Carl Seante McGrier II May 5, 2009 MP-215 Critical Listening Susan Rogers Tony Maserati Engineer & Innovator of the New York Sound One reason why I picked the great Tony Maserati for my engineer of choice is because not only do I idolize his work but he pioneered a sound for popular music, especially hip-hop and rhythm & blues. If you had your own top twenty tunes of the last twenty-five years, Tony Maserati probably had at least two of them. He defined his sound early on with selective equalization, which paved the way and set the standard for in hiphop and rhythm & blues music. Maserati did not start out with the idea of being an engineer. He actually did not start as an aspiring musician. In the middle of the 1980’s, Maserati was actually here in Boston, Massachusetts studying law at Northeastern University. In the meantime outside of studying for school, he began playing guitar in a band and singing back-up vocals too. He was so intrigued with playing music that it became all he wanted to do. He lost interest in law and transferred his credits over to Berklee College of Music. He declared is major in composition. He also started to do live sound mixing for rhythm & blues bands. This is where is other interests became to rise; audio. He changed his major to the technology department, which is what we now know as the Music Production & Engineering department. After graduating Berklee College of Music he left to start as engineering assistant. He first began in Philadelphia at Sigma Sound. This was a studio that specialized in remixes at that time. Sigma began work Full Force. Full Force is one of the original hip- hop and vocal groups of the early 1990’s. Glen Rosenstein was the main recording engineer at Sigma Sound. Once Rosenstein became overwhelmed with other work, Full Force priority began to descend. This is when Maserati’s work first began to manifest in that genre because he took the full responsibility of the Full Force project. After Sigma Sound closed and Maserati went on to work as Full Force full time engineer, Full Force started building there own location. They were using Skyline and Hit Factory so much that it only seemed right to have your own studio. Yet, they wanted the engineer who designed the studio to be their recording engineer. Maserati was jobless and now calling studios he worked previously for clients. Luckily he prevailed and he began with work with the likes of Heavy D and the Boys. All these artists were looking for a new sound and everyone else at the time was doing standard power line drums. Maserati claimed to be heavily influenced by engineers such as Bruce Swedien and Steve Hodge. Bruce Swedien was and is still widely known for the engineering projects he worked on with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson. He had “top-end” that Maserati thought was remarkable and very difficult to achieve. Steve Hodge was known for working with the likes of Barry White, Janet Jackson and Boyz II Men. The way he equalized the bass and the kick drum and placed them within the spectrum was what Maserati enjoyed most. Maserati believed that if he combined some of the attributes of mixing and equalization from both of these great engineers then he would be able to achieve the “new sound” his clients were looking for. “My stuff is harder, it's edgier, it's fat — more in line with the hip hop R&B thing. I worked with guys like Heavy and Puffy and D'vante and Poke & Tone. And because of what I had to do, I played a role in creating the modern R&B hip-hop sound. My clients wanted a lot of bottom; they wanted it really heavy-sounding. And I wanted it to sound crystal-clear. The compromise is what I sound like now.” That is how Maserti described his sound which became is trademark. How he achieved it was harder to understand. From what I have read, he began by separating and shelving high frequencies from the low frequencies in order equalize them differently. He also used a lot “on-board” equalization from the SSL and not as much “out-board” gear as you would think. That is why when I listen to songs such as “Mo Money, Mo Problems” by Puff Daddy, Mase & Notorious B.I.G., you hear how present and forward the bass and kick is but you do not focus on its volume. It is more of feeling the rhythmic instruments than hearing them. He believed that it did not necessarily matter where the auxiliary instruments were in the spectrum “as long as they did there job” as far as how present they were in frequency. Yet they are now more present in hip-hop now then they ever were and that is mainly because of Maserati’s early 1990’s influence on popular music. Maserati in modern time has expanded his engineering repertoire tremendously having eight Grammy nominations and many other awards from musical academies. Currently he has brought is feel of rhythmic instruments to more acoustic music. Jason Mraz’s most reason ablum in 2008 entitled “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things LP” is Maserati’s most recent major label work. This brought Jason Mraz from the Indie limelight to the Top40 list of 2008-2009. Before in the album “Waiting for My Rocket to Come”, Jason performed very well-produced tunes with heavy instrumentation that had a heavy emphasis on the ensemble. But now, Jason showcases himself by having a more present and intimate position in mix. There is not a limit to Maserati’s influence now that Waves Inc. can showcase all his of equalization styles through virtual modules designed after his mix technique. Maserati has left his mark on the recording engineering society and the record industry for years to come. Bibliography “Tony Maserati.” Mix Online. 1 December 2001. http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_tony_maserati/index.html “Tony Maserati.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopdeia. 19 March 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Maserati “Tony Maserati.” Waves Signature Series. 2008 http://signatureseries.waves.com/html/Tony.html
