mixing linkin park

24 HEADLINER
(LINKIN PARK)
Q&A
MIXING LINKIN PARK
AFTER STARTING OUT IN THE STUDIO AS A RUNNER, KEN ‘POOCH’ VAN DRUTEN WENT ON TO PLENTY OF BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS, AVOIDING
A FEW BULLETS ALONG THE WAY (LITERALLY)! HIS ANALOGUE BEGINNINGS LED TO SOME MULTI-PLATINUM CREDITS, AND THEN HE CAME TO AN AUDIO
CROSSROADS, EVENTUALLY CHOOSING THE LIVE SOUND PATH, WHICH HAS SEEN HIM FORGE A FANTASTIC RELATIONSHIP AND STATE-OF-THE-ART
SETUP WITH US ROCK GIANTS, LINKIN PARK...
WORDS PAUL WATSON PHOTOGRAPHS THOMAS RABSCH
You had an interesting start to your musical career...
Yeah, I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, although I’d had
some experience in the studio as a musician beforehand. I’d spent
a bunch of time watching the recording engineer and producer and
realised I wanted to do that. In my first semester, I went to the local
studio and asked to work for free; I started as a runner, and by the time
I was a senior, I was head engineer at that studio, which was called
Blueberry Sound. I ended up doing some projects there that were
pretty good, then moved to LA to start a career as a recording
engineer; I worked there for four years, and did some good records. I
worked for a band called Tony Tony Tony that went multi-platinum, and
it was the start of the rap sensation - the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I was a
musician, and ended up working with artists... When I say that, I mean
gangsters, really! They’d show up and have a couple of lyrics written
down, but wanted me to create their entire music. It was a little screwed
up, really, a couple of gang members turning up and saying, ‘hey, white
boy, make us a beat!’
Sounds pretty intimidating to me...
Yeah! I’d spent some time working with an Akai MPC 60, making beats
for rap records that then sold huge amounts, but I was only credited as
engineer on it, so I got disheartened. I was working at Paramount in
Hollywood, and the booker was having to make sure that they weren’t
booking the Crips in one studio and the Bloods in the other... Seriously!
They were worried about gun battles passing in the hallway!
Then I started to work with a couple of the ‘hair bands’ that were
still around - metal bands like Warrant, Slaughter, and Firehouse; and I
ended up doing a demo with Warrant. They had a hit called Cherry Pie,
and then literally out of the blue one night they said, ‘hey, we fired our
FOH guy, and tomorrow we’re playing the LA forum, and wondered if
you want to mix us?’ And to that point, I had never mixed a live show, not
even in a club; it had always been recording and producing. But I agreed
to it, and the next day, there I was in front of 10,000 people mixing a
Warrant show...
That sounds even more intimidating!
[laughs] Yeah, but it went OK; and what I got out of it was that feeling of
gratification with that many people screaming! From that point, I never
looked back, and that’s what took me into live sound.
Your experience in the studio isn’t so easy for youngsters to obtain
now, due to the easy-access Mac and DAW setups of today...
(LINKIN PARK)
“350,000 PEOPLE STARTED JUMPING AT THE
SAME TIME, AND FOH WAS LITERALLY LIKE A SHIP
IN AN OCEAN, IT WAS MOVING THAT MUCH.”
Yeah, and to an extent, that has a detrimental effect. What I grew up with
and what existed before was true artists: engineers and producers that
really understood about mic placement and gain structure, and using
the kit we had, like Fairchilds. As a runner and an assistant, I watched
amazing people do that, and that still affects what I do today. I think
the low cost DAW route combined with the end user working with
192kHz mp3s at best, means people really don’t know what sounds good
anymore. It’s a hard conversation that I’ve had with lots of engineers;
it isn’t dynamic, the sound of today, and I haven’t heard a really great
sounding record in a while, but at the same time, that’s where we are,
and it is what it is.
I think it’s sad, as there is no mentorship anymore; you can buy a
DAW for 300 bucks, and call yourself a recording engineer, but you don’t
get the experience of a true master doing their thing. There are some
studios in LA and London where guys are still doing some great work
with classic kit, but it’s few and far between; I hear some records of
artists I work with now, and I think it’s an OK sounding record, but
when I mix it live, it will be WAY more dynamic...
at over 96 inputs, and we also wanted a 96kHz solution, so we ended up
with DiGiCo, and we’re really happy we’re there.
Do you do any recording in your current role?
Yes, because Linkin Park has allowed me to go back to my roots and be
a recording engineer; I not only mix their live stuff, but they allow me to
engineer, record, and produce all of their live recordings; I did their show
at Milton Keynes Bowl [UK] for example. I basically do what I want
with it, send it to them, and they make their tweaks. I really enjoy that.
Are you also running at 96kHz in monitor world?
Yes, we’re sharing stage racks. Along with speaker technology, the
in-ear technology is also incredibly advanced now. Look at [ JH Audio
founder] Jerry Harvey - he is amazing. I’ve known him 20 years, and
where he has come with his drivers is parallel to what’s happening in
speaker technology. Being a monitor engineer is infinitely harder than
being a FOH guy, as you’re dealing with multiple mixes and multiple
personalities, and that can be a real challenge! We’re on the [ JH Audio]
JH16s. Our monitor guy, Kevin ‘Tater’ McCarthy, has worked with
Jerry and the band to create this custom in-ear; the seal on it is unbelievable,
as it’s a 16, but with a foam tip on the end, so it’s not only moulded to
your ear, but the end of the tip is specially customised.
On the road, you’re using a DiGiCo SD7, which is a big change...
Yeah, I just switched from an Avid Profile for this tour, five months ago.
We now have two SD7s – one at FOH, one at monitors, and I think the
switch was great. The Avid Profile is a valid console, and I understand
the Pro Tools thought process, but with Linkin Park, we were looking
Does running at 96kHz make a bigger difference at FOH because
loudspeaker technology is so much better these days?
That’s an interesing point... I think it’s a combination of a bunch of
things; 96kHz, to me, means I am using quite a bit less EQ, and there’s
less phase shift in my mixes because of that. I think it has a lot to do with
the over sampling and pristineness of all of that, so working at 96kHz
allows me to place things in my mix that I wasn’t previously able to. My
mixes are now much more pristine and not as trashy, so it makes a lot
more sense in the L/R realm, but also in the depth realm of the mixes;
a band like Linkin Park, where there are a lot of real instruments and
playback, finding space is difficult, so the switch to 96kHz allowed me
to place things and put them in the stereo spectrum as well as the depth
spectrum a hell of a lot easier than in the 48kHz realm. Additionally, the
speaker technology is very much more advanced now than it was in the
last five years, and that’s another factor, certainly.
26 HEADLINER
I know you’re a big plugin user on the road;
does this stem from your studio days?
Well, I remember as a recording engineer, I was
certainly aware of the Waves Q10, and then
I spent years not paying attention to Waves,
until eight years ago with Linkin Park. We’d
just started the tour, and I was experimenting
with a bunch of different plugins, and for the
first six months, I thought I had a good thing
going on, until I checked out the Waves stuff!
In the first two weeks of having them, I had
replaced 95% of the rest! The results were so
much better that I actually couldn’t believe it,
so I have been sold on them from then, which
made me push for a relationship with Waves, as
I wanted to be part of it.
Why Waves, over the rest of the field?
Well, we were getting much better results, and
it was only a little later on that I found out why
that was - their secret is harmonic distortion,
which a bunch of other manufacturers don’t
use. My love for the products grew from there,
and overall, their stuff is just phenomenal
sounding, too.
What are your go-tos?
I love the Renaissance Axx; it’s super easy,
really quick, and sounds great. It was designed
as a guitar plugin, but I use it on the drums – I
couldn’t do without it now on the kick and the
snare. I’m also a super big fan of the C6, which
I use on my vocals, and I used to use it on my
mix buss a lot, though in the past few months,
I’ve been using the Vitamin plugin, which is
along the same line as the C6, but with some
other cool qualities. I then use a bit of the L2
on my mix buss, but just to tickle the top and
eliminate any little clipping; and then I use the
MaxxVolume, which is a great expander and
compressor. I particularly love the gate feature,
as it works great for my vocals.
It’s a very smart, and very digital setup - a far
cry from the old analogue days...
It really is! And we’re recording all of it, too.
I have six Mac Minis at FOH, all with i7
processors, plus the Waves Extreme Servers,
which are also i7 processors, so the amount
of DSP is unreal; we can launch rockets to the
moon if we want to! But as you say, it allows
us to stay in the digital realm, as we don’t have
(LINKIN PARK)
“I LOVE THE WAVES RENAISSANCE AXX; IT’S
SUPER EASY, REALLY QUICK, AND SOUNDS GREAT.
I COULDN’T DO WITHOUT IT.”
to convert anything; everything is going out
digital, all the way into the speakers, which
makes for a lot of great features.
I hear the band are very tech minded, too...
Oh for sure. If they have editing to do on a Pro
Tools rig, I get up and get out of the way, as
they’re infinitely faster than me! Also [Linkin
Park lead singer] Mike Shinoda produces all
of the records, so they’re very involved in the
shape of their sound, and spend a lot of time
with me and some Genelec nearfields; and me
being a recording engineer, when I’m tweaking
some mixes, they come into the room a lot and
listen to the playback.
Have you always been a Genelec user?
I’m working on the 8050s, but my first
experience with Genelec was with the
really large model they made which they had
at the studio I was working at 20 years ago. I
remember I was like, ‘holy shit, these are
amazing!’ I had a pair of 8011s for a long time,
and then when the 8020, 8030, and 8050 series
came, I switched to the 8050s. I own two pairs
of the 8050s, and carry them around wherever I
go. The thing is with Genelec, I have 100% trust
in their sound, and it’s what I’m familiar with.
Back in the day, I trusted NS10s, even though
they sounded horrible, and it’s a little bit like
that in trusting the Genelecs, except they’re
actually really nice to listen to as well, so it’s the
best of both worlds! They show you things in
your mix that you may have to adjust for other
speakers, and also, they’re not fatiguing; it’s all
solid, good sounding stuff. I use them for live
and for rehearsals for the live show, where I’m
in another room with my 8050s. Also, the band
and I make live mix decisions based on how the
Genelecs sound, which kind of says a lot.
It does... If you look back, what’s the
maddest moment in your career (excluding
the gangsters)?
[laughs] Well, I was working for the new
incarnation of Guns N’ Roses in 2001, and we
did a huge show at Rio De Janeiro to 350,000
people. Axl [Rose], in typical fashion, showed
up four hours late, so already everyone was
upset, and the vibe in the crowd was really
unruly... People were throwing shit at FOH,
and I thought there may be a riot, but after
the first song, Welcome To The Jungle, 350,000
people started jumping at the same time, and
FOH was literally like a ship in an ocean, it was
moving that much. The scaffold was swaying
two feet from left to right, and the hairs on my
arms were standing up, as it was an amazing
moment. That’s the kind of shit that I live for...
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