Mixing at Abbey Road
After our enviable tour of Abbey Road Studios’ various rooms, we’re shown into one of their two newest studios – The Front Room – where we’re greeted by Gordon Davidson. He’s worked on numerous blockbuster scores including The Hobbit, Spectre, Thor and Iron Man; as well as engineering for artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Ian Brown and will.i.am.
Before we even get a chance to sit down, Gordon’s already checking out the audio stems of the project we’ve asked him to mix for us. Before our A-list engineer gets fully stuck in, we take the opportunity to ask him a few questions… Computer Music: How are you settling into the new studio spaces? Gordon Davidson: “Having more spaces to work in is exciting! We’re still getting to know the surroundings – how the monitoring’s working in each room, as they’re all quite different. The Gatehouse control room sounds a bit different to the Front Room’s.”
: The tracks in our mix contain a lot of bleed. Will this be a problem? GD: “You’ve just got to be careful when you compress things, and then ask ‘Why can’t I get rid of the room sound?’ It’s in the drum overheads, and you’ve compressed the hell out of them! You’ve just got to be aware of what you’re doing. I think some bleed’s good. All the reggae tracks from the 1970s sound amazing because the bass cab was close to the kick drum, and the sounds were interacting in the recordings, making it all part of the same sound.”
: Are you a fan of parallel processing when mixing? GD: “Yeah, it’s always a good trick for making things sound ‘larger than life’, especially vocals. Although if you get the right voice through the right mic into the right preamp then you might not need to. But in this track, there are a few ‘strained’ moments; saturated notes; a few bits where the vocal sounded a bit thin; so parallel compression will help.”
: It sounds like you have your monitor speakers pretty quiet when working? GD: “I do briefly listen loud to check what’s going on in the bottom – it’s easier to check the bass when it’s loud – but I generally don’t mix too loud for too long, as your ears get tired. Mixing quietly is the classic Bob Clearmountain trick! I worked with him about twelve years ago, and it was never loud – just [Yamaha] NS10s, really low, all day.
“I think a lot of balance judgements are easier when it’s quiet”
: Are you a fan of NS10s yourself? GD: “I think if you drive them hard, if you’ve got the right amp, then yeah, I don’t mind them. The transient response is unbelievable; hard to beat. The old adage stands true – if you make something sound good on NS10s then the mix is going to translate.”
: And you like to check a mix on headphones? GD: “I think they’re good, especially for radical panning, to make sure things aren’t too wide. Also, when working between rooms and different studios every day, headphones are the same, so it’s good to have that fixed reference that you can always rely on.”