Bob Breen: First of all, congratulations on your part in one of the year's biggest hit records, "Fallen" by Evanescence. You didn't figure out the secret to having a hit record did you? If you did can you share?

Dean Nelson: Thank you! No, I didn't figure it out. Being a part of a record like that, you do take notice of all the elements present. The songs were there, nice melodies and arrangements.... A percentage being brought to the table by Amy (Lee, Lead singer), Ben (Moody, now ex-guitarist), the band and Dave (Fortman, Producer) for melding it into a whole. Maybe a little bit of good timing along with good support from the label... Oh yeah, working at some great studios with great staff probably didn't hurt!

Yeah, that has to be it. So when did you graduate from OIART?
2000

Your first job out of school was at Ocean, did you get hired right away?
Not exactly. After school I went back home to North Carolina where I was planning on putting a studio together with some friends. After a couple of months I put a little rig together, 001, laptop etc. and was planning on just recording anybody who would let me. About that time I got a call from Ocean asking if I had any interest in working there. The position was actually for a Tech because Stacey (Dodds, OIART GRAD 1995) was leaving to help put Chalice Studios together. I'm not much of a tech, however, so they offered me a runner position that was also open. I believe I did a phone interview with everyone, yourself, and maybe even Stacey. I got a good reference from OIART. So for all those people who say jobs just don't come knocking on your door... well, work hard in school and you never know.

Was the job hunt frustrating for you at first?
It would appear not, because I was called and did not send off one resume! I still had to do a phone interview and execute my duties as a runner. Not to seem like I got off easy with the job hunt, I'll fast forward a couple years... Last summer I decided to move on from Ocean, and I sent out a gang of résumés and made lots of phone calls. Mind you the industry was not and still is not like it used to be. I actually talked to a few places who were or would be closing in the next couple of months. Talk about depressing, speaking with somebody who's about to go out of business. It took me about a month and a half to finally land at Chalice. So yeah, it was a bit frustrating, but I didn't have to start putting in applications to Starbucks!!!

Now to the present: Due to business, I wasn't going to be needed at Chalice for a few months; the room I was assisting in got booked out by a group who had their own assistants, so here goes job search #2. I'm sure everyone has seen the Mix Directory issue with all of the studios... I literally started at the A's in Los Angeles. I sent résumés to everyone, at least 100 or so. This included some post-production places.

Basically the process was this: I would check out the website if one was available if not call and ask, find out is the place still open, and get an idea about the place: what boards, what gear they have, make sure the fax number is correct - nothing like sending out faxes or emails and no one's home or it's just some guy in his house with a Mackie. Next, a day later, I would call to make sure that everyone received the fax. Studios, as you can imagine, get tons of resumes. If at all possible, find out the studio manager's name or whom ever is in charge of hiring and speak to them directly. If they say they are going to call back and don't, give it a few days call again. Try to gauge when you're being annoying... you're going to deal with some difficult people, but you don't want to work for them anyways.

Needless to say, after covering the Mix directory over the course of month and a half I got a couple calls and interviews. At that point, I was putting in applications to the Virgin Megatstore etc! I was real close to working at Starbucks, but now I'm Assisting at Ocean Way/Record One. The room I'm mainly in is Studio A of Ocean Way with (mixer) Jack Joseph Puig (Green Day, No Doubt, Vanessa Carlton, John Mayer) which he's been in for the last 10 years or so.

How did your education at OIART help you in your first job?
Well, it gave me a strong foundation, the fundamentals. From signal flow to studio etiquette. Almost everything you'll encounter in a studio. It isn't like just because I went to this school they'll gave me a job, but I did fairly well in school and when Ocean called OIART I was one of the recommendations.

What kind of schedule do you keep? What are the hours like?
Typical studio hours, at least 12 hours days 6-7 days a week! The first session I started on was pretty brutal. As a runner I had to be in at least an hour before downbeat and an hour or so after they were done to clean up. So the days can creep up to 14-16 hours. As an assistant it's not much better, at the least a half hour before downbeat on non-set up days - how ever long it takes you to prep for the session, put the reel up or session make sure everything's there all the mics are working etc. I think my record is a couple weeks straight no days off, and one mixing session went over 24 hours.

When "Fallen" was being made, Evanescence producer Dave Fortman was largely unknown. A quadruple platinum album and 2 Grammys later his phone is doubtlessly ringing a lot more. What was working with him like?
A blast!! Super mellow and funny. I actually worked with him before on a band called Boy Sets Fire. Dave's a great arranger, his nickname's "the butcher" because when he first started working with BSF they had, like, 7 minute songs, and Dave took them down to 3 and 4 minutes. Since I had worked with him before he trusted me and was open to suggestions in regards to drum placement and mics.

When you're assisting, your experience and knowledge of the room and gear is useful to a visiting producer. So what did you contribute to the process? Did you show Dave any tricks that were used on the record?
Yeah, after being in a room for a while you definitely learn the nuances of the room and certain characteristics of different gear. With most tracking dates, it begins with the drums and placement. Ocean's tracking room is huge, so if you don't come in and listen to the room and you put the drums in the worng place you've got a bloody mess on your hands. Dave asked for my input on drum placement and we went with a common spot were they diffuse nicely and, depending on the addition of baffles around them, you can control how open or tight you want them. I don't think Dave had used C12a's on overheads so I suggested those plus an NS-10 woofer used as a microphone on the kick. (for more information, read the Mix Magazine article on the sessions at mixonline.com)

Producer Dave Fortman cut the basics for the entire Evanescence album at Ocean, do you remember the rest of the setup for tracking?
Let's start with the drums: D112 on the inside/Fet 47 on the outside along with an NS-10 sub all on the Kick, with the D112 and Fet 47 bussed down to 1 track and the NS-10 left separate. Snare had 57's top and bottom and maybe a 451 on top in phase with the other 57. Overheads were C12a's, 414's on hat and ride, ATM 25's on toms and M249's on the rooms, maybe. Josh Freese played to a click with some basic bed tracks from pre-production.

They recorded most of the overdubs in smaller studios, but most of the overdubs for the hit single "Bring me to Life" were done at Ocean, right? Do you remember anything special about that song at the time?
Not really, besides the fact there wasn't much rock out there with a female vocalist that I knew of. As I said before, all the elements of the song were there, arrangement, melodies etc. all the pieces!!!

How did your education at OIART serve you once you got working on top notch sessions like this one?
It served me very well. First of all they told us that there is not one way to do things, every studio/producer/engineer has their differences and how you can adapt to those situations. At OIART they really covered the basics, things that are going to be consistent from one studio to the next, such as signal flow and troubleshooting. As an assistant you set up all the mics, patch em' in, and then see if they are all working. If one is not working automatically you're thinking beginning to end...is the tube mic power supply on? is the cable seated correctly? did I make the right patch? etc. You understand how things should work.

Now that you're assisting on Jack Joseph Puig mix dates, how does assisting on a mix session differ from assisting on a tracking date?
Tracking dates on the whole can be more hectic... lots of running around. The set-ups can be a bit more expansive from multiple drum kits all with mics, all the band's gear, lots of amps, the producers gear etc. You can go from tracking beds, worrying about 6 or so people, (making sure the mics are all working, are their head phones okay?), to doing overdubs where you're comparing multiple amps to laying down some piano or organ. All over the course of a few hours. You kind of have to anticipate what they are going to do next, and make sure everything's ready - amp turned on, mics working or set-up, and settings recalled from previous track.

Mixing dates on the other hand involve more "paper work": lots of recall notes, lots of saving, backing up, printing...and waiting for the label/producer to come by and approve the mix! Don't get me wrong, both sessions require plenty of note taking, organization and attention to detail. Your handwriting better be legible! There's nothing worse than getting a Pro-Tools session where none of the tracks are labeled, or an analog master tape where there's barely enough code at the top of a song for it to lock properly. Your job is all about details.

Are the hours any different?
Not really, the daily hours are pretty much the same, but the length of the session differs. For example on tracking dates where you are doing a whole record, you might work on it for 2 weeks to several months. With mixing it goes from a day or two to two weeks or so.

Sometimes you get called for sessions at the last minute, correct?
I think the record for a late call for me was when a client called and wanted to come over in 20 minutes to start. Luckily I was already at the studio. You have to be totally avaliable and flexible with your schedule.

What have you learned about mixing from Jack Joseph Puig so far?
How to meld the past with the present in regards to engineering and technology. It seems there are a lot of different camps and philosophies, "Analogue rules" or "I can do it all at my house in Pro-Tools". It's about finding the strengths and weaknesses of a piece of gear. Just because a vintage tube limiter was used by so and so on that album in 1968 doesn't make it good! He's taught me lots of A/B-ing, from the rough mixes, album mixes etc, and how to listen and develop your ears, to know what to change and why, and not turning some random knobs especially if you can't hear the difference. He experiments with a variety of sounds, for example the Kick track is generally multed to several different eqs and compressors which come up on separate channels. It doesn't mean he uses them all, it just gives him options.

Do you have any advice for current OIART students or someone thinking about taking a recording engineering course?
Do lots of research, talk to other students. Talk to some studio managers try to get a feel of the industry, how hard it is or how many jobs are out there. Just because you're in a band and like to noodle on a guitar on the weekends might not be the best reason to get into the business. If at all possible, take a tour of a studio and hang out for a day. Be versatile. It's not the average 9-5 job. Either you can get some crummy job to pay the bills and do recording as a hobby, or you can sacrifice and put up with a lot of crap to do something you love full time.

Taking a recording course doesn't make you an engineer, and there's always someone else to take your spot. The first couple of months, and maybe years, you might not do anything related to school.... working in a restaurant or service industry might serve you better. Studios are hotels as much as they are places of creativity. The industry is a business, and so at the end of the day, sometimes it doesn't even matter if you put a D112 or a 421!

Thanks, Dean!