Jaimeson Durr on unexpected chart success and the plugins he owes his career to

Bay Area native Jaimeson Durr is a rock music-inclined veteran of the California engineering and mixing scene. He’s worked with such names as Wyclef Jean and Bowling For Soup, while ensuring he has time for his passion for working with up-and-coming bands and artists. He’s the founder of Wally’s HydeOut studio, a building that has such a history that his room once saw many ‘60s acts like Creedence Clearwater Revival recording there. He talks about his brilliant career so far, and why he feels he wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for Waves plugins.

Not only is Durr a long-term resident of The Golden City, San Francisco, but he now works from the incredible space that is Wally’s HydeOut studio, with an incredible musical history.

“It's been there since 1969 and has survived all these years,” he says. “So it's a classic studio where a lot of notable bands have recorded, especially in my room. They did Santana’s Abraxas there, they did Jefferson Airplane and a lot of Creedence Clearwater Revival records there – a lot of ‘60s bands that were coming up and then hit the big time. And it still sounds great today. People come in and immediately feel the vibe on the room; it’s a building with a lot of good ghosts!”

Durr’s discography is very extensive, but when asked about some of his fondest memories in his long career, he doesn’t hesitate to answer:

“I was very fortunate to get to work with Sammy Hagar. And I worked on a record with him that did very well. The last one that we did together was called Space Between, which hit number one on the Billboard charts. So that was kind of unexpected. And it was a nice boost to my career, for sure. 

"But also it was really fun to work on a project that had a bit of a budget, where you're not having to record really fast and get it done. We got to spend our time and develop the sounds and the songs. It was really great to be a part of that.”

The conversation then turns to Durr’s long and wide ranging use of Waves plugins, a true constant throughout his career:

“I've been using Waves plugins for probably 20 years now,” he says. “I started with some of their very first plugins, like the Renaissance bundle. The Renaissance Equaliser and the Renaissance Compressor, those were my go-tos.

“If you were to open some of my old sessions, you would probably find those plugins and the cool thing about them is that I could open those sessions from 20 years ago, and the plugins would still work with the latest versions that I have. So they've always been a part of my plugin arsenal — I can't recall any session that I've ever done that didn't have those plugins on.”

As you can imagine, though, Durr has plenty more go-tos from Waves than just those two. When it comes to channel strips, he finds that he will “usually gravitate towards the SSL stuff – that always seems to work really well. I've been using the original SSL for years and years. I have the EV2 and I'm using that in the CLA Mix Hub. I like the H-Reverb; that’s a great-sounding one that I use all the time.

“Also the Abbey Road Plates. H-Delay is another favourite, and PuigChild is always on the vocal chain. Even some of the signature ones like the CLA Bass, that's on all my bass guitars. It's so easy to get great sounds with that thing. I can't say enough good things about Waves, I can't live without it. I don't know if I'd have a career without Waves!”

In terms of Waves plugins that he feels are a little more underrated and that he’d like to see other producers use as much as he does, Durr says the “MV2, which I always use on my final vocal limiter. It just pushes that vocal forward with the upward compressor and downward compressor, so you get all the articulation in the vocal. It then pushes it down like a normal limiter. That one is just awesome on vocals.”

A wonderful mainstay with Durr is his work with bands — he started out as a guitarist, and clearly is still very fond of the instrument and the classic rock band sound. So it’s great to hear that’s how the rest of his year is taking shape.

“I’m booked out until the end of the year working with an indie band and then more of a classic rock band – they’re both big Sammy Hagar fans, which is why they sought me out.”