Michael James Part II — His 138 Studio Tools for Mixing Hits
When we last saw Michael James, he had just given us can’t-miss information from his Simi Valley, CA studio.
Fresh off his double #1 hit of the song “Estrellas Rotas” from Kalimba’s latest Cena Para Desayunar (Sony Music), James shared his 5 can’t-miss-mix tips and a lot more in our “Making the Mix Room.”
James feels a consistent instinct to share, which is why we’re following up with Part II: an in-depth breakdown of the gear in his room, where classics and new blood alike — germanium compressors to MoogerFoogers — are inside. James details not just what he’s got, but often why it’s there – inspiring insights on how a smart studio setup can hone your mixes.
Get oriented: Michael James explains exactly how he uses his tools.
And if you want mucho mas mixing tutorials from this platinum mixer, head straight to his blog at MichaelJamesProducer.
Mix Room Equipment List
Mixing Console
1 Sterling Modular Plan B 72 RU Mastering Console set up for mixing.
3 Dangerous Music 2-Bus 16×2 Analog Summing Mixers. For Bus A, B, C submixes. Mastering quality, pristine neutral coloration.
1 Dangerous Music 2-Bus+ Next-generation 16×2 Analog Summing Mixer with added assignable Harmonics, ParaLimit and X-former tonal effects. Amazing crosstalk specs!
1 Chandler Mini Rack Mixer. 16×2. For analog summing of Busses A, B, C. Classic Neve-esque tonal coloration. Technically, EMI is a more accurate descriptor, but its vintage British either way.
The Dangerous Liasion is “instant gratification.”
1 Dangerous Liaison. Instant gratification when auditioning vocal and mix buss chains. Six programmable inserts. Tons of headroom and clarity.
1 Patchbay. Comprehensive. 150 Mogami TT patch cables.
Analog EQ
24 Tonelux EQ4P. These are so good that you need to hear them yourself. Just do it! You can boost with impunity.
1 Avalon AD2055 EQ 2-channel. Excellent surgical EQ with a unique character. Powerful tone shaper. Typically used on my vocal buss.
2 Dangerous Music Bax EQ 2-ch. The filters alone are worth the investment. I use them on “bass & drums” and “guitar & keys” busses.
1 Massenburg GML 8200 2-channel EQ w/8355 power supply. The original, the classic. I use the MDW plugin now, mostly for cuts.
An epic collaboration of audio giants: the Focusrite ISA 110 Limited Edition
2 Focusrite ISA 110 Limited Edition . George Martin and Rupert Neve collaborated on the 110. Very useful filters; hard to recall.
2 DBX 215 2-channel graphic EQ. I have no idea how they actually sound. I only use them to filter compressor sidechain inputs.
Analog Dynamics
5 Tonelux TXC Compressor. Versatile. Internal parallel routing and “Tilt” sidechain filter. Bass, drums, mix buss–even at 20:1 if you dare…
1 Manley Labs Stereo Variable Mu Limiting Compressor. Mix bus monster! Mine has HP sidechain filter. I use it unlinked, dual mono, calibrated.
1 Manley Labs ELOP Levelling Amplifier 2-channel. Opto magic on vocals, bass, acoustic guitar…and even mix buss when a 3D effect is desired. Sidechain filter version makes it versatile.
1 Dangerous Compressor 2-ch. Ultra low distortion. Mastering quality. Can be transparent or grabby. Mix bus and drums!
2 Chandler Limited Germanium Compressor. Very versatile and vibey, with mix blend for parallel compression. Hip blue LED GR meters.
4 Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor. Swiss Army knife of compressors. Great knobs make it super easy to recall. Parallel drum compression.
2 Purple Audio MC76 Limiter. Painstakingly modeled after 1176 E revision. Lots of character. LED meter light upgrade is a godsend.
The Universal Audio 1176LN Limiting Amplifier: How do they match up with vintage?
2 Universal Audio 1176LN Limiting Amplifier. A bit cleaner than vintage units. Just as good, if not better.
2 Universal Audio LA-3A Audio Leveler. The curve more than makes up for the noise. These are classics for good reason.
2 Avalon AD2044 2-ch Opto-Compressor. Great for drums, bass, vocals and mix buss…variable attack and release make it very versatile.
2 Empirical Labs EL-DS DerrEsser + EL500 powered chassis. My favorite de-esser ever! Very musical and surgical.
1 SPL 9842 4-ch Transient Designer. Paul Wolff was correct when he said it should have been called The Ass Saver.
2 SPL 9629 2-ch De-Esser. Works quite well on 9 of 10 voices; not so effective on the other 10%.
Mic Preamps and DIs
A second set of ears is essential to James’ workflow.
1 Avalon AD2022 2-ch. Punchy, clear, modern sound. Vocals, guitars and Fender basses come alive through it. Variable impedance is useful.
2 Chandler Limited Germanium Preamp/DI. Old school thick Neve tone. Adds rock attitude to guitars and bass. Makes acoustic guitars sound like ’70s recordings.
2 Focusrite ISA 110 Limited Edition. Tough to go wrong with these. The EQ is very useful.
1 Apogee Duet2 USB. For laptop field recording. Sounds pretty good.
1 Radial JDI passive direct box. Excellent direct box.
2 Radial X-Amp. Excellent reamp box.
1 Little Labs Redeye 3D Phantom. Idiot-proof DI & reamp device. Sounds great!
Outboard and Pedal FX
1 Eventide H8000FW 8-channel Harmonizer. Can do anything you can imagine! Used every day.
1 TC Electronic M3000. Natural sounds; can be used subtly to good effect.
1 Lexicon PCM60. Crunchy old school reverb. Rarely used in recent years. Saves feeble snare drums.
1 Yamaha SPX90. Haven’t used it in years.
1 Yamaha D1500 Delay. Cool modulation FX. Almost never powered up, but once a year, it’s just the right thing.
1 MoogerFooger MF-101 Lowpass Filter. Not for the uninitiated–this is a serious tweaker’s pedal.
1 MoogerFooger MF-103 12-Stage Phaser. Wide range of sounds. Excellent.
We’ll say it every change we get: MoogerFooger MF-105 MuRF
1 MoogerFooger MF-104 Analog Delay. Dark tone is nice for vocal slapback effects.
1 MoogerFooger MF-105 MuRF. Multiple Resonance Array Filter with sequencer. Awesome!
1 MoogerFooger MF-107 FreqBox. Moog “synth” tracks guitar playing.
1 Fulltone Soul-Bender. Makes Strats ooze with character.
1 Fulltone Full-Drive 2. For slide playing. Adds sustain without masking the tone of the guitar and amp.
1 Fulltone Clyde Deluxe Wah. Sounds credible right out of the box. No mods necessary.
1 Fulltone Tube Tape Echo. Love it on vocals. Sold it to a friend, but listing it to remind me to buy another one.
1 CAE Freddy Fuzz. Strats dig it.
1 CAE Black Cat Vibe. Coveted by many, possessed by few. Studio quality UniVibe.
1 Chandler Limited Germanium Boost. Boutique boost for discerning tone fanatics.
1 Chandler Limited Little Devil Colored Boost. Boutique boost for discerning tone fanatics.
1 Chicago Iron Octavia. Hendrix-esque octave fuzz. Requires finesse to dial in the sweet spot for different guitars.
1 Demeter Compulator. Opto in a pedal. Changes your tone for the better, even without gain reduction.
1 Demeter Tremulator. Ry Cooder-esque tremolo. Instant vibe.
1 Boss DD-5 Digital Delay. Has reverse mode. Lives in a dedicated bypass loop box because it has to.
1 Boss FT-2 Dynamic Filter. Old-school envelope filter.
1 EBS Octabass. Octave below. Tracks well-enough for guitar.
1 Sho-Bud Volume Pedal. Vintage pedal steel volume. Very sweet tone when it’s working.
1 Ernie Ball Volume Pedal. Basic, bomb-proof.
1 Ernie Ball Jr. Volume Pedal. Basic, bomb-proof.
1 Maxon AD80 Analog Delay. Short maximum delay time, but warm and sweet.
1 Rocktron Banshee Talkbox. Won’t blow up your guitar amp!
“My favorite tuner”: Sonic Research Turbo Tuner
1 Sonic Research Turbo Tuner. My favorite tuner. Tune to the attack…unless you’re playing a slow ballad with long tones.
1 Peterson Strobo-Flip. Handy strobe tuner with Buzz Feiten Tuning offsets.
2 Custom Audio Electronics Power Supplies. Very clean and reliable.
Speakers, Amps and Monitoring
2 Focal Professional SM9. Incredibly revealing and not fatiguing at all, my favorite speakers ever.
2 Focal CMS40. Good for vocal rides in pop and rock mixes.
2 Genelec 1031A. 15 years without a glitch. Very reliable. Don’t be afraid to use the EQ switches on the back panel.
2 Auratone 5C Mixcube. Single driver, no crossover, no phase cancellation. Revealing of midrange detail and vocal levels.
1 Dangerous Music ST/SR Analog Surround Monitor. The remote controller is a Star Trek Enterprise-worthy work of art. Sounds great.
1 Dangerous Music Convert-2. Great sounding DAC that inspires confidence. Compare apples to apples–four sources, one DAC.
2 Custom Made Ken Goerres Dual Speaker Stands. Goerres really hows how to get a control room sounding great.
1 Truckload of acoustic treatment. Small room now sounds good, courtesy of Ready Acoustics and Chris Pelonis products.
Microphones
The Royer R-121 ribbon mic: “changed the way I record guitar amps.”
1 Neumann M149 + “Vintage” Power Supply#2. Low noise, good detail. Every vocalist loves the sound
2 Neumann KM184. Bright, useful condensers. I like them on acoustic guitars.
1 Royer R-121 ribbon mic. Changed the way I record electric guitar amps. If your rig already sounds good, this mic is the ticket.
1 Shure SM7B. Love it on bass amps and hard rock vocals.
1 Shure Beta 52. Inexpensive mic that sounds good on kick drums.
1 AKG D12. Venerable kick drum mic that I loaned to Cynthia Catania, who uses it with good results on guitar cabinets.
1 Shure SM 57. Swiss Army mic, required for snare drums.
1 Audix D3. Has a 421-ish thing with guitar amps.
1 Sennheiser MD409U3. Love it on guitar and bass cabinets!
1 Sennheiser MD421. Lives on a 4×12 cabinet.
1 Stedman N90. Large diaphragm dynamic mic. 155 dB SPL. Good for electric guitar cabinets. Inherited from John Walker.
Analog Instruments and Amplifiers
1 Tom Anderson Hollow Atom. Les Paul meets Gretsch
1 Tom Anderson Hollow T Classic. Stays in tune and play like a dream. My favorite Tele by far.
1 Tom Anderson Classic Strat. Like a vintage Strat without the quirks.
1 Tom Anderson Cobra Special. This was the first TA LP Special/SG with P90 pickups and a pickguard. Very groovy.
1 Yamaha SBG2100 w/ Buzz Feiten Tuning System and stainless steel frets mods. Instant late ’70s vibe. Les Paul killer. Long sustain.
1 Lakland Joe Osbourn Signature USA bass. USA made; best Jazz bass I ever played. Lindy Fralin pickups.
1 Taylor 714ce Acoustic Guitar. Plays great, stays in tune, sounds balanced for recording.
1 Gretsch Historic Resonator “Dobro.” Cheap guitar with a pro aftermarket resonator that has The Sound for slide playing. Instant vibe.
1 Yamaha Classical Guitar Model G-170ca . Solid top. I bought it from a rock climber as a favor, and have composed many songs on it.
1 Gibson ES 335 w/ Tone Pros bridge mod. Instant early ’70s vibe.
“Instant ’70’s vibe:” the Gibson ES 335
1 Wurlitzer 200A Electric Piano. Rebuilt by the master, Ken Rich. It’s so good that I actually learned how to play it!
1 Rhodes Stage 73 Electric Piano. 1977 with pristine harp and excellent action…for a Rhodes. Maintained by Ken Rich.
1 Alessandro High-End English. 20W pure Class-A take on the ultimate AC30, custom built by George himself.
1 Top Hat 2 x 12 Speaker Cabinet. Burgundy/Gold, loaded with Celestion 15W Alnico Blue Dog reissues.
1 Mesa/Boogie Mark 1 Hardwood Combo Amp. Custom wired Class-A triode. Runs NOS Svetlana 6L6s for ’70s Fusion tones, or 6V6s for Blackface-on-steriods vibe. This amp sounds BIG.
1 Mesa Royal Atlantic RA-100. Inspired by Orange and Marshall amps. EL34 tubes. Wicked clean tone with good sustain for single-note soloing.
1 Mesa TransAtlantic TA-15. Lunchbox mini amp with Vox, Fender and Mesa tones.
1 Mesa/Boogie Mark V head w/ custom leather. It’s like a museum of Mark-series Boogies. I grew up on Mark tones, so this amp works for me.
1 Mesa ElectraDyne 1×12 custom combo. Simul-Class power section adds a halo around the notes. Wishnefsky liberated this amp from me.
1 Mesa ElectraDyne 2×12 extension cabinet w/ Celestion Gold speakers. Sweeter than ceramics, but not as sweet as 15W Blue Dogs.
1 Mesa Lone Star 1×12 open back speaker cabinet. Mesa Celestion 90. Jack of all trades speaker in a great cabinet. May change the speaker….
1 Mesa Traditional 4×12 slant cabinet. Custom tangelo croc embossed leather, tan grille. Celestion V30 speakers. Killer!
“Fantastic” fatness: Mesa Bass Prodigy Four:88
1 Mesa Bass Prodigy Four:88. All tube power amp with intuitive tone stack and fantastic sound.
1 Mesa Powerhouse 1×12 speaker cabinet. Good articulate bass tone for recording studio.
1 Morgan MV45 Custom Shop: Script Logo. Boutique take on Plexi crunch tones. Limited edition of 20 made.
1 Goodsell Super 17 Mark 4 Custom. Unique take on EL84 amps, inspired by Hammond organs.
1 Morgan TV12 Custom. Gibson, Fender and Vox mashup with reverb and retro TV style. Only 20 made.
Recorders, Computers and DAWs
1 Avid Artist Mix control surface. For moving fader automation.
Faders favored: Avid Artist Mix control surface
1 Avid Pro Tools 11 HDX. 64×64 analog I/O. Mac Pro 4,1 Nehalem multi-track mix source.
1 Avid Pro Tools 11 HD. 8×8 analog I/O. MacBook Pro 8,2 used as mix destination when deliverable sample rate must differ from source.
1 Universal Audio UAD-2 Octo PCI-e card. For classic reverb emulations. Adds ridiculous latency to Pro Tools HDX. Not an issue for mixing.
4 Lynx Aurora 16 I/O converters. 64 analog I/O and 64 digital I/O.
4 Lynx LT-HD-G Pro Tools Interface. Four of these can connect to one HDX card for 64 channels of I/O.
2 Dangerous Music Convert-8 converters. State of the art, 8-channel DA converters for pristine analog summing.
1 Apogee Rosetta 800 192k A/D/A Converter + Firewire Card. 8 more analog I/O for printing hi-res mixes to Logic or Pro Tools on a separate destination recorder.
1 Apogee Big Ben Word Clock. Rock solid.
1 Apogee Duet2 USB interface for field recording.
1 Apple Mac Pro 4,1 Nehalem. 20GB RAM. SSD. Once a Mac guy, always a Mac guy. As expected, this thing works flawlessly.
1 Apple MacBook Pro 8,2. Intel Core i7. 2.2 GHz. 8 GB RAM. SSD. Mix destination. Replaced optical drive with SSD.
1 Apple MacMini. FTP server for files and mixes.
2 Glyph Studio Raid 8 TB. Striped RAID 1 for mirrored recording to two disks simultaneously.
1 Glyph Studio Raid 4 TB. Striped RAID 1 for mirrored recording to two disks simultaneously.
3 Glyph Studio Mini 1 TB. Super portable. Great for traveling! 7200 rpm, so you can actually work on it.
1 Glyph Dual SCSI Hot Swap Rack. SCSI rules, but this stays mostly in the closet.
2 Glyph Trip Quad SCSI Hot Swap Rack
And Michael James’ Panasonic SV-3800 DAT recorders can be yours!!! If the price is right…
10 Glyph GT050Q eSATA drives. eSATA works just as well as SCSI for me.
1 Vanguard RAID5 tower running BRU Server. For backups and archives. Semi retired.
2 Sony ES Cassette Deck. I think I remember what a cassette tape sounds like…
3 Kriz Kraft ATA Flight Cases. Original cases built by Stinns Svensson. The best, by far.
1 Tascam DA-30 DAT Recorder. It still works!
2 Panasonic SV3800 DAT Recorders. Last powered up around the millennium. Want to buy one?
— Michael James, Producer/Mixer at michaeljamesproducer.com