Hollywood, CA (March 13, 2019)—Veteran engineer Ed Cherney has added to his haul of awards last month, winning two Grammys with Willie Nelson for work that was tracked and mixed entirely on ATC SCM45A 3-way nearfield monitors.
Cherney garnered his fourth Grammy for Willie Nelson’s tribute to Frank Sinatra, My Way, which won Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album, the same category Nelson and Cherney won in 2017 for Nelson’s tribute album, Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin. Cherney, a founder of the METAlliance, also has an Emmy (among four nominations) and eight TEC Awards, and is a TEC Hall of Fame inductee.
Although he wasn’t present for the My Way overdub sessions in Nashville and Texas, Cherney served as the tracking engineer over five days at Studio 2 at EastWest Studios in Hollywood. He mixed the entire project in his room, Studio Ed, at the Village. Tony Castle recorded the overdubs in Nashville.
The METAlliance Report: “Where We Are” – By Ed Cherney.
Cherney used the ATC SCM45A monitors during the tracking sessions: “When everybody comes back into the control room to have a listen to what we just played and recorded, always is the moment of truth for me. I want to knock their socks off. If they ask to hear the playback again, and want me to turn it up, that’s usually a pretty good sign.
“Even with veteran musicians like these, if they can hear that they sound and feel great, it can contribute to inspiring a phenomenal performance. Playback on the ATCs helped a lot with that. And do you know how you know that you’ve got it? When they want to hear it again.”
Until arriving at the ATCs, Cherney went through numerous monitors. “I usually had to mix a bunch of songs on every new speaker that I tried, before I was truly comfortable.” he said. “I nailed the very first song I ever mixed on my ATCs. The relationship between the kick and bass was right. The snare level and EQ was right. The level of the solos, vocal balances, reverb and effect amounts was nailed. And now I know for sure that if I get something sounding great in my room on my ATCs, it’s going to sound great everywhere: ear buds, computer speakers, TVs, stereos, streaming, cars, you name it.”
TransAudio Group • www.transaudiogroup.com
