CMI & Linn The original sampler reborn & godfather of the drum machine MiX-off Linkin Park Shops Album to World’s Best Solid Gold London Olympics Ceremony Sound MY O MEYER ! Hamer Hall Refit PRO !: MINI MIDAS, MAX IMPACT TANNOY VPX: LAB"POWERED CONTENDERS SUBSCRIBE & WIN AFFORDABLE RETRO GEAR THE TASTY !%&'' TEST, ISSUE !" 90 TUBE & MONITOR BUNDLE AU !".#$(inc gst) NZ !#.#$(inc gst) File Under ‘Music’ FEATURE 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.