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chrispbass

Well-known member
Joined
May 16, 2009
Messages
295
Location
UK
Hi all, I'm sure many of you have already dropped by this gentleman's site before, but if not, I thought it may proove to be of interest!!  8)

http://www.mbrauer.com/soundtowers2.asp

Chris
 
Ptownkid said:
Why in the hell would you ever want that amount of gear...

So the rest of us can say (eyes looking down at floor and mumbling) 'why in the hell would you ever want that amount of gear'?!  ;D

Just love this guys work, simply beautiful. Listen to Pino's bass at approx 58s on 'Vultures' by John Mayer(Continuum). Bad ass!!  ;D
 
Hey thanks, Mark - I know a guy in Austria who got his hands on 3 of em - lucky bastard  :D

Took them over pretty much for free (like a hundred Euros apiece) and blew me clear
across the room with them...never heard anything like it. Seriously, that would be an awesome
piece of DIY right there.
 
Michael is an amazing man, very friendly and believe me he uses ALL of that gear. He once shared with me for him it is an extension of his nervous system... he REALLY knows how each piece of gear sounds, he doesn't think in terms of labels and brands, just sonic textures and knows what piece will give him what he needs.

I have ALOT of admiration for him and am gladly to be (vaguley) acquainted with him. I did a mock interview with him at Potluck Con 2008, here it is:

This interview was conducted with Michael Brauer (whose Discography includes mixing Coldplay’s ‘Parachutes/X&Y’ and their latest ‘Viva la Vida’, John Mayer’s ‘Continuum’ & "Battle Studies") and Ross Hogarth (whose Discography includes Jimmy Eat World’s ‘Chase this Light’, Lifehouse and Ziggy Marley) at Potluck Con ‘08 in the most unlikely place… outside the Woman’s bathroom (which is great place to pick up woman, or so I’m told).

Matt: Why do you do what you do, and keep doing it?

Michael: I do what I do because it is all I know how to do, and the reason I still do it is because I love it and…. and because people still call me to do it.

Ross: I pretty much have the same answer. I love what I do and I don’t think I’d be happy in life doing something I didn’t want to do. That is sort of obvious right?

Michael: Obvious

Ross: So in order to stay happy you need to do what makes you happy. Cause a happy life is built out of happy moments (Stares a Michael and we all laugh). What was the other part of the question?

Matt: Why do you keep doing what you do?

Ross: Because I love the challenge of wanting to be better at what I do.

Michael: And until he is independently wealthy… (all laugh) he must still do it.

Matt: So you guys have a life contract in this? 2nd Question… If you could share one bit of information with upcoming engineers what would it be? Besides… maybe don’t do this (laughs).

Ross: Remember the word SERVICE, learn people skills, believe in hard work, but believe in the fact it has to be fun.

Michael: I would say…. remind yourself that you are not the artist, so when you are really precious about a piece of work that you’ve done and the artist doesn’t like it, it is the artist that has to live with it, so be open minded as you hope that they will be and don’t let your ego get in the way.

Ross: We are in a service oriented business so if you believe in that you want to be like that 5 star restaurant so when that person is drinking a great wine, enjoying a great meal before they even put their glass down it was refilled. So when music is happening and they are doing great work they don’t even really know half the time what is put into it to make it happen because it is almost invisible to them.

Matt: Being transparent in that process?

Ross: Yes.

Michael: Yes, that’s it, that right.

Matt: Out of your own record collections, or records you’ve mixed are there ones you constantly go back to for reference or just chill out to get away from stuff you do?

Michael: For me it is Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon”. That is always in my CD player.

Ross: That is so huge, but I have to say, I’d probably say one of my all time favourite artists is Stevie Wonder.

Michael: Ah, that is in there, “Talking Book”?

Ross: Yeah, “Songs in the Key of Life”, “Music of My Mind”, I mean Stevie Wonder is probably one of my most inspirational and people like the Beatles, I love the Beatles. But I’m also into Miles Davis, John Coltrane um Jeff Beck. I’m a guitar player so I love Leo Kottke. I play French Horn so concertos… I know I could go on and on, but those are always in my iTunes playlist. You would also find the Stax Vault, Marvin Gaye, Motown and then as a Marley Fan, but then Marley also was way way into Motown… soul music… That was one record right?

(All laugh)

Ross: A mix of Neil Diamond meets Neil Young

Matt: Hah hah, not to get the 2 confused

Michael: I meant Neil Diamond! Not Neil Young… that guy doesn’t use compression.

Matt: With the industry changing daily I guess we take it one day at a time but if you had to project 5 or 10 years from now do you think you would be making records the same way?

Michael: The same way? I don’t know it is always changing. It was interesting that in the panel we were did everyone was playing songs and voice on every mix was DRY, there was no reverb on any of our mixes. I’d say 3 or 4 years ago that wouldn’t have been the case. So from a sonic point of view you are always moving one way or another, how the bottom end is being treated, or the mid range is or how the vocal is going, reverbs and delay on the vocals. These were all really important to the success of the song and that is the way they wanted to hear it…. now… you can’t get dry enough. So where is it going 5 or 10 years from now… all I know is hope I’m still working at it, if I want to be.

Ross: We do this because we like it but at the same time I have a life outside of this so I Pray to God that there is some evolution in my life that takes me from spending so many hours in the studio cause there are some times I don’t want to be in the studio, but the economy drives us and we are raising kids and stuff. I’d hope that in some point in my life I would have had the foresight to create enough opportunity to do something else. I have a lot of things I’m interested in, there are other things in my life other than making music.

Matt: So this is your vocation, and you love you job, but there are other things outside of it?

Michael: There has to be otherwise if you are consumed with putting everything into work, then you are really missing out on life. All these projects are transient, they come in and out of your life, you give them all your energy and then they move on. Their loyalty to you ends the day that project is over, truthfully, if you think that loyalty continues through many records you are probably going to be in for a mental break down. You can’t get hung up on that just because you are good for that moment. But for me I love cooking, I love biking, I used to balance my bike racing and my mixing… my work took a hit big time, so I had to stop racing but I’m back into at least riding. You have to have all these other things to balance you out because you are in a room with no windows for hours and hours on end and if you don’t realize you have children that need your attention just as much they’re going to miss out and I think a lot of people forget about that and think, “well I’ve got to get ahead and work those 14 hours”, well once you miss your kids graduation it will never come back.

Ross: You asked earlier if I could give some advice and I guess some advice would be to have a life. Make sure you have a life, not only gear, making records and the fixation on that. Make sure there is something else because when you are not making music that is when you are inspired to make music. I’m more inspired by music when I’m not in the studio, which inspires me to go into the studio. When I work in studio I’m getting inspired by that inspiration, it doesn’t just come from being in the studio.

(Mark Rubel steps into the scene for a quick word)

Ross: Ask us the last question and we can get Mark’s take on it. Mark is one of the finest human being I know.

Mark: Say it again, louder, louder, I couldn’t quite catch that.

Matt: Ok, the last question. If you had to pick one piece of gear that you couldn’t do without in the studio what would it be?

Michael: I’d just do Rack 1 (Check out Michael’s Sound Towers)

Ross: That is really tough… if I say something really fast does it become one piece of gear?

Matt: Okay, a couple pieces then, give me a signal path of preference.

Ross: API 560, a Distressor… help us out here Michael

Michael: Well I have patch, does a patch count?

Mark: Mine would be a UA175.

Ross: As far as a new piece of gear I’d have to say the Inward Connections Vac Rack, well it is not THAT new.

Michael: I think I’ve had that for 5 years… Ok… Ok… Nah…(while thinking of his patch choice). I can’t answer that…

Ross: I don’t know that is such a tough question… I’d say my Schoeps acoustic guitar mic and my C12.

Michael: I don’t know…

Ross: Just take a picture of his rack, my rack and let someone else choose.

Matt: Well guys thanks again, I really appreciate your time.

(Scene ends with Michael and Ross entering the Woman’s bathroom together, laughing as they do so.)

Michael gave a great AES Masterclass in 2007 as well, it is down-loadable from his site: http://www.mbrauer.com/aes.asp

Last year he moved his ENTIRE studio out of Quad into the B room at Electric Lady Studios in NYC, would hate to have been part of that de/recommison team! That said it took him a week to tear down and be up and running again!

Cheers

Matt
 
Glad someone else really appreciates this guys work too Matta.

I've never had the chance to meet the guy (yet) but he comes across on his site as someone who is only too willing to share his experience and knowledge, just like many people on this forum  :)

The amount of gear he has is certainly mind blowing but secondary to the amount of hit records he's mixed.
None of us on here have escaped the work of Michael Brauer, the guys a living legend in my book.

Hopefully the pictures of his 'sound towers' will be a useful reference for many pieces of vintage gear and also provide some inspiration for being creative with panel layouts etc.

Long may he continue to mix great music...

Chris
 
Hey Chris,

Yes big fan, both of Michael and his work, very down to earth, very approachable. I still mail him from time to time and he always finds the time to write back, answer questions and just shoot the breeze.

Matt
 
ah....that's not that much gear, even though it is an impressive stack.  The impressive thing is that he has and keeps exactly what he uses, and it's organized into a conscious workflow.  He could certainly have a lot more gear than that very easily.

That's my old TRI-TRONICS Dept. of Commerce limiter in rack #4.
 
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