Best of Both Worlds
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If a young guitarist doesn't really have his sound together, Sabella will walk him through various techniques, sculpting the sound as they go. He'll show him how to detune certain strings and use a heavier gauge, play certain chords down near the bridge, and record others on a separate track. "So now you're orchestrating your part -- the low, low, lows are just by themselves just really heavy, chunka chunka chunka. And then the high notes are on a different track, so they don't interfere with each other. That's how you get a heavy guitar sound!" he says.
"I had a band called Kill by Inches here, and those guys have a really heavy, heavy guitar sound. And they use fat strings: 12, 13 gauge and up on the high E string, 58 or 61 gauge on the low E string. Plus, they take a seven-string guitar, and use those strings on a six-string guitar. Cool idea. You have to take the nut and file it down and all. But then they detune, and sometimes they detune it to D or even C. That band in particular is really tuned to their music. They really know what they're doing." [an error occurred while processing this directive] Sabella will often record three tracks for the same guitar through separate paths and mix them together. He might use three different amps simultaneously, or a Pod, a Marshall and an Ampeg amp. Or mix a little direct sound with it all. "And then we take that sound, with the room and all going around it, and double it," he says. "If the guy is really cool, it's going to sound incredible."
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| Some of the studio's vintage guitar amps. (click for larger view) |
To get the bass guitar sound, a favorite technique of Sabella's is to mix a direct feed from the board with the signal from an Ampeg B-15 amp. Sometimes, for players who want a little more distortion, he might also use a Demeter amp, crank it up a little bit, and add some distortion. "Or, there's this new thing I got, called a Valvetone pedal, which is selling on EBay for about $125, but it only sold for like $40 when it came out. It's by far my favorite little pedal. I'm not really a big pedal guy, but it's my favorite pedal as far as distortion goes. Very cool on bass.
"We go direct, we use amps, we use it all. There's no one way of doing anything. It's like, what mike do you use for a kick drum? Well, we have certain standard ones, of course, but there's no one way of doing it."
But as a serious musician himself, Sabella is obligated to add that the most important element is the talent and technique of the players. "To me, the secret is a guy who can tune the drums and play them, and of course, a good drum set. A good guitar rig."
"It starts from the fingers, he adds. "I mean, we have Tommy Burns [Billy Joel] here, Eddie Martinez [Robert Palmer, Tina Turner], great guitar players, a drummer named Ben Gramm, who's Lou Gramm from Foreigner's brother. I'll tell you a story: This client came in and said, I wanna play drums. Three hours later, he said, 'It doesn't sound right, nothing's right.' And then another four hours later, 'Do you know any drummers?' I said, 'I'll call someone up.' In one hour, Ben Gramm came in from Manhattan. Fifteen minutes later, the song was done. After he heard it the first time. And everybody got up out of their chairs and said, 'How come the drums sound so great all of a sudden?' Because the guy can play great."
Ultimately, the best recordings are made through collaboration, where talented musicians, engineers and producers can set aside egos, listen to each other and work toward a common goal.
"It's a team, Sabella says. "I learned it myself when I used to play in the Hit Factory in the '70s. The first time I plugged in the guitar in the studio, I said 'Whoa!' When the engineer in the control room and the musician are on the same wavelength, that glass window goes down, and there's no stopping you. If he doesn't like you, you're dead. You're dead! And that's what it is. If a producer comes in, wants to work in a room, and he makes the vibe uncomfortable, you're only creating havoc for yourself, and your music will never be what it could. And there's always something to learn.
"Even Frank Sinatra said, 'The day I think I know everything, I know nothing.' I don't say I know everything, I'm not Mutt Lange, and Mutt Lange doesn't know everything, either. There's always something to learn. It always comes back to the music," he says.
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