Chris Zane: Passion Pit, Harlem Shakes, & Thriller as a Totalizing Agent

BY D. YEE, ZAC MEYER

Before sitting down to talk with Chris Zane at Gigantic Studios in Chinatown, New York City, he gave me a quick tour of the place. Yes, it is the former Looking Glass Studios founded and built by Philip Glass and yes, it still has Glass's Bösendorfer concert grand piano, but no, Chris Zane has never met the guy. Far from minimalist or post-minimalist, Chris Zane is a relatively young producer, barely in his thirties, whose work often sounds very layered and big. While showing me a song from the then-unreleased Passion Pit debut album (which has since become one of the biggest albums of 2009), he explained that we were listening to no less than eight vocal tracks stacked on top of one another. As the chorus hit, he turned to me and said, "thirty-five." However, his projects are not all shiny synth-pop, as he has worked with a diverse array of artists including Calla, Les Savy Fav, Asobi Seksu, White Rabbits, Ambulance LTD and The Walkmen.

Steve Hoffman: Mastering The Beach Boys, Miles Davis, & More

BY KEITH HANLON

As a mastering engineer, Steve Hoffman has worked on many classic recordings, but very few of them would be considered standard CD or LP releases. After working at MCA on reissue CDs from Buddy Holly and The Who (among others), he entered the audiophile world. He is currently a free agent, working on SACDs for Audio Fidelity and LPs for S&P Records. He made his name as the mastering engineer for DCC Compact Classics. Throughout the '90s, DCC specialized in producing 24-karat gold compact discs. They released gold disc versions of albums by The Doors, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, Miles Davis and many others. Even non-audiophiles feel that these discs are the definitive versions. Indeed, the first time I heard his work on Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, I felt as though I was hearing what Dylan heard in the control room during playback. Steve's trademark is what he refers to as the "breath of life" — recordings that are dynamic and natural sounding. You don't have to have a $50,000 system to hear the difference.

Trey Spruance: Mr. Bungle and Secret Chiefs 3

BY OLIVIA OYAMA

If you spend some time around Trey Spruance, it's not uncommon to hear him expounding on Islamic theologians, geopolitics or holes in the Big Bang Theory. Yet Trey is better known not for his encyclopedic abilities, but for his former band Mr. Bungle and current project Secret Chiefs 3. Trey's most under-appreciated talent, however, is his masterful engineering ability. He started recording by tracking his high school band, Mr. Bungle, on a Tascam Porta One 4-track cassette recorder. When they were signed to Warner Bros. Records, Trey seized the opportunity to learn as much he could. He befriended engineer Billy Anderson [Tape Op #33], who taught him the ins and outs of studio recording. By Mr. Bungle's third record, they were linking three 24-track, 2-inch tape machines and two ADAT machines together to accommodate their ever-expanding orchestrations. At the same time, Trey had been tracking his other project, Secret Chiefs 3, in Bungle's rehearsal space. While Secret Chiefs 3 share Mr. Bungle's extensive orchestration and track density, they didn't have the same extensive recording budgets. This forced Trey to develop creative solutions to realize his musical visions in his home studio. Many records later, he has cultivated a set of surprisingly original techniques for getting the most out of home-recording and professional studios.

Andrew Huang: Songs To Wear Pants To

BY VIJITH ASSAR