According to news emerging this week, "Darrell Thorp, ten-time Grammy-winning producer, mixer and engineer, is using Focal Trio6 ST6 monitors on more projects recently including tracking and mixing several albums. For Roger Waters' live albums Dark Side of the Moon Redux and This is Not a Drill, Thorp mixed both on the Trio6 ST6 at 101 Studios in Beverly Hills. He also tracked albums using the Trio6s at the famed EastWest Studios in Los Angeles for Deafheaven’s Lonely People with Power and Bret McKenzie’s Freak Out City."
Thorp recollects getting the call from his friend and top FOH and mix engineer Sean “Sully” Sullivan to mix the live recording of Roger Waters’ version of the epic Pink Floyd masterpiece ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, “Roger did a couple of live dates at the London Palladium, they recorded it all. Sully was asked to mix the album and he told Roger he wanted me involved for the mix.” Sullivan was at the sessions to guide the mix for what became ‘Dark Side of the Moon Redux’. “I mixed the live album on the Trio6 ST6 at EastWest Studios. As Sully had planned, he basically just sat in the back and told me to ‘turn this up!’ and ‘turn that down!’” said Thorp with a chuckle.
Explaining his experience working with the Trio6, Thorp says, “Introducing the Trio6s into my workflow I have been enjoying hearing and feeling that extended low end that I haven't been used to for a long time with my other set of monitors. And I'm always enjoying the top-end, the air that comes from the Trio6s. That's just a nice crispy, beautiful image, I really rely on that a lot. Whenever I work at EastWest, which is often, I choose the pair of Trio6 ST6s. They're freaking rad. I love working on them, whether it's tracking or mixing.”
Describing how the quality of the monitor helps with tracking a band, Thorp offers, “I think a big shortcoming of a lot of people when they're recording is their monitoring situation is not up to snuff. And that can be a combination of their speakers and/or the room that they're working in.”
Thorp notes that the top control rooms he works in all sound fantastic - United, Capital, EastWest - it’s the monitors that make the difference there. “So with speaker choice, I'm able to make sonic decisions quickly, whether or not it’s too dark, it’s too bright, it’s too small, it’s too big. Or I'm thinking of a timbre in my head with sticking a microphone in front of a Vox AC30 guitar amp for example, understanding in my head what I should be hearing in the control room and pushing the fader up and right away knowing through the speakers, like Focals, where I'm getting a huge, big image, whether or not I'm getting that timbre that I think needs to work for the song, and for whatever part we're working on.”
“The Focals are a huge benefit to my tracking ability. Once we actually start pressing record, I've got the sound that I want, but now I'm relying on the speakers to tell me, ‘Is the guitar part too bright or too dull for the track now?’ Because I've been working on the drums, I've got the drum take; I've got the bass take. I've been getting really good sounds. So I need to hear how the instruments are working together. I'm sort of ‘pre-mixing’. I'm trying to get the music to just sound done and finished. And there's only so much brainpower I can use because I do have to concentrate on making sure the artists, and whoever's playing the part, is comfortable and that they can hear themselves and all of these other variables. But I'm always paying attention to how the track sounds as a whole. I'm constantly analyzing the timbre of a song. That’s where the Focal monitors come in, I can actually hear what’s happening.”
“Trio6 are huge, beautiful, and bright. I love the image and the detail from the top end all the way down to the low sub info. Trio6s work well loud and quiet and are very versatile in any room,” says Thorp
“I do so many projects where it's just a full band out in the live room and it's like, ‘One, two, three, go.’ And then I'm usually working really hard to make sure it all sounds as good as it possibly can. And that the parts are really working together sonically. The Focals reveal what’s happening. Sometimes I'm soloing instruments in a tracking band scenario: ‘Is the snare drum distorting?’ I'm hitting the preamp a little too hard here, but it sounds really good in the mix, but let me check it.’ Because a lot of times it'll sound good in a program, but soloed, it can be like, ‘Oh, that's too crunchy.’ And then once it gets too crunchy, there's no going back! I'm trusting these Focal monitors now. I've used them a lot. And I know that it's too crunchy. I'm going to back that off.”
Thorp also trusts the Focal Clear Mg Professional open-back headphones, “I travel a lot for work. And there are situations where I'm traveling to a brand new studio. I don't know the room and I don't have the luxury of bringing speakers with me, so I just have to rely on what's there. Then somebody says, ‘Okay, Darrell, do a good rough mix.’ I get a balance going, make sure it's feeling good, and then I turn the speakers off and I grab my Clear Mg Pro headphones - I know them so well and I trust them.”
“And then right away in the mix I can tell if the snare's too dark, or the kick's too big, or the bass is too light, or the vocal's too loud. It's little things like that where it's just this amazing security blanket, quite frankly. So I really rely on the Clear Mg Pros. I have two pairs, one stays at my studio. When I’m traveling I always grab a pair and it goes in the suitcase with my mouse and my wrist guard. Also sometimes when I'm traveling, I'm doing recalls for clients. I always have my Rupert Neve Designs headphone amp with me, so I sit at the laptop in the hotel room with the Clear Mg Pros and do a few recalls, make some mix changes.”
“I’m super happy with the Focal brand and super happy and thankful that I have the speakers and headphones at my fingertips. It really helps the workflow. It helps me do what I do every day. Seriously.”
"The Focal Trio6s translate so well in so many rooms. I work in various commercial studios in Los Angeles like East West Studios," Thorp added. Having a pair of trusted Trios is key to capturing a great recording. Big, Bold and Beautiful. The Focal Trio6s translate so well from room to world. I love the trios loud and love listening at a lower volume.”
Darrell Thorp’s credits include Foo Fighters, Beck, Radiohead, Switchfoot, and Molotov among many other top artists, see: https://www.darrellthorp.com
Visit the Focal Pro Experience: https://www.thefocalproexperience.com/artist/sm6-line/darrell-thorp
EastWest Studios in Los Angeles have Focal Trio6 ST6 for studio use, visit: https://www.eastweststudios.com/
Check out Focal Trio6 and Clear Mg Professional products at: https://www.focal.com/products/trio6 and https://www.focal.com/products/clear-mg-professional
