Mix engineer Tony Maserati was introduced to PMC monitors while working on Robbie Robertson’s How to Become Clairvoyant album. Since then, he has mixed several projects on PMC’s largest BB5 XBD Active speakers and turned to them for Beyoncé’s recent album at his Mirrorball Studios in Burbank.
He worked on tracks for nearly 18 months before there was a surprise decision in October 2013 to complete the record for December release. ‘All the major work was done in the last eight weeks. I mixed six tracks that didn’t make the album and of the 14 songs that did make the cut, I had only touched three of those before October.’
The five rooms making up Mirrorball are used by a collective of songwriters, producers and engineers with whom Maserati collaborates under the name Outfit 27: ‘I’ve been working with, training up and collaborating with these guys for the past three years,’ he says. ‘A lot of them are now developing their skills and getting their own clients. In a way, my team has been working towards this exact moment. All of a sudden, we were in deadline mode on the Beyoncé album, the biggest album of the year – but we were able to get on top of it. Beyoncé’s recordist Stuart White was mixing with us, I was mixing in my room on the BB5s, my two best guys were engineering in various rooms… No other production outfit could have done that. We were ready, not just in terms of studio skills, but also in terms of being ready to work with the client, communicate with them and manage their expectations. In a matter of eight weeks, we worked closely with the artists, the producers, the assistant producers, and we made a record.’
The choice of monitor was partly at the request of her long-term A&R representative, Teresa Labarbera Whites...
PMC’s close-field twotwo monitors are installed in all the other roomsin at Maserati’s studio: ‘Teresa and Stu White were listening to stuff with me, then working on it in other rooms,’ he says. ‘They relied on the twotwos to give them a consistent bass reference, so that when they were listening to the mastering on tracks, or to overdubs done by other production teams in different places, they were working from the same reference each time. They were invaluable in that respect.’
Maserati, however, stuck to using the BB5s in his room – a surprise for career that has favoured close-filed speakers. ‘They’re the best large monitors I have ever used,’ he explains. ‘I never used large monitors. I’ve always said most of them are only in studios to impress the clients. Sure, they’ll go loud, but more often than not they’re painful to listen to, especially over extended periods. But the BB5s are large speakers you can actually mix on, use as a reference, and get work done. I can trust the low end, and the high end isn’t so hyped so that it’s harsh to listen to. So I get to use a proper audio reference – and my clients get hyped listening to stuff on them.
‘They’re not like most large monitors I’ve tried in the past. The PMCs’ response is so flat and accurate that unless my mixes are amazing, they just don’t stand out on those speakers. Sometimes, I think I’ve got a good mix on my other near-fields, I’ll switch up to the BB5s, and then I realise I’ve got another three hours’ work to do. If your mix sucks, you’re going to know about it – but I actually prefer that. If I can get my mixes sounding good on those, I know they’ll sound amazing everywhere else…’
More: www.pmc-speakers.com
