UA WebZine "Interview" August 03 | Peter Frampton Comes Alive with Universal Audio

Analog Dialog: Peter Frampton
Frampton Comes Alive with Universal Audio

Chuck Ainley & Peter Frampton working on "NOW"

Peter Frampton headlining “Day at the Green” at the Oakland Coliseum is probably one of the first stadium rock concerts that I experienced as a teenager. One of those amazing adolescent rites of passage—when everything changes and your life is never the same. If you had told me then that twenty-five some odd years later I’d be interviewing Peter Frampton, I never would have believed you.

We’ve all seen Behind the Music, we know the story, the rise and fall, but there’s something different going on here. Peter Frampton played his first live gig when he was 10 (opening for young David Bowie’s band). He experienced phenomenal success before he turned 20. He has the best selling live record of all time. You may think of him as a “has been”, but he doesn’t. He’s not bitter or angry, he’s not living in the past or strutting an XL ego. Peter Frampton is positive, joyful and happy. He makes you feel good in his glow. He is someone that knows who he is and loves his life. He knows how to balance life and work and art and family. Frampton almost died in a horrible auto accident in the late seventies. After interviewing him, I realized that he has that amazing joie de vivre that I’ve seen in other people that have faced death and survived.

“The new stuff, the 2-610, hasn’t been off since it arrived, I use that all the time on everything from vocals to guitars and same with the 2108.”

All this fantastic energy can be found in Frampton’s new album, ‘NOW’, due out on August 26. Frampton’s first studio album in nine years, ‘NOW’ was recorded and mixed entirely at his home studio in Cincinnati. Frampton’s studio boasts an arsenal of Universal Audio hardware: three original 1176LNs, one original LA-2A, one new 2108 dual mic pre, one new 2-610 dual tube mic pre and one software set of the UAD-1 Powered Plug-Ins. Nashville Engineer Chuck Ainlay, who taught Frampton enough to take over engineering duties on some tracks, engineered much of the album.

The songs were tracked to a Studer 2” tape machine then transferred to the computer for editing in Steinberg’s Nuendo system “I upgraded my system because I really like the Nuendo sound. I really couldn’t tell the difference between Nuendo and tape, so I knew we were on to something. There’s a very good audio engine in Nuendo.”

Ampeg Jet (top right) and Top Hat (bottom foreground), with a Framptone Amp Switcher visible at right

The only plug-ins used within Nuendo were the UAD-1 Powered Plug-Ins and the Nuendo Reverb. The album was mixed on an SSL board and then sent back out to Ampex 1/2” tape. “I mixed many of the tracks myself. We mixed over 3 months. We learned a lot about transferring from Analog to Digital, the right way. It was a journey. As it will always be, I’m sure, but we definitely got there in the end and now I know a little bit more about digital stuff. I know how to make it do what I want… NOW.”

And of course, what you all want to know…what is Frampton’s guitar recording rig?

“Well, it always changes. For some of the stuff we tracked, I used the live rig which is basically the fully blown Marshall stack, I have a mono Marshall in the center cabinet and then on either side I have 2 effects cabinets. I’m self-processed at that point. For overdubs and a lot of the other tracks, I would use small amps such as the Ampeg Jet circa 1958, Fender Princeton to the newer Top Hat, Victoria amp, smaller Marshalls, Vox, and a JTM 45 from 1962—with that I have a head in the control room and drive the cabinet in the live room.”

When it comes to recording guitars Frampton goes for a pretty raw sound. “I get a pretty nice sound that is good on it’s own and but any tiny thing you can do with it via plug in or effect on the board hopefully, used in moderation, can make it sound better.”

“The LA-2A and 1176 have been in my life for so long. I can’t do without those. The LA-2A, I sometimes use for vocals as opposed to the 1176. The LA-2A is so much warmer sounding—with a different effect. It’s so transparent you can’t hear it doing its job, which sometimes you want. Whereas with the 1176, on a vocal, it has a tighter sound. The 1176 adds a little bit of brightness which is really nice. The 1176 is one of my favorite gadgets.”

“The new stuff, the 2-610, hasn’t been off since it arrived, I use that all the time on everything from vocals to guitars and same with the 2108. They are phenomenal on guitars, acoustic, electric. The 2108 is good for when you have something really aggressive sounding, it can handle that. Electric sounds really good thru it but seems to be just as great on vocals. I put everything thru those two units. They’re used all the time, in mixing, overdubbing, and recording.”

“If I was going for an acoustic sound on something, then maybe I would go for the warmer sound of the 2-610, with the highs as well, you go for the tube obviously for a vocal. Whereas the 2108 is better for an electric sound, though I imagine that would sound great on piano as well.”

Would someone with such a signature guitar sound dare use a digital amp emulator? Well… “Nigel (in the UAD-1) is definitely better than any other amp modelers, [like] the Pod, [and] Amplitude. I’ve been gun shy of those sorts of things. It was like the Walkman when it came out, it sounded great for five seconds and then everyone sounded the same. With Nigel, you have a lot more control and that’s what I like about it.”

Peter Frampton’s album, NOW, will be out on August 26. You can pre-order it at Amazon.com. The press people sent me a pre-release copy and I tell you, I’ve been loving the guitar solos.

Peter Frampton will also be touring the United States from now thru October. Check the tour dates and see Peter Frampton live!

--Interview by Marsha Vdovin

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