Icons: Tom Elmhirst on Mixing for Arcade Fire and Reflektor

There are no platinum records lining the walls of Tom Elmhirst’s control room at Electric Lady Studios – but there certainly could be.

Tom Elmhirst — on Fire at Electric Lady Studios. (all photos by Kenneth Bachor — http://www.kenbachor.com)

After all, Elmhirst is the Grammy award-winning mixer behind some of the most notable albums of the last decade — his discography includes Adele’s earth-shaking 21 as well as Amy Winehouse’s iconic Back to Black. And that’s not all: The Civil Wars, the Black Keys, Goldfrapp, Cee Lo Green, and Florence and the Machine are all listed there as well. His current work with the likes of Beck will also hopefully see daylight in the near future.

But the record that Elmhirst is most excited about right now is Reflektor by Arcade Fire, and it’s got nothing to do with the fact that this fascinating album is currently #1 on the Billboard charts. Rather it’s because the songs he mixed were hugely inspiring for Elmhirst – an opportunity to combine his love of dub and experimental music within one gloriously stimulating record.

An apprentice of the great British producer Trevor Horn, Elmhirst moved from England to New York City a little over a year ago. Still, his studio at Electric Lady feels remarkably lived-in for such a relatively short occupancy.

The Neve VR72 and ATC SMC50 monitors at the center of his space are surrounded not only by an appetizing array of outboard gear, but a vital collage of personal effects and eclectic furniture. Blend in the equally vibey live room on the other side of the glass – not to mention the spirit of Jimi undoubtedly smiling down – and it all qualifies Elmhirt’s as one of the more interesting studios in NYC.

Elmhirst mixed six songs on Reflektor: the title track, “We Exist,” “Afterlife,” “Here Comes the Night Time,” “It’s Never Over (Hey Orpheus),” and “Joan of Arc”.

Remarkably, Tom Elmhirst’s collaboration on one of 2013’s top albums didn’t come as a result of Arcade Fire’s manager calling his manager, or anything like that. Instead it all sprang from a chance meeting on a sandy island beach – an encounter that would lead them all on a journey stretching from Jamaica to Montréal…to a very sweet spot in the heart of Greenwich Village.

When I first approached you about an interview, you said you wanted to wait until you had something new to talk about.

It’s really hard to talk about mixing or explain it sometimes. I’m not the type of person to ask, “What does that EQ do?” I just use it. For example you could look at the settings I made on the Urei and write them down – well, they don’t mean anything in isolation. Ideally, you’re just much more instinctive about it. You listen, and don’t look very much.

People sometimes get too carried away with the gear aspect of record-making, not the emotional bit of it. That’s why I still use a console. It’s a luxury having a 72-channel Neve – I can do 10 things at once, but with the mouse you can only do one thing at a time. That’s not to say you can’t make great records out of a laptop – I just did a couple of mixes with Jamie xx of The xx and he makes records on a laptop with a pair of headphones and they’re amazing.

A Neve VR72 is at the center of Elmhirst’s creative workflow. (click to enlarge). (photo: Kenneth Bachor)

But he’d never really done it to this extent (gesturing around the studio). He saw this, and I think he realized the possibilities. Not everybody has had experience in a large format studio. Obviously being in small dark rooms for 20 years or so, maybe I’m a bit blasé. For me it’s the norm, but a lot of people come in and say, “What do all these buttons do?”

I’m fortunate enough to work with a lot of established artists, but I like working with new artists as well. I behave the same way with a new artist as I do with people like U2, who have been making records for 35 years.

And I’m predominantly now just mixing albums as opposed to doing radio mixes, which is often a necessary but not an entirely satisfying experience. Know what I mean?

How did you come to work with Arcade Fire on Reflektor?

I met them at Goldeneye, Chris Blackwell’s hotel in Oracabessa, Jamaica. I’ve been going out to Jamaica for years, and I woke up one morning there, sat on my deck with a cup of coffee, and out walked (Arcade Fire co-founders) Win (Butler) and Regine (Chassagne) from the next cottage. Chris had invited them down for a couple of days, just to see Jamaica and have a break.

I’ve known their manager Scott Roger a while, and he came out for a couple of days. So we just got to talking, eating, and hung out. We had a funny experience breaking into a nearby all-inclusive resort – literally breaking into it – and having a laugh doing some organized ragga dance class with the other hotel guests. It wasn’t a business thing at all, it was just social.

Then they came to NYC for a wedding, and Win just called me up and said, “Do you want to have a coffee?” I said sure, invited him to come by the studio and he asked me if I wanted to hear some music, and it unfolded from there.

Does Reflektor represent new techniques and direction for you as a mixer?

No, not necessarily. Most days I aim not to screw up. As a band, Arcade Fire are very studio savvy. They know exactly what they’re doing. They are all individually super talented, but combined they’re a unique band. They’ve built their own studio in Montréal, which is beautiful, and in Mark Lawson a longtime engineer for them, and Korey Richey – they had a good crew around them.

This was a hugely ambitious project with an 18-month recording span. When I first got involved, I went up to Montréal for a couple of weeks. In that time I did quite a lot of vocal recording with them, quite a lot of condensing of information. The multitracks were massive. By then they had spent time in Jamaica with Markus Dravs, and James Murphy had been up to Montreal for periods of time.

I don’t typically go to other artists’ studios. As a mixer, monitoring is the most important aspect of my daily life and the room I have put together at Electric Lady is as good as it gets so I want to mix here.

We got multi-tracks in various states, from ready to mix to needing a bit of work, and my assistant engineer here, Ben Baptie, spent time bouncing and doing whatever was needed to get them mix ready. What we’ve got up on the screen here right now is the multitrack for the song “Reflektor”. Doesn’t it look good?

The Pro Tools session for the album’s title track, “Reflektor.” (Photo: Kenneth Bachor)

I think it looks beautiful! Why does it look good to you?

Because it’s extremely clear to me what’s going on. All the parts have been condensed/bounced down to make it as organized as possible.

I did a rough mix of Reflektor in Montréal, then came to Electric Lady for a week on my own to make a start on the three “biggies,” if you like: “Reflektor”, “Afterlife,” and “We Exist.” Those three songs were all pretty ambitious productions, and I needed a few days to get them to a place that when the band arrived we could recall them and get cracking. They are also longer than your average song – “Reflektor” is 7:30 long. To keep a mix interesting and dynamic over that many bars takes time.

We recalled them, they came here for six weeks, and we did 38 days straight. It was a marathon. But Regine was expecting a baby – we had to get it done. Those three songs were at a place where we could start working immediately, and we just got on with it.

Hear “Reflektor” for yourself:

It seems like the mix had a larger role than normal in helping the artist to fulfill their vision here. What discussions did you have with the band before you started mixing?

I think that’s why they invited me to come and spend some time with them in Montréal, which is unusual for me to do – usually I’m just here. They weren’t too interested in what records I’d worked on before. They didn’t really know my CV – we just got on as people.

They knew what I did for a living, of course but they were more interested in the personalities that would work. I remember the first day up in Montréal I just jumped on “Reflektor” – I just knew what I wanted it to sound like.

They had been influenced by their time in Jamaica and have a long standing connection with Haiti. There’s a lot of Haitian percussion on the record, and they were keen to make a record that had a strong rhythmic element to it.

Just some of Elmhirst’s choice outboard. (click to enlarge) (Photo: Kenneth Bachor)

You can definitely hear those influences throughout the record, like with the frequent use of delay on the vocals.

I love reggae and especially dub. King Tubby, Lee Perry, Duke Reid and their engineer Errol Thompson made records over 40 years ago in studios that were so primitive by today’s standards that blew my mind. It was the first time where the engineers became artists. It’s not happened since or before. Tubby was an electrical engineer – he fixed washing machines and TVs for people in Kingston. In his studio which was essentially his spare bedroom – it’s not much bigger than the corner in this room – that’s where he mixed some of the most incredible-sounding records ever in my opinion.

I’ve been hugely influenced by that music for as long as i can remember, and you can hear elements of that on Reflektor.

(Elmhirst brings the multitrack for the song “Reflektor” up on the console, and begins playing the board – muting and soloing tracks at a fast pace. With the individual tracks soloed, the dub influence on the album becomes extremely clear, as vocals, drums, guitars, and keyboards echo around, phase, flange and distort constantly.)

Tom, how did you do those dub-style effects on Win’s vocal?

That’s Amp Farm with delays – low fi into each delay into a guitar stomp pedal. Then I played with the feedback levels. I copied bits of a vocal – that bit at the front of the song where Win says “We fell in love…… in the reflector age,” I just threw it in and it’s still there.

I’ve been doing this long enough to just try things in a mix. Duplicate a piano part, pitch it up 2 octaves, and then AudioSuite it through a filter and a reverb. Artists might like 900 things that you do in a mix, but generally they will mention the things they don’t like. I’m not sensitive about that anymore. I like it. There is no time for backslapping, you know? And I think this album is one of the best records I’ve been involved in. It’s an astounding piece of music.

How do you get a mix going?

I shove everything up really quickly – I don’t start EQing a bass drum when I’m mixing. Just get it all up the console.

The tale of the tape — fader arrangement for “Reflektor”. (click to enlarge) (Photo: Kenneth Bachor)

Once Ben has prepped the session, I’ll get it up the board. But when I do the outputs, the principal parts that I know I’ll need to manipulate, ride and effect have individual faders. So even if I have 90 individual parts, I’m only using 36 faders for audio. There’ll be faders labeled “MS 20 events”, that can be 10 things. “Events” can be all sorts – cymbals, shakers and various fx – then there’s “Vox Events” which is all the delayed vocal parts.

I remember when I started out as a mixer, this would take hours because I tried to put everything up individual faders, but you don’t need to do that. I can submix in the computer, and anything that’s going to need rides or specific attention will has its own fader.

I see you’re really playing the console when you work.

Of course! It’s fun. It’s music. The first hour, I’ll bust it really loud through the ATC monitors. I want to feel something – if I don’t, why will anyone else?

Then for the rest of the day, I’ll try listen at low volume on a pair of Auratones. Once I’ve got the big picture on the speakers, I don’t need to be listening at 500 dB because then I’m going to get tired and lose focus. But for the first hour, I’ll listen very loudly, because I need to be excited by it.

There’s so much going on in just this one song. How do you maintain space in the mix?

Work – fucking work! I’ve been doing this for 20 years – if you don’t get good at it after that, you should probably be doing something else. (Laughs)

Arcade Fire don’t always want the vocal to be the principal element in the mix. The vocal is obviously important, but it’s not the sole driving force. It’s a band and needs to sound like one.

So how to make space for everything? For one thing, the pan pot’s a bonus! What will take up the middle? In most contemporary pop music, it’s the drums and vocals. But there’s guitars in this band, keyboards, multiple singers – it took days. Two or three days in Montréal, more time of my own here, and more with them. So realistically this is a five-day mix.

So panning and levels are your primary tools?

Yes. If you’re going to use effects, use them distinctively. You create width and panning by putting effects on different tracks that puts them in their own place in the stereo picture. I don’t just think of mixes as left and right. I think of them front to back, and vertically.

I like to watch films when I’m mixing. Why not think of music visually? Go see a film without the music – it’s not the same. I seem to remember watching Pulp Fiction a lot when mixing this record.

Dual dynamics are the key to Elmhirst’s vocal sound. (click to enlarge) (Photo: Kenneth Bachor)

Can you talk a little bit more about how you make a mix work vertically, or front and back?

Vocally, I’ll use a lot of different effects. I won’t use just one reverb or one delay. I might have five reverbs, but they’ll be blended. I always EQ vocal FX sends with several subgroups and this gives me the option to alter the vocal sound throughout a song.

A process I am using often at the moment is I’ll send the vocal to the AMS delay, take it off the bus but send the delayed signal to an Eventide H3000. That gives it a huge amount of width, but it’s delayed, and still allows me to keep the vocal present. By using different reverbs –  plates, spring reverbs, plugins – I can color the vocal dramatically.

My vocal compression is done using outboard gear. For Win it was the Urei, going into my Altec limiter. The Urei will be set to have a very fast release. I’ve talked about this before – I always use a couple of compressors. The Altec is set to work quite slowly, but the Urei is very hard and fast, if that makes sense. Then I have a Neve 1081 for the EQ.

For me, EQ is reductive. I use it to get rid of things I don’t like. Any time you add an EQ, you’re adding more noise into the whole system, so I find particular frequencies I don’t like, and then I get rid of them. After all, if you got the bass and you want more low end in the track, you’ve got two options: you can EQ it, or push the fader up!

Do you tend to work on a song section by section?

Yeah, you kind of have to on a song like “Reflektor”. From the middle of the song on out it changes radically in texture but there’s a constant theme throughout. Jeremy’s drum track is your linchpin, and rhythmically that’s the guts of it alongside the percussion.

At times I would work on sections for hours, then I take a break, and then I go back and listen. You’ve got to keep your perspective – you may work on something for a long time, then go back, listen, and find it doesn’t work contextually. I try and keep the big picture in mind, but with a seven-minute song that gets hard!

During a mix I’ll be working on drum compression one second, then working on the vocal the next, always moving around – I’m schizophrenic like that. I don’t believe in just shoving up the drums and working on it for two hours, because what does it mean in the context of the song? I have to have access to everything, be aware of it all.

I will work on the vocals early, because that’s going to be an essential element in the mix. I’ll get on with that, and I’ll have an overall balance as quickly as possible. Once I have that initial balance, I’ll know exactly what I need to do to complete the mix.

It sounds like there were no hard and fast guidelines throughout this record.

As a band, I have to give them credit: they are hugely ambitious as songwriters and as producers. They understand the possibilities of the studio, and nothing is off limits.

It’s a pleasure to work with artists like that. If I could make a list of who I could work with bands like Arcade Fire are going to be near the top. I was just happy to be involved. It’s as simple as that.

— David Weiss

Tom Elmhirst in his element. (Photo: Kenneth Bachor)

Access to the sound in Elmhirt’s head starts with the faders. (Photo: Kenneth Bachor)

Sonic goodness abounds in the racks. (photo: Kenneth Bachor)

The command bridge. (photo: Kenneth Bachor)

The adjoining live room has a character all its own. (photo: Kenneth Bachor)

“Reflektor” by Arcade Fire debuted on October 28, 2013.

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