Steve Lamm: Grammy for Nuendo-Produced Album
Recording engineer, producer and Nuendo aficionado Steve Lamm recorded, together with fellow Nuendo user Bryan Lennox, TobyMac’s Alive and Transported which has been awarded a Grammy in the category Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album. Nuendo was used to record, edit and mix the entire album.
Lamm is the owner of the studio Cryptic Globe Recording. He lives in Nashville and has been playing in bands and producing music longer than he can remember, working with many outstanding and successful artists and producers the list of which is too long to recite.
Hello Steve! First of all, congratulations! You were the recording engineer for the Grammy-awarded Best Rock or Rap Gospel Album. This is a clear recognition of your outstanding work. We at Steinberg are so excited to hear this great news. Would you be so kind as to give us a short impression on what it feels like to receive such a great honor?
Sure. And thank you for all the support I have gotten from Steinberg over the years. You guys are like family to me. Honestly, I am not sure it has totally sunk in yet. I just found out last night. I am mostly grateful. Bryan Lenox (a friend and fellow Nuendo user) recommended me for this job, and I am really humbled by his trust. And when the artist and band are really great, it makes your job as engineer really easy and that was definitely the case here.
TobyMac’s live-recording album Alive and Transported was awarded a Grammy just a couple of days ago. Could you tell us a little about the background of the project? How did the collaboration between you and TobyMac come about?
Bryan and I became friends through our wives several years ago. We were both Nuendo users and hit it off. I ended up building several custom DAW computers (a sideline business of mine) for Bryan. When Bryan found out I was doing mobile (location) recording with Nuendo he began recommending me for some of the work he was doing. Bryan is amazingly talented and has worked with a lot of outstanding artists. When he got the call to do Toby’s record he asked me to come on board as the recording engineer with my mobile Nuendo rig. I happily accepted and it was a real honor to work with Toby and his amazingly talented band. I have been a fan since way back in the DC Talk days. They were really fun to hang out with too, and treated us like part of the family as we rode down with them on the bus from Nashville and hung out over the two days we were taping.
What role did Nuendo play during the production process?
Nuendo was the sole recorder/editor/mixing software for this record. I use Nuendo (and sometimes Cubase) on custom-built PCs (I build them myself). My rig is based on AMD-processor-based computers with an RME MADI card, RME 6432 MADI to AES converter, and Lynx Aurora Converters. We use high-quality preamps. On this recording it was exclusively Seventh Circle Audio and ATI 8MX2s. We just recorded directly into Nuendo through this chain. Bryan also mixed this record on his Nuendo rig which comprises a custom PC that I built for him and a Yamaha O2R96v2 among other goodies (notably several UAD-1 cards).
You must be a perfectionist or else it wouldn’t be possible to win the most important award of the music industry. What Nuendo features did you use the most?
Well for location recording Nuendo is the perfect choice for me because it’s so quick and intuitive with a track count only limited by the power of your computer which these days is pretty near unlimited. It is very easy for me to quickly name tracks by simply typing in the first track name and then hitting tab to get to the next. I use folder tracks to arm/disarm all tracks at once (though I LOVE the new “all in record” key command in Cubase 5). I also set up custom workspaces so I can quickly view any important information like levels, etc. This year we are adding another PC to the rack, also with an RME MADI card for full redundancy and the ability to offer a broadcast mix in real time from Nuendo. With latest processors available now it is no problem to provide mixes at around 1.5 ms latency or less even with 64 tracks and lots of effects!
Did Nuendo’s frequently mentioned superb sound quality play any role while recording Alive and Transported?
Absolutely, this has long been a big reason for my preference to Cubase and Nuendo. You really get out exactly what you put in with Nuendo. When using high-quality sound cards, converters, and pre’s, Nuendo is more transparent than any other software out there. I know there has been much debate about this but I have done true blind tests with other engineers present and we all concluded that Nuendo and Cubase do absolutely sound amazing in comparison to any other competitor.
Could you give us a short overview of your professional background?
I began playing guitar when I was 16. I immediately began writing songs and wanted to record them, so I talked my dad into getting me a four-track recorder and I was hooked. Playing guitar and writing and recording music has always gone hand in hand for me. I moved to Nashville in 1992. I played in some local bands. I played with artists like Craig Gore (publishing deal with Sony Tree), Lennon (Arista), my own original project called Lunar Crush and several others. I always had a small home studio and would record my friends’ bands as often as I could. I switched from ADATs to Cubase VST-24, whenever that was out, and I have been a loyal Steinberg user ever since. About six years ago I “settled down” and began engineering and producing more than I was playing. Around the same time I began hosting the Nashville Club Cubase/Nuendo users group with the support of Greg Ondo of Steinberg (www.clubcubasenashville.com). We still meet on the fourth Thursday of every month. Two years ago I moved into a two-building recording studio complex I named CGR Nashville (short for my business name which is Cryptic Globe Recording). Here I still do a lot of independent and custom projects and also rent the studio out to others. Notably, Kathy Mattea’s record Coal was nominated for a Grammy this year as well and it was mixed on Nuendo at CGR Nashville by the extremely talented Mick Conley and producer/artist Marty Stuart. Last year was definitely a great year, with Toby’s record winning a Grammy and the Casting Crowns’ song East To West being nominated as well. I recorded that one in Florida on my mobile Nuendo rig, too.
What projects have you got lined up for the future? Will you be using Nuendo for your next productions?
Well, this year still holds lots of custom computer building, custom recording projects for independents and demos here at CGR, and I am even working on finishing up my own record which has been put off for quite a while now. I am sure more location recording will also be in the mix but it’s a bit early in the year to have any of those booked yet. Definitely on the books is independent Canadian artist Chris LeBlanc’s follow-up record to Too Much Nothin’ which was nominated for Best Country Recording in Canada’s EMCA awards. I recorded, edited, and mixed that one here at CGR, exclusively on Nuendo, and Chris wants to come back to do the next one here as well. As to using Nuendo in the future, I can’t dream of using anything but Cubase or Nuendo for any project I do. It’s a part of how I work. It’s extremely intuitive and just keeps getting better and better. I am already using Cubase 5’s new VariAudio feature to do any tuning that I need to do and prefer it over any other tuning software out there. Amazing! I even use it a lot when I am writing to change melodies around and try out different ideas once I have the basic line recorded. So, Cubase and Nuendo for life!
Thank you so much for your time!
Website: www.stevelamm.com
