Al Schmitt: The Most Successful Engineer of All Time - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

[Music] hi everybody hope you're doing marvelously well I feel very privileged and very honored to be sitting here with the rather wonderful mr. al Schmidt well I feel privileged and honored to be here well firstly Thank You Paula because she let us come in here yes I know I could be one of the finest years and one of the finest rooms in the world a studio a of capitalist suddenly it's amazing when did you first ever work in here do you remember yeah the first time I did anything it was in 1976 Michael Frank's album I think it was called sleeping gypsy anyway yeah it was my first time and I fell in love with it then it was a whole different configuration oh it was what was different about it but there was a tiny little control room over in the corner there with you like I think we had 12 inputs on the board and there were no ISO boots it was just all big studio oh wow yeah so there was so you just baffling things off yeah I use gobos baffle off things and what was I don't remember that record so what was the instrumentation on their record I was uh drums two guitars keyboards Foucault's strings strings yeah did you cut the strings live with the no no we did sustain solvent of the strings right yeah that was great man next one I did was breathing with George banks oh well my favorite oh yeah I did that yeah there's a great story on that too we did I know six songs or something like that for the album and 500 songs for the first take I mean it was unbelievable so anyway we we're doing we got three or four songs done I've got everybody in a circle around the drama percussion keyboards and guitars and George with his guitar and okay we're gonna do two vocal now so I figured well we're all sitting around a trauma I hadn't planned on putting a really good mic up there so I just looked around and there was a an electro voice 666 you know that mic I should remember it so exam did and I put it on George I think it will overdub the volkl later so this would be just a guy thing he killed it the vocal that's the vocal on the record on that mic so again you know you go back to the strength it's all about performance and we captured that thank God we got that and even though it wasn't the greatest mic in the world if you listen a record it sounds pretty good breezing is an absolute yeah the first is beautiful records so like the fun beautiful sauce Silverman massive was one of my favorites and and he George has that and he has a connection between his his brain and his fingers that if he plays a melody you can sing it exactly other I know it's exactly and you know you could be out there talking to George you know he'll be sitting understood you be chatting between tapes or whatever and he's just start he's talking here and he starts playing stuff when you go he's just phenomenal phenomenal yeah unbelievable yeah what a voice the water guitar play that's really unfair yeah yeah to be that good of a singer I'm a bit of a guitarist I his version of this masquerade Leon Russell song yeah first of all Leon's version is unbelievable sorry vote to song he rather saw George's version yes that that's what really telling him first take one tape down Tommy said oh my god that's fantastic that's it and I was saying well wait a minute right you know I still try to hear that Mike we should you know I want to put a 47 on him yeah but that was it no way they weren't gonna do it again that's amazing yeah okay I mean where do you go from there what was the what was after that well after dad I did unforgettable and not only cold I was pretty great like I'd I was done here total total for great some love some stuff on I mixed a few things on Asia mmm pagan Deacon blues I don't know the commies just kept adding nothing up in it Diana Krall although Diana Krall records me one of my favorite artists I love Diana this in person and she's just an amazing singer and player another very very highly tantabus like absolutely and you know it's fortunate Shirley horn here's to life with Johnny Mandel that was another great record that I did you know there's so many I can't remember them all it's amazing yeah you quickly moved rather fast over am still he Dan of course which I think for so many of us is silly well yeah and they were great and you know Elliott China who did a larger recording and those name did some I didn't do any of the recording he only recording I did was on FM you know static I did that and we did here at Katherine amazing yeah and I mixed that - I got a Grammy for that but that was the last time you could get a Grammy for a single they stopped it best engineering Grammy where did they did that and they stopped it from then on yet it had to be an album so yeah still he's dead but you know when we did peg which was the first one I did it took us like 12 hours to do one mix I never did that my life was before automation so we all had a part you know one guy was adding echo to the guitar solo and then back off another guy was doing something else and you know carry cats the producer was he was doing something and I was putting all the pieces together on the board and then every time we'd get it down and someone say well I was great I got that somebody else would say no I missed my part and we do it again we kept doing 12 hours 12 hours and we finally got it and where everybody looked at one another and smiled and said okay we all did our part right yeah because you know there were four of us on the board yeah it was it was it was kind of a fun time but kind of a strenuous time in a sense yeah because you know you'd get it right do you think oh man that was great I got a and someone else said just didn't do the Ergo right on on a guitar solo some day and have to do it over again so that's why I love automation today you know sure you know i which is your favorite room to mix in here I like to mix hearin a it's a great room when I can get all of the 88 are and and I I mentioned see when you and I were together we were in C yeah I thought of mixing there yeah those are my two favorites yeah I love working here you know I they have a great maintenance staff nothing ever goes wrong I mean if something isn't they just changing it right away you know you know you're never down more than 10 minutes at the most you know and some studios you go in and something breaks down here sitting around for 45 minutes and you got a band out there and you know it's and it takes to wind out of your sails and know that ever happens here I think that's the reason why there's like half a dozen studios in LA that have survived and this is obviously a flagship one is because they all have tanks yeah yeah oh good text yeah yeah you know you you work over the united great rooms yep sunset sound has an s2 to sunset sound it's great I love that's why I did total for you know ask all those tracks were done in their village scream you can't Scott - it's got that place humming you know it's really really cool so yeah we're blessed here you know you go back to New York and and it's pretty hard other than avatar which is not a power station again I love that room that's a great moment great desk but now it's Berkeley boarded now I'm not sure how much chance we're gonna have to you know ready to do records you're gonna shut it down for a little while okay office yeah they're gonna reconstruct stuff I don't think they're messing with the room just but they're gonna do some other things and move in elevator and stuff whatever I'm not sure exactly but yeah and then of course London you know we have Aaron and I was successfully sold to somebody that's going to maintain yeah yeah yeah that's a great home right I did I mixed a Robbie Williams swing when you're winning album they're huge seventeen million albums sold yeah it was great record obviously being English I know Robbie Williams oh he was like the Beatles I mean he couldn't go anywhere that's why he moved here the California because he couldn't go out on the street when I was working with him man he and his buddies would hang out together all the time and I'd be doing a mixing when they were done they'd go to his place and then play games and do stuff he just never went out because he'd get mobbed everywhere you went yeah I'm not that good at being structured you know I don't think that sits I don't about you but I mean that suits the creative mind cause yeah yeah I agree I like to just sort of walk in and start working yeah I do too I'm pretty much the same way except before if I'm recording or whatever then I'm there three hours ahead of time right check out Mike's making sure facings right you know make sure everything is perfect the way we want it and then Steve Chadwick and I usually work together and then we'll have a cup of coffee and we'd accent and wait for the guys to show up knowing that you're all perhaps we're all ready go that's amazing yeah walking in on a session at the last minute is nuts no I don't recommend it no we just thought we were just talking about that off camera because because we originally booked in B and I went into B and I'm standing there waiting nobody's here what happened what happened and then I walk in here my camera man I walk in here like five minutes after we're supposed to start like completely embarrassed does he do you know how does he want to be yeah I got here about quarters at 12 and Greg went out by visited with Paula who runs this joint and I stopped and hung out with Steve a little bit and came over here made sure he knew where the coffee was the cameraman and that was it I stole all the M&M that my kids it bring them home for the family Greg that's it just a job for today and just walking down the whole weird some Beach Boys coming at me yeah yeah they're doing the Beach Boys stuff that was with the London Symphony that they did that re-released and he's doing it in atmos oh yeah we did the same thing you know he didn't do in that motion but I'm sure he whoa with the carpet is we just finished that it just came out the album and I mixed I think was 18 songs well yeah yeah it's really cool boy she could sing oh absolutely one of the great ones my mother would play the Carpenters like all day yeah amazing and the fact that we were able to just hear her track alone and I mean she was her pitch was perfect she could hold notes out forever she was just amazing god bless her yep so did you recall many of the records no I didn't record any of those I mixed 20 of them Oh ten years ago maybe and surround well and and then when they did this they did the thing with the London Symphony where they they took off you know some of the drums and some of the keyboards and and added neutrons new keyboards and then added the London Symphony he took all fully old string things and I got to mix that than 18 songs and amazing yeah yeah it's great and fun that I mean she you know just listen and every time I took you know I finally got a rep from Eric and I got home and I was playing it for my wife and and we were sitting in the living room and listening and and it's just like every song came up was a hit well you know it was just like it was great it's a great album it's a great Christmas present for people one nostalgic kind of thing it's great she has such a beautiful pure voice totally many many decades before auto-tune there was a there was a woman that oh yeah you know auto-tune what the hell is that you know when I started many many years ago there was no such thing as auto-tune there was no such thing as fixing vocals everything was done mono and people had to know how to sing and had to know how to sing in tune you know and it was and if there was something a little off there's somebody a little sharp or a little flat in the spot if the emotion was that was to take you know you couldn't fix it so you either had to do another take or go with that one so yeah I was spoiled you know just totally spoiled by working with those great singers what was made Cloney and Frank Sinatra and you know you name it how did you get your start how did you get into this well when I was a little kid I was like eight years old I lived in Brooklyn and my father's brother who was my uncle and my godfather had a recording studio on Manhattan so when I was eight I would get on subway - over on the side they go over his place and stay with him for the whole weekend and watch him record and I would clean pads cards and set up chairs and and I would have to tell the musicians to take their shoes off so you because you could hear the tapping and I got to meet everybody you know unless Paul was my uncle's best friend they worked together on stuff so les was like Uncle les to me and I got to hang out with him all the time and we go to hockey games and the fights at Madison Square Garden and and we were really very poor and he always had a big wad of money and and he knew all the best restaurants and and he had a convertible car and he had an apartment on on East River I mean all the things that will be on me at that point and then I entered and I got to meet everybody I've got to meet Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters and you name it also Wells you know it come yeah you know and it was it was an amazing time and so all all I want to do he was my idol my uncle I wanted to be just like him so I I kept going over there until I was about 13 and then I started hanging out with a gang and I started getting in trouble and and I wound up on my 17th birthday and listening in the Navy my parents signed and let me because otherwise I was going to go to jail at some point and so I wouldn't a Navy for a couple years and when I came out my uncle got me a job at a studio called apex recording studios so they wanted an apprentice and so I got the job I showed up Monday and and the owner of the cereal took me in and introduced me to there were two other engineers there one guy was a German engineer who had a monocle and click assign users and parents and the other guy was Tom Dowd so so you know Tom and I became instant friends I like his kid brother and and I was it for them eight years I work with Tommy on and off Fame I was doing stuff he was doing stuff but he bought me a notebook for drawer diagrams of setups and what mics to use he showed me you know where to put the mic how to move the mic if it wasn't right what mic to use to get a better sound if you wanted something brighter we didn't have equalizers or compresses everything was it was hand compression mmm both gain on the vocal so yeah that's how I got my start would you get like would you get a lyric sheet make notes where you knew somebody was going to go up or were you just doing it extreme no we learned it quickly as possible you know run the song down there were a lot of groups recording men and yeah I remember watching Tommy great experience me we use the 44 DX and two voices of be on one side and two on the other and he would stand and listen to him then he'd go in and open the mic and listen then he'd run out and move one guy back a little bit then they'd come in and listen and he's run out and move one guy in a little bit until he got the balance said so and that was it you know and and so everything was done that way which I said we didn't have equalizers or compressors so we had to get it right it was all done mono life life whole life no editing none of that stuff we didn't even have a tape machine back then everything was on acetate oh wow 16-inch transcription discs and then that's commitment and then we bought the first amp X 300 mono Ampex and we bought the first telephone can you 47s there were 300 bucks apiece mic then do you imagine what they are today you know so yeah I wish I had bought ten of them you know if I had the money I was only making like 35 bucks a week you know so yeah it was very interesting that's the a heck of a staff yeah it was a great start when when do you remember when you remember multitrack recording Lee multitrack recording started after I came to California probably for me probably around 60 60 61 we were going to three track and then we went to four track and then we went to a track and every was a 16 track Wow and when it finally got the 24 track we'd be sitting around saying what are we gonna do with 24 track and now you know I get stuff in a 120 tracks you know Pro Tools nightmare sometimes oh I can imagine you know yeah well you know guy comes in you got five kick drums and five snare drums okay couldn't make up their mind you know at the time back in the old days you had to make a decision now they just Oh we'll sit worry about it later so and that's why everything takes forever right back then we could do albums in two days three days at the most you had a total album done today you know it's months sometimes no correct me if I'm wrong was your first Grammy moon river' no all start Moon River was always nominated you're nominated on them I was nominated for breakfast - Tiffany which has Moon River in it and I lost to Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall the following year I did Hatari and I had baby elephant walk and all that was my first Grammy I was in 1960 61 61 something like that yeah yeah I remember so many years ago so many Grammys ago well I know it's phenomenal how many of you wanna feel I have 23 Grammys 23:20 regular Grammys two Latin Grammys and I have a lifetime achievement Grammy that's amazing yeah I don't know I'm proud of that one absolutely yeah yeah outside I mean mastering engineers have a lot more opportunities to win but today they do now and they then and you know we opened a can of worms back then they didn't get Grammys so no when we force it to point of letting them and now you know they they can fell over on everybody because they could anything they work on they get a Grammy you know right and it's it's a little out of whack at this point I think but I think maybe album of the year best engineer mmm that kind of thing but all the other ones I don't know you know I go into anybody and I love Eric and I love Doug Saxon and I know a lot of great master engineers but sometimes I don't think you know they go in ICU so flat and that's it and then their name is on it and they wanna have getting a Grammy for doing nothing I know it never really irritates me and I know I'm going to offend a lot of nursing engineers but that's the way it is you know now you you were talking about Eric that Eric I'm a process right name right Eric blue launcher Oh AJ Bowen J sorry I'm Esther and that's why it's the bakery because Bolin say in French is the Baker Baker right well we're actually going to interview him in a few days I'm sorry he's great you'll really like them he's very articulate and and a good guy and terrific at what he does I think one of the things you know return back of camera to about you know Jack Douglas and I'm showing you know Shelley as well and did you know Roy sue Carla oh very well yeah well I love about all of those guys is like yourself they come from a wealth of experience and Eric being a classical musician as well is a big deal for me because I personally grew up on classical music ah I got into rock that way through okay and it sort of it's why I feel like I always gravitate towards the right ways older Souls that sounds a little kind of like we're making ourselves feel super old but I like I like the musicality well yeah well you know I was fortunate when I was at RCA I would be doing a big band with Billy Eckstine of Billy Bay and then Henry Mancini and then I do uh Rubenstein and Heifetz and you know I believe did everything you know country music so there it was the greatest place to learn because you know we do three sessions a day and each one was a different type of music and that was going on for six days a week so you know we got the polka music you name it we did it all you know so it was a great learning experience to be able to capture sounds specific sounds for certain artists and yeah I mean I assume you must have just learned your mic Locker you just knew what with all those different things you're like oh I need a ribbon on their side surely well that was how I learned you know cuz I was taught again that we talked about this earlier we didn't have equalized us so our microphones who are our equalizers if you wanted a brighter sound on an instrument you use the brighter sound a mic so I learned how to use all the different microphones for different sounds and where to put the microphone and how to listen and go inside and listen and run out and move the mic until you got exactly what you want so I have to say I still I record with no EQ and I mix my stuff would no he kill I usually cure for mixing something someone else did now wanna you know shape it but I don't on my stuff and it's amazing pen Sado came in one and he came home and look at the board I was doing a big bad thing and there was no no equalizers no compressors he couldn't believe it yeah and you're using fader automation than if you just want to bring stuff up and yeah yeah yeah I use the fader automation and I pan when I'm recording live kind of like what I'm gonna do I'm gonna mix it so that's pretty much all set and I make pretty much my moves like I was mixing while I'm recording you know if the trumpets are open they're in one place if they're going into mutes I get a cue I bring them up so that you know they're the balance is that way and it's just the way I do things the way I learned I don't expect anyone else to do it that way but that's the way I do it I mean it makes logical sense to me if if you're in a room maybe we're in capital room a studio hey here and we were talking earlier off-camera how I came in and met Thor moaning here and was just like in awe because he had the chart so we come in and Phil is standing over the edge of the console and he's holding the string arrangement up and he has a pencil and he's changing it like writing it with the arranger and just like and I walk in with Jack and I'm all like sheepish and I turn to Jack and I go hey no Jack that's a real producer and Jack starts laughing you know because you know I can read and write music but I'm not that guy knows jack we're both like rock guys you know we're not guys that can sit there and like lean I'll rewrite the arrangement I I did and I said 50 albums with Phil and he was one of my best friends number one but so much fun to work with man I'm tired every time I gotta fill a long data I also had a big smile on my face because it was always Fondren uh-huh and just for a bit of context it was about a couple of weeks before he died so he was working right up until he was he he was he was one of my best friends so well I have a great silver Mon story I did a magazine articles EQ or one of those magazines years ago and they said do you have any regrets and I said I have one regret I never got to work with Frank Sinatra okay three weeks later I get a call from so he said hey are you doing with chatting he said what's your schedule he gives me a two or three week period I get my book and I'm yeah I'm cool I write it down he said okay what's your fee and I told him and he kind of goes a little bit that it was kind of high but he didn't say anything so and we kept talking after that just before we hung up I said by the way Phil who's the artist he said Frank Sinatra I said Phil if you'd told me that in the front I would have done it for nothing and then he said to me well if you'd asked me for more I would have given because there was evidently no budget right for the Frank Sinatra okay so that was it that was my opportunity to work with Frank so I've done a lot of quite a few records with Phil and one of the great ones I got I was fortunate I got to work with him a lot and Tommy liPuma you know Tommy liPuma and I did a hundred eleven albums together Wow so it's amazing that David Foster and they're really great great producers yeah I recently got to work with David and it was wonderful yeah he's amazing yeah amazing mind he said to me he goes I've got an idea for the bass line in the bridge and he said play the tracks well play the track and then he just in real time wrote down the baseline idea and then the bass player arrived and he goes his but I want you to play I'm like yeah that's it those guys were great you know there were musicians you know Phil was a childhood violinist I played for the Queen of England when he was like eight or nine years old played on some of the he won the major bowls contest which Amateur Night contest yeah he was a great great musician I recommend his book to people all the time yeah it's fun because it's all about the psychology of working with ours yeah it is not as good as my book not as good even better even though here Eric can get a close-up with the book we're holding here sure I don't have a copy yet I'm buying one yes and we will also have links to buy them as well so I couldn't help but notice some so there's a foreword by some new kid here Palmer former carnie yeah he was yeah I love Paul he's become a really good friend and we did have an album together I worked a little bit on the last album each of station boy man you and I worked you had just finished punk on McCartney ever was when he we did the kisses on the bottom album and we became really good friends so he writes a nice thing in there about kisses on the bottom about how I would start telling stories about cenar the airplane and he would start telling stories and it became a social event rather than a recording thing he was really cool that's great he's a great guy he did we were in London at Abbey Road and Abbey Road - which is where the Beatles said all that stuff and he told a lot of people's stories and things but I was outside on my cell phone talking to my daughter it was her birthday and he came out and he stood in front of me and and I said my daughter I'm wishing her a happy birthday he took the phone saying happy birthday tour and then gave her back to me and my daughter said nobody will believe this nobody will believe that he made me want to cry yeah I know I know that's the kind of guy who was yes he's I think Paul is a nicest guy I've ever worked with in the record business it just nothing I respect that story a lot because not everybody is that self-aware yeah you know he's was self-aware that that would have meant something it was a showing off moment oh there's no clothes around there was right that was that he knew that that meant something Bitola still not when the Beatles first started there they they couldn't come in the front door at Abbey Road they had to go on the back because they look like you know yeah cool yeah he's great guy one of the best that's absolutely amazing so tell us I mean I could keep asking you about your career but I suppose we can cut to the chase because that is a lot about what the book yeah yeah the book is how I started it's got a great story on the first session I ever did should I tell that story please okay so I'm working three months now under the tutelage of Tommy Dowd and so they finally say okay how you can work on Saturday by yourself you come in and all we had on Saturdays were little demos and it would be some guide come in and and play happy birthday to his daughter some guy would come in and play piano of the new song he wrote and we cut a disc and give it to him and it give us 15 bumps so I had three guys that day had a guy at 10:00 a guy 12 and a guy - so I do - guy at 10 I do the guy at 12 forget the money and the diet - I'm waiting for us mersive in the books and he elevated those open and all these musicians start walking out they won't know where the studio joins it was a studio yeah why well we got a recording session it's for Mercer Ellington Duke Ellington son they have a label called versa records so I saw no no it's a big mistake and I said no no two o'clock and I said oh my god so I tried to call Tommy I couldn't reach him I try to call my boss I couldn't reach him so I remember the notebook that Tommy had bought me with diagrams so I went I found a big band set up and I went out we only had eight inputs so there was only eight mics I had to set up so he set up the mics I set the chairs and musicians are coming and sitting down and Duke Ellington walks in and I said don't mr. Ellington know this is a huge mistake I said I'm really not qualified to do this and he said he looked at mr. Eason well said it looks fine musicians are all out there comfortable starting to play and you don't warm up and I said yeah but you don't understand I've never done anything like this before he said don't worry son we'll get through this and he started patting me on the leg because I think he thought any minute I was going to faint you know I'd probably turn snow white and so we got through it we did four songs in three hours and got through it he thanked me at the end and and I went and I thought oh my god after was over I just recorded took a little bit I couldn't believe it you know because I was I was into big bands all my life you know those are the records I collected and you know and I knew all the players Billy Strayhorn on piano and it was just amazing so but that's how I got my feet wet and that's what I think I got a way to get your feet under said I think it frightened found out the night before that I had we would have not slept I have obsessed not slept or I would have called in sick yeah and had them get someone else yeah but I was you know so that was it and that got me started I think that's an amazing Tommy dog was so proud of me when I played this stuff for him and he was yeah he yeah and I was great it sounds wonderful and we went on and and and then they started having confidence in me and I was starting to do a lot of Atlantic Records two coasters and Clyde McPhatter and all those bad people there's a Atlantic Records that's wide open so yeah Tommy and I was splitting a lot of the work I think of that I've used this quote quite a few times but I when I was a musician I worked with Dave jerden there's a great engineering producer and days when I was asking him questions about his job he said sometimes my job is to get in there as production side and like rewrite the song and do crazy stuff and you know tempo changes key changes and sometimes it's just get out of the way of the band and out of where the artist and just help them make a great yeah absolutely that's it you know it's not about you if you notice on albums the artists name is on the front yes yours is on the back if you're lucky if you like it yet so just remember what you're doing it was an artist working you know I remember when you when you bought the the Beatles albums first 30 years they were out the only production name that was ever on it was George Martin yeah it didn't even have geoff emerick alright nobody yeah yeah well what years ago at RCA they didn't put the engineers name down producer and small print on the back finally that we started with Mancini I started getting engineering credit so yeah it took a long time for that to happen and you know back then if they were giving out Grammys back then like they are today I would have about 15 because back then you didn't get a Grammy for Alba dia or single of the year now you do and you didn't back then so there were so many records like may all the Mancini things total Natalie Cole unforgettable you know I got a record engineering but for album of the year the engineer didn't get a Grammy one single it again yeah no it went on so I'm telling you I would have probably 35 Grammys I mean how many I know you've worked with some of the greatest and producers of all times but as an engineer I've made quite a few records where I've been the only member of the production staff to be there quite often to producing right I producers would show up and be on the phone all the time and I'd be doing all the stuff telling the guys what to do and yeah you know I told the musicians were on our own you know Ronny honest and some guys so yeah because this guy isn't hearing anything you know yeah and yeah and then so I wound up they were making all the money getting all the credit so I or Sierra I got promoted up to be a producer and then I was you know I wanted with eleven artists and I was producing Sam Cooke and Glenn Yarborough and all these the limeliters all these different groups Jefferson Airplane house and it got to be a little too much at one point and that's when I quit and went on my own became independent and I was doing just at Jefferson Airplane independently and making a hell of a lot more money than I was making what I was doing eleven artists right I see a that's amazing now what I what I love about your book is you've got stories but you've also for those people that are into this which obviously a lot of our viewers are there's some technical stuff in here as well I am really great a lot of good stuff easy they're not complicated to read I think what I admire most about it is like here we it's for instance where you're talking about you know cardioid bi-directional omnidirectional you're describing how microphones here yeah how they hear sounds but you're also giving examples real-world examples of why you would do that sounds like that this is this is like a little mini Bible on recording yeah and mixed with a really inspirational story yeah there's a lot of great stories really good stories for now and then there's a lot of nice things in the back of the book about people I've worked with you it's what I learned from them great and in other cases what they learned for me so yeah it's pretty cool I mean I recommend the book to everybody marvelous well this will be out before Christmas oh you gotta let me know it's all yes my wife I'd love to watch these things right good how long you been married 25 years 26 26 26 I understand you yeah I uh I I got into trouble with drugs and alcohol and and it was really affecting my life affecting my social life's affecting me alone so come January 17th I'm gonna have 31 years of sobriety a congratulations of drugs 31 years ago and they changed my life you know change my relationship with people and my you know I met my wife sober and that was a great thing and you know my relationship with all my kids is fabulous and so yeah it was the best thing I could have ever done for our SMED just put that aside that's amazing graduate 31 years 31 January 17th that's nice pretty cool yeah the reason that I share it in the book there's a book thing in there on the book on sobriety and the reason I share it so much is to to let other young engineers know it's a little different today than it used to be you know used to be everybody had cocaine and you know everybody it was just you know or smoking weed but it's it's wound a lot of careers and and that's the reason I bring it up is that you know it's important that you know if you can be a social drink and have a glass of wine and that kind of stuff great yeah I was just the opposite you know so yeah it's a lesson to be learned I think now it's more important than ever yeah because you probably remember like specially in the 70s and 80s you could artists could get away with not showing up to the studio for three days Oh happen all the time you mean yeah but now I got one story I was waiting I meant the studio at RCA and the phone rings it's 8 o'clock I pick up the phone and hello are we recording today I said yeah I'm here it's 8 o'clock all right we'll get the next plane down get the nail in San Francisco you know so yeah that that kind of stuff yes and we would work 8:00 to 11:00 we'd go out to the world 3:00 4:00 in the morning but for after 11:00 there was really no work done it was old social Janis Joplin would show up and David Crosby would come by with friends and and it became a social event everybody smoked away too and blow and take an ass's and you know yeah it was tough and as a producer you're trying to get an album done and write have some sort of control it was really hard yeah that is and now it's more important than ever because budgets are so small yeah if an artist does that it's gonna eat into their limited studio time and they're exactly and kill their career yeah and I don't see it anymore I don't see anybody nobody smokes weed in the studio anymore and that used to be all the time and nobody's doing I don't see anybody's doing blow any of that stuff so it's great I think everybody got wise to the situation why Ricky went to the bathroom earlier I'm sorry that was it yeah there were a lot of birds on breaks yeah did you we have a friends with Don Smith remember dawn yeah I know yeah are you kidding Don I were good friends I love Don he was one of my first is his son is an engineer and I've done and he worked I didn't know he became an engineer because I met him in 95 here Wow yeah and then went on his own I'm not sure what he's doing now but I'd love to track him down ya know don't be mad don't did the first album I did in America when I was a musician in 95 96 Wow and he was willing to work that was a Don's place in a girl alright then we had the studio under the tennis courts and he had that little Neve and that was an I remember he had a and a Fairchild and one channel said Mick and the other one said Keith's been working with the stones and he ever taken the tape off Wow you didn't want to take it oh cool yeah I love that Fairchild yeah he was great I liked him a lot man yeah it was sad when when he passed away I know that he'd got like three or four years sober and then he got liver cancer didn't ya yeah his son is great guy too and was really really sweet sweet guy and he worked here for maybe a couple of years and then went on his own I haven't seen last time I saw his son would have been when making that record like 20 22 years ago Wow and I remember we all went out a group of us to for dinner and my dad unfortunately who died recently was a painter and an artist and he and I the son were like talking in howdy how do you rebel against your parents like your dad is like this producer recording engineer of like the stones and and Tom Petty yeah my dad's a painter and a sculptor if I can I mean when we up maybe were rebelling becoming accountants Wow what kind of a painter was your dad he was it was a fine artist a realist yeah and what I know I collect art um I don't think you'd oh okay but you'd like his work yeah my collector I have a great art collection I didn't know that yeah who who are you favorite artists Oh Marsden Hartley is one of my favorites I am particularly fond of German Expressionists Wow but can't afford them I'm sorry but those if I if I could that's what I'd be collecting but I have I have a great Yayoi Kusama painting and she's gone through the roof now she's um unbelievable yeah no knavery merit american artists that's amazing oh yeah my wife and I started collecting about a little over 20 years ago I you know putting your money and uh and and and like a separ count or something you know it's the money's there and you don't ever get to enjoy enjoy it so we started getting into art and buying paintings and now you know we have our investment on the wall of the house you know all over I must must have 40 or 50 paintings it's amazing do you have any German expressionist no no no we almost bought one it was a tiny little head by yells stilinski and it was a hundred and ten thousand dollars Joseph and it was just a little too much for that little painting it was like it not even eight by ten yeah and it was beautiful but we seriously thought about it for a while and then said no but I we we bought one painting by Morrison hardly who's a very famous American painter and we took a second out on the house to buy the painting Wow yeah that's commitment it was yeah very so yeah we're good we we love it we get to enjoy it and I'll show you some pictures later that'd be beautiful yeah what do they got coming up here what are you working on next what am i work on my next I'm doing a string thing coming up Chris Walden is good the arranger and Niko bolas is the producer fantastic hires made into strange things with the number one Chinese artist who Nico went over and did the tracks in China well so um that's coming up next I'm going over to Denmark to record a a big band and jazz singer over there in January promoting my book more than anything you know I've been doing Cyrus Sirius radio and great that kind of stuff and interviews left and right so is it yeah you know it took almost three years to write the book you know because marine who wrote the book with me would come over on a Saturday and she hit the tape machine and we just talked we did that for almost three years and so we weren't able to put the book together so it took a lot of time and now I'm getting pulled to do a lot of a lot of promotion on it and I'm not good at that I mean I just I think it is pretty good I do well when I do I just don't like to do it it's what I mean yeah you know I'm okay at it I just did pensado's place and it came out so great that it putting one show on tomorrow Friday and one show mixed and the second half next Friday yes all right yeah if that kind of stuff the book is sold out there there people are on you know waiting lists to get the book so hopefully it'll keep going I got a lot of people already asking for volume too and I don't know if I want to do that or not well you better get started if you are yeah take three years right no it won't take that long for this one cuz most of the good stuff is in the first book oh you got a you read this thing about Neil Young in the back no hours the master I love it when he gets pissed off he is great all right so what's the secret with that there is no secret with it you know I got pissed off at him when I did on the beach I hope produced on the beach and when we finished we had made some rough mixes so people could come in and and we could play this stuff so it wouldn't take we wouldn't have to put the multi-tracks on and play stuff back so we made these rough mixes so when it was done I said okay one of us ought mixing he said no no no I love these rough mixes that's that's what we're gonna use I said no no you can't use them I said look I'll pay for the studio myself you know just that no you could do whatever you want but this is what's going on the record so that's what he's the saying is that what ended up being on the record the rock yeah those are the roughs and do you how do you feel about it now I wish I could remix it on the beach yeah I know I bought the record yeah yeah I grew up a huge new young fan yeah I love Neil I just we just did a thing on his last album or the hundred pieces Wow 65 piece or coaster 35 voice choir we did it over at the at Sony scoring stage which is a fantastic room by the way it's just so expensive but yeah it's it's an amazing record amount of fun and of some of the stuff I think three or four hundred turns whoo we did one take down he stood right in the middle of the orchestra and sang alive and we went right to multitrack and to track and some of the stuff is like the to track right from the console yeah it was really cool it's amazing when you when you're mixing Orchestra do you find that you you you Lenalee room mics because the players know how to work off each other somewhat but you know what I learned many many years ago is that to go out and stand by the conductor and listen to what it's like in the room and then you go in it's something you try to capture that will do hurt out there but the other end of it is like all of a sudden had bought 38 of French horns are overwhelming everything well it's a team you go out you talk to the the arranger or the guard it's conducting it's a look at bar 38 can you hold it French parents back a little like killing me yeah or about 62 I can you give me a little more chilli and that's it so it's a team thing you know yeah I love doing our custom I would say the more musicians the easier it is to do it and the more fun you know so yeah I was recently at air studios for an event and they had at the end of this orchestrated piece there was a solo girl singer and we pulled up the the room mics and the whole Orchestra just ducked it was so beautiful wow just they just done so everything in everything was just completely balanced oh and it was just a great lesson to learn as a rock and roll musician like oh yeah yeah no understanding dynamics yeah I love doing that stuff really so my favorite big bands bigger cuz there's that's the stuff I enjoy the most there's nothing like when you put up the faders and a big band comes out at you you know it's like oh man I did goosebumps all the time I just love that you've got you've got you know tens of people out there that their whole life is devoted to playing an instrument that's right so they're all it's not like pulling up a sample or something like that you've got all of these brains working together and it's greatest thing about when you get to a position like I am now or like a lot of other goodies you get to work with the best of the best so when you hear that band I mean you've got the the best trumpet section in the world the best trombone section and there's saxophones I mean it just doesn't get any better and it makes your job easier you know the more successful you get the easier it is to do what you do at least that's how I feel absolutely but as you said you started off doing $15 - outside exactly live like last time right little piano would yeah yeah and and you're killing - walks in and says oh by the way you know it was like he walked then he was like it was like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio came in the room you know these immunity these are all my idols because I was the first record I ever bought was a big band record so yeah I love the big band music and and I got that a lot from watching my uncle record you know they've took the shoes who's your uncle's Lee Harry Smith Harrison was Harry Smith recording he was very famous he did the Benny Goodman sing sing sing record which is classic and he worked for Brunswick for years as an engineer and then he started the first independent recording studio in New York City he did Frank Sinatra's first ever record Wow yeah yeah he was recording a band from Jersey and Frank who evidently was sang with the band at times and he came over and then they didn't wanted songs with Frank so it's in Frank's book that's where the first yeah that's great and those were things man I was just and you know what that what did for me instead of being in awe of celebrities it's just the opposite then I realized that these were people like my aunts and uncles and they were old no I was an 8 year old kid 9 years old everybody was nice to me you know when they talked to me and I told so I wasn't impressed by anybody oh my god that's been Crosby you know he was just a really cool guy and nice of me and or Tatum one of the greatest fair he took my take my hand and he show me little boogie-woogie licks on the piano you know it was just wonderful to be around people like that and and and not be overly impressed you know it's not like you see a movie star and whatever you know yeah you can't talk it was just the opposite so I learned to be around these people you know as I said Les Paul was like he was another uncle you know and uncle SEO wasn't messed up my hair all the time and and even when I got older he did it and he used to piss me off but you know back in those days you have your hair just right I know I'm I was getting on an award in and a tech award and Tommy doubt gave it to me and and the less was there and everybody so we're all sitting at the table and my wife was there and I les had never met him and I said unless I want to introduce you to my wife it's my wife Lisa and Les Paul unless looks at my wife says you are a hell of a lot prettier and a woman he was with last night that's the way you want man he was so cool it's it it's Les Paul so I suppose she probably can be a little bit of slack yeah absolutely it's a little commercial you know so what he was he's always had sticks he's smile and always told little jokes on people and stuff I want to ask you a question I think like a fan would want to know and like of all the people you worked with who's the one is the one that you just feel like I just you could well so not so obviously because I was you know I used to play hooky from school would go see him at the Paramount Theater I know and he was my idol growing up but I think Paul McCartney is probably the nicest person I've ever worked with in the business it's just an amazing guy and it's so much fun to be around and you know he he introduces himself to everybody and you know hi I'm Paul McGann me yeah you know he's really just a cool guy am now when I think of pol III from what I know of him I talk honestly don't know him but for what I know him he grew up listening probably to some of the records you were making yes yeah that's true and the stuff we did on on kisses on the bottom those were songs he always wanted to do and they were songs when he was a kid they had a piano roll of piano you know and on Friday night they'd roll up the rug and all his aunts and uncles and people would come over or they'd go over their house and and they would sing all these songs you know bye-bye blackbird all that kind of stuff and he always wanted to do that he didn't think he could he wasn't sure if he could and that's why he got with Tommy Tommy liPuma and I had a call who laid out some of the stuff and we were here when we did the first one is it the first couple takes it I didn't think we were going to make it you know I didn't think it was going to happen and then all of a sudden it's like a light went off and he got it he knew how to do it anyone in him nailed it and that was it yeah that's cool I see for me I I can imagine he's a fan of the music that you've made but you've recorded yeah and the artist you work with and so for him it's probably full circle it's all coming together yeah I know this is maybe a good question because I know as I've got older I'll the things I loved as a kid I now love more than ever yeah because it's that first experience when you fall in love with a piece of music yeah it's like I can't think of a better analogy unfortunates like being a junkie so it's the first high when you like that you keep chasing that one yeah yeah yeah no I agree with you yeah absolutely I bought a Jimmie Lunceford record I saved up him it was a buck in a quarter and it was a 12-inch 78 first time I got ever bored I was 11 years old and and it was a big banner I got not just love that record I played it and played it and place it and then of course Woody Herman you know the big band days were coming in caldonia was a big big head back there and then you know big bands were the thing I was like they would like the rock-and-roll pants and today how yeah yeah just go there you're just massively powerful yeah orchestration hitting you and we were dancing back then to you know Lindy Hop and jitterbug stuff and yeah you know similar to what they're doing today when you hear that first record jabal again does it just take you back to that time yeah it takes me back a little kids saving my money to buy it you you know we were really poor so I was I set up pins at the bowling alley and make a little money and that's before automation on the bowling alleys but never had someone Dinah why shine shoes on Saturday at going shine shoes to make a little extra money so my father we were really poor and so my father said you know I wanted to wear peg pants that was the big thing you know and he wouldn't buy them for me there was expensive their own but he said if you you earned the money you want to buy him go ahead so that was it for me eleven twelve years old that was out earning my own money to buy my own clothes I had to buy my own baseball glove we just didn't have any money you know we're lucky we ate so I relate to all those feelings I remember I have my Clark's shoes when I was a kid now yeah polished them like really super polished and I wore them until my feet could barely I was squeezing out of them and I I stole a pair of my mom's white socks so I could look like a mod yeah yeah wearing my mom's white socks and I took my my took my my black trousers and cold them back up so you could see it was music was so powerful we'll drive the fashion it drive yeah yeah absolutely yeah the music wasn't the way we danced a boy we dressed yeah you know we used to what Billy Eckstine was big back in those days and and he used to wear these shirts and they we call them mr. B collars they were widespread college and I wasn't saving our money to buy a mr. B shirt well thanks Ron oh thank you it was really a joy it was amazing hang with you you know we don't get to do that why not well when you have yeah when you have Steven in the room yeah I know he thinks over okay Steven ties a lot of personality yeah it's cool I did that thing with him and you know he's in the program too and Sumiko bolus enters number we called him up I had just finished mixing this song and where he sang I was on a Chris Botti record and so we got on the floor and tell them how amazing he sounded on that song so it was pretty cool he was very pleased hey I love what were touching on that like people you admire being also being fans of music yeah because I hadn't experienced was Steven when we were trying to get Sara Dash's number and because she had some on Keith Richards I can almost yeah yeah she'd done that and so Jack got Keith Richards no no he got Steve Jordan's number and we call Steve Joel and Steve's like I'll hold on I'm recording and in the background you hear Keith Richards singing and then he gets back on and Keith comes up to the phone and we were like little kids it was like we're all crowd around speakerphone Steven Tyler Jack does us and me obviously I'm nobody with these two guys and and it's all right stay they and yeah which is funny because nobody can call Steven Tyler or anything other than Steven but the Keith Richards game yeah and it was just like and then you realize no matter who you with everybody's a fan of something yeah thanks Frank Sinatra was a fan of something even though he's probably right the esalaam oh he definitely you know there was Kate Smith was a heavyset woman who sang god Bless America and it was a huge successful thing that was his he he thought she was the best female singer he had ever heard that's amazing and you know not like somebody like Billie Holiday George you know we'll all inspired by something to do what with yeah exactly well thank you ever so welcome thank you it was great so everybody a little infomercial here please check out this book it's absolutely wonderful highly recommend it like I said the thing that about it is it's the kind of book that I would want to read because it's a combination of technical so from an engineering production point of view you get that but you also get it balanced with reason logic why you chose that that gear and and also how you work with artists yes and a lot of great stories about working with artists and all and it's an easy read most people sit down and the comedian one night you know it's not like it's not like I'm reading the vincey's biography oh it's like this stick I've been reading up for about three four months now I can imagine not even halfway done so yeah that sounds good that you know a little do vincey's he sounds pretty amazing yeah it is it's an amazing book and he's just an amazing guy God he really was the Renaissance yeah yeah yeah yeah Marvis so check it out it's a Schmidt on the record behind the magic behind the music right and as ever please leave a bunch of comments and questions below thank you ever so much thank you thank you [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Produce Like A Pro

Views: 70,706

Keywords: Warren Huart, Produce Like A Pro, Home studio, Home recording, Recording Audio, Music Production, Record Producer, Recording Studio, Al Schmitt, The Magic Behind the Music, The Most Successful Engineer of All Time

Id: oEhBQM8l9iM

Length: 68min 42sec (4122 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018