ISSUE #25 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #25 MMUSICMAG.COM GEAR But analog gear has issues. Can you get analog sound without JOYCE: It craps out. I have a couple of great analog gear? old analog Telefunken mic preamps that I JOYCE: If you’re looking for a specific sound, regularly have to send off for six months while software plug-ins can be useful tools to some guy searches for an unknown tube to lean on. Universal Audio makes killer digital repair them. Things break down, hum, buzz, emulations of Ampex and Studer analog tape and depending on what they’re built for they machines. I also use the PSP Vintage Warmer. don’t like super hot sound levels which can LEWIS: A lot of companies are also making be a problem. tape saturation plug-ins right now. Steve LEWIS: If you need to make changes on Massey’s TapeHead is awesome, and a mix you have to dial all of that gear up companies like SoundToys and DUY make exactly how it was, and that can take a lot good ones, too. of time. For a lot of the mixes I’ve worked on many have to approve it, so there are Do you need a lot of analog gear to massive amounts of recalls. And once the make a great record? mix is approved, you might still need to LEWIS: You can make a great recording with recall the song months later to do alternate anything, and it doesn’t need to be vintage versions. On Rihanna’s “What’s My Name?” Usher or analog. Producers need to focus not just we had a finished track and a month later, the on gear, but on getting a good tracking and producers wanted to put Drake on a verse, rehearsed, ready to go, and comfortable mixing environment and making sure that so we had to open up everything exactly as recording in a live situation, I prefer tape. their rooms are treated properly. Having we closed it. Using Pro Tools is a huge help Though after, I dump the tracks into Pro Tools good analog-to-digital convertors is also in situations like that. and do most of my overdubs and editing in the really important when it comes to tracking JOYCE: It takes work to deal and listening back. with vintage analog gear but it JOYCE: I’ve worked on some can be worth it. I have a couple great records back in the day of old Universal Audio 1176 ‘There will always be room for just using little Roland VS-880s amps that you just can’t beat. [standalone digital recorders]. Walid Azami, Usher Walid They improved them over the a bunch of humans to record About 80 percent of Patty years, but the old ones sound analog sound together.’ Griffin’s Flaming Red was done magical and have their own that way. We put it on tape unique character. No plug-ins or —Jay Joyce later, but the general feel was other preamps sound like them. immediate. It didn’t matter what format we recorded on—the music What if you’re working digitally? box. I recorded Cage the Elephant, the Wild was magical. If you’re going to invest in one JOYCE: When I have to deal with a lot of Feathers and Sleeper Agent straight to tape. thing, I would recommend making sure you recalls, I use a hybrid world of both digital LEWIS: Even if I don’t track to analog tape, have good analog mic preamps. Universal and analog. I mix down everything through I very often print my final mixes to half-inch Audio and Retro make great ones. When an analog console and even when I’m using tape using Ampex ATR-102 or Studer A80 I worked with Eric Church on Chief, we As musicians flock to the warm sound of analog, Pro Tools, I cut through an MCI JH24 analog tape machines. I did that for the Wood recorded in Pro Tools but went through tape machine and use its transformers to Brothers and for Midi Matilda. Neve, Telefunken, Altec analog gear—that what are the best recording choices for you? warm up the sound. All my mixing is done helped get the sound hairy and warm. through analog channels before it goes back into the computer. What’s the future of analog? Years ago even the most intrepid musicians only analog can deliver without sacrificing that’s forgiving and makes listening a more LEWIS: I use a hybrid setup as well—and LEWIS: Analog outboard gear like couldn’t make an album without renting a convenience of the digital world—or breaking pleasant ride. It makes all the pieces of a one of the big things I lean on to warm up compressors and preamps will always be pro recording studio and all the pricey yet the bank? record hold together. a Pro Tools mix is a summing mixer. SSL, around, but the days of the multitrack analog required accoutrement that went with it. For help, we turned to Jay Joyce and Dangerous, Neve and API make great ones. tape deck are numbered, mostly because Today the process is fast, easy and cheap— Damien Lewis. Joyce is a Grammy-winning What makes it sound so good? If you’re bouncing 32 tracks down into a parts are becoming less and less available anyone with a laptop and a few accessories Nashville producer and multi-instrumentalist LEWIS: People describe analog sound final mix, Pro Tools will send out each track and the people who know how to tech can create an album in a bedroom. Digital who has crafted albums for artists like as warm or saturated, and a lot of that is individually and the summing mixer combines those machines are becoming fewer. Plus, technology has changed everything. Emmylou Harris, Cage the Elephant, because you’re running a signal through all of your stems in the analog world, rather analog tape is getting harder to find and Or has it? Even with the ease, portability Sleeper Agent and Eric Church. Lewis is transistors, power tubes and resistors—and than the digital world. It adds more space more expensive than ever. and versatility of digital recording, countless a Grammy-nominated engineer, mixer and it picks up noise along the way. It’s physical and definition to your final mix. JOYCE: To me, analog vs. digital is becoming musicians are returning to the analog world producer whose discography includes the electricity passing through components, less and less of an issue. There’s room for to make their records shine. The analog likes of Mariah Carey, Katy Perry, Quincy and that causes small amounts of harmonic Do you ever use tape? the kid making records in his bedroom using sound is back—and everyone wants a piece Jones and Usher. distortion and grit. Digital recording tends LEWIS: Very rarely—but Jack White and all of a laptop—but there will also always be room of the past. Is the vintage vibe of analog to sound very sharp and clean—even his artists on Third Man Records work entirely for a bunch of humans in a room recording processing right for your own recording What’s the appeal of analog? harsh—so people like to pass their sounds analog and I love everything that they do. analog sound together. Analog will always project? And if so, how do you capture the JOYCE: The best way I can describe it through analog circuitry to get that missing Daptone Records is doing the same thing. have its place. authenticity, tonality and cozy warmth that is that it gives the music a certain glue warmth and fuzz. JOYCE: If the band I’m producing is –Michael Gallant 54 Emmylou Harris 55

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