There’s a good reason why engineer/producer/mixer Rob Hoffman lives in LA. When Bruce Swedien asks you to move out there for a while to finish a Michael Jackson project, well - it’s something to seriously consider. Eventually transplanting himself from the Hit Factory in New York to his own factory of hits out west with the likes of Quincy Jones and Christina Aguilera, his ‘can do’ attitude keeps the work coming. We caught up with Hoffman to talk about gear, gurus, and Sonnox plug-ins.

How did you get started in the business?

Well, I started out as your basic every day rock and roll guitar player in high school. I thought I wanted to be a session player until I heard all these other players that were much better than me. But I still wanted to be in the business… how do people make a living in music? While I was in college, I hung around with New York musicians who were making money. Some of them were engineering and producing. So I finally figured out what that was, and decided to go to Full Sail in ‘92. I landed a job at Hit Factory in New York right after I graduated. I did the whole progression there – starting as a runner, then moving up to assistant. Within a few months an engineer named Bruce Swedien came in. Because of the earthquakes out in LA, they had moved the entire operation to New York. I got the gig on the Michael Jackson sessions.

Bruce had two rooms; one was primarily his mix room and one was the writing room for Rene Moore. So they wanted a guy who knew MIDI stuff as well as the obvious make coffee and run the SSL type of thing. I was pretty much one of the only guys on staff who could do that. That room had like a hundred keyboards set up in it, and I kind of got it up and running while learning to engineer with Bruce at the helm. That was a good start.

So where did that lead you?

After about a year of working with Bruce and Michael, they decided to finish the record out in LA. At that point, we had about 2000 tapes in the library and Bruce decided I should go with them out to LA to help finish out the project. So I basically threw everything I owned into a duffle bag and lived in a hotel out here for six months. When the record finished, the weather was too good to leave.

Starting with the Quincy Jones record he did right after that, I ended up working with Bruce off and on for about five years, and with Michael through the History Tour prep, and a whole bunch of video and remix things. On almost every project I did with them, I would start out as the assistant, and then by the end I’d be playing guitar, programming, engineering and just working my way up.

So what was next in your career ?

I kept getting calls from a friend who was working at a studio in New York about a young girl who was a good singer, and they wanted someone to produce a demo on spec. I was working with Quincy and Michael and I didn’t really want to work for free, but they kept sending me tapes, and listening to them I realized, she really was brilliant. So she came out to LA for two weeks and I did a demo for her. That girl turned out to be Christina Aguilera. She was signed within a couple of months and I went on to work on just about every project she’s done up until recently.

That kind of set up the whole pop wave, which I rode for a while. From that point on labels sent me every 16-year-old girl they signed! They kept promising that they would all be the next Christina Aguilera. But there is really only one.

So you mix mostly in the box. What in your opinion has made the possible ?

Well, the Sonnox software is a very big reason. To start with, the Reverb is incredible. I finally found an reverb plug-in that has depth to it. That was a huge revelation for me.

I base all my mixes on what I learned working with Swedien and Chris Lord-Alge. We all hate to admit it, but there’s a little bit of template action happening. For me, my standard effects template that I pull up is one Sonnox Reverb on a plate setting. The reverb time will depend on the type of song – either a second or two depending on the type of song. Then there’s another Sonnox Reverb that will have a longer Hall setting. I’ll usually use that for strings and pads, etc. I’ll also set up three different delays, like a fast slap, an eight note and a quarter note delay. Then maybe something like a filtered, affected delay. If I need to go beyond this basic setup, I do – but it depends on the song. But the Sonnox Reverbs are the first two things on there – always.

What else do you use?

Well, I got the Oxford EQ as part of a Massive Pack upgrade. I had certainly read about it, and was interested in it, but hadn’t used it until I got it in the upgrade. For a while, I treated it the way you would when you mixed on an SSL – when you needed something a little special you would throw a Pultec on or something. That’s how I first used it; when I needed to dig in more or needed something different.

About a year ago, I started using it everywhere and really understanding what the Type 1, 2, 3 and 4 buttons did. Now, I generally start on the Type 3 and go from there. It does everything I want. The high end is ridiculous! I almost always throw the 5-band plus filter on there; I love it, and don’t really use any of the others.

Do you use the Oxford Dynamics as well?

Oh yes, I’ve just started to really get into that. Recently I’ve been working with Wendy Waldman a really talented producer/artist, who had it on her rig. She has a pretty limited set of plug- ins, so I started using the Dynamics which she bought in a Massive Pack as well. Then I started to really get into it and really digging the sound of it. It has an amazing amount of control. It was a little daunting, and it has a little learning curve compared to some others. But once I got it under control, I’ve been really digging it.

It’s at the point now where about 90% of the plug-ins I use are Sonnox. I use others as well, but the Sonnox is the majority. I have the Dynamics and EQ on almost every channel.

So what would you use on Christina’s voice?

We did a commercial for Mercedes in Germany, and at the time she was really into a lot of John Lennon stuff. The vocal was a little crunchy, and she’s already got a bit of a harsh midrange when she really belts. At the time I did the original mix, I was happy with it, but I always want to do better. So when I got the opportunity to remix the song recently, I used all Sonnox plug ins on it. The whole mix just came out more dynamic and more open sounding.

Part of that is definitely the fact that the top-end of the Sonnox plug-ins are just right. When you reach for the hi-band EQ, it just opens up the way you would hope an EQ would. With many other plug-ins, you’re just searching for that and reaching for 10/12kHz and its just not there. With the Oxford EQ that air creeps in and you say, “there it is”, that thing I’ve been missing for the last 10 years !

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Interview and editorial provided by Rich Tozzoli