In a lovely home nestled in the wooded hills of Westchester County, far
from the hustle and throb of New York City, in a place where one would expect
to find only nature’s serenity and tranquillity, you will find instead
one of the busiest audio engineers in the country, hard at work in his
state-of-the-art mixing studio. We spoke with Mick Guzauski at his studio,
Barking Doctor, as he was about to begin another 18+ hour day of mixing.
Can you tell us a little about your studio Mick?
"Well, like a lot of home studios, the original idea was to build
a demo room here in the house where ideas could be developed at my
convenience. But as the design concept evolved in my mind, it grew into what
I have here now: a fully outfitted mixing studio." Barking Doctor houses
an SSL console with the AT&T DISQ Core, SONY 3348 digital tape recorder,
Digidesign Pro Tools and Studio Vision, Tannoy and Magneplaner monitors, and
enough of the right processing gear to be the envy of any mix studio in the
country. "I was fortunate to have the opportunity to develop this kind
of room at this time. Barking Doctor is just a year old. We opened October
9th last year."
Mick is a modest man and whenever we ask him about himself he is quick to
turn the topic of conversation to others. But it is clear that his talents
are prodigious: mixer for the last two Mariah Carey multi-platinum albums,
singles mixer for the last Boyz 2 Men project, long-time engineer for Kenny
G. Nor is Mick Guzauski a flash-in-the-pan talent. After moving to LA from
hometown Rochester, New York to engineer for fellow Rochesterian Chuck
Mangione, it was only a matter of time before he succeeded George Massenberg
as mixer for Earth, Wind and Fire. In the years that followed he made
recordings for Michael Bolton, David Foster, Kenny G, Baby Face, Mister
Mister and a host of other artists. Sony Music President Tommy Matolla put
him to work on Mariah Carey’s Music Box album and convinced Mick
to move back to the East Coast.
As a mixer, how are you able to work at home, far from Manhattan, when
your artists and producers are all over the globe?
"Certainly I travel a great deal in my work. But the need to
travel has been dramatically reduced by telecommunications technology
ednet was an original ingredient in the concept for Barking Doctor. It
allows me to work in my own ideal mixing environment, and to play the mixes
back for the producers and artists wherever they may be. It’s a
tremendous time saver and simplifies the human logistics of this stage of an
album project."
And how do you find the sonic quality of ednet’s services?
"It’s nearly indistinguishable from the original source. I
often use ednet links to do overdubs and the sound is excellent. And
remember we use this technology for producers to evaluate and approve major
album mixes. It has to be VERY good."
And the service?
"This is where ednet is a real asset. I’m using the
Dolby AC-2 converter, which is very popular with record and film people. But
often I need to reach a producer where the Dolby format is not available.
ednet has always been able to bridge connect me to a facility near the
producer without a problem, no matter what the format. And I ask them to do
this often. When we first opened, getting ISDN lines installed way out here
was quite a challenge. ednet worked very hard to make it
happen."
As the hands of the clock approached the downbeat of Mick’s next
session, we asked him what was on his drawing board this week. "Well,
I’m currently mixing the CD version of the Pavarotti concert in Modena,
Italy for Sony Music. I have to play the mixes for the producer, Phil Ramone,
who’s working at Right Track in Manhattan today Guess how I’ll do
that? Right, ednet."
Thanks Mick!