PROFILE
Doug McClement
By Ahmed Haroon
For an extended conversation with McClement , listen to the September 14 th , 2021 episode of the Professional Sound Podcast .
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Live wiring your sound anywhere . It ’ s what veteran engineer and producer , Doug McClement , does on the go : capturing sounds for records , concerts , or broadcasts , domestically or across alternating time zones , with a mobile audio recording business .
McClement is a Kingston , ON native who graduated with an honours degree in commerce from Queen ’ s University . Music , performance , and a love for tinkering with audio hardware were very much a part of his childhood growing up .
“[ I ] played in cover bands on the eastern Ontario high school and bar circuit all through high school and university , and worked weekends in a stereo store . I was in charge of the sound for most of the bands I was in while growing up . I bought a reel-to-reel tape recorder to tape my band , and was soon asked to record several other Kingston groups , ending up with a four-track studio in my parents ’ basement . So , I got the live recording bug pretty early on ,” he recalls .
McClement began laying the foundations of his audio engineering career when he moved up to Toronto in 1975 . Juggling full-time employment in computer programming while running a recording studio from his East York home basement during evenings and weekends , it was enough of an omen that something eventually was going to give . Fortunately , the sound stuff won . By 1978 , as his recording venture became profitable , McClement had quit his day job , moved his studio operations into a storefront premises , and established Comfort Sound Studios , expanding from a four-track to a 24-track configuration over the next five years .
McClement started running live FM broadcasts from venues such as the famed El Mocambo for stations such as CHUM-FM , Q107 , and CFNY . The demand for McClement ’ s audio engineering expertise became the talk of the town ’ s music community .
“ Many of my clients asked me to come out to clubs to record their bands live . After a couple of years of setting up portable rigs backstage , I bought a cube van and set up my system in a truck . [ I eventually ] got a bigger , five-ton truck with two 24-track analog machines , and started doing bigger shows : live albums , award shows , and major touring acts . We also built a portable multi-track rig that could be shipped in flight cases anywhere in the world . That system was used for remotes in Nigeria , Spain , Kuwait , Germany , Cyprus , all 10 Canadian provinces , and a few states in the U . S .”
During the late ‘ 80s and early ‘ 90s , music television came onto the scene and the demand for location recording exploded . Much- Music became his major client , along with other cable channels like YTV and Bravo . In addition , artists would “ hire [ McClement ’ s ] truck to go to a location for a week and record an album in a non-studio environment , like Blue Rodeo ’ s Diamond Mine and Five Days in July — LPs that were recorded in an abandoned movie theatre and a farmhouse , respectively .” McClement recalls one of his favourite remote recording jobs from 1990 , the MuchMusic train , where he and former high school classmate and fellow soundman David Hillier built a studio onboard . The train “ travelled from Vancouver to Halifax ,
DOUG MCCLEMENT RECORDING A MOODY BLUES CONCERT IN 2017
recording bands in various railway stations across Canada , as well as jam sessions on the train as it went from town to town .”
With the popularity of remote recording projects , McClement sold the studio and established his latest venture , Live Wire Remote Recorders , in 1994 . It would see him offer mobile audio engineering services within the live events sector . Over the years , the business has built up an industry reputation through doing the broadcast mix for events such as the Juno Awards , the MuchMusic Video Awards , the Grey Cup Halftime Show , the Stratford Festival , and the Canadian Country Music Awards ; music festivals including “ SARStock with AC / DC and Justin Timberlake , as well as many live albums for gospel choirs ; and recording soundtracks for feature films like Blues Brothers 2000 , Hedwig and the Angry Inch , and 50 Cent ’ s biopic Get Rich or Die Tryin ’.” Since 2014 , Olympic Broadcast Services has contracted Mc- Clement to be on the broadcast audio crew for the games in Sochi , Rio de Janeiro , Pyeongchang , and Tokyo .
During the downturn of the COVID pandemic , McClement has been supplementing his work as an audio engineering instructor at Harris Institute where he has taught since 1992 and is the head of the production / engineering department . Additionally , he ’ s utilized his time with Live Wire Remote Recorders restoring old analog tapes to high-quality digital formats . “ Sometimes clients arrive with 40 or 50 reels of tape from the ‘ 70s and ‘ 80s , in various tape speeds and formats , sometimes with dbx or Dolby noise reduction . We have a half a dozen reel-to-reel machines , as well as DAT , DA88 , cassette , four-track and eight-track reels , and even beta hi-fi and PCMF1 on VHS . Tape restoration is very COVID-friendly , as the client does not have to be present for the actual work .”
On surviving in professional audio for 45 years , for the married father of two , it ’ s all about “ being able to react to the changes in the industry brought about by technology . As the saying goes , ‘ Don ’ t bet against the future , because the future always wins .’”
Ahmed Haroon is an Editorial and Content Assistant at Professional Sound .
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