New York, NY (October 7, 2024)—Sunday evening was gorgeous in New York City, with an amber setting sun and cooler temperature that showed fall is finally here. For a few dozen students from NYU and PowerStation at Berklee NYC, however, it was time well-spent indoors, as they were invited to an event at Audio-Technica’s new gorgeous engagement space, Technica House. The focus of the evening were two top professionals from Saturday Night Live: Josiah Gluck, co-music engineer, and Teng Chen, associate music production mixer. Interviewed by A-T’s artist relations manager Roxanne Ricks for 90 minutes, they shared fascinating insights into working on the famed comedy sketch show, now in its 50th season, as they discussed what they do, how they do it and more. Along the way, there were also a few great stories involving household names—like Prince.
For audio pros from every background, whether veterans or emerging engineers, the growing specter of AI is a subject that has many concerned. It was that very topic, in fact, that led Gluck, an SNL veteran of more than 30 years, to recount one of his career highlights: Working with Prince during a 2014 appearance on the show where the artist played an eight-minute medley.
Inside Power Station at BerkleeNYC
While it made for a fascinating war story of meeting an artist’s demands (and also saving the day), Gluck used the tale as a way to highlight why AI may always have limits when it comes to interacting with humans, creative and otherwise:
[The following has been lightly edited for clarity]
He comes on the show in November, 2014, and it’s a little nerve-wracking because it’s Prince!
In the course of setting up, he says that he wants my air mix to be sent to both FOH and fold back monitors on stage. Now I have to think, ‘Okay, how am I getting a stereo fold-down mix to him?’ because what if he wants to hear more or less of something? If he wants to hear a ton of kick, I can’t push that up without compromising the broadcast. I devise a standard ITU fold-down across three stereo aux-sends and then send that to FOH and monitors via MADI tie lines, and it all works quite well
Then on Saturday, Prince comes in to listen in the mix room because he hadn’t come in on Thursday. He has a very firm handshake and he’s cordial, but all business. As we’re listening, Prince turns to his mixer who he’s working with and asks, ‘Where are the doublers on the guitar?’
His mixer replies, ‘We don’t use doublers on the guitar.’
And Prince says, ‘Oh, yeah, we do; we do have doublers on the guitar.’
Earlier, we had been listening to a rehearsal recording from Paisley Park, and I think what Prince had fallen in love with was the slapback coming into the mics from the big room, so I say, ‘Well, I have this vocal doubling effect.’ I toss it on, and he’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s good; that’s fine. Let’s do that.’
Then he’s asking me, ‘Can we get these guitars crunchy?’ I know he wants me to overdrive an analog preamp, but I can’t do that—I’m at a digital console, so it would just crap out. And then he wants the snare drum really dark, but I ask, ‘Could you meet me halfway?’ as it’s getting too boxy, and he says, ‘Yeah, do what you’ve gotta do.’
In the meantime, I keep hearing the phone ring and my boss answering it and saying, ‘Well, no, not right now’ and hanging up the phone. I can see on the main monitor that we’re ready to do the run-through of the opening montage and monologue and I need to switch over to the house band.
I say to Prince, ‘I’m really sorry, man, but I gotta do this other thing.
He says, ‘No, it’s okay—ya gotta listen to [SNL musical director] Lenny Pickett!’
So I ask, ‘Well, are we cool here? Because, honestly, I think we’re gonna singe all living matter within a quarter-mile radius of this place tonight.’
And he starts laughing! ‘Yeah, that’s cool. I like that—all living matter, yeah!’ I consider that one of my greatest career achievements: getting Prince to laugh!
Then on-air, is where it gets nuts.
The plan is he starts camera right on a keyboard, and then walks to center stage and picks up his guitar.
Right before we start, I hear over the PL: ‘He’s going to plug in his guitar when he gets to center stage. Don’t open up the guitar yet.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, fine.’
When he walks over and picks up the guitar, I open up the fader—and I don’t hear guitar! I’m trying not to freak out. ‘Where’s the guitar?’ And then I hear over the PL, ‘He didn’t plug in! He didn’t plug in!’
I whip the fader down, and I’m watching and listening. You see him give a knowing look, plug in, and start to play. Then—and this is taking more time to discuss than it actually took in my head—I try to figure out where he is musically so that he doesn’t just cut in.
I’m telling you this story because few years ago I was at a symposium in Detroit, and someone was talking about using AI for mixing. I was like, ‘Excuse me,’ and I recounted this tale of Prince not plugging in—and then I said, ‘Now, I don’t know if AI can accurately say, “Oh, he’s not playing. Let me bring this down. Let me listen to where we are in the music. Let me call on my vast nanoseconds of experience and see when I think I can open this fader up.”’
So to me, I feel there are certain things that we do where the human touch, the human experience, and the base of knowledge are simply not going to be superseded…. This one moment with Prince right there is an example of where experience, keeping your head on and not freaking out will you get through it.
