Nick Detoro: Knocking Out Records in Sloan's Practice Space

Sloan's Never Hear The End Of It (NHTEOI) and their new album, Parallel Play, were both recorded in the band's rehearsal space by their long-time soundman, Nick Detoro.

How did you learn recording? Did you have a teacher or mentor?

I went to recording school, but I also went around with my 4-track recording friend's bands. I'd do live gigs, demos, anything. Eventually I ended up in recording school instead of college. From there I went directly into live sound, not recording. While I appreciated the idea of being an apprentice, I had bills to pay and didn't want to sling coffee in a studio. I hauled gear and loaded trucks for ten years instead, but I got a paycheck doing it.

What was your first big recording project?

In 1996, I worked with a woman on a project called Blue. I was in the band. Then I worked with a Toronto band called Grace. That was the first big project I did where I wasn't in the band. They needed an engineer and producer. They called me up and said, "We've talked about it and we've decided we want you to do it."

And you were still doing live sound at the time?

Yes. I ended up doing live sound with Sloan, and that led to helping them with some demos. Eventually I ended up doing their record, so it worked out great. Hell, they already knew how to push me around. [laughs]

When did you start referring to yourself as a "recordist"?

Not until I heard the completed, mastered copy of Never Hear The End Of It. Throughout your entire recording career there are times when you feel like a pro and times when you feel like a total hack. I guess being a "pro" means you know what to do to get the job done, and I think I'm pretty solid there, no matter what the job is. That applies to any job in any field. I feel like I really got the job done with NHTEOI though.

How did you find out you were going to record NHTEOI?

In November 2005, I was doing some demos with Chris [Murphy], which eventually ended up on NHTEOI. Earlier, when we were on the road, he joked around when he'd play me a song by saying, "Pretend you're my producer and tell me what you think of this song." Even joking around I was totally into the idea. I made it clear that I would record his demos at any time. I guess he decided he trusted me, because we eventually did the demos. He said, "I wish you'd just go ahead and do the record." Of course, going from one guy in the band saying that to officially being on board are two different things, but I started to hear rumblings that I was "an option." We were in Spain, in 2006 near the end of a tour, and Mike [Nelson, Sloan's manager] came up to me and said, "You're doing the record. At the practice space... if you want to." I asked when, and he said, "Two weeks!"

You were tasked with prepping a practice space in two weeks to record a national release?

Absolutely. They had recorded in there before, but I needed to decide what to buy, how many mics to rent. I had to put it down on paper and then get it into the space. It was stressful. I think I made some good decisions in the end. I had a different level of stress this time though. In the past, with friend's records, I didn't have to worry about singles getting approved by the record company.

When you were acquiring gear, what were some key pieces you knew you needed to get, and what was already there?

We had eight channels of MOTU conversion, which is mid-level at best. I could deal with that, but I knew I needed 16 inputs to do bed tracks. So I rented eight more channels of conversion. We rented eight preamps for various things: snare, snare bottom and toms. I wanted them to go through decent pres, and not the MOTU ones.

What did you use?

I can't remember all of the mic models, but I had: two Avalon, two Chandlers, two Great Rivers and two Focusrites. I used the Avalons on the toms. We also had a Drawmer 1969, which is a great piece.

What console did you use?

I have to split that into two answers. We have this Allen & Heath, but I sent the output of the pres directly into the conversion. I'd monitor from the left and right outputs of the MOTU 896HD. How I used the console gets a little convoluted, but I'll try to explain: Out in the room, I had a splitter. I split the mics before they got to the control room and sent them to the console. I got a drum left and right mix, sent it through a dbx 162 compressor and I recorded that to its own two tracks. The reason I did that was because I thought it would be nice to have a two- track mix. That way when I'm overdubbing I don't have to build a headphone [drum] mix — I just have the two-track mix: drums left, drums right. I'm building my monitor mixes from the software, not doing it at a console. But here's what happened: it sounded really fucking cool. So I got aggressive with it. Sometimes we'd get the room mics really hot, in what we would call the "drum mash." We would just smash things with the compressor. Tracks one through eight were individual drums tracks right from the preamp, but nine and ten were drums left and drums right. It's like back bussing while mixing, but you might call it "front bussing" because you're hitting it before the conversion.

So you had the sub-mix to futz with, and you still had your "safe tracks."

Right. So on the short songs, like "I Can't Sleep" and "Flying High Again," I would throw up some faders and bring up the room mics when the guys were playing. I'd get a quick mix. On "Flying High Again," the mix actually changes. Listen and you can hear it, right in the middle of the song, because I was adjusting on the first pass. You can hear things get a little weird, and then the image changes. It's a trashy sounding song, so it works. We did another pass, where everything was "correct," but I liked the first one a lot more. On the short songs, we ended up making a huge commitment, because we recorded the beds to two-tracks. Three elements of the beds — guitar, drums and keys — were recorded to two tracks for the shorter songs on the record. Then we would record bass, maybe acoustic guitar, then do the vocals and the song was done. It gave them a live, off the floor feel. They aren't pristine.

Did you come up with the bussing idea on your own?

Nobody told me about it, but that doesn't mean I invented it. These guys, when they have an idea, are often like, "Get me up a headphone mix." I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to do that quickly, so I came up with the idea of this simple mix that I could dump when we were done. What we got was a happy accident, and we were bold enough to use it when it was right [to do so]. We're using it on the new record [Parallel Play] as well. I also used it on a Pony Da Look record. I have to be careful that it doesn't become a crutch. I don't want to forget to check the phase on the close mics or something. The "front bus" mix, at the very least, makes the rough mixes sound good.

Do you tend to use mostly outboard gear or plug-ins for tracking?

Outboard gear. I need some analog power there when tracking. In some ways I'm an in-the-box hater. I have done some in-the-box projects, and the plug- ins are good — even the basic EQs in Logic. As with anything, it's how you use or misuse them.

So you like to do everything up to the printing stage with analog gear, and use the computer in lieu of the tape machine.

You have the ease and reliability that way. Converters are getting better and things are changing. I used to be somewhat of a digital hater. However, just because you have a piece of tape running doesn't mean you're going to sound good. Knowing the fundamentals is always the main thing.

Do you record effects or add them later?

The guitar gets recorded similar to how it will sound live. Distortion, phase shifting, etc. will get printed during the take. Reverbs and things like that are added to drums, vocals or whatever, later. It's fun to add plug-ins later, like distorting an already distorted guitar. Starting the recording with the final product in mind makes things so much easier. Everyone knows that these days there are 30 vocal tracks to choose from, or six versions of the harmonies. The more decisions you can make up front, the better things turn out. Stick close to the vision of the song as you're recording and it will make the project go smoother.

Recording the guitar with the original vision in mind commits you too. There's less likelihood that things will take a time-wasting turn.

Yes, but there are differing opinions on that within this band. However I prefer to commit going in. It's no longer 24-tracks, plus mix decisions; it's 70-tracks, plus mix decisions. You have to stay organized from the beginning. Jay usually knows what he wants from the beginning, and his parts end up pretty similar to his demos. Patrick works from the other end. He takes inspiration from sounds. He may add sounds as he goes, based on what is happening in real time. Neither one is more "correct" though. It's great to have both of those mindsets in one band.

Did you change anything in the space before starting work on Parallel Play?

It was getting dingy so we put in some new carpet, put up some drapes and moved out some junk. I put up some baffles behind the drums so I could focus the sound a little more. I just used some office dividers as baffles and the drapes made a difference.

Any new tricks you're using this time around?

It's not really a trick, but if I'm recording guitar, I'm either jamming the mic right into the cone, or putting it ten feet away. If you want depth, it's often as easy as adding physical depth. Everything can't be in your face all of the time.

What did you change in the way of gear for the new record?

We picked up an API pre. We now have the Universal Audio 2192, which is much better quality conversion than we used before. We bought a [Chandler] TG1, which is a fantastic compressor.

To what extent did you produce NHTEOI?

Well, nobody really produces a Sloan record except Sloan. Not to discount the work of others, but they have a really good idea of how the record needs to sound. Good production, in their case, is making the record sound exactly the way they had in mind. They did give me a co-production credit though, which I'll happily take, because I worked hard. However, they would have made a good record even if I weren't there.

How involved were you in the mixing and mastering?

I was present for the mixing, because I had some ideas during the recording that they wanted to add in.

Who mixed the NHTEOI?

Lenny DeRose. They took it down to Sony Studios [Toronto]. Sloan is under their umbrella. Working with Lenny was a great experience. He has worked with Mick Ronson, Bob Ezrin [Tape Op #31] and a slew of other artists, but we didn't really know that when we went in. He was into the band's vibe and didn't feel like he had to put his stamp on it. "You want the tambourine too loud on this one? Okay! Let's do it!" He never resisted or felt like he knew what we wanted more than we did.

What's your favorite piece of gear?

Right now it's the API 7600 [channel strip].

Is that your secret weapon?

No, Sloan's the secret weapon. I'm not trying to kiss their asses and I never kiss their asses when they're around, but having a good band in the studio makes it harder to do wrong. Every engineer knows you have a lot more room for error, more leeway, if you're working with a band with great songs. This band has great songs.