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Mixing tips

Top-flight engineer and mastering king Chris Lewis reveals some tricks of the trade...

The mission is enticing, but just like a busty Bond lovely, it's not all it seems. Go South 007, and meet a man called Chris Lewis who will give you an insight into the 'black art' of mastering. For not only is this man an acclaimed live and studio engineer, he also masters other people's mixes for a living, and is therefore the ideal candidate to provide The Mix with top tips on how to make tracks more 'radio friendly'. What's more, he does this mastering from his living room, which shows that professional results are possible from home. Hmm... sounds intriguing, M. Accompanied by Q and his array of photographic gadgets, we set off cautiously for our target: MELT 2000 studios. However, when we arrive at our assigned meeting place, a converted chicken shed that's one of MELT 2000's three studios in their farmhouse complex in deepest rural Sussex, it soon becomes apparent that there's a lot more to this mission than simply a lesson in mastering. Lewis is putting the finishing touches to an MP3 file, which he is 'ISDNing' to Johannesburg for a concert that evening. "It's a female artist called Busi Mhlongo, who I recorded on my last trip to South Africa," he explains. "She is singing at the Kora festival tonight, and she needed a backing track - so I have taken a mix of one of her songs off Pro Tools". After starting out as a roadie in the early '70s, Lewis graduated to becoming a live sound engineer for bands like Eddie and Sunshine, and Central Line during the punk era. From 1982, a long residency at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London began. In 14 years at the club he engineered and recorded live some of the jazz greats: Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard, and Clem Curtis, just to name a few, afterwards moving on to projects with Dr. John and Arturo Sandaval, before getting involved in B&W Records (now called Melt 2000) and former owner of B&W Robert Trunz. "I joined forces with Robert about four years ago and helped him set up this studio. It really was a derelict chicken shed, so we had to start from scratch, installing the equipment and getting Recording Architecture to redesign the mastering room, put in floating walls, soundproofing and so on. The surprising thing is that although you can hear virtually nothing as soon as you leave the studio, we still get complaints from some of the neighbours up the road! I think its just more a case of them not liking muso types in the vicinity, but in terms of noise we have more problem from farm machinery, than they have ever had from us!" The background to Melt 2000 itself makes interesting reading coming out of Lewis' and Trunz's shared interest in 'world' music, and the fusion of styles from different cultures. "It something that I became interested in at Ronnie Scott's," Lewis explains. "I engineered several Cuban bands during that time and thought they were fantastic". The informative MELT 2000 website (check it out at www.melt2000.com) also documents Trunz's conversion from equipment manufacturing boss to label owner while on a visit to South Africa, with the aim of "reinvigorating modern music by injecting the passion of some of the world's greatest players". In terms of Lewis' career, this has involved several trips to South Africa, both accompanying MELT 2000 artists on tours and collaborations, and recording new artists for release on the MELT 2000 label. One of the striking things about Lewis' South African projects is the minimal amount of gear he uses, especially when recording in the field. "On my last trip I only took a few flight cases with me," he confesses. "I had a Mac Pro Tools system with a 23 gig hard drive and a Mackie HUI to control it. The only outboard was a DBX 1066 compressor, an ATI mic preamp and a Tascam DA-38, which I barely used. I think some of the bands I recorded were initially really disappointed when they walked in. They were expecting a huge great mixing desk and reel-to-reel tape machine and there they were confronted with just a computer!" To many enthusiasts and professionals the likelihood of coming up with successful commercial results from such a minimal set-up would seem to be small. However, Lewis believes that the methods he employs are the ideal solution to the music he is dealing with. "Because all of the people in the bands are such good players the real job is capturing the essence of the performance as accurately as possible. You don't really need loads of effects for

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that, perhaps just a little compression. I would say the most important part of my job is miking up the musicians well and coaxing the best performance out of them. Unfortunately, with the advent of electronic music, many of the skills of mic placement are being lost, yet it can make all the difference between a brilliant and terrible recording." It seems that the man-management element of Lewis' job is as important as any. "Many of these bands have never recorded in a traditional studio before, so anything you can do to put them at ease really helps. For example, when I worked with a band called Amampondo (from the East of the country and supposedly one of Nelson Mandela's favourites) on my last trip we actually recorded the entire album in an old barn, complete with dirt floor. I have also recorded projects outdoors and even in an old British fort from 130 years ago! Recording on location often makes the bands feel at home and therefore their performance sound more natural. "The other important element in recording in this way is to try not to let the technology get in the way of the performance. Never having been in a studio, some of the 'traditional' bands, especially, find it difficult to record using headphones. In this case I may hook up a pair of out-of-phase speakers behind the musicians instead, to make them feel more comfortable. Another trick is to avoid telling the musicians you are recording whenever possible. For some reason, as soon as they know, the performance immediately takes on a tentative quality. Quite often I will secretly tape the practice runs - which end up being better than the actual take itself." Listening to some of the South African material, what's striking is how incredibly warm and intimate it is, whilst maintaining the highest standards of recording. It's a quality that's hard to define; this music could have been recorded in a studio yet you simply can't place it there. What's more surprising is the knowledge it was all recorded on Pro Tools. Lewis agrees. "I have become a complete fan because the quality of the Pro Tools DSPs and effects is now so good. Of course I may still record analogue in the studio, but it's no longer a compromise, just different. The main thing is that you have to watch for digital clipping all the time and run your levels a little shy, whereas you actively want to drive tape hard with the extra warmth you get from a little saturation. However there are so many other things to be gained from using the Pro Tools system. Obviously its mobility, but also the fact that it's so efficient. You can be editing, mixing or striping to silence whilst at the same time recording. It's easy to adjust and very good at drop-ins." Well aware that we are two hours into the interview and we haven't even touched on mastering yet, we set off hot foot for Lewis' mastering studio: a lounge, complete with three-man sofa and coffee table. Isn't this taking the 'mastering at home' concept to the extreme? "Well it may look like a living room", says Lewis, "but I wouldn't really call it a 'home studio'. There's actually several tens of thousands of pounds of equipment in here, and as you can see, we have also spent money on the room's acoustic design. It's simply a case that Robert and I wanted a comfortable environment in which to master - somewhere that we could be relaxed - and this seemed appropriate." Again what is striking about Lewis' set-up is the minimal amount of equipment used. Apart from the computer that sits upon the converted coffee table 'rack', there are no more than about 10 pieces of mastering equipment, neatly segmented into analogue devices on the right and digital devices on the left. "I really do believe that a combination of analogue and digital devices is best," explains Lewis. "For example, I often find that analogue EQ is better and more forgiving for the top end of tracks, whilst I will often use digital devices for the bottom end." In the bottom left of the rack is the studio's latest toy: a Drawmer Masterflow digital mastering processor. "I really like the Masterflow because it's so flexible and easy to use. The display is particularly good because it visualises all the different frequency bands in an intuitive way, allowing you to control crossover points and manipulate bandwidth swiftly. In addition, the 3-band compressor, width control, and valve emulator allow you to process elements of the mix discreetly, say by fattening and narrowing the bass end with the valve emulator and the width control, whilst broadening the top end. I particularly like using these elements to create a tight pumping bass sound on dance tracks. "By adjusting the crossover points its also possible to start effecting the sub-bass frequencies at the same time, which is a powerful combination. The compression is really powerful too. Even using a ration of 2:1 really blows your socks off! The only drawback with the Masterflow is that it doesn't have a remote control - otherwise it's spot on." In general, Lewis' mastering methods seem to be very flexible, but he has one golden rule that he is very rarely willing to break: "I tend to avoid mastering projects I have also produced and engineered. It's simply a case of remaining fresh. When you have been that close to a project all the way along, you may miss things that a fresh pair of ears may pick up. So I will tend to take the work to a third party. However, in the case of my most recent South African recordings I'm the mastering engineer as well. I'm aware that my mixes tend to come out a little 'down' - so I like to have someone to bounce off. Luckily having the studio in Robert's house means I always have another set of ears to call upon".

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Apart from this one proviso, a mastering project can take any number of forms; "Sometimes the artist or producer will come along to the mastering session, but some people like to remain well clear. I am fairly open to either approach". However it seems that the second method of working can require some additional man-management skills. "Mastering-wise there's definitely a trend for weird effects at the moment, especially with dance music. Some guys have a tendency to want to overdo it and you sometimes have to calm them down a bit." This draws us onto the subject of mastering at home against going to a professional mastering house. With all the cost-effective equipment that's on the market at the moment surely there is a case for doing the job at home if you are working to a budget? Lewis disagrees. "This studio may be in someone's house but it's definitely not a home studio. In the end you cannot beat the experience of a professional mastering engineer. I have lost count of the number of 'commercial' recordings I have had to remaster because not enough care was taken with them in the first place. The art of the mastering engineer is to get the recording as loud as possible without killing the dynamics, yet often I receive tracks with levels that are one long red line, so there's absolutely nowhere else left to go. Even worse, some tracks suffer so much from digital clipping that they take on an overly aggressive artificial feel about them". Before taking our leave we listen to some of Lewis' latest projects including new tracks by Juno Reactor, and Greg Hunter, who mixes traditional Egyptian musical styles with dance music. Both manage to be in-yer-face while retaining a warm subtlety and naturalness that belies the treatment they have received. Both tracks elegantly make the point that the gear may be affordable, but - just like mixing - that's no guarantee that it's going to produce the results you want. Success still remains a matter of skill, subtlety and patience.

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