In this control room you have a 24- channel Ward-Beck broadcast console, Studer 16-track and 2-track reel-to-reels, Radar and Pro Tools. What do you usually use for tracking?
Jace: It depends how big the project is. Some bands come in and want to limit themselves to the 16-track, so I've mixed entire projects on the Ward-Beck using outboard gear. Other bands that are doing something a little more complex will fill up the 16-track, and I'll dump it into the Radar. Some bands don't care about tape, so they'll go straight to Radar, and then we can mix in Pro Tools if they want. We want to make sure that we are always capable of doing whatever people need. If it's just a straight rock band with a couple of guitars and vocals then I can say, "Let's do it on the 16-track and mix on the console." For some of the more involved stuff, if they're going to be adding violins and they want to build up 40 tracks of stuff, we're going to have to mix in Pro Tools, though I know mixing on the console would probably result in a better product. If I can get the project down to 24 tracks, get it back on the Radar with all the edits done and then pass it through the console to the Studer 2-track, I will.
Dave: A lot of bands will come in and use the studio for tracking and then take the tracks home to mix, so a lot of the time mixing isn't even an issue.
J: It's actually a lot of fun for the bands to mix on the board. The shitty thing about mixing in Pro Tools is that people are sitting in the back of the room for hours, watching me draw stupid little lines. We don't have automation on this console, so when we're mixing on it everybody's right there helping with the mix, and they sort of feel like they've had part in it, like they've played their guitar or whatever one more time.
You have an enormous live room, especially considering the size of most tracking rooms in studios these days.
J: Our room is amazing for strings and horns.
It doesn't seem like you have any treatment on the walls.
J: The shape of the control room we built adjoining the live room means that by default, there are no parallel walls in the live room. Even if the walls were parallel it would be okay since the room is big enough.
D: Due to the fact that the room's not finished, there are gaping holes all over the place. There are lots of places for the sound to get lost. I think if we had all the doors in, we'd probably have to put in some kind of treatment.
Do you do a lot of live-off-the-floor recording?
J: Because our live room is so big, we do a lot of live tracking that some studios don't want to do. We do have to tell bands that if you want to record live-off- the-floor, what you're going to hear coming out of the monitors is pretty much how its going be, but we'll let them set up as they would if they were rehearsing. We'll put up baffles if there are any obvious problems.
D: I like to say to bands, "Go set up and make it sound how you want it to sound in the room", and just deal with the bleed for better or for worse, but make sure they're okay with that from the beginning. The funny thing is, they always say they are, but when it comes to mixing, they'll ask for me to do something with the kick, for example. But the bass will be louder than the kick in the kick mic, so I can't. I don't have too much room to maneuver. We just have to let it be sometimes, which I think sometimes gets you better results.
J: There was one project I did where the vocal mic actually became the basis for the whole mix because it was a really hot condenser mic, and when the singer wasn't singing, the whole band was in the mic. I couldn't just turn that off, so I built the mix around this room mic that he was using as a vocal mic. It was fun to mix because it was such a challenge.
I've noticed that the sound of the records coming out of this studio are fairly diverse. For example, there's a marked difference between the sound of Return to the Sea by Islands and Shut Up I Am Dreaming by Sunset Rubdown. Return to the Sea sounds unhyped, almost the opposite of the Sunset Rubdown record, which sounds like it's using a lot of compression and it's got a kind of midrange grit to it.
J: The Sunset Rubdown record was mixed by Spencer [Krug, singer for Sunset Rubdown].
D: He tracked it here and then took it home and mixed it in an afternoon or something. He called me after and said," You're gonna hate it, you're gonna hate my mix."
J: We tracked most of that live-off-the-floor and straight into the 16-track.
D: I bounced it onto Radar and he took those files home. The difference in sound between those two records probably has more to do with who mixed it. Mark Lawson mixed Return to the Sea and Spencer mixed Shut Up I Am Dreaming. They also both used their own gear to mix, so that probably accounts for a lot of the difference.
So the characteristic sound of those albums isn't necessarily a result of you making it sound that way. Do you attempt to get a neutral sound when you are tracking?
J: There are certain things that I like to do and prefer to do, but I'm not going to force my opinion on people. I want them to feel like they're making a record as opposed to me making a record and forcing them to have my sound.
So it's not like a Prince production.
J: Yeah exactly. [laughs] But you know, there are times when people come in and they'll say that they want me to put my stamp on it. I'm working with Steve Ramsay right now (the guitarist for Stars) on a project called Young Galaxy, and he's basically said "You can help me with the arrangements, and you can play on it if you want and I want you to build it in the way you would your own records." So this is kind of the first time I've been able to build a project from the ground up, and I'm making the decisions as far as sound goes. He obviously has the final say, and I never impose anything on him, but since he's given me the opportunity make decisions sometimes I'll say "Well, I think this is a really good idea. You can throw it out later, but lets just put it on now."
D: Steve liked your record and he wanted you to bring that kind of an idea to it. But I don't think it sounds like a Besnard Lakes [Jace's band] record.
J: I think Besnard records sound terrible compared to the other stuff we've done here.
What was it he was looking for?
J: Besnard records are always really haphazardly put together. It's my opportunity to experiment with things that I couldn't really ever do with a band. Sometimes I make mistakes when I'm making the Besnard records, but I never go back. For example, if I do a drum track, it's usually just one mic in the room — 'cause when I do the Besnard stuff I'm alone.
Whereas with Shoot the Moon you used ten mics on the drums.
J: Yeah. I'll put one mic in the room and record with some compression, and when I'm mixing it, I'll see the drums need more, so I'll overdub something else.
