Joey Raia Upgrades Studio With Avid Interface And ATC Monitors

Joey Raia at the console in Night Hunter Studios in Brooklyn, NY.

New York-based recording and mixing engineer Joey Raia is as comfortable mixing propulsive basslines and powerful vocals for hip-hop stars like Run The Jewels, Danger Mouse, and Aesop Rock, as he is shaping sunny sing-alongs for award-winning Disney movies like Frozen, Moana, and Encanto, for which he won a GRAMMY in 2023.

Joey recently traded in his console for a hybrid setup optimized for immersive audio, including an Avid MTRX II audio interface and ATC SCM25A PRO Mk2 studio monitors. We caught up with Joey to talk about all things gear, including his favorite outboard equipment, essential plug-ins, and his latest studio upgrades.

We last spoke to you when you bought the Rupert Neve Designs 5088 console. Give us an update on what you’ve been doing at the studio since then.

I worked with the 5088 for a while and then, within the last 18 months, I changed my whole setup to go from being console-based to a more hybrid setup, where it's outboard gear plus in-the-box mixing. I also wanted to prep my setup for Atmos and Surround mixing, so I made my monitoring and I/O more flexible. Right now, I'm set up for 5.1 so I can monitor and mix for film deliverables, but if I ever wanted to go fully into an Atmos setup, I'm pre-wired and ready.

What inspired you to make your recent upgrades?

It had mostly to do with flexibility. For monitoring and I/O, I wanted the flexibility to move between different formats easily—that was kind of what drove the upgrade.

The 5088 is an amazing-sounding console and I love it, so I wound up getting some outboard equipment from Rupert Neve Designs and I'm utilizing that with my current setup as well. That way I get to retain the tone of the console, but my monitoring, I/O, and converters became more flexible.

What drew you to the Avid MTRX II audio interface?

In all the studios I work at outside of my own place, the Avid MTRX was the standard. I knew what the converters sound like just from working in a lot of different rooms, so I knew everything would sound really good. Also, I needed to be really flexible and know that I could open up my sessions and not have to deal with any issues on the interface side of things.

When I first set the system up, it definitely took a minute to get my head around it because it was so different from any other converters or interfaces I'd ever used—it was just so flexible, and because of that there is a learning curve to figuring it out. You hook everything up and then you have to configure it and program it—it's like another layer before you actually get sound coming out of the speakers. [Laughs]

Luckily, there were plenty of people I could call up from the community, like other engineer friends, and once I got my head around it I realized how powerful it was—I know I'll be able to expand it if I need to and that it could handle any I/O setup I throw at it. They’re not cheap units but they’re definitely worth it; I can see why people went this route. I’ve been working with the MTRX II now for six months or so and it's been great.

A rack of gear at Joey Raia's studio, including the Avid MTRX II.

Photo Credit: Alessandra Raia

Take us through how you customized the MTRX II for your specific workflow.

I wound up getting a lot of I/O; I got a lot of AD/DAs. I have some dedicated D/As just handling the monitoring; I set aside 16 outputs just for speakers; and then everything else is handling outboard gear, instruments, mic pres, and all that kind of stuff. Both of my MTRX IIs are almost all filled up—one of them has a couple of slots left, but this should be really good; it should handle anything I throw at it, I/O-wise.

What do you think about the conversion performance?

The conversion is very clear and transparent. I’ve used many different AD/DA converters over the years and this is definitely in the top tier of converters that are out there. It's such a great-sounding unit—it sounds the way you think it should sound. No complaints at all; it's a really good box.

What’s also nice is that with the software, the monitor controller controls the converters directly, and you can configure it to do all the speaker switching, mono summing, dim levels, and input switching via Ethernet and the DAD-MOM controller and that's been great also. This is the first time I'm not using a big analog harness and monitor controller. I was kind of wary about that because I've always been using either an analog controller, or a 5088 when I had that, but this works great. I can’t see myself going back after this.

I'm also a big fan of the A/D and D/A conversion in the Apogee Symphony I/O MKII, which I use in conjunction with the Avid interfaces.

Are you using the built-in SPQ Speaker Processing?

Not yet, but in a few weeks, we're going to recalibrate stuff for Surround, so we will use that. It’s great that it’s built into the unit; it's a whole layer of processing I don’t have to add on. It’s great knowing that I can do this and then when I add Atmos speakers, I could do that calibration as well.

What is the biggest difference you’ve noticed in your workflow since upgrading to the MTRX II?

My workflow has definitely improved greatly. It's gotten a lot faster, and that's one of the most important things mixing-wise—to have an idea and be able to execute it quickly—so anything that helps that is a big plus.

I've definitely encountered far fewer delays in terms of integrating my outboard equipment because the MTRX is basically like a big hub—I have everything in the studio connected to it with the routing software, so I'm able to have all that available to me in a session and if I want to incorporate a piece of outboard gear or we need to record something, it could happen instantaneously.

I have templates in Pro Tools that facilitate all the I/O so it's really fast, which is great. Before, if you wanted to use a piece of equipment you were like, “I have to patch this, but the patchbay is filled up”; or you didn’t have enough I/O, so you had to start thinking about the things you have to undo to incorporate something, and then it’s like, “I should make notes about this…” That all went away, so it made everything a lot more enjoyable.

It’s a real vibe killer isn't it, when you have to stop and do all those extra steps?

Oh yeah! As soon as you have to do stuff like that, it's almost like you should just stop. Because when you finally have everything patched and ready to go, you'll forget why you were doing it. [Laughs] The outboard gear now is almost like putting a plug-in on; it's gotten really fast.

What drew you to the ATC SCM25A PRO Mk2 studio monitors?

I already had the Ex Machina Quasars that Ryan from Vintage King turned me on to, and then I got the ATCs when they came out with the new model and I’ll say it’s a great combination. It has made mixing, identifying issues, and decision-making so much faster.

Also, sometimes if I'm working in other rooms, like Power Station in Manhattan where I work a lot, they'll have ATCs so I know if I'm listening on those speakers to things I've been working on here in my studio, the reference is good.

A wide shot of Joey Raia's studio, including his ATC studio monitors.

Photo Credit: Alessandra Raia

What do you think of the low-end response of the ATCs?

They're great! There's a lot of definition, especially in that low to low-mid area. Mix-wise, that’s kind of a tricky area, so having detail and being able to hear really well in that area is really nice. For a speaker that size, it has a really great low-end response.

How easy or difficult was it to tailor the ATCs to your mixing space?

It was pretty straightforward. When the person who designed my room came in, we set them up and listened, and they sounded great right off the bat. Then, once we put up the microphone, and the TEF, and all that kind of stuff, we were able to get the response the way it should be very quickly.

They come with bass plugs that we wound up taking out, which I think helped the low-end extension a bit, and then everything else looked great frequency response-wise, so it was very quick. It's nice having those options with the speakers—they have some settings in the back, they have a port that you could open or close, so with those adjustments, you could get it to fit most spaces.

How does a mix on the ATCs translate to other systems?

It's faithful. If I throw headphones on, the mix is right there, or if I flip it to my Beats Pill speakers, everything is right there. It’s never happened that I flip from the ATCs to something else and things are way out of whack—it's always right where it should be so it's been great. It's definitely a big timesaver as well.

What was it like working with Ryan and Vintage King during the upgrade process?

Those guys are great! I've been working with them for years and they always steer me in the right direction. They're a great wealth of information—if I ask about equipment, Ryan either has the gear in his personal studio, has experience using it, has heard it first-hand, or has been to a demo.

The customer support from Ryan, or Mark who works with him, is also always great. Anytime something breaks, or if I need to service something, or just speak to someone, they’re very helpful.

It’s also great switching gear out through them—they’ll buy something back and I'll buy something from them. It's a great resource and we have a long history of working together. It's a really great company; I recommend Vintage King all the time.

Let's talk about some of your favorite pieces of outboard gear.

I love everything I have here! [Laughs] Let me think... I just got the Tegeler Audio reverb and that's been great; I have four Bricasti M7 reverbs which I use on every mix even though there have been some good plug-in reverbs. My Black Box HG-2 is great; I love my API 2500; and there’s my SSL Fusion, which I use all the time.

How do you feel about plug-ins?

Plug-ins are great, they’re invaluable tools! I'm a heavy plug-in user; I get everything that catches my eye. Every year, I can't believe more come out because it seems like there are enough already. [Laughs]

I have all the McDSP plug-ins and I’m a big fan of everything they make; I also have two of the 16-channel hybrid Analog Processing Boxes that they make. I also like all the different plug-ins that come out from Waves.

MixWave makes great amp simulations and pedal sims, and they just came out with a plug-in called CA-70S that I beta tested—it’s kind of like a harmonic box, if I had to describe it and I’d say it's one of my favorite plug-ins that has come out recently.

There’s a Kirchhoff-EQ plug-in I use a lot. For Mid/Side processing I use Trackspacer from Wavesfactory and also a DrMS, which is really nice. Another one I use a lot is called Sidewidener by JST, which is really cool; I use that for subtle stuff, but it's nice even on subs and it’s cool for 808s and things. Then there's Gold Clip, which is a great-sounding plug-in for the mix bus or any kind of drum bus.

I try to keep the plug-ins that I use small in number, at least for the core of the mix. It takes a bit of time to fully understand a plug-in and if you try to use too many, it's really hard to do that. I feel like if you picked five plug-ins, you could do everything you need to do if you actually knew how to really use them fully. Otherwise, you never get to use every function, and there might even be functions you don't know exist, so that's why I try to really understand them as much as I can.

A rack of outboard gear at Joey Raia's studio.

Photo Credit: Alessandra Raia

Do you have a go-to signal chain or is it different every time?

It changes, especially for the mix bus, I switch that up quite a bit. My mix bus first insert for a while now has been Gold Clip, which I usually set after I get the gain staging of my mix together. I put that plug-in on and dial it in while still leaving myself headroom—that adds some nice textures and harmonics and then I usually mix with that on.

Then I do some outboard stuff, like I'll use the Spectra Sonics Limiter at the end of a mix bus. I don't really EQ much on the mix bus, but sometimes I’ll use something like the version of the Sontec EQ that Make Believe Studios makes, which is really nice. I usually just go with what I'm feeling and then make decisions pretty quickly.

Do you have a go-to vocal chain?

I start off with the Kirchhoff-EQ for some basic shaping and correction. Lately, I've been using a plug-in called VOLA by Sonic Anomaly that adjusts the vocal signal level to even things out before it hits the processing—so it almost does clip gain for you, in a way. It works surprisingly well and sometimes I’ll just use that aspect of it, but it also has a compressor and saturation built into it.

Sometimes I like doing an SSL channel strip—Purafied Audio makes a great VU Compressor and EQ, which I guess you’d call an emulation of an SSL-style EQ and both of those are in my go-to vocal chain.

After that, if I feel like it needs something else, vibe-wise, I'll go searching for some harmonic or tape stuff. A plug-in like the MixWave CA-70S is great on vocals and I’ve been using it on a lot of the mixes I’ve done recently.

What is a typical day in the studio like for you?

Usually, I'm doing one mix a day. I start in the morning, between 8 and 10 am, work through the day, and by the end of the day send off an initial mix to the client. Notes might come in overnight for the mix, so then the next morning I’ll be addressing notes, sending another version out, and then starting something new.

Since I'm more of a morning/daytime mixer, I try to listen and get things set up the evening before. For me, when it comes to mixing, there's a creative part and a non-creative part—getting the song in shape to actually mix is not very inspiring. [Laughs] You're doing stuff like cleaning up edits, doing some clip gaining to level stuff out, organizing the song, relabeling stuff so it makes sense, grouping or bussing stuff together, getting reverbs and delays ready, etc. It's necessary, but it's not too creative; it’s just tedious work that takes your head out of the space of the actual song, so I try to get that knocked out of the way the evening before so that the next day it's nice to just turn stuff on and actually mix and work on the song.

Are you working on any exciting projects that you can share with us?

I'm working on some new music with Aesop Rock, who I work with a lot; there's some new stuff with him coming out that I'm really excited about. It’s nice using the new setup with these projects coming through.

A rack of outboard gear next to a desk with a computer screen and two 500 Series modules sitting on top.

Photo Credit: Alessandra Raia

Joey Raia's synth collection.

Photo Credit: Alessandra Raia

Joey Raia's guitar pedal collection.

Photo Credit: Alessandra Raia

A close-up of a semi-hollow Les Paul-style guitar with a sunburst finish.

Photo Credit: Alessandra Raia

If you’re interested in upgrading your studio, contact a Vintage King Audio Consultant via email or by phone at 866.644.0160.

GRAMMY-Winning Engineer Joey Raia Upgrades Studio With Avid Interface And ATC Monitors