Behind The Mix: Dave Way on Ringo Rama
Four-time Grammy winner Dave Way has mixed and produced dozens of multi-Platinum albums for artists such as Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, and Sheryl Crow. In 2003, he realized a life ambition by working with legendary Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, mixing his album Ringo Rama. This is the story behind the mix.
"I was sitting in the studio lounge reading the Music Connection, and I saw a blurb about Ringo Starr releasing an album on Koch records. For some reason, I just called my manager right then and there and said, “Hey can you find out if this Ringo album has been mixed yet, and if not, I’d love to do it.”
Amazingly, I got a call back in about 30 minutes saying, “OK, you’ve got a meeting with Mark Hudson (the producer) on Thursday at Lulu’s on Santa Monica.”
So I met Mark and the both of us being huge Beatles fans, we immediately hit it off, and sure enough, two weeks later I was in England not only working with Mark and Ringo at David Gilmour‘s beautiful Astoria Studios on the River Thames, but we were staying at Ringo‘s house. It was a walking dream, and I continuously pinched myself and asked how I got here?
I still do.
Astoria Studios was absolutely beautiful with a brand new (at the time) Neve 88r, ATC monitors, and a whole bunch of EAR gear. It was there that I realized what a genius gear maker Tim de Paravicini was. And when I left Astoria, I came back to LA with two EAR 660s and an 825 EQ.
We mixed the Ringo Rama album over about three weeks. I used a lot of the EAR stuff - drums, vocals, guitars. I remember a Binson Echo Rec that I used for slap, and I remember some little boombox (I think it was a Sony?) that I Ioved using to check mixes. I also remember a stereo PYE compressor that I used on some drums.
But I also distinctly remember a realization about Ringo’s sound. While we were at Astoria mixing, Ringo spent the days rehearsing for the Concert for George, and he would come to the studio after rehearsals. If any of his friends might stop by with him, we had some instruments set up in the recording room and a ProTools rig hooked up to record.
Nobody came back to the studio with him, but Ringo and Mark would often jam and write songs while I was mixing. I’d just set up a very simple, four mic set up for the drums with a couple of Coles, a Beyer m160 on side snare, and a D 30 on the kick. No eq or compressors. It was a DW house kit, not Ringo’s.
Now I’ve always loved, in particular, the sound of Ringo’s cymbals and how they would sound with the Fairchild compression. I always thought the Fairchild was the key to that sound. But when I listened back to these drums we recorded with this straightforward setup and no compressors, there it was! That sound. No Fairchild. It wasn’t even Ringo‘s cymbals. It was just the way he hit them. And that bell sound on the ride… just like on Hey Jude - there it was.
Didn’t have to do a thing.
One time Ringo and Mark had the germ of a song idea, and Mark asked me if I wanted to play bass on it. Of course, I did!
But it definitely needed a Hofner, and we didn’t have one. So the next morning, before we went to the studio, we went down to Denmark Street and found a shop that featured all kinds of Beatle instruments - Hofners, Rickenbackers, Gretschs, Vox amps, etc. I probably played about 25 Hofner‘s and found one that I really dug. And when we got to the studio, Mark worked with me on a very McCartney-Esque bass part.
Wouldn’t you know? It ended up on a Ringo album a couple of years later. What a thrill!
Every minute of those 3 weeks was just fantastic. When we were done, I didn’t want to leave. It was without a doubt the most fun I’ve ever had making a record. We laughed so hard every day that I’d go to bed with a sore torso. Ringo couldn’t have been kinder, more generous, or cooler. It was just unbelievable.
And I was lucky enough to mix another album with him a couple of years after that (Choose Love). How could I be so lucky?
Peace and Love forever.”