The secret to the Chris Lord Alge sound?

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Chris Lord Alge Signature Series plugins seminar

Chris Lord Alge Signature Series plugins seminar at Mix LA Studio.

I recently had a chance to see a presentation by Chris Lord Alge in his studio, Mix LA, in Tarzana, CA. It was presented by Waves so I knew it was going to be a bit of a dog and pony show for some plugins, but I am always trying to learn, and I was not about to pass up a chance to learn a little bit from the most successful mixer in the world. If you think you are not familiar with CLA, just turn on pop or rock radio in any city for 10 minutes and you will probably hear something he mixed.

As expected, it was a presentation for the new Chris Lord Alge Signature Series plugins from Waves. While I have not used them in the studio, I can give you a mini review: It seems pretty cool and has a very user friendly GUI. They sort of designed it so a monkey could use it and get some pretty usable sounds. Aside from the fact that it seems very CPU intensive, It will probably be a cool thing for less experienced mixers, and an interesting creative tool for those a bit more advanced,  but I have a CLA-Drums-bnp2feeling more experienced mixers will get frustrated at the lack of fine tuning capabilities. That being said, even though I am a pretty advanced mixer, with a big analog console and a wall of outboard hardware, I would probably be tempted to pull it up from time to time and get the CLA spin on things. It contains a lot of his default start points for EQ and delay etc, and just checking that out was a bit of a learning experience.

After the event I was a little bit disappointed that Chris had not spent more time talking about his particular techniques, but while driving home it struck me that he might have accidentally given us the secret to his sound……

I don’t think its the gear he uses. I think it’s this:

I realized that during the entire presentation CLA only referred to sounds as “exciting” or “boring” (or some variation of those). Not once did he ever apply one of his presets and comment on a sound being linear, or lush, or smooth, or having depth, or warmth, or even complimentary to the other things in the mix. He just kept applying processing and noting how much more “exciting” it got, and how “boring” or “plain jane” it got when he took the plugin off.

As I thought about it, I realized that I had just stumbled onto the secret of the Chris Lord Alge sound. I do not think he cares at all about many of the subtle nuances or details that many of us mixers get obsessed with. His mixes are all about the excitement, and whether you love his mixes or hate them, few people are neutral about a Chris Lord Alge mix. Listen to albums he has mixed for the likes of Daughtry, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, or even an artist like The Dave Matthews Band, and the mixes practically take your head off when you listen to them loud on high end studio monitors,  Even though I am a big fan of his work, it’s tough for me to listen to lots of his mixes back to back on the big speakers, but they have an excitement and energy to them that translates really well to car radios, boom boxes, laptops and many of the places people consume music these days. Chris Lord Alge focuses on making excitement jump out of the speakers, and love him or hate him, that is probably the reason all the labels keep hiring him, and why the first Daughtry album sounds so amazing in my crummy car stereo.

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11 Comments

  1. > it’s tough for me to listen to lots
    > of his mixes back to back on the
    > big speakers

    Or even small speakers! I’m not dissing CLA, but when every song on the radio has the same hyperbolic vibe it makes tuning in more of a chore than a pleasure. I used to listen to radio for hours at a time, back when you could hear Rick James and Dolly Parton and Def Leppard all on the same station. Now I feel like I’ve had enough after twenty minutes.

    CLA does “exciting” really well, nothing wrong with that. But too much “exciting” gets to be “boring” real quick. Maybe a “boring” plug-in would actually be “exciting”!

  5. I was listening to a 2 part audio interview he did not too long ago, and what I noticed right away was his gear selection. This guy has gear that nobody else has. If he does have gear that other people have, his unit sounds the best out of all the other units. The way he tracks to his mid 90s deck, simply because it gives it character that other decks don’t. Most other people have long forgotten about stuff like that because people get caught up in the latest and greatest. Not Chris. He takes in the new stuff, but his bread and butter gear is the stuff that you just can’t find anywhere anymore. Listen to his audio interview (google it) and you’ll learn a ton about his techniques.
    All that aside, I LOVE this guy’s skill, and what he’s done for modern music. WAR Chris Lord Alge (and his brother Tom is no slouch either!)

  7. Interesting, I passed this on to a aide of mine, and he truly bought me lunch simply because I uncovered this for him, so let me rephrase: Thanks for lunch.

  9. i seriously cannot stand cla’s mixes. they offend my ears with how flat every instrument is, the bass is not deep – it usually just hums – and the highs are snare-like and grating. it almost seems the man compresses the dynamic range of the individual tracks before mixing them together, which basically nullifies the later mastering process. every sound is blown out. and sure, it may grab the average listener’s ear over crappy car speakers, but that’s just another contributing factor to why hit singles only have a two-month shelf life now. rather than feeling surrounded by the ambiance and tone of the music, i just feel crowded in by a flat, blaring wall of sounds, all set at the same level. “boring” and “exciting” .. wow, this man is really concerned with preserving acoustic integrity of the music he mixes.

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