OTHER TECH

So, because of that, even today, probably 50% of the projects I do come into me on analog tape as well as digital. We usually get a choice, which is great, because we have many analog machines at Gateway - all kinds of things to choose from to help make the best sound in playback. And more and more, people are starting to send stems because they can never get the vocal right; so they'll send these stems, and we'll end up actually mixing in the mastering session. Which is a very bad idea because, first of all, I think the mixer should mix the record. And second, mixing is one head, and mastering is a totally different kind of another head - and it's very detrimental to have to stop in the middle of a mastering session and change your whole focus into a mix focus and then switch back into the mastering session.

ON THE BATTLE OVER LEVELS

VanDette: A lot of producers and mixers, even people like Andy Wallace, have called me up and said, "What am I gonna do when I present my mix to an A&R guy and he thinks it sucks?" That's incomprehensible to me, because Andy's one of my favorite mix engineers. But to an average A&R guy, if the level's low, the mix must suck - right? Andy has to put something on the stereo mix to present to an A&R guy so that he will go with the flow of the project.

Ludwig: To expand upon that, one of my favorite engineers is Tchad Blake, who has done Crowded House, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, just lots and lots of really great artists. I was mastering a new recording that he did, and it was already very compressed, much more than he'd ever done before. So I called him up and said, "Tchad, I used to be able to pick your mixes out of anybody's mixes because they had a certain musical quality. But this is so compressed, it sounds kinda like everybody else's mixes - there's nothing unique about it anymore." And he said, "Yeah, I've really been dealing with this." I spoke to another mix engineer who said that [legendary music executive] Clive Davis refuses to change his playback knob, and that he apparently routinely rejects people's great mixes because they're not as loud as the latest hit.

Gross: I've also heard that if a record is louder than he expects it, he'll reject that as well.

Pearlman: I'm glad I made all my records for Clive when he was younger!