talking dynamics here, not headroom. I person-
ally don’t care about headroom. Give me a mix
that goes to 0dBFS; that’s fine – just make sure
that there are lots of peaks and valleys. Leave
the limiting for mastering. That should be a
motto.
Beyond that, I actually think it’s the best
time ever for creativity in music. You can do
whatever you want. You can even record, mix,
and master it yourself. That’s incredible and
amazing. Never in recording history have you
been able to do that.
I’m hearing such great music come out
of Canada – so many great records that I’ve
worked on or wished I worked on. I truly believe
that Canada is going to take over the world
musically. We’ve got incredible talent here.
Lacquer Channel Room A, built by Group
One Acoustics with B&W speakers, Sontec &
Focusrite EQ.
Lacquer Channel Room B, built by
Group One Acoustics with Kranis cus-
tom-built speakers, Sontec & GML EQ.
PS: As we’ve alluded to, the whole “analog
vs. digital” debate, while maybe not as
publicized, is still ongoing among record-
ing and production professionals. Do you
find digital tools creeping more and more
into your workflow, or have you found a
balance that works that you see yourself
sticking with for the foreseeable future?
NM: All of us here master from a top-down
approach, analog being on the top. We usually
start analog then if it’s not totally working we
add digital. If it’s still not working we take out
the analog and go all digital.
Analog is amazing – not just the sound,
but the ergonomics. I like to think I can do a
better job when I can turn a physical knob
instead of moving a trackball or mouse. There’s
so much more to analog gear than the sound;
there’s a vibe, a ghost in the machine, if you will.
It’s the sum of its parts but also the environ-
ment it’s in, its age, who’s used and modified it
over the years. Digital is the same every time,
unless there’s something wrong; however, I’m
not afraid to use the tools that are available to
me. I’m not anti-plug-in. FabFilter, Nugen, and
UAD are ones that I use and they are doing
amazing things. Often times I’ll use plug-ins for
something that would be impossible or difficult
in the analog domain like dynamic EQ, phase
correction, and multi-band upwards expansion.
The biggest problem I find with people’s
use of plug-ins is over-use. It’s just so easy to
42 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
load one up and then another. It takes disci-
pline to just call up one band of an EQ plug
and decide that’s all I need. The same problem
exists with