AUG INTERVIEW WITH SCOTT BURTON
DeKline
Scott is highly regarded as a music producer, mixer and sound designer.
He came to Los Angeles from South Texas by way of Berklee College of
Music in Boston, MA and has been working in the business for almost 10
years. Not only is he a digital- media guru (I always learn something
new), he's a great chef too (but that's a different interview).
His most recent projects include: producing and mixing music for Home
Depot, Hyundai's explosive new campaigns, and multiple unique
music-centric spots for Comcast; music production and mixing for Lexus,
NCAA and an two intense, music-packed spots for YWCA, directed by
Bronwen Hughes ("Stander"); sound design and music mixing for a
powerful FEMA spot directed by Bruce Dowad; an SBC Yahoo! DSL campaign,
directed by Robert Altman ("Gosford Park", " M.A.S.H.", "Tanner On
Tanner") - Scott designed, mixed and edited sound and music for three
spots that featured Lucy Liu, Liv Tyler and LL Cool J; sound designed a
five-spot campaign for Thrifty; music editing, mixing and sound design
for Universal; and ADR Engineer for the USA Pictures film "The Kid
Stays In The Picture" - he recorded the film's voice-over by legendary
Hollywood producer Robert Evans ("The Godfather", "Chinatown").
1) What inspired you to pursue a career in engineering and post
production? Ex-musician or technical gear freak?
A bit of both. I was playing alto saxophone in high school, learning
music. Sooner or later I started playing with my first pre-requisite
high school garage band, and I started to understand the effect that
production has on recorded music. There weren't any live venues to play
in, so my bandmates and I gravitated towards the piles of home studio
gear that started tumbling out of the Musician's Friend catalogs in the
early 90's. I had a Yamaha 4-track, a Quadraverb, a Sennnheiser mic, I
thought I was the bomb.
My dad's a CPA, so I'd grown up around computers. We always had several
around the house. So it was natural to gravitate towards MIDI,
sampling, sequencing. It was a kindof a black art at the time but
quickly becoming mainstream. Electronic music was about to go
mainstream. Before long, electronics weren't just another way to "get
the sound", they BECAME the sound.
2) You've been working in audio post production for a number of years,
how has the business changed since you started? Different tools,
formats, clients, etc?
Digital Audio Workstations were the real turning point in my opinion.
We had sequencing, sampling, drum machines & synths, etc. but they'd
always been seen as an adjunct to the recording process. And
consequently, adapting them to the tape-based recording process
became the black art above all others - engineers had to know how to
use complicated synchronizers and arcane, buggy computer software. We
had to give up 2 tracks to SMTPE. Studios had to equip and maintain all
of this bizarre gear, which would be obsolete by Christmas. All of that
changed when DAWs started to become into their own, and eventually were
seen as a realistic solution for total production.
I started off as a pro right on the cusp of the transition to DAWs.
We'd all had a good awareness of Pro Tools at Berklee but it wasn't
officially part of the curriculum at the time, more of an optional
tool. Officially we'd been trained on 2" tape and inline recording
consoles, so I wasn't really sold on Pro Tools as a music workstation
at all.
Post-production, on the other hand, made Pro Tools the obvious choice.
Given the option of "flying in" sound effects from 1/4" tape, syncing a
Umatic video deck and 24-track deck with Microlynx or worse, you'd be
crazy not to choose Pro Tools for your sound-for-picture editing.
The other one is obvious: Internet. It's almost cliche to say "the
Internet changed everything", but it's so crucial to our business now
to be able to collaborate with musicians, composers and engineers
around the world. It's sped up the production process dramatically.
It's removed a lot of dead weight from the approval and delivery
process, and it's eliminated my machine room.
3) Post production seems to be an industry that requires an engineer to
wear many different hats, what are some skills besides good hearing
that you find essential to your daily work flow?
In post, particularly advertising, interpersonal skills are important.
You do a lot of verbal communication about music, often with people who
aren't musicians themselves. You communicate with technicians from
other disciplines too: video editors, visual effects artists,
directors, colorists, animators. Audio post-production is like a town
where many roads meet up, and it's important that you can communicate
with people you meet along the way.
Critical listening is important as a mixer, but so is listening
comprehension - learning to understand the context, and the emotional
connections that the listener develops. People don't respond to music
because it "sounds good"; the social and cultural context are just as
important.
And it should be obvious but it's not always: EVERYONE looking forward
to a career in this business needs a strong background in music. It's
impossible to think clearly about music without knowing how it works.
So along those lines, it's important to have an understanding of the
Western 12-tone system, how harmony works, and what at Berklee we
called "ear training" - basically Relative Pitch, the ability to
discern pitches in context to their key. (Consider briefly the
difference between saying "The IV chord in bar 3" versus "You know, the
part when it goes up? After it goes down. Like, count to 13 or
something.") These are totally fundamental skills and I use them every
day.
Post engineers often need to know some technical things that might be
outside of the music engineer discipline. Like digital video, for
example. You need to understand the video signal, timecode, the various
formats. You need to know how to cut a good voiceover, which is nothing
at all like cutting a good vocal. Since DAWs have streamlined the
process, you'll need to understand sound design, sound effects editing,
dialog editing. You need to get familiar with Quicktime movies and
video editing.
4) How much IT is involved in what you do?
Anyone who's labored over OMS Setup or a corrupt sound file or an old
copy of Digital Performer can answer this: too much. It was the main
complaint about the computer recording revolution of the past decade,
"why do I have to learn this crap? Can't I just play my guitar?" Worst
of all, every new software and OS revision, every new device and
keyboard required you to forget all the old quirky tricks and learn a
bunch of new ones. I'm pretty sure most of my brain is firmly-cemented
with useless technical facts about obsolete audio & computer gear.
That said, the Internet brought audio engineers an ironic sense of
stability: since it relies so heavily on open standards, it's easier to
go from one type of FTP server to another than it is to switch DAWs or
sequencers. This is a blessing, because in my opinion it's now really
crucial for audio engineers to understand how networks work, what the
underlying technologies are, what makes their computers work. You need
to know how to manage data, and have a long-term data strategy. You
need to follow technology news and be able to anticipate major changes.
Also, for the modern entrepreneur, you have to get friendly with the
social networks. Get a MySpace page or a blog together, participate
frequently in forums, stay in touch with others in the industry.
Garageband and iMovie have created a generation of instant "experts"
whose online audio and video advice require constant debunking. You're
a pro? That's your job!
5) What's a "go-to"/ "sure-fire" trick or trade-secret that you didn't
learn in school? Something everybody should know in a similar field?
2-mix compression is the one thing that's really exploded in the past
10 years. It was the sort of thing you used sparingly when I was in
school, in preparation for a mastering engineer. Nowadays if you had to
point to the one thing that characterizes ALL of pop music, it's the
death of dynamic range, bar none.
I lament the loss of dynamic range, but it's hard to find a better
candidate for a "must-have" trick to keep you in the game. I hesitate
to suggest it, because it's too easy to follow the pack and overdo it.
And for that reason, I think it's crucial to find a good Mastering
Engineer who can provide some perspective to what a finished recording
should sound like.
6) A lot of people may have a romanticized view of recording studios
and post houses, name the first ugly reality that pops into your
mind... (ha ha)
Oh man, the 80's had their own horror stories: heroin needles in the
bathroom trash can, hookers in Studio B, Michael Jackson is coming and
the Lynx is broken. The excesses of that era looked pretty ugly up
close.
The scary narrative that popped up for us in the 90's continues today:
the business itself is flattening out. Artists and listeners are coming
closer together. It's a wonderful thing for artists. But it can be a
bitter pill for professionals to swallow, because it means you have to
make the need for your craftsmanship obvious to artists who might not
see the need anymore.
What's ironic is that even as the industry staggers to survive, there's
never been a bigger need for professional craftsmanship. So pros need
to learn to plug themselves into the new social networks where amateurs
are creating all the action these days.
6) You have experience in many different fields, how is audio for
TV/Radio post production different from engineering/mixing albums or
working on sound for film? Likes/dislikes from one field to another?
There's the obvious difference in format: we have to make a complete
musical thought happen in 30 seconds. That takes some tricks that
aren't always obvious when you're coming from the longer-format world.
Likewise you can't always bring your bag of tricks from the album
world, some things just don't translate based on the time format.
Dynamics are usually a challenge too because commercials are presented
even louder than pop music these days. You need to learn to anticipate
how much louder your mixes will get before they go on air, and deliver
your pre-mixes in anticipation of that. It's an inexact science and can
be maddening.
Composition is also very different in the commercial world. There's a
"sound" to commercial music writing, a certain middle-America
commercialism, and you have to know when it's appropriate to embrace or
avoid it. Advertising is about making a connection with a customer, not
an art critic, so you need to learn to communicate with people in that
way.
Commercials often have much shorter production schedules than albums
do, too. It's not uncommon for a project to be wrapped up in days.
Often your rough pre-mixes become final mixes. You have to learn to
work quickly. Like sound for film, you're a small part of a very big
puzzle, positioned at the very end of the process, and there's always a
lot of pressure from all around to get the thing finished.
You also can't get emotionally wrapped up in it. It's technically not
"your art" and you have to get used to the idea of letting go. You need
to make compromises sometimes in order to communicate effectively with
a big audience.
7) What suggestions/advice would you give a future graduate of Berkely
Music or somebody contemplating it if they wished to get into audio
post production?
Realize that technology has made the field wider. Learn everything you
can about the internet, about how other media is produced.
Anticipate working in a smaller industry, working directly with other
artists and outside of the traditional hierarchies. There will be many
more projects to work on, they will be much smaller, they will have
smaller, more defined audiences, and they'll need your craftsmanship
now more than ever.
You've heard that the next big thing will be on "the small screen".
That's only half-true, it won't be a "big thing" at all, but kids are
already developing deep emotional connections with things they find on
YouTube. The era of overhyped entertainment products, produced and
marketed by narrow industries in Los Angeles and New York and delivered
along a narrow pipeline, is in decline.
The vision of the audio professional of the future isn't totally clear.
But what's certain is they'll be closer to other artists and listeners
in the food chain than the industry allows right now.
8) As the nature of advertising changes with the development of
technology, where do you see the future of post production headed? What
part does the internet and tivo play?
It's hard to envision the future of advertising right now. Advertisers
themselves are sweating bullets - TV spots are of, ahem, "dubious
efficacy", if they were ever effective at all. Broadcasting in general
is facing major changes in the future. And most of the solutions
devised (above all, product placement) are outside of the workflow that
involves commercial music. That'll continue in various forms.
Music will always be relevant though. That's clear in the iPod age -
people are still eager to pay for music they can connect with. I think
that as entertainment and technology develop, there are going to be new
avenues for music and new opportunities with other media.
Remember our entrepreneurial YouTube video director? He's going to need
music. He's going to need help developing music and sound tactics for
his five-minute video. That's a new format undeveloped by commercial
interests, unexplored territory for a new generation of artisans and
craftsmen. It'll require lessons learned from the old media, plus new
thinking and strategies.
9) Are iPods the end of the music business as we know it... or is the
power now back in the hands of the creators? (Ha ha. Have fun with
this one... I know you will.)
I sure hope so! The music business is clearly unnecessary, and it's
having a hard time learning when to die.
Unfortunately we get a new Frankenstein monster to worry about. Did you
guess iTunes? Close, the answer is DRM, Digital Rights Management.
Artists deserve to have tools to protect their art, but DRM sets up
apartheid lines that even the most cynical format warrior of the 80's
couldn't have foreseen. We probably won't ever see an end to DRM, but
it's important for content creators to stay active in this debate -
recent studies (I'll dig it up if I can) indicate that people, given
the choice, are now more likely to buy music online than steal it. They
also indicate that people want their choice of media and their choice
of media players, and do not appreciate arbitrary technical boundaries.
The copyright debate is obviously bigger than music - witness the
"broadcast flag" debates of recent years regarding high-def discs,
cable boxes and televisions. But it just so happens that music,
musicians and fans are at the grassroots of this issue and still have a
voice in the debate.
With respect to the industry itself, I envision a balkanization ahead.
More financing is coming from overseas and outside of the old system -
last year's Academy Awards had two major indie nominees, "Syriana" and
"Good Night & Good Luck". The large-scale conglomerations are going to
have a harder and harder time staying profitable, but smaller-scale
products that are relevant to people will always have a place in the
market. The parts that are still relevant and necessary - publishing,
marketing, production - are more likely to take on a "boutique" quality
and will be more accessible to the average artist than the current
economic system allows.
So as an artist, you might go to an individual to mix your tracks,
another individual to master them, a small company to do small-scale
promotions and manage your online presence, and your 12-year-old
neighbor to keep your blog up to date.
And hey, you might make a buck or two! That's historic, because up
until this point a "music career" is a long study in bankruptcy and
disappointment for all but a very small minority.
10) Where do you see yourself in 10 years... I know, a loaded
question...? Will we all have jobs or will the latest generation of
iPod robots be handling the state of affairs?
Hopefully I'm in Hawaii drinking mai tais while my iMixer robot does
all the work =)
But seriously, jobs? Are there even jobs today? I think there will be a
lot more projects of a much smaller scale. And you can make a career
out of a lot of small projects that are deeply relevant to small,
self-selecting groups.
THANKS SCOTT! Great interview... You can learn more about Scott Burton
and Primal Scream at www.primalscreammusic.com