all the bodies are buried – are the ones who know the limitations of what you have and what it ’ s going to do . Let the labels and the management really focus on , “ Is it a good song ?”, “ Is the arrangement right ?”, “ Is it going to do anything ?” And let the artist and the production team deal with the outcome of the sonics of it .
PS : Over the course of your career , what would you say are some or your more favourable or less favourable changes in terms of the available technology and how it ’ s implemented ?
Lord-Alge : Oh , that ’ s a hell of a question . Obviously , if we look back at 40 years of transition from 16- to 24-track with no samplers , no pitch correction , and no way to move stuff around simply , being able to do the things that took hours in only minutes is great .
So , looking at how I ’ ve crossed from 1975 – 24 tracks , straight-up console , tape machine – until now , where you have whatever you want , and helping create plug-ins ; the biggest problem I ’ ve run into is that this has only made music-makers lazier , it ’ s only made certain bands lazier . But it ’ s also created a bigger problem , which now everybody who buys a laptop , everybody who buys Pro Tools , in about a month , they have a signature that calls them “ producer , engineer , mixer , mastering engineer ” – really ? You earned the mastering engineer badge , or the mixer badge ? Hey , I put in a long time before I was actually hired as strictly a mixer . So , for me , somebody who ’ s hired strictly as a mixer is someone who has turned someone else ’ s song into a hit , who ’ s helped that band make hit records ; not just the guy that was there . And not just because you mix something , because an engineer also mixes .
I feel all these tools do not make you an expert . I really feel that if you ’ ve mastered some great records , you can add the name “ mastering engineer ” to your list , but I would never add it [ for myself ].
And another thing is that we have a terminology problem ; this word “ stem ”, it came out of nowhere , and now it ’ s become the de facto word … But we have a couple of different things here . We have the original master ; you can call it the raw stem , you could call it the multitrack . The original master is the original recording . Anything that ’ s been processed from that , is a stem . So , sometimes when I get files , they ’ re someone ’ s mix stems , but I don ’ t want to work on someone ’ s mix stems because their decisions have already been made ; I can ’ t undo them . I want to start from scratch .
PS : Speaking of creating plug-ins , how did you get into that game working with companies like Waves and Steven Slate ?
Lord-Alge : Well , obviously , as you can see , in the background [ he points to the massive wall of outboard gear behind him ] I ’ ve got all the original processing , and I grew up with the original processing . Plug-ins came along , and it got to the point where you have to adapt and you have to move forward , and you have to accept what ’ s coming in the future So , plug-ins aren ’ t going away , they get better every day ; I got a relationship started with Waves early on , and decided that I ’ m going to help design my own and I ’ ll be the one who approves them . When they sound good , I ’ ll say , “ Yep , put them out .” And I tried to come out with the simplest , most usable plug-ins possible , and they ’ ve become some of the most popular plug-ins ever .
But look , I use a combination of plugins and outboard to get the sound I want . I
PHOTO : MICHELLE SHIERS
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 29