things this is all about you

know salting your food to taste -

whatever it tastes right to you

I'm a real fan of experimenting if you

have the time to do it so you can try

you know I recommend this have your

singer sing as early as possible this is

what I try to do in the studio I will

you know play like a Wurlitzer kind of

piano roll will do like a simple guitar

to a click track anything harmonic with

a little bit of rhythm that the singer

can give me a scratch vocal on and as

soon as I have that I might tune it a

little bit I might make it sort of mixi

sounding so it behaves like a vocal on a

record and then you can do whatever you

want you can you can change the backdrop

to a rainy day you can make it look like

you're in the desert it's it's option

anxiety at that point and you can

experiment you can do all kinds of stuff

you can throw the kitchen sink at it you

can have it be at a 440 sine wave you

could click whatever you want to do and

then you'll know because I really

believe and to me it's been proven time

and time and time again that the

speakers are really the thing that

produced the record you can talk about

music you can talk about ideas people

often do of course I catch myself doing

it a lot but until you try something and

you hear it through the speakers no one

really knows and I'm I'm often surprised

at how something I thought wasn't going

to work does work really well through

the speakers and then the opposite can

happen too I'm convinced this is the

right thing and I hear it's like that

doesn't really do what I thought it was

going to do you have to stay open to

recognizing the best idea I will often

suggest something whether it's the

accompaniment to a vocal like this

question is asking or but you know the

right

what are anything and and it is my idea

so it's inevitable that there's some

kind of ego attachment to the fact that

that's my idea that I put forth but if

somebody suggests something that I think

is a better idea I really like I'm open

to whatever it serves it I don't need it

to be my idea maybe my saying something

spurred on the best idea coming into the

sandbox that we're in but it doesn't

have to be my idea so I everyone should

you know if you can try to stay open to

what is best for the music and so that

you know addressing your

question like the best arrangement to me

is usually the least amount of stuff

going on where the vocal feels supported

hugged protected like it's you know it's

kind of like the lead actor in a theater

play you want the backdrop to to really

support whatever is going on there 2,000

years ago in Greece the origins of live

theatre not that I was there I mean I'm

old enough that old the the actors would

be in the middle of stage and there

would be a narrator on one side the

stage reading kind of from the script

and then there was a choir behind

everybody that was the backdrop of the

stage and the choir the chorus the Greek

chorus would you know echo what had just

happened they would kind of recap you

know the last couple minutes or

sometimes I think they would foreshadow

what's about to happen

Shakespeare would do that with whether

in the term for that which I love is

pathetic fallacy I don't know why I'm

talking about this right now but I'm

completely off the plot however I hope

you're being entertained I am it's

really down to whatever's right for the

story that's being told and who the

storyteller is and how it comes out of

them you got to support that you can't

get in the way of it if you do I don't

think you're doing your job it's all

about accompaniment accompaniment

support support support and and then the

ironically the better that the singer is

at telling the story the better the

accompaniment sounds okay

question number eight from Steven what

does good sound quality mean to you well

I definitely know what bad sound quality

is I think we all do but when things

sound really good and and good it's sort

of a very wide-ranging term let's change

that to great sound quality

because I think that's really the intent

behind this question what would is great

sound mean to me the quality of great

sound you know when you're watching a

movie and it's a really great movie and

at some point like maybe 40 minutes in

or earlier you completely forget that

you're watching a movie and you're just

in the experience of whatever is

happening and you feel them all you care

about the characters and that's the

movie version of great sound qualities

but I want music to do that to me I want

to forget that I'm listening to a song I

don't want to notice the kick drum I

don't want to think about what kind of

microphone this I don't want I don't

care who wrote it I don't care where it

was recorded I want to be lost in it and

almost in a dreamlike state you know

letting the music really get into me let

me feel stuff so that is when I think

things are sounding great oh and what is

the thing that really dictates whether

things sound great it is not EQ not

compression it's not any mixed

techniques it's not whether you're in

the box or on this gorgeous console

behind me or in your bedroom or on Mars

it is the quality of the song that's

what sounds good or great or terrible or

bad or boxy or whatever you know when

the song is when the script of the movie

is great I think it's really hard to

make a bad movie if you have an amazing

script and then the opposite of course

is you can have the biggest budget in

the world the hottest director you know

the best actors if the script is kind of

broken you just cannot make a great

movie you can't do it it is impossible

so things that sound best are the best

compositions they're the best songs the

sound of the record is really in the

writing of it and that can't be that

can't be underestimated that's more than

anything why I try to become a

songwriter I remember playing on studio

sessions in Los Angeles in the 1990s

with you know I'd be in the room

sometimes with the world

best musicians like really intimidating

killer team you know super famous people

that I grew up worshiping I still do

great producer great studios and if it

was going well and if we got if we were

tracking live and we got the song and

one or two three takes nobody ever said

well that's a really great song nobody

ever commented on the song they would

say oh nice strum Phil or whatever nice

this that but it was in hindsight it was

always because the song was great and

it's sort of sort of to a degree

recorded itself if we ever had the

opposite app and we were like twelve

takes in and it's just we're stuck and

we know it's not right everything would

get blamed I mean we were you know we

people would quietly whisper we got the

wrong producer or worth you know right

the wrong studio this is the wrong

consoles we've got it's the wrong kick

drum that's the wrong coffee it's the

wrong whatever it was pretty much always

something wrong with the song and

sometimes songs will have sections that

work really well and there'll be a

problem area like a big road bump and it

affects the whole thing it's really down

to the writing and that is what sounds

best and I humbly advise and you don't

let anybody tell you otherwise because

they're wrong it's the composition it's

the quality of the script that's what

sounds the best of course everything

else is super important I mean I you

know there is there's a particular

guitar cable that I like to use that

again Eric Valentine makes and it is the

best guitar cable you can change the

impedance on it yeah that makes a

massive difference yes I record on

microphones that cost almost as much as

a car but you can use all of that gear

you can be in a gorgeous facility like

this if the song is broken you can

you're not going to make a good record

definitely not going to make a great

record you maybe will make a good one

it's in the writing okay question number

nine Vincent how do you get such a good

bass sound do you combine the DI with an

amp what Mike do you use

I love bass I love bass synth I love

tubas I love petals on a pipe organ I

love mogh Taurus petals

I love low notes they're just they're

amazing fun and it's really fun to play

bass guitar through a great sounding amp

on a great song there's no feeling like

it it's really wild and I play a lot of

bass in the studio so a few times I had

I've had some other bass amps throughout

the years and they were cool but a

couple times I would rent an ampeg

classic amp egghead and an 810 cabinet

and every time I did I just thought

that's it that's the bass amp that's the

one I wish I had and then finally I just

committed and had enough money in the

bank where I could get a reissue of the

ampeg classic head and I instead of an

810 cabinet I got a 410 cabinet I just

figured it would eat up less space in my

studio and I'm on a microphone it sounds

pretty much the same so that's what I

use we have two microphones on the bass

cabinet we also take the DI the direct

signal through a radial di so when I

record there's three bass tracks there's

the direct you know coming right off the

bass not going through an amp and then

there's two mics on the bass amp one is

this weird old mic that was made in

Pasadena California in the 1950s and

it's a company called American

microphones the microphones look like

these old James Bond laser guns from

early seventies movies they're really

they're really cool-looking

they're about that long you get you can

find them on eBay for three four hundred

dollars and I've got three of them now

they are sort of fantastically not high

five sounding but they're not that

crunchy either they're just they have a

lot of personality and I use that for

kind of the presence and the sort of

real character more top-end sounds of

the bass it sounds good in the lower

mids too

and then I blend that to taste depending

on the song and the kind of bass part

I'm playing with my favorite mic for

this kind of like low rich tone is a

forty seven and a fat forty seven is

great - it's probably say frontal loud

bass amp but I could not afford a second

47 that I really liked so I asked Alan

Venna Tosh at Telefunken USA who built

my two great vocal mics I asked him to

recommend something that would go as low

as that sonically was going to pick up

like you know especially if I

occasionally I'll use a five string bass

just to have a low D or a low whatever I

know it's not cool to play five string

but it sounds great sometimes on the

right song so they have a mic call to

see you twenty-nine and it sounds

phenomenal on the bass amp so it's those

two mics blended going through some nice

Chandler Mike pries and usually no

compression on the way in I like to keep

all the kind of low there all the low

end intact and I'll just control my

dynamics just as a player and then

usually in the mix I almost never use

the DI signal it's always the amp I just

that's in my head that is sort of the

big gloopy glue a little bass sound that

I'm looking for that I really like a

bass through di to me sometimes sounds

cool but rarely it just it feels a bit

too

I like the bass to sound kind of kind of

dumb and you know simple and the amp

actress does an amazing job of that so

if you like the bass sound on anything

that I've done in the last I don't know

10 years it is that setup okay we're

we're now at the final question if

you've made it this far through my not

short answer

question number ten is from Saul how do

you deal between fidelity and harmonic

distortion knowing every now and then in

the process of recording and mixing both

our relative concepts as all is

distorted in a certain kind of way

because of the medium do you prefer the

old school or these days use

I mean distortion is really is an

amazing thing and and you know

distortion doesn't mean a distortion

pedal there's all kinds of there's some

kind of distortion happening right now

this this you know little mic that is

attached to my shirt that you're hearing

but the Beatles records are just covered

in really all the all recordings are

absolutely slathered layered in just in

distortion but it's more like tube

overdrive the imperfections of tubes and

what they do to sound is imperfect but

it sounds amazing same with tape we

record things to tape its smearing the

frequencies it rolls off a bunch of high

end it rolls off a bunch of low end

ironically it makes things sound bigger

a lot of the time the minute you audio

passes through a tube it's being kind of

changed and colored and I really like

all of that stuff I'm a big fan of

hardware and software that where you can

control adding harmonic distortion to

things

the there's a new plugin by way it's

called a Saphira I think I'm pronouncing

it right the virus if you're where you

can really bring out second and third

harmonics on the source sometimes I'll

put it across the entire mix I have a

unit on in my console called the master

and servant made by / stair in LA Jeff

terzo makes great gear and that's really

fun to use the Decapitator plugin is

ridiculous really fun

I like the the level or made by standard

audio in McGregor and his partner Tom

standard audio there's actually these

one here right beside me that mix at the

Masters level or right there there's all

kinds of stuff that that helps but most

of it you don't really hear as

Distortion

and sometimes it just makes things sound

more present sometimes it gives it a

cohesiveness and a kind of record light

quality that if you take it out you

really miss it it's a really fun thing

to play with it like almost everything

if not everything it involves

experimenting and figuring out what too

much is what not enough is always

compared always a be with it off and put

it back in turn it off turn on there's

different types of it my plugins with

waves have a fair amount of that stuff

built in especially the mix centric

there's a it would sound very different

actually if the harmonic distortion was

taken out of the path so I encourage

everyone to kind of mess with it it does

do a thing it can make things sound

really cool it's amazing on bass bass

synth bass guitar it just makes the

notes sound better

not necessarily louder just gives them

more of a footprint a sonic footprint in

the track it can be incredible on vocals

definitely on drums the guitar obviously

you know if there's all kinds of usages

for it and then you have somebody like

Chad Blake who was doing the seminar

just before me here I'd mix with the

Masters and Chad is a master of running

things through things like the sansamp

or Decapitator or I know he's a big fan

of the shore level lock which is an old

I think it was 4p I systems like it's a

mic pre and there's some sort of weird

noisy built in compression thing that

happens and he's all about all of that

stuff and he is you can hear the

distortion in his mixes but it just

gives a character and

kind of a sculpting element to the stuff

that he uses in his mixes that I've

never heard anybody else do it like that

he's really you know talked about a

master of so many things but in

particular like the way he uses

distortion to just vibe his mixes up

it's so brilliant from his latest work

to even you know one of my favorite

examples of all that is the Latin

playboys recordings him and Mitchell

froom and two incredibly talented guys

from Los Lobos so I hope that helps I've

mentioned a lot of things that will give

you distortion that you can use in a mix

it's really more like overdrive not

really distortion to me that means like

more of a fuzzy kind of thing but even

that can be cool experiment experiment

experiment compare try to stay objective

and go make some great music I'm going

to wrap this up thank you for joining me

it's a real honor and privilege to be

able to answer these questions from this

beautiful studio here in France and

thanks for submitting the questions and

I'll see you later

Thanks