Tye Tribbet gospel choir

[scuzzywuzzy]

Hi Russ. Amazing to see your Discog. As everyone else seems to be mentioning, you mixed all the best tracks of the last 10 years!!
I was just curious, having only yesterday read Bruce Swedien's description of how he dealt with the Gospel choir on MJ's "Man in the Mirror", how did you approach the same task from a technical viewpoint? "Mighty Long Way" sounds ridiculous!! I've played that a lot.
Thanks
Robin

[Russell Elevado]

hello robin,

nice one. i'm listening to it as i'm writing as i've not heard it in a long time. not a lot of people know of that album. it's probably the most edgy gospel album out there, but then again, i don't know too much about the gospel world. i really like "i can make it" as well. i hope i can do their next album. they were all some of the nicest people i've worked with and super talented.

i was only involved in the mixing stage so i don't have too much info for you as far as the choir goes. i split up the 3 harmonies. left center and right to give a real "from the listeners view" scenario. that's how they would do it in concert, where the choir is split up from alto, soprano, baritone. i did my normal thing, grouping all the BGV into a stereo compressor and eq's for them. again, as with D's stuff, i spent time getting the blends just right and going for a big natural sound. i only used reverb for ambience. i mixed the album in Philly at "the studio" on a J9000. i would normally use plates for reverb but they didin't have any there. so i think i used the dre-777 and probably a 480L.

i am sitting here listening to the album (it's been quite awhile) and it sounds really good. if you like my mixing, you might want to pick this up...it's gospel but there's a twist to it... (nice plug for Tye, huh?)

FYI
James poyser was the producer for that album. who is part of the soultroncs/soulquarians camp and close friends with ahmir and D as well as myself! he is one of the baddest keyboardists out there. he played keys on D's voodoo tour and he's written/produced songs for erykah, jil scott, the roots, common and many more.
he plays organ every sunday with his church's gospel choir in Philadelphia.

[scuzzywuzzy]

Hi. Thanks for that. I know what you mean by "edgy" and i think that's what drew me to Tye's music and i love the way they brought that lazy swing to the genre and made it work. I don't know loads about the gospel scene either but i am aware of the whole "GospelChops" phenomenon and a few modern artists, and it can get a bit OTT at times.

[Exmun]

I have the Tye Tribbett album, and your work was excellent. A real live feeling album with an "edge."

Russell, when you say "left center and right" are you talking about far left and far right? Or are you saying something between 12 and 9 o'clock and between 12 and 3 o'clock? I've always wondered that about big choir albums.

Also, how many choir tracks were you given at mixdown per song?

Thanks in advance.