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Pro Studio
Edition e-Newsletter
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Meet
Florida’s Maestro of Metal
By Keith Hatschek |
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One
of the most talented engineer/producers in the metal scene today holds
forth in central Florida, halfway between Orlando and Daytona. Twenty-five-yea-
old Jason Suecof, owner of AudioHammer Studios in Sanford, Florida,
is quickly building a resume of first rate metal credits. Recent albums
with rising metal stars such as Trivium, God Forbid, Monstrosity,
Adrift and others have firmly established his pedigree in the genre.
Suecof’s energy, enthusiasm, talent and moxie seem limitless
despite the fact that he runs his studio from a wheelchair. He supervised
the construction of Audio Hammer to his specifications in 1999 and
now after six years of steady growth has just begun planning the next
generation Audio Hammer. He’s also a talented guitarist, leading
his own band, Capharnaum, whenever there’s a rare break from
his ever-increasing album production schedule. The wise-cracking Suecof
shares his method of getting a great guitar sound, drum tracking tips,
how to get the most out of a vocalist and a variety of other advice
in this wide-ranging interview.
How did you get into the music scene?
I started playing [guitar] when I was 8 years old. Before that, I
was messing with recording gear. We had a [Fostex] X-15 four-track
cassette multitrack and I was constantly experimenting with that thing.
My dad was a drummer and a Beatles freak. He would be playing things
for us all the time and saying ‘check this out!’ so we
grew up immersed in music. Another big influence was Frank Zappa.
I listened to his music, not having any idea what it meant at that
time. You could say I was raised on Zappa and the Beatles!
That’s quite a combination!
Yeah, we would sit and listen to the pans on those early Beatles records
with the rhythm tracks on the left and the vocals on the right…
it was pretty weird. For instance on Strawberry Fields Forever, that
drum track sounded evil to me by itself, it still does. Then Hendrix
came along and took things even further, with all the phasing, backwards
tapes and other techniques he used.
It’s a bit of a jump from Strawberry Fields to metal…
My brother, Jordan, who plays drums, and I started playing together
when I was 13 and he was 9 years old back in 1993. We’ve had
a fully functioning band since 1995, and we both really got into death
metal. My dad kept telling me ‘you’ll be into other music
once you’re 21’ but I didn’t believe him. Of course,
he was right, once I turned 20, I started digging all kinds of music
and realized I loved recording and production just as much as playing.
Right now, my favorite sounds are tech-prog, some of the artists I
like listening to include old bands like Atheist and Death. Of the
current metal bands, I love Nevermore. Jeff [Loomis] is a great guitarist,
they write great songs. Really, that’s what it comes down to,
if you write great songs and have some great music, and if you can
throw a surprise or two in there to impress me, then you’re
in!
|
| "God
Forbid IV: Constitution of Treason" cover art. |
All
the Beatles I digested had an impact though because I also love vocals
and harmonies. Yes is also one of my favorite bands, great vocal arrangements.
Actually, right now I’m shopping a new band called Failsafe,
that I produced a five-song demo for in about two weeks time. They
have fantastic vocal harmonies. (Suecof emailed this writer an MP3
of a rough mix of a Failsafe track titled, “Return To Lust,”
filled with tight, packed vocal harmonies over a crazed, energy-infused
heavy rock groove). Whatever the style of music, you have to have
the songs and the playing to get me excited.
How
did you hook up with God Forbid?
I
met Dallas [Coyle] online back in 2000. We traded MP3s of our bands
and basically we liked the same kinds of music. They played Tampa
with Nevermore and I went to the show and we hit it off. In 2002,
I invited them back to AudioHammer to record a song for free to show
them what I could do, and in like, five hours, we banged out a track
from start to finish. It was pretty rough and rushed, but we had a
good time. When it came time to do their new album for Century Media,
I got the nod to produce it, as well as to track the vocals and guitars
here at AudioHammer. Eric Rachel tracked the drums, bass and mixed
it. (The album, God Forbid IV: Constitution of Treason is due out
September 20, 2005 and will be released on Dual Disc to include a
documentary titled The Act of Treason, which shows the whole album-making
process.)
|
| Suecof's
go-to mic for guitar highs and trick tom placment, the A-T AE
3000. |
How
did you get the guitar tones on the God Forbid album?
We started with a [Peavey] 5150-2 head, which rocks. I also have other
Peaveys like the XXX and the XXL. We had a good tone up in about five
minutes. Sometimes it takes five hours to get a decent guitar tone,
but in this case we nailed it right away. We used a Tube Screamer
pedal and a Marshall 1960 cabinet. I like to use a few mics on the
cabinet, for instance, I’ll start with a [Shure] 57 and a [Sennheiser]
421 about the same distance from the cabinet, as close to the grille
as I can get without touching it and a little off-axis from the cones.
For the God Forbid guitars, I also used an Audio-Technica AE 3000
for a little top end. It’s like a mini-4033, a cardiod condenser
that really sounds sweet and can handle killer volume, it’s
rated for SPL’s of almost 150 dB. Audio Technica loaned me some
when I was recording Trivium and I ended up buying five of them. The
bulk of the tone came from the 421 and 57, with just a touch of the
3000 for highs.
Next, I route each mic into a Vintech 473, which is a replica 1073
four-channel mic preamp. It has two switchable bands of shelving EQ
and Class A circuits throughout. I love the way it sounds. Out of
the Vintech, I go into three auxiliary inputs, then I bus those together
in Pro Tools and create a mix to one track in the computer. I know
some mixers like to record each mic separately, but I prefer to get
a good blend right then and put it all down on one track.
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| Vintech's
473 Class A mic preamp is a favorite for fattening guitar tracks. |
Unfortunately,
once we got things sounding great tone-wise, we ran head on into a
tuning nightmare. We were using lowered tunings to C# or C and we
just couldn’t get the guitars to stay in tune. The main post
started coming out under the bridge! Sometimes it’s the guitar
getting used to a new environment and sometimes it’s just that
a guitar isn’t designed to stay in tune that far down, unless
it’s a baritone guitar. Fortunately, ESP Guitars rushed us out
a batch of new guitars that worked fine and we quickly got back on
track.
A similar thing happened on the Trivium album. We had done all the
guitars, and then we had to do them all over again because they just
weren’t in tune. That was my first record for Roadrunner, and
I’m thinking, “Ohmigod! My career is over—I’m
dead.” I had a massive freak out… I started crying.
But you know what? It ended up being a good experience, because I’ve
already had the worst happen to me, aside from a hard drive crash.
We fixed the guitars and moved on. And you learn from it. One of the
things I’ve learned through all this, is that it’s much
easier to tune the bass to the guitars than vice versa. So now, when
I’m producing, we’ll cut drums, then all the guitars and
finally the bass, which I find can be tuned to the guitars quite easily
at that point.
Back to guitar tone, I just got a Marshall DSL-100 head. I used to
think they were too muddy sounding, but they’re not. For a lot
of music, they’re great and for some things they’re not.
You just have to try things out and see what it sounds like, then
pick the best head and cabinet.
You mentioned Pro Tools. How long have you been using it?
I got Pro Tools in 2002, and I was really hesitant to move over to
hard disk. I had quickly evolved, from analog units like a Fostex
R-8 (1/4” 8-track) to a TASCAM 38 (1/2” 8-track), which
sounded awesome. Next came a MSR-16 (1/2” 16-track), then digital
setups with my three ADATs and then four DA-78s. I had a Mackie 24
x 8 board and was making tons of recordings for my band and other
local bands.
|
| AudioHammers
current control room features an AMEK 44-channel Big console,
an intergrated Pro Control mixer and plenty of outboard gear. |
I’m now running Pro Tools HD 3 system and I have an Apogee Big
Ben as my master clock. I’m a fanatic about hard drive backups.
I do two Pro Tools backups to AIT-2 tape every night to make sure
we are covered. Even though I upgraded to Pro Tools, I still prefer
mixing on a console. I have 44-input AMEK Big console that I’ve
had for a while now that sounds good. I also have a small Pro Control
unit that I integrate with the AMEK.
Do you mix inside Pro Tools?
If you want to know the truth, I’m really so lazy, it’s
too much work mixing inside the computer. (Laughter breaks up the
interview at this point.) It’s a pain to have to pull up [each
track] and EQ and look at it carefully, move the mouse. Then go to
the next channel and do it all again! Grabbing knobs and faders to
make things happen is less work and I can do two channels at a time.
It’s way more intuitive. I’ve gotten good mixes in the
box, but it just takes a lot longer. Using the track ball for hours
also causes hand fatigue and I’ve gotta use my hands for everything
‘cause I’m in a wheelchair.
I have a Tube-Tech LCA 2B Bus compressor that I like to run my stereo
mix through as well. But I’d like to trade it with somebody
for an SSL G Bus compressor. I love the “G sound.” I’m
hoping to upgrade to an SSL 4K console in the future.
How did you tackle producing the latest Trivium album?
Looking back, as it was my first big album, I ‘over thought’
everything, instead of being relaxed, but it came out great in spite
of that. I produced and tracked it and Andy Sneath mixed it.
We went to Morrisound (in Tampa) to track all the drums over three
days. We used their big room. It was Travis [Smith’s] first
time playing to a click track and he did an amazing job. I really
stress now that drummers play to a click, because it’s going
to make everything easier down the road. What if you want to paste
a chorus, or you want to step a song up a little bit? With the click
underneath, it becomes easy to do instead of a nightmare.
We came back to my place and recorded everything else over the next
6-8 weeks. We took the time to do things right and it shows. For instance,
on vocals we were able to knock off whenever the singer (Trivium’s
Matt Heafy) had put in his best licks. With vocalists there’s
three stages to studio singing. First, they have to get warmed up,
then they are ready to sing, and after awhile, they are getting worn
out. I’ve learned it’s much better to stop the session
and explain that we can pick it back up at the same place tomorrow
rather than burning out someone’s voice. I tell them, “If
you keep going, I’m going to be watching TV tomorrow and you’re
going to be on the phone with the A&R rep, who is wondering why
we aren’t recording.” Of course, you can only tell someone
so much, you can’t really make anybody do anything, but you
get the best results by not pushing it too much.
Any tips on drum tracking?
Right now, I like to track at Morrisound Studios in Tampa whenever
possible. They have a killer “A” room where we can get
a massive sound. I have learned a lot working with Jim and Tom there.
I love working on drum tones, but one pet peeve I have is drummers
who show up for the session with tons of toms. I’ve seen drummers
with more toms than they can use. If you’re a creative drummer,
you can do so much with just two toms. Having a wall of toms in the
studio just causes more problems. It makes my life more of a pain
in the ass and ends up taking me a lot more time to edit. I really
don’t have anything against drummers with lots of toms, but
unless you really need them, why have them in the studio?
However many toms you have, my favorite mic to use on them is a 421.
But sometimes you just don’t have the room for 421s, so that’s
where my AE-3000s come in and it’s why I have five of them.
They fit just about anywhere and sound wonderful.
Back to the click track, it’s important to me to have the drummer
work with the click track because it makes the whole album sound tight.
On metal records, I usually replace the drums with samples of the
[musician’s] drums so it sounds more real. I’ll blend
the samples with the original hits. On rock sessions, where it is
more groove-oriented, I can get away without replacing anything, but
sometimes I will anyway just to make it sound better. Once in awhile,
like on the new Failsafe project, I don’t end up replacing any
of the recorded drums with samples because it just sounded great the
way it was.
What are your plans for the future?
Well, right now, I’m finally having a driveway put in next to
the studio. (Our interview was interrupted earlier while the contractor
asked Jason a few questions.) After all these years, I got sick and
tired of people tracking dirt everywhere! And I’m scheming on
a way to get the SSL board I mentioned earlier.
Beyond that, I’ve started working with Morrisound’s Tom
Morris on a new studio design. My studio is kind of a ghetto now,
after six years of hard use, but it’s my ghetto... I really
know my way around it. I can’t exactly bring a choir or orchestra
into my place the way it is now. Sometimes I hate it, but I know just
how to wring the maximum performance out of this space.
It’s exciting to plan a new facility to really expand what I
can do here. I have a five-acre parcel, so we’re going to build
a two-room facility that will kick ass. I want to have a big room
to track drums that will have about a half-second natural delay. That’s
perfect for drums. Then, my B room will be set up for overdubs and
mixdown. My main focus is going to be on building out rooms that sound
really accurate. What you hear is what you get! Along those lines,
I just bought a set of Dynaudio BM 5A monitors to round out my monitor
collection. I also have some Tannoy Reveals with a 15-inch sub and
a set of Mackie 824s. Right now, I switch between the Dynaudios and
the Tannoys. I’ve also been checking out some new monitors from
ADAM, which may be in my future, although they cost quite a bit.
What about the current AudioHammer rooms?
They are going to become living quarters for the bands that work here.
Right now, bands have to put up with me, and I can be a fat, grouchy
bastard sometimes, so with the old studio converting to a bunk house
with TV, video games and all the rest, we’ll be able to get
away from each other while we make an album.
Any
parting thoughts?
Yeah, don’t settle for crappy sounds. I was mixing a project
recently that had an incredibly lifeless snare drum. It just didn’t
have any snap or crispness. It wasn’t tracked the way that I
would have tracked it. So I took the track and re-amped it out to
a snare drum. I pulled one of my JBL surround sound speakers and laid
it on top of the snare, then ran the snare out there and miked the
bottom head. Voila! We had a usable snare sound. So find a way to
get every track sounding the way you know it should sound and your
phone will be ringing.
Thanks, Jason!
AudioHammer – www.audiohammer.com
God Forbid – www.godforbid.com
Trivium – www.trivium.org
Capharnaum – www.capharnaum.org
Vintech Audio – www.vintech-audio.com
Audio-Technica – www.audio-technica.com
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