{"id":1471,"date":"2010-09-12T18:00:42","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T01:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=1471"},"modified":"2010-09-12T18:01:35","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T01:01:35","slug":"al-schmitt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/09\/al-schmitt\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Schmitt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Al Schmitt<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Five decades of sterling productions and still going strong<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cLegendary\u201d is a term that is often bandied about\u00a0too freely. But what other word could you use to describe\u00a0a man whose first recording session was for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and whose work continues to dominate the charts to\u00a0this very day?<\/p>\n

After more than five decades behind the board, Al Schmitt is universally acknowledged as one of the absolute masters of his trade. He got his start at age 6, spending time at the New York City recording studio owned by his uncle, and began his own engineering career in the 1950s as apprentice to the great Tom Dowd. Since then he has produced, engineered, and\/or mixed more than 150 gold and platinum records for an incredibly wide range of artists: from Henry Mancini to Steely Dan (he helped engineer the duo\u2019s famously immaculate Aja<\/em>), from Ray Charles to Natalie Cole, from Frank Sinatra to Jefferson Airplane (at one point he was recording the psychedelic Airplane at night and old-school crooner Eddie\u00a0Fisher in the mornings), from Elvis Presley to Josh Groban and from Barbra Streisand to Diana Krall.<\/p>\n

Clearly, he has no intention of slowing down now. Winner of a staggering 19 Grammys, Schmitt was nominated just this year for his work on French chanteuse Melody Gardot\u2019s critically acclaimed My One and Only Thrill<\/em>. He is as busy as ever, having just finished mixing a live TV special for Gardot and recording songs for a new Josh Groban album. \u201cI have to say, he\u2019s one of the nicest artists I\u2019ve ever worked with,\u201d Schmitt says of Groban. \u201cHe\u2019s just a joy. If everybody was like him, my life would be a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his fame and recognition, he remains refreshingly down-to-earth, speaking with a distinct Brooklyn accent that he\u2019s managed to hang onto despite being based in Los Angeles for more than 40 years. We spoke with Schmitt about some of the lessons he\u2019s learned from his vast experience behind the board\u00a0and the continuing evolution of his recording philosophy.<\/p>\n

How did you come to work on Melody Gardot\u2019s My One and Only Thrill<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got a call from Steve Macklam, who is Diana Krall\u2019s manager and also manages Melody. He explained that she was unhappy with the mixes of her latest album and asked me to take a shot at mixing a few songs as a favor to him. We went into the studio, and as soon as we loaded the data from her hard drives it became apparent what the problem was: There were a million plug-ins being used all over the place. There were two or three EQs on every track, filters, compressors, de-essers, you name it. There was more crap on everything than I\u2019ve ever seen in my life\u2014and as a result it really sounded weird. They had also mixed in the box [mixing inside recording software<\/em>], which I still am not convinced is the way to go. So I started by taking everything off every track and began mixing it like I would a normal album\u2014breaking out the tracks to an analog desk and using only analog outboard gear. Suddenly it started sounding just fine, because the original engineer\u2014a guy by the name of Helik Hadar, who I\u2019ve never met\u2014actually did a pretty good job recording the instruments and vocals. At that point, Melody, who was sitting right next to me the whole time, began totally freaking out about how good it was. At 6 the next morning she called asking me to mix the rest of the album. Then I brought it to Doug Sax for mastering, who did his usual impeccable job. I have to say as good as it ended up sounding, I was really surprised it was nominated by the Grammy people for Best Engineered Album [Non-Classical]. From my point of view, it was really just a matter of taking all the crap off and putting it back to where everything sounded natural again. The problem with those original mixes was simply that things didn\u2019t sound real\u2014not even her voice, and Melody has a beautiful singing voice.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a classic case of less <\/strong>is more<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Absolutely. It seemed to me that they used all those plug-ins simply because Pro Tools gives you all those options. As we started taking them off, it was like removing layers of gauze and everything started sounding better and better. Plus I don\u2019t think that anything mixed in the box sounds as good as things that are mixed through an analog console.<\/p>\n

Was Melody very involved in the <\/strong>the mixes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

She was here in the studio with me the whole time and let me know when she was happy or\u00a0unhappy with something. She was a pleasure to work with, and I think she\u2019s going to be a huge star. She\u2019s already big in Europe, and it\u2019s starting to happen for her here, too.<\/p>\n

I understand she has hypersensitive hearing due to a car accident she suffered in 2003<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Yeah, and she has to wear dark glasses all the time because she\u2019s also sensitive to light. But the hearing thing wasn\u2019t a problem because I don\u2019t mix loud in the studio anyway.<\/p>\n

From an engineer\u2019s viewpoint, how does Melody\u2019s voice compare with Diana Krall\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Diana has got more of an intimate sound but Melody can really belt it out, and she hardly ever sings out of tune, which is amazing. It\u2019s as if she has a built-in Auto-Tune. Plus, she wrote all the songs on her album, apart from one cover: \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow.\u201d I wrote that one. (laughs<\/em>)<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do you feel about being nominated for a \u201cBest Engineered\u201d Grammy for an album that you <\/strong>only mixed and didn\u2019t record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s OK, I guess. On the other hand, there are lots of albums nominated in that category that have tons of engineers. How much could each of those engineers have contributed? It\u2019s hard to say. I guess I\u2019d have more of a problem with it if I\u2019d been nominated along with eight other engineers. [laughs<\/em>] But My One and Only Thrill<\/em> is a great album, and I guess the proof is in the pudding. I do have to say though that I was surprised that Diana Krall\u2019s Quiet Nights<\/em>, which I mixed and engineered, didn\u2019t get\u00a0nominated, because that\u2019s a beautiful-sounding record too. I thought if I was going to get any nomination this year, it would have been for that album, or for Willie Nelson\u2019s American Classic<\/em>. But I guess no Willie Nelson album is ever going to be nominated for Best Engineered Album, is it? (laughs<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Do you ever use plug-ins at all, <\/strong>during either recording or mixing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, other than maybe to tune a word here and there. I have my own racks of analog gear that I use all the time. I just think they sound a lot better than any of the plug-ins out there.<\/p>\n

So you pretty much just use <\/strong>Pro Tools as a tape machine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Exactly. I love its convenience\u2014it\u2019s great when you need to move something or cut and paste\u2014but that\u2019s pretty much it.<\/p>\n

Would you still be recording <\/strong>on analog tape today if <\/strong>budget allowed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No, because of the convenience factor. The quality of digital today is so good\u2014I always record at 96k and mix at 192k\u2014that there\u2019s really no advantage to going back to analog. I find that working in digital makes everything happen faster\u2014you can grab a piano solo from one take and fly it into another take in just a minute or two, instead of the long involved procedure if you were using tape. And if you\u2019ve got a great take but there\u2019s just a couple of spots where the bass and the bass drum aren\u2019t hitting exactly together, you can just move one of them slightly to get them to lock together<\/p>\n

perfectly. And it just takes a second or two. There are just so many benefits to recording digitally. It\u2019s really just the plug-ins that I don\u2019t like, and I would never mix in the box.<\/p>\n

What media do you mix to?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mix to half-inch analog tape as well as to a Tascam DV-RA1000 at 192k digitally, through a custom converter made by a friend of [mastering engineer] Doug Sax. I take both to the mastering room and we listen to them both. Sometimes we end up using the tape and sometimes we use the 192. There\u2019s no real rhyme or reason to which one sounds better; it varies from track to track.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re a proponent of getting sounds from mic placement rather than from EQ, but do you use very little EQ on your mixes too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, I almost try to turn it off. If you look over my shoulder as I\u2019m mixing, you\u2019ll see very few EQs.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What about dynamic processing like compression or limiting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mostly do hand limiting, especially on\u00a0vocals, where I\u2019ll simply ride the fader. When I do use a limiter or a compressor, it\u2019ll\u00a0mostly be for an effect. Maybe I\u2019ll squash the hell out of a sound if I\u2019m looking for a certain effect on it, but in general I use very little compression or limiting. If a compressor is affecting 2 or 3 dB, for me, that\u2019s an awful lot.<\/p>\n

Can bad engineering obscure <\/strong>a good song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sure it can. But the reverse is true, too: Really good engineering can make a mediocre song or artist sound pretty\u00a0damn good. I\u2019ve had that happen. You\u2019ll say, \u201cWow, this is great,\u201d and then as you listen further you realize that it\u2019s not so great\u2014it was just a good mix with good effects.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your general approach <\/strong>to recording vocals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to use a good windscreen, certainly, and you\u2019ve got to make sure\u00a0that the artist isn\u2019t swallowing the mic. That\u2019s one mistake that lots of singers make\u2014they get too close to the mic, and the diaphragm just doesn\u2019t work right when you\u2019re that close. Plus, there\u2019s\u00a0the proximity effect. My recommendation is that you stand at the mic, then stick your thumb to your nose and then spread your fingers out. The singer shouldn\u2019t be any closer to the mic than that.<\/p>\n

Is mic placement the same whether you\u2019re working with an expensive or inexpensive microphone?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will be pretty much the same, but even with real expensive microphones, no two microphones sound exactly alike. I don\u2019t care what anybody tells you. So, I would start\u00a0with the same placement, but that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m going to leave it that way. And one of the best judges of that will be the musicians themselves\u2014they can usually give you a good idea of where the best place is for the sound that their instrument is putting out, so you should start there. In fact, the best friend an engineer has in the studio is the musician. You\u2019ve got to do whatever you can to make his life easier, because then he\u2019s going to make your life easier. The more comfortable the musicians are, the better they play, and the easier it is to make good-sounding records.<\/p>\n

By Howard Massey<\/p>\n

Jan\/Feb 2010 Issue of <\/span>M Music & Musicians<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Al Schmitt Five decades of sterling productions and still going strong \u201cLegendary\u201d is a term that is often bandied about\u00a0too freely. But what other word could you use to describe\u00a0a man whose first recording session was for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and whose work continues to dominate the charts to\u00a0this very day? After more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[736,1007,1006,1011,996,1008,1004,998,1012,32,1002,1005,1000,1001,806,1009,999,1003,1010,997],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1471"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1475,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1471\/revisions\/1475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}