Sound Advice, Session Two | Collin Dupuis
01|27|15
Collin Dupuis is the first person that comes to mind when I have any audio-related questions. I first met Collin in Detroit a little over 10 years ago when we shared a practice space. I started to learn about his engineering prowess, and was so impressed with how he managed to get such great sounds, even without all the gear that one would think is required to pull of such recordings. I was happy to hear when his career really started to take off, from working with EDM luminaries such as Carl Craig to becoming Dan Auerbach's go-to engineer at his studio in Nashville. He's even got a couple of Grammy Awards now to put on the mantle. When Black Iris reached out to me about being involved with this column I jumped at the opportunity to get to feature people that I've worked with who are doing great things in music today. Once again, Collin was the first person that came to mind. (Interview by Arun Bali, Black Iris Contributor/Composer.)
AB: What sparked your interest in engineering and mixing? Can you recall a first memory of it?
CD: When I was 5 or 6 years old my mom was dating a musician, an audio engineer by the name of Glenn Brown. I had a couple chances to go to the studio he worked out of called Lansing Sound. I was absolutely enthralled by all of the buttons and knobs. I was bit by the bug early on. Later in my early 20's I started to pursue audio recording and making records for my band and friends. I chanced upon hooking back up with Glenn on a field trip to his studio for an audio recording class I took at the local community college. I arrived early because I wanted to see the studio first. He instantly remembered me and we hit it off. I asked him if I could come and help out at his studio, and the rest is history. He helped me out a bunch and taught me a lot about acoustics and microphones.
AB: How did you first start tackling this interest (and do you recall the successes and failures of, perhaps, experimenting with limited resources)?
CD: When I was in high school all I wanted to do was play music. I hooked up with a friend of mine Norm Druce (who now runs Norman Druce Audio) in my early 20's and started to play in a band with him. He was always tinkering with speakers and other sound-making devices. We started to buy equipment and tinker around with home recording. We started out recording live to 2-track on a DAT machine and then he got a 1/2" 8-track. Then I got a Tascam 388 8-track. The limitations to these simple recording set-ups were great for getting my brain around getting sounds, which was really a hit or miss thing since I really did not know what I was doing.
AB: Are there any of the techniques or concepts you learned or used with an EDM guy like Carl Craig that found their way into the current stuff you're doing with Dan Auerbach? I find the ability to work within such different genres so intriguing.
CD: Really, as far as working with Carl and Dan, it is really similar. They are both really creative and like to move fast and instinctually. The technical aspect of the different genres is just a matter of getting the aesthetics of the song at hand. Some songs require a bunch of compression and distortion and others require a lot less. But overall I approach the song with my ears and feelings and try to find what is working and what is getting a positive reaction from the artist. Also, I try and pay as much attention as possible to the task at hand and help the formation of the sound happen really quickly. Also, the low end has to be sweet!
AB: Is there any advice you can give to someone who is interested in doing what you do?
CD: If you want to make records, don't worry about the money at first. Cut your teeth as much as possible. Buy some equipment and experiment all the time. Don't worry about having a social life; spend your time in the studio honing your skills. Don't waste time doing stupid things like watching TV and playing video games. Go record a song or some sounds instead. Play and learn instruments. Having a background in music will help you a lot when learning how to record. Get your foot in the door as an intern at a studio and be there all the time ready to help out. Keep a positive attitude and be helpful; no one want's a negative person around. Don't bad mouth or talk shit. Stay humble, you'll never know everything. Grow thick skin. Have a sense of humor. Make a good cup of coffee. Be available 24hrs.
AB: What is one current trend in music production that you don't like? Why?
CD: Modern Country. Terrible.
AB: Gimme a guilty pleasure.
CD: Mixing in the box. The things I can do with plug-ins is pretty amazing now.
AB: Nerd opportunity. What were some of the biggest surprises of going "in-the-box"? Can you compare the two styles of workflow? And do you have any specific advice about how to make digital mixes sound great?
CD: One of the bigger surprises was that getting mixes to sound good I needed to approach things differently, such as gain staging. In The Box (ITB) gain structure is quite different than mixing on a console. Analog consoles tend to have a little more forgiveness than digital when you are near clipping. In order to work ITB I had to re-learn gain structure to get plug-ins to act similar to analog components. The work flow is quite a bit different and uses a different part of your brain. It is much more visual and lacks the tactile "dedicated knob" you'd find on an analog console. But with a good control surface I have learned to work ITB. Until I got an Avid D-Command, I did not like mixing ITB. But now, I really do love the recall of my mixes ITB. When someone needs a Vocal Up or a little tweak done...No Problem! (And they almost always do.) That being said, I still think that analog summing on a good console with good EQ's adds something that I still can't get ITB. Thats why I am building myself a custom analog console with Spectra Sonics parts. To my ears the late-60's Spectra Sonics sounds super good! But- for the most part- ITB is now a valid way of mixing. I still prefer certain kinds of distortion and compression to come from outside the box.
To learn more about Collin Dupuis, visit his website here: www.collindupuis.com
AB: What sparked your interest in engineering and mixing? Can you recall a first memory of it?
CD: When I was 5 or 6 years old my mom was dating a musician, an audio engineer by the name of Glenn Brown. I had a couple chances to go to the studio he worked out of called Lansing Sound. I was absolutely enthralled by all of the buttons and knobs. I was bit by the bug early on. Later in my early 20's I started to pursue audio recording and making records for my band and friends. I chanced upon hooking back up with Glenn on a field trip to his studio for an audio recording class I took at the local community college. I arrived early because I wanted to see the studio first. He instantly remembered me and we hit it off. I asked him if I could come and help out at his studio, and the rest is history. He helped me out a bunch and taught me a lot about acoustics and microphones.
AB: How did you first start tackling this interest (and do you recall the successes and failures of, perhaps, experimenting with limited resources)?
CD: When I was in high school all I wanted to do was play music. I hooked up with a friend of mine Norm Druce (who now runs Norman Druce Audio) in my early 20's and started to play in a band with him. He was always tinkering with speakers and other sound-making devices. We started to buy equipment and tinker around with home recording. We started out recording live to 2-track on a DAT machine and then he got a 1/2" 8-track. Then I got a Tascam 388 8-track. The limitations to these simple recording set-ups were great for getting my brain around getting sounds, which was really a hit or miss thing since I really did not know what I was doing.
AB: Are there any of the techniques or concepts you learned or used with an EDM guy like Carl Craig that found their way into the current stuff you're doing with Dan Auerbach? I find the ability to work within such different genres so intriguing.
CD: Really, as far as working with Carl and Dan, it is really similar. They are both really creative and like to move fast and instinctually. The technical aspect of the different genres is just a matter of getting the aesthetics of the song at hand. Some songs require a bunch of compression and distortion and others require a lot less. But overall I approach the song with my ears and feelings and try to find what is working and what is getting a positive reaction from the artist. Also, I try and pay as much attention as possible to the task at hand and help the formation of the sound happen really quickly. Also, the low end has to be sweet!
AB: Is there any advice you can give to someone who is interested in doing what you do?
CD: If you want to make records, don't worry about the money at first. Cut your teeth as much as possible. Buy some equipment and experiment all the time. Don't worry about having a social life; spend your time in the studio honing your skills. Don't waste time doing stupid things like watching TV and playing video games. Go record a song or some sounds instead. Play and learn instruments. Having a background in music will help you a lot when learning how to record. Get your foot in the door as an intern at a studio and be there all the time ready to help out. Keep a positive attitude and be helpful; no one want's a negative person around. Don't bad mouth or talk shit. Stay humble, you'll never know everything. Grow thick skin. Have a sense of humor. Make a good cup of coffee. Be available 24hrs.
AB: What is one current trend in music production that you don't like? Why?
CD: Modern Country. Terrible.
AB: Gimme a guilty pleasure.
CD: Mixing in the box. The things I can do with plug-ins is pretty amazing now.
AB: Nerd opportunity. What were some of the biggest surprises of going "in-the-box"? Can you compare the two styles of workflow? And do you have any specific advice about how to make digital mixes sound great?
CD: One of the bigger surprises was that getting mixes to sound good I needed to approach things differently, such as gain staging. In The Box (ITB) gain structure is quite different than mixing on a console. Analog consoles tend to have a little more forgiveness than digital when you are near clipping. In order to work ITB I had to re-learn gain structure to get plug-ins to act similar to analog components. The work flow is quite a bit different and uses a different part of your brain. It is much more visual and lacks the tactile "dedicated knob" you'd find on an analog console. But with a good control surface I have learned to work ITB. Until I got an Avid D-Command, I did not like mixing ITB. But now, I really do love the recall of my mixes ITB. When someone needs a Vocal Up or a little tweak done...No Problem! (And they almost always do.) That being said, I still think that analog summing on a good console with good EQ's adds something that I still can't get ITB. Thats why I am building myself a custom analog console with Spectra Sonics parts. To my ears the late-60's Spectra Sonics sounds super good! But- for the most part- ITB is now a valid way of mixing. I still prefer certain kinds of distortion and compression to come from outside the box.
To learn more about Collin Dupuis, visit his website here: www.collindupuis.com
