Paul Wertico "I couldn't have done it without SONAR"

Seven time Grammy Award winner, Paul Wertico is a world-class drummer who has worked for years with such luminaries as Pat Metheny, Larry Coryell, Jazz singer Kurt Elling, “word jazz” creator Ken Nordine, fusion violinist Jerry Goodman, new age music pioneer Paul Winter, and the legendary Eastern European rock band SBB, among many others. His versatility, and prolific career as a sideman has led to some memorable recordings, and amazing live experiences. Ultimately it is in the context of his own renegade groups that Wertico has revealed the most about his musicality and philosophy of drumming while also pushing the envelope on risk-taking. StereoNucleosis (A440 Records), his most audacious and musically diverse outing to date was recorded entirely in SONAR. On it, Wertico pushes the envelope like never before in his illustrious 30-year career as a drummer/musical provocateur. "SONAR 3 Producer Edition enabled me to home record my new CD StereoNucleosis as if I were in a $200 per hour studio. It totally leveled the playing field and gave me the opportunity to capture my music as I intended, with great fidelity and freedom—without the financial and logistic restrictions that only a few major label artists can afford to deal with. I couldn't have done it without SONAR!"

Feeling liberated to fully express himself, Wertico delved into his home studio with a passion, documenting ideas when inspiration struck while staying wide open to in-the-moment experimentation.

“While there are some intense drum solos on this recording, my goal was not to try to impress people with my chops on this album,” he says. “Instead, I’m really hoping to make listeners 'feel' something with this music and take them on a journey. I’m also very excited because this is the first time in my career that I sense that a recording of mine is going to get a chance to get out there in terms of distribution, marketing, and whatnot. At age 51, I finally have a record that's not only truly sonically and musically representative of the way I hear music, but that also has total label support, where the CD actually has a chance of getting off the ground and going somewhere. It’s like a dream situation.”

Read on for Cakewalk's exclusive interview with Wertico. In it he describes the many reasons why he uses SONAR, he touches upon a few of the aspects of his recording process, provides tips for recording percussion and adding rhythmic intensity to sequenced parts, and even gives us some insight into his personal philosophy of music.

Cakewalk: Can you describe your recording process for StereoNucleosis?

Paul Wertico: Every song on StereoNucleosis was approached differently. Although I had a good vision of what the final result would be, there were times where we were just kind of making it up as we went along with all the ideas and influences that all of us bring to bear. And, in the end it all worked out as I had imagined it would. The whole approach was very much like zen archery.

In general though, first I laid down the drum tracks to a click track and maybe a scratch rhythm guitar part. Then other instruments were added one at a time. Actually, no two instruments were ever played at the same time, but we all know how to play our instruments and how to listen and react to each other's prerecorded tracks, so there was no problem. One other interesting fact is that except for the mics used on the voice and acoustic instruments and on the one tune where we utilized extensive feedback using an amp, the entire rest of the CD was recorded straight into SONAR...no amps, no mixer, no outboard gear. I bought a state of the art PC, a MOTU 896 interface and a few other things and we were up and running. A few words that immediately come to mind using this process are liberating, enlightening, organic, exhilarating, economical and basically great fun!

CW: So you started the disc in SONAR 2 then finished it in SONAR 3 Producer Edition; what would you say are your favorite improvements or new features in Version 3?

PW: Well, first of all, just the way SONAR 3 Producer Edition looks is dramatic...very classy looking and user friendly. The addition of the new features, including things like the fantastic universal bus architecture and console view, as well as the great new effects, etc., made our engineering and mixing jobs so much easier and enjoyable.

CW: With all of the choices that you have available to you to do your recording, what made you decide to use SONAR?

PW: Talk about synchronism, here's how the story goes. When I finally signed the recording deal with A440 Music Group, because of the type of CD I wanted to produce and record, I was determined to do the recording at home. I wanted to be able to take the money from the advance and put it into a home studio that I could improve on over time, as opposed to going into a recording studio for a week or so, and then starting from scratch on the next CD. Why rent when you can buy? So, it just so happened that at the same time my guitarist, John Moulder, mentioned that a student of his, a young and very talented musician and engineer name Brian Peters, was interested in recording my trio. As it turned out, Brian was a fan of my music and had bought various CDs of mine over the years, so his musical taste ran parallel to mine. Brian brought his PC and recording gear over to my house one day and we just recorded some stuff with my trio for fun and to see how it sounded. I was really impressed with both Brian and his recording ability and the recording software he was using turned out to be SONAR 2. Up to that point, I had toyed around with the idea of buying a Pro-Tools system, but I was sold on SONAR from that point on.

CW: Did you have any experience with Cakewalk software before that?

PW: Actually no. I was always a "Mac guy" and never really explored the PC world, but now I'm a convert.

CW: Did you also engineer and mix the StereoNucleosis yourself? Any tips on recording live drums and percussion? PW: I worked in close collaboration with Brian. Since he turned me on to SONAR 2, which he was very accomplished at using, at first I mostly played and produced and he engineered. Later, as I got used to using SONAR, then I engineered as well. We also mixed together, but I let Brian do most of the button pushing. As far as tips recording live drums and percussion, obviously the first requirements are good, well tuned instruments (I used DW drums with Remo heads and Paiste cymbals), great microphones and their correct placement (I used all Shure mics for the recording), and a room that let's the instruments breathe. Then it's up to the player to get good, consistent sounding performances. Also, and this goes for recording any instrument, make sure to not add a lot, if any, artificial EQ. Get the instrument to sound as natural as possible first. Taking out frequencies is ok, but adding frequencies can cause a lot of problems, especially in the mastering stage. After that, you can have a blast experimenting with effects and plugins.

CW: Who are some of the other players that you have on the album?

PW: Besides myself on drums and percussion, the CD includes my regular trio, consisting of John Moulder on electric guitar, acoustic guitar and guitar synth and Eric Hochberg on acoustic bass, trumpet and vocals, as well as Brian Peters on fretless bass, violin, electric guitar, electric bass and Ebow, and my wife Barbara Wertico on keyboards, with some invaluable support from my daughter Talia on vocal commentary and our dog, Rocky, on dog barks.

CW: What kinds of reactions are you getting from people who have heard the album?

PW: Some people have said that my band's music made them think of the Tony Williams Lifetime, while other people have said it reminded them of King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jimi Hendrix...all artists that I really love. But on this recording there’s also a lot of things that are purely my own vision. And I was able to do this because (A440 President) Kent Anderson gave me the green light to do whatever I wanted to do to produce this record. Obviously, I’m thrilled because that kind of attitude coming from a record company nowadays is pretty much a miracle.

CW: I'll say so...on an initial listening, many here on the Cakewalk staff commented that you created some of the most interesting textures we've ever heard come out of SONAR on this album. Would you care to share some of your secrets for attaining them? Are they soft synths or live recorded instruments - or both?

PW: Thanks so much! We used a couple of instrument plugins, including Tapeworm, which has sounds similar to a mellotron, and a few MIDI sounds, but basically everything else is live recorded instruments. I think the combination of natural sounding instruments mixed with unusual and extreme plugin effects resulted in creating all the new and varied sounds. Also, I was looking to have a really broad tonal spectrum on this CD, almost as if there was another band playing in the far upper and lower audio spectrum.

CW: Speaking of soft synths, what are your favorite synths and effect plug-ins?

PW: I really like Reason, Reactor and Tapeworm, as well as iZotope Trash, iZotope Ozone, AmpliTube, Antares Auto-Tune and Waves plugins, but I also spent many nights downloading freeware plugins and some of them were very interesting. Some were also so awful that they were actually great! I've also just started using Cakewalk's soft synth workstaion, Project5, and I'm really impressed with it, so that will definitely be on my next CD.

CW: There is a great sense of vibrant rhythmic urgency on this disc, even on the parts that appear to be sequenced. Do you have any tips on attaining that "real feel" on a sequenced or programmed part? PW: I think to attain a "real feel" on a sequenced or programmed part, it's important to understand what makes an actual acoustic performance have life and urgency. Great players add a lot of depth in their playing by using dynamics and various types of colors and timbres, as well as compositional devices such as tension and release, and "playing around with the beat." Once you study how great players can make grooves come alive, then you can employ some of those devices into creating life like programmed parts. Another approach is to play live over sequenced parts in such a way that you actually make a static part sound like it's alive and breathing. There are also little "tricks" such as track sliding and slightly varying the tempo to get the music to "move."

CW: Are you planning on touring to support the album?

PW: Definitely! Without meaning to brag, the band consistently "kills" live, so now it's just a matter getting gigs. At this point I've been booking things myself, so I'm currently in the process of looking for the right agent.

CW: I see your 8 year old daughter also has an album out, was that also recorded in SONAR?

PW: The album you're referring to is my daughter Talia Wertico and her 8 year old friend Allegra Rosenberg's new CD entitled Songs For The Swing Set. We actually recorded their CD at Allegra's father's studio. He's Mac based, so we used a different recording program, which I won't mention here. Although it came out great, there were a number of times during the recording and mixing phases where I wished we had had SONAR's clarity and flexibility. I guess I've gotten pretty spoiled!

CW: What are you working on now or next?

PW: Besides doing session work, performing a lot of drum clinics around the country and teaching, both privately and at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and Northwestern University, I'm busy playing with guitarist Larry Coryell in his trio with bassist Mark Egan, supporting our latest two CDs. I'm also touring as a member of the legendary Eastern European rock band, SBB, supporting our latest CD. This summer, I'm flying to Greece to play on two new CDs for two Greek artists, Vangelis Katsoulis and Anthony Plessas. There's also another CD coming out by Greek guitarist Lefteris Christofis that I played on a year ago in Athens. For that CD, I recently recorded additional drum and percussion tracks, as well as keyboard tracks with my wife Barbara, at home using SONAR 3 Producer Edition. I'm very excited because people are now hiring me to track drums and percussion for their projects in my home studio...it's a real luxury and like I've said before, "I couldn't have done it without SONAR!" If anyone is interested in knowing more, they can visit my website at www.paulwertico.com.

CW: In closing, do you have a personal philosophy about music?

PW: Wow, that's a powerful question. I believe that music can honorably serve many functions and it all has a valid place, as long as it's performed with spirit and integrity. From music that pushes the boundaries of human creativity to music that serves more practical purposes such as dance music and mood music, I think the best of any kind of music brings out the joy and wonder of being alive and presents the full spectrum of human emotions. I would have to say though that my favorite music is music that lifts up and inspires people...both the listener and the performer.

For more information on Paul visit http://www.paulwertico.com.

You can purchase StereoNucleosis directly from A440 Music.

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