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How Did They Do It? How Producers Got Their Famous Sounds

Date:2020/2/20 16:37:03 Hits:

There are records and musicians that have made such an impact on the world that they have earned a legendary status. But how did they get there? What was it about these people and recordings that turned the world on its ear? Sometimes it’s as obvious as a virtuosic musician or a genre-defying style. But other times it’s the small changes and hyper-trained ear of the producers and engineers that worked on the album. What would the Beatles have become without Sir George Martin? Would rock ‘n’ roll have gotten off the ground without Sam Phillips? And imagine the massive hole that would be left if you took Rick Rubin out of the hip-hop, metal, or country scenes. From their own sonic fingerprint to the energy they can pull from the musicians, these unsung heroes often play a massive role in why these records became the classics that we know them as.

Here at Sweetwater, we’ve been incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to sit down with some of the most groundbreaking and respected producers and engineers in the industry. We’ve been able to pick their brains on technique and gear choices and to hear exciting stories about how certain albums came to be. Below are some of our favorite stories through the years — from what it’s like to work with Prince to pushing boundaries with the Count Basie Orchestra. These firsthand accounts pull back the curtain on how some legendary producers and engineers got the best out of their iconic clients.

Al Schmitt

Credits: Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Barbra Streisand, Paul McCartney, Steely Dan

Al Schmitt is recording-industry royalty. His list of top-tier credits, his numerous awards, and his 160 gold and platinum albums are why this mega-producer has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Here he discusses how a focus on the sound of the musician is all he needs to get a great sound.

“When I record or mix my own stuff, I don’t use EQ, and people are amazed all the time. They’re always calling my assistant saying, ‘Is that true?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, that’s true. You can come up to the board and look at it. There’s no EQ in.'”

According to Al, “We didn’t have equalizers when I started. So we learned to equalize with microphones. If we wanted something a little brighter, we used a brighter microphone. And we learned where to put microphones to change the sound of what we were capturing. If something had too much low end, you’d move the mic to a certain area to take away some of that.

And we learned to go outside and listen. Listen to what they’re [the musicians are] doing. Then you know what you have to capture. You don’t just put up a mic and walk into the control room. Make sure you hear the guy playing, so you know what he sounds like. Then go in and make sure you’re getting that.”

Bruce Swedien

Credits: Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, Jennifer Lopez, George Benson

When you spend a good part of your career working directly with Quincy Jones, you must be good at what you do. And as Bruce Swedien’s discography indicates, he’s a master. Here Swedien recalls the session with the Count Basie Orchestra that nearly cost him his career.

“When we rehearsed the piece of music, I found there was a trombone solo in the second verse that plays with Joe Williams’s vocal. And I figured, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to add some of myself to this fantastic recording?’ So I asked the trombone player, when it was time for his solo, to get up and tippy-toe over, and play his whole solo into the corner of the studio. Totally away from all the mics. I didn’t want any direct sound on that solo.

Now what happened that makes this situation a little unique was, I was showing the trombone player where to stand and where to play his solo, and I glanced back in the control room and noticed that one of the studio owners had stopped by the studio to see what was going on. When he could see what I was up to and what I was about to do, I could see his face redden and his jaw stiffen. He was obviously very upset with my scheme. He came back in the control room, came over to me. And he said, ‘Bruce, are you insane!? What on earth are you doing? You can’t record a musician off mic like that. It just isn’t done.’

And I couldn’t forget that moment in time if my life depended on it. He said, ‘Bruce, if this ridiculous idea of yours backfires, you’re fired!’ Of course, that didn’t scare me half as much as when he said, ‘It just isn’t done.’ What pile of horse pucky that is. Where would we be if we lived by those kind of statements?”

Sylvia Massy

Credits: Tool, Melvins, System Of A Down, Prince, Joe Satriani, Bobby Brown, Seal, Ziggy Marley, Elton John, Slayer

While Sylvia Massy made a great name for herself working with some of the most well-known hard rock bands of the last few decades, her work in pop, hip-hop, and R&B is equally impressive. For instance, here Massy offers an inside look into tracking with the notoriously driven Prince.

“Prince is a challenge to work with. He’s also one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever worked with. In the studio, it would just be he and I. I’d have everything set up for him that he could possibly want to use, because I didn’t want to have him standing, waiting. I’d have keyboards, every kind of guitar, every kind of guitar pedal, and everything plugged into the SSL, ready to go, so when he’d reach for something I’d have it in record. He’d start playing, and I wouldn’t miss anything. And also, I’d have a microphone hanging over the console.

When he was ready to sing, I would be kicked out. In general, he only sings on his own, alone in the room. So he would control the recording and layering of his vocals, and I would wait outside the door until he was finished. Then he’d be truckin’ out the front door, and he’d say, ‘Mix it.’ And I wouldn’t know when he was coming back. Sometimes, four hours later, I’d be done with the mix and waiting, and waiting until five o’clock in the morning or something. Finally, someone calls and says, ‘Yeah, he’s in Paris. You can go home now.’ It was exhausting and I learned a lot.

Chuck Ainlay

Credits: Mark Knopfler, George Strait, Waylon Jennings, Melissa Etheridge, Lionel Richie, Chris Botti, Taylor Swift, Sonny Landreth, Reba McEntire

Chuck Ainlay is a mainstay in the country music industry. But it’s his frequent collaborations with Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits that has garnered the most attention. Here he sheds some light about how being involved in the design process of Knopfler’s studio made a sonic impact on much of the legendary rocker’s solo material.

“Mark would come to Nashville, and we’d record as a band. But as we went on, we got to talking about building a studio. He ended up building, in my opinion, one of the best studios in the world. It’s called British Grove. It’s ridiculous. The acoustics, the technology in the room, the people, the vibe, I mean everything about it.

In designing Mark’s studio, we actually built it to where the studio is a large space in and of itself, then we have booths along two sides of it and a corner booth that are on rolling doors. You basically can open these booths entirely up and they become part of the main room. Or you can close them off, and you get really good isolation, the way these doors are manufactured. Or you can open them up partially and allow bleed. But it’s controlled bleed. And I really like bleed. I think bleed is part of the way you get dimensionality in a recording. It makes everything pull together.”

Andrew Scheps

Credits: Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, Zac Brown Band, Metallica, Jay-Z, Alanis Morissette, Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake

Andrew Scheps’s work permeates the airwaves. From his Album of the Year award with Adele’s 21 to his equally lauded work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you’ve definitely heard him. Here he remembers mixing Black Sabbath’s comeback album 13, and what it was like to help bring the band back to life.

“The main thing about that record was trying to recapture the spirit of their first four records. To recapture that spirit of them as a band, a real performance, but have it live in the world where records live now. So a lot of that record was cut live. A lot of the solos are the solos right off the floor while they cut the track. It was awesome — really, really simple, with very few overdubs. I mean, some of the songs had no overdubs.

It was really a sense of it being four guys in a room, and not being a slickly produced or put-together record. It’s a record as it needs to happen now. But hopefully you get the idea that it is four guys playing. And that’s what you’re hearing.

That’s always amazing. Pushing up faders like that. You push up the guitars and you’re like, ‘That sounds like Tony Iommi.’ Then you push up the vocal and it’s Sabbath. It’s not a band that sounds like Sabbath. It’s Sabbath. It’s pretty cool.”

Ross Hogarth

Credits: Bob Seger, Hall and Oates, Celine Dion, Motley Crue, John Mellencamp, Coal Chamber, John Fogerty, Van Halen

Ross Hogarth knows what rock ‘n’ roll should sound like. From metal heroes to roots rockers, he’s had his hand on the works of some legendary artists. Here he explains how he was one of the first producers to get the famously picky Eddie Van Halen to try a few new recording tricks.

“When I came into Eddie’s world, the only thing I inherently wanted to do was, if I could keep it as good, great, but if I could make it a little better somehow, that’s awesome! You don’t go into Eddie’s world and say, ‘Hey man, this is how I’m going to make it all better.’ You sort of assess it. Then you get to assimilate what he’s doing.

He’s a great engineer with great instincts, but he was only using [SM]57s. That’s all he had ever used. So, I come in and start using ribbon mics with him…. And ultimately, we came out of it with altering his recording setup. It was two heads, two cabs, two mics — a 57 and a Royer.

And he used to just use API EQs. One of the things that I did, because I love this Retro [Instruments] gear, I said, ‘Have you ever thought about a slightly different EQ on your guitar?’ He was like, ‘Yeah. Show me.’ So I did that with the Retro 2A3, Pultec-style EQs. I slapped that over his guitars and was able to wind out that frequency he likes, which is that 4K bite. But because of the warmth and fatness of the Pultec-style EQs with the tubes and the transformers, it made his guitars way bigger and way more friendly than he’d heard them before. He was like, ‘What’s that!?’ And I was like, ‘Well, that’s what I [did].'”

As you can see, there’s a lot more that goes into being an A-list producer than telling the band what to play. Being willing to buck the rules, help with studio design, and even knowing when to leave the track alone are all skills the best producers have used throughout their distinguished careers.

And these are just a small handful of inspiring, insightful, and valuable morsels you’ll find throughout inSync. Dig around. You’re sure to find answers to your questions, advice on gear and techniques, and much more. And best of all, it all comes right from the most respected names in the industry.

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