Jam Session:

Q: What was something holding you back?

A: Ego. I hate to say it, but thinking I was better than I was. It’s a big slap of reality when you find out how good you are.

Q: What was some of the best advice you received early on?

A: Distance equals depth. Basically if you move mic back from the source, it will sound bigger. (Learned from Eddie Kramer)

Q: Recording tip, hack or secret sauce?

A: Shorter delays and shorter reverbs have more of a place in mixing than you may think. Things can get muddy with longer delays.

Q: Favorite hardware tool?

A: Without a doubt Urei 1176. It always sounds good and you can make it work for just about anything you need. And the Warm Audio WA76 sounds great! It’s what I’m using on my voice for the podcast in fact.

Q: Favorite software tool?

A: An 1176 plugin. I’m partial to everything Universal Audio makes. And the reverbs from Exponential Audio, founded by Michael Carnes, who designed Lexicon’s reverbs for 25 years.

Q:A good resource for the business?

A: I really think the Music 4.0 book is unique in that it not only gives you history of music biz but in a different approach, but there's a lot of research where all the money goes, down to the very last percentage of streams on iTunes and such.

Q : If you ended up in a new city, didn’t know anyone and could only take a simple set-up to record, what would you take and how would you find people to record?

A: I would take my macbook pro, Apollo Twin Interface, Equator D5 Monitors, and a couple of Advanced Audio Mics. Go where the musicians go: clubs, studios, venues to meet people! For meeting people on line you can also use Gigmor.com - the idea is for musicians to meet other musicians at particular skill level they need to be.

Q: What is the single most important thing to become a rockstar of the recording studio?

A: “Persistence always wins. It wins over talent every day” unless you are so freakishly brilliant. The people that hang in there are the ones that get ahead.