For nearly four decades, Grammy and Emmy-nominated guitarist, composer, producer and educator David Becker has continued to define himself as a standout voice in the worlds of jazz and contemporary music. Over the years, Becker has shared the stage with celebrated jazz acts such as Miles Davis, Chick Corea, and Michael Brecker.
His latest studio release, Gravitationally Bound, arrived via ArtistMax in August 2024. The album was recorded and mixed especially for immersive audio by Claus Trelby at Marshmellow Skies LLC. Though you can stream the Dolby Atmos mix on Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music, it’s also available as an exclusive high-resolution immersive digital download through IAA’s online shop!
I recently had the chance to speak with David and Claus about the recording process for Gravitationally Bound, what it means to create an album with immersive reproduction in mind, and where they think the industry is headed.
David, tell me a bit about your musical background. How did you become interested in the guitar? Who are your influences as a musician?
David: Well, I grew up in a musical family. All my brothers played instruments, and my parents had a lot of classical records. My oldest brother is six years older than me, so he bought the Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin records when they first came out. I never really considered genre when listening to records–I just liked what I liked. It could be anything from The Beatles to The Monkeys to Dizzy Gillespie.
My first instrument was trumpet, and then I got into guitar. I took up the guitar really because I wanted to play rock ‘n’ roll in the garage, but my sense of playing didn’t really translate to the rock vocabulary–though I’m still a big fan of it. It wasn’t until I discovered jazz that I really found my voice.
Now I’ve made a lot of records over the years, and critics have called my style post-bebop, fusion, and a variety of other labels. But I've never thought about it in those terms. When people say you're a jazz guy, what does that really mean? Depending on who you ask, jazz could mean Benny Goodman or it could mean Weather Report. There’s a pretty broad spectrum. For me, what's important is the element of improvisation.
From the beginning, I always wanted to compose. I didn’t just want to play other people’s music. I learned a lot about composition from what we call “standards”–these are pieces written by songwriters in New York during the 1930s and 40s for Broadway and the movies, and they're still played today. Of course from there you get into The Beatles and all those great post-60s era songwriters like James Taylor or Joni Mitchell. Even some of the more progressive guys, like Rush, would take the envelope and push it even further from there. I consider all of those artists influences.
How did you guys come together to work on this project?
David: Well, I've known Ken [Caillat] for over 35 years. Ken and I first worked together on my group’s second and third albums, 1986’s Long Peter Madsen and 1988’s Siberian Express. We stayed friends for a while after that, but ended up losing touch because I was touring so much. Then, in the early-2000s, we did a surround sound album released on DVD-Audio through his company 5.1 Entertainment. I met Claus briefly while we were working on that project.
Fast-forward to earlier this year, I was getting ready for a tour in New Zealand when Ken sent me a text saying “Hey David! Next time you’re in L.A., let's get together at the new studio and make some music. So I said, “What do you want to do?” and he goes “I want to do something in immersive audio.”
So I have this project called Planets, which I’ve been doing live now for the past several years. It started as a collaboration with the Space channel: they asked me to improvise original pieces of music for each planet. We filmed the live show in Brownsville, Texas in 2022, even though there was no audience because of COVID. Since I owned all the publishing, I thought it would be great to do that as an immersive project with Ken. So I came back from New Zealand, was home for a week, then flew out here to record it.
The 5.1 release you’re referring to was 2001’s Germerica, right?
Yeah, it was one of the first made-for-surround productions. There was no standard CD or dedicated stereo mix for that matter, only the 5.1 DVD-A.
When I interviewed Claus earlier this year, we spoke primarily about the idea of going back and remixing older albums in Dolby Atmos–like Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark (1974) or The Gin Blossoms’ New Miserable Experience (1992). Those albums were being retrofitted for the new format, whereas Gravitationally Bound was actually developed from conception with immersive reproduction in mind. So how does that change the creative process? Were you thinking about Atmos even in the compositional stage? Or during the recording, did you intentionally track extra overdubs for the explicit purpose of filling out additional space in the expanded soundstage?
David: That's a good question. I think there’s two factors to consider. One is that the music from Planets is primarily made up of loops. There are a lot of these different elements, but it’s all coming from my guitar–even the percussion and e-bow sounds. So when I do it live using a loop pedal, there’s already this great atmospheric feeling. I really wanted to take that vibe into the studio when we started recording the album.
One of the great many things I learned from working with Ken all these years is that there’s an art to layering parts. You have to make sure all those frequencies and textures are working harmoniously together. The title track, “Gravitationally Bound,” is a great example of this. There’s several guitar parts in there all going in different directions, but the foundational element is a single chord that remains constant throughout the entire piece.
As we were recording, Claus was actually monitoring in Atmos: so he could take the different guitar parts and pan them all around me. So I might hear the first layer in front of me, then another to the side, the third one behind me, and so on. Even on the sparser pieces like “Pluto”--which has just a few guitars–the spacing is great, because you can pick up on all those little nuances and subtleties.
I think mixing in surround first actually helped make the stereo version better, because we were able to give those little harmonics and bell sounds a specific place in the soundfield. The stereo isn’t just a fold-down of the Atmos, but it was created from the same mix session.
Claus: I have my console on wheels, so it’s basically a glorified mouse. [laughs] It’s not that big, so I’ll roll it off to the side and allow David to actually stand in the environment. From there, we were able to build a rough mix in the control room on-the-fly. I think that made a big difference in David’s performance and how he thought about building up all the layers. He’d say “let’s double that part up” or “let’s do this thing twice,” because he could already hear how it sounded in the immersive space.
In the mixes, I did want to be assertive and utilize the format to its fullest potential. After that was done, we created a dedicated stereo mix using the immersive as a foundation. It’s not a straight fold-down, because I spend a few hours per song making adjustments to ensure the best possible experience.
David: Claus did a great job on the mixes. Since I don’t live in L.A., he was sending me files to listen to at home and give feedback. Even on headphones or my small speakers, the spacing and attention to detail was amazing.
It’s often said that when mixing a typical rock arrangement in Atmos, you have to be careful about pulling the individual elements apart too much or you’ll lose cohesion. But with this record, that isn’t really an issue because it’s this dense patchwork of overdubs done in the studio. It’s not meant to sound realistic, so you can get away with really spreading things out.
David: Sure. Even when I’m performing these pieces live in theaters, there’s things bouncing off the wall and echoing all around the audience. You don’t just get the sense it’s coming from two speakers, it’s all around you and you’re immersed in it.
Claus: One of David’s greatest talents in his ability to make that guitar sound like so many different things. It’s just one guitar used for the entire album. The only other elements are a piano in one song and Audrianna Cole’s voice in “Venus.”
I would’ve guessed for sure that there was some kind of percussion instrument in at least a few of the songs?
David: That’s my guitar. I have a special pickup that I can actually program drum sounds into. Sometimes I’ll use brushes too, or I’ll play on top of the strings and behind the bridge to get that bell-like sound. All these things have become an integral part of my musical vocabulary over the years.
Did you track the entire record at Marshmellow Skies? Do you remember any of the specific mics or outboard gear used during the recording process?
Claus: Yes, it was all done right here in this room. All the guitar parts were recorded via direct input, and then I used a Vanguard V13 for the vocals on “Venus.”
Gear-wise, everything went line-in through a Neve and I’d occasionally use the 1176 depending on what we were recording. But there’s very little compression and limiting on the outside–most of the color came from David’s pickup selection. All the recording was done in-the-box at 96-khz/32-bit.
David: I’ve always felt it’s important to record a direct feed from the guitar, because amps can be unforgiving. By plugging directly into the board, you’re getting the best possible sound right from the source.
Claus: We also did a lot in-the-box with effects. There’s a lot going on with delays, and I did some octave changes to add low-end. I would keep the original sound and then double it an octave down to get those super-low frequencies.
David: There is some fairy dust, but I can reproduce everything you hear on the record live–without any pre-recorded stuff. It’s all me, with two loop pedals and two delay pedals. Plus, I’ve got my e-bow and that whole arsenal of percussive sounds.
Claus: Even though we’re working with loops, David and I always made sure that what you hear on the record sounds like it was played by a human. There’s no auto-tune or beat detective on there. We wanted the technology to be used in service of David's playing and honor how he performs live.
Aside from the addition of height speakers, the biggest difference between Dolby Atmos and previous multichannel formats like 5.1 or quadraphonic is that you can listen in a variety of different playback environments–including headphones. Did you have any difficulty adjusting the immersive mix for best results in binaural?
David: I think it works in all formats. I’ve even listened to the album on my little phone speakers. which is about the worst way you can listen, but even from that you can perceive the air and attention to detail.
Claus: A lot of times when I mix Atmos, I get directions from the client to match the stereo mix. The artist is going to freak out if the fold doesn’t sound exactly like the dedicated stereo. In other scenarios, it’s about making the immersive as big as possible. Ken and I are working on some Auro-3D projects right now, which are very much about the speaker experience.
For this project, the speaker-based experience was the first priority. So the binaural and stereo became secondary, but that doesn’t mean we neglected them. As an immersive engineer, you can’t neglect headphones because that’s how most of your audience is listening. My approach is usually to work 80% on speakers, and then the last 20% on headphones. Unfortunately, I think most younger engineers are doing the reverse: 80% headphones and then 20% finalizing in an immersive studio.
One thing I would encourage a lot of younger artists to explore is to try doing their overdubs or re-records in an immersive environment–like we did for this album–so it has some influence on the creative process. Let yourself be inspired to go beyond what would fit in a traditional stereo image. Even if you end up mixing to stereo first, you can always take things out. Whereas it’s so much harder to go stereo all the way and then do the immersive mix at the very end.
If you can get yourself into just a little bit of an immersive environment–it doesn’t have to be full 9.1.6 or 7.1.4–during the creative process, I think the final result will be much more exciting, and the overall quality of immersive mixes will improve. Right now we’re stuck working primarily from stems, which can really limit the format’s potential.
You’ve both already spoken a bit in detail about some of the songs, but is there one track in particular that you feel best shows off the immersive mix?
Claus: I’ve got two favorites, which are probably different from David’s. If you’re looking purely at size, “Venus” is a great example because there’s so much going on in terms of the layered voice. But my personal favorite is “Uranus,” just because of the feel and space. The percussion gives it a kind of bossa vibe. It’s a cool ditty.
David: I think I would go with ‘Venus” too, actually. The title track is also great.
“Mercury” is the one that immediately springs to mind for me. It’s so clever how the intro sequentially activates all the speakers in my 7.1.4 setup–it starts with percussion in the front, then guitar in the back, another guitar in the sides, and a third part that swirls around the height speakers.
David: Mercury is 800 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a fast planet–it takes only 88 days to revolve around the sun. So that was my interpretation of it, and I think Claus did a great job mixing it.
Claus: If you’re looking for an effective use of directionality or movement, that is a great choice. But if you’re looking for the size of what the soundscape can be, I think “Venus” is it.
David, you mentioned earlier you’ve worked with Ken for decades now going back to the 1980s. Have you ever discussed going back and doing Atmos mixes of those older records, like Long Peter Madsen or Siberian Express?
David: Yeah, we’ve talked about it. The problem is that we have to get the masters back from the record labels, which can be difficult. Personally, I’m more excited about making new music specifically for this format. There’s so much potential there.
This is my 20th record. So there’s a lot in the back-catalog that I’d love to remix in Atmos, but at the same time I’d rather look forward than back.
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