Best known as the keyboardist in the Max Weinberg 7 on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, now in its 13th season on NBC, New York based musician and composer Scott Healy has been a long-time MOTU user. A native of Cleveland, Ohio with a degree in Composition from the Eastman School of Music, Scott landed in New York and has never looked back, building a long list of performing and recording credits that include the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Al Green, B.B. King, Taj Mahal, Phoebe Snow, Brandi, Sheryl Crow, Jackson Browne, Graham Parker, The Band, Donald Fagan, Branford Marsalis and Tony Bennett.

In this interview, we get a behind-the-scene glimpse at how Scott works with Max Weinberg and show arranger Jimmy Vivino to pull together the music for each live broadcast just hours before airtime four days a week. We also get to hear Scott's perspective on Conan show's unique brand of humor and how the music factors into the comedy equation.

MOTU: So for your own projects, where do you mix? In your rack there or inside the box?

Scott: I do sometimes mix from there [pointing to a rack-mounted analog mixer], through the board, but I usually just mix in DP. I've basically got GigaStudio and all my virtual instruments rewired into Live and piped optically into DP through the 2408. I'm about to get another GigaStudio, so I'll have two - maybe even three. I think I'm gonna need a few more 2408's.

MOTU: What is your daily routine these days? You do the Conan O'Brien show - is that a daily commitment?

Scott: Yeah, it's a daily thing - I'm going in in about 20 minutes.

MOTU: And do you have other projects going on as well? Do you write music for picture or anything like that?

Scott: Yes. I come in and write here sometimes on Mondays - my day off from the show. Or I'll write at home. I never actually wanted to do heavy film scoring but I sort of just slipped into it and I like it. I'm not doing REALLY heavy film scoring, but it's really great. The people you meet are just some of the most dynamic people - I mean these directors..

MOTU: So are these indie projects based in New York?

Scott: Indie things, yes. And I've done some collaboration with some people remotely. In fact, one guy, I never met.

MOTU: So how did that work? Did you get QuickTime video clips?

Scott: Yes. Which is why DP was always first on the list because you were first to do that. Who's idea was that? It was a brilliant idea.

MOTU: Well, it just made perfect sense at the time.

Scott: I used to take video tape and slave to SMPTE. It works, but it's tough. You've really got to know what you're doing.

MOTU: Yeah, and there were endless issues. Not that there aren't sync issues with QuickTime clips, but they are certainly a lot easier to work with.

Scott: Right. the thing is, what's the longest QuickTime cue you're ever going to work with? Two, maybe two and half minutes? I've never had any serious sync issues with QuickTime. Even if the frame rate is wrong, it often doesn't even matter. I just don't tell anybody - you can fudge.

MOTU: Often it depends on the material.

Scott: True.

MOTU: So anything new going on in the studio?

Scott: The next thing I want to get is the TC Electronic PowerCore box. People seem to like that a lot.

MOTU: It's great. And it works really well with DP, especially with DP's latency compensation.

Scott: Good. Would you recommend the external box or - they've got just a card, too, right?

MOTU: They've got this external box that's FireWire that's a lot more portable. But the main benefit of that box is the portability, so if being mobile doesn't matter as much to you, just get the PCI card.

Scott: I wouldn't necessarily use it for tracking, but when I go to mix, it does really good processing. And to get that compression, limiting and reverb off the processor would be enough to allow me to do so much more.

MOTU: Now are you using a G5 these days?

Scott: No, I'm using an accelerated G4, and I'm about to upgrade from Jaguar, which I've been using for other stuff for several years now, to Panther next week.

MOTU: So how long have you been doing the Conan gig?

Scott: 12 years. I'm in my 13th season now.

MOTU: Is the band pretty steady-state, or do you have lots of people coming in and out?

Scott: No, it's all the same guys that started the show. We have a few people taking off from time to time. But it's a great gig, and so people want to keep the gig.

MOTU: Do you write a lot of new arrangements?

Scott: No, Jimmy Vivino is the show arranger - that's his job. But I've done quite a bit of background scoring. We have project studio in the back that is hooked up to the audio control room. It's all live, though, no computer. We just track it with samplers.

MOTU: Seems like having a computer in there would be a good thing.

Scott: Oh yeah. I mean, just for doing scoring. We score stuff live to picture and I actually just play to the picture. There's no lockup. There's no QuickTime. There's no networking. There's nothing. I mean, this is TV. It happens really fast. Most of the time there's no picture, just rough timings, and the editor loops the cue or chops it up. You would be amazed at how fast tracks happen. We literally create tracks in ten minutes. And then mix it and we're done. Track after track. Timpani, Xylophone, one right after the other. Just working off of a sketch.

MOTU: So how does that work? The show gets taped and then you score to it after the fact, just before broadcast?

Scott: No. The tracking is all for stuff that is needed during the show, and it's done days, hours, or sometimes minutes before it's needed for rehearsal.

MOTU: I see.

Scott: Like during a comedy bit, they'll roll something behind it. Or behind a video tape segment. Or a lot of times they'll write or produce a comedy segment on video tape that needs to be scored. Or they'll have a theme song for the dancing bear or whatever, and this all needs to be either performed live or else tracked. So Jimmy and Max will get an order at ten o'clock in the morning and say something like, "OK, we need 30 seconds of dance music that sounds like Donna Summer". But it can't be an exact cover of a song because that can't be cleared. It has to be original material. So Jimmy will write it and then I'll come in at noon or 1 o'clock and we'll do it. We put down a drum loop and just do it, 30 seconds, and it's done. Then they marry that to the tape.

MOTU: Sounds very efficient.

Scott: Sometimes, the show producers would say: we have this big soap opera segment. And that's when I would say to them: OK, let's get a computer, let's do a tempo map, or least put a click track up to it so I can at least get a count-off. But there have been problems with the unions. For example, the audio engineer was not allowed to press play on the video tape. So we could never actually do videotape lockup like the old days with chasing the tape deck. But now apparently, with the computer, we might be allowed to do QuickTime. But he physically could not have a VCR striped with STMPTE and press play in the audio room. If we wanted to watch a video, we had to have it played from the remote guy with the video tape, and we'd have to have the director involved [simulates a session]:

"Awrite, press play."
"Awrite, roll tape."
"Awrite, Scott, here's your mark. Play along... good..."
"Aw, f@#$%, I missed it."
"Whoops, roll back."
"Awrite, stop tape."

MOTU: [Laughs]

Scott: So we used to score a soap opera - fake soap opera. It was really funny. And it had a lot of hits. And an opening theme, which I could actually track separately. But once the drama started, we had strings and piano - and there were a couple of stings, such as "dun dun duuunnn" or, you know, some sort of dramatic effect. And I would actually set up keyboard splits. And I would play it all live. And I would probably be improvising because I couldn't read music and watch the monitor at the same time. So we would just do it until I got it right. But they didn't even have the ability to edit it. They couldn't even nudge something a few frames to adjust the timing because they were actually rolling the tape and recording me directly to another tape - doing an A/B reel thing.

MOTU: Wow.

Scott: So they couldn't even bring it up on an editor. They were just rolling one tape and recording the other and I was in the middle. And it would go right down. And that was the broadcast mix.

MOTU: Live mixdown.

Scott: Live mixdown with live performance and film scoring. That's like crazy. No one does that. But it was actually really fun and it goes by quickly. You don't have to obsess over stuff.

MOTU: It's probably way more vibrant and dynamic that way.

Scott: Yeah, it actually ends up being really fun. And they're totally blown away that you can do that. Because you're composing, arranging and performing, all at the same time. And reacting...

MOTU: So is this mostly like a back room thing, or do you get like Conan coming in and saying "no, that sounds too upbeat - it's gotta be more slow..." or whatever.

Scott: The writers produce the comedy segments, so they have approval over what we do and are usually involved in the process. Conan only hears the final product during the rehearsal. And he rarely changes the music. He's really hard on comedy. But the music is always good.

MOTU: [Laughs]

Scott: A couple times he has said: that music doesn't work, take it down or take it out. But the rest of what we do is play for the commercials. We play in and out of the commercials live, and that's when we do our thing. We play all through the commercial. We've gotta keep the audience going.

MOTU: Is there some sort of mandate that it all has to be fresh new material, or do you have this standard pool of things that you draw from?

Scott: That's a good question. For the first - I'd say - five years, there was a big mandate not to do the same stuff. When we first started, I mean literally we had about 10 tunes. Because we weren't a band until the show started. So we'd be playing the same stuff every night and after a while, it's like, we've really gotta start learning some tunes. So we started learning a lot of tunes. Jimmy worked his ass off. We probably have 400 to 450 full songs that we can pull. Sometimes we have to go back and rehearse them because we can't remember them. And then we probably have a couple thousand snippets of songs that can be expanded in any kind of manner.

MOTU: So it's like [calling out]: "Number 375"

Scott: No, it's more like: what should we play for, you know, Paris Hilton? What's the funny pun? "Up for the Downstroke" by P Funk... [Laughs] We got it!

MOTU: [Laughs]

Scott's coveted Elvis Presley "King Creole" poster hangs in his new studio in Chelsea.

Scott: That's sort of what it's like. It's cataloged according to title and genre.

MOTU: That makes sense. So you can tie it into the content of the show.

Scott: Yeah, we have to tie in a lot of it. But a lot of it shouldn't be tied in because you don't want to be commenting on the comedy. You want to be a different aspect of the show. There's a fine line. Because if you start commenting on their comedy too much, you detract from it.

MOTU: And it pulls the audience attention away.

Scott: And a lot of people won't get it anyway. If you play a Beatles tune after a comedy piece about a bug, no one is going to notice the pun. It's very cheeky. It's too inside. So we try and stick with trying to make the genres work: do enough rock and roll, enough jazz, high-energy jazz, enough blues to keep everyone happy.

MOTU: It sounds great.

Scott: yeah, it's great. And we're the only band that seems to really work on a lot of new material. I know the other guys - they don't rehearse every day. We rehearse every day. We are way more involved in the show.

MOTU: Have you guys played as a group outside of the show?

Scott: We have. Not a lot. But we all play...this thing I did last night for a record we're doing this weekend - a bunch of the guys from the band are in that band but it's unrelated. So there is a lot of cross pollenating.

MOTU: So do you think there is any hope that they are going to get any computer-based editing in the back there? Are they starting to crack?

Scott: When Conan takes over the Tonight Show, whether its in LA or New York, I'm really going to push for a computer production suite separate from the audio control room either with a part time engineer or a system we can use ourselves. We need a system that Jimmy, Max and I can use any time. We'll have it networked to the system where the editor can post a QuickTime movie for us to import and then set up a click track. And we'll have time stretching capability. Yeah, I want to have a Mac with DP on it and a PC with Giga. And I want to have a couple of instruments.

MOTU: Yeah, and you should think about getting MachFive in there, too, because for the scale of projects you are going to do, you could easily do just about everything right on the Mac.

Scott: Yes.

MOTU: Get a dual or quad G5 and MachFive and you can load up your Sample Cell library and a bunch of other sounds.

Scott: I could have a template always open. One template for orchestra, one template for rock band and one template for sound effects and I'm done.

MOTU: Yep.

Scott: The hardest thing is to get that drum track. A lot of times we'll record the drum section out on the sled - out on stage - and track that first. And then I'll go back and I'll sweeten it. That's old-school. That's so, like 1975. Add strings to the rhythm section. But that actually is so fast. You don't have to do a drum track, you don't have to worry about fills. Everything feels good because it's good players. It's in time. We're actually able to do that a lot. And I can worry about using the drum machine later. I mean, you should see the equipment I'm using on the show. I'm using the K2000R - that's 12 years old. I'm using a Roland R8 drum machine.

MOTU: I love that thing, though. It's a work horse.

Scott: It's great. And that's what we track with. Because they don't want to buy anything. It's my gear there. And they don't want to buy a computer. Every cue has the Kurzweil piano sound though...I'm sure you know that piano sound.

MOTU: Well, there are some plug-ins that have some pretty good piano sounds now.

Scott: So when we go to 11:30 I'm really going to push hard for a preproduction suite.

MOTU: so if they move the show to LA, will you go to LA?

Scott: Yes. Absolutely. If I'm asked. Sure. Of course then I'll have no time because we'll be shooting five shows a week. And there will be all of this startup overhead. Right now we only shoot four.

MOTU: Yeah, you'll be pretty busy.

Scott: Yeah. They'll have to reconstruct a whole new library of sounds and cues.

MOTU: So how long does it take to tape a show? Do you go in from around 1pm to 7pm?

Scott: Yes, I go in at about 1pm. I have to go in a little early today because U2 is on and we have do something with them. We rehearse at 2pm. Warm-up for the show is at 5:15pm. The show tapes from 5:30pm to 6:30pm in real time. And then [snaps fingers] good-bye. I'm so glad they don't do it slowly. They just get it in and out.

MOTU: It's amazing to me that it works. That they don't routinely run into snags or problems or whatever. Where they have to redo a segment.

Scott: Very rarely do they redo a segment. Only if an actor just screws up. A good example is two nights ago. They go to do a comedy bit, and the logo doesn't come up. There's supposed to be logo that comes up but it doesn't happen. And Conan keeps going. But it still doesn't come on and so he looks at the producer and says, "What's going on?" and he says, "It's broken. the machine is broken." And they couldn't bring up any graphics. And tape is rolling - he's in front of the audience. So Conan goes into this whole routine - does a dance, does some improv - to try to keep the energy up. And they end up using it in the show. They didn't take it out. I thought they would edit it out.

MOTU: [Laughs]

Scott: So they don't want to even go back and change that energy - even when it goes bad. Because it's funny. So I think if you had a show that was more serious, and it would make you want to go back and edit everything, you would lose that spontaneity. I think that's what makes our show really good: the fact that stuff does screw up, and it's really funny when it does - assuming it's not someone stumbling on a line - that's not funny. There's so much stuff that can happen that is way more funny than you could ever write.

MOTU: So who have been some of your favorite guests on the show?

Scott: My most memorable was playing with BB King. He came up and did "The Thrill Is Gone" and I played wurlizer up on stage with him and played that famous piano part. When the camera rolled on that one, and he started into it, it was amazing. That was my single most memorable thing. I mean I love all the comedy stuff too. We used to play a lot with people like BB King. We went through a period where they were trying to bring back old artists and do much more of a progressive music thing. We really had a diverse range of blues and jazz and not so much indie rock. Now it's all pretty much hot young pop bands and indie rock.

MOTU: And the show you are taping today is going on air tonight?

Scott: it will be on tonight starting at 12:30 in the morning and again tomorrow at 7:00pm on CNBC. And a week from tonight at 3:30am on the East Coast. So you have three opportunities to see it.

MOTU: Scott, thanks for speaking with us.

Scott: Thank you!

Scott Healy can be reached through bluedogmusic.com.