{"id":2016,"date":"2012-06-18T00:10:25","date_gmt":"2012-06-17T23:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arpjournal.com\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2012-06-18T00:05:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-17T23:05:00","slug":"interview-with-steve-marcantonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/interview-with-steve-marcantonio\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Steve Marcantonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the tracking process do you follow a detailed approach? Are there things which\u00a0must be captured during tracked which can not be fixed afterwards?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve Marcantonio: Depending on the input from artists, producers or record labels, there could\u00a0be five musicians present, up to nine or ten. For example, there could be bass, drums, electric\u00a0guitar, acoustic guitar, a keyboard player, a steel player, a fiddle player, and a singer. There could\u00a0also be two keyboard players or two electric guitar players.<\/p>\n

My approach begins with making sure everything is set up perfectly, long before anyone else\u00a0comes in. My assistant engineer does that for me but I still show up about 1 hour before the\u00a0musicians arrive. I believe that everything should be set up perfectly within the room before\u00a0beginning tracking, and that it should look neat. You want the studio to look neat because you\u00a0never know when a photographer is going to show up, and you never know when the artist is\u00a0going be filming the session. Other than that, if someone is sitting in a room all day recording, I\u00a0think that it\u2019s better for their psyche to be in a room that is well-planned out and neat. That\u2019s how\u00a0I begin my tracking process.\u00a0When tracking, there are some things that I do each time. For example, I tend to mic the drums\u00a0and use compression on things in a way that is sort of the same, but I also mix it up all of the\u00a0time. I don\u2019t like to do everything exactly the same every time. Depending on the project that I\u2019m\u00a0doing and depending on the producer that I\u2019m working with, my approach will change. In a\u00a0typical situation for me I\u2019ll talk to the producer ahead of time, and in some cases listen to the\u00a0music ahead of time, and they will book engineers and musicians based on the sound they want.\u00a0My sound leans more towards the aggressive, less contemporary country sound. I like to rock-out\u00a0the drums a little bit more, for example. I\u2019m a little more bombastic in my style rather than trying\u00a0to print things overly perfect and clean.<\/p>\n

Given that your style is a little bit more rock\u2019n\u2019roll and bombastic than other engineers,\u00a0could you explain how you achieve this sound?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SM: I like to use room mics, depending on the room we are using. I don\u2019t go too crazy with tons\u00a0of room mics, but I like to use room mics with compression on them. It makes the overall sound\u00a0of the track a little bit more aggressive than it may have been played originally. For toms, I keep\u00a0the mics a bit further back to bring out some ambience. I like to hear some room noise on the kit,\u00a0where others tend to mic the kit so directly that when they bring up the overhead mics all you can\u00a0hear is cymbals. To me, that\u2019s a total vibe-buster. When you bring up the overhead mics on my\u00a0drums, you will almost hear the whole kit. The overall effect is a bit more loose-sounding than\u00a0other engineers.<\/p>\n

Apart from drums, I may compress acoustic guitars more than other engineers. In Nashville, some\u00a0people like to put two mics on the acoustic and pan them left and right to make a pseudo-stereo\u00a0sound. I\u2019m not really into that because the acoustic guitar is a mono instrument, so I just pan it a\u00a0little to the left or right. While we are tracking, I monitor with a stereo bus compressor so that by\u00a0the time we are done tweaking sounds and ready to begin the first song, the resulting sound\u00a0through the monitors sounds really close to a record. The producer, musicians, and artists are all\u00a0more excited this way. When you have 5-10 musicians on a record project, they want to hear\u00a0themselves. That\u2019s quite a cast to try and please in a short period of time, so I try to make things\u00a0sound as close to a record as possible.<\/p>\n

Would you describe the task of a mix engineer as more rooted in art or science?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SM: There are mix engineers both in Canada and the US who don\u2019t track at all because they bring\u00a0in so much work. Mixing, quite honestly, is where the money still is. There are a few well known\u00a0mixers around who do have their job down to a science. Some mix engineers have a template that\u00a0they use for all of the songs they mix. When you walk into their studio you\u2019ll see racks of gear\u00a0where, for example, they will use a specific compressor that they always run vocals into. This\u00a0compressor will be set up in a specific way and used on every mix. Working this way only takes a\u00a0few hours because they have everything set up and ready to go.\u00a0Other mixers like to feel out every song individually and take their time. They might spend a\u00a0whole day mixing rather than a few hours. That\u2019s how I like to work. I like to take my time in\u00a0order to realize that, for example, a certain compressor doesn\u2019t sound right for the song I\u2019m\u00a0working on. Or maybe the vocalist just doesn\u2019t sound good with a specific compressor.\u00a0Those are the two ways of going about mixing. It\u2019s also important to understand that every\u00a0engineer is not a mixer. Every mixer was an engineer at some point, but every engineer is not a\u00a0mixer. Some engineers just don\u2019t have what it takes to be a great mixer. In my opinion \u2013 and I say\u00a0this only because of my passion for music – mixing needs to come from the soul. If you don\u2019t\u00a0have what it takes in your soul to mix something, then it doesn\u2019t matter how good you are at\u00a0engineering.<\/p>\n

Do you take the mastering process into account during tracking or mixing stages?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SM: The only time I tend to think about mastering during the mixing process is when I say, \u201cGee,\u00a0this is going to sound great when its mastered!\u201d (laughs). With current technology, and the way\u00a0things are mixed sometimes mastering isn\u2019t something that is required. These days people can\u00a0achieve so much within the mixing process that it\u2019s no longer essential to master a record.\u00a0Mastering means taking one song, or an album, and sending it to a mastering engineer who will\u00a0listen to your mix with fresh ears and make changes. For example, if the bass sounds muddy, he\u00a0may flesh out the top-end more or add compression to clear up a mix. The mastering engineer\u00a0will also add level to the mix so that when the CD is made it sounds as loud as it can be. Pro\u00a0Tools now has plug-ins which simulate this. Some engineers use, and in my opinion overuse,\u00a0these plug-ins. You should allow a mastering engineer to even out your levels when it comes to a\u00a0professional record.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, when people put a CD on in their car they want to hear it loud. We\u2019ve been going\u00a0through the \u201cloudness wars\u201d for years now. Everyone wants their album to be as loud as, or\u00a0louder than, other records. The problem is that when the final master is too loud it takes away the\u00a0dynamics of the recording. With the way things are mastered now, the low-points are now loud\u00a0and the recording doesn\u2019t breathe.\u00a0When I am mixing, I do consider the mastering process. I will, for example, make sure there is\u00a0enough bass for when the mix is sent to the mastering engineer. When I\u2019m tracking, I don\u2019t think\u00a0about mastering at all. On projects that I am doing which are in the box, these clients sometimes\u00a0can\u2019t afford a mastering engineer. In that case I\u2019ll do some sort of pseudo-mastering using plugins.\u00a0The clients want the master to sound loud and bright. Plug-ins have come a very long way.\u00a0When I\u2019m working on a project with more of a budget I can master from my office rather than a\u00a0control room with outboard gear.<\/p>\n

Could you explain your approach in using plug-ins versus outboard gear?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SM: There are a lot of plug-ins I really love. McDSP and Soundtoys are my two favourite\u00a0manufacturers for go-to plug-ins for devices such as delays, and things like that. Universal Audio\u00a0plug-ins are incredible. The EMT 250, which is a reverb plug-in, sounds great. The original\u00a0outboard version was nicknamed the \u201cDarth Vader.\u201d It was a red device that sat about 3 feet tall,\u00a0and cost $18,000. Now for less than $1,000 I can buy a bunch of plug-ins and maybe use 10 of\u00a0them in a session. UA plug-ins are fantastic: Neve, SSL, spring reverb, real reverb, etc. They\u00a0make a lot of plug-ins which simulate outboard gear very closely. The difference though is that if\u00a0you were sending audio through a real Pultec EQ it would colour the signal via a tube. Even\u00a0without making any equalization changes, the tube will colour the audio. Some engineers really\u00a0want that colouration. If you\u2019re mixing on a console, for example, the console is changing the\u00a0sound of the audio being sent through it. Maybe the console isn\u2019t tweaked properly as far as the\u00a0trims go, and maybe one EQ sounds different than the other. It\u2019s really a crapshoot as far as what\u00a0sounds you\u2019ll get on any console anywhere.<\/p>\n

And a Neve will sound different than an SSL, of course. <\/strong><\/p>\n

SM: Exactly. A producer might decide they want a Neve sound over an SSL on a record. You\u00a0can\u2019t really produce that sort of sound. There are people nowadays, however, that might like a\u00a0particular sound and do not want to change it. For example, you might track an acoustic guitar\u00a0and only want to EQ it rather than colour it via analog equipment. You might just want a little\u00a0extra 10Khz. There are purists out there now who believe a plug-in is the right way to go because\u00a0you\u2019re not colouring the sound. Similarly, there is a plug-in for the Fairchild compressor. I\u2019ve\u00a0seen Fairchilds sell for $30,000. When you use the plug-in version it doesn\u2019t sound exactly like\u00a0the actual Fairchild unit because it doesn\u2019t run through tubes, but it\u2019s also non-destructive to the\u00a0original signal. Once again though, if you have 10 Fairchild\u2019s sitting in a room, they will all\u00a0sound different.<\/p>\n

Do you prefer plug-ins over outboard gear? Or perhaps outboard gear over plug-ins?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SM: It depends on the project and budget. Some mixes are done in the box simply because there\u00a0is very little money to spend to get songs mixed. There are also writers and artists who may not\u00a0have a company behind them and have to pay with their own money. I started mixing in the box\u00a0about 5 years ago just so that I would prepare myself for these situations. Ideally, I would mix on\u00a0a console. There is a sound that I get from an analog desk that can not be reproduced by a\u00a0computer.<\/p>\n

Where do you see the future of recording?<\/strong><\/p>\n

SM: I\u2019ve dealt with the youth in our business in many ways. I\u2019m down the block from Belmont\u00a0University where I have done panels in the past, I was involved with Leadership Music here in\u00a0Nashville, and I\u2019ve done panels for Berklee College of Music in the past as well. I like to paint\u00a0the future bright to all young people. Long gone are the days of big commercial facilities, where\u00a0young men and women would work in a studio and then become world class engineers after 4 or\u00a05 years. Now there are fewer jobs and fewer avenues for these individuals to receive proper\u00a0training.<\/p>\n

The training element is disappearing, but the opportunities are amazing right now due to\u00a0technology. A man or woman can go to Berklee for 4 years to be trained as an engineer to learn\u00a0how to track instruments, they\u2019ve dabbled in mixing, and they\u2019ve learned how to work on a\u00a0console and Pro Tools. For about $10,000-20,000 they can build a great recording studio in their\u00a0bedroom and begin cutting records. It\u2019s possible to record a friend\u2019s band, have a hit, be\u00a0successful, and then be on you\u2019re way. Stranger things have happened. That could never happen\u00a0in my day. I began in 1978 and had to go through a longer process. There are so many ways to\u00a0release music, and the internet demonstrates to us that there is a lot of material which needs to be\u00a0recorded. So I think that the future of the engineer and producer is still bright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steve Marcantonio is an audio engineer who works in Nashville, Tennessee. Since starting his career at The Record Plant in 1978, Syebe has since worked on projects including John Lennon, Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire, Kenny Chesney, Gretchen Wilson, Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Vince Gill, Paul Brandt, and the Blues Brothers, among others. Currently, Steve is the Studio Manager\/Chief Engineer at Sound Emporium studios in Nashville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles-editorials-provocations","tag-interviews","author-matt-shelvock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2123,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions\/2123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arpjournal.com\/asarpwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}