We briefly chatted with Rail about his career and Ready Acoustics:
Meet Rail
“Rail” (as he is known everywhere in the professional recording world) is one busy guy. As an abject Pro Tools aficionado and the virtual voice of the Digidesign User’s Conference, Rail’s long history as one the best recording and mix engineers is not lost on those who follow his advice, and his esteemed career. Rail’s endless energy and musical drive is directly responsible for more engineering and mixing versatility than you can imagine. Aside from his incredible web presence and musical guidance, Rail’s engineering and mix skills should be known as nothing short of “Diverse”. Evidence of this is found on the projects that contain his sought after talents: Meshell N’Degeocello’s “Peace Beyond Passion” and Ry Cooder’s “Chavez Ravine” as well as his work with Elton John, Eric Clapton, Steve Vai, American Idol, Kiss, Dolly Pardon, Whitney Houston, Natalie Cole, Indigo Girls, Toto, Van Halen, Kenny Loggins, Warren Zevon, John Lee Hooker, Sarah Kelly and many, many more. Saying that Rail Jon Rogut has earned his engineering cred, may be the best example of an “understatement” in our opinion.
Ready Acoustics sent Rail some RT424’s for his home studio, but he ended up taking them to Sound City Studios where he does a lot of work. The folks at Sound City Studios know what they’re doing when it comes to recording and mixing yesterday’s and today’s artists, and the effectiveness of great quality acoustic treatment is NOT lost on them. Rail and the folks at Sound City love the results as well as the look of the Black RT424’s used in their Blue Room editing room, and credit these superlative sound absorption devices for helping engineers to hear exactly what is coming from their speakers.
We briefly chatted with Rail about his career and Ready Acoustics:
Q: Rail, it seems you have worked with just about everybody in the music business. What have been some highlights?
A: There have been lots of highlights… albums that stick out… Meshell N’Degeocello’s “Peace Beyond Passion” and Ry Cooder’s “Chavez Ravine”.
Q: What have you worked on recently?
A: I just completed working on an Album with Producer Mike Clink (Guns ‘n Roses) with artist Sarah Kelly on Gotee Records.
Q: What is the most important part of your mix process?
A: Recording the parts correctly.
Q: How have Ready Acoustic panels helped this process?
A: We set them up in Sound City Studios’ “Blue Room” (which is actually now red – go figure)… a small editing room used by many bands… and they’ve worked great!