RUMOR MILL
“If you’re an artist or a producer and you hand me a mix, I think of you handing me your baby. My job is to be the best babysitter in the world.”
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
MANNY IN THE MIX
Talking Sonics and Sensibility With Mixer Extraordinaire Manny Marroquin
Master mixer Manny Marroquin radiates enough joy and enthusiasm to disarm the most jaded biz-trade hack. And why shouldn’t he? The Guatemala-born, L.A.-based sound expert (who’s managed by Randy Cohen at CAM) has become the go-to guy for the biggest artists in pop, country, rock, hip-hop and everything in between, and he’s a self-described “kid in a candy store” in the studio. Still, it’s a wonder he wasn’t turning up the mix even louder when forced to chat with us.
Your studio seems like a fortress of solitude.
If you’re a top-notch mixer, they leave you alone, and it’s less politics. When they trust you 100%, it’s a beautiful thing. The cool thing is that I’m crossing genres.
Yeezus is one project you worked on that I was particularly curious about, because it’s so sonically challenging.
Funnily enough, I went from Kanye [West] right to almost the opposite with John Mayer’s new album. So that was where my mind was, with Kanye’s “Balls to the wall. Full throttle. Don’t be nice,” as my meters are about to break. You forget every rule you’ve learned in the last 20 years. You just go for it. And the songs that I mixed were super-aggressive, almost demonic. He wanted to see how far we could take it.
Do you remember a point where you reached that plateau where you had done something where you felt like people just started to trust you to deliver the product?
I honestly don’t think about that. I feel like the moment I do, and my ego gets in the way a bit, I’ll believe I know exactly what someone wants. I’d rather stay at one song at a time.
I’m mixing this Keith Urban song, and it’s so different from what I would normally do. My friend says an artist or a producer can get to the 15-yard line, and our job is to take it to the end zone. That’s where the art form comes in. It’s the same song, the same vibe, but suddenly there’s a deeper emotional connection you have with the song, through sonics and dynamics. It’s the rollercoaster that a song should take you on. We create the tension and the release.
The best part about my job is when an artist or a producer comes in and they’ve been living with this song for months and months. They listen, and I haven’t added any parts, any sounds. I’ve just tweaked what was there, and some of them have to leave the room because they’re actually emotional and want to cry. That’s powerful.
So where do you begin?
I’m a drummer, so I always start with my drums. It gets me excited. A lot of mixers and engineers forget that we have to think from the right side of the brain. We feel like it’s a technical field, and it is, but there’s also a creative side to it. I try to be 50% left brain and 50% right. If I feel like I’m using one side more, then I compensate. That’s part of the job, trying to capture the emotional connection you have with the song when you first hear it.
People often say today’s records tend to be too “hot” in terms of loudness, which can impair dynamics.
Everyone has access to the same mixing tools now, and the automatic perception is often that louder is better. So you have to really think about that loudness perception. I might get a mix that’s at a certain loudness, so my job is to work my way up to that. I need to find out how to get there. You focus on what your peak is, and then you almost work backwards. Little tricks like that make it dynamic in a world that lacks dynamics. It could be volume, frequencies, filters, compression styles.
I did this Bruno Mars album, and we applied a lot of that on it. “Locked Out of Heaven,” has different styles of compression in different sections, because it’s almost like three or four different sections in one song. The biggest trick was figuring out how to marry what I remember was like four different styles of sonics. And it’s always evolving with new gear and new styles on the radio.
What are the biggest misconceptions that you see in these mixers that you meet?
I do this seminar in the south of France, and it’s called Mix With the Masters. They pick 15 participants from all over the world. In one exercise, I present a song they’ve never heard before and it’s never been mixed. They have 20 minutes, and the song is about three minutes, so they get about four passes. It’s about throwing faders out and committing to levels by what you feel. It’s so interesting how 15 guys at the end of 20 minutes have 15 unique versions of that song.
When you draw from the heart, you come up with a whole different thing than if you were to draw from the brain. Balancing that out it is really the core of what we do. That’s the basic philosophy on how I approach it. That’s a big part in why I’m able to jump genres, because it’s not about my sound or my technique. It’s about forgetting everything. I always say that I’m one of the luckiest guys in the world. If you’re an artist or a producer and you hand me a mix, I think of you handing me your baby. My job is to be the best babysitter in the world. You’re trusting me.
I saw these plug-ins on your site, but I didn’t really know what they were. Can you tell me about them?
They’re simple plug-ins that could be used by artists, producers, remixers, mixers, engineers—anyone. For example, on one of the plug-ins we did with Waves, was we shot all my favorite pieces of gear for each band. Each of these bands is a different piece of gear. There’s really nothing out there like that. We had to create a new platform. I wanted to work faster with these plug-ins, and to find out what I like that’s not out there.
So, do you feel like an aspiring mixer could really create the whole virtual studio with this assemblage?
You’ll have the tools. Peers have told me that when they get the EQ it sounded like me, whatever that means.
You think of yourself as sounding like whatever the record needs sounds like.
I purposely don’t have a sound, but other people may have that perception. I don’t want to sound like anything. As you see, the discography is pretty diverse. We’ve got Keith Urban today, and tomorrow we’re going to do Linkin Park, and the next day I’m doing The Weeknd.
Your studio seems like a fortress of solitude.
If you’re a top-notch mixer, they leave you alone, and it’s less politics. When they trust you 100%, it’s a beautiful thing. The cool thing is that I’m crossing genres.
Yeezus is one project you worked on that I was particularly curious about, because it’s so sonically challenging.
Funnily enough, I went from Kanye [West] right to almost the opposite with John Mayer’s new album. So that was where my mind was, with Kanye’s “Balls to the wall. Full throttle. Don’t be nice,” as my meters are about to break. You forget every rule you’ve learned in the last 20 years. You just go for it. And the songs that I mixed were super-aggressive, almost demonic. He wanted to see how far we could take it.
Do you remember a point where you reached that plateau where you had done something where you felt like people just started to trust you to deliver the product?
I honestly don’t think about that. I feel like the moment I do, and my ego gets in the way a bit, I’ll believe I know exactly what someone wants. I’d rather stay at one song at a time.
I’m mixing this Keith Urban song, and it’s so different from what I would normally do. My friend says an artist or a producer can get to the 15-yard line, and our job is to take it to the end zone. That’s where the art form comes in. It’s the same song, the same vibe, but suddenly there’s a deeper emotional connection you have with the song, through sonics and dynamics. It’s the rollercoaster that a song should take you on. We create the tension and the release.
The best part about my job is when an artist or a producer comes in and they’ve been living with this song for months and months. They listen, and I haven’t added any parts, any sounds. I’ve just tweaked what was there, and some of them have to leave the room because they’re actually emotional and want to cry. That’s powerful.
So where do you begin?
I’m a drummer, so I always start with my drums. It gets me excited. A lot of mixers and engineers forget that we have to think from the right side of the brain. We feel like it’s a technical field, and it is, but there’s also a creative side to it. I try to be 50% left brain and 50% right. If I feel like I’m using one side more, then I compensate. That’s part of the job, trying to capture the emotional connection you have with the song when you first hear it.
People often say today’s records tend to be too “hot” in terms of loudness, which can impair dynamics.
Everyone has access to the same mixing tools now, and the automatic perception is often that louder is better. So you have to really think about that loudness perception. I might get a mix that’s at a certain loudness, so my job is to work my way up to that. I need to find out how to get there. You focus on what your peak is, and then you almost work backwards. Little tricks like that make it dynamic in a world that lacks dynamics. It could be volume, frequencies, filters, compression styles.
I did this Bruno Mars album, and we applied a lot of that on it. “Locked Out of Heaven,” has different styles of compression in different sections, because it’s almost like three or four different sections in one song. The biggest trick was figuring out how to marry what I remember was like four different styles of sonics. And it’s always evolving with new gear and new styles on the radio.
What are the biggest misconceptions that you see in these mixers that you meet?
I do this seminar in the south of France, and it’s called Mix With the Masters. They pick 15 participants from all over the world. In one exercise, I present a song they’ve never heard before and it’s never been mixed. They have 20 minutes, and the song is about three minutes, so they get about four passes. It’s about throwing faders out and committing to levels by what you feel. It’s so interesting how 15 guys at the end of 20 minutes have 15 unique versions of that song.
When you draw from the heart, you come up with a whole different thing than if you were to draw from the brain. Balancing that out it is really the core of what we do. That’s the basic philosophy on how I approach it. That’s a big part in why I’m able to jump genres, because it’s not about my sound or my technique. It’s about forgetting everything. I always say that I’m one of the luckiest guys in the world. If you’re an artist or a producer and you hand me a mix, I think of you handing me your baby. My job is to be the best babysitter in the world. You’re trusting me.
I saw these plug-ins on your site, but I didn’t really know what they were. Can you tell me about them?
They’re simple plug-ins that could be used by artists, producers, remixers, mixers, engineers—anyone. For example, on one of the plug-ins we did with Waves, was we shot all my favorite pieces of gear for each band. Each of these bands is a different piece of gear. There’s really nothing out there like that. We had to create a new platform. I wanted to work faster with these plug-ins, and to find out what I like that’s not out there.
So, do you feel like an aspiring mixer could really create the whole virtual studio with this assemblage?
You’ll have the tools. Peers have told me that when they get the EQ it sounded like me, whatever that means.
You think of yourself as sounding like whatever the record needs sounds like.
I purposely don’t have a sound, but other people may have that perception. I don’t want to sound like anything. As you see, the discography is pretty diverse. We’ve got Keith Urban today, and tomorrow we’re going to do Linkin Park, and the next day I’m doing The Weeknd.
