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MOST IMPORTANT LINKIN THE CHAIN? High profile mix engineers like Manny Marroquin are employed for their magic touch, but does it stand up in a blind listening test? Linkin Park put it to the test for their latest record Living Things with a good old fashioned mix shootout.

Story: Paul Tingen

AT !" At the start of this year Manny Marroquin received an of big-name producers. When attempting to make records unusual request. Would he be prepared to mix two that stick out from the crowd, the fairy dust that mixers can tracks for a forthcoming Linkin Park album in a mix-o! sprinkle over music is increasingly highly valued — hence against other top mixers? "e band, producer Rick Rubin, the mix shootout for Living !ings. and Warner Brothers chairman Rob Cavallo were to listen to IN DEMAND these mixes blind on CDs simply marked A, B, C, etc. "e But with this elevated importance, comes a natural supply winner would take home the job of mixing the rest of the and demand conundrum. "e Grammy-winning engineer album, and those that lost would get, well, nothing. It may arrived as one of the US’s top mixers in 2000, following his sound like a straightforward case of ‘may the best mixer work on the debut albums by Pink (Can’t Take Me Home) win,’ but the fact of the matter was that all the approached and particularly Alicia Keys (the best-selling Songs In A mixers were the best in their #eld, had nothing to prove, and Minor). He’s since gone from strength to strength and in not a day to lose in their already jam-packed schedules. recent years the demand for his services has risen to a Nonetheless, 10 mixers took on the challenge. staggering degree, putting him in a position where he o&en Marroquin was the eventual winner, which is arguably an works six days a week, for 16 hours a day or more. As a unexpected result. He’s more known for pop and hip-hop/ result, the interview from which this article is culled was R&B mixes than for working with heavy walls of electric conducted in several shorts sessions of 15 to 30 minutes guitars. Marroquin’s credits include Alicia Keys, Bruno each, whenever he managed to #nd breaks during his mix Mars, Lana Del Rey, Usher, Cee Lo, Pitbull, Rihanna, Flo sessions — sometimes at 3am! Rida, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Christina Aguilera, and Even amongst the mix shootouts and long working days, many others. You get the idea. dealing with high pro#le artists can still carry some “In recent years I’ve actually mixed music from more and surprisingly odd additional baggage. Regular Lil Wayne more genres — from rock, to folk, and even country. And mixer Fabian Marasciullo once told this writer how, the music on [the album] Living !ings is very diverse, when mixing the rapper’s !a Carter IV in 2011, he was incorporating anything from indie punk, alternative rock, carrying the hard drives with him all the time, as well as hip-hop, and electronica, to country,” said Marroquin. “"e a gun whenever he went out on the Miami streets! When two songs we all mixed during the shoot-out were Burn Marroquin began mixing Living !ings, he was suddenly It Down and Lost In !e Echo, which became the #rst two faced with similar security concerns. “"ings got o! to a singles. I’m sure that what the other guys did was great, but shaky start,” he said. “Security guards brought the drive each they may have been more focused on one genre, whereas morning, insisted on being present in my mix room for the I felt I was able to work with and combine all the di!erent day, and took the drives with them again in the evening. I in%uences. Luckily I got the call to do the album, which don’t like people who I don’t know being in my studio, so I turned out to be a great experience. "ey’re really cool guys nearly pulled out because of this. However, the security guys that know what they want, and they gave me space to do my turned out to be cool and really ‘got’ what I was doing, so own thing as well, which was really refreshing.” there soon was a good atmosphere. Eventually they waited THE TALE OF TWO MIXES in the lounge at Larrabee [studio] rather than being in the room with me all the time.” "e tale behind Living !ings re%ects many of the issues that a!ect the music industry in 2012. "e overriding concern SUPER ANALOGUE is, of course, the continuing downward sales spiral. A quick Marroquin is a creature of expensive habit. A&er 14 years check of the album sales of virtually every major act that’s at Larrabee Studio 2, he still works with the same analogue- been around for a while shows a steady and sometimes digital hybrid that he’s always favoured. His choice pieces of dramatic decline. Linkin Park is typical: according to hardware continue to be a huge, 80-input SSL XL ‘K’ 9000 Wikipedia the band’s debut album Hybrid !eory (2000) series Super Analogue console, and compressors by API, sold 24 million worldwide; the follow-up Meteora (2003) dbx, Drawmer, Empirical Labs, Manley, Neve, Teletronix, sold 16 million (even though it reached higher up the charts TubeTech and Urei; EQs by API, Avalon, GML, Millennia, than its predecessor); next up was Minutes to Midnight Motown and Pultec; and reverbs by AMS, Eventide, Lexicon (2007) with 8 million sales, again despite it reaching No. 1 and TC Electronic. He prides himself in combining these virtually everywhere; and the fourth album, A !ousand old-fashioned goodies with the best that ProTools has to Suns (2010), sold ‘only’ 1.7 million, while enjoying No. 1 o!er. It’s an approach that allows Marroquin to work with a spots in the US, Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK and wide variety of artists and musical styles. elsewhere. “In the past I was more geared towards mixing pop, but "ese #gures are staggering and, given they’re pretty now I may be mixing John Mayer one day, and the next day universal, are a clear indication of the crisis that’s engulfed it could be Justin Bieber,” said Marroquin. “So I pay more the music industry, rather than a sign of decreasing attention to the style of music that I mix, the vibe of each popularity of Linkin Park. With a relatively throwaway song, and what kind of audience it will appeal to. If it’s a consumer approach to music that’s focused on trillions of John Mayer project that doesn’t have to be super-limited single tracks available at the click of a button, parking at the and radio friendly, I’ll use more outboard and get more of a top spot is harder than ever. One of the silver linings behind sense of width, depth and warmth. If a very pop-sounding this huge dark cloud is that what technology taketh away, it mix is required, I may not want to warm it up and squeeze it also giveth, and the arrival of the DAW has made it possible some more, using more plug-ins and a limiter like the Waves to record music at a fraction of what it cost in the past. L1. Digital brings its own excitement. Sometimes pop mixes While this sadly has decimated the studio industry, it also require an in-your-face crunched sound rather than a lot of continues to be a godsend for those recording on a budget, depth. But I will never mix something completely in the box. which is virtually everyone these days. In this scenario, “When I #rst started working in this room, there was an SSL the role of the mixer has become increasingly important, G-series, and then we had a J, and seven years ago we moved to the point that the music industry now has a number of to the K. It sounds great, with a nice punch, and it’s very star mixers with clout and a reputation that’s akin to that versatile. A&er 20 years in the business, 90 percent of the

AT !# time I still monitor through my Yamaha NS10s “I wasn’t given any brief for the shoot-out, but a mix by working on the drums, even if there are with Bryston ampli#ers. I also have Augspurger a&erwards I met the guys, and we spent some no drums in the session. What I mean is that I main monitors, and once in a while I listen to more time on Burn It Down, because it was always start with getting the groove right. Once my KRK E8s, which are like desktop speakers. going to be the single. "ey’d also made small I have the groove, everything else becomes a "e SSL is my main mix tool. Every single thing changes to the arrangement a&er I #rst mixed it. little easier. "en I’ll bring in the bass, which in I do goes through the desk. I may be old school My initial mix had taken a couple of days, and this song is a synth bass. Once I’m happy with in that I prefer to mix on a desk, but I also use a I recalled it and did some revisions. I had the the groove, I’ll bring in the vocals to make sure hybrid of analogue outboard and digital so&ware. band, Rick Rubin and Rob Cavallo — all pretty they feel good against the drums. I may not EQ "is means that about half of my e!ects come strong personalities — in the room at the same the vocals or look in great detail at them, but I’ll from so&ware and the other half from hardware. time. If I’d really thought about it, it would have make sure the vibe is the way I like it. A&er that Although plug-ins have become better over the been a little intimidating! Doing that song took I’ll add the guitars and then the keyboards, and last three years, I still #nd the sound lacks depth the longest, as we all wanted to make sure it was once I have them sorted, I bring the vocals back when it remains in the box. So I continue laying radio-friendly, and that the sound and vibe were in. At this point I focus on the choruses, I really things out on my SSL, which has wonderfully right. "at was a collective e!ort, and the aim want them to explode. I loop the choruses and smooth top end and an amazing low end. was to mix it with big choruses, and bring out the make sure they feel as big as possible, using EQ, rhythm section, which almost has a dance feel compression, levels, and so on. A&er that I work DEFINING A SOUND to it. One thing that we also worked on together on the verses as well, and make sure they sit in Marroquin mixed the entire Linkin Park project were the dynamics, making sure the choruses the right place relative to the choruses. at his room in Larrabee Studios, including the jumped out at you when they came in. two songs that he mixed for the shoot-out. “My “I always listen to a rough mix when I start work approach was pretty much to imagine how I, as “In some ways this song provided a blueprint for on a session, preferably right before I begin a music fan, would like to hear Linkin Park in the album, but at the same time the approach was mixing a song. "is usually gives me a pretty 2012,” he recalled. “I can’t reinvent them or give for every song to have its own identity. "ere’s good idea of where the artist and producer want them a di!erent sound, but I felt that in 2012 a song called Victimise, which is really raw and to go. "e session will normally sound more or they needed an aggressive sound with balls, hard, a song called Powerless that’s almost like a less like the rough mix, with levels and plug-ins with a very modern-sounding rhythm section. power ballad, and a song called Castle Of Glass that were used in place, and I’ll #rst play with the I didn’t want it to be a hip-hop rhythm section, that has a folk melody. "e idea was to give each levels and plug-ins that I’ve been given. I listen but I also didn’t want it to sound like straight-up song its own space, and then the challenge was to for things I want to change and I start tweaking. rock. "ere had to be aggression in the drums, connect all the dots and make sure the album as Everybody has the same plug-ins, so they are of bass and vocal, and presence in the overall sound a whole was cohesive, because it’s easy to mix 10 good enough quality sonically, and if somebody image. I always put a lot of emphasis on the completely di!erent-sounding songs.” adds EQ or an e!ect I take that as part of the production. In short, I start with what I’m given, vocals, in this case Chester [Bennington] and WHERE TO BEGIN Mike [Shinoda]. It was always about them, the and then build from there. I’ll generally tweak Moving on to the speci#cs of his approach to rhythm section and the wall of guitars. every single plug-in that was already on the mixing in general and his mix of Burn It Down session, and add others that I think are necessary, in particular, Marroquin explains, “I always start

Marroquin's recall notes for Burn It Down

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Given that Marroquin is one of the world’s top mixers, you won’t be successful, because you have to have it’s not surprising he has featured in the Mix With a perfect balance. Many engineers forget the right The Masters project, a series of masterclasses that side, they forget that it’s about the emotion. Because take place in a large residential studio in the south we are engineers we tend to think that it’s about the of France. It also features other star mixers like Al equipment, but you have to change that idea: it’s about Schmitt, Tchad Blake, Tony Maserati, Chris Lord-Alge, how you use the equipment. And you may not even Tom Elmhirst, and Joe Chiccarelli. Marroquin was over use it. in France last July for two one-week masterclasses “The job of a mixer is to find the essence of a song and elaborated on some of the main issues that he and bring that out. Whatever tools we use, and we addressed. all use the same tools, it’s all about finding the true, “For the first day of each week we didn’t go into the pure essence of a song and bring it to a new level. You studio, but instead I took the guys outside and told have to ask yourself how a song makes you feel and them that to become a successful engineer or mixer why does it make you feel in a certain way. With every or producer, one’s mind has to be right. It has nothing change you make you have to ask: does it make me STUDIOPATCH SERIES to do with the equipment we’re using, it is in your feel better, or not? If you add !%%Hz to the kick drum, BANTAM / TT AUDIO PATCHBAYS mind. There’s simple stuff, like having a good attitude. or if you add a delay, what emotion does it give? You A lot of these younger guys have been sitting alone at need to train your ears and your heart to be able to StudioPatch® Series Bantam/TT home with a DAW for years and never talk to anybody. identify that. It’s important to do a lot of ear training They have no idea that there is a whole protocol that as a mixer. We would sit for at least half an hour Patchbays utilize Switchcraft’s EZ Norm comes with being successful and dealing with artists every day and listen to mixes, other people’s mixes, technology, allowing the signal flow of and the business in general. There’s a studio etiquette my mixes, their mixes, and analysed how things were each channel to be instantly modified and you need people skills. There’s an art to being done, how each mix felt. That’s part of mix practice. from the front of the patchbay using a standard screwdriver. All StudioPatch® able to deal with artists’ egos and sensitive issues. “Imagine '% guitar players all playing the same model “The guys, and they were all guys, that came to these guitar, why will they all sound different and why will Series Bantam/TT patchbays feature seminars were good, but they hit a brick wall and one sound so much better than the other nine? It user programmable grounds with easy they were really searching for what they could do obviously comes from his mind and heart and the way customization. to improve. They often think it’s about techniques, he technically plays that guitar. The guitar is the least but it’s about much more than that. All the guys had important ingredient. It’s the same for a mixer and his started playing music, so that’s their initial love. But if gear. We had a beautiful Neve ""R there, and I have you decide to become an engineer you are obviously, my SSL, but I told them that my philosophy is to take as the word suggests, going into a technical field. a (!-channel Mackie and one compressor and a pair Now, engineers normally are left-brain thinkers, of NS'%s, and let’s create an incredible mix. It’s not meaning they’re technical people. In order to be the equipment but what you do with it that makes you. an engineer you have to have that. But for me, as a Your job is to find an emotional connection with the mixer, that side is also my worst enemy. You have to song, and trust your own feelings, and when you do, Phone : 02 9482 1944 train yourself to be able to think $%& left brain and chances are that other people will get it too.” Email : [email protected] $%& right brain. If you have more of one or the other Website : www.clarke.com.au/switchcraft

AT $' and I’ll then move on to the outboard. I’m super GUITARS & KEYBOARDS A BLURRY MIX fast with my outboard because it’s hardwired into “"e guitars and keyboards were more or less “Engineering, mixing and mastering are overlapping my desk, in fact, faster than with plug-ins. If I treated as one unit. "ere was no great distinction more and more. Engineers now have all the mix tools, want to apply outboard reverb, I know where it in working with them. Several of the tracks were so the tracks I get are kind of premixed, and because is and only have to press one button to activate sent to the same outboard to provide a bit of glue. mixers now also have access to mastering tools, as a it. Opening a plug-in and waiting for it to load A Roland Gaia [‘2.02.1’ on the Mixer view] is mixer today you are kind of pre-mastering. The lines have become blurred. The loudness wars do bother me and then applying it to a track and varying its the hook synth you hear right at the beginning. though, and often make my job much more difficult. parameters o&en takes longer! I call that a focal point, and for me these are easy It’s a challenge for professional mixers, because many to mix in. Once the rhythm is perfect, you can DRUMS & BASS of the rough mixes come in incredibly loud, and you always add focal points, because their character “"e drums on Burn It Down consist of three have to compete with that, no matter what we think will shine through. Rob Cavallo in particular of it. You can’t come in with a mix that’s $dB less loud loops, two kicks, a snare, three hi-hats, overheads wanted to make sure this synth hook sounded because people automatically assume it’s less good. If and #ve crash tracks. "ere are many instances you play someone the same mix twice, and the second right, and we ended up adding some distortion of the Digidesign EQ [EQ1B, EQ4B, etc], which time it’s 'dB louder, he’ll think that the second mix is to it, to make sure it had more of a progressive Mike Shinoda put there — he loves the Digi EQ. better, even though it’s the same mix! So your volume dance rock %avour. I used only outboard on it, can’t be lower than that of the rough mix. But that "ere’s also the Avid Focusrite D3 compressor/ in particular the Fairchild compressor, and a bit makes it really hard to create a true high fidelity mix. limiter on Loop 1, kik2, and the snare that were of reverb, as well as my Strymon Brigadier delay It’s a Catch-((. You have to be like a chemist, add a already on the session. Mike also put the Lo-Fi on little bit of this and a little bit of that, and still make pedal, which is really cool. "e main synths are the snare — he loves that too. "e snare was the sure you have that ‘bang!’ effect without killing the all going to the Fairchild, and the Gaia synths had most challenging aspect of the drums to mix. It dynamics of the song. It’s not easy to do. parallel compression from the Retro Sta-Level. was a very interesting snare sound, but it had to “Of course, people have always tried to make their "ere’s also an API 2500 compressor on the heavy mixes as loud as possible. I heard an interview with sound dirtier, hence the Lo-Fi. Two of the crash guitars. Most synth and guitar tracks also had SSL [mastering engineer] Bernie Grundman recently, and tracks have the Waves PS22 widener on them desk compression and EQ. he said that when he was mastering Michael Jackson’s and there’s also a Waves L2 on one to add some Thriller in '#"(, they were doing everything they could to make it as loud as possible. The problem is rock crunch. "e outboard was an Avalon 2044 “On the plug-in front there are, again, several that nowadays everyone uses DAWs with limiting compressor going into a Neve 1073 EQ on the instances of the Digi EQ, plus the DVerb on the plug-ins, and is trying to make things as loud as kick and the snare, which came up on Channels second Gaia synth [Gaia 02.1 on the Mixer view], possible, and doing it incorrectly. It takes just a tiny 4, 5, & 6 on the board. I also added parallel the MetaFlanger and Focusrite D2 on the electric slide on the fader of a plug-in to make things loud, piano, a D-Verb on one electric guitar and there and destroy the dynamics of the music. Because of compression on all the drums, using the Neve MP) and downloading there are many people in the 33690 compressor and the Pultec EPQ-1A, to add were delays from the EchoFarm on two of the industry who don’t seem to care about the sonics more punch. "e ["ermionic] Culture Vulture synth sounds. "ere are also three noise loops, anymore. But I prefer to consider the glass half full, was automated to become active in the choruses that all came up on Channels 41&42 on the board; because music is inspiring and people want that on all the drums and the bass. In the section but you can barely hear them in the track. One listening experience of hearing high quality music, and when they do get it, it’s like a drug: you want where Mike raps, the rhythm section completely of them has the Lo-Fi, two of them have the Digi to keep duplicating that experience. There are still changes. It goes to an entirely di!erent loop and EQ and all three have the PS22 Widener. Finally, enough people who know that if they get it right and I again wanted to make sure that the rhythm was there are the Hook Key Stabs, which came up on deliver a high quality song that is well recorded and tight and secure. One of the biggest challenges Channels 43&44, that had the Focusrite D3 plug- well mixed, kids are going to be really inspired and in and a Digi EQ plus a reverb, and #ve Sound FX connect with an artist on a much deeper level, rather was making sure these di!erent sections all tie than it just being throwaway cheap bubble-gum stuff. together. As for the bass, an [Access] Indigo synth tracks, which had quite a few plug-ins on them. The increases in broadband speeds and hard disk provides the bass track, and it has a Sansamp It’s all just vibey stu! that in general needed lots of space mean that higher resolutions are commercially plug-in and a Digi EQ, plus the 33690/Pultec delays and reverbs, coming from the MetaFlanger, feasible, and so there is a lot of talk now at the chain I mentioned above.” Air Reverb, SansAmp, EchoFarm and D-Verb. labels of fidelity getting better again. I think that they’re right. From here the quality of audio will only All sound e!ects channels came up on Channels improve.” 45&46 on the board.”

AT $( DRAWING OUT CHESTER’S VOCALS whatever frequencies I want to remove. But I don’t “"ere are two leads vocals, Chester’s, which cut these frequencies, instead I boost them +12dB consisted of two ProTools tracks that both came with a very narrow bandwidth. "ey are most o&en up on desk Channel 27, and Mike’s, which was around 6-7kHz, where most of the ‘esses’ happen. So on one ProTools track that came up on Channel Channel 1 accentuates what I’m trying to take away! 28. Chester’s backing vocals were on 31-34 and I take this channel o! the stereo bus, so you won’t Mike’s doubles at 29&30. Chester’s vocals have hear it in the mix. the Digi EQ and Medium Delay, as well as the “I then press the Link button to link channel one to Waves R Compressor. On the board my signal Channel 2 and I engage the compressor on Channel chain on his voice was the TubeTech CL1B EQ 2. What happens is that the more I’m bringing up going into the Avalon 2055 compressor and Channel 1, the more the compressor on Channel 2 then the dbx 902 de-esser. I also applied a lot of ducks the frequencies I don’t want on that channel. parallel compression with the Distressor on the My Channel 1 fader is in e!ect my threshold. "is is vocals, sometimes using a Urei 1176. "ere were why I’ve taken out the bass frequencies on Channel similar e!ects on Mike’s vocals. I also printed 1, because I don’t want them to disappear in Chester’s lead vocals to an Ampex ATR-102 with Channel 2. But with side-chaining, the frequencies one-inch tape for a tape delay e!ect, and brought you’re accentuating in your side-chain are ducked in Digital brings“ its own it back into the session, which is why it has the the other channel. People #nd this technique hard Time Delay plug-in on it. In addition, I have the excitement. Sometimes to understand; even the people at SSL don’t quite Brigadier pedal on some backing vocals, and understand why it works! But it does. If you’d try to pop mixes require an I set up a reverb and two delay e!ect tracks in simply EQ to remove your ‘esses’ you’d take all the ProTools, using the Reverb One and Waves Super in-your-face crunched life and presence out of the vocal. But de-essing with Tap delay. I had these e!ects mainly on the vocals. sound rather than a lot of this technique retains the personality of the singer. “"e rest was SSL EQ and compression, and also Finally, I put an Avid Impact limiter on the stereo depth. But I will never mix the AMS DMX15-80S as a harmoniser and the mix, I used the SSL compressor on the board, and something completely in AMS RMX16 and Lexicon 480L for reverb, plus also had the Hybrid Brainworx was my EQ on the the Lexicon PCM42 for delays. By the way, I ALSO stereo bus.” the box. USED AN SSL SIDE-CHAIN AS A DE-ESSER. THE DBX 902 IS QUALITY WINS OUT IN THE END? GREAT, BUT IT ONLY TAKES AWAY ONE FREQUENCY. ON THE Whether the mix shoot-out and the added value BOARD I CAN CREATE A SIDE-CHAIN THAT ALSO GRABS from Marroquin’s mix work and ‘bang!’ e!ect will OTHER FREQUENCIES. IT’S THE BEST-SOUNDING DE-ESSING translate into signi#cantly increased commercial PROCESS I KNOW OF AND IT’S BASED ON AN OLD TRICK success for Living !ings remains to be seen, but THAT I PICKED UP FROM ENGINEER BARNEY PERKINS. I ” so far the signs are good, with the album having route the vocal signal to two separate channels on reached the top spot in well over a dozen countries, the SSL right next to each other. "e #rst channel including the US, the UK, New Zealand and is my side-chain and the second channel is my Germany, and a No. 2 placing in another dozen actual vocal channel. On Channel 1 I’ll set the SSL nations, amongst them Australia, France, compressor to a fast attack and I’ll also engage and Japan. a high-pass #lter and do extreme EQ-ing of

Burn It Down session

AT $!