Mixing With Fresh Ears

On the first night of the mixing process, Peter and I were alone in the studio. There were a lot of things we needed to discuss, and since I had decided that on this album, I was going to be actually doing most of the the mixing myself, I needed Peter to familiarize me with many of the controls and the new tools that were available to me at the studio...since it had been over a year since I had last been there to mix...and because the studio was in a constant state of being upgraded. At that time, all mixing of multitrack recordings had to be done manually...and with twenty four sliding volume faders, it soon became obvious that there would times when we would need two sets of hands on the controls, and Peter was much more experienced at working with this equipment that I was. I was glad that he was very agreeable to allowing me to have a free hand to do what I wanted...but I was also very appreciative of his skills...his ear and his experience were invaluable in helping me to pull the sounds out of the dry recordings we were starting with. We communicated very well on many levels...and although some of the musical goals we talked about were abstract, and were sometimes difficult to put into words...Peter always seemed to know exactly what I wanted. In the years since...the invention of computer-controlled motorized faders has greatly simplified the process...but back then, not moving a fader or dial enough, or too much, at any given moment...meant the "take" had to be done again. There was a lot of trial and error in the beginning of the mixing sessions...but like anything else...the more one does something...the easier it gets.

Drum mixes are always the first thing that are adjusted during a mixing session. We used ten different tracks on the drums alone, since each drum or cymbal essentially had its own microphone. We adjusted the EQ's on the bass drum first, and then continued that process on all the various drum tracks on the recording...the snare drum had two tracks, one for the top and bottom heads on the drum, and those heads sound totally different from each other...which enabled us to blend the two snare tracks to get just the right sound...and then we moved through all the various toms, the high hat, and finally the overhead condenser mic tracks, which picked up the various cymbals. We experimented with compressors on some of the drums, too...and also applied effects on some of the tracks. Since it was the very first night, and since all drum sets are different, and are tuned the way the drummer who is playing them wants them to sound...Tommy's drums were very different from what Barry's had sounded like in the original band sessions (and how Gene's would, when we got to the songs he had played on... and I knew that a different formula would have to be created for Gene's drums, since he had played on the majority of the songs on this album, and I wanted the drum sound to be as consistent as possible for the entire album). We spent a lot of that first night getting a "formula" that we could use as a starting point for all the drum mixes that would follow...at least for the songs Tommy had played on, and after six hours...I noticed it was getting difficult to hear things the way they really were...partly because I liked to mix at fairly high volume...and after a few hours of doing that, the human ear loses the abilty to hear some of the higher frequencies. Our ears just didn't hear things the same way as they had when our ears were "fresh." We got a mix that we thought we were happy with, and decided to call it an early night...and start again the next day. When we returned on the following night and listened to what we had mixed the night before, we both realized that with "fresh ears," we weren't happy with what we had...things sounded different than thay had the night before, even after six hours of work. I learned that fresh ears are crucial to hearing and mixing...but the good news was...that the more Peter and I worked together...the faster we got at being able to "dial in" a good sounding mix...and eventually, we got it right. I also found that on each successive song we worked on...the entire process got faster and easier.

The Mixing Process

I had been paying attention to the mixes of albums and groups I really liked for many years. All of them had common elements which I had determined was what I really liked about them...and I wanted this album to reflect those common elements as much as possible. I found out once I started the mixing process that knowing what I wanted to hear...and being able to "pull" that out of basic "dry" recordings were two very different things. Mixing is an art. It takes a lot of practice, working with many different tools and technologies, in many different situations, before one is able to "dial up" a finished product that accurately reflects a creative vision. Sometimes just the selection of a different microphone during the recording phase and how or where that mic is placed can make an incredible difference in one's ability to manipulate a recording during the mixing process in order to achieve a desired result. Since I was learning how to produce and mix my music as I went along...a lot of this became clear to me only after the recording phase was finished...and so there were many things that I had hoped I'd be able to do during the mixing process that I discovered I couldn't do...because I had made some errors in mic selection or placement during the recording phase. The albums that I was hoping to emulate had been produced by Glyn Johns, Bill Szymczyk, and "Mutt" Lange...whom I considered the three best record producers in rock music. Regardless of the groups these producers worked with...the end products always sounded the way I always thought rock albums should sound like. I loved the mixes they created, and the clarity, power, and presence of the music on the albums they were involved with. They obviously knew exactly which mics to use, where to place them, how to EQ them, and how to use compressors, digital delays, flangers, and all the other tools available in recording studios to enhance the sound of a recording to achieve that killer end result. And I'm sure that they learned that over many years, through trial and error, and through associations with other producers and engineers who were able to pass along trade secrets to them to help them become the masters they are. They also had the benefit of being able to record in the best and most expensive state-of-the-art studios in the world...with unlimited choice of microphones, recorders, mixing consoles, effects processors,and any other tools they might require...to go along with that wealth of experience. But I, on the other hand, had a limited budget, no real experience, no trade secrets that had been shared with me, and a relatively small and limited studio in East Hartford, Conn. to work with. I set my sights high...knowing that I would inevitably fall short of my goal...but at least I knew exactly what I was shooting for. That was very important, and very helpful, I think, because so many groups go into the studio with no model to work from, no clear goal in mind, other than the hope that they can get a "good sounding recording." What I knew for sure, from listening to all those albums was....that the drums and vocals were always the loudest and clearest things on the mix....that the seperation of instruments in the mix is crucial.....that effects should be, for the most part, subtle, and almost unnoticeable...and when they are noticeable...they should be dazzling, but should still sound natural and real......that every note of music from every instrument should always be clearly audible at all times....and whatever is  supposed to be the focus point, whether it be a vocal part or a guitar solo should always be easy to hear, without being overbearing.....and that changes in levels on any track should be undetectable, but precise.....and when everything is done right, the final product should almost make it seem like the band is playing right there in the room with the listener. 

That was the model I started with, and the goal I was shooting for...and what I found out was...that doing that is much more difficult to accomplish than I had ever imagined. The more time I spent in the studio, the more I realized how little experience I really had...and I found myself wishing I could spend the next few years of my life in there...learning all that I could about the process. Since that was a complete fantasy, and I knew it...I decided that the best thing I could do was...to just do the very best I could do with what I had to work with...and learn as much as I could from the opportunity that was in front of me...but as I started the process...I really wished I had gotten the chance to meet Tony Oteda...and had gotten the chance to record in that new studio he had built for Foghat... 

Into The Mix

After over three months of recording sessions, all the basic tracks, as well as the keyboard, acoustic and electric guitar overdubs, solo tracks and multiple vocal parts were finally completed on all eight songs selected from the Avalanche repertoire to be used on "Going For Broke." There were many other songs from our repertoire that I would have liked to have had the opportunity to record...but it would have required me to have gone with a double album...due to the amount of usable space and time records were limited to having before sound quality would be affected. Avalanche songs averaged well over four minutes per song, and some were considerably longer than that. The maximum total music time per side had to be kept under 23 minutes, or the signals might "bleed" through from one song to another. This was years before CD's became the norm...and vinyl had its drawbacks. I also believed that this being a first album on a private label with no distribution deal set up, just releasing a single album was enough of a gamble...and I knew that the cost of pressing an album was far more expensive than pressing a single...and there would also be the added costs of artwork, and color photography for the album jacket, as well as the printing and materials costs for printing the jacket and lyric sleeve, which I felt strongly should be included with the finished album...since I believed the lyrics on these songs were an integral part of the music. There was no getting around it...this would be very expensive. I wanted everything to be the best on this project...I still wanted to believe that I could surprise everyone by proving...once again...that I wasn't going to be denied my dream...and I intended to spare no expense in order to do this thing on the same level as if it had been released by a major label...but since I was funding the entire project, I also knew my limitations financially...and a double album was out of the question. The cost to manufacture this album the way I wanted to would have been reduced considerably if I ordered 5000 copies or more, but even in that lot size, the cost per album would approach almost $3.00, and even that was going to be very difficult for me to cover...since pressing costs had to be paid up front. I felt that if the response to this album was positive...there would be plenty of time and opportunity to record the remaining songs in the future, on  follow-up albums...so I decided that eight songs would be enough for this first album. Once that decision had been made...the next phase, and a crucial one, was the all-important mixing of the recorded tracks...the part of the process that can take good recordings and make them great...or can take great recordings and ruin them. What is most required for mixing...is a clear idea of what the final product should sound like...a clear goal to strive for...a good ear...and the ability to utilize the available tools and technology to bring that final version out of the basic or "dry" recorded tracks. I was really looking forward to getting into the mixing sessions...because the finished, but as yet, unmixed recordings were very good. Peter and I had done a much better job at capturing the music and the energy in the recording sessions for this project than we had on all the earlier recordings we had made with the original group. We were both much more comfortable in the studio, and with each other, than we had been a year earlier, and the experience we had working together was really starting to be apparent in the quality of the recordings we had ended up with. As I booked the studio time for the first few days of the mixing process...I was really looking forward to hearing if what we ended up with was going to be as good as I thought it could be...and so with a lot of optimism, Peter and I got into the mixing.

Don Moves In

After Bruce had moved out of the house on McCall Road, I became aware of the fact that it had been a long time since I had lived alone. The last time that had happened was when I was living on the streets, crashing wherever I could, and feeling very desperate. My addiction had pretty much isolated me from everyone at that time, and the lonliness had been very painful. I knew I didn't want to ever feel that alone again, so when Bruce left, I instinctively began the search for a new housemate. My lifestyle, my trust issues, and my need to feel totally safe with whoever I chose to share my home with left me with very few choices. As it turned out, my good friend Don, the man who had helped me to get off heroin and to the Methadone Clinic in Hartford three years earlier had just ended a relationship with a lady he had been involved with for some time, and had been living with...and he was also looking for a safe and comfortable living situation to move into. He had visited the house many times when the band had been together, and had always loved the place. He was the perfect choice to take the room I had available, and as soon as I offered it to him, he accepted. We both enjoyed our privacy, but we also had developed a strong bond of friendship over the previous nine years, so we also enjoyed a number of mutual friends and interests. Don was also very meticulous and neat, and very responsible, and I couldn't have found a better person to share my house with if I had tried. And the house did invite a party atmosphere...so we spent a lot of time indulging ourselves in that area, too. We were both firmly entrenched in the "counterculture"lifestyle...and we both had an appreciation for a lot of the same things...from fine weed and cocaine, to Dom Perignon, fine food and fine French wines, fine women, and, of course, music. Don always seemed to have a much healthier respect for the dangers of opiates than I did, maybe because he saw just what devastation it caused in the lives of people he had cared about, but he wasn't adverse to indulging in  them occasionally. I guess the difference between he and I was that...I was  in denial about the fact that I was still addicted to them...and only the form had changed. The emotional pain that I was in had never left me, and in some ways, had progressed...and I justified the level of my opiate use to myself with the belief that I was entitled to relief.  And all of us at that time still thought that heroin had really been the problem with me...and I wasn't using heroin  anymore. Don never judged me, or preached to me...and I felt very comfortable with him as a housemate...because he had already proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was my friend through times when others had walked away from me...and that he was incapable of some of the betrayal and deceit that I had experienced at the hands of people I had known for much longer periods of time. This, too, was the first time we had a chance to share a house as equals, since the last time I had spent time in a living situation with him, he was more of a caretaker for me than anything else. A lot had changed since then, and it felt good to be able to invite him to live with me, when he really needed a place...in a beautiful estate that I had been able to find and maintain...at least in part, because of all the help and encouragement he had extended to me when I really needed it...allowing me the opportunity to repay his kindness to me, and solve a dilemma in both of our lives, in the process. And I was amazed at how it seemed as though things with us had truly come "full circle"....

Bruce Moves Out

Around the time I was finishing up the recording phase of "Going For Broke", my closest friend, business partner, ex-roadie, and housemate for over two years, Bruce was having a lot of the same types of difficulties in his relationship with his girlfriend Laura that I had had with Patti, a few months earlier. Bruce and Laura were both barely twenty years old...and Laura showed a lot of the same insecurities and instabilities that Patti had...and although I could clearly see that their relationship wasn't working, Bruce had strong feelings for her...she was his first real girlfriend...and it seemed to me that he kept hoping that something would magically change, although I think he probably knew, deep down inside, that it wasn't going to. Most of the time they argued and fought, and very often, the source of their disagreements centered around the drugs. As I had mentioned earlier, Bruce and I were a lot alike where our drug use was concerned...we both believed that nothing exceeds like excess. And like Patti, Laura tried to "fit in" to that lifestyle, which really meant she just tried to keep up...but like Patti, although she could consume large quantities of cocaine, she became more and more irrational and volatile when she did. Bruce did his best to try to keep Laura happy, but it was a losing battle...she was never happy for very long...and the converted barn we all shared wasn't big enough to conceal the arguments and the problems they were going through. I can't really say for sure what was really going on with Bruce where Laura was concerned...I think he was in love with the idea of being "in love"...but we did talk frequently about how frustrated he was with her unpredictable behavior....and her inabilty to be happy for any real period of time. Bruce and I were pretty easy-going as a rule, and having fun and being happy had always been a priority with us...and eventually, I think Bruce felt embarassed when I, or any of my guests, had to experience the endless turmoil that their relationship had become. I don't think he really knew what to do about it, because he wasn't ready to break things off with her...but I think he felt if he stayed any longer at the house, it would be unfair to me. I don't think Bruce ever really wanted to move out of the place...he loved it as much as I did...but he couldn't control Laura anymore, or her outbursts or tantrums...and so, reluctantly, and I believe largely so they could continue their fighting in private, Bruce informed me that he was moving out, and that he had rented a place a few miles away. I also think that Bruce was starting to fall under the inescapable grip of opiate addiction at that time too, and was beginning to relax his own strict standards about who he would do business with...and I think he knew those new people in his life would not be welcome in my world...and almost from the moment he moved out of my house...Bruce began to slowly move out of my life. Once he had gotten his new place, I saw him with far less regularity, and I noticed him being guarded with me, and less open with me than I had ever known him to be. I attributed that to his problems with Laura, at the time...but today I believe that the change in him that I was seeing was the beginning of full blown opiate addiction changing a close and trusted friend into someone I didn't know anymore. Although we still did business together for the next few years...it was on a much smaller scale, and with a lot less regularity. Our business partnership rapidly became a memory...and the business dealings I did have with him were often a problem, because Bruce wasn't handling his business with the same promptness or professionalism I had come to expect from him. Within a year, our business and social interactions had been reduced to occasional, at best...and within three years Bruce and I would have nothing more to do with each other...until nearly sixteen years later...when I finally decided to do something about my drug problems...and we found each other again...but that is another story.