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KID ROCK ENGINEER AND PRODUCER, AL SUTTON, ON "THE DEMOCTRATIZATION
OF HIGH FIDELITY"
Detroit's Al Sutton has
been producing, engineering, writing and recording music, while
running studios and record labels, for more than 15 years. And he's
only 34 years old. His production credits include seminal records
by Big Chief, The Laughing Hyenas, and Don Caballero, as well as
current tracks for The Detroit Cobras, The Henchman, Sutton's own
band, Variac, and most notably, Kid Rock. For the past three years,
Sutton has been producing and engineering for Kid Rock, on a beyond
full-time basis, as well as running his own studio, Rust Belt, and
his own record label, Timesbeach Records.
"Between Bob's stuff [Kid Rock],
which keeps me very, very busy, and all my other projects,
I am constantly trolling around for talent. Producers, writers,
musicians. In the past couple of years, I've been more and more
amazed at what people are coming up with in their "home"
or "project" studios. I mean really pro sounds. I'd been
hearing about the Mackie
UAD-1; it almost seemed like the one constant. So I sent one
out to a writer/producer in New York I've been trying to get involved,
along with a boatload of unfinished tracks, to see what he could
do. I told him to go to town. Actually, I sort of demanded it. Acoustic
parts. Bass. Remixes. Everything. All I can tell you is the stuff
he sent back out here just sits so well with the tracks
we did in Detroit on the "rock star" gear. Actually, it's
uncanny. The UAD-1
is very, very good."
As an even younger sound
man, Al toured with the many bands led by Michael and Andrew Nehra.
Together they built Detroit's legendary White Room Studios, while
Mike turned a fledgling gear trading sideline into the internationally
revered Vintage King Audio, a gold standard in studio equipment
sales whose client list features a dazzling array of superstars,
legends and music business icons.
"To say I know what an LA2A is
supposed to sound like is kind of a joke. I've known what hundreds
of LA2As are supposed to sound like," Sutton continues.
"Pultecs. Everything. Detroit is a Mecca for the real shit,
because Mike Nehra got us all in to it when we were way too young
to deserve this kind of stuff! But we did earn it. Anyway, the work
demands it, but it's also an addiction. Microphones? Never too many
of those, you know. Right now, I'm awaiting delivery on another
desk for my studio. A Neve."
"Look, the high-end audio world
isn't going anywhere. Vintage is alive and well. First of all, my
EQs, mics, desks and compressors -all this stuff really does vary
from unit to unit. The idiosyncrasies of these particular units,
and how they interact with one another, and even how they sound
the week before they die , is all unique to my studio.
To every studio. That's what gives studios a sound . That
and a million other things. And great new hardware is being manufactured
all the time. Mike recently asked me to test out a "couple"
of things he's considering carrying at Vintage King. I dropped by
to pick them up and it turns out he's put together a twenty space
rack full of esoteric, expensive pieces! That's very Mike."
Sutton takes a pragmatic view of the
quest for the ultimate recording gear, and the great strides that
have been made in vintage emulation as exemplified by the groundbreaking
UAD-1.
"At the end of the
day, none of this stuff matters... unless you don't have it! Anyone
I've ever known who's made a record the real way - you know, sat
at a Neve desk for a week or two - doesn't go back, unless it's
to track on the road, or in a jungle somewhere. I wouldn't hesitate
to use these plug-ins on a record, but more than anything else a
tool like the UAD-1
represents the democratization of high fidelity. For the money,
it's just outlandish! Back in the day, this kind of sound was not
available to the common man. We really are witnessing a revolution."
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