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Two-time Grammy-winner Rick St. Hillaire on the magic of short signal paths and bringing personality to hit recordings
Rick St. Hilaire has built a prolific career off of a very focused approach to capturing artistic character in the recording studio. Perhaps best known as Busta Rhymes’ long-time producer and engineer, St. Hilaire has also been called in to work his magic on key recordings for Alicia Keys, A Tribe Called Quest, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carrey among others. Although he’s worked in many styles of music, the focal point of St. Hilaire’s technique is his naturalistic approach to capturing vocals which he does with carefully considered, minimalist signal chains that he has honed over the last three decades. This focus has led St. Hilaire to make the Lauten Audio LA-320 Large-diaphragm Tube Condenser Microphone a key part of his preferred signal chain and a secret weapon in his search for the the ultimate vocal rig.
Mixing emotional colors with the right signal chain
Decidedly “old school” in his process, St. Hilaire has made capturing the maximum emotional range out of his performers’ vocals the highest priority when making records. To do so, he focuses on creating clean, simple signal paths that ensure the personality of the artist is brought to the forefront and captures their energy in an honest, organic way. “Your job as the engineer is to capture the spirit of what’s going on and not let anything get in the way of that.” he explained. “You can always color it later with processing and effects, but the core sound needs to resonate with the artist as they are performing and bring them to the front of it.”
“I’m an old-school guy like that, but it makes a difference and you can always hear it on the finished recording.”
St. Hilaire compares the process of selecting the right elements of the chain to mixing paint colors – supplying the right emotional color and pigmentation to compliment an artist’s unique voice and persona. When it’s done right, he says, it can be the critical element that makes a recording work. “The artist is the one painting the picture, but as engineers we’re supplying the colors that flesh that picture out,” he said. “That’s the mission critical part of what we do and you have to have an intimate understanding of the elements in your chain that make that happen.”
“The microphone is the one most obvious and important one in that, and one of my favorites that I’ve made the most use of recently is the Lauten LA-320.”
Perfect clarity, unique character
St. Hilaire first encountered Lauten Audio during recent sessions for Busta Rhymes. He was immediately taken with the fidelity and tonal color of the brand’s microphones and the amount of personality they added to the recordings.. “A lot of modern microphones are either clean to the point of clinical or they sound super generic to my ears,” he explained. “As much as clarity is important to me, you still want to have some character coming from the microphone and then pair it to the artist to get the sound you want.”
“The Lauten stuff just had a vibe right away. It totally took us by surprise when we were tracking and I knew I had to have one.”
St. Hilaire favors the LA-320 in his studio vocal chains as well as part of his mobile recording setup. Noting the combination of sound, features, and price point, he sees it being a game-changing mic for just about anyone. “I was really desperate for something new to change my sound with, and the LA-320 came at exactly the right time for me,” he said. “It’s a ‘today’ microphone that has character and clarity, and it’s also got a split personality because of the tone switches – so you get variations on that great tube sound that can work for anything.”
“This microphone really saved my tush, and for kids coming up in the game it really destroys! You’re only as good as your tools in this business, and Lauten gave me the perfect tool for what I do with the LA-320.”
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