How Bob Clearmountain Hears What We Can’t

hey everybody I'm Rick B and today's episode I interview one of the most influential figures in modern music production history I'm talking about mixing engineer Bob Clear Mountain with a career spanning decades Clear Mountain has crafted the sound behind iconic songs for Bruce Springstein the Rolling Stones David Bowie Brian Adams and of course Avalon by Roxy Music setting the gold standard for audio mixing Bob has invented techniques and Sonic signatures that have not only shape countless hits but also Inspire generations of audio engineers and producers like myself I interviewed Bob at appy studios in Santa Monica last week here's my interview Bob welcome it's pleasure to be here at apog thanks Rick it's great to have you it's great to finally meet you great to finally meet you so I want to start back when you came up as an engineer when people talk about you they talk about you that you invented the modern mixer but you're also a producer and a bit yeah how did you come up and how did this become a thing that that mixing Engineers were actually mixing Engineers not just the people that were making the records were kind of moving the faders you know back in the 70s I guess yeah well I don't actually know to be honest because yeah I was an engineer and in fact when I started at uh Studio Comedia media sound in New York um in 1972 mixing seemed really boring to me because I liked recording I like when the band there was a whole band in the studio that was exciting to me and that's kind of what I was interested in you know I I used to listen to the records I would listen to were like L Russell and like that kind of stuff it was just sounded like it was fun to be there I wanted to be there when that was going on but then I gradually got into mixing and I thought well this this is kind of cool I think I can do this and then I had a couple of Engineers at media sound say who you know that's not bad that what you just did for that guy oh you mean I could do this great but it I didn't really like it because in the old days with manual mixing you had to you had to really learn perform the mix yeah yeah it was like a routine you know and you sometimes you had other people help you because it was all done in real time you do like a section at a time and then chop all these bits together and sit back and listen and go no that's time it now we got to do it again you know yeah and um but then went on when good automation came along which is when what was solidate logic really in um like the late 7s early ' 80s it was really kind of buggy at first but you'd learned how to get around the bugs because what you could do with it was so great I could list actually listen to the music while I was mixing like I didn't have to think about which move I I had to get in the in the next section what was the first stable console SSL console with automation it was an eer okay yeah I mean I the first time I used one it was a B series out here in the studio in Burbank and then I power station where which I helped design and build actually um was about to get a con console for The Studio C and uh I said we got to get one of these this is great and uh and so we got it well the first E Series in the country actually and then but you mix in your own personal Studio on a G Series that's right yeah let's talk about the mixing process as far as how you start a mix I'm going to I want to talk about the engineering side too but I want to talk how do you start a mix well a rough mix I'll put up a rough just a rough mix of everything and I go through in Solo each thing and try to because usually it's something I haven't heard before so I I try to identify I think of the instruments and the vocals this Probably sounds a little corny but I think of them sort of like characters in a play or a movie or something you know I want to know what the contribution of each element is to this picture you know but while listening to the overall picture I very often listen to the lyrics first that that that's usually a really important part for me CU sometimes it it will give you a a feeling of what the artist was trying to get across and and the the mix I think of the mix as the environment of the record and that's got to well usually not always but if it can reflect that feeling of what the song is about you know what The Narrative of the song is you know I mean some songs are so simple that that doesn't make any sense but you when you work with Springsteen people like that the songs are pretty meaningful you know and most of the artists that I work with luckily are they're good lyricists and that helps me a lot and um but then but then just each you know the guitars I usually start by panning the guitars and the keyboards and seeing okay what's going to back balance out there usually I want if there's something happening on the left side I want something kind of equally to happen on the right side and the panning is really important for me and the drums are usually come in the middle someplace okay let's talk about drum panning do you do you do drummer perspective or audience no no audience perspective sorry audience perspective now now historically British Engineers would do drummer perspective and American Engineers would do audience perspective is that is that kind of a makes sense they drive on the wrong side of the road so right there you go okay does the haak go all the way over or does it Go part of the way over where does it 2 o00 what about the ride symbol two 10 o' okay you know kind of makes sense okay and overheads hard pan overheads hard pan Tom's two two and 10 as well I don't like the Tom's jumping out speaker right that doesn't make sense to me that's distracting to me you know and I I like keeping them sort of in in the center somewhat let's talk about bass drums we're going I'm going to go through each each instrument instrumental record okay so how does the bass drums of the 60s for example 60s records late 60s records maybe a two-headed drum differ from the way that people started eqing drums in the in the SE late 70s and 80s a lot of that is what else is going on I mean there was a lot people used a lot less instruments people recording on three and four tracks back then and maybe they do a few overdubs but it records wouldn't get nearly as dense and so you could have a a John bonam bastrom that was like like a 26 in bastrom that he used to line with foil or something I've heard all kinds of stories and it was resonant you know it actually had some tone to it you know and it would work because there was room for it in the mix but then as multitrack came along and people this is just my own Theory by the way I don't know I'm no expert but uh you are an expert I don't think so but but as things got d answer I I think bass drums got Tighter and not not only that but AR for me um I was I learned on R&B records y media sound was all about we used to do Stevie Wonder and Benny King and all kinds of you know R&B records and um that was more a tight sounding bass drum because it it worked better with a bass you know you wanted those two instruments to kind of meld together I did a live album for Van Halen yep and Alex Halen uh I went through he had a bunch of different mics that they had recorded they had like a I think a D12 and a 57 so I'm going for the the more bottomy bit and he came in and he said no no no no it's the 57 and I said but that doesn't mix with the bass he goes yeah no should be as far away from the bass as possible such a different right that was kind of his taste that was his thing but it really worked for those records and so there's so many different ways of looking at it plus the fact that was more of a resonant sounding bassum and they they th those well it was a live album so it wasn't filled with instruments was mostly you know Eddie Eddie and uh wolf wolf wolf yeah right I'd like to take a second to talk to you about this channel Believe It or Not 57% of the people that watch here regularly are not subscribed so I would encourage you to hit the Subscribe button now this will help me get even more of my dream guests in the future thank you when you started back in the in the 70s did you use bus compression back then was that always a thing uh for the mix yeah we did okay see sure if you don't have ssls yet what would you use pre SSL what would be a typical bus 33609 usually was a NE like we have in there and would you use it as a limiter or as a compressor limiting as a compress yeah but not too much you know 40b maybe the most and uh and Link together of course now I use the SSL bus compressor which I like when you're compressing a mix are you in the Auto release and you're never Auto release you know I don't like anything with a word Auto on all right it's just a thing Auto what does that mean what's it doing you know no I us I like have a a tack time of what three what is it three milliseconds I guess or something couple clicks yeah whatever couple clicks yeah and a pretty fast release yeah I like it to for the punchiness yeah like I don't want it sitting there I want it to come back you know okay and how many DB of of gain reduction you're going to have depends if it's you know if it's a ballad less than three or four if it's a hard Rocking song yeah get up to you know eight sometimes sometimes I mean I'm not cryst algae so it's not like ball of the wall compression but you know I like compression as much as the next guy I interviewed Chris years ago he worships you he's he's I mean he's really good I I I have a lot of respect for him as well well he cannot say enough amazing things about you and you invented a lot of these techniques now somebody told me years ago that the idea of putting a a 57 and a 451 or or a small diaphragm condenser together is something that you did is that true or not I did do that for a while okay I mean did you come up with that idea I guess I did nobody told me to do it yeah I cuz I wanted to get the sound of you know the the depth of a snare drum yep and but I wanted to get that Rim snap as well I wanted the attack yep and uh that kind of helped but then I I I finally realized if you really knew how to tune a snare drum and if the drummer really knew how to hit it that you didn't have to really do that yeah snare bottom mic would you use a 57 uh I us use a 57 pretty simple and then but I do a you do different things I do a whole processing thing to the bottom m to make it work okay which is what well we're going to have a plug in it it does that pretty soon but but basically it's it's the SSL uh limiter yep on the board because it's got a really fast attack and fast Decay yep and so I just put a a kind of nuke it right and um and then crank the top end like it like it 12K or something you know 10 to 12 yeah what it does it kind of Smooths it out so it doesn't sound like it like it's crunchy right you know it just adds like a like a like a top end kind of this nice snare sound I mean it doesn't work on every snare drum of course but when when the things tune when the Scar's that's the most important part the tuning of the drums tuning it and and how the people hit and how he hits it okay if you're recording a rock band you have your overheads do you like to use small diaphragm condensers large diaphragm what do you prefer did it change over time it's changed I mean for the toms I used to use 421s and now I use the little cizer 604s or the 904s okay you know first of all it's a lot less hassle because you don't have the stands I'm a very practical person okay right I don't like having a bunch of clutter around but they sound good you know I it's the same scent basically the same cizer Mike um that as far as I can tell but I used to do top and bottom okay 421s so I don't do that anymore it doesn't you don't think it adds enough right well I don't think that sound is it was a thing back then yeah it's just not necessary anymore I don't think I think just just the top head is is plenty it just added a lot of bottom end and the overhead y funny story about that yeah I used to use AKG 4 52s or 460s 460s aren't you can't really find him anymore but then one day I came in here Y and some of the ape people one one of the apy guys I think he was one of the video guys was recording his band you know we used we always let them uh use a studio uh if they were kind to the gear and um they had this sp12 Royer stereo ribbon Royer over overhead right yeah I said what are you doing with that said no no you you might like this check check it out the guy was all timid and you know he was shy and he was like afraid he was going to offend me or something I guess like oh yeah okay and and I heard it I that sounds fantastic I've been using that ever since but historically you would use it like a 452 or 460 something bright I use them on yeah I use them on high hat and ride symbol now and would you have the mics facing away from each other slightly capture more of the uh yeah more of the sound and then I was trying to get them like directly over the symbols because like if you a lot of times you if the mic is off from the symbol you'll get this phasing sound yeah because the symbol moving if the guy especially if the guys are not tightening their symbols down enough yeah and it's like I don't really like that much I try to get that's why the the sp12 I don't get any of that it's just a very wide um natural picture of the it's a little dull because it's a ribbon so kind of CR top on it and you'll do that when you're tracking yeah bass drum mics historically what would you like for an in in mic and out mic well let me see for like a a ballad sort of thing and it depends on the Bass from of course but I always like the the AKG D12 which unfortunately mine is broken so I haven't been able to use it that would be the kick out or the kick in in but now I I use this B52 52 yeah that's just always seems to work what about kick out would you use uh I don't do that much I mean I don't know whatever I let the assistant pick that one because I don't know I don't think it makes that much difference I mean it's as far as the SSL one of the great things about the ssls you have Gates expanders you have EQ on each channel that was a big thing back really that was that was a game changer well that was a thing for me the first I time I used one I used to be series like Al it's Dynamics on every channel cuz nobody no nobody else had that this is great cuz there's so much I can do without having to patch a bunch of extra gear in yeah you know and it sounded good the console sounded good now I've seen that that you have Chambers at your studio your mix this studio do you ever use those anymore I use them all the time well to be honest it's right under the kitchen and then we redid the kitchen we renovated the kitchen and so I couldn't use it for a couple months and so we did did impulse responses so now I I use and the impulse responses are basically virtually the same yeah and now I use them in fact they're in alter verb and they're in um in you know clear mountains domain and Clear Mountain spaces they're in the our plugins you were one of the first guys to figure out how to use samples with with uh with drums did you turn around the the drum and record the snare backwards so that you would be able to line up the snare how would you line up the snare back then IDE well I would trigger it trigger the the sample off the The Record Head well you know you're playing it back off the off the the record the record head's ahead of the Repro head so I'd trigger that and then delay it so it was in sync yeah and there was this gadget called the Russian dragon that where you could put the two the original snare in on one channel and the the sample on the other together and then you could line them up and the beauty of a sample is that if you you could use Ambience with it and you don't have any high hat spill with it and things like that that's one of the things yeah M things yeah in fact sometimes on let's say somebody like uh Max Weinberg who's an amazing drummer and a good friend I just love way he plays but sometimes choruses he'll just bash the hell out of the high hat yeah right and so I'll actually sample one of the snare one of the same snares in the same song from where he's not bashing the high hat and then use that and where he is bashing so you take out all the symbol wash out of the reverbs and stuff right yeah yeah it cleans it up and it makes it so that you know and then the high hats keep it separate your mixes are so fat so Punchy so clear what are things that you do to really make sure that the thing is Punchy and you have this pristine you know top end to it well I mean I do a lot of riding you know that's what's nice about the SSL SSL automation is still better than anything available since ever you know and so and it's so easy to use and it's as you don't have to think about it and I just grab stuff and I just ride stuff and then I can always redo it if I mess up I can go back and oh that wasn't so great let me do it again and so I do ride the drums I I the way I group the drums is I group the toms and overheads on one group and then everything else on another group and so I can kind of ride the snare and bass drum and then the ride the fills like that and um so I yeah I do that a lot you know write the right EQ of course you brighten things up a bit and so much of it is how it relates to the rest of the record right I'm always listening to everything I'm listening to vocal listening to the guitars the keyboards and and sometimes you know you just I mean you'll hear a lot of mixers say the same thing this is not unique that you just get things out of the way of things that you're trying to feature you know like if the if the bass sounds sounds muddy well start with the other instruments you might have a keyboard that's got a lot of extra bottom in it or or a guitar or something all right try cleaning that up a bit and then listen to the bass yeah you know and you go and high pass those those things yeah yeah right you won't you might not miss it so much on a keyboard or a guitar and all of a sudden that those instruments sound better and your bass sounds better as well do you feel that that that the kind of where the base lays has changed over the decades or will change like for example Rock Records maybe in the 70s the bass the kick drum wouldn't be necessarily as prominent and it would just kind of accent and the bass would be the the low end of it but then later on bass drum became more more important or maybe the relationship had changed I I think so I mean I noticed records from the last 10 or 20 years of bass trums are like really loud right you know sometimes I just think what you know what what the hell what's going on you know maybe people have been going to concerts you know you go to concerts rock concerts and I've been the ones where the bass drum is the loudest thing lead B lead bass drum it's like a really bright loud huge bass drum it's like wow where's the rest of the band you know and and Records kind of a lot of records are like that and sometimes it works yeah a lot of times it doesn't work for me because to me there's a there's a Groove that happens between the like all the the drums between the the symbols and the especially the bass drum and snar drum and high hat and and if one of those elements is is too loud it [ __ ] with the groove yeah and it doesn't feel right do you use meters and to check levels of things like that just just listening just listen no I mean before I print it I you know I'll check the stereo I don't want anything to go over especially nowadays with with most they reject anything that's like a quarter of a DB too loud one of the things about ssls too is that you would have subgroups and you can send your drums to a subgroup Your Bass your guitars and things like that I use VCA groups VCA groups I'm sorry yeah that's what I meant right okay so these VCA groups you'll send your your uh separate uh sets of instruments to those things and typically what would they be well like I said with the drums you know one will be snare and bassum and then and the rest will be all the rest yep like acoustic guitars will be together electric guitar electric Rhythm guitars would be together y certain keyboards backing vocals would be on one you know that kind of thing I kind of this was a huge thing when ssls when these these new consoles when they came out it enabled in some ways allowed mixing to go to a completely different level really did it really did that combined with the the automation yeah was just a big thing for me you know and it still is it's just nice to have that help where you you don't have to do everything at once and you're not looking at little lines and drawing things on your screen or or and you don't have to do it all one track at a time right you know you can just grab stuff because I'm very kind of spontaneous I don't like to think about stuff too much I hear and I just want to reach for it I don't want to go through any kind of opening plugins or something like that is there anything that that you kind of would do like um High passing certain instruments that you'll say like if it's a lead guitar I you'll always highpass the lead guitar because there's always lowend Rumble in it is there any any general things that you might do usually High Pass vocals okay you know cuz there'll be something it'll be like pops or something or uh yeah rumble or um breath noises you know I mean sometimes you have to go in that's the nice thing about Daws is you can actually get rid of some of that stuff surgically you know but yeah just generally I'll I'll High Pass um backing vocals for sure cuz you know you always hear people making noise especially with compression because you you know usually compress them and that's going to bring up all that stuff yeah brings up the noise floor right and acoustic guitars I usually kind of roll off bottom and I push some mid-range on an acoustic guitar where like where would you roll off an acoustic guitar I don't think think about the numbers very I do I just turn the thing until it sounds right so yeah 150 Cycles or 200 Cycles maybe depends of course okay what if it's if you have a a guitar and vocal and it's a very sparse track you can let the guitar have as much room as it wants right all dependent absolutely well very often if a sometimes a song will start with just vocal and acoustic guitar and then I won't click in the filter until it gets to the till the base comes in you know okay so you brought up another thing mute muting was automated as well yeah right right so there's all these things that automation that SSL in particular enabled you to do to become to specialize as a mixer it's like a relief pitcher or something like that right that that are coming in to save the game with a fresh arm or whatever fresh ears if you're not if you're mixing something that someone else recorded and the aom at muting the automated you know you can bring eqs in and out you can bring compression in and out you can gate things yeah well unfortunately the old G Series you can't bring uh compression that's right yeah I do that in the in the Box Ian there's a lot of stuff I do in the box for sure you know tuning vocals I mean I I you know I None of none of the artists I work with ever sing Out Of Tune so I don't but if I ever had to yeah I could do it in the Box for sure there is this thing called melodine yeah you did Let's Dance David Boe that's right we were talking about that earlier and there's a story that goes along with with the delay in the song Now Rogers played those played the guitar on that right tell that story okay yeah well so record this this song this wonderful song Let's Dance and Nile is playing that's all he's playing uh it's just just say three uh three drums and he says to me hey Clear Mountain put a slap or something on that it's a little boring when I'm played you just put something on it so we back then we were using tape delay we I had these b67 stter over in the corner of the room and um I said yeah okay and I had it already set up for other things and I had like a pingpong delay so it was bouncing back and forth between the the left and right but I had the returns like cranked for some reason I don't know why and and I put the thing on and it it was just like and I was like oh [ __ ] you know and I hadn't timed it or anything usually I I set the VAR speed to get it in time and um and so I jumped up to to reach for the fade I said no no let me just fix that and David and Nile immediately jumped up and they said no that's perfect just leave it just like that they just flipped you know they just and it's so funny because I've heard Nile tells this story the way the way he tells it is that that yeah what I was playing was really boring then Clear Mountain came up with this amazing thing for my guitar you know I'm like wait a minute thank you now but it was kind of a mistake it was an accident Bob how long does it typically take you to do a mix what's a fast mix well it depends um couple hours three hours maybe I've done done some you know some of my favorite things there was um It's my life I think by bonjovi MH you know they brought that in and by the time they got to the studio I I said oh you want to hear it and it was like 2 hours I think and they said yeah [ __ ] great and Bo the last guy spent two days on that okay and um um and there's some other ones the um do you know that Amy Man album whatever do you know that yes well the very I think it's the opening track it was the first single off the thing called um uh I should have known and this was just a massive mess right in fact U John Bryan who produced it and Amy they while it was being set up they they went out to eat or something and I fell asleep on the couch like I often do and they left a note on my chest when they left it's apologizing for what a mess this thing was you know said you're going to it's going to take you a while to weed through this thing it's like we just put so much crap on this and I push up the faders I went this is amazing and I used everything thing I just push it up like an hour and a half I think two hours I I spent on the thing and they came back and they were like wow I just do that and you know it's just that's what you did what do you mean what I didn't do anything I just push the faders up sounds great you know so that sometimes that happens and then and then Brian Adams Everything I Do we spent a week on I hate that song now got so sick do you do when you hear a song like that you kind of get the same feelings that you got back in 1991 when it came out or whatever year came out I kind of cringe in a way but at the same time it was such an amazingly successful record it was one of the longest number one in the UK I think I mean 16 weeks yeah insane yeah and not only that but what was interesting about it is that he had spent over a million dollars on the record you know because I started producing it Steve LLY white did it for a while and then mut took over he recouped the the the album cost before the album Alum came out just off the single just off the single what is a record that you think is one of your best mixed records probably Avalon I think by Roxy Music yes amazing and I don't know if it's because I think that or just because of the reactions I've gotten you know the from what people have said that you know like they have their children were conceived to listening to this record and you know so many people love that record I mean it was pretty fun to mix that I those were quick mixes they were four 4H hour mixes I didn't really the reminded me of that because I didn't really remember that but uh apparently I did two a day so you probably had two stter at your studio that you would I mean back when people would mix off tape would you have do that or would you ever use the what is it 3348 the Sony digital machine I had yeah I had I had two of them actually I had a the 16 bit one then I upgraded to the 24 bit AP converters I never used you know not to put Sony down but yeah it just sounded better with ap when did you switch to those when would you would you transfer the stuff off the off the uh analog tape and transfer it to that yeah that's what that stud in there was why I bought that cuz I would transfer that to the the uh the Sony 48 the digital HR yeah machine and then I'd mix off that and that was easier to mix off of because you didn't have to have the thing sync up or anything like that yeah that was always a nightmare having two machines and not only that only had and when I moved to my place in here I only had one I I wasn't going to buy buy two stoter sure you know I had the Sony and so I figured okay things I just transfer it right away when were those in fashion when did people sto using those Sony's the digitals yeah well there were The Ataris and the Sony's and there was a few different companies that made them well right up until protols started you know people started doing 96k sessions in Protools and then there were be suddenly overnight became obsolete isn't it crazy they went from how much were they like 300 Grand or something like qu of a million dollars 250,000 mine was less cuz I didn't get the converters I had the apig converters but you know there were a quarter million dollars and they went from that to basically nothing and we still have one it's in in the other room there works perfectly by the way was there any advantage to to the sound of tape I hate to say no because I know there's a lot of analog fans out there that that think that tape is the coolest thing in the world to me it was just you know I used to just for example the B Chic yeah right Chic and Sister Sledge and all those records that those guys produced well they they'd be out in the studio cuz the Nile and Bernard the two producers were in the band and so I'd be the only guy in the control room and so we'd be they'd be recording it I'm thinking man this just sounds amazing you know I'm so I was so happy with the sounds I was getting and what they were playing was so fantastic and it was recording on analog on a stoter with really good tape and and uh they'd come in we play it back and it still sounded great but it was didn't quite have what you heard out in the room it didn't quite have the same excitement as what I heard when when they were playing you know what I mean it was just a little setback somehow you know what I mean like there was almost like a very slight Haze over everything and uh you know I just and I realized man I I hope I can't wait there there something that doesn't do that that I can re record and it plays back and that's exactly what and then and then when digital came along especially when apy got a hold of the machines and added their little filters so that the um they sounded better um then I had it I could that that's it it sounds the same as as you know so when did you move to mixing completely you know using computer to as as a playback through your apog converters when what year was that that you would that you abandoned tape completely oh jeez uh 90s or so must yeah it must have been the kind of mid late 90s yeah cuz I had a I had the stud I had the the digital had a couple digital machines and then things just kept getting more and as soon as I started getting 96k sessions on Protools I thought well I don't really need this stuff anymore I still have a whole library of digital tapes upstairs here yeah then and protols the track count became much much greater there was a way to to control it with the SSL because the SSL is used to controlling a tape machine sure and um so somebody figured that out and uh that was that you know and and still with apog converters of course what reverbs would you did you like back in the day when you used reverb when you actually used outboard Reverb and things like that I mean there were the plates of course y you know and that's what everybody pretty much used and there were a couple things we use it like a spring once in a while mhm um there were a couple different things and then the the digital reverbs came along so sorry Yamaha had some really nice ones that um Pro R3 I think it was called and you know I have these um SPX 990s and you know there's a I can rattle off a bunch of model numbers that people have long forgotten about but uh and they were good there were some pretty good sounding ones lexicon made great I still use the Lexicon PCM 7s and we have a 480 here that I use for the the shows and um they they sound very good what was funny was when the the 224 first came out I think it was like 12 bit or something it didn't sound very good and I remember they brought one around lexicon brought one around to power station and showing it off say this is the future this is a future of rever let me check this out this is so amazing this can sound better than any Reverb that that you have oh yeah okay well let's put up and we put it up against our our live stairway chamber which is a 75t stairway which is one of the most beautiful sounding reverbs you've ever heard when we compared the the poor lexicon guys I mean they're faces just what turned red oh uh yeah maybe uh the 40 480l was 16 bit wasn't it was it 16 bit maybe I think it was 16 bit it was the original 480 it was that yellow but um remote yeah I think it was before the 480l it was the very first one and uh the 480l I think s they improved it I think it went maybe from 12 but I I I'm probably got that wrong so somebody's gonna correct somebody's gonna say's full of crap man what's he talking about this is ancient gear at this point yeah but but then they they did it definitely got better because you know the more I still use that PCM 70 I like it what do you use it on well that's another good funny story is I was uh mixing a band that Tony Berg produced called um altered state and uh there were really good rock band and I had there was a piano track and I pushed it up and I said to the guitar player I said wow what is is that is that like mided with some kind of synthesizer he goes no and that's the PCM 70 I'm what and so I had him put the the settings in my PCM 70 and I'm still using it it's this it's this concert I think it's version two of the software it's the um concert uh concert program concert hall and it's just got this little chorusing on it you know that you can adjust and you can chorus Reverb yeah it's a chorus Reverb and it's just beautiful on a piano and uh I I'm still using it if I said to you name me records that you didn't work on like historic records whatever that are um great sounding that you think that you put on to this day like old you know older recordings what's what's something that is a that you think is just an incredibly well-recorded mixed record uh The Wall Pink Floyd for sure there's some Beetle records I think this this is kind of an odd one but Savo truffle you know that song it's one of the most amazing horn sounds ever recorded I think it was just distorted preamps apparently okay it's funny because I I don't I don't think of them as what sound great it's not it's unusual for me to think that way I I think more about the songs and what I like song-wise certainly Pink Floyd records and many of the be Beetle records and uh there actually some Stones records too that you know Street Fighting Man it's like wow like sounds amazing it sounds amazing you know it's huge and uh so that whole Beggar's Banquet album I just think is incredible and uh well that it's funny because I really like the the first Crowded House album mhm because I did the ones after that and I became a big fan of of there some that that record and I thought Don't Dream It's Over it's just a beautiful sounding record you know and there are many more that I I just love that I can't think of at the moment but when you would track records what historically did you like to track through what are mic PR that you like the sound of um the Nee NE 868 NE mic PR are great you know you can't why are they great I don't know they just they're very warm and they're clear but warm you know they're clear without being bright and harsh and they they just sound musical to me and it's so hard to really describe that do they make things sound better than they actually sound N I don't think so but they they sound good you know Dave Gro did a whole movie about sure a recording console and a lot of people kind of gave it credit for for their careers which I thought wait a minute the console didn't write this damn song you talking about right it just sounds they sound good you know not only that but believe it or not apigy made a thing called a um uh an MP what was it called a MP I I forgot what it's called but it was a mic pre it was a stereo mic pre we have three of them up there and uh it's one of the best sounding mic PR I've ever used I I did a whole couple whole records mostly through that you know other than drums you know but everything else okay how important are converters really important okay why I I don't know why they just just you know I I just know that I can tell if if I'm mixing something that wasn't um recorded through AP converters it's not so much just single channels or stereo but when you get like 80 of them I mean I have 80 ddaas in my studio so um it it just you really that that's when you really start to hear it when you get a whole bunch of them and uh I mean I'm mixing on an analog console so it makes a lot of difference to me sure it's it's just warmer sounding it's more musical clearer and uh it sounds closer it just sounds kind of closer you know do you uh print into Protools onto a stereo track or do you print on a different machine I have two Protools R okay I have a a multirack rig yep and a um a 24 I think it's 24 channel uh print rig because I'm nowadays I'm printing stereo and Atmos at the same time and so um so it's TR channels it's like 14 channels every each pass not only that but I get a lot of stuff stuff comes in at 441 at 48 96 who knows what everything goes out at 96 because I I don't have to my console is my uh sample rate converter and uh and it just capes everything's separate and so it's it's easier for me to think about that now I see a lot of genc monitors around here do you what do you use in your studio do you use ns10 still or do you have a bunch of different I I actually use genelex for the stereo and that's usually where I'm doing most of my eqing and you know I start with a stereo mix okay before I get into any um you know spatial audio stuff and um the they're they're called uh 83 I forgot what they're called something they're these little gray ones okay do you have a sub the top of the line ones do you have sub War for use or not for them okay no but then I have D audios and I have a subwoofer for that for the um Atmos but then I'll switch to them for stereo too some you know switch back and forth what's the ultimate test do you go to the car I don't know you know I used to have a a television that has some a an old sharp normal [Music] um normal version TV and it had great speakers but then the TV died unfortunately so that doesn't work anymore so I tried to I bought a little Soundbar and that didn't sound good now I have these these little fender you know those things they put in hotel rooms sometimes they little amplifiers and uh so I have two of them so I I kind of use those sometimes that's kind of your reference for what things will sound like on a phone or whatever right yeah yeah kind of yeah I guess so and then headphones you know the I mean the the Dolby stuff they tell you you got to check it on on the the binaural headphone thing and so I check in various places a lot of times I'll just go especially for the atmos mix I'll go stand outside of the speakers and listen to the mix and see how it sounds in mono basically right and once you get outside although it the way I mix it it isn't really mono I mean it really sounds but if you're standing outside the field of the speakers doesn't it kind of become mono in a way or not really depends on how you mix it okay no I I like to to mix it so no matter where I stand everybody standing in everybody's in the same place everything's coming out of the same thing so I don't bring anything in got it right I it's just my own taste but I like I like everything extreme so that I can walk around the room and the picture stays the same the balance has changed a little bit obviously if you're near one of the side speakers or something like that but uh you know I I think of it very kind of visually like this guy's over there and that guy's over there or girl if someone is going to buy something one piece of gear to make their mixes sound better what do they buy apy Symphony iio of course sorry I'm shouldn't that's like a big thing right it really big thing it it really is an important thing uh I mean I do believe that that's about it I mean everybody H has their way of mixing I nowadays everybody's mixing in the box so as far as mixing goes I guess the converter isn't quite as important except it's what you're listening through but um but as far as recording I I think it's important I really do believe it's important but um uh I don't I don't know what is the most important thing is hard to say it's just your sensibility I think your taste your taste yeah yeah it could be that you know and uh and not only that but it's um it's and I don't think of it I hate to almost say my taste because like if I'm mixing a record for somebody it's their taste I try to figure out they're thinking about and what their taste is you know but ultimately people hire you for your taste I I guess so or I I think they hire me because because I get what they want right right and soever don't you get what they want because you like the sound of you do it to where it sounds good to you I think maybe because uh I I kind of get into the music and uh and I try to think the way the way they do and uh you know cuz I don't I'm not a songwriter unfortunately I wish I wish I could write songs I've written two songs and you I would never play them for you and uh but I kind of I enjoy listening to other people's music and and I I kind of get myself involved in it I think that's what you have to do if you're you're a mixer and of course you can have plenty of ideas how what you think it should sound like which is great if that's what the the artist thinks and that's what the producer thinks if it's not then you just forget about that and okay we're I an amazing thing happened to me years ago and I love to tell this story but uh I just finished mixing Avalon the uh Roxy Music record and uh you know it's this big Lush beautiful record in fact at the time when I mixed it I thought I wish I had more speakers because there's so much stuff it should be I wish it was all around me and uh so my next project was a a punk band called The divinal from Australia oh yeah remember them they were great great band they're a really good band and so I had this in my head right so you know I'm like Mr Big Time mixer and and uh so I'm kind of mixing it you know all Lush and and the two people Chrissy and um God I just ran into the the guitar player the other day uh they're looking at me and they're obviously not happy and so finally they pull me aside after the second mix and they said look you got the wrong idea of who we are you know we're not we're not Roxy Music we're not this big Lush band we're like this little spiky ball really gnarly and gritty and and not wide and and really irritating you know and you know I was into punk rock all through the 70s I was into punk punk rock you know I was at CBS every every weekend and uh I thought how could I miss this I went back and listened I go how the [ __ ] did I miss that what's wrong with me and these two PE these two kids from Australia just totally put me in my place and it was one of the best things that ever happened to me so I said man you just got to start each project and listen to what it is and and you know adjust your brain so that it matches you know and then once I you know I just let's start over and and I got it they were happy well Bob I've asked more questions in this interview than I've asked in probably a hundred interviews combined and people that watch this are going to say what's wrong with Rick because he's just peppering Bob with all these things because I've wanted to ask you all these questions for so long and everything that pops into my brain about Bob Clear Mountain when I think of you and I think of all the amazing signing records you've been a part of I'm I'm probably going to have a hundred other things I think of once I walk out of here but thank you so much for spending the time here and and uh this is a lovely place here at app I'm quite proud of our little clubhouse here and uh thank thank you so much for making the time thanks I wanted to talk to you for for ages you know and this is quite fun cool you asked great questions thank you things that maybe I hadn't really thought about too much cool thanks all right ID like to once again thank Bob for being my guest today remember to hit the Subscribe button leave me a comment hit the thumbs up and thanks so much for watching

Channel: Rick Beato

Views: 251,830

Keywords: rick beato, everything music, rick, beato, music, music theory, music production, education, Bob Clearmountain, Interview, Mixing, Mastering, Audio Engineering, Roxy Music, Avalon, Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A, The Rolling Stones, Shine a Light, David Bowie, Let's Dance, Nile Rodgers, How to record drums, How to record guitar, how to record vocals, how to use compression, how to mix music

Id: _q1xZKkzbkE

Length: 48min 1sec (2881 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2024