The inimitable Jack Joseph Puig has worked with pop-Goliaths ranging from Weezer to No Doubt to Robbie Williams to Mary J. Blige. We caught up with him back at Winter NAMM 2010 where he was promoting his Waves JJP Analog Legends plugin collection (since WNAMM, Waves has released yet another Puig-inspired plugin collection called the Jack Joseph Puig Artist Signature Collection). He spoke a little about the Waves bundle with Gino Robair, and then discussed a bit of his production and engineering philosophy.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Puig is a fan of compressors, and confesses that the majority of his working life is spent setting thresholds, ratios and release times. Also discussed: the loudness wars, how to make it as a record producer, and the profound satisfaction one can only experience by making Sheryl Crow cry.