Unlike other careers people choose, the music industry is one of the strangest anyone does. Although nothing is guaranteed in life, the path to become a doctor, engineer, accountant, etc., has been traveled by many before and is a reasonably safe journey. When you enter the music industry, there is no path. You only have a vague map to your destination, whatever tools you have with you, and off you go. When you talk to others that have entered the music industry, they can only tell you what worked for them. Sometimes that will work for everyone or it will only work for them. Sometimes you have a guide to point you in the right direction or you won’t have anyone. Sometimes you just throw your hands in the air and see where the wind takes you. It takes a certain kind of person to take on a business like this.
So this is an on-going series for those who are working in the music industry and for people trying to break into it.
While the Band is Playing
by Jesse Davidson
Today’s interview features recording engineer Chris Constable. Along with engineering credits on Kamasi Washington’s debut album The Epic and for Fitz and the Tantrums, Chris has served as the Director of Operations for Slate Digital and the Associate Director of Career Services at SAE Institute in Los Angeles.
JD: How did you get started playing music and then eventually moving into recording?
Chris Constable: I started at the age of three or four. My mom started taking me to music classes. I was kind of forced to play piano for a long time but I ended up thanking my mom for it later because the music theory knowledge carried over. The ability to play keyboard in some shape or form really helped when I started taking music theory classes. Started playing guitar when I was thirteen and then the jazz band in high school. The band director graduated from North Texas and was a vibraphone player. He was steeped in music theory knowledge. Went off for a summer and did a Berklee Music summer program. Started really playing at open mic in Atlanta, which is where I was living at the time when I was sixteen. The guy who ran sound for them moved and I ended up running sound for that. I found that I enjoyed that side of things somewhat. Then I graduated…well actually I didn’t graduate I GED’d out. My dad’s job moved back to the Antelope Valley at Lockheed and that’s how I ended up there.
From there, I went to Antelope Valley College and started taking classes around the Commercial Music program. Started hanging out with Laura Hemenway, Dennis Russell, Jeff Bretz and all the people who were running the program at the time. I started playing in the jazz band under Lee Matalon and playing in Test Flight with Dennis, Laura and that whole crew. Through that, ended up playing in Morpheus Trip. Through that, I met Nate Dillon and ended up playing in Dead Rats and ended up doing a lot with No Exit Records. All of us had our computers and we were all building our own PC’s and shit like that. We built them and them stuck an Echo Layla card in it, we had some inputs, got some cheap mics and started recording local bands. We worked on bands like Zero Box and The Kris Special. Kris Special and Dead Rats I think are the only two we did that are still going. Dead Rats is technically still a band. Whenever we’ve all got the time and have a reason to do it, we get together and do stuff still.
Through that, I met up with this guy named Hector or “Dr. Ramirez”. Hector ran a studio way out on the East Side(of town). Way out past Avenue I and 90th East or some shit like that. He had an actual MIXPlus rig with three 888’s and a control 24. He had a serious Protools rig and a separate live room. He saw how much Nate, myself, and everyone else at No Exit had done for the music scene that he decided to give back to us and record our album for free. As we were working on that, Hector and I became friends and one day he said, “Look dude, I’m a drummer and I can get pretty good drums sounds but I have no clue when it comes to guitars. If you can come dial in guitar tones for me, I’ll teach you about engineering and Protools. So I started doing that and I fell in love with the process of making records and engineering. It was right around that time Laura brought John French, Captain Beefheart’s drummer, into Test Flight. John came in and listened to some of the songs we did, gave us some feedback, and then did a bit of a clinic. We all went to Denny’s afterward, John and I hit it off, and that’s when he told me he was getting The Magic Band back together. Originally, Matt Groening (creator of The Simpsons) requested they get back together for a party. Apparently, Matt is a huge Captain Beefheart fan. It makes sense if you think about how slightly twisted The Simpsons was for its time. It went well enough that The Magic Band was signed to Proper Records, an English label and were getting together to go on a tour of the UK. John wanted someone to both run Front of House and do live recording. Going back to your question, I’ve gotten into the industry the same way I’ve gotten into everything else. If you don’t know how to do something, say yes and figure it out. Did I know how to run a recording rig at the time? Not really. He was running a MOTU rig and Digital Performer. I had never seen the software before so I had a week to bone up on it really quickly and let him know what we needed. We used stuff that was all in house at different venues. Sometimes all I got was a stereo bus two-track and sometimes I got full direct out multi tracks. That was also where I learned how to really advance a show. What actually goes into an input list, figuring out how your signal flow is going to be and working with the house sound crew in advance to make sure everything runs smoothly. I did all that before I ended up going to the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences in Arizona (laughs).
JD: Wow (laughs).
“That’s kind of how the industry is. You learn as you are going and throw yourself into things that are above your skill level. And if you don’t, you’ll never make it”
CC: I was in an odd position at school because I went in knowing more than almost anyone else there. I already had a pretty good knowledge of Protools; I knew my shortcut keys and a fair amount about signal flow. The reason I chose the Conservatory was small class sizes. They wouldn’t have more than twelve students per class. When it came to hands on time, you had twelve people and a board with 60 channels. In engineering, that is so insanely important. You learn so much by actually doing that by anything out of textbooks. Especially now with things opened up through Pensado’s Place, all the Facebook groups and people doing YouTube tutorials. All that stuff is out therefor you to learn from for free nowadays. The thing you miss and the reason I went to school was the studios were open 24 hours a day. I purposely took the afternoon class so I wouldn’t be at school until 3pm to 7pm. go grab dinner, come back, and hang out while other people were in the studio. No one wanted the 3am-9am sessions so I would book those. I’d be in the studio doing whatever; I didn’t care what it was. I’d find someone to record or check out tapes because the first four months of the program was still analog and two-inch tape.
JD: Did you learn how to edit on tape?
CC: They didn’t get into editing which was the odd thing. This was about 2005. By that point, Protools had taken over enough that no one was editing on tape anymore. You might do minor edits on tape but that’s about it. Everything was going into tape and then being transferred over to Protools. By 2006 or 2007, everyone was on Protools. Tape machines were not getting used much anymore. After I graduated, I started working at Sonora Recorders near Atwater in 2006. At that time, we still had a Studer (tape machine) in house. It was set up and wired in but pretty much was only used when chasing Protools.
There’s something about mixing to tape. It does a cool thing and it’s one of those things I tried to describe to clients and I never could. They’d ask me, “If we go to tape, what’s it gonna do? How is it going to sound different”. It makes it sound like a record. That’s all I can tell you. I’d play a reel for them and they’d go, “Ohhhh…I get it.” It’s indescribable and something you wouldn’t notices unless it’s AB’d. That’s how a lot of things are. Engineers, especially those who have been doing it a long time, were struggling with this entire thing of everyone listening on ear buds, out of tiny iPhone speakers, laptops and then throwing boom on it so it’s loud enough. Then it’s slammed and limited so it’s brought up by 10 db. No one is really sitting down and listening on Hi-Fi systems anymore especially as vinyl went away. Before, it was hard to skip tracks. You had to get up, pick up the needle and find the gap between two tracks. Now, it’s truly all about convenience. That’s all people care about.
So, a lot of us struggle with the “Why am I doing all of this?” Why am I obsessing over the phase relationship between my overheads? Going through all these weird little things to get this amazing sound and then going to tape. All these things that 98% of people listening won’t notice.
JD: That’s kind of how I feel where the whole industry is at now with artists, engineers, and any sort of company involved with it. Everyone has taken a hit because of convenience. People can say, “Why would I want to see a show when I can look up that band’s concert on YouTube for free? I just want to stay home”. Everyone is kind of going through a “Why am I doing all of this?” moment.
CC: Right. There’s also a flip side to that. As things get pushed more and more digital and everything becomes more convenient, the thing people are still are willing to pay for and do make a difference are experiences. Which is part of the reason Gaslamp was so smart to do the Gaslamp Killer Experience. With just a DJ spinning, there’s a certain level of creativity to it with the way they mix things and effects they use. But really, you are going for the experience of a ton of people packed into a room and giving off certain energy. He decided to take that to the next level and that’s what the Gaslamp Experience is about. Taking it to the level of a live band where there is three string and horn players, a percussionist, a bassist, guitarist, and an Oud. The guitarist, Amir Yaghmai, plays the weirdest instruments I’ve ever seen. Last show I saw, he played some weird instrument he brought back from Turkey. It looked like a guitar but with four doubled strings. I’m looking at it and I noticed some of the frets were an inch wide, some were a quarter-inch wide, and some were a half-inch wide. I asked, “So whole steps and half steps?” He said, “Whole steps, half steps, and the little ones are quarter tones.” When I asked him how he wrapped his brain around that, he said, “I haven’t yet.” (laughs). That’s kind of how the industry is. You learn as you are going and throw yourself into things that are above your skill level. And if you don’t, you’ll never make it. It’s the only way to do it is going at it full bore. When someone asks, “Can you do this?” You say yes. Then they’ll say, “Great. See you next week.” Then, spend that whole next week studying your ass off and learn how to do it.
JD: Yeah exactly. I haven’t been in the industry that long but everything I’ve gotten is from jumping in and seeing what happened. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t but if it does, great.
CC: There’s two secrets or keys to getting work in this industry. One is always being available and sticking around. The other is being willing to take on things you don’t quite understand yet. If you can do both of those things and stay around for long enough, everyone I know who is good and has stuck with it is also working. The only people I know who aren’t working didn’t stick it out. It takes a long time and it’s not a quick thing. I’ve been doing it for ten years and I’m still out hustling gigs. My phone doesn’t ring off the hook, you know? I just worked on Kamasi Washington’s album this year (The Epic) and the response on it has been really good. Fantastically so because it’s a great record. He did something that is totally actually making something new out of Jazz.
JD: Totally. He’s making something new but still keeping it edgy and not going in Smooth Jazz direction.
CC: Right. He’s not going Smooth Jazz at all but it’s also not Bebop and it’s not Free Jazz either. It’s in this completely different category. He called the record The Epic, which for one reason, it’s a three CD 180 minute thing.
JD: That’s pretty ballsy for a first album.
CC: It’s extremely ballsy. Now you gotta realize that might be Kamasi’s first album as far as him doing a record. But, he did all the string arrangements for Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly album and he’s playing all over that record as well. The guys that he grew up with are Tony Austin, Miles Mosley, Thundercat, Ronald and Steven Bruner. He’s been apart of the Flying Lotus crew and Brainfeeder for a long time. Those guys have been playing together since high school or before. They grew up together and went to the same colleges. A lot of them went to UCLA. The ones who didn’t went to CalArts and they were still getting together and playing. Then Kamasi threw the West Coast Getdown, which was basically Kamasi, Ryan Porter on trombone, Miles Mosley on upright, Cameron Graves on piano and Tony Austin on drums. Through that, they did a residency at Piano Bar where they appeared every Wednesday and Friday night.
JD: Wow.
CC: Literally, every Wednesday and Friday night for two and a half to three years. And the Piano Bar is tiny. It gets packed really easily. The stage area is small and there is already a baby grand up there. These guys were packed in tight and were used to being within two ft. of each other every Wednesday and Friday for three years.
JD: You don’t have a plugin for that.
CC: No. There is absolutely not. They know what each other are thinking before the other one thinks it. They are this entity that is always on the same page and does some insane stuff. So I’m really glad to see them getting all the credit for it and ait was a really fun record to work on.
What they did was the group went into King Sized Studios and they started it off in December of 2013, I think it was. At that time, I was Associate Director of Career Services at SAE Institute, which is an audio school. I had already knew Miles and Tony and brought them in to do clinics at the school and stuff like that. Miles called me up and wanted me to get an intern there because they all had stuff for their albums. By the time all was said and done, they had over 120 songs. They just decided they were going to book out the room at King Sized for a month because any studio is happy to have to have a room being used everyday of the week. From being the Studio Manager at Sonora for while, when someone calls and asks the studio for a month, you’re going to give them a bit of discount because otherwise, you’re trying to fill everyday. They went in the course of a month, still doing Wednesdays and Fridays at Piano Bar, went in every single day, recorded 121 songs and walked away thirty days later with the basic tracks done. On average, they cut about four songs a day.
Kamasi then had all the basic tracks, he was still working on the songs, he was working on To Pimp A Butterfly, he went on tour with Chaka Khan, and was doing a bunch of other stuff. In the background, he was working on all the string arrangements and choral arrangements and did all those himself. As it turned out, Tony was a great engineer. He engineered almost all of the basic tracks. Kamasi called me up because Tony wasn’t available to engineer for some of the string sessions. He was able to be there the first day and we ended up cutting a whole other song. We tracked the thing live like…an insane little set up. Three horns, piano and keyboards, upright bass and electric bass, two drummers, Patrice Quinn on vocals and everyone cutting live.
JD: All in the same room?
CC: Not in the same room. Fortunately, the room at King Sized is set up that there is a large enough ISO booth. Piano and horns were in an ISO booth. Patrice, I just put in an Airlock between the studio proper and the control room. The drum kits were set up facing each other at opposite ends of the room. It ended up turning out great. That happens when you have great players. If we didn’t have really great players, that never would have worked. Then, we cut all the string stuff.
In talking with Kamasi, Tony and Miles about what we were going to do for the sound of the strings, Kamasi told me he really liked the string sound on all the Marvin Gaye stuff. He said he wasn’t sure that was the sound he wanted for this record but he really loved that sound. I went online and found Bob Olhsson who engineered all that stuff. Bob is 1) an extremely nice guy. 2) Has a memory like no one I’ve ever met. He has a mind like a steel trap. There is this whole post where he goes off and says exactly how he recorded the Marvin Gaye strings. Straight down to, “It was an Octet. We had these pieces and these pieces. I set them up exactly like this. There were KM-86’s on the Cellos two ft. from the sound hole and slightly to the left. No EQ was used on anything except for a 2db bump at 100hz with a shelf…” I don’t know if he just took really good notes on every single session but I kind of doubt that because that wasn’t really done back in the day. You’re talking studio bands that would come in and ram through everything.
JD: Yeah. They would only do like one or two takes.
CC: Yeah. They set up and were going and going all day. Now I’m sure this was probably used for more than just Marvin Gaye. My guess is part of the reason he remembers that is once you find out what works; you kind of don’t vary from it as long as you’re in the same room. The room at King Sized was a little smaller and configured differently than the room Bob used so I played around with it. Of course, the studio didn’t have eight KM-86’s. I don’t think any studio has eight KM-86’s anymore. So I went with what I could. 86’s are great because they’re side addressed. They stand up and you can aim more easily in some ways. So I went with what we had. There were a pair of 451 B’s, a pair of KM-84’s, and a pair of Josephson E-22’s I’ve never used. They’re omnidirectional and actually ended up as part of a make shift Decca Tree, which I’ll get into in a second. I think the other ones were the Oktava Mods. The MK-12’s
So, I set up with that stuff and ran through a Neve console. Not the same console he was running through but whatever. It was a nice vintage Neve. Did the same bump at 100hz he did on the cellos. The room we recorded in was not quite as live as the room all those other strings were recorded in. So, (snaps) click up about 2db at 7.5 or 10khz. Basically, on the top end of the 1081. Again, talking with your client and knowing what’s going on, Kamasi didn’t know if he wanted to be married to that string sound. So, the other thing I did was set up a makeshift Decca Tree. It’s a classic way of recording strings. Every classical recording is done this way. There is always a Decca Tree flown for string stuff on just about any film session.
A Decca Tree is three omnidirectional microphones spaced out in an equilateral triangle usually hung above the conductor’s head. I figured out approximately where a conductor would stand and flew the two Josephson E-22’s and a U87. If there had been another small diaphragm condenser there, I probably would have gone with that. But again, you work with what you have. In order for it to be a correct Decca Tree, it would have had to be three of the same mics. The classic thing to use on them is M50’s. Beautiful Neumann omnidirectional mics but we didn’t have the budget to rent them and the studio didn’t have them. The studio didn’t have three of anything because everything is in stereo and generally you go with two microphone techniques. Everything I do happens that way.
