Grammy award-winning mix engineer, Tony Maserati, has been integral to the formulation of the modern R&B/hip hop sound that dominates the charts today. Christopher Holder goes on a quest for big bottom. hen it comes to booty-shaking R&B or mixes with sprinkles of angel dust then best read on. Richter Scale-bothering hip hop, then few audio engineers have stronger credentials And the Winner is… than Tony Maserati. Back in the mid ‘90s When I gave Tony a bell at his home in upstate New York when he was hunkered down with Mary J I’d obviously caught him on a good day. To be expected, WBlige and Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs he drafted a sonic blueprint I guess. Only a few days earlier he’d won a ‘Best Contem- for hip hop/R&B that still exists today – gargantuan bass, porary R&B Album’ Grammy for his part in Beyoncé’s glossy highs, and dry upfront vocals. Tony’s credits roll out Dangerously in Love… and congratulations were definitely like a Playboy Mansion guest list – Beyoncé, The Black in order. Eyed Peas, Mary J Blige, R Kelly, Jennifer Lopez, James Christopher Holder: Tony, I gather congratulations are Brown, Ricky Martin, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac – and if you in order. want to know more about producing masonry-cracking Tony Maserati: Well thanks. Unfortunately I missed out 36 on the Best Engineer award – Nigel [Godrich] got that for the Radiohead album, while I missed out with The Black Eyed Peas album – but, I’m not complaining. It’s my first Grammy! CH: How does a Grammy change your life? TM: Good question. I don’t know yet. I don’t even own it yet. It hasn’t got here. CH: So you’re still dusting off the mantelpiece? TM: Well, my line is I’m going to get a big chain and put it around my neck. Why hide it in my house? I was talking to Michael Brauer who won one last year for Coldplay and he said for the first three months he just put it between the speakers on the console. I think I’ll just carry it around with me, put it on my car… make a hood ornament of it… CH: Tell me about the early days and how you saw the modern R&B/hip hop sound develop. It seems like Puff Daddy (P Diddy) played a significant part in the process? TM: He was a big part. I think we were a big part in each other’s lives in all honesty. He was just starting out at the time and I had been working in the biz for a while, doing a bunch of R&B things – Devante Swing, Jodeci and working with Heavy D and the Full Force production team. So when Puff came along I had all this experience and he was new at it. He knew what his audience wanted and I knew what the sound should be, so we made this thing happen together. It worked out great. We made some great, classic records. CH: What, sonically, set apart those early records as so revolutionary? TM: In basic terms, Puff wanted to make hip hop records with singing on them. And that was something no one was doing. R&B was one thing and rap was another. What Puffy did was bring the two together. He made Mary J sing over hip hop beats. That was a new thing. I was there because I had experience in R&B and rap as well and it was easy for me to put the two together. And I dug Puff because he pretty much let me do what I wanted. He had very specific ideas about where the parameters were as far as the drum sound and how hard it needed it to be, but he let me do my thing. Creatively it was fun. That second Mary record My Life was a big deal for me. I spent a lot of time and effort making that record and enjoyed every moment of it… I take that back, I’m sure that’s not true! I’m sure at the time I was pissed off about something or somebody! Probably mostly about scheduling. Puff’s notorious for his scheduling. He’d call me at two in the afternoon on my one day off – ‘can you come in tonight at eight?’. Then he’d fall asleep at the console or go to a [New York] Knicks game or something! CH: You’re two big credits at the moment are The Black Eyed Peas’ 'Elephunk' and Beyoncé’s 'Dangerously in Love'. Two quite different assignments I’d imagine? TM: Elephunk is a more aggressive record than a Beyoncé record. It’s a tough sound, in your face, and not a lot of subtlety to it. And that changed my approach to what technology I used to make it as well. I was very aggressive with my EQ’ing. I typically used anywhere from four to eight Tony Maserati at New York’s Hit Factory where he mixed Dangerously In Love using Studio 3’s SSL XL9000K. Neve EQs per mix as well as two GML 8200s [parametric it should be buried a little bit, or on top of the track. So I EQs] on every mix… and not always in the same way… threw the kitchen sink at that album. I’d be experimenting and shunting them around all over CH: Okay, let’s take the example of Will’s vocal. Can the place. Often I’d use two different EQs on the same you talk me through the signal chain? channel. TM: It’d start at the SSL console. I’d bring tracks up and CH: Why the extreme EQ barrage? get a feel for the song and generally pull away the things TM: The Black Eyed Peas have so much variation in that that were problematic to deal with. But for Will’s voice album – live drumming with drum machines; live bass with it wouldn’t be long before I turned my attention to the synth sub bass, etc – so I spent a lot of time mixing things computer and ProTools. First up, I’d put a [Waves] Renais- up to come up with a sound that was tight, hard and in your sance EQ on it. Generally I don’t do a lot of boosting with face, but clear. It took me time to find a suitable mixing style. the plug-in EQs, but I’d do a lot of cutting. So I spent a For example, Will’s [Will.i.am] voice goes on and on and lot of time nipping out the things that I found abrasive you’re never quite sure where to put it in the track – whether by boosting suspect frequencies and finding the spot that Tony Maserati & His Console of Choice CH: You’re on record as being a real fan of what order… whole group of things that comprise an idea the new SSL 9000XL, ‘K’ series console. It CH: So things have changed considerably over and, like anybody who plays an instrument, obviously suits your purposes? the years? the ideas come to you in your head before you TM: I’ve been using the SSL since the E Series, actually implement them. The K and J make it TM: Right now the SSL automation is seamless really easy for me. through the G Series and onwards. To be honest, – it’s quick… you can just grab stuff, it’s intuitive. I didn’t like the SSL until the 9000J came out. Of I love the J and K’s computer. The K is smoking. CH: Oddly enough, for someone who’s so course, I used SSLs prior to that and liked them We’ve never had a console with a computer that associated with R&B/hip hop, the SSL name well enough to make a lot of records on them but was actually fast – heaven forbid. A computer isn’t traditionally synonymous with fat bottom I just didn’t like VCAs at all. in a console whose speed was rivalling the end. But has that changed with the K? CH: Why? computers we use on our desktop? Never. The TM: I think it actually changed with J and has TM: I don’t know. To this day I don’t like the G fact the K has a speedy computer is almost a improved further with the K. They gave it a bit Series without moving fader automation. I just laugh. It’s intuitive, it’s fast, I can’t even tell ya… more headroom in the mix bus and the centre don’t. Some guys like my friend Jean Marie it’s like another instrument to me. section is a bit better overall. In that respect, Horvat just kicks on it… Mike Gass kicks on CH: And being able to work with ProTools in yeah, it is better. it… Tom Lord Alge kills the G… I just suck the centre section? My impression is that you can hit the K harder at it. I think maybe the accumulation of 72 or TM: That’s like the icing on the cake. These than you can hit the J. Whether that’s techni- so VCAs didn’t work with my ears and soon days if I come up with an effect or a sound cally true or not, I don’t know. I hit the K real as I started using moving fader automation in my head, I can visualise the patching, the hard, and it takes it, it takes it hard, and I like – both on the Neve VR and the G Series with routing on the console, I can see the automa- it.