Carl Glanville (U2, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel)
Multiple Grammy and Emmy Award-winning mix engineer, Carl Glanville has worked with some of music’s luminaries including U2, Michael Jackson, Billy Joel, and Counting Crows. Glanville collected 2 Grammys over a 15-year relationship with U2, as well as a Grammy nomination for his engineering work on Jason Mraz's Mr. A-Z. He was a producer on U2’s seminal album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and mixed Billy Joel’s single, All My Life.
Tell us about your current studio setup.
For mixing, I currently use Pro Tools Ultimate HDX with an HD Omni interface. I have an Artist Mix control surface along with the Pro Tools Control app. Monitoring is ADAM S3X-H, which can be 5.1 with an ADAM Sub Woofer or traditional Stereo. I also have a pair of vintage Auratones.
For outboard gear, I have a Universal Audio LA-2A,1176, and 8 channels of 610 tube mic pres and EQ. For reverb, I have a PCM60 and REV7 - very old pieces of gear, but there’s not a plugin version that comes close to matching the real thing!
For plugins, I’m a huge UAD fan. I have a 28 chip DSP setup and love the plugins they produce. I use UAD for all the classic gear; Fairchild, Lexicon 480, Studer A800, ATR 100, EMT Plate, Neve EQ, as well as their plugin versions of the 1176, LA-3A, and LA-2A. I also use plugins from Softube, Waves, and many others.
Having produced and mixed so many songs over the past few years, how do you stay fresh and excited about making music these days?
There’s always something new around the corner, something we haven’t heard before. So the exciting part of that is finding something special and getting to work on it, help create it, and then see it released into the world. That’s always a thrill.
How do you typically approach a mix: what's your process for setting it up? How often are you making big editing decisions in your mixing?
It starts with the song and then is immediately followed by the performance of it. So my approach is to listen to a demo, find its most appealing qualities, and start shaping things from there.
Once the song has a solid foundation in terms of basic tracks being recorded, then one can start trying out ideas and experimenting. But it still comes back to the song: it has to be good at its core and the performance by the band or individual artist has to be engaging and something listeners can connect to.
Part of my job is to find those moments in amongst a group of takes that really stand out and then start putting the puzzle together.
Production decisions get made all the time, and at any time they have the potential to be big decisions — be it the key of the song changing after basic tracks have already been recorded or changing the tempo. Those are probably the biggest changes one could make.
Editing the structure of the song is also a big decision, but much easier to accomplish.