Artist Interview: Busy Guy, Engineer, Producer and Musician Mark Plati
By Marsha Vdovin
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Mark Plati performing in Brooklyn, NY
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Maybe it's because, in my mind, they are all rock stars being stalked by paparazzi and begged for interviews. It's true. The producers and engineers, the people behind the scenes crafting the sound-they are my rock stars. I'm in awe of them.
Mark Plati is an extremely prolific musician, producer and engineer and extraordinarily successful for a young age. He started playing guitar at age 10 and did his first recording session at age 16. He did a lot of remix work when he first moved to New York in the late 1980s.
In 1996, Mark co-produced David Bowie's Earthling album, which marked the beginning of a period when he either produced, engineered, mixed or performed on all of Bowie's musical output. This lasted from 1996 to 2003.
In 1999, Mark switched gears and began a three-year stint as Musical Director and guitarist/bassist with Bowie, performing with him in Europe and the U.S. at such events as the Glastonbury Festival in the UK, VH-1's series Storytellers, and the Area 2 Tour with Moby. Mark also supervised the execution of two complete Bowie albums live, back to back: Heathen and the classic Low.
What is it like to work with David Bowie?
It was nothing short of fulfilling a dream. David is a true artist, and during the time I worked with him-from 1996 to 2003-he never ceased to amaze me with what he could pull out of thin air, and how far he could push me. My time with him saw me move from one end of my art to the other: from engineering and mixing to producing and performing, from the studio to the stage and back. I don't think anything could equal that.
Let's talk about your current projects and your studio, Alice's Restaurant
I'm currently doing the second album for Verve/Forecast artists Brazilian Girls. This time I'm producing with the band, and engineering. Next I go to France to produce a band called Les Rita Mitsouko. I'm doing both of these projects in large tracking rooms-one in New York, the other in Paris-and will then work on overdubs and editing in my own studio in the East Village, Alice's Restaurant, where I've been doing various portions of projects for years.
Right now I'm at Electric Lady Studio A in New York City, tracking the Brazilian Girls. The band is tracking live, including vocals, so we're using all of the available space for people, including the control room and lounge. We'll be here for a couple of weeks and then go to my studio for overdubs. Then we'll go into Electric Lady Studio B in January to mix.
Brazilian Girls are three guys and one woman right?
Brazilian Girls are Sabina Sciubba, vocals; Didi Gutman, keyboards; Jesse Murphy, bass; Aaron Johnston, drums. Three guys, one girl, and none are Brazilian.
What is your main studio set up-mixer, DAW, monitors, etc.?
At Electric Lady we've got Pro Tools 6.4, and working on an SSL 9000 J Series. We've got the custom large monitors, as well as KRK 8-T's and good ol' Yamaha NS-10s. I've brought along an assortment of my own outboard, including all my UA gear: a pair of 6176s, an LA-2A reissue and the UA TDM bundle. At my studio, I'm working on Pro Tools 6.9 and Logic 7.1. I go back and forth between them, depending on if I'm using MIDI or want the Logic virtual instruments or samplers.
Why are you tracking at Electric Lady?
We're tracking everything live, so we needed a space big and flexible enough to suit our needs...and we have some out-of-the-ordinary needs. The band doesn't play together in one room. Didi and Jesse are in the control room with me, so we needed a control room large enough for both of them to have their own gear set up, as well as my own. They each take a corner, and I'm in the middle. Drums are the only instrument in the live space, but we have two drums sets set up and miked as Aaron switches between them, so we needed a live room big enough to accommodate all of that. I'm recording two different room ambiences on the drums, so the space needed to be large enough that they'd each be unique. Also, we keep our bicycles parked in there as two of the bandmembers ride to the sessions, along with myself. So far, my request to Electric Lady for valet bicycle parking has gone unanswered...
Sabina is set up in the client lounge, which is pretty big and has a window into the control room so she can see what we're all doing. In fact, all the sight lines work out well; nobody is isolated.
The desk at Electric Lady is a gazillion-input SSL 9000 J (actually only 80). It's a large piece of real estate, and so we're using a good chunk of it. In the end, we're running 48 live inputs, give or take, per song, into Pro Tools.
What are the signal chains for the vocals? Any special tricks?
I have a vocal setup for Sabina that I'm going to use for the entire record. She's using a 1956 Neumann M7, which is routed into an API 512 mic preamp, then into an LA-2A reissue. This chain goes straight into the rig. I own all of these pieces, so we'll have a consistent vocal sound if we need to go back and add or do over some vocals at my studio. Didi and Jesse also have vocal mics set up in the control room as they do some backgrounds, and they're also convenient for talkback. For those we're using Shure SM58s straight in to the desk, with LA-2A's on the inserts.
Do you use the LA-2A or 6176 on tracking?
We have a number of UA pieces in the tracking. Jesse (bass) has two amplifier setups that we choose between-an Ampeg B-18, and a Galien-Kreuger head with a Hartke 15-inch bottom. Each of those is miked (RE-20 and U87, respectively) and then goes through its own 6176, using both parts of the unit-the 610 mic pre and the 1176 compressor-and then goes straight into Pro Tools. I also have a DI on Jesse's bass, which goes into an API mic pre and then into a classic 1176. Didi is using a Wurlitzer electric piano, and his DI chain (API/1176) is identical to Jesse's.
And, as I explained above, all of the vocals go through LA-2As before hitting the rig. Also, all the vocal returns have a UA 1176 TDM plug in engaged.
I heard that when you were working on a Bowie album at Looking Glass Studios you rented some vintage LA-2As but Looking Glass had just bought some new reissues and you like the sound of those better...
It is true. I had hired in a vintage LA-2A to track vocals, as is my typical MO most of the time. During this particular project, the Looking Glass Studio purchased one of the new LA-2A reissues. I decided to do a shootout between the two units and see what happened. In this particular case, I liked the new LA-2A better; it was just as warm as the hired unit, but a lot clearer.
Of course, a lot of that little test depended on the quality of the hired unit, which was an unknown, as is usually the case, even when I'm in a studio that has vintage LA-2A's. There doesn't tend to be great consistency between units, as they may be of different vintages, have different stages of tube wear, etc. I'll usually ask the assistant which unit is the "sweet" one whenever I show up at a new studio, as experience tells me there is usually one that's a bit above the others, for whatever reason. The reissues seem to capture the vibe of the older units, but have the obvious advantage of being up-to-spec new pieces, with all that entails.
Was there a turning point in your career when you went from struggling to "successful"?
I'd say it was after I worked with Prince on the Graffiti Bridge album. That seemed to change everything. The industry looks at you differently after you work with an artist in that league, even if you're doing the same things you've always done. People want to work with you because of whom you've worked with before and what they associate with that, whether it's record sales, critical acclaim, whatever. On a more practical level, I suppose doing sessions in world-famous studios was also was a clue that things were changing. The first time I worked at Olympic Studios in London, it really hit me hard- here I was in one of the most legendary rooms in rock history, halfway around the world. That's a long way from the paper route I had when I was 12.
Read more about Mark Plati on his website: http://markplati.net/
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