Grammy award-winning mix engineer, Tony Maserati, has been integral to the formulation of the modern R&B/hip hop sound that dominates the charts today. Christopher Holder goes on a quest for big bottom.

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hen it comes to booty-shaking R&B or Richter Scale-bothering hip hop, then few audio engineers have stronger credentials than Tony Maserati. Back in the mid ‘90s when he was hunkered down with Mary J Blige and Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs he drafted a sonic blueprint for hip hop/R&B that still exists today – gargantuan bass, glossy highs, and dry upfront vocals. Tony’s credits roll out like a Playboy Mansion guest list – Beyoncé, The Black Eyed Peas, Mary J Blige, R Kelly, Jennifer Lopez, James Brown, Ricky Martin, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac – and if you want to know more about producing masonry-cracking

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mixes with sprinkles of angel dust then best read on. And the Winner is… When I gave Tony a bell at his home in upstate New York I’d obviously caught him on a good day. To be expected, I guess. Only a few days earlier he’d won a ‘Best Contemporary R&B Album’ Grammy for his part in Beyoncé’s Dangerously in Love… and congratulations were definitely in order. Christopher Holder: Tony, I gather congratulations are in order. Tony Maserati: Well thanks. Unfortunately I missed out

on the Best Engineer award – Nigel [Godrich] got that for the Radiohead album, while I missed out with The Black Eyed Peas album – but, I’m not complaining. It’s my first Grammy! CH: How does a Grammy change your life? TM: Good question. I don’t know yet. I don’t even own it yet. It hasn’t got here. CH: So you’re still dusting off the mantelpiece? TM: Well, my line is I’m going to get a big chain and put it around my neck. Why hide it in my house? I was talking to Michael Brauer who won one last year for Coldplay and he said for the first three months he just put it between the speakers on the console. I think I’ll just carry it around with me, put it on my car… make a hood ornament of it… CH: Tell me about the early days and how you saw the modern R&B/hip hop sound develop. It seems like Puff Daddy (P Diddy) played a significant part in the process? TM: He was a big part. I think we were a big part in each other’s lives in all honesty. He was just starting out at the time and I had been working in the biz for a while, doing a bunch of R&B things – Devante Swing, Jodeci and working with Heavy D and the Full Force production team. So when Puff came along I had all this experience and he was new at it. He knew what his audience wanted and I knew what the sound should be, so we made this thing happen together. It worked out great. We made some great, classic records. CH: What, sonically, set apart those early records as so revolutionary? TM: In basic terms, Puff wanted to make hip hop records with singing on them. And that was something no one was doing. R&B was one thing and rap was another. What Puffy did was bring the two together. He made Mary J sing over hip hop beats. That was a new thing. I was there because I had experience in R&B and rap as well and it was easy for me to put the two together. And I dug Puff because he pretty much let me do what I wanted. He had very specific ideas about where the parameters were as far as the drum sound and how hard it needed it to be, but he let me do my thing. Creatively it was fun. That second Mary record My Life was a big deal for me. I spent a lot of time and effort making that record and enjoyed every moment of it… I take that back, I’m sure that’s not true! I’m sure at the time I was pissed off about something or somebody! Probably mostly about scheduling. Puff ’s notorious for his scheduling. He’d call me at two in the afternoon on my one day off – ‘can you come in tonight at eight?’. Then he’d fall asleep at the console or go to a [New York] Knicks game or something! CH: You’re two big credits at the moment are The Black Eyed Peas’ 'Elephunk' and Beyoncé’s 'Dangerously in Love'. Two quite different assignments I’d imagine? TM: Elephunk is a more aggressive record than a Beyoncé record. It’s a tough sound, in your face, and not a lot of subtlety to it. And that changed my approach to what technology I used to make it as well. I was very aggressive with my EQ’ing. I typically used anywhere from four to eight

Tony Maserati at New York’s Hit Factory where he mixed Dangerously In Love using Studio 3’s SSL XL9000K.

Neve EQs per mix as well as two GML 8200s [parametric EQs] on every mix… and not always in the same way… I’d be experimenting and shunting them around all over the place. Often I’d use two different EQs on the same channel. CH: Why the extreme EQ barrage? TM: The Black Eyed Peas have so much variation in that album – live drumming with drum machines; live bass with synth sub bass, etc – so I spent a lot of time mixing things up to come up with a sound that was tight, hard and in your face, but clear. It took me time to find a suitable mixing style. For example, Will’s [Will.i.am] voice goes on and on and you’re never quite sure where to put it in the track – whether

it should be buried a little bit, or on top of the track. So I threw the kitchen sink at that album. CH: Okay, let’s take the example of Will’s vocal. Can you talk me through the signal chain? TM: It’d start at the SSL console. I’d bring tracks up and get a feel for the song and generally pull away the things that were problematic to deal with. But for Will’s voice it wouldn’t be long before I turned my attention to the computer and ProTools. First up, I’d put a [Waves] Renaissance EQ on it. Generally I don’t do a lot of boosting with the plug-in EQs, but I’d do a lot of cutting. So I spent a lot of time nipping out the things that I found abrasive by boosting suspect frequencies and finding the spot that

Tony Maserati & His Console of Choice CH: You’re on record as being a real fan of the new SSL 9000XL, ‘K’ series console. It obviously suits your purposes? TM: I’ve been using the SSL since the E Series, through the G Series and onwards. To be honest, I didn’t like the SSL until the 9000J came out. Of course, I used SSLs prior to that and liked them well enough to make a lot of records on them but I just didn’t like VCAs at all. CH: Why? TM: I don’t know. To this day I don’t like the G Series without moving fader automation. I just don’t. Some guys like my friend Jean Marie Horvat just kicks on it… Mike Gass kicks on it… Tom Lord Alge kills the G… I just suck at it. I think maybe the accumulation of 72 or so VCAs didn’t work with my ears and soon as I started using moving fader automation – both on the Neve VR and the G Series with Ultimation – I just never went back. Every time I have to work on a VCA console I just sit around, complain and drink! I’m not sure in

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what order… CH: So things have changed considerably over the years? TM: Right now the SSL automation is seamless – it’s quick… you can just grab stuff, it’s intuitive. I love the J and K’s computer. The K is smoking. We’ve never had a console with a computer that was actually fast – heaven forbid. A computer in a console whose speed was rivalling the computers we use on our desktop? Never. The fact the K has a speedy computer is almost a laugh. It’s intuitive, it’s fast, I can’t even tell ya… it’s like another instrument to me. CH: And being able to work with ProTools in the centre section? TM: That’s like the icing on the cake. These days if I come up with an effect or a sound in my head, I can visualise the patching, the routing on the console, I can see the automation on the console, and I can see the plug-in and the automation on ProTools. So it’s not just the patch or an EQ anymore, there’s a

whole group of things that comprise an idea and, like anybody who plays an instrument, the ideas come to you in your head before you actually implement them. The K and J make it really easy for me. CH: Oddly enough, for someone who’s so associated with R&B/hip hop, the SSL name isn’t traditionally synonymous with fat bottom end. But has that changed with the K? TM: I think it actually changed with J and has improved further with the K. They gave it a bit more headroom in the mix bus and the centre section is a bit better overall. In that respect, yeah, it is better. My impression is that you can hit the K harder than you can hit the J. Whether that’s technically true or not, I don’t know. I hit the K real hard, and it takes it, it takes it hard, and I like it. If I could get SSL to give me one I could put it in my living room… to go with my Grammy, but I get the feeling that they’re not giving them up.

Tony Maserati with Beyoncé at New York’s Hit Factory. Hard work indeed.

was the most abrasive, then cutting it. I’d also apply some gentle compression at that stage, just so I was hitting the board the way I wanted to. At the time I was really into the McDSP plug-in compressor, which is really gentle. Then at the point that the vocal leaves ProTools I’d go into a Neve or API EQ and then into a compressor after that. Either it’d be a 33609 Neve compressor or into one side of a Pendulum compressor [stay tuned for more on the Pendulum later] depending on the performance. All that’s before I hit the console. Once I’d done that and got something that I thought had some full body to it I would work with a LoFi [TDM plugin] track and have that coming out of a separate output from ProTools and put that right next to his voice on the console. I’d also generally use a spreader for Will. I’d do that with a TC plug-in and have that coming up another channel. Or I’d use a TC 1210 [spatial expander] in a regular analogue send/return configuration. The spreader is almost like a chorusing effect, with very little delay so you can barely hear it, but it allowed the vocal to fill the whole panorama – you really feel it in both speakers when Will’s doing his thing.

After I’d done that I may have put a GML 8200 [parametric EQ] on the insert and nip a few things as well as boost the top. I’d use the Neve EQ to boost 10k in a very broad way, and maybe only a couple of dB, but use the 8200 to hit the more airy stuff at 15k and in a shelf kinda way. CH: How much do you use mix bus compression? TM: I’d say that 50 percent of the time I use bus compression. On The Peas’ track, Fire, I had all sorts of problems and ended up using a Waves L2 [hardware limiting device] over the mix bus. I still wasn’t entirely satisfied with the result at the time, but when we did a recall on that track some weeks later I got a chance to A/B it without the L2, and the L2 did just such a great job. But the point of that example is that if you’re going to use something that can change your mix so drastically, it really needs to be on the mix from the beginning. Whereas with the bus compressors I usually work with I know where I need to be on the two-mix to be able to put my Pendulum or Neve 33609 over the mix bus. I don’t like to use bus compression much because I fear that it’s reducing my overall high frequency response. I find that the 33609 is quite good and my Pendulum is quite good. The Manley Vari-Mu is really good sometimes, but less of the time. CH: I’m not familiar with the Pendulum compressor. Can you fill me in? TM: It’s a tube stereo limiter/compressor. It has preset clicks for attack and release or you can put it in manual mode. Weirdly, Pendulum claims there’s no VCA or optical circuit… which begs the question: what the hell’s doing the compressing? But there’s something in there, if you can vary the attack and release something’s got to be a VCA or some sort of optical thing. They won’t divulge that. Anyway, they have two versions, one with the old Fairchild tubes and one with, what they claim to be, ‘more stable’ tubes. I haven’t A/B’d the two versions, if it works it works. I dig the sound. It really helps me because it has an input adjust, a threshold adjust and an output adjust for each channel. Which is just great because the Neve 33609 doesn’t have that. When you’re hitting the board too hard and you just want to bring it down slightly, you can just use your output adjustment and bring it down a dB or two.

Some Tony Maserati career advice – studio juniors take note! CH: In your experience, what makes a great assistant engineer? TM: I kinda turned a corner on my view of this. I used to think being a great assistant came down to knowledge of the equipment. But because the equipment changes so fast nowadays, I’m not so sure that applies anymore. To me, the most important attribute in an assistant is their willingness to be involved in the records I’m making. CH: Enthusiasm? TM: Yeah, and attentiveness. Often I turn around to the guys and ask – ‘did you like that?’. And they don’t know what I’m talking about. I just spent, say, 20 minutes EQing the kick drum, and they’re watching TV or something. They just tell me they weren’t listening. “Well what the hell are you doing here?! That’s the one thing you’re supposed to do. Making coffee is not the important part,

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doing the paper work is not the important part, the reason why you’re here is to listen.” My favourite assistants are the ones who when I ask – ‘is this any good?’, they say, ‘it sounds like crap, man’, or, ‘it was better 10 minutes ago’. They’re listening but still doing all the paper work and doing all the other stuff. They’re involved in all their work, but they’re paying attention. CH: While the technical proficiency, you got to really assume is there…? TM: Sure, but I find it amazing that someone can walk into my room, is hired by the studio, and doesn’t know the patchbay. And, what’s more, is not spending every waking hour studying the gear. And, when I go into the lounge and need to talk on the phone for an hour, they’re not playing with one of the pieces of gear I’m not using. I find that completely fascinating.

Back when I was assisting and the engineer left the room, as far as I was concerned I started being the engineer. I would make stuff up, play the tape… And in those days they didn’t want you to play the tape, nowadays [with hard disk] it doesn’t even matter! Back in the days, I’d be coming up with a kick drum sound or a reverb sound and the engineer would come back in and – ‘what the hell are you doing?!’. Then he’d ask me – ‘I need a sound for this reverb… got any ideas?’. ‘Sure I’ve got one right here.’ So I’m fascinated when these young cats aren’t doing anything. I’ll show up two hours late cos of the traffic or an appointment, and the dude is sitting there watching TV talking to his girlfriend on the phone! What’s that about? That’s lame. I just gave him two hours in a studio that costs 200 bucks an hour, and he’s talking to his girl?! That’s stupid.

Beyoncé – Dangerously in the Mix CH: In the case of your mixing work on Beyoncé’s Dangerously In Love album, can we take a closer a look at the track Me Myself and I? It strikes me as a great case study in how to work with vocals. TM: Beyoncé’s an extremely dynamic performer. Her vocals were great, but they changed a lot, based on her performance. That forced me to think about a variety of compression techniques. For the tracks where her vocals are really quite delicate I used the Urei 1176. When you use the ‘push all four buttons’ technique you get a weird expansion-like, breathy thing going on. So I’d have the 1176 coming up another channel of the console and when I wanted more energy I’d raise that up. So I automated that fader. And by having the compressed vocal coming up another channel it meant I could EQ it separately to make it sound different to the main vocal. In this case I made her voice sound full and rich on the main vocal track, then I EQ’ed the compression track so it ghosted the main vocal in a way – obviously it’s in the exact same phase, it’s not any way different in time, but it just sits there kinda like a shadow. I’ll also send my effects from that messed up compressed channel. So the effects don’t necessarily sound like the natural one, and the natural one does its own thing. For Beyoncé I always use the TC 1210 [spatial expander], so I get a bit more of her in the speakers [with extra width] and I’ll also use a non-linear reverb on her. The reverb time is very, very short. I tend to use one of ProTools’ on-board plugs to do that – the d-Verb. It seems to be the only reverb that you can really pull in the reverb time – and even it doesn’t get as small as I want it to. But I put that on non-linear at its shortest setting and tuck it in behind the main vocal, again, so it’s like there’s this ghost behind her. CH: So obviously the intention isn’t to add reverb to her voice in a conventional sense? TM: That’s right. I like to use things that add an energy to the vocal so you’re not quite sure what it is that you’re hearing. I don’t want you hearing it too much. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes I just get it wrong – sometimes you can hear the effect and that’s not good. Sometimes I get it right and I think on Me Myself and I, I got it right.

Fat Bottom End CH: I can’t interview the ‘King of Bottom End’ without talking about eardrum-perforating bass. Can your mixes

Hard Drives – Firewire Vs Fibre CH: Are Firewire drives becoming an increasing part of your life? TM: I still use SNS fibre channel drives. Most people I know use 7,200RPM Firewire drives, which I think is slow. The fibre channel drives are just off the meter for me – 15,000RPM, and transfer rates that are triple everything else. I can plug two computers into a fibre channel array, and do my backups and access the four drives I have from different computers – to me that’s the way to go. But it’s also a lot of dough. So for the kids making their records and the producers trying to save their budgets, forget about it, use Firewire. In fact, I’m probably going to stop doing backups to AITs and just buy little Firewire drives and hand those into the label. It’ll be faster for me, cheaper for them. Anyway, it’s just costing me too much time backing this stuff up to AIT and CD when I can just hand in a Firewire and say, ‘here make you’re own copies’. So I think Firewire drives will definitely have their place but I won’t be giving up my fibre channel drives in a hurry.

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get any fatter and bigger? TM: Back in the days, Puff and I spent a lot of time working on getting fat-sounding mixes. I used to think that I was the fattest and the biggest, but there’s always somebody younger coming up and somehow squeaking out another dB of bottom end in there. I have to tell you: I don’t care anymore – it’s no longer my main focus. In the past I spent a lot of time focussing on it and a lot of time believing that it was a signature of mine, and a very important issue. Now I listen to the song and I want the song to be great as a song. Sure, if you’re making R&B/hip hop, it’s got to be fat in the bottom end too, but I don’t spend all my time thinking about it. But I pride myself in my ability get fat bottom end. CH: What are the secret herbs and spices? TM: Firstly, use a couple of different kick drums and make sure they’re not cancelling each other out in any way. A lot of the time I’ll get tracks where somebody’s added two kicks to a song which have been recorded at different times. So often they’re not quantised the same and on every third beat or so they’ll phase and you’ll lose bottom end rather than gain it. That happens a lot. So I’ll take the second kick and I’ll use Sound Replacer to make it go exactly with the first kick, so they never cancel. But, if you use two different kicks, then use one for bottom and one for punch – make sure there’s something in there that gives it enough top end to get that beater sound, that clicking sound… that’s important as well. I also mess around with different compressions, and frequency-conscious compression. I’ve also found that the SPL Transient Designer works really for bringing out transients. Then I’ll take splits [or mults] of the kick and bass and I’ll EQ certain elements on one track, boost elements on another track, and compress them differently. So long as you’re conscious of the phase you can do anything you like. I’ll even split lead vocals, EQ out all the top of the lead vocal and ride in bottom whenever I feel like the vocal sounds squeaky. Then I’ll compress the crap out of it and just ride it in the way I want to ride it. I do a lot of that stuff. They’re just tricks you learn over the years and from talking to a lot of people and working with different producers. You come up with things to get around problems or to bring life into a record that, maybe in a section, doesn’t have life or energy. CH: Finally Tony, it seems like it’s difficult to read your name anywhere without some reference to coffee. Can you give me a few tips? TM: About my coffee!? What I can tell you is that I can’t have Starbucks anymore because my girlfriend’s brother was making fun of them and they didn’t like that so they sued him. Can’t have Starbuck’s anymore. What you have to do is bring your own cappuccino machine into the studio – which I do. CH: And it’s possible to get a decent expresso out of a domestic appliance? TM: Just make sure you buy an Italian model. And it’s all about the bean. Get that nice dark bean and make sure it’s ground up real fine. But I actually don’t do too much anymore. Except for the morning… that’s when I have a coffee. I used to drink coffee during the day, but I stopped doing that because I realised it was driving me crazy.