AVALON DESIGNPU R E CL A S S A M U S I C RE C O R D I N G SY S T E M S
Michael Mangini is the
owner of Mojo Music in NYC.
This Grammy Award winning
Producer-Engineer recently finished
recording and producing David Byrne’s
latest release “Look into the Eyeball.”
Michael heavily relies on the Vt-737sp
and AD2055 EQ’s for all of his recordings
and mixes.
Q: Hi Michael, please describe yourrecording setup.A: I use Logic as my sequencing, musicarrangement program and Pro Tools I/Ohardware. In my main studio I have six 888’s,a mix plus system and four farm cards. It’s afull-blown Pro Tools system that routesthrough a Sony DMX console. I have lots ofoutboard gear, heavily featuring Avalon - sixVt-737sp’s, two AD2055 EQs, as well assome other vintage outboard.
Q: Do you record direct to the computeror to tape first?A: We go back and forth between recording totwo inch analog tape and direct to computerrecording depending on the song and thesound. On David Byrne’s recent album,“Look Into the Eyeball,” we recorded most ofdrums to two inch tape and then dumped itinto Logic so that it could be manipulatedfrom there. We did this to get a warmer,punchier analog sound.
Q: For the “Look Into theEyeball” album, can youdescribe your recordingprocess for the songs?A: About 80% of the DavidByrne record went down like
this: We sent basic demo versionsof the songs to drummer Sean
Pelton and bassist Paul Frazier. Theylearned the songs and came to the sessions.
I would feed a loop I had developed for thesong (with David’s input) into the live room.David on guitar plugged directly into a Vt-737sp then into the 888, Paul on bass pluggeddirectly into a Vt-737sp then into the 888 andSean on drums. They all set up in the liveroom together in sort of an organic way, andthey developed their parts in that setting:learning the song, hearing the loops, andplaying along to the loops. Whiled theyplayed, I would hear something I liked andsay, Sean that is an interesting part but youshould change it here and evolve it there.David had ideas about everything obviouslyand the two of us together would tweak whateveryone was playing and get something thatwe thought was cool.
Michael ManginiProducer Mix Engineer
"What’s Going On" All Star tributerecord - Britney Spears, NSync, MichaelStipe, Destinys Child, Bono...Producer/Remix Engineer
David Byrne LP, "Look Into theEyeball." Producer/Mixer
Shrek Soundtrack "Best Years of OurLives," Grammy Nomination BestSoundtrack, Platinum, Producer/Mixer
Bahamen "Who Let the Dogs Out"Grammy Winner - Best DanceRecording, Triple Platinum,Producer/Mixer
Otown "Love Should Be a Crime"Platinum, Producer/Mixer
Best of Busta Rhymes "VariousTracks"Engineer/Mixer/Programmer
Bruce Hornsby "Spirit Trail" Producer
The Corrs "What Can I Do"(Multi-platinum) Producer /remixer
AVALON DESIGNPU R E CL A S S A M U S I C RE C O R D I N G SY S T E M S
INTERVIEW: David Byrne / Michael Mangini Page 2 of 3No. AT2 February 2002
Once we had all the parts worked out, wewould generally take three or four takes ofeach song. I would then dump all of thosetakes into the computer and go through it all,picking and choosing each part from eachtake. Sometimes I even chopped up parts thatworked in other sections of the song. A partthat was played in the verse might haveworked in the bridge. I would go through allof the takes and try to come up with what Ithought were compelling tracks (guitar, bassand drums). Once I had those tracks workedout, David and I would then decide what weliked and what we wanted to change.
Q: What preamps and microphones didyou use to record the rhythm tracks?A: It sounds like a big plug for Avalon, but it’strue… in the case of David’s guitar we wouldrun it directly into the Vt-737sp and then intoLogic where we would use amp farm. Therewere no amps. There were a couple of dayswhere we rented amps and listened to themand then decided that the way we wanted therecord to sound, amp farm suited the recordbetter than real amps.
In most cases during the tracking Davidplayed a Gibson SG. We would plug itdirectly into the 737 and use it as a preampand then right into the 888 and Logic wherewe would use amp farm. Every guitar soundon the record is recorded that way.
We also ran the bass directly into a Vt-737spand then straight into Logic (via the 888)where we used either a sans amp plug-in orsometimes just the direct bass sound. And ifwe wanted to overdrive the bass we wouldactually overdrive the 737. A ton of Vt-737sp’s where used on David’s guitar, thebass, and all of David’s vocals. If you hear therecord and you like the sound, you definitelywant to use the Vt-737sp.
Q: What about drums?A: That was a combination of things. Weused Vt-737’s on room mics and overheads aswell as old outboard Neve racks. We useddifferent mics. A lot of times we wererecording two full drum sets at once. Thedrums were huge setups. The two things that
jump out about the record is that it is verydrum oriented and it also has a big orchestralaspect to it. It was a very interesting and funrecord to make.
Q: Moving on to David’s vocal, is hedifficult to record?A: It’s hard to record David’s vocal so that itmixes well. I will say that if you put him onan SM57 or the most expensive C12 in theworld, he still sounds exactly like DavidByrne. The difficult part is compressing andlimiting his voice so that when he is doingthings like going down really low and thengoing up high quickly, you get a goodconsistent level that still sounds natural. Hetakes chances melodically when he sings - hewill go down really low with his voice in onesection, then in another section sing in falsepsetto. I tried to get a vocal track that has apresence and sits well in the mix and at thesame time doesn’t become a fader ridingnightmare during mixdown. A few times wehad to chain a couple compressors together totry to get a really nice vocal so that we didn’tdrive ourselves crazy when we were trying tomix the record.
Time Magazine 1986
email from david byrne1/17/2002
hello avalon,
we're still on the road.just leaving Japan now.terry's been using thevt-737sp and is thrilled.he even compared it withanother unit by a namemanufacturer and wassuitably impressed. madehis job easier...and mademe sound like a much bet-ter singer than I reallyam.best, david
AVALON DESIGNPU R E CL A S S A M U S I C RE C O R D I N G SY S T E M S
Q: Can you give me a general Vt-737spsetting that you used on David’s vocal?A: I can actually. For David we used the HighPass Filter set at around 55-60Hz. Generallyslow attack and slow release, 4:1 compressor,boost his voice on the bottom end just a littlearound 15Hz, sometimes around 1.5Hz in thehigh mids then open it up on the top endaround 4dB at 15kHz. David has a nice warmbottom, so you don’t have to do that much tothe bottom except make sure that it doesn’tget muddy. You really want the words to jumpand make sure his vocal has a presence in thetrack especially when there is a lot ofpercussion banging around. I try to get thewords really present but not to the pointwhere we have to de-ess them.
For the most part we used the Sony C800 micon David’s voice. We checked approximatelyten different mics and that was the one thatsounded the best by far. We tried differentpreamps: Neve, G-series SSL console, but hedefinitely sounded the best with the Vt-737spand the C800. We used it on every song.
Q: During mixdown how did youincorporate your outboard gear?A: We used the AD2055 on the mix buss. Wegenerally boosted a little bit of top and a littleof the bottom. Which is not uncommon. Wejust wanted to warm up the bottom just a littlebit where some of the really cool stuff wasgoing on and then way up top around 20kHz,just open that up. So one AD2055 wasdedicated to the mix buss. We would run thatwith some light stereo compression on themix buss.
The Vt-737sp’s would be in play allover the place during mixdown. On thebass we used them, on David’s vocal weused them. On guitars we used them. Insome cases we linked two together anduse them on stereo subgroups to makethe group sound more cohesive. Forexample in some cases we wanted tomake the strings sound more combined.So we would group the strings comingout of the console run them into a pairof Vt-737sp’s group compress and EQthem, and bring them back into theconsole to make them sound more like asection playing in a room rather thanindividual orchestral pieces.I run stereo subgroups through theVt-737sp this all the time; withbackground vocals, drums andinstrument groups. On David’s recordthere might have been forty drum tracks, sowe might have to take the live drums and runthem through some sort of stereo processing,take the percussion and run that through thesame way. So the Vt-737sp is used a lot in thatkind of capacity. Whatever didn’t sound good,
when we were mixing, wewould say, “run it though a737”. In general I use the Vt-737sp a lot. When I’mprogramming in my homestudio, every single thing goesthrough a 737 - every track. Inmy home studio I have Logicrunning through a MackieDigital console with a Digi888. I don’t really like the waythe console sounds. So once Ifigure out a song in regards toprogramming and sequencing,
I then make it all audio. When I make it audio,I run every track through a 737 one at a time- EQ it so it has some snap to it, whatever itneeds – make the kick more punchy orwhatever. I can really say the Vt-737sp is agreat all in one box. It has a great soundingcompressor that doesn’t over do it. It’s notlike a lot of compressors out there where youcan hear it. It is subtle, yet it really does whatyou want it to do. And the EQ sounds so warmand sweet - it’s not harsh sounding at all. It’sreally warm, and doesn’t distort theinstrument you are trying to EQ. If you wantto open up the top or you want to warm up thebottom, or you want to notch out a little bit inthe middle to make it bite a little bit - It doesall that but it doesn’t distort the thing you aretrying to mess with. I really love the Vt-737sp. It is truly an amazing piece of gear. Itreally works for me.
Q: Thanks for your time Michael. Wouldyou like to make any parting comments?A: Keep up the good work. Keep makinggreat gear, and let me know when you havesomething new, so I can go out and get it!
INTERVIEW: David Byrne / Michael Mangini Page 3 of 3No. AT2 February 2002
