The Crystal Method
Peaking A Master With The Crystal MethodBy Randy Alberts
"Every time we need to check something with a quick 2-track edit, or burn a test stereo mix CD, or make sure about a mix's compression and limiting, we use Peak," says DJ, producer, artist, synthesist, and engineer Ken Jordan. He's one half of the earth-thumping electronic dance duo The Crystal Method.
"We always bring it up in Peak to make sure where we're at with it before moving on. Whenever we're at the end of our day, we're always in Peak."
The Crystal Method recently added "final mastering" to their critical list of studio duties they rely on Peak for the most. Community Service II, due out April 5th, is this energetic live and studio duo's fifth release — a DJ mix album featuring both original songs by The Crystal Method and new remixes by the duo and some of their other favorite artists — to be followed within the year by a new studio album. Community Service II marks the first time since forming in Las Vegas in 1993 that Jordan and Scott Kirkland are mastering their own music, a process for which they trust Peak.
Soup To Nuts With Peak
Like Community Service in 2002, the new release is a compilation mix CD of remixes submitted from a variety of DJs and producers, who all use various digital recording workstation technologies, that The Crystal Method will then form into one continuous mix. For Jordan the choice was an easy one about how to weave together their multi-timbered mixes on Community Service II and produce their next studio album in 2005.
"We've got all these different songs sounding a little different that each need their own individual treatment in mastering," says Jordan of the innovative new takes on some Method classics, including JDS's 10th anniversary remix of TCM's huge hit "Keep Hope Alive," and the duo's remix of New Order's "Bizarre Love Triangle," both on Community Service II.
"It can be a risky thing handing over a mix CD like this to a mastering studio, at least some we've known," adds Ken, who should know having already produced the first Community Service compilation three years ago. "Sometimes they'll just do the whole smiley face thing with it over the whole album."
Smiley face?
"You know, just turn up the treble and turn up the bass and you're done," Ken laughs. "Generally, good mastering can't fix a bad mix, but bad mastering can sure screw up a good one. Its very important for us that our mixes sound as well in a club as they do on an AM radio station, so we mix that way."
So, master an entire major release album in Peak? That's new for TCM.
"Yep, I talked to a few friends and we decided to use Peak and mainly the Waves' L3 plug-in to master it ourselves. We did things like use Peak to put all the markers in place to show where we wanted the track indexes to be, and we were able to just easily burn the Red Book CD and be all done with it. We think it came out really good."
Jordan has used Peak over the years, but perhaps never has he trusted it with his music as much as he does now. Most of those great TCM synth bursts and bleeps, big breaks, electronic beats and thunderous bass lines — winning them their first ever Grammy nomination for the category of Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2004 — were chopped and processed in Peak en route to banks of hardware samplers. These days Peak's role with The Crystal Method is more about holding down the duo's last beat on their albums: mastering.
"Where you put the markers for the track indexes in a song is just as crucial a process as the mastering itself," Jordan continues. "You have to experiment with where you want that track marker at, and that's very easy to experiment with in Peak. You get to see how things will sound and feel like on the final CD with Peak. We sit there in front of Peak and pretend we're listening to the final CD."
Ken says the duo also likes the look and feel of Peak more than ever, and that Community Service II came out sounding great for them using Peak last in their audio chain.
"We're trying to get to know all the new features, but to be honest the new version is still pretty new to us. We've always been happy with all the features in Peak we do know and use a lot. And, I don't think it's ever crashed on us, not once. The new CD sounds great having mastered it with Peak, it sounds real loud and good and it shows that it's a well mixed CD."
Let It Roll, Baby, Roll
Jordan, who uses Peak in his L.A. home and work studios, is about to wrap up his current new album sessions as The Crystal Method heads out for another pulse-pounding DJ tour after their annual tour launcher, Winter Music Conference, kicks it all off for them with a couple of shows in Miami and Panama Beach.
By the time they get back to Los Angeles after a heavy touring schedule this summer, Ken Jordan and his TCM partner Scott Kirkland might have already had themselves a touch of road fever. Fittingly, they used Peak on their remix of The Doors classic "Roadhouse Blues" that appears on Community Service II.
"It was great getting to work so closely with the original Doors multitracks," Jordan concludes reverently. "Getting to go into all those original vocal tracks and some of the keyboards and piano tracks and remix those was really amazing. It was great working that stuff. I kept thinking to myself as we got deeper into it, 'OK, now, don't screw this up!'"
The Crystal Method's Community Service II releases April 5th on Ultra Records/3 AM. TCM also performed at the Music For Relief Benefit Concert at Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California.