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Category: WCA Podcast

WCA #070 with Al Schmitt and Steve Genewick

WCA #070 with Al Schmitt and Steve Genewick

What can you say about Al Schmitt that has not been said? The man truly is a legend and a complete professional.  He has scored a pile of Grammy wins and nominations over the years, recorded and mixed more than 150 gold and platinum albums plus his credit list includes Henry Mancini, Sam Cooke, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Sammy Davis, Jr., Natalie Cole, Thelonious Monk, Elvis Presley, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, to name just a few.

Steve Genewick has been Al Schmitt’s assistant for the last 15 years working with artists such as  Diana Krall, Chris Botti, Gladys Knight, Neil Young, George Benson, Quincy Jones, Burt Bacharach, and Paul McCartney. Steve is a three-time GRAMMY® nominated recording engineer with over twenty-five years of experience, both as a studio and live recording engineer.  Steve has worked primarily out of Capitol Studios as a staff engineer since 1994.  When not at Capitol, Steve can be found working at any number of major recording studios in Los Angeles or mixing at his home studio.

My conversation with Al and Steve revolves mainly around their new video coming out called ” The Art of Recording a Big Band“. The seminar-turned film follows Al and Steve as they teach a group of people their methods for recording a big band out of Capital Studios.

The Art of Recording A Big Band from Shevy Shovlin on Vimeo.

 

WCA #069 with Magnus Lindberg

WCA #069 with Magnus Lindberg

WCA #069 with Magnus Lindberg

Magnus Lindberg is a freelance engineer based in Stockholm, Sweden. Despite his young age of 35 he has already been an audio professional for 14 years, working with a wide range of independent bands and artists from all over the world.

Starting out at a young age with various intern ships, most noticeable the one at Sound City Studios, LA he then found himself a part of the production team at Tonteknik Recording, under which roof he stayed for about 8 years until moving to Stockholm and becoming completely solo. Although he has been doing many projects in studios in London, Paris etc he is now a co-owner of a brand new facility in central Stockholm in which he conducts his mixing and mastering work which nowadays takes up most of his time. While not doing engineering he also play live drums (and does studio engineering) in Cult of Luna, a well established band in the alternative rock/metal scene.

Matt talks with Magnus about Stockholm, his business practice, building a new studio from the ground up and the gear he uses to do his job.

Website: www.magnuslindberg.com
Facebook: www.facecbook.com/magnuslindbergproductions
Twitter: mlprod
Studio: www.redmount.studio
Band: www.cultofluna.com

WCA #068 with John Paterno

WCA #068 with John Paterno

WCA #068 with John Paterno

John Paterno is an LA-based audio pro.  He has worked with a wide range of artists, including Robbie Williams, Soraya, Badly Drawn Boy, Lustra, The Thrills, Tim McGraw, Robben Ford, Eros Ramazzotti, and The Steve Gadd Band in his 25+ years in the music business.

John moved to Los Angeles two weeks after graduating from the University of Miami’s Music Engineering program, and quickly gained footing as a ‘freelance assistant’ until he was offered a position at Sunset Sound/Sound Factory as a staff engineer/assistant.  It was at Sound Factory where he ended up on a session with Tchad Blake and Mitchell Froom, and was for the next several years involved in many of their seminal records — projects by Los Lobos, Suzanne Vega, American Music Club, and the Latin Playboys, among many others.

John’s first projects as an engineer include Ted Hawkins’ ‘The Next Hundred Years’,  that dog’s ‘Retreat From the Sun’, and co-producing the Los Lobos score for the film ‘Feeling Minnesota’.  From there he worked with a range of producers including Mitchell Froom, Joe Chiccarelli, Byron Gallimore, and Stephen Duffy.

In 2004 he won a Latin Grammy for his work on the ‘Soraya’ record.

John has also produced or co-produced projects for Mitchell Froom, Lustra, Robbie Williams, The Lilac Time, The Black Molly’s, and many other artists.

In addition to producing and mixing projects, John has also: written songs with new artists; composed for TV and film; written articles for Tape Op magazine and the Universal Audio site; and has done instructional videos on mixing with PureMix.

Website:  www.musicdafoz.com
Instagram: paternodafoz
Twitter: @paternodafoz

WCA #067 with Matt Wright

WCA #067 with Matt Wright

Matt Wright grew up in an extended musical family, of both musicians and aficionados. Every family gets together involved extended periods of both playing music and arguing about pop records, which strongly influenced his relationship with music: a) He’s a lifelong musician because of it, b) He was raised listening to the canon of great pop records, and c) He was surrounded by people who thought that pop music and record albums were important. They were more than just a consumer product for teenagers to buy and eventually throw away. A great pop record was a work of art that was worth arguing about and that you could have an ongoing relationship with.

Matt toyed around with cassette recorders when he was young (My First Sony, anyone?), but Matt was never one to get too excited by the technology itself (aside from a new Walkman or CD player being a cool toy). Matt had no interest in the Sound Crew when I was in high school – mixers, speakers, amplifiers (other than the guitar kind) all seemed rather dull to him. It was only after Matt had his first multitrack experience, watching a couple of friends use Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 to build a complete arrangement of a song from just a couple of guitar riffs that he got excited about recording technology. Something clicked for him when he realized that not only could he learn to make music recordings that sounded more like real records and less like My First Sony, but that he could also use the technology of recording to expand what he could do creatively with music.

Today, Matt’s interest in and philosophy for record production and engineering are still driven by the principles discovered in these early moments. Matt believes in striving for exceptional quality at all times – in arrangement, in performance, and in sound. He believes the technology should serve the record-making process in the most transparent way possible, never dictate it. And he believes that a record album is an art form in its own right, not just a translation of live musical performance and that making a great record is something worth pursuing for its own artistic merits.

Matt and Matt talk about his transition from intern to chief engineer at Prairie Sun Recording, being a new dad, and his absence of gear lust.

Read more about Matt at www.mattwrightsound.com

WCA #067 also features part 3 of a series of discussions on acoustics with Realtraps general manager James Lindenschmidt!

jwl

WCA #066 with Graham Hick

Working Class Audio with Graham Hick

WCA #066 with Graham Hick – Public Radio, Interviewing Well, Dressing for the Job, and the role of a Master Control Engineer.

Graham Hick has been an audio professional for the past 17 years. He is an amateur musician who holds a BA in music recording from Columbia College. He has written for Tape Op magazine and been a featured speaker and panelist at their professional conferences, taught audio production at Columbia College for five years, worked in jingle studios, voice studios, post-production studios, and public radio. He has also done some live sound and even did a stint in Hollywood where one of the sound editing crews he was on was nominated for an Oscar in 2009 (Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen). Currently working at Minnesota Public Radio as a Master Control Engineer, he is able to use all of the skills and knowledge gained in the field throughout his entire career. Now wearing bifocals and taking care of a 12-year-old cat Graham lives a quiet, happy and modest life in Minneapolis. His very brief IMDB film credits page can be viewed at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3476550/

WCA #065 with Brad Brooks

WCA #065 with Brad Brooks

Brad Brooks is that rare quadruple threat of writer, player, singer, and performer. His songs combine the melodic sensibility of Elvis Costello, the best instincts of Wilco and Brian Wilson, along with the orchestral sophistication of Queen. Brooks is rooted in a kind of Victorian California romanticism; and with the release of his record “Harmony Of Passing Light” Brooks joined his peers with the best work of his career. His gift for melody and his soaring vocals remain the most immediately impressive traits of his music. Brooks’ voice can wail like a blue-eyed soul singer, whisper plaintively, croon with just a touch of twang, or soar through the most demanding melodic acrobatics, and he pulls off all of these different guises on “Harmony” without the record sounding disjointed. Rather, it’s an album with multiple textures that still feels unified. Brooks has found the essence of his own unique voice, and been one of the Bay Area’s best-kept secrets for years. He’s also survived stage 4 throat cancer as of last year, and has been in the studio with his live band recording a new record with Adam Rossi at AR Audio in SF, with songs mixed by Craig Schumacher of Wavelab from Tucson. Brooks has also shared the stage with Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, opened for Grammy-winning band Train, Imagine Dragons, and Linda Perry

For this episode Matt talks with Brad to get a perspective of recording from the other side of the glass. Brad talks about his experiences as an artist when it comes to recording.

Check Brad out at:  http://www.bradbrooksmusic.com/

WCA #064 with Johnny Sangster

WCA #064 with Johnny Sangster

Johnny Sangster is known for his production and engineering work with Mudhoney, Posies, The Supersuckers, Smoosh, and The Makers, and also as guitarist for the Tripwires, Mark Pickerel and His Praying Hands, The Dear John Letters, and Steve Turner’s Bad Ideas. Johnny has also served as bassist for the legendary Roy Loney in the Longshots. Originally from Seattle, Johnny Sangster relocated to Europe in 1984 where he led the Copenhagen-based The Sharing Patrol until ’97. The Sharing Patrol recorded for EMI and toured extensively through Europe, Scandinavia, and the former Soviet Union.

Upon returning to Seattle in ’97, he took up engineering full time at Conrad Uno’s Egg Studio, a place well established by Uno’s work with The Young Fresh Fellows, Gas Huffer, and the Presidents of the United States of America. In the period of the late ’90s and early 2000s. Johnny Sangster worked the Posies, the Murder City Devils, the Supersuckers, Zeke, The Fireballs of Freedom, Dr. Explosion, The Makers, Gerald Collier and many others.

In 2001 Johnny Sangster teamed up with Robb Benson of the Nevada Bachelors (whose debut record Johnny had produced). The project turned into the band The Dear John Letters and proceeded to release three full-length albums to significant local acclaim.

In 2002 he recorded several tracks for Mudhoney’s Since We’ve Become Translucent. This led to producing and performing with Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner on his three solo releases: Searching For Melody, And His Bad Ideas, and New Wave Punk Asshole. Johnny also continued to collaborate with Mudhoney on their 2006 release Under a Billion Sons and 2007’s Live Mud.

The latter half of the 2000s was a very productive period, with many records recorded and released. A full discography is available @ www.sangstermania.com.

In 2007 Johnny founded Crackle & Pop! Studio with partners Andrew Smith and Scott Masoner. The studio is a small and affordable place to track and to mix.

Johnny Sangster is currently playing guitar for Tripwires, a band fronted by John Ramberg (formerly of Model Rockets) and backed by Jim Sangster on bass and Mark Pickerel on drums. Since the releases of their debut “Makes You Look Around” and the follow-up “House to House” the Tripwires have garnered the attention of audiences throughout the Northwest and beyond.

Matt and Johnny discuss parenting, studio overhead, retirement, and Johnny’s studio space Crackle and Pop!

WCA #064 also features part 2 of a series of discussions on acoustics with Realtraps general manager James Lindenschmidt!

Links for part 2.

http://realtraps.com/p_minitrap.htm
http://realtraps.com/install_mt.htm

jwl

WCA #063 with Joey Sturgis

WCA #063 with Joey Sturgis

WCA #063 with Joey Sturgis

Joey Sturgis is an educator, speaker, and fixture in the emergent modern rock music pantheon producing, engineering and mixing  bands such  as Asking Alexandria, Of Mice & Men, We Came As Romans, Blessthefall, and The Devil Wears Prada. He took his passion for drums and guitars and combined it with his love for understanding how things work and how to do things more efficiently. And he built a career with it. When other bands started hitting him up about how he was recording, he knew he had discovered something special. Joey Sturgis Tones develops, simplifies, and ultimately makes available the tools necessary to execute the creative visions of musicians, producers, and songwriters from any walk of life. Joey is indeed, a new breed of music professional.

Matt and Joey discuss the many aspects of Joey’s music world and his skills as an entrepreneur.

Links for Joey:

WCA #063 also features the first of a series of discussions on acoustics with Realtraps general manager James Lindenschmidt!

Linkes for James and Realtraps.

The filtered pink noise listening test we spoke about is here:
http://realtraps.com/lf-noise.htm

Realtraps  room setup strategy is here:
http://realtraps.com/art_room-setup.htm

WCA #062 with Maor Appelbaum

WCA #062 with Maor Appelbaum

WCA #062 with Maor Appelbaum

Maor Appelbaum is a mastering engineer and musician. After working as staff engineer (mixing, recording and mastering) for famed record producer Sylvia Massy Shivy at Radiostar Studios in Weed, California, Maor moved to Los Angeles where he opened his private mastering suite.

Maor has had the pleasure of mastering recordings for major international acts such as: Faith No More, Yes, Walter Trout, Eric Gales, Starset, Ill Nino, Dokken, Fates Warning, William Shatner, Gus G, Common Kings, Sepultura, Yngwie MalmsteenHalford, Fight, Armored Saint, Lita ford, Seven The Hardway , Marco Mendoza, Angra, Treponem Pal, Wayne Hussey, Therion, Cynic, Nekromantix, Butcher Babies, Billy Sherwood, The Top Chops and more…

He has mastered the works of well-known music producers such as: Matt Wallace, Mike Clink, Mike Plotnikoff, Bob Horn, Ben Grosse, Bassy bob Brockmann, Toby Wright, Justin Gray, Roy Z, Sylvia Massy, Gilby Clark, Warren Riker, Ryan Greene, Ulrich Wild, Fabrizio Grossi, Logan Mader, Stan Katayama, Ben Schigel, Mark Lewis, Jacob Hansen, Tue Madsen, Eyal Levi, Jason Suecof, Thomas Lang and more… Also, he does mastering for unsigned artists of all genres from all over the world.

Maor has an extensive background with the international music industry – He is well aware of the various music styles and sounds that are developing vastly as the today’s technology develops.

To Maor, being a mastering engineer is the best way possible to combine his love and passion for music, with his various skills- objectivity, subjectivity, and technical & artistic prowess. He finds pleasure in his job, more than anything, thanks to the variety of music and sounds he gets to master from all over the world.
It is a profession he takes pride in, and masters.

Maor speaks with Matt about moving to the the United States from Israel and the challenges he encountered, his economic philosophy and working with clients.

http://www.maorappelbaum.com/

Articles by or about  Maor.

 

WCA #061 with TW Walsh

WCA #061 with TW Walsh

WCA #061 with TW Walsh

TW Walsh is a solo artist, musician, songwriter, and mastering engineer. As a mastering engineer, TW Walsh has over 700 projects under his belt, including work for Sufjan Stevens, Benjamin Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie), The Shins, Cold War Kids, Pedro the Lion, David Bazan, Starflyer 59, Kristin Hersh, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Damien Jurado.  As a songwriter and recording artist, TW was a member of Pedro the Lion, Headphones, and The Soft Drugs and has released several solo albums including his most recent “Fruitless Research”.

Our discussion covers family, touring, mastering, as well as building his own control surface! Enjoy.

WCA #060 with Brian McTear

WCA #060 with Brian McTear

Brian McTear is a nationally respected record producer, musician, and the owner of one of Philadelphia’s most revered independent recording studios, Miner Street Recordings in Fishtown. In the 18 years since he moved to the Philadelphia music community, Brian has worked with countless local artists like Dr. Dog, Kurt Vile, and The War on Drugs, as well as national artists like Sharon Van Etten and Joan Osborne, whose grammy nominated album “Bring it on Home” he mixed in 2011.

McTear is also the  founder of Weathervane Music , a non profit arts and culture organization whose mission is to advance independent music and the community that surrounds it. In 2010 he created and launched the organization’s flagship series, Shaking Through, a documentary series that takes place in Philadelphia and captures the recording studio performances of 7 – 10 select independent musical groups each year as they each record one song in two days. .

Weathervane’s membership program has allowed thousands of music fans, musicians and home recording enthusiasts, in countries all around the world, the opportunity to download and remix the beautifully captured Shaking Through recordings. More recently, Weathervane has been developing a program to provide teaching materials for college and university recording programs, a project that will change the way future engineers learn to record music.

Brian and Matt chat over Skype about Miner Street and Weathervane music as well as the music business as a whole. Special thanks to WCA listener and Weathervane Music member Bob Bailey for his many messages that finally got Matt off his ass to check into Brian and his amazing ventures!

 

 

WCA #059 with Tardon Feathered

WCA #059 with Tardon Feathered

Tardon Feathered runs an audio operation that keeps recordings alive. His Mr. Toads transfer business specializes in bringing back audio off of media made on machines that are no longer made or very few people have. Whether it’s a priceless family 3″ tape recording, that lost bandmaster on the 8 track, a live recording on a videocassette that doesn’t look anything like VHS, or even 78 rpm records, he is equipped to transfer most anything. These days, it’s not too big of a stretch to include digital sources such as floppy discs, Syquest, Jaz, DVD-RAM, and MO drives as near-obsolete formats because of the difficulty in finding any units to play them back on. Tardon is able to handle simple projects like the transfer of priceless 16, 33, 45, and 78 rpm recordings, to complete restorations of tape libraries (including tape baking and splice replacement!) and transfer them to whatever digital format you need via the highest quality signal chain available. It would be near impossible to make a list of the formats he is able to work on, but I think you get the idea. You can hear some of his work on the site Wolfgangs Vault where Tardon helped digitally transfer the entire catalog. Want to hear a Little Feat show from 1975 or a Police show from 1979? That’s all possible due to Tardon’s expertise in outdated formats and how to handle them.

Matt went out to Vallejo, California to talk with Tardon and his trusty dog Verna about his recent move out of San Francisco and the nature of his business.

WCA #058 with Jim Scott

WCA #058_JIM SCOTT_2016-01-25

WCA #058 with Jim Scott

This interview with Jim Scott was recorded live at the Focal booth at NAMM 2016 was fantastic.  Jim is best known for his large body of work as an engineer and his work as a producer with the American rock band Wilco.

Jim has worked as an engineer with a range of other rock music artists, including Dixie Chicks, Tom Petty, Sting, the Rolling Stones, Roger Daltrey, Crowded House, 7 Worlds Collide, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lowen & Navarro, Jack’s Mannequin, Ron Sexsmith and many others. Scott won a Grammy Award for his work as an engineer on Red Hot Chili Peppers’ benchmark album Californication (which he also mixed), as well as for engineering Tom Petty’s Wildflowers, mixing the Foo Fighters’ One By One, doing engineering work on Santana’s Supernatural, and getting three Grammys for his work on the Dixie Chicks’ Taking The Long Way. He also mixed Matchbox Twenty’s “More Than You Think You Are” which reached a no. 6 on the US Billboard 200 and had two Top10 singles on the US Hot100.

In 2013 he participated in the movie Sound City, by Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), along with many others such as Paul McCartney, Butch Vig, Neil Young and Tom Petty. The movie was about the Neve console and its many visitors over the years, through the studio of Sound City, which by the way was where Nirvana’s Nevermind was recorded.

Jim and Matt discuss doing a job well no matter what that job is, including scrubbing toilets. They also discuss shrinking budgets and his Neve console.

Photo by Kerry Rose.

WCA #057 with The Pellicci Brothers

WCA #057 with The Pellicci Brothers

The Pellicci brothers Jay and Ian, spent  13 years as staff engineers at Tiny Telephone  working with bands like Sleater-Kinney, Deerhoof, Birds and Batteries and Rogue Wave. Since then they have expanded their recording universe and have joined Eli Crews and John Finkbeiner  in a  partnership at New Improved Recording. While they still work at many other studios including Tiny, New Improved acts as a sort of home base. Since coming on board at NIR, they have given the studio a complete makeover that included replacing the AMEK Einstein with a lovely highly customized  5316 series Neve and added burlap covered acoustic treatment on the walls. The brothers came to the Bay Area on a family vacation when they were kids. During that vacation their father stumbled upon a job opportunity in Silicon Valley and the family ended up staying and living in Fremont, California.

Matt and the Pellicci brothers discuss the studio makeover, their deep devotion of time and money to the recording world,  and the Neve console that is the centerpiece of New Improved.

WCA #056 with Josh Roberts

WCA #056 with Josh Roberts

I’ve known Josh Roberts for over 20 years now. He’s humble, fun, and one of the best human beings I know. He doesn’t waste time trying to impress people. To highlight that he doesn’t even have a web page, bio, Facebook page etc… He’s passionate about making records and is really good at letting people be themselves. I’ve been in a couple studio situations with him, I’ve toured with him and he was at my wedding. The guy is honestly in many ways from another time period. As a live sound person he has done sound from bands like the Squirrel Nut Zippers to politicians.  As a studio rat he has worked with many including Jack Dangers of Meat Beat Manifesto. Santo, his new studio is a true incarnation of what Josh is about.  Josh is a dear friend who I’ve learned a ton from over the years, so it with great pleasure I hand this interview over to the WCA audience to hear. Cheers, Matt

WCA #055 with Ben Bernstein

WCA #055 with Ben Bernstein

Producer/Engineer Ben Bernstein has worked extensively as a music producer and recording engineer. In recent years Ben has been working in game audio as a sound designer & project manager. He has also mixed several documentary films, online ads, and interactive in-app ads. Working with  Disney Mobile, Pyramind Sound, KFOG , Microsoft as well as numerous Bay Area bands, Ben keeps his audio world diversified. Ben is also an incredible in-demand live and session bass player who has taught at the famous Blue Bear School of Music.  Matt joins Ben at his home studio (Petting Zoo) for a chat that took place on New Years eve.

WCA #054 with Sebastien Richard

WCA #054 with Sebastien Richard

After getting his audio education Sebastien Richard  took a position as the head audio engineer at Coast Recorders in San Francisco and quickly became a mainstay in the crowded San Francisco audio world. Sebastien went on to spend a few years in NYC and Prague where he toured and helped produce some of the biggest pop acts in the world. He then returned to San Francisco  to become the lead audio engineer for the legendary Cafe Du Nord and opened up  Mission Recorders, an up and coming recording studio that has the claim to be one of the few in the city with an all original issue Neve console. He also is FOH for various venues including Slims, Great American Music Hall and The Chapel.

Matt and Sebastien discuss running a studio, building your own equipment, touring, corporate audio and the ability to mix for 5000 people after having surgery!

WCA #053 with Darrell Thorp

WCA #053 with Darrell Thorp

Darrell Thorp is a seven time Grammy Award winning (OutKast, Radiohead, Switchfoot, Molotov, Beck) producer, mixer, engineer with over 18 years experience under his belt and many multi platinum records to his discography.  Darrell moved to Los Angles in 1997 after a 4 year service in the U.S. Navy and started interning at smaller studios and eventually worked his way up to an Assistant Engineer at some of L.A.’s prestigious studios such as Track Record, Conway, and finally Ocean Way Recording.  It was at Ocean Way recording that Darrell meet famed Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.  Shortly after meeting Godrich, Darrell became his full time engineer and ended up recording Beck’s “Sea Change”, Radiohead’s “Hail to The Thief”, Paul McCartney’s “Chaos and Creation In The Back Yard” and many others.  Currently Darrell is splitting his time between mixing various records and projects and producing.  Darrell has had the pleasure of being the principle recording engineer on Beck’s “Morning Phase” which granted him 3 additional Grammys for Best Engineered Album, Rock Album of the Year, and Album of the Year.

Matt and Darrell talk about his time in the Navy and its influence on his recording career, the influence of Nigel Godrich, pacing yourself in the studio as well mixing in the box.

WCA #052 with Robert Preston

WCA #052  with Robert Preston

After 10 years working as a sales rep for a pro audio and recording equipment distributer, Robert Preston  made the plunge into recording full-time by opening a recording studio (GetReel) and locating it inside a rehearsal facility (Secret Studios) surrounded by bands! As one would imagine  Robert gets a lot of business directly from the many bands rehearsing in the building, since it’s  easy for them to take their gear down the hall to GetReel. After 10 years in the first incarnation of the studio then 13 years in the “new” studio, Robert continues a steady stream of work.  As Robert says, “I still love working with and recording bands and singer-songwriters and helping them with their projects and visions of their music. I come at the recording process from a player’s perspective. I’ve built the studio with the players in mind, and I think it shows.”

Matt and Robert dissect Robert’s recording situation and talk gear, money, location and the pros and cons of growing.

WCA #051 with Peter Doell

WCA #051 with Peter Doell

Peter Doell is a senior mastering engineer at Universal Mastering.

Growing up in a house filled with music Peter studied the ʻclassicsʼ by day, but escaped to play – way underaged – at night in bars & clubs to gain the requisite “chops” – playing rock, blues, and jazz throughout high school. Although entering college in a pre-med program, he quickly re-found his musical bearings, and graduated with a degree in Electronic Music Composition! Upon completion of his degree, he went on to be a journeyman musician and engineer, and after several years working in recording studios in Boston, relocated to LA in 1980. His entrance into the recording scene there was facilitated by his technical background, and got a staff position at Capitol Studios as a studio tech. But he quickly got “in the trenches” – in sessions there, recording everyone from Prince, Frank Sinatra, David Lee Roth, the Stray Cats and Miles Davis along the way.

The lure of films took him away from Capitol after 15 years, and he took a staff position at Sony Pictures Entertainment doing scoring. While there, his efforts were heard in films like “Black Hawk Down”, “The Patriot” and “Road To Perdition”.

Then he felt a desire to return to sound-only media – and has been a part of Universal Mastering Studios in Hollywood for the last 10 years. While there, Peter has mastered hundreds of projects for the likes of Robin Thicke, Fergie, Steve Lukather, WARMarilyn Manson, John Waite and many more. While just a few years ago, much of Peterʼs schedule was filled with mixing the music for Rock Band  and Guitar Hero video games where artists from the Universal roster were being featured. Nowadays, he still mixes a few projects, recently for artists such as Toby Keith, Rachel MacFarlane, Rhiannon and Otmaro Ruiz.

The recording scene nowadays has changed so much in the last decade. Peter has seen many of the old-guard first-call studios – AND engineers – fall by the boards as the new wave of record-making takes hold. But sitting at the “finish-line”, or Mastering, gives him a very valuable insight into what has become paramount in the making of modern recordings. He is here to share some of that with you.

Matt and Pete discuss age, what makes Universal Mastering special, working at facility versus working as a freelancer, low-end management, Pete’s new video series The Star Chamber, and the brilliance of Al Schmitt.