Al Schmitt Interviewed by Sweetwater

[Music] hi I'm miss Gallagher welcome to gear Fest 2017 I'm in the studio with a very special guest Al Smith is here great to see you great to be here glad to have you here Jamie Oliver brought you in and sponsored your visit yes yes in fact the two of a nice came off of a seminar where we were talking about your career and playing some music yeah that was pretty fun I enjoyed that Peter Jacob Bunyan and Peter and Ivan being dear friends for many many years well actually he was my assistant at some point in my career all right yeah is that right there you go there you go yeah cool well they brought you in and they also brought in their incredible and two speakers that we play the music through with you're just yeah oh my god sounds great any case well the music sounds great anyway yeah but what's really that it is great I can't wait to get my set yeah right we do we're good yeah that's what they told me yeah so 160 golden platinum albums 22 Grammy Awards actually 23 23 yeah a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that's just absolutely incredible person and their producer and it's even more amazing when I learned that you actually started as an engineer at 7 years old well I didn't actually you know I was I cleaned patch cords and set up chairs I was funny I thought I would watch my uncle record on a weekend and he had all the musicians take their shoes off because you could hear the tapping huh and and as a kid 7 & 8 it was fun I'd watch and see guys had a hole in that sock and they told me sticking out you know that giggle thick it was really funny watching that but he did and then you know they would set the band they he'd listen and he cannot move guys around and go come back in and listen and then when I was soloing they'd get up and walk to the microphone and yeah it was pretty you ready yeah I was really amazing stuff so did you know that age that you wanted to be in the studio yeah I did you know I did my my uncle took to me he was also my Godfather but besides being my father's brother but he he he was the epitome of success to me I mean he was nice he always had a lot of money in his pocket he knew he'd go to restaurants and everybody was you know knew him he had special tables with the best seats at the fight or the Madison Square Garden the hockey games so it was all the things that as a kid growing up in Brooklyn we're really quite poor things that Wow I dis is what I wanted so I he could have been a plumber and I wouldn't want to be like him you know the fact he was an engineer it was great his best friend was Les Paul well I mean they hung out together all the time so les was my uncle too he's uncle les to me so and being closed me they would he was good friends with Bing Crosby and and there's so many of you know Orson Welles would tell me stories about aliens come and die you know I mean it was care or Tatum had an office on the seventh floor in the building and he would come down on Saturday and if there was nothing going on he would use the here this beautiful Steinway grand my uncle's studio and he would work out on that so he would take my hand and show me little boogie-woogie licks and so it was you know Kate Smith who back then was who's a very famous for saying god Bless America she was there and and treated me nice so I was you know I felt like a little celebrity in a sense and then this is what I want to do with my life right I want to do this cause this look like fun right huh it had to you know thinking about it being exposed to all those major celebrities at that young age had to make it easier for you to I would assume had to make it easier for you to deal with when you work with Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan and the list of people you work with is just a style and so you probably learned a bit about inner I was I was not intimidated by people because you know I was around so many celebrities when I was young and and they were all so nice to me so you know there was no fear of being rejected by anybody or whatever right and then certain people like you know I just finished working with Paul McCartney again I mean they did I don't know if there's anybody nicer than him in the music or entertainment business then Paul he's the nicest guy you ever want to be you so comfortable with him in two minutes so you know is and and Dylan you learn about him he's a really private guy but but he's a nice man when you get down you know when you break that down a little bit but so and and then you become friends with people like Natalie Cole and Diana call and you know it's they become your friends right right so yeah I think a big part of it is going up around these people and and then of course when I started recording my first job really at 20 in and at Apex recording studios all that my idols were coming in it was like it was like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio and we were walking in the studio you know it's Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and you know and then Boris Morgan over loosely yeah it's only a certain it would sit on and on because we were doing all the prestige records back then all the Atlantic stuff sitting in label and it was the happening place for jazz so it's pretty cool so was that where you worked with Tommy down excellent Tommy Anna you know Tommy and I work together therefore it's almost two years and then the the guy that owns the place had a drinking problem and and it went under because we were pretty busy and anyway went under so Tommy went to a studio and I went to another place and and I was at the other place for like a year and Tommy called me at the studio he was at was looking for someone he recommended me and I went over then so then I was back with Tommy for until I moved to California and 58 ok ok what did you work with him Oh everything God microphone techniques you know still I would appoint yourself in the studio how to act around people he told me no matter what you do hell no matter what it is do it the absolutely best you can in every way if you're shot in your own shoes shine him the best you can no matter what you're doing do the best you can be said and that will come of course everything you do and it was a really important lesson yeah it's really important as Luis you know and plus the fact that he was you know he worked on there yeah only out of mom and you know the guy was a genius but good and and and more just how he he talked to musicians and and he had so much confidence in himself and what he did and that helped everybody else no kind of you know relaxes it was great yeah this is great guy and he's all the one I miss him every time I see a picture of him I take of good times because we both love big hockey fans and we used to go to see the Rangers play all the time in New York and yeah right look Angela speaking about microphones and microphone technique you told me earlier that you really don't use equalization you do everything with the microphone yeah when I record I I don't use or mix my own stuff I don't use EQ and people are amazed all time and and they were always calling my assistant Steve generally the same so - yeah - you come up to the board look at it there's no EQ in I just learned - we didn't have equalizers when I started you know it would Tommy than that and so we learn to equalize with microphones so if we wanted something a little brighter we use the by tomorrow phone and we learned you know we're to put microphones to change the sound of what we were capturing right you know it was something that had a little too much low energy you move it a certain area would take away some of that so and the other thing he told me is go outside and listen really listen to what they're doing and then you know what you have to get out you have to capture you don't just put up a microwork in there you know make sure you're hearing the guy play it you know what it sounds like can go in and make sure you're getting that so yeah it was great lessons for me I was really blessed with my uncle who who taught me as a child you have to treat all of this is if it's a swatch a Swiss watch it's very delicate and the better care you take of it the better results you're going to get and that's another thing that stuck with me all these years right right taking care of my gear yeah sure sure so it has to then if you've if you've taken that care to capture the actual sound of the instrument in the room and you equalize it properly through your placement I would expect that mix mixing fairly easy at that point it makes it a lot easier apply mix fast you know I'm knowledge I got I mean that wasn't too long ago I think I missed eight songs in one day you know stuff that I had recorded was easy to put - but I just did an album with a woman sing a Lynne Stanley and I had recorded it and it was 12 songs and we mix in two days oh well so yeah it was pretty quick yeah yeah so at that point it's really just a matter of getting a balance yeah exactly getting the right balance using the right echo mm-hmm are you a fan of using a lot of dynamics processing yeah yeah so you're compressing and you're limiting things in here yeah do you uh do you have specific things that you look for the dynamics processors to do or using them as effects or how do you approach that I don't know that's hard for me to explain because it's for me it's all about feel and how I don't things feel and my ears how the hell it works and I keep doing things until I get tuned in you know it's like tuning in a an old radio you know you got to find that spot when it's there yeah right so tall by feel and by ear yeah I'm just going to know what years of doing it but it's Reiter's yeah exactly right right right one of the hallmarks free right when I listen to your mixes is everything is big there's a there's a depth to what's happening there but everything also has its place in the frequency spectrum and there's a there's a distinction to each of the parts and a lot of clarity to it talk a little bit about how you achieve that because I know a lot of times you record everybody at once so you'll have to order a large group you talk about that to me those are two kinds of different things typically you expect more when you're overdubbing no I actually assist the opposite when you're overdoing I think it's less because you're not getting the bleed from one instrument to another and you you know you you have a saxophone you have a mic on it and and if that sax is leaking a little bit into a trumpet mic or whatever and vice versa if you get not only the sound here that you got at sound but you're getting the depth of that leakage that's why it's important to use good microphones because as I said outside if you're getting leakage into a good microphone it's good leakage and that makes things sound bigger and you could more definite thing if it's cheap microphones is cheap and that's why you know what the leakage and that's why if you don't have good microphones you really stress the separation we're going try to keep things separate because you know one thing's leaking you get phasing problems and and that's another reason I think my stuff sounds the way it does is because there is no EQ so there is no phasing happening on board mm-hmm it's a pure approach yeah Kuras kind of a thing right so a talk a little of how you approach biking up say a session say you've got an acoustic bass and a drum kit are you working mainly from the overheads on the drums to use close mics approaching the bass and the piano well with the bass I always use two microphones on the bass I use one on the F hole and then one up higher with a fingerboard and I've been using normal em 149th on the bass ever since I got mine and that's been quite a few years ago and they work I don't even know that's it and now I have great bass players and say yeah I go to other studios and I tell the engineer Alex MIT puts the mic here and he puts the other mic here and that's what I guess so and that's kind of eyes you know it's got me smile is a compliment so I used the two months under on the drums when I set up the drums and always active I have a I have a d12 number four the fourth d12 made I have that I love that mic I use that on the cat clock on the snare I use a 57 underneath I use a 452 overhead and the snare underneath is out of phase right put it on a face in the board I use for four teens on the toms I use a for 52 on the hi-hat and on the overheads now I've been using a Audio Technica makes a 50 45 sure that just blew me away when I tried it out on the overhead of drums and the drummer's loved it it's got a really nice top end to it that just makes a cymbal sound great so I've been using that a lot I think those are really nice microphones but I experiment with mics a lot I love microphones you know I have a fairly good collection myself sure sure you mentioned earlier that a lot of times you use your microphones an omni pattern would I use it yeah when I'm doing orkest and stuff I use them in um my mic tsunami all the time I'll use honey overheads on strings they'll be 67's and omni on the trumpets 67th and omni yeah I do that a lot cuz I like the leakage in it that's what makes things big right right we talked about a few of the recordings that you've done with an orchestra and with for example Frank Sinatra in front of the orchestra and man I don't know it's hard for me to fathom mixing that with all that leakage resentment I guess it just don't you have it the place properly dip yeah that's it you have it so likely I'm we're talking about was a duets album yeah and you said you wanted to use a handheld mic yeah I did yeah it was a wireless handheld mic can remember the model right now but yeah I was weird you know but when I figured hey I'm engineer you know unless it's something the producer told Frank he can't stand that so and I looked over to Phil and he wasn't so wasn't saying a word so I forget this was better work you want to be here this is where you will be like yeah right right so you know that things have changed a lot in the studio's it used to be that you would mentor with a engineering to be an assistant to you way up and and for a lot of us coming into the studio world that don't have an opportunity do you have recommendations for someone who wants to learn the craft and really develop their ear and become a great engineer you know depends on where you are I mean you know I certainly would recommend anybody to go to Berkeley or a school like Berkeley to get that basic education and then if you're lucky enough to get a job at a decent studio I mean if you look really blessed somewhere like capital and at capital even if you're just a runner you have all these great engineers coming in all the time so what my recommendation would be to watch these guys see what they do you know see what you like that they do and maybe take that and someone else you like take what they do here take that and you know put those things together and but you know making records I mean it's a joy to go to work every day and make music and let's face it and you know with Leicester when we can get to do that right right and I see some of these some of the seconds or the runners as we call them now you can see the guys that are going to be good yeah and you can see the guys that are going to be maybe okay you know there's just something in their eyes and their attitude you know when they go to get coffee or something just the way they do things you know that they've got it so bright so attitudes a big part of it the attitude is a major part of it and again like Tommy told me do the best you can and everything you do I try to tell that to people all the time and you know I'm an open book I don't have any secrets and you know at Capitol some of the runners are those fatal you know when you're not doing anything you know come on in if if I'm doing a session you're welcome I'll let you know if the artist has got a problem to produce has a problem but otherwise just come in and watch really learn right and just learn or everything there you know what the engineer does with the producer and how that reaction is I always told my assistants if you make a mistake let me know and then forget about it I'll take care of it because I don't want you worrying about the mistake you just made because if you are you're going to be making more so just tell me everybody makes mistakes nobody's perfect you're not going to get killed just let me know right and and and it makes them they feel a lot easier about what they're doing you know and they know that nobody's perfect right certainly I'm not sure yeah you are you were talking about something interesting with producers and engineers where you had said you were talking about the benefits of the engineer being in the control room with the producer actually being in the studio with the artist can you talk a little about that yeah I can I I'd work with Tommy liPuma cbs19 I think we did our first project together in 1970 and and he would be in the control room and talk to the musicians and and it's really always bothered and he said you know I hate this ally said I got to talk hit the button talk through the glass to these guys and I got to release the button to wait for them to talk back to me and you know so he said you know you got this covered I got to be here telling you what to do I'm going to go out there so he did and we put up a music stand and the chair and earphones and and he had his music out there and he was right with the rhythm section on the band or whatever and as as things happen he want to make a change and hold it right there you know that section we got to do and then it was communication back and forth made everything so much easier for everybody I was I think every producer should do that if you have an engineer at you you know you might want to stay in to make sure the sounds are there that you want and then go out there and then with the fine tuning it was amazing I was I was blown away I'd never seen anybody do that and it was it was it was great and from then on that's all he ever did and a lot of producers I've seen ask me that now you know can I be mind if I sit out there with the guys i bleep offering I don't want you in here enough so yeah sir sure yeah you're also an advocate of recording the band as a band and a group as opposed to overdubbing party yeah a little bit about why you I like it because you hear everything at one time you know where the fixes go and the musicians are interacting with one another so you know and they'll be talking about a note of something and be able to make a correction err if you've got the track done and now you're overdubbing and sax he's got no one to bounce off right he's just got that track or if it's a guitar he just has the track where if he's there with the musicians he can they maybe play something different or maybe the keyboard and he will figure out something that'll work a little differently a little better so yeah I'm a big advocate of everybody recording at the same time I think is the best right right I have one last question for ya when I have someone in for one of these interviews is on a very high level I like to ask this question but in particular I'm interested in your response because you've worked with virtually everybody and that is what makes a great musician what makes a great artist I think it's the heart I thought I think it's the passion that they have for the music you know costs that they put into it yeah yeah the great ones all had that you know sometimes it could be nasty people but they have to love music there's at heart that's there all the time because not every great musician is a nice person dying out with know some of them I realize what's the table but you know you learn to stay away from that part of a goal but fact that no matter what they are personally they love for what they're doing is I think that's that's what makes a difference right that's awesome oh cool cool well thanks so much for coming today we appreciate it okay such a pleasure to do this interview with you and have you do a workshop we're doing a panel discussion yeah come on look fun and I got really far astray yeah that's nice and then then we're off and running right after that we can head for home and probably back in the studio again no actually I got I'm also next week oh my so yeah application yeah yeah I don't know what I'm gonna do but I'll do something right oh yeah maybe what's up mr. music yeah I do that a lot I I only listen to vinyl now all right that's all so I've been digging out my own vinyls and buying new stuff and yeah yeah I really enjoyed I got my turntable set up good yeah I have a nice system I'm waiting for some great speakers from nobody let me do you know somebody who do too well thanks again I'll have your luck often oh thanks thanks I will we can't do it this is great you made it so easy for me thank you appreciate that hey and thank you for joining me here at gear fast 2017 I'm Mitch Gallagher [Music]

Channel: Sweetwater

Views: 7,668

Keywords: Sweetwater, Sweetwater Sound, Music Production, Audio Recording, Fort Wayne Indiana, gearfest 2017, al schmitt, al schmitt recording, andrew scheps, bruce swedien, engineer al schimtt, sweetwater interview, sweetwater secrets, al smith sound engineer, interview with a veteran

Id: Xo4-rNcZJFo

Length: 25min 40sec (1540 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2017