Tape_Op_117

The Creati Creative ve Music Music Record Recording ing Maga Magazine zine

Flood U2, Nine Inch Nails, Nick Cave

Matt Ross-Spang Elvis, Margo Price, Jason Isbell

Susan Rogers Recording Prince and Neuroscience

 John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees

Tindersticks Stuart Staples & The Waiting Room

 Andrew Roberts Behind The Gear at Purple Audio

Learning Frequencies Gear Reviews

Issue

No.

 J a n / F e b

117

2017

Hello and

welcome to

10 14 18 32 42 44 50 64 70 98

Tape Op

     e      g      a      p

Letters Andrew Roberts in Behind The Gear  Susan Rogers John Dwyer Learning Frequencies Flood Matt Ross-Spang Stuart Staples Gear Reviews Larry’s End Rant

Here’s one constant scenario I run into: A client comes to me with tracks to mix. They’ve recorded in a home studio, or some such modest setting. Their gear list is fairly limited, maybe several mics and a lower-cost, all-in-one digital  interface. They walk into Jackpot!, see all the pro recording equipment, and exclaim,

“I’m so embarrassed. You’re going to think these tracks sound awful. I only have this cheap gear.” I always try to say something careful and encouraging, like, “Well, let’s see how the tracks really sound. I’m sure I can make it work fine.” It’s true, sometimes the tracks don’t sound so great. But guess what? Almost all the times when the fidelity is compromised, I wouldn’t necessarily blame the gear. Improper mic placement, poor guitar or bass amp settings, bad room sounds on too distant mics, distortion from misused gain structure, and other bad engineering decisions are what let these tracks down. Other times instruments are out of tune, or performances are simply lacking. Just because you’ve placed a mic near a source and gotten a level that doesn’t make the red light come on doesn’t mean you’re getting decent sounds. On the other hand, I’ve had clients come in with tracks recorded with $100 mics and $300 interfaces that sound amazing, and require very little special  attention when mixing. The recordist invariably had spent extra time experimenting, listening, and adjusting his or her techniques. And guess what? It paid off. Larry Crane, Editor 

#117!

The Creative Music Recording Magazine

Editor Larry Crane

Publisher & Graphic Design  John Baccigaluppi  Baccigaluppi 

Online Publisher Geoff Stanfield 

CTO & Digital Director  Anthony Sarti 

Gear Reviews Editor  Andy “Gear Geek” Hong 

Production Manager & Assistant Gear Reviews Editor Scott McChane

Contributing Writers & Writers & Photographers Cover painting by Eliot Daughtry  .com>  Aaron  Aar on Mulla Mullan, n, Jak Jakee Brown Brown,, Mike Mike Bank Banks, s, Emi Emily ly Bark Barker er,, Nate Nate Burr Burrell, ell, Stacie Huckba, John Phillips, Neil Fraser, Thom Monahan, Ben Bernstein,  Adam  Ad am Monk Monk,, Dave Dave Hidek Hidek,, Eli Cre Crews ws,, Dave Dave Cerm Cermina inara, ra, Tom Tom Fine Fine,, Kerry Rose, Scott Evans, Adam Kagan, and Garrett Haines.

Editorial and Office Assistants

 Jenn  Je nna a Cra Crane ne (p (pro roof ofre read adin ing) g),, Tho Thoma mass Dan Danne nerr (tr (tran ansc scri ript ptio ion) n),, Maria Baker (admin, accounting)

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Op#117/ Masthead

www.tapeop.com

I just wanted to say thanks for the amazing words and thoughts you’ve laid down over the years. I’ve had a rough couple of months in the studio and was starting to bring this negative and discouraging vibe to sessions; and, disappointingly, even complaining to clients about other clients! Negativity is seriously contagious. contag ious. I’ve only  just  ju st sta starte rtedd rea readi ding ng Tape Op and your End Rant columns were the slap across the face that I needed. I’m excited again for tomorrow! Thank you for all your hard work.  Jakee om> I do enjoy the interviews. Sometimes it’s one little nugget shared by an engineer that makes my day. Rob Chiavelli I’m a long-standing subscriber. Every issue has been faithfully saved and re-read. You say it all for me. I learn from you with every issue, and your ethic is

the one I’ve instinctively aspired to throughout my working life. Continued great luck to you with the best writing in the world of studios and recording lore! Thank you for so many years of pleasure.  Jefff West  Jef Westerm erman an m> Thank you and your spectacular staff for continuing to give us Tape Op. I’ve been reading it for about 15 years. I am consistently inspired and delighted by your interviews, knowledge, and point of view. I’m a hobbyist (and frankly don’t even understand half of what I’m reading sometimes when things get technical – but I always learn something new). But I love playing and recording music – and your mag has taught me so much. And you don’t even charge me! Keep up the great work – and thanks again for cranking out the issues like you do. I sincerely appreciate it. All the best to you and your crew!  Shawn  Sh awn Car Carko konen nen >

I’m sorry if this is inappropriate to contact you. I have had this on my mind for years and wanted to ask the magazine, but didn’t know who to ask. Basically, I went to ARTI [Audio Recording Technology Institute] Orlando and took all the courses (Audio Engineering and Post Production Engineering) and learned everything I could, graduating in Feb ‘04. While in school, and after getting out for a little while, I was a stagehand in Orlando, and even briefly worked in IATSE [International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees] in Jacksonville, Florida. Then I fell in with installing home theaters and A/V in ‘06. I have been doing this line of  work ever since then, or things related, as well as general  construction. Every once in a while I get to mix a small  event when asked by friends who know I have the skills. I do very well because I care and pay attention to making it a good experience for the band and audience, but it’s rare. I really want to do audio, or I wouldn’t have chosen that debt at 30 years old (I’m turning 46 in two weeks), but I wasn’t aware of what seems to me to be the difficulty of getting into the field as a mixer. How does one follow this career as a middle-aged man living in poverty? I don’t have the stamina to be a stagehand these years, and the time it would take to work my way up from the bottom rung to getting to even monitor mix just seems daunting. I don’t want this to be my life’s dream unfulfilled. Theta Landers

 Just the  Just the oth other er da dayy I hir hired ed an A/ A/V V ins instal talll guy to put up a projector and screen for me and I thought to myself, “Man, that’s what I should have done for a career.” So, the grass is always greener! But yes, I can totally relate, albeit from a slightly different angle. I spent a ton of  money going to a liberal arts school and imagined I’d  become a college professor. But then I fell in love with audio engineering for bands. So, I’ve been in this line of  work, or things related, for many years. I love my work, but I also strongly discourage anyone from getting  Of all of the recording magazines I read, the one I themselves into this mess. The hours, pay, and benefits respect and appreciate most is Tape Op. Larry, I know are lousy. Things that “normal” people would consider  this has to be a labor of love for you because I can’t basic – like having a family, house, or weekends – are imagine the difficulty of finding new engineers and beyond the grasp of many audio engineers. The only   peopl oplee who should should do this this job are are people people who who activel actively  y  producers for interviews, accumulating gear reviews, as  pe well as writing personal advice and peer-related articles enjoy spending 60 plus hours a week in studios and at  in the volume you must work in. Last year I nearly died rock clubs with musicians, and another 20 hours a week  from cancer. Hardest thing I’ve ever done. But the two alone installing software and soldering cables, while only   getti tting ng pai paid d for for maybe maybe 30 of of those those tot total al hou hours rs.. To To me me it  things that kept me going were the love of my wife and  ge  sounds  sou nds like li ke you made ma de a great gr eat choice cho ice with wit h how you’ve you ’ve used  use d  family, and that I still have so much to learn about  yourr de degre gree. e. Partic Particula ularly rly if you can occ occasi asiona onally lly be a recording. That is the truth. God bless you for all the  you weekend warrior and get behind the board. I’ve also hard work you do. I just wish I wasn’t on a fixed income because coming to Jackpot! to work with you is my noticed through the years that a lot of people who enjoy  music and audio engineering, but don’t do it as a dream of a lifetime. Thank you for all your hard work.  profes  pro fessio sion, n, spe specia cializ lizee in ma makin kingg live live re recor cordi dings ngs of ban bands ds.. Brian m>  I think think it’s a low risk/ risk/hig high h reward reward way to be an audio audio Thank you for the kind words. I wish you continued  enthusiast. Or, flush your life down the toilet and come health and well-being! -LC   join  joi n us! us! You’ You’re re mo more re tha than n wel welcom comee to to the the clu club! b!  Aaro  Aa ron n Mull Mullan an 10/Tape

Op#117/ Letters/(continued

on page 12)

More responses to John Baccigaluppi’s “Give Me A Hammer, Part 2” End Rant from Tape Op #115: Thank you, John, for your end rant about wanting to get Apple out of your studio. It’s really sad how far they have drifted from caring about the people who use their tools to create something beyond YouTube videos and presetdripping demos. I’m glad you care enough to not only complain, but offer an alternative, and even a suggestion, to Apple. As I dodge/adhere to all these forced updates and changes-for-the-sake-of-changes, I often wonder how long we are going to allow software engineers to place “efficiency” above all else in so many areas of our day-to-day. It’s disheartening, and it’s sucking the – what? fun? humanity? worthwhileness? everything we once considered living? – out of life. Well, regardless, thank you for a timely rant. Matt Riggle

As a Logic user since Creator/Notator/Atari, I have gone through many Apple computers. There are always issues setting up a new machine. It takes time and patience to get all the quirks smoothed out, as I’m sure it does with any computer Mac or PC. I’m celebrating my 25th anniversary of my studio this year, and there have been a few rocky spots: Logic 7 was not too friendly on my older Mac Pro, but it did eventually stabilize. I currently have a Mac Pro 2013, and it took me almost a year to get it to behave properly; part of it was software issues, part of it was hardware issues, but I find that the current version of  Logic and El Capitan are quite stable and have been so for a good while now. I never experienced any downtime, or anything that a client would have recognized as an issue. The trip from OS X Mavericks wasn’t all that delightful, but I’m a happy happy camper now. I do, however, disable all notifications, and I don’t use iCloud or email on my computer. I have hundreds of processing plug-ins, as well  as virtual instruments and huge libraries, as well as a quad bay Thunderbolt enclosure filled with SSDs [solid state drives]. These don’t come close to comparing to the speed of the internal drive. I regularly get updates from most every plug-in company making me aware of when their particular AU plugin will be ready for use with wi th the latest OS. I never get in a hurry to upgrade, and always have a complete backup of my previous system in case I need to go back. I understand your frustration with Apple trying to sync every device and give them all the same look and interface; but, in my opinion, the current version of Logic on my Mac Pro is rock solid, amazingly fast, and powerful. I do Logic tutorials from time t ime to time in my studio, and one of the things I remind people of is that software and hardware manufacturers are usually blaming each other for troubling issues. When the company who manufacturers the computer also makes the software, like Apple, this has always seemed to be a bonus, as they have to stay on top of both of their products functioning well together. I know PCs can come in so many different hardware configurations that this can sometimes be a problem for software companies to keep up with. So I have to kindly disagree with your assessment of Apple and its instability in music production, but I wish you the best in your pursuit of a more stable machine! I cannot say enough about what an invaluable resource Tape Op is; I so enjoy reading all the interviews and learning about other’s production techniques! Keep up the awesome work!  Alan  Al an Ha Hay yes >

Thank you so much for all you do! Tape Op is handsdown, no question my favorite magazine that has ever existed. It is peerless and beautiful. It has helped and healed me over time. You’re doing a really wonderful job running ru nning your publication. Thank you again. Nick Horowitz I love your mag, but your math leaves a little to be desired. In issue 116, “Valentine Recording” on page 42, 1975 was 40 years ago, not 30. Boot Yup. You caught me being bad at math. Or maybe I’m  justt bad  jus bad at at kee keepin pingg track track of tim time! e! -LC  -LC 

 Se  S end Letters & Questions to:

[email protected]

12/Tape

Op#117/ Letters/(Fin.)

 Behind The Gear This Issue’s Purveyor of Purple

 Andrew Roberts of Purple Audio  by An Andy dy Ho Hong  ng 

rented this 7,000 sq. ft. theater on the second floor. We were able to rip apart a whole console, spread out a tape machine, and actually do the work in a way that was impossible at the midtown location. We shared that shop with Matt Marinelli of Coral Sound until I left New York in 2007.

How much of your business, now that you’re in Jim Thorpe, is repair versus manufacturing?

 Whilee mot  Whil motor orcy cycl clin ingg thr throu ough gh th thee  Appa  Ap pala lach chia iann Mou Mount ntai ains ns,, on on my my way way to  the 2015 Summer NAMM show in  Nash  Na shvi vill lle, e, I mad madee an an ove overn rnig ight ht sto stopp in Jim Thorpe, PA, one of the most  beau  be auti tifu full tow towns ns in th thee U.S U.S., ., according to several national  publ  pu blic icat atio ions ns.. Ins Insid idee the the fo form rmer er firehouse in the historic downtown district, next door to the  beau  be auti tifu full llyy res resto tore redd 400 400-s -sea eatt Mau Mauch  ch  Chunk Opera House, is Purple Audio. The craftsmanship that owner Andrew   Robe  Ro bert rtss put putss int intoo his his pr proo aud audio  io   prod  pr oduc uctt lin linee als alsoo sho shows ws in th thee man manyy details of his ongoing renovation. I walked through grand doors with   hand  ha ndma made de ir iron on fi fitt ttin ings gs to to tour ur his his shop and the adjacent theatre,  befo  be fore re si sitt ttin ingg dow downn in in his his co cont ntro roll room/lounge for an interview. How’d you get your start doing Purple Audio? I was lucky to go to a high school with a really good music program. We had a Yamaha RM1608 console, a Tascam MS16 1-inch, 16-track, and a bunch of  Sennheiser MD 421 mics – pretty good equipment for a high school. I was a saxophonist in the second jazz band, and I ended up doing a lot of front-of-house sound. Also, some of the band guys would hang out with me, and we’d just record. Little by little, I got into electronics – fixing and making cables, then building headphone breakout boxes and a distribution system. Then I wanted to go to college for music and recording. I went to NYU for one of  their music programs in the mid-’90s. I was bored, immediately. I already knew a lot of what they were teaching freshman year. I started interning at a studio, and that was okay, but I quickly realized I didn’t have the personality to be a studio engineer. I didn’t want to hold anybody’s hand or stroke anybody’s ego. A guy named John Klett came into the studio to help with a grounding problem. John took everything out of the console – he wanted to mount a copper bar inside the whole length of the console. I don’t know if Middle Atlantic made the 14/Tape

Op#117/ Mr.

When I left New York, I was basically done with that part of the business. Repair kept me going, especially during slow times. When Universal Audio re-entered the market, business was terrible for me for a while; I had to do console refurbs and tape machine repairs just to keep living. When the UA 1176 was re-issued, I took the MC76 and added the true bypass and insert loop – some features to make things a little bit more modern.

copper bar that had the 10 32 holes in it at the time, but I wasn’t aware of it. John either didn’t know about it, or thought it would be funny to have me That was the MC77, right? What was your make my own – I’m not sure. It was a 1/2’’ by 1/2’’ next product? copper bar, and I drilled and tapped around 80 holes. The Biz preamp [Tape Op #55]. I had wanted to get into I was kind of embarrassed, because I broke some of  the 500-series before. I’d already started making this the taps into the holes. John was like, “How many little rackmount mixer. It was a 1-inch format mixer, so did you break?” I said, “I don’t know. Four or five?” I was looking for an input transformer that would fit He said, “That’s it? You did good. It’s hard to tap in a 1-inch space. I settled on the Lundahl 1550. I copper.” At the time, I was making a little money started messing with that [circuit] and realized that buying and selling junk – searching through the we had a really cool mic preamp. That was the offshoot classified ads, going out to Long Island and buying that became the Biz. In the standard Class A Neve gear, coming back in and selling it somewhere else. gear, there’s a third gain stage that turns on at 65 dB. Then I ran into, “Oh, I bought this thing and it’s It’s a whole different sound than at 55 dB. I liked that broken. I’d better learn how to fix it so that I can get concept, but I wanted to be able to control it. The Biz my money out of it.” One of the first ones was an has a Dual button that throws in an additional gain Eventide H910 Harmonizer. Luckily the guy at stage after the first input stage; it changes the whole Eventide I called was really nice and patient with me. character. A dual-deck pot varies the gain of both I was just beginning to understand enough about input stages, at the same time. An output level control  electronics to know what I was looking at. An H910 allows the Biz to get more aggressive, or less is not the thing to start with; there’s an incredible aggressive, as you go forward and backward on the amount of parts in there. Anyway, I fixed a couple gain and level controls. A lot of the preamps coming and got my money back out of them. When Sam Ash from Neve modules didn’t have a fader on them Parts was moving out of their space on 7th Ave into anymore. You had gain, but that was all you had. the space across the street, Manhattan Audio wanted Going to tape or DAW was hard, because you’d have a bigger space. John went in with them; I went in that certain sound, but then your level would be with John and started getting into repair. They were wrong, unless you put an attenuator on it. After the doing a lot of work – keyboards, ADAT machines, and Biz, I came up with another preamp called the Pants. TASCAM 388 consoles with the reel-to-reels in them. There are four op-amps in there running fully John was into Neve modules, Telefunken gear, tape differential throughout. It has a custom CineMag machines, and all that. People were bringing in PYE transformer that was made for a mic output. It uses an compressors and things you wouldn’t get to buy or interesting winding method. It’s kind of the same dualsee, unless it was in for repair. There was either no bobbin type as a Lundahl 1550. I like the sound of it. schematic, or you’d reverse engineer it. At some It distorts in a crazy way – very harmonically. The point, I was working on UREI 1176s. I was looking at Lundahl in the Biz also distorts. dist orts. The odd harmonics are them thinking, “You paid $2,500 for this?” This was really interesting when you drive the hell out of it. I ‘96 or ‘97. The 1176 sounds cool, but it wasn’t built had some low-frequency distortion problems on the that well. It was built for permanent installation in a 1550s I was getting from Lundahl at some point. I rack for the rest of its life, not bouncing around on called Per Lundahl up and he said, “Oh, that’s not a mic the road or schlepped from studio to studio. It was input.” I said, “The turns are right for a mic input.” He structurally deficient. Component-wise, it was great said, “Yeah, but you shouldn’t be using that for a mic for the time. But you can build way better stuff now. input. I make much better mic input transformers. Try I came out with the Purple Audio MC76 and showed these.” They were all boring. I didn’t like them, so I it at the ‘97 AES show. I started with those and sold kept the 1550. I still buy them from Lundahl, and Per them for a while. We outgrew the shop, and I found still laughs when he sees me at trade t rade shows. He comes an old theater building in Queens that had been over to me and says, “Still using that wrong?” It’s fine. converted into a nightclub called Exile in the ‘70s. I It sounds great.

Roberts/(continued on page 16)

I’ve noticed, in the products you’re manu- How often do you record here? facturing now, there’s modularity in the I’ve recorded almost every live music show at the Opera House for the last few years – over 200 shows. I bought this design. You can pull some of these daughter building because it’s attached to a huge, beautiful live [expansion] cards out, for example. My repair background very much makes me think about how room that I don’t have to heat, own, or pay taxes on. My I fix things. For example, almost all of my designs have pitch to the bands is simple: come on a Monday or a DIP-8 sockets beneath the discrete op-amps. I’d never Tuesday, stay in town all week, record whatever you want, seen anybody do that before. I’d be sitting there working set up, do a live show Friday night, and then get out of  on a Neve module back in the day, be it a discrete 440, or here Saturday morning. The Opera House draws crowds. whatever op-amp, wishing I could just plug something in People come from far away. There’s no other town like this, and see if everything else worked so that I wasn’t chasing with a venue like this. Also, Purple Audio is next door; five different problems. Being able to pull out one of my we’re recording the show, and it’s totally stress-free. r discrete KDJ 4 op-amps and put in a TL071 – it doesn’t Check out tapeop.com for bonus phtos of Andrew’s studio and shop. sound like you want it to sound, but I know the whole thing works now. Now I just have this one building block that I can either repair or replace, whatever it is.

How many 500-series products do you make now? We have eight 500-series modules, as well as the Sweet Ten Rack [Tape Op #100]. The Action is a compressor, with similar characteristics to the MC77 and 1176. It has wider attack and release times, so you can do some more dramatic things, like the Eventide Omnipressor “backwards drums” kind of sound. We make three different EQs. The ODD and TAV [Tape Op #77] were designed by Ed Anderson, and they’re takeoffs from an Auditronics 501 console project he sucked me into. The inductor EQ on that console was cool, but it was surrounded by junk. If you actually gave it some headroom, as well as good op-amps and transformers, it sounded cool. That became the ODD; it’s a big improvement. The TAV was kind of the same thing in a 10-band graphic – all inductor-based. The LILPEQr is a program EQ, designed by Jens Jungkurth from Eisen Audio. He made some with old Neve parts before he ran out of  parts. It’s a cool EQ, so we made it into a Purple Audio product. The Moiyn module [ Tape Op #100] is a mixer module that turns the Sweet Ten Rack into an 8 2 mixer. You can cascade them together and make bigger systems. ×

Did you give up on making a full console? No, I designed a couple of consoles. There’s one in New Jersey; a Blue Man Group guy has one in his basement. It has 32 inputs, five auxes, and two 2-buses. Then I designed a 500-series console; I have an aux router done and a bus router done for it, and they’re expensive as hell. But nobody’s going to buy a $50,000 console from me; it’s not the brand. So I took that and started designing our MF system. The MFtwenty5 is an analog, discrete, dual-input single-rackspace 10 2 with mute, solo, and pan. Each channel can be switched mono or stereo. You can stack 500-series modules on top of each other and do left/right vertically, and you’re able to build a pretty compact 20 2 stem mixer. You could also plug your DAW directly into the MFtwenty5 instead; it’s just standard D-subs. It’s all digitally controlled – over a thousand SMD [surface-mount device] components to do all the switching. The digital side was all  programmed by Jon Ulrigg of ShinyBox [Studio Electronics]. It’s been a long road to get this thing to be a viable product, partly because I was overconfident of how my muting and switching was working. Part of it was getting the ethernet to do what I want it to do. I wanted to be able to link them, control them externally, and automate them – I jumped into everything optimistically! Otherwise I wouldn’t start projects. I’m halfway through redoing this building, and if I had known how much work it would be, I wouldn’t have started it. ×

×

16/Tape

Op#117/ Mr.

Roberts/(Fin.)

Susan Rogers From Prince to Ph.D. interview & portrait by Larry Crane (with audience input)

Not only is Susan Rogers How did you end up as a tech?

a record producer, engineer, mixer, and I worked for a company called Audio Industries audio electronics technician, she has a Corporation in L.A. for Hal Michael; HM was what he doctorate in psychology (having studied music was known as. When I was a kid, I always wanted to make records. I took piano lessons and I had zero cognition and psychoacoustics) from McGill affinity for it, but I played the radio and listened to University. As an engineer Susan really got records like a fiend. Sometimes on vinyl albums there her start working with Prince from 1983 to would be a picture of the studio, and I fantasized about 1988, including albums like Purple Rain, Around  being in that place where records were made. I didn’t and d Th the World in a Day, Parade, Sign o’ the Times, an Thee see myself in terms of what I would do there, because Black Album. Her other studio sessions have I didn’t know, but it wasn’t performing. Then when I included artists like Barenaked Ladies, David learned that there are people who make records... Byrne, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Rusted Root, How did you learn that? Tricky, Geggy Tah, and Michael Penn. She is There was this school called the University of Sound Arts, currently the director of the Berklee Music right in Crossroads of the World [in Hollywood]. They Perception and Cognition Laboratory, and is had teachers from Wally Heider Sound, Sunset Sound, an associate professor at Berklee. Portions of  and Capitol [Studios]. They’d hire some of the greatest this interview were conducted after a listen to engineers in the world to moonlight as their teachers. a vinyl LP of Purple Rain during the “Saturday My friend said, “I’m going to go to this school and Night Listening Party” at the Welcome to 1979 become an engineer.” There was no way I had money Recording Summit (held every November in for that, but my friend was able to get me a job as the Nashville), and the rest of the interview took  night receptionist at that school. I couldn’t afford the classes, but I could afford the books. One day I place between she and I the following day. overheard a tech talking to a student; he worked for

18/Tape

Op#117/ Ms.

Rogers/(continued on page 20)

Wally Heider Studios. He was telling them, “You want  jobb se  jo secu curi rity? ty? Do Don’ n’t be beco come me a re reco cord rdin ingg en engi gine neer er,, become a maintenance tech. You’ll always have a job.” I thought, “Well, then that’s my career.” I bought books and started learning about electronics. I read Modern Recording Techniques, Techniques, 1st ed., and the Don and Carolyn Davis books on acoustics. Shortly after this process began I saw a “Help Wanted” ad in the Los Angeles Times. It said, “Audio Trainee Wanted.” It was for Audio Industries.. I applied; I knew nothing, but they Industries t hey liked my enthusiasm. They trained me to be an MCI service technician. At night I was studying my ass off with those MCI manuals and all those electronics books, and then, during the day, they were teaching me to solder, how to wire studios, and how to do simple repairs. One studio I was visiting frequently was Rudy Records, owned by Graham Nash and David Crosby, in Hollywood. They had an MCI console and tape machine that would frequently fail, so I would go on service calls. They asked me if I would leave Audio Industries and be their studio maintenance tech in 1981, and I took the gig. I finally got to fill in on occasion as an assistant engineer, and for the first time I was actually watching sessions happen.

 Who  Wh o was was th the e lea lead d eng engin inee eerr the there re?? There was an assistant engineer named Jay Parti, who also did some firsting [first engineer]. Crosby, Stills & Nash were working on the Daylight Again album. Stanley Johnston and Steve Gursky were two t wo engineers working on that album. Mostly it was a one-room studio for hire. The Eagles, Bonnie Raitt, David Lindley, Joe Vitale, Mike Finnigan, and people who were part of that CSN, Eagles, and Kris Kristofferson crew would come in.

 A lot lot of gr grea eatt mus music icia ians ns!! The late Don Gooch was an engineer who had been associated with CSN for a long time. Don would kindly allow me to come at night and observe his sessions. One of the first sessions I ever witnessed was the Burrito Brothers, with Don engineering.

 Were yo  Were you u pi pick ckin ing g up se sess ssio ion n fl flow ow,, an and d things like that? I was starting to see how it worked, learning to listen to music as it comes together, and learning to develop that decision criterion for what constitutes a “perfect take.” I’d hear the musicians play it over, and over, and over again. It was clear that the producer was searching for something that he hadn’t heard yet. I’d listen and try to match my ear against theirs to see, “Will I know? This sounds right to me. What’s the producer going to say?” I was learning the practical aspects of record making, plus I was learning our business. “Who are these people? What do we value? What do we talk about? How do we be in the world?” I could repair the tools, but I was getting a chance to see how people apply them. The first five years in L.A. were a good training training ground. ground. The music industry was changing. In 1980, there was new wave, disco, and drum machines. Samplers were  justt start  jus startin ingg to app appear ear,, and and thi thiss noti notion on that that,, “We “We don’ don’t really need a drummer, because we have a drum machine. And we don’t need a horn or string player, because these synthesizers do horns and strings pretty well. All you rock players, you can stay home now.” It wasn’t a paradigm shift, but there was an attitude shift. New wave was here: The Cars, The Police, and Devo, and shortly thereafter, Prince. And then there was the junior version of the next onslaught coming out of New York, and that was rap. rap. That was just starting to heat heat up.

 Audien  Audi ence ce:: Si Sitt ttin ing g be behi hind nd th the e co cons nsol ole, e, listening to Purple Rain, end to end, what’s that feel like right now? The thing that I noticed now, that I wouldn’t have noticed then, is that was on onee 24-year-old guy. I mean, you hear Lisa Coleman’s chords at the end of “Purple Rain,” you hear some of the girls [Wendy Melvoin and Lisa] doing background vocals, there’s one solo from [Matt] “Doctor” Fink. The rest is one guy, and he’s 24-years old. We were all young then, and it’s like, “Yeah, everybody’s 24-years old. Of course.” We didn’t really get it. But listening to that, I can’t think of a peer. Stevie Wonder maybe? But this is one man, playing all the instruments, writing all  the songs, singing all the parts, with no producer and no engineer, for all intents and purposes, because I joined him as a tech. This is what you do when you take a brilliant genius, give him a lot of money, and put him in a room with all the toys. This is what he makes.

 Audien  Audi ence ce:: So So it it sti still ll am amaz azes es yo you u to to hea hearr it it all? That’s awesome. 20/Tape

Op#117/ Ms.

Yeah, because you can’t find examples of many parallels. the band. He wasn’t checking the sound; he just wanted When you think about it, you hear that guitar, you hear to play Prince would hit the stage again at 8:30, play his incredible keyboard skills, and you realize that, at to 11 or 11:30, come off the stage, get in the van, go any given moment on that record, he could do that. He to the hotel, shower, change clothes, and then do one could have filled up that record with virtuoso guitar of two things: either go play an after party and take the playing, with virtuoso keyboard playing, and with stage at a little club at 1 a.m. I had a second truck virtuoso singing. But he’ll do ten minutes of just drum loaded up with a second set of gear, so we’d come off  machine on “Baby, I’m a Star.” Then here’s another thing stage and either go to a club, set up another stage, and to consider. His lyrics. It’s not Leonard Cohen, but think play this after party until 5 or 6 in the morning. Or I about... he’s talking about an “us.” I would die for you. would have booked a studio in advance, and we’d go to Let’s go crazy. Take me with you. It’s a generous record. the studio and record all night. We’d get the tapes, get He’s happy to be alive. He’s happy to be 24. He clearly on the plane, and sleep on the plane; or get on the bus loves people. He’s not a sexual predator. He’s not talking and go to the next city, and do it again. If he was about “I will conquer you,” with that braggadocio of  awake, he wanted an instrument in his hand. That’s how young men. There’s us, and we’re having fun. That’s pretty he lived. He was on fire. great. Especially when you consider that he’s one guy  Au  Audi dien ence ce:: Wh Who o di did d al alll th the e sy synt nth h from north Minneapolis, all alone. He was so alone that programming? Was that all him? he created his own competition. He created The Time and Oh, yeah; that was all him. He hated bringing anyone else Vanity 6, and it was still all him. He played all the in because he worked so fast. It was all 24-track. He instruments, wrote all their songs, did the whole thing, could not wait for two [tape] machines to be and then had them come in and do the vocals. synchronized. It was never more than 24-track in the  Audi  Au dien ence ce:: Wh What at kind kind of prepa prepara rati tion on did years that I was with him. There was no automation, because he couldn’t wait for that either! When we’d he do to do his vocals? He just sang them. It’s not like he did any vocal comps. mix, I’d just hit “record” on the 2-track and do it live. The way he worked, he would program the drum People have asked me about him being a perfectionist. machine. A lot of the drumming you hear, like the He was not a perfectionist. There was nothing perfect double kicks, the tom fills, and everything, he’s playing about it. What he was was a virtuoso. He was that those with his fingers. There’d be a one or two bar loop fluent on so many instruments that we could go superon the Linn LM-1. So there’s this loop; he played all the fast. There was no perfection involved. fills on “Take Me with U,” the toms, and the double kick  Au  Audi dien ence ce:: So, So, with with any any oth other er mus music icia ians ns,, on “Darling Nikki” first. He had the entire arrangement it was just playing catch-up? He knew  in his head as tape was rolling, and he played the whole they’d slow him down? song in his head. Then the basic keyboard parts would Yeah. He knew if he wanted horns, or background vocals, go on. Then bass, if there was bass, or bass synths. We’d that’s when he would have a date. He’d have Eric Leeds stop, I would route the vocal for him, put a piece of  and Matt Blistan come in and put on horns, or he’d have white tape on the patch cord to show him where it was, the girls come in and do backing vocals. He’d go out and arm the tape machine, put the track on input, and then have a date, and I’d do those recordings with other leave the room so he could do the vocals all by himself. people. Then he’d come back, dump his date off, or He didn’t want anybody there. He’d do the lead vocal  whatever. Sometimes he’d bring her to the studio, until  himself, do the backing vocals, and then I’d come back she’d get bored and leave. in and we’d lay down the rest of the instruments. While  Au  Audi dien ence ce:: He didn’ didn’tt want want to go throu through gh he was playing, I could be dialing in sounds, so the mix the painful process of watching people was pretty much ready to go. We worked with the girls, work at a normal pace. Wendy and Lisa, Jill Jones, or Susannah [Melvoin] – if  He could. Like the song “Take Me with U,” where Apollonia we’re going to do background vocals. Maybe we’d add is singing that cold lead vocal. When she joined us she Eric Leeds, with horns. I’d press “record” on the 2-track, replaced Vanity, who had suddenly split. Apollonia had to we’d print a mix, go to bed, and then four hours later be in the movie and on the record. He asked her, “Can you we’d start all over again. That’s how he worked, every sing?” She said, “Yeah.” So he left me in the studio with day. Making music was Prince’s way of being in the her to warm up her voice and said, “You record her vocal.” world. If he was awake, we were making music. If we She couldn’t sing at all! She was focused on acting and weren’t on tour, he was recording in the studio was not a strong singer. Prince came in and had the constantly. Every day, even on the movie set. We were patience to coach her through line by line to get it. at home in Minneapolis, during the Purple Rain filming,  Au  Audi dien ence ce:: What What’s ’s he he sayi saying ng at at the the end end of  justt so he could  jus could come come home and and record record.. During During [the side one, the backwards voice? filming of] Under the Cherry Moon, I had the Advision He had a complex relationship with sex. He had a father who Studios mobile truck from London in the south of  was a jazz musician, very religious, and his father had very France. When they were taking their lunch break he strong anti-sex views. So when Prince would have a strong could come into the truck, work for two hours, record a statement of lust, like the song “Darling Nikki,” it’s usually bunch of tracks; then he could go back to the set and I followed by some sort of exorcism, like, “Forgive me, get would be mixing and editing. He had to be making this out of me.” I remember, at that time, when backwards music. I’ll tell you what a typical day was like on tour. tracked bits in the locked groove of records were thought Prince would soundcheck from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m., just to be satanic messages. You younger folks won’t remember for fun! Just to play new songs, and to rehearse with this, but in the ‘70s and ‘80s...

Rogers/(continued on page 22)

Dierks Studios Mobile 2 truck,  June 1987 during the Sign 'O The Times tour  in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

PURPLE RAIN The Purple Rain movie came after the album. As I understand it, this kid – who was so young – has his first crossover hit on the 1999 record with the single “Little Red Corvette.” So he goes to Warner Bros Records with his management and says, “For my next album [his sixth album!] I want to make a movie, and I want it to be the story of my life, kind of loosely autobiographical, and I’m going to write it.” He was 23-years old, at that time. They knew they had a star in the making. He was getting a lot of praise. He’d been on the cover of Rolling  Stone. Everything’s going great. No one had done this before, and he’s just a kid from Minneapolis. They said, “Okay. You can write it, and we’ll get a screenwriter to flesh it out. You can star in it, and it’ll be your band.” band.” So the album came out, the movie came out, and we were on the Purple Rain tour. He won the Academyy Award for Best Soundtrack! Academ Soundtrack! I wonder if  that would happen today.

 We we were re al alll goi going ng to he hell ll.. We were all going to hell with these backward messages. It’s just a piece of tape that was layered, and layered, and layered, layered, and flipped flipped around backwards. backwards. I don’t remember what it was.

 Audience:  Audien ce: It says says,, “Hell “Hello, o, how how are are you you?? Fine, fine; ‘cause I know that the Lord is coming soon. Coming, coming soon.” This is his way of asking for forgiveness for having lust in his heart, and doing it in a way that was artistic. Great art comes from conflict, and he was conflicted, for sure.

 Audience: Do you think he had the lyrical content in his head all the time, as well? About half the time he’d come into the studio with a lyric already written. He’d either play a drum kit, or use a drum machine, and the lyric would be taped up on the mic stand in front of him – he’d be reading the lyric at the same time as he played the drums. Usually he did that for pop songs and ballads. If it was just a straight up dance number, he’d lay down the groove first. I’d give him a cassette; he’d play it in the car, write the lyrics, and come back and sing. It was typically a song a day. There were rare exceptions when a song would take more than one day, but it was usually a song a day.

 What abo  What about ut som some e of of the the song songss wher where e we we hear strings? Are they real or the Fairlight sampler? 22/Tape

Op#117/ Ms.

No, not the Fairlight. He didn’t have the Fairlight on this  Audi  Audien ence ce:: Yo You u we were re in St Stud udio io 3 at record. It’s the Oberheim synths. When he got the Sunset, but you patched into Studio [Yamaha] DX7 he used that thing to death. On  Aro  Around  und  1’s live chamber then? the World in a Day  it’s mostly DX7. He got that right All the chambers; but the big chamber was the best one, around Purple Rain, so I think that DX7 is on some of  if you could get it. We wanted to build a chamber at those songs. songs. He had a Fairlight Fairlight for Sign o’ the Times. Paisley Park, but with real estate, they ultimately  Audi  Au dien ence ce:: Ho How w mu much ch of th the e vo voca call ef effe fect ctss didn’t do it. Some of those things were recorded at a were committed to tape? warehouse. Other tracks were recorded either at I’ll tell you what went to tape. The Linn LM-1 had little Sunset Sound Studio 3, or on an API console at home faders on it, mixers, and individual outputs on the back. in the warehouse. We’d take the kick out, and the snare, and then the hi-  Yo  You u wer were e work workin ing g in L. L.A. A. as as a tec tech, h, and and hat usually by itself, usually claps by themselves, but then somehow you end up in then everything else would come out a stereo mix and Minneapolis with Prince installing go into his Roland Boss pedals, the kind you still see his console, right? today. That would have flanger and chorus in it. You I heard through Westlake Audio that Prince was looking hear a lot of times the hi-hat is chorused, and it’s very for a tech, and I just said, “Well, the search is over, wide stereo. So are claps and things on many of these because that’s my job!” Westlake referred me to his songs. So the chorus, the distortion pedal, the Heavy management, and they hired me as a tech. The first Metal pedal, the [DD digital] delay, and the flanger. He thing I was asked to do was pull the old console out of  would click them on and off to dial in what he wanted his home studio, install his new API, and fix his tape for the drums. Those effects were printed. The effects machine, which, at that time, was the Ampex MMon his voice and everything else, no. He really loved 1200. It sounded so good. good. That took about a week. He delays. Students today, I always see them going for was doing pre-production for the movie, Purple Rain, at reverb. I instruct them, “Wait, delays! Delays happen this time. I could hear him at the piano. I was before reverb happens.” We had several of the Lexicon downstairs in the home studio, which was just a Prime Time [Model 93 digital delays] with stereo in, bedroom, and the piano was right above. I could hear stereo out. He loved those things. At that time, we had him playing “Purple Rain,” “The Beautiful Ones,” and the Lexicon 240L. We had an EMT 245. At Sunset Sound “Computer Blue,” just waiting for the studio to be we had the real echo chambers. But mostly it was finished! I finally got it finished, and the first song he delays, real echo chamber, and EMT reverb. That all just had me put up was “Darling Nikki.” He had me put up went to the mix, but not on the multitrack. a tape and said, “Get a rough mix.” I said, “Okay.”

Rogers/(continued on page 24)

 Audien  Audi ence ce:: Is th ther ere e a ve vers rsio ion n of “W “Whe hen n Doves Cry” with a bass line in it? The bass is on the multitrack tape, but it was muted in the final mix. It’s interesting listening to this record again, and being reminded of how real genius knows when to show it off and when to just be simple. Simple chord progressions are fine; you don’t have to be really sophisticated. A simple drum pattern is fine. You can add the complexity in other elements. It can be in the sonic elements, in the virtuoso great guitar solo, the complexity can be in your lyrics. You don’t have to show off everything. Keep it all really simple and have one magic ingredient, maybe two. It was smart recordmaking. I don’t know how he knew how to do that, but he knew what he was doing.

 Audien  Audi ence ce:: Th That at fi firs rstt Li Linn nn dr drum um was al alll Steve Gadd drum samples, but you could order samples and they’d send you the chips. Did he ever do anything with that machine? I didn’t know that. But did you know that you could pull  the chips out of their sockets, reverse them 180 degrees, put them back in, and it would play the sample backwards? He tried the LinnDrum when when it came out, out, but he didn’t like that one. Also, the clock on that LM1 was kind of funky. As it would warm up, it would sort of drift a little bit. It feels a little bit more human than the very rigid, later model.

 Au  A udience: The There was wasn’t any any seq sequencing at all,apartfromtheLinnDrum?Thatwasit? Oh, gosh; no, that’s just him playing it. That was it.

Like on “I Would Die 4 U,” he’s playing a sequencer-like sequencer-lik e pattern? In that case, that was Matt Fink, because that was cut live, and Matt did program that. But Prince, for his own parts, he would just play them. He didn’t have the patience.

Oh, you did? When Prince got the new DeMedio console it off. Then it got too late, and he couldn’t release it. It for Paisley Park, Frank DeMedio came out to check the was very personal, and I think he just didn’t want console. After he was finished, he swept it. That console people to hear it. He wasn’t ready. ready. It’s on a CD set just had a flat [frequency response], from 0 Hz to 70 kHz. released [Prince 4Ever ]. ]. It’s really beautiful. The signal path was all discrete circuits – there were no  Au  Audi dien ence ce:: If yo you u ha have ve on one e th thin ing g th that at integrated circuits. It had transformers and everything, you’d like to convey about Prince, but it was just flat. What a console! You may know the because he’s one of the most song, “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker.” That’s the first mysterious artists there is, what would song we did on that console. Prince was so eager to you say about him? record that that he sent Frank home. He just said, “Go There’s something about him that I think is not wellhome, and let Susan finish it.” I put up tape, and we understood. I’d like to point out his generosity of spirit, recorded the song. I’m thinking to myself, “Oh, my god; with regard to women. For all of his love of sex and he’s going to kill me. There’s something wrong with this women, Prince never approached women as a conqueror console.” It sounded all muffled, because Frank hadn’t or a predator. The typical Prince song was “Do Me, finished troubleshooting it. It’s like, “I know this Baby,” from the Controversy album. “Yo gett You u do me. Yo You u ge console is flat. What’s going on? There’s no high-end!” all the power. I’m taking all this power, giving it to you, I kept thinking that any second he was going to stop, and now you do me,” is what he sang about. He yell at me, have a big fit, go upstairs, and then I can empowered women. It’s what he did. “Take Me with U.” figure out what’s wrong. But he wouldn’t! He just kept In “Darling Nikki” he wakes up and there “was a phone going, kept overdubbing and doing the vocals, and then number on the stairs. It said, ‘Thank you for a funky we mixed it. He finally stopped when we mixed it, 24time. Call me up, whenever you want to grind.’” She’s hours later. He finally went to bed; I got the voltmeter calling the shots. He brought women to work with him, and saw that one half of the power supply’s rails were like Wendy and Lisa, me, and Peggy McCreary. down. Instead of bipolar [+/-] 15 volts, we just had 15  An  And d Syl Sylvi via a Mas Massy sy [Tape Op #63]. volts. We had half the headroom, and half the frequency Yeah, Sylvia worked with him. We were his equals. He never response. It sounded muffled, but the song is about treated us like he was doing us a favor. He empowered us taking a bubble bath with his pants on. It was all a and let us do our thing, and he stood out of our way as dream, so he didn’t care! we did our thing. His imitators talked about, “Baby, I’m going to do this to you,” and, “I’m going to do that to Prince was prolific in the studio. I was with him for over four years. With every new song, you,” and how much better they are than their rivals. He with only one exception, I had the experience of thinking empowered women, and I think women loved him for it. to myself, “This might be the best song he’s ever done. I You’ve got this guy on stage; the hair, the makeup, the don’t think there’s any better one than this.” Every damn earrings, the high heels, the bikini underwear, and the time! There is so much in that vault. So much. trench coat. And he’s so masculine. He’s so comfortable with that. He didn’t care if you thought he was gay. He’s I know songs would get recorded and straight, but he didn’t care. discarded because they didn’t fit the

flow of an album.  Audience: Can you talk talk about working with that live material, and how it He was an old-school record changed from the concert to the an album.  What do  What does es th that at me mean an?? final mix?

maker. He was making

The bed tracks for “Purple Rain,” “I Would Die 4 U,” and 35 minutes of music. That’s the artistic experience, like watching a television program or a movie. He’s making “Baby, I’m a Star” were cut on August 3, 1983, in a and releasing an album. He was smart enough to know mobile truck at First Avenue, the club [in Minneapolis]. I that an album is not your eight most recent songs, your had just been hired by Prince, but I hadn’t yet arrived in ten most recent songs, or even your ten best songs. An Minneapolis. That was recorded by David Z [Rivkin], and album is a work of art that expresses what you want to the truck was the t he Record Plant mobile from New York [the say today about who you are, about your view of the “Black Truck,” with engineers David Hewitt and Kooster world, about your view of yourself, about your view of  McAllister]. We used that one a lot. Anyway, the bed track your relationship with your culture and the times, and was cut, but it was drum machines, so there weren’t that your competition. So three or four songs would form the many open mics. So we brought the tapes back to his seed of an album. The seed of this album is obviously home studio. This is all before Paisley Park was built. We the song “Purple Rain.” I think “Beautiful Ones” is an could overdub it, add more guitar parts, synth parts, and important, core song on this record. “Computer Blue” as mix it at home. Before Paisley Park was built, he worked well. “Let’s Go Crazy”? I think so, because it’s more “this a lot at Sunset Sound. is about us.” Other songs were more after the fact. Do you know why he picked Sunset Sound “When Doves Cry” was one of them. “Take Me with You” to work out of? was the last song on that record. Songs were chosen to I don’t know. When I joined him, he’d been working there compliment the seed, and great songs were rejected. and he just loved it. It was that DeMedio console. When One of my favorite songs of his is called “Moonbeam we planned Paisley Park, he commissioned the great Levels.” He recorded it before I joined him, in early ‘83. Frank DeMedio to build him a copy of that console at We sequenced it on Purple Rain, and he took it off. We Sunset Sound. sequenced it on Aro  Around und the Wo World rld in a Day  Day , and he took Paul Wolff: I built all the EQs for that it off. We even put it on the Parade album, and he took console when I owned API. 24/Tape

Op#117/ Ms.

Rogers/(continued on page 26)

 Audience  Audie nce:: So whe when n this chapte chapterr ended, ended, were you just tired out? What happened? Well, we were pretty much joined at the hip, because I was his employee. I wasn’t like an independent contractor. I worked for him, and he worked all the time, so I worked all the time. I worked Christmas, New Year’s, and birthdays. A work day was typically 24 hours. Twelve hours – I’m not exaggerating – was a half-day off. If you only worked for 12 hours, it was like, “Woo hoo, I’ve got the rest of the day!” It was a tour of duty. It was near the end of my time with him. I was working on the second Madhouse record [Prince and Eric Leeds]. He was at home in Minneapolis, because Paisley Park had just opened its doors, so now he finally had a real facility, and he had other engineers. I was in L.A.; he flew out to L.A. one night and couldn’t find me. I was on a date! My first one in years. He couldn’t find me, and he was furious the next day. He was livid! We went into a private room at the Hollywood Sound Stage and we went toe-to-toe. When you work for someone, it’s a voluntary contract. You don’t have to hire me. I don’t have to work for you. You can decide to fire me. I can decide to quit. This is a voluntary arrangement. Either one of us can break it at any time. We just looked at each other and realized we were both ready to renegotiate. It was just too much. It was time. I had done my part.

There’s also the story where he said he’d fine you. That was another story. Prince liked James Brown, and he thought if James Brown did it, he would do it too. He’d point to his band on stage and if they made a mistake, he’d fine them $50. One time we were at Sunset Sound. He was in a really good mood that day. This is the only way I’m still alive to tell the tale. I mispatched something, and he kind of jokingly said, “That’s a $50 fine for you, Susan!” It just got me the wrong way, because he had my whole life, and his shoes were worth more than that life. Like, “What more do you want from me?” I got mad. I opened up my purse and wallet, took whatever cash I had, and I threw it at him. I was like, “You want my money now? You have my whole entire life. You have everything. Here, take my money too.” I threw it at him, and I stormed out. As soon as you have the big gesture, you feel relieved. Now I thought, “Oh, god; I gotta go back. Shit.” The only good way out of that is to storm out and never come back; but I had to go back, so I did, and it was fine.

 Audience:: You hea  Audience hearr he was real really  ly  difficult to work with, but it seems, to hear you talk, that it sounds like it was an absolute joy. Well, that’s the thing. Here’s why his life was possible. He was that much of a genius. Joseph Campbell talked about this in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, abo bout ut the archetypal myth. In order to express a universal, archetypal truth, you have to go to a deep place in your psyche. You have to go into that deep well of  creativity. Brian Wilson did it. So did Paul McCartney, David Bowie, and Lou Reed. Joseph Campbell wrote about it as the hero’s journey, just like The Hobbit , Harry Potter , or Star Wars. So, you go off on this  journ  jou rney ey,, but but you you don’ don’t nec neces essa saril rilyy want want to, an andd you’r you’ree scared. Then you throw the ring into the dragon’s mouth, or whatever you’re supposed to do, and you come back scarred. The hero returns home, but he’s never the same. He’s scarred, psychically. In order to write that much, and be that prolific, you must protect your psyche, because you go to this dangerous place, really easily and often. You put up a wall, and you tell  your management, “Don’t let anyone anyo ne approach me. I’ve got my system. Here’s the system that allows me to create. These are my people who I’m familiar with. These are my places. This is a system where, within this circle, I can create.” That allows you to have a very long career, because you’ve figured out an armor to protect yourself. If you watch the movie  Am  Amy  y , about Amy Winehouse, you’ll see what happens when you can’t. What happens when an artist says, “I’m going to be myself. I’m going to let people see me. I’m going to let photographers take my picture and be candid in interviews.”? Watch what happens. It’s damaging to the psyche. Prince was smart enough, as a young man, to know that he’d need to do that if he wanted to have a long career, so he did it. But, to the outside world, he appeared as a big enigma.

 Audien  Audi ence ce:: Wa Wass th ther ere e a ce cert rtai ain n mo mome ment nt when you knew P u r p l e R a i n was special? 26/Tape

Op#117/ Ms.

I was so deeply in it, in order to perform my function. Exactly. You need to have the skill set that will allow you My job was to be the hands and the awake human to do what you’re picturing in your mind’s ear. I don’t body that kept this train rolling. I wasn’t analytical  mean to be disingenuous and say that all you have to about it. Not then, and not even afterwards. When do is push levels around until it sounds good. It’s not you’re deeply involved in something, and your role is that simple. After I left Prince, I realized my career was to facilitate it, you don’t necessarily have the property going to be in trouble if I couldn’t watch other of being able to analyze it. He was a true artist, but engineers work, because this is the only sound I knew he had a workingman’s work ethic. He took his career how to do. I didn’t know how to make any other records. and job seriously. He didn’t pursue recreational drugs. And I struggled until I watched other people work. He didn’t pursue celebrity for its own sake. He didn’t So you went back to L.A. after pursue a celebrity, or wealthy man’s lifestyle, or a very Minneapolis. What path did you take, busy profile. The opposite. He valued being invisible, at that point? because he valued the work. Prince loved nothing Well, I got calls to mix records, and I got calls to engineer more than to be an artist who goes to work every day records. Mostly the people who called me wanted in his art studio and just cranks out a product. I think Prince’s sound for their own record, which was a fair that’s one of the interesting dichotomies of Prince. A enough bargain, because I knew how to get that true artist, and a workingman. It’s funny that it sound. But often artists would be disappointed because should be a dichotomy, but often people want to be I couldn’t modify that sound to fit them. Then a couple one or the other. He had a lot of people who worked of fortunate things happened. One was in ‘89 I was for him in the ‘80s. He would say, “We put bread on introduced to the great producer Tony Berg, in L.A. peoples’ tables.” He wasn’t the kind of person who Tony hired me to work on a Michael Penn album. Tony fired people on a whim. He acknowledged and was such a supporter, and so generous of heart, spirit, recognized the commitment of hiring someone and and mind. Just a smart man. He recognized my supplying them with a job. He was stern and shortcomings and he taught me things. I credit Tony as demanding. He certainly was a taskmaster, because being my mentor, because if it weren’t for Tony, I don’t there were a lot of tasks to get done; but he allowed know that I would have had a career. He really guided for error, and he recognized his responsibility to be an me into record production and engineering the L.A. employer, as well as on top of his artistry and his way, and the alternative rock/indie way, because I’d musicianship. been doing this dance music. Tony taught me what was  What  Wh at do do you you thin think k your your str stren engt gths hs wer were e valuable, and Michael Penn did as well. I learned so much from those guys. I did records with Tony, when working with Prince? He wasn’t an engineer. He approached the equipment, including Michael Penn, and Edie Brickell & New the console, the tape machine, and the outboard gear Bohemians. For one glorious week I got to work with as if it were a musical instrument. I was a technician, Public Image Ltd. and John Lydon. We did one one song and I did not know how to engineer. I’d never learned [“Don’t Ask Me”] for a greatest hits record with Public how. I knew signal flow like the back of my hand, but Image Ltd. I got calls to mix a band called The Odds up I didn’t know how to make a record. It was actually, in Canada. I did a little work with Toad the Wet in hindsight, a very good pairing. You have this guy Sprocket. I started getting asked to do more who views this as a musical instrument and a woman production. Then my life changed in 1992 when I was who views it as “it routes signal.” Neither of us knew asked to co-produce the band Geggy Tah – Greg Kurstin how to play it, so we played it in such a way that it and Tommy Jordan – on David Byrne’s label. Nothing made noises we thought sounded cool. I was a music was the same after that. fan. That’s why I got into the business. I just wanted That changed your idea of making to be where records were being made. I was making records? Prince records the way that I wanted Prince records to It changed everything for me. They were obsessed with sound. He was making music for his fans, and his fan the question of what music is. I had been obsessed is sitting right next to him. That taught me the value with the question of what sound is, and how sound of listening to music the way a non-musician listens serves music. Now I started thinking about, “What are to music. It’s a different conversation and a different we doing? And what can be music?” Tommy Jordan set of questions, but I know, from being an auditory was interested in the human/music impulse. Tommy neuroscientist, that musicians and non-musicians do wanted to be able to make music the way a 3-yearprocess music differently. We hear it differently. old or a 97 year old would make music, if they could. Musicians can listen analytically, but non-musicians What is a 3-year-old trying to communicate? What can listen synthetically. We’re listening to the global  does the 97-year-old think? What happens in whole of what music is, whatever any sound is. It between? T Bone Burnett [Tape Op #67] called Tommy would behoove all record makers to remember to dial  one of the five most creative people in the music that microscope back far enough to listen to the big business. I have never before, and never since, worked picture. Then push your faders around and push sound with anyone that purely inventive, when it came to around to serve the big picture, not your preconceived manipulating pitch, timbre, duration, loudness, and notion of what’s right and wrong. sound. Tommy loved sound effect records and nature sounds. He always had a little portable cassette If I’m mixing, I’m trying to make it feel like a record. I’m not thinking only  recorder with him with a built-in microphone. If he raised up a garage door and it made a squeal, and that of the technical end.

Rogers/(continued on page 28)

sounded good and pleasing, he put it in a sampler. You’ve got a dog trotting across a tile floor; he’d put that microphone close to the ground and hear his claws on the tile floor, going, “Tick tick, tickity tick.” He’d loop that. Tommy had me play drums on the song “Gina,” on their second album [ Sacred Cow ]. ]. Gina was the name of my little dog. I said, “Tommy, I don’t play drums.” He said, “I’ll show you how. Just play this.” Because I was Gina’s mother, the dog’s mother, he said, “Be the mother’s voice and express the love of this dog. Have it be steady and constant. That’s what drums do.” And that connection between human expression, expressed with music, was an epiphany. It influenced every record I’ve done since then. It took me from being someone who was just trying to keep up, to someone who recognized that I have a voice now. I know what to do when I get in the studio. Tommy’s partner was Greg Kurstin. Greg, as I’m sure you know well, his career’s on fire. He most recently produced Adele’s album [ 25]. From those two guys I learned learned the art and the craft craft of record making in a whole new way.

 Yeah  Ye ah.. It It’s ’s am amaz azin ing g ho how w so some meth thin ing g ca can n fl flip ip yo you u on yo your ur he head ad to as ask k those questions. The beautiful thing is that it’s the question any 3-year-old would ask. “What? Why?” Tommy taught me that music is an expression of life. Life is not perfect. Life has mistakes, and it’s flawed. It’s really beautiful, and it’s really ugly. It smells pretty, and it stinks. Life is simple as pie, and it’s complicated. Life is mysterious and dark, and life is bright and dazzling. So your music should be all of that. If it’s going to express life, stretch it out. Have there be ugly sounds and pretty sounds. Have there be mistakes and perfection. Stretch it. Let there be voids and vacancies, as well as a trainwreck, a pile-up of all kinds of sounds. That’s valuable advice. We need to remember that we’re making art. And what is art? It’s an expression of life.

 You’  Yo u’ve ve go gott to to put put mu musi sicc out out th ther ere e tha thatt giv gives es th the e lis liste tene nerr som somet ethi hing ng to work with. Prince was smart enough to realize that he wasn’t making records to signify something about himself. He was making records to allow listeners to fantasize about themselves. He used to say, “It’s not about me. It’s about the listener. When they see me, they’re seeing a version of themselves that they’re interested in.” He was able to then suppress his own individual ego and, wanting to be liked as an individual, he allowed himself to be a vehicle for our fantasies.

 Abso  Ab solu lute tely ly.. Which is how the smart artists do it. They suppress their own ego and recognize that it’s, “Not about me. It’s about you.”

 Wher  Wh ere e did did yo you u go go to to stu study dy af afte terr wor worki king ng in L. L.A. A.?? I was in Los Angeles, but I was doing a lot of work in New York in the late ‘90s. I worked with Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, and Tricky. I did a record in Pittsburgh with Rusted Root. I was between records, and I had three weeks in January and February to work with Barenaked Ladies on the Stunt album. We worked at Arlyn Studios in Austin, Texas, and then I handed the record over to David Leonard. David finished up the overdubs and mixed it, and the record was a huge hit. It sold millions of copies. Because it was a huge hit, I now had the money to leave the music business. I finished up in 1999. I did a couple of projects – India Arie and Laurie Anderson – in early 2000, and then I left the music business for good. At this point I was living back in Minnesota, and I entered college as a freshman at the University of Minnesota. I did four years in neuroscience and psychology at the University of Minnesota. Then I got into the grad program at McGill, and I studied at McGill for four years under Daniel Levitin [ Tape Op #74] and Stephen McAdams. Dan, at that time, was writing This is Your Brain on Music . I left McGill  in 2008, and was hired by Berklee to teach in the departments of Music Production and Engineering, and I also teach in liberal arts. I teach Music Cognition and Psychoacoustics. This spring I’ll be teaching Statistics at Berklee, which I’m really excited about.

I think it’s fascinating that you went through the whole process of tech, to engineer, to producer, and then went back to get a doctorate.

28/Tape

Op#117/ Ms.

Rogers/

I’m a true engineer, in that I love the mechanics. I love being able to see how it works. Neuroscience, and, in particular auditory neuroscience, is our internal wiring. It’s the wiring that gets us from the mechanical process – the cochlea and the inner ear – that converts that analog activity into a digital signal, and that digital signal is the ones and zeroes of the action potential in the auditory nerve. So we basically have A-to-D converters in our ears. That pattern of neural activity in the auditory nerve becomes neural activity in the brain. That pattern is so complex, because it includes what I think,

and what I expect, and what I like and dislike about music, and what I’m in the mood for. Pick something you really love. I love something the students turned me on to; American hardcore. There’s a band called Converge, and they are insanely great! When I listen to the  Janee Doe  Jan Doe record, I get so excited and I love it so much, but I’m not always in the mood for it. There are times when that exact same signal is very aversive. The signal itself hasn’t changed. What’s changed is our appetites. Science knows now about how personality traits, which are somewhat stable over a lifetime, predict music preferences. We’ve learned that you’re simply not going to make a record everyone will like. Some people like their music to be complex and intellectually engaging. Some people like it to be simple. Some people are looking for mainly the lyrical content. Some people are looking for mainly the groove. Some people are looking for mainly the chord progression or melody. That differs throughout a day, much less throughout our lifetimes. So, as record makers, we need to recognize that we’re making a product where we don’t know who’s going to consume it, or when, or what they’re going to want. We’re making a product that is not absolutely necessary for human survival. We need heat, water, and food. We could live without music. We’re making a product that there’s already too much of. We’re making an unnecessary product, in a market that’s totally glutted, for people who have more than they need of it already. There’s no job security here.

I’ve noticed! So what does happen when people avail themselves of music and they buy it, download it, consume it, and love it? They’re reaching for a product that they’re saying, “This is going to benefit my life in some way. My life will be better for having this.” It’s going to do something for them. We should be humbled to consider what we’re doing, and to consider that just making a vanity project – about an artist’s life and thoughts – is not enough. You’re making a product for the consumer. What does the consumer want? What do people want? What do people like? Think about it. Be generous in your artistic strivings. Language is communicating information, but it is said that music is communicating feelings. Lyrics do some of the work of communicating information, but the vocal performance is the subtext that accompanies the text, the lyrics themselves. We sometimes risk alienating our audience by not having the skill to communicate our feelings. Lyrics can be unintelligible. I love records by Caetano Veloso and Ryuichi Sakamoto, and records that are in Spanish where I can’t understand the words they are saying.

Sigur Rós [Tape Op #41]. Yes. But I can feel what they want me to feel, and I’m in. But record makers would be welladvised to check out a music cognition course, or do a little reading on how humans bond to music and understand just a little bit of how complex and difficult that is.

The McGurk Effect was mentioned yesterday. I didn’t know the name for that, but I knew it existed. That’s a really important point. Humans evolved to get information, primarily from vision. Neurologically, we have much, much more processing power and neural resources devoted to processing what we se  seee compared to what we hear . The auditory system is very crude, so when we see something, it is going to dominate our decision-making compared to what we hear. But, that said, the hearing, because it’s a simpler mechanism, is faster and more automatic. Students who stare at the screen and the waveform are literally suppressing and denying themselves the capacity to listen. They don’t need  to see the waveform. There’s no useful information there, beyond a certain point. When you’re listening to a performance, you need to see the levels, and you need to see the transport controls. But, other than the meters and the transport controls, there’s no information there that you need. All the information you need is coming out of the speakers. That’s what you should be attending to. It contains the message.

Turn the screen off. Yeah! And block competing sources of information that are not useful in the moment. We’ve Yeah! got these sensory organs that are constantly taking in information, and then we’ve got internal sources of information, telling you you’re hungry, tired, cold, or thirsty. The whole brain is processing sound. So, as you’re listening to sound, you’re taking in what you see, but you’re also taking in what you smell and what you taste. You’re taking in whether you’re happy, or sad, or cold, or hot, or tired, or hungry, or in a good mood, or in a bad mood. You’re taking in anxieties. Is there something happening later that night, or the next day? The whole system is processing what you hear, and can influence what you hear. Associative memory – associations between a song and memories of it – can influence our liking or disliking of that song. We all like songs that make us happy, even when we don’t know why it makes us happy. We probably heard it when we were just deliriously happy at some point, whether at a wedding, or a baseball game, or whatever. It’s incredibly powerful, in part because auditory processing is so incredibly crude.

Ms. Rogers/(continued on page 30)/ Tape Tape

Op#117/ 29

 We’re  We’r e play playin ing g with with psy psych choa oaco cous usti tics cs tha that’ t’ss based on millions of years of evolution.

Oh, yeah. You have to have an open mind to being wrong. In fact, you actually have to get excited if you’re wrong, because it means you were indeed going down a dead Exactly. Here’s a cool thing. thing. We recognize changes in the end. Now you get to turn around and go towards the acoustic elements of sound to a really small degree. The right [thing]. Just like a record maker should get excited difference between a drummer who could put that snare when someone comes out with a better record than  just  ju st wher wheree you you want want it it and and the the pers person on whos whosee groo groove ve is is yours. They showed you how to do it, didn’t they? They not quite as tight, or a bit ahead or behind the beat – taught you something. something. Now that you’ve heard heard it done, done, those differences are so small, but they’re actually now that you’ve seen it done, at a show or live significant to us when we’re processing sound. Humans performance, you’ll be better next time, won’t you? r are expert listeners, in a certain sense, in that we can tell  those small changes. Why do I choose a Stratocaster over a Les Paul for this guitar part? Some decision-making Thanks to Welcome to 1979 and everyone who attended the mechanism is saying that one’s wrong, and the other one Recording Summit in 2016. is right. The session musicians here in Nashville, why do they get called for the gigs? Part of it is association. Part of it is superstition. “Well, he was good on this guy’s record, so I’m going to get him for that th at guy’s record.” But there are measurable differences between the people who are great, and the people who are nearly great. That can be measured. And humans can perceive it.

I believe it. I am investigating the origins of hearing disorders with the work I’m doing in my laboratory right now. So I’ve been studying and focusing on what causes tinnitus and hyperacusis. Hyperacusis is hypersensitivity to sounds in certain frequency bands, and tinnitus is that ringing in the ears. ears. I think roughly roughly 47 to 49 percent percent of audio audio professionals, by most studies, have it. The mechanisms are just now being understood, but at Berklee I can investigate our musician populations to see if some musicians are at a greater risk than others of developing tinnitus. Will it be the horn players, or the drummers, or the electric guitar players? Will it be the vocalists? Think about it, if you’re singing in a choir, you’re singing next to a sound source that can get really loud. Really, really loud. Who’s at the greatest risk? I collect data, and that’s what I do in the lab.

That’s awesome. It’s so important to understand this sort of information. The arts and sciences, I discovered, have way more similarities than I ever realized. It’s just that the directionality of it is different. In the arts we imagine a condensed ball of dark matter that contains all of  humanity, all of human knowledge, and you explode it into billions and billions of individual expressions of  the human condition. Paintings, movies, television shows, books, records, and songs. You’ve got billions of  individual ways of describing what it means to be human. Science is the same exact process, in reverse. We look at all the individuals, then we work our way back and try to describe what is universal. How do people hear? How do they think? How do they pay attention? How do they decide? How do they learn? How do they memorize? How do they grow? That’s what science does. So it’s the same journey, just in a different direction. You can explore explore record making with the goals of individual expression, or you can explore auditory science with the goal of what we all have in common. The minds, in both cases, are quite similar. You have to be creative in the sciences.

How many times do you find that an assumption leads to a dead end in science? 30/Tape

Op#117/ Ms.

Rogers/(Fin.)

JOHN DWYER   John  Jo hn Dwy Dwyer er is is cert certain ainly ly prol prolif ific. ic. His main band, Thee Oh Sees, have released 18 studio albums since 1997. His side project, Damaged Bug, has two albums out. He co-owns Castle Face Records,  where  whe re most most of his his outp output ut has has been been rel releas eased. ed. He tour tourss frequently, frequ ently, and Thee Thee Oh Sees Sees are legendary leg endary for their energetic live live shows. I met John John about ten  years ago through our mutual friend, and his main engineer for the past decade, Chris Woodhouse. Since then I’ve had the pleasure of going out for sushi runs and cooking a few dinners at the studio with John. He’s a fun hang with a great combo of in your face dry wit and a razor sharp intelligence. He’s one of the smartest, savviest independent musicians I’ve met. Since forming  Castle Face and self releasing his albums, all of  Thee Oh Sees records have hit the #1 spot on the CMJ charts. He could teach a master class in how  to survive, and even thrive, as a muscian, while so many other music business folks moan about how terrible the business is. May Maybe be his secre secrett is that he works his ass off. When he’s not touring, he’s recording, and before the rest of the musicians in the studio have even woken up John’s run several miles and is on his laptop taking care of business, even though he worked later, and probably partied harder,, than everyone else the night before. harder Last time Larry and I were in Los Angeles, we dropped by John’s new house to see his home studio and talk about making records. -JB & LC

dd y  ud d B u  nd o h n a n  Jo  J

by John Baccigaluppi & Larry Crane photos by John

For sure. Everything I have is solid state, state, somehow somehow.. I like a lot of tube gear, obviously, but for some reason the gear that stuck out for me with Woodhouse at The Dock, and at Panoramic House, tended to be solid state when we did a little taste test. It depends what it is, though. I think it’s time for me to get more tube gear. Half the rack shit I have is garbage too. I found some shit in the trash, like the [Yamaha] SPX-90. This thing is shockingly great-sounding.

 JB:: It’  JB It’ss got got co cool ol ch chor orus uses es an and d fla flang nger ers. s. It’s a weird, weird effect. But my console’s only got two sends on it, so you’ve got to limit yourself.

LC: You should track right through it.

 John’s home studio, Stu Stu Studio

LC: I see you have Pro Tools here. I’m slowly learning Pro Tools as I go – I’ve never been a digital guy. I wanted to get the body of the song on tape to get that nice tape sound. Drums, vocals, guitars, bass, and main keyboard will go on tape. That’s what I need the eight channels for. Then, ideally, I’ll start doing tracks in Pro Tools, like claps, backup vocals, and little parts that don’t need a lot.

have to get up because the readout is here, and I can’t see that from the drum kit. My eyes are shot because I’m getting old, so I have to get up and make sure it’s zeroed, and then I can go back and hit record.

LC: How well is your dog trained? Yeah. “Buddy, RTZ!” I’d have to keep putting snacks on it. The tape repair guy would be like, “Well, here’s your problem. It’s full of spit.”

I do that a lot. I used to do it all the time, but then Woodhouse talked me out of it, because I can have more options. Now I’m leaning back to tracking with an effect. Fuck it, I know what I want it to sound like. Ideally it would be nice to have four effects sends and options, but I need to get better shit before I start focusing on that. I’m a real one cord kind of guy. It goes from this hole to this hole, and then you’re done. This is my first time ever having a patchbay.

LC: How loud does it get upstairs in your home when you’re downstairs working? It’s not too bad. It’s not full band recordings. If it was a full band, it would be loud as hell up here. When I’m monitoring, it’s nothing up here. It’s the live drums that are loud. The neighbors are all, “Oh sweet, you’re a drummer?” They’re all old hippies up here who want creative types around.

 JB: Di Did d yo you u lo look ok ar arou ound nd fo forr a wh whil ile e  JB:: So you you’v ’ve e done done mos mostt of the the Dam Damag aged ed  JB:  JB:: So yo  JB you u ca can n ge gett mo more re th than an ei eigh ghtt tr trac acks ks..  JB before you found this place? Bug records at home on this setup? Yeah, I can get as many as I need; but I honestly still  don’t know how to do that. I’m learning Pro Tools as I go, and I haven’t been home much. I have some time coming up where I’m going to finish up a new record. It’s been slow.

LC: You’re known as a pretty productive guy. Do you think it is going to get worse now, having a home space? Do you think you’ll be even more productive? No, I’ve always had a home space, but it’s always been a bedroom or something. This was the first one where I could alter it to how I wanted, and to be officious in it being a recording studio. The funny thing is I got all this gear in, then I came down here and for two months just couldn’t do shit. The well was dry. My buddy was like, “Give it time, it’ll happen. Keep going down there and smoking weed. Eventually it’ll click.” That’s kind of what happened. I wrote a bunch of shit in a row. You guys will appreciate this. I got one of  these [neon signs] for me and Dave Sitek a while back.

All of them, so far. I’ve done a couple of Thee Oh Sees Yeah. Basically right now the state of affairs in L.A. is that everyone’s trying to sell their houses for a half million records on this as well. I did Castlemania on this and up, so we looked at these really horrible flip houses. machine, and Dog Poison might have been on this This place was trashed. It needed a new floor, new pipes, machine. Dog Poison might have been 4-track new electric, the ceilings were popcorn ceilings so we though. I don’t remember, honestly. Thee Oh Sees has got rid of that, and all new paint. It was fucked. The always been recorded with Chris Woodhouse, for the people who lived here were hoarders, so it smelled like most part. I like to have somebody available so I can piss. We pulled up the subfloor, hollowed out the whole go and play. We’ve been working for months on these  join  jo int, t, and and ha hadd to po pour ur th thee ffou ound ndat atio ion n that that was was si sitt ttin ingg songs, and it’s nice not having to do double duty. on these pucks of cement at the back of the house. Also having an extra person there behind a piece of  you u see yo yours urself elf br bring inging ing in glass and not having to run back and forth makes a  JB: Do yo other bands here, at any point? huge difference. When I’m doing songs at home all by Not really, no. I would like to; it sounds like a great plan, myself, it’s really nice to have this setup. I dig it. but I don’t even have time to fucking record myself.  JB:: Ch  JB Chri riss Wo Wood odho hous use e mi mixe xed d a lo lott of th thes ese e The band’s so goddamn busy. I have to make time. home recordings?

Chris mixed the last Damaged Bug [ Cold Hot Plumbs]. We LC: What are Thee Oh Sees’ studio sessions like? went up to the studio at The Dock [Sacramento, CA] We’ve been doing ten-day stretches. With car rentals to mix. He’s obviously a much better mixer than me, and food, I end up spending eight or ten grand and although I’ve taken a lot from him. He showed me then waiting eight or ten months to get some of that subtractive mixing, and helped me wrap my head back. It’s always an investment. around gain staging. I was always an additive mixer,  JB:: “Do  JB “Don’ n’tt rec recor ord d ove overr stu stuff ff!” !” LC: Do you try to budget a certain like, “Oh, it needs more mid-range?” He’d say, “No, I had to turn that on when I got too high down here so amount of time? take away everything bu midrange,, and that will stick but  t midrange that I didn’t accidentall accidentallyy record over tracks. tracks. All of a out in the middle more.” That way I’m not having an I try to book a little more than I think we’ll need. I sudden I’m like, “Fuck, did I record over the drums?” think, with recording and with life, I’ve gotten to the incredibly noisy record. We’d always have everything I’d have to re-record re-record the whole song. song. I bought a tape point in my life now where, if I want something and pedal-to-the-metal, blasted really hot. I’m backing off  deck remote for use by the drum kit; now when I’m have the money, I just fucking spend the money. of that a little bit; I’m trying to make things actually here by myself I don’t have to keep getting up and You’re only alive for so long. That’s how it is with sound good, rather than hiding them with the running back and forth. I’m always working in a small  recording. If you need to pay a string section, want forgiveness of compression and smashing it to tape. space, but that fucking thing [the remote] doesn’t to get a good dinner, you want to buy drugs, or if you have an RTZ [return to zero] on it, so it’s moot. I still  LC: It’s a balance. Mr. Dwyer/(continued on page 34)/ Tape Tape Op#117/ 33

need more time, just fucking spend the money, if you have it. For years I recorded for nothing. I loathe Kickstarter for art projects. I managed to be high the whole time, and do it for free. Why do you want my money for your terrible band to record a record when you could just bust ass? Figure it out.

 JB:: You  JB You wo work rked ed wi with th Er Eric ic Ba Baue uerr on on som some e of that? Bauer, Woodhouse, and Bob Marshall are always the guys. Eric Bauer does Bauer Mansion Mansion in San Francisco, in Chinatown. He did some Ty Segall, and the new Heron Oblivion records.

 JB:: It feels  JB feels weird weird to say, say, “Hey, “Hey, ca can n you LC: When you take the 388 to a club, how  give me some money for my small do you patch in? business? I can’t quite get it together We set it up in the bathroom. We drilled holes in the to start it myself.” It’s the mark of an floor and ran a snake. amateur, I think. LC: You put live mics out to capture the It inevitably means that your shit’s going to suck. I ambience and take splits off the bought a 4-track for $150 when I was a kid and stage? recorded 30 records on it. They sound like shit to me now, but people bought them and I was able to tour. I’ve been slow and steady my whole life. Slowly climbing the ladder. But because of that, I’ve got people who haven’t paid attention, but I’ve been doing it for 20 years. I’m always fucking there.

LC: You mentioned how you can’t stand how your early 4-track recordings sound.

We usually put PZMs [pressure zone miscrophones] in the room, the old standby for me, and then an [Electro-Voice] RE20 on the drum top and a drum mic on the bass kick sometimes. It sounds pretty fucking good, for a live recording. We also us [Electro-Voice] RE-15s for guitar amps, which are like a secret weapon. I like the [Shure SM]57s, which are classic, but the RE-15s are great. Then usually a [Beyerdynamic] M 88 for vocals, and everything running through nice preamps. This is in a basement of a vintage shop in San Francisco called Vacation, with a shit PA I bought at Guitar Center.

that coin is that monitor guys are either great or a totally inept nightmare. Having my own monitors on stage means I have my own monitors set up in addition to theirs, which is nice. If they’re fucking up, I can wing it with my own PA. That’s what all the keyboards go through live, so when I turn around to my amp to play the keyboard, I don’t have multiple monitors on stage creating this feedback zone. I can walk away from the other monitor, as well as have a monitor right here that I play and can hear it with guitar. It’s the same exact thing we do at practice. We take it to the stage. A lot of sound guys will like it too. They’ll say, “I can take exactly what’s on stage and make it louder up front.” I bring my own DI for the vocals and keyboard.

LC: So you can split out the DI for them? I have my filthy sound on stage, and it’s still dirty for them; but they can clean it up a bit, compared to what I have on stage. It sounds fairly consistent. We set up pretty tightly. Everything’s set up like it is at practice. Nothing’s worse than writing something you’re excited about, and then you go to a different environment and it sounds terrible. You’re requiring some guy you never met in your life to be like, “Don’t worry guys, I got you. You sound like a ska band, right?” No!

I don’t like going too clean. I never have. That’s what I really like about tape. You have the option. I think, with mellower tracks, it’s nice to go clean, but I’ve always leaned towards raw recordings. I like live LC: Do they have audiences there? recordings – a lot of people don’t. The 4-track is really Yeah, it’s slammed. It’s BYOB, and free. We do these LC: The recording studio can be the same nice, because it’s really accessible and fucking cheap. processthough.Sometimesyougoinand secret shows in the basement about once every Anybody can do it. I learned how, in like ten minutes, come out with something that doesn’t month or two. because I was so obsessed. I couldn’t wait to start.  JB feel like what you wanted to achieve.  JB:: Do Do you you mi mix x the these se wi with th Ch Chri ris? s? “You can record four things? Holy shit, I didn’t know Yeah. Woodhouse has been there for all these. That happens a lot too, but I think the way to cope with you could do that.” I like shit rough. I’ve always liked  JB that is to try and make it better than you had hoped.  JB:: How mu mucch of yo you ur li livve vo voca call se settup it really up-front. There were certain things I’d always I’ll take songs in with Woodhouse that are really basic chain – with the [Roland] Space Echo, hated about some kinds of recordings when I was a ideas that grow into something completely different. the Mackie, and the JBL EON speaker – is kid that I’ve grown to deal with now more; like evident We started getting into the vibe where I’d write a an integral part to your sound? Are the overdubs is something I’ve never been a fan of. I think song on guitar, we’d go in, I’d play it, record the studio recordings done the same way? that was a big part of wanting to be raw; that it gave We do mic it. We use a bit of the scratch vocal. I used guitar nicely, and get a scratch vocal. Then we’d recordings that live aesthetic. We used to record a lot orchestrate parts with a Mellotron, and have to use it all the time. You can hear the difference if  live. I used to record a bunch of shit with Woodhouse, somebody come in to play violin, flute, and you listen, like, four records ago. It sounds pretty all live to the 8-track. Thee Oh Sees’ Warm Slime was saxophone. In the end we’d take the fucking guitar shitty compared to how we are now, as far as fidelity done on a [Tascam] 388 at a bar I used to work at. We out completely and have it just be the orchestra, and goes. On the heavier songs, when I’m playing it live rented it for the day, went in, and played our set. That then re-sing the vocal. That’s on “The Lens” from Drop in a room, I tend to sing it more aggressively than an was it. I would make Woodhouse mic that fucking PA, with the cartoon video. That was one that was overdub. That’s one of the problems with which he loathed. Now I do overdub vocals, and I’ll  originally a guitar and drum song that has none of  overdubbing, vocals in particular. I feel like it’s really mix in a little bit of the scratch vocal for rawness. I that left in the end. We could sound like Scott Walker tough to get in the zone. I literally have to hold the like music to be a little bit hairy. by writing a shitty pop song and taking all the pop guitar and play, and Woodhouse would complain that instruments out. That’s a perfect example of going in  JB:: So you  JB you wen wentt from from the the 4-t 4-tra rack ck to to the the he could hear the plectrum. I have to be playing it to and leaving with something completely different. I’ve 8-track, right? sing it. I finally learned how not to do that. It’s really started to embrace that. I’d love to get a Studer 16-track, or something. I think tough for me to belt it out the way it is live without that machine fucking rules, but it’s not in the cards. the band playing with me, having all that in the mix. LC: Do you do a lot of writing in the A Studer’s like a swimming pool. I’ve got friends who studio? I started bringing a PA with me with on tour years have them. I’m like, “I’m happy that you guys have ago. It’s mostly because sound guys can be jerks. If I We did this time. We do. We had 13 ideas total, maybe one I can use, but I don’t want one.” nine of which were really written. We had four or five got to a club and they didn’t get it, they’d be like, that were really just an idea. A few of them ended up LC: Even with the Tascam 388, there’s “Why?” Like fuck it, “We’re playing on the floor, on the record, kind of like jams. I love writing in the maintenance involved. bringing in our own mic stands and setting up I would put that thing standing up in the back of my studio. That’s why we do ten days, instead of five. It everything. You’re [point is] moot. You’re null. Go Volkswagen Beetle all the time and drive to San would be nice to have a month, if I didn’t think it have a beer.” We’d have total freedom to do whatever Francisco. As far as machines go, that thing still  would kill Woodhouse! we wanted. But, on the other hand, that’s the PA at works. We bring it to clubs. practice too. It’s nice to set up on stage and have LC: Someone’s going to break.  JB:: You  JB You di did d tha thatt ser serie iess of of liv live e rec recor ordi ding ngss You’ve ’ve got gotten ten aw away ay fro from m the PA everything sound like it did at practice, how I wrote  JB: You with that, right? [ Live in San it, and what we’re familiar with. Everybody can hear. thing exclusively in the studio on Francisco Series] the vocals now? We have two PAs on either side of the stage, so my Yep.. They sounded fucking great Yep great too. It’s all on the 388. bass player can hear me singing. The other end of  34/Tape

Op#117/ Mr.

Dwyer/(continued on page 36)

 A W  e i  ir   d  d r  r      E  d ry     e r  y xi  x  r as  i t  t  s     a n  s s  e     b o  e nd      A a  d oa     r  a rd    f r  n O d  dd     E  d  r o  om     t  d m nt  n  he  h     t  r     a  r e an     c  n ce    s  e    s

L P  Ps  s   

I usually hate that shit. In my opinion, the way a drum set should sound is not as if you were sitting behind it, but as if you were standing ten feet in front of it. It would be in this atmosphere, but Woodhouse would always do this thing. That was a super big point of contention. I’d say, “Don’t do that! Now you have to remix it because you did that thing! I fucking hate it.” I don’t want the record to be from the point of view of the goddamn drummer. But this time he did it, and when I heard it I thought it sounded pretty cool. It’s because we have two drummers, though. When you have one drummer, it’s different.

 JB:: So  JB So the the sn snar ares es we were re pa pann nned ed ou outt too too?? No, the snares snares were on the appropriate appropriate sides. sides. Overheads and snares [panned] out, toms opposing, and whatever kick we picked was dead center, so it sounded as if it was one big kick. It worked really well. well.

LC: What’s it called?  A We Weird ird Exi Exits ts, and then there’s a companion coming out called  An Odd Entran Entrances ces. The rest of the session is going to come out on that. We did two records while we were in there. We recorded quite a bit. You’ll hear a lot of variety.

We do both. The PA is disgusting sounding. There’s no good way to mic a PA speaker. Woodhouse is like, “Maybe if I diagonally point it at the horn we’ll  get a little bit of woofer.” You have to EQ the shit out of everything anyway.

keep fucking up!” Woodhouse is like, “Let’s do a dry run.” I’m like, “Fucking record it. They’ll fuck it up the second you tell them you’re recording.” We use a lot of first takes, because they nail it right out of the gate. Then they’ll try to compensate later and fuck it up.

 JB: That That two two dru drumm mmer er app appro roac ach h you you did did  JB:: I took  JB took this this pho photo to of of John John and and Chr Chris is’’  JB: sounded really cool on the new record. dry-erase board during the last It’s been great. People love it. They’re both great sessions. Yeah, that’s a great system. I love that dry-erase board, man.

LC: That’s everything, all the overdubs? That’s as we’re writing. “Claps would sound good on this!”

LC: I’ve seen a lot of these kinds of boards, but that’s a dense one. That’s not even dense, compared to some we had in the past. We had paper hanging off of it with more shit.

 JB:: Obvi  JB Obviou ousl slyy you you coul could d star startt and and fini finish sh a record completely on your 8-track, all by yourself. I’m at the point now where I’ve learned so much by doing it, for so many years, that this next record I’m ready to do it all by myself.

 JB:: The  JB The ne next xt Oh Se Sees es re reco cord rd?? At home, with me doing this by myself, or bringing in a drummer, it’s really easy. When you get four or five people, it’s nice to have an engineer to herd the cats. With Thee Oh Sees, it’s such a big band, with so much shit, and so much volume. I like having the engineer there to help slightly produce, but also be the person who can say, “Do it again.” It’s nice to have that fifth element to help guide, and push buttons, and know what they’re doing. I don’t want to have to be like, “Oh, the tape machine’s not working! Let me go put my guitar down.” That kills the momentum, having to deal with the studio, on top of recording a live record. They get red light syndrome. The drummer’s like, “I 36/Tape

Op#117/ Mr.

LC: You spend a lot of time on the road, as well as putting out a lot of records. I feel like if you’re fucking good, or you do it long enough, people will notice. I’m on the road all the time, and it’s pretty rare that I see a band that blows my mind that people haven’t already heard of. The way the world works now, with the internet and all  that shit, in the underground, if there’s good music, people know about it. Like that band Sheer Mag are doing really well right now. They’re a fucking good live band; the reason that people like them is they’re fucking good on stage, and they write good pop songs. The word spreads now. now. You don’t really need a label anymore to get out there.

drummers [Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon], and I’ve been watching them both get better. One’s a guy who practices every day, and the other guy is a punk drummer. I wanted a real straight guy who could learn a couple cruddy beats. He’s starting to come up  JB:: Wi With th Ca Cast stle le Fa Face ce Re Reco cord rds, s, it it’s ’s yo you u an and d with innovative parts, even now. They had to learn  JB Matt Jones? the old set. They played on all my old drummer’s Yeah, Matt’s my partner. We did an S Corp this year. songs, so those are them playing in unison, We’re getting murdered with taxes as a small  synchronized. Now they’re starting to do syncopation business. Profit was going out the door. and playing separate shit. And there’s a lot more that  JB: You guy guyss can pay your yourselv selves es we’re writing. This record has a lot more of that. If  dividends. you listen to the fills, they’re going back and forth. I’m on a salary now, and we both have healthcare You can’t really tell when you’re looking at it, but through the label, which is really nice. I’ve never had when you listen to it in hard stereo pan, they’re that in my life. playing completely different shit that fits together. They do a lot where the bass drums will be going off  LC: You can pay all that pre-taxes. It all comes out of our salary we make every month. of each other. With Thee Oh Sees, Ty [Segall], and White Fence,  JB:: Ho  JB How w di did d yo you u en end d up pa pann nnin ing g it al alll on we have a few records that sell really well. We have the record? You put the toms left and others that sell okay, and then we have ones that right, right? don’t make any money. He [Matt] was trying to Woodhouse did that trick, which was nice. He was explain to me how finances work. “Well, we sold going for the one big drum set aesthetic, with the $130,000 worth of records and all the other bands overheads, the kicks, and the snares. We ended up lost $140,000.” This year we’re starting publishing, using one kick on each song, because it’s the one doing books, and more, too, so we’ll see. It’s a thing that’s going to be most off with two drummers, labor of love. because they can’t really hear them. The kick will be up the middle, and overheads and snares are panned. The toms from those kits would go to opposing sides, so when they’d roll, it would [go back and forth].

Dwyer/(continued on page 38)

 JB:: You have  JB have your your phot photo o book, book, Vinegar Mirror. You didn’t self-publish that though.

adamant and opinionated. Now a lot of bands have this great set of songs and will actually let me and Matt pick out what we want, put together the order of the record, get it mastered, and everything. A lot of people want to write and record. We did that with Zig Zags. We helped put together the order of their record. POW! has sent us all their shit; we [still] need to go through and cherry pick all the songs we really like. As far as recording goes, not too much. If something sounds good, I’m happy with it. I wish we could use JJ Golden for mastering everything. I started using Golden for Thee Oh Sees, and fuck man, it sounds so good going to wax. He doesn’t leave an essence of himself in the master. Somehow, really delicately and tastefully, he’s made it sound better. The real gift of that guy, more than any other mastering person I’ve ever worked with, is he has this intuition of what it will sound like going to vinyl, so it’s perfect. JJ just gave me something and it came back on record sounding exactly like what I had sent. It’s like frequency-perfect for going to wax. That’s a big deal, because a record can sound like shit if it’s too loud going to the master.

 JB:: Do  JB Does es th the e vi viny nyll re reco cord rd st stil illl fe feel el li like ke th the e final, ultimate format for you? Yeah. I don’t give a shit about CDs. We do CDs, but I like an LP with a digital download. I feel like that hits every base. It has the big format, with nice artwork. We have handpicked visual artists we like to work with. We do a lot of releases with no text on the cover, so when you rip off the plastic [shrink wrap] it doesn’t say the band’s name. The cover is a piece of art. That makes all the difference, holding that in your hands. I love records.

 JB: Do yo  JB: you u guys guys sti still ll sel selll a fai fairr amou amount nt of of  viny  vi nyl? l?

 John and Buddy @ the  A

Weird Exits

That wasn’t me. I’m doing a poster book this year – 80 pages, all the way back to 1995, with posters I’ve been making since Providence [Rhode Island, John’s hometown]. I wrote an intro for it. There’re a lot of drug stories. It’ll be funny.

 JB:: Do  JB Do you you gu guys ys hav have e any any em empl ploy oyee ees, s, or or is it just you and Matt?

The Dock

and An

in Sacto, CA. during 

Odd Entrances

sessions

He does a band called Male Gaze. He used to be in Blasted Canyons.

 JB:: So  JB Some me of th that at Ma Male le Ga Gaze ze mu musi sicc so soun unde ded d really cool. It is; it’s strange. I like the really poppy stuff. They had some heavy shit, but I’m more of a fan of the English ‘80s pop. He’s got a great voice too, like this Bryan Ferry/Scott Walker – like reaching for it all the time. Singing in a way I’d never sing!

It’s me and Matt. In fact, I beg him to get an employee every now and then, because he gets buried, especially when we do a big release. But he’s a workaholic. He  JB  JB:: So ho how w much much do yo you u get invol involve ved d in does all the shit I was never able to do, nor would I be be the recording of the projects on the able to do. I’m really good at selecting, putting it label, besides your own, obviously? together, and orchestrating projects. And then says, Not at all. Really, it depends. Sometimes a band will give “I’m going to make this happen.” us a batch of songs and it’s like, “I don’t know what the fuck I want to do.” I think that’s insane. When I was a  JB:: Wh  JB What at’s ’s hi hiss pr proj ojec ectt th that at he wa wass wo work rkin ing g kid I’d be like, “This is the record,” and I was really on recently? 38/Tape

Op#117/ Mr.

Dwyer/(continued on page 40)

Dude, vinyl’s killing it right now. That’s what we make all our money on. The way our label works is different different than most, where we don’t own anything. The reason I started the label, with Brian Lee Hughes back in the day, is because every deal I looked at was terrible. The record industry was going down the toilet, and these boilerplate contracts were like, “We own the masters for the record ‘in perpetuity.’” I’d be like, “You didn’t write any of these songs. What the fuck? You’re just paying to facilitate the pressing of the record and promoting it, basically.” Which I could do. I got screwed by a label because they had eight partners and one of them pulled out at the last minute, so we couldn’t do the record. I put out [Thee Oh Sees’] Sucks Blood on our own imprint, and never looked back. It’s really nice to have control of everything. When a band comes to us… let’s use Ty [Segall] as an example, because he’s doing well. His first record came to us, and they’re like, “What’s the deal?” We said, “There is no deal. It’s a handshake deal. I do your record, we take the expenses out first, and whatever the record makes from there on out is a 50/50 split. If you want to move on, move on. I don’t want to own  yo  your  ur shit. I didn’t want anybody to own my shit.” Now, when I sell a song of mine to a movie or something, I get to keep all that money for the band. Half of it doesn’t go to a label. I understand the concept of a label owning half and wanting their taste, but 50 percent of royalties I think is fucking absurd, outside of the concrete product. We take half the money from the sales, but we don’t really keep their digital.

 JB:: You  JB You le lett the the ba band ndss do do the their ir ow own n dig digit ital al?? We have license people we use that they can work with, and they’d give them a percentage, but we don’t take any cut of  licensing. I feel like that’s bands’ money. That facilitates people doing what I’ve done, which is to not have to fucking work and continue making music. It’s a big deal. I like to think of us as a band’s label. Everybody gets paid, and we have really transparent accounting. I just went through it with a label who owned a bunch of my shit and never paid me. I said, “I want to repress this, and I’ll buy your backstock.” They’re like, “No.” I’m like, “Cool, here’s my lawyer. He’ll talk to you.” He said, “Yeah, you never paid him, or gave him any accounting.” I’m like, “Yeah, I’m taking everything back now. You can sue me if you want. You never paid me. The contract’s null and void.”

 JB:: So  JB So you you do don’ n’tt do do iTu iTune nes, s, or Sp Spot otif ify, y, or an any  y  of that? No, we do. We do digital, and we offer the bands options. Like, “Hey, you can work with Terrorbird,” who I pretty much work with exclusively. We’re exclusively with Revolver for distribution, which has been great. With digital we use Revolver, but we offer them a really simple deal. Most labels do a 10-year [contract]. That’s the one I always had to sign back then when I was a kid, and they take half the money. We do a 5-year contract, with 30 percent of the money, so it’s a little tastier. After 5 years, they can either renew it or move on and do it themselves. The thing about digital that a lot of people don’t realize is you can fucking do it yourself. As a band, you can sign on to The Orchard and sell your own shit. It won’t get that push that labels spend money on, like putting it at the front of iTunes. Labels should start accommodating bands, but the precedent that’s been set is, “We own you.” I’ve even worked with labels that I’ve never signed anything with, and I’d get a commercial deal for Volkswagen. All of a sudden, it was, “We’ll give you five grand to use a bit of your tune.” I’d say, “Okay, I need money. Sure.” Sure.” Then the label would be like, “We get half that.” I’d say, “No, you don’t. I own the masters. You definitely fucking don’t  own shit. Dude, where did I sign any contract?” Now, if  something goes wrong, it’s either my fault or Matt’s fault. It’s very easy. I don’t want it to be some guy on the outside.

LC: How do you approach recording budgets for your own projects, with the label and everything? Well, Thee Oh Sees is a little different than other bands on the label. We don’t usually pay recording budgets, except for records that we know will sell. I feel like we’re a steppingstone label. Like inevitably Ty moved on to bigger labels that wanted to throw more money at him. We’re like a mom and pop store. A lot of bands that approach us already have their recordings they did with a friend, or whatever. But we paid for POW! to record. Or Jack Name. I love his shit, so we’ll pay his rent for a couple months so he can record. With Thee Oh Sees, I make the label pay for it because I’m half partner in it.

 JB:: It’  JB It’ss a be bett tter er ta tax x wri write te-o -off ff.. That way it doesn’t have to come out of my pocket, and I don’t have to figure out who in the band owes me what. The label gets that money back first, and then we get paid. It’s nice and easy. r Thanks to Tom Der for extra questions for this interview.

40/Tape

Op#117/ Mr.

Dwyer/(Fin.)

I’ve been a devoted studio rat for years, but I’ve also toured doing live sound and, increasingly, I’ve found myself working in postproduction audio. For me, all of those experiences inform the other. Tape Op may focus solely on studio recording; but, for a long time, I’ve wanted to bend the rules and write about how tools and techniques from the “other” audio disciplines can be useful in the studio.

Please allow me to present my   friend, the 31-band graphic EQ. One distinct problem of live sound engineering, one that is rarely encountered in the studio, are resonant squeals when a particular frequency feeds back from the repro transducers transducers (PA and monitor speakers) into an input transducer (microphone). The origin of the problem is this: front of house and monitor engineers are tasked with providing crushing volumes to the audience via the PA, and mind-bending volumes to the band members onstage through their monitor wedges. Not every band/situation requires huge volume, of course; but even “quiet” performers often require massive amounts of gain, so we’re always operating at the edge of  what physics will allow. Because you’re amplifying something that’s happening in a room, and sending that amplified signal back into the air of that same room in real time, the circuit you’re manipulating includes includes not just the electrical elements, elements, but also the physical space: the building, the audience audience,, the shape of a singer’s face, a hat worn by the singer, the temperature, the humidity of  the air, and so on. The time-honored tool that every live sound engineer uses every day to combat feedback is a piece of gear which is a comparative novelty in studios: the aforemen aforementioned tioned 31band graphic EQ. The frequencies of the 31 bands are standardized. They divide the range of human hearing into 1/3 of an octave, and any live sound engineer can recite them by heart (20 Hz, 31.5 Hz, 50 Hz, 63 Hz, 80 Hz, 100 Hz, 120 Hz, 163 Hz, 200 Hz…). In order to eliminate feedback quickly – like in less than one measure of a song – a live sound engineer needs to be able to identify specific frequencies by ear, and very quickly. Fortunately, the 31 bands offer a set of forced approximations. With experience, you can learn to hear approximately what frequency is feeding back, and only having 31 choices actually helps.

  n   a    l    l   u    M   n   o   r   a    A   y    b 42/Tape

Op#117/ Learning

Frequencies/

I was in the room recently when someone else was mixing a standup comedy show for television. The performer’s mic onstage had a ring to it, which nobody else seemed to notice. When my opinion of the mix was asked, I questioned if anyone else could hear the 800 Hz ring. Now the engineer at the desk could hear it. He was able to find the ringing with a frequency analyzer; it was 831 Hz. Pretty close! A light patter of applause was the reward for my successful parlor trick. (Pro tip: you can hedge your bets with the old palm-reader trick of asking questions instead of  making statements. That way you’re right, either way. “That’s not  2.5 kHz ringing is it? No? I didn’t think so.”) Beyond parlor tricks, the studio applications of being able to hear specific frequencies frequencies are as handy as being able to hear if an instrument is in tune. Because graphics are used 99% of the time as a frequency cut to reduce problems, putting on your “graphic ears” allows you to hear which frequencies need to be reduced. I find this can be complimentary to my “studio ears,” which are more likely to want to boost. The good news is you can learn “graphic ears” quickly. In terms of motivation, there’s no real  substitute for the abject fear of being berated on mic by a lead singer – in front of an audience – if their monitors start feeding back. But you can learn a lot in a less stressful environment, if  you’re willing to put in an hour of work. Set yourself up with a Shure SM58 (or similar mic), a set of  speakers, and put a graphic EQ in t he chain. Turn yourself up and talk into the mic. Turn it up until you start to feed back. Now find the right frequency to cut to get rid of the feedback. (Hint: sometimes the most prominent squeal is actually the first or second overtone of the frequency you need to cut). When the feedback is gone, turn it up more. Good monitor engineers can get a pair of wedges up to 106 dB, sounding good, with no feedback. Your goal is to get your own speaking voice to at least 100 dB. That’s the whole game. 100 dB is pretty loud, hopefully more than twice as loud as you usually monitor your mixes. But you need to be at this volume to do the next part. Now that you’re on the verge of feedback, keep talking into the mic and turn up each band until you get it to start ringing. Don’t worry too much about the far ends of the scale: 20 Hz, 31.5 Hz, 15 kHz, 16.3 kHz, and 20 kHz. Aft er you’ve heard each frequency, frequency, it’s time to go into blind test mode. Close your eyes and turn up a frequency,, and then try to name the resonant squeal. Better yet, frequency team up with a friend. This makes a great drinking game! Hopefully this exercise can help you develop a different way of  thinking about frequencies and what sort of corrective EQ you might want to apply in the studio. r

  n  d     a  a  ,    ”   c   e   c    i   d   s    e    t   u   a   n   m    a   g  r   s  e   o   r   u    b    i   t   f  o F l o o d   a    t   e (aka Mark   n   ’   a    k    o    a    D    t    “   n   ’   t Ellis) could be   d  o called one of the most

mysterious record producers working in the business by name alone, not to mention that most special way his ears hear music, and the extraordinary gift with which he translates that sound onto record. From revolutionizing U2’s sonic landscape at the dawn of the 1990s by credibly delivering them into the electronic dimension with the 20-million selling album  Achtu  Ac htung ng Ba Baby  by , to the way he and fellow visionary Trent Reznor developed the sub-genre he’d invented throughout groundbreaking albums like Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, Flood has been convincing bands to take artistic risks for decades, risks that often have turned out to be leaps in musical time. “1979,” one of Smashing Pumpkins’ most progressive hits, is one such sonic journey, as is Depeche Mode’s futuristic-sounding Violator . They remai remain n among among so many many other trail-blazing moments in his storied catalog. His co-pilot behind the boards for over 30 years, engineer Alan Moulder, a translator of sorts for Flood, who has remained an invaluable partner in his recordmaking process for both soundmen’s entire careers, joins us here.

i   n  t    e  r   v    i   e  w    b   y    J   a  k    e  B    r   o  w    n  

I wanted to start off by going back in time to when you and Alan Moulder first founded a production partnership, one that hasn’t had a break in over 30 years. What has made you two work so well together, over so much time and through so many classic albums and hits?

you can’t communicate with the music. So often a lot of  bands aren’t technically trained, or if they are technically trained you see how frustrating it can be when you’re very technically-minded. You can’t see, “Oh, maybe it’s something deceiving my ears, but there has to be a different reason for it.” That’s what I specialize in. Because I’m really not a musician, it’s just what I hear in my head. Most of the people I work with are like, “Oh, yeah; I hear that too,” or, “I hear a bigger or better version of it.” So I think you have to have some musicality, or some sense of it, in order to respond to people in a band.

performance. It’s not a sterile entity where they shut their eyes and disappear. I realized early on, when I did a remix of “Rock N’ Roll Nigger” by the Patti Smith Group for Natural Born Killers, that trying to eliminate spill, you get rid of the sonic glue. But if you’re careful  about what you put through the speakers, the spill  acts as a real excitement in the track. Obviously you don’t want the tambourine, or things that are questionable when blaringly loud. But if you use it sensibly, and position the speakers in a certain way, and make sure that you don’t get loads of feedback, it can usually add to the track.

Flood: Alan and I have worked together, and been friends, since ’83 or ‘84, and we worked a lot in the same studio starting out as engineers. He’s one of the best people you could end up trusting as a really good  Achtung tung  Yo U2’ss grou groundbr ndbreak eaking ing  Ach  You u an and d Tr Tren entt Re Rezn znor or wo won n a Gr Gram ammy my fo forr friend, but also professionally he’s highly consistent.  With U2’ Baby  , you produced arguably one of your work together on “Wish.” As We’ve always worked really, really well together. the most successful gambles a with so many of your productions, no Alan: We both have the same sensibility about what mainstream rock band ever took in one else at the time was doing what we want from a record. We both want excitement shifting their sound into new sonic you two were doing in the studio and passion; and the same things get us excited, so territory. How important was the together, especially rhythmically. we work very well together that way. Also, we’re free headspace you put the band in,  What  Wh at he heav avyy ma mach chin iner eryy di did d yo you u an and d to argue without fear of anything being personal. We heading into that experiment? Reznor break out in the Broken/  always know if we’re arguing, it’s a creative F: The main thing was that the band felt at ease ease, , Downward Spiral era? argument. We actually enjoy arguing because it’s comfortable, and felt in a creative space. That will  F: I was locked in in a world of industrial industrial music music at that more like you understand what the other person’s always generate a different type of sound. When time. As I recall, the way that I worked, I would have hearing, and it makes you hear the song in another you’re recording, it’s about the emotional response probably used the Alesis SR-16, as much as a trigger way you might not have h ave thought of. We’re free to say and the chemistry between the people. You can’t unit as anything else. A lot of what I was doing in what we think without having to worry about each duplicate what’s come before. Time immemorial said those days was setting up loaded loops or beats other’s feelings, because we know nothing we say is that. You can have one amazing album, or one within the [Akai] S1000 or S1100, and then using the meant to hurt that person’s feelings. It’s purely the amazing painting, but it doesn’t mean to say that the SR-16 to trigger them. Sometimes to replace the basic creative war, if you like. next one’s going to follow. sounds, and sometimes as a trigger, because I liked F: It’s like, like, neither of us really really takes the lead with one  When en yo you’ u’re re tra track ckin ing g voc vocal als, s, say say wi with th a the groove of the SR-16. thing or the other. Alan tends to do more of the  Wh singer of Bono’s range for instance,  Yo  You’ u’ve ve reco record rded ed so many many amaz amazin ing g rock rock mixing, and I tend to do more of the recording. But how do you like to design the bands across the stylistic spectrum the best thing is that we’re completely honest, and placement of players in the studio throughout your career, from Nick the arguments the two of us have are phenomenal. while you’re recording? Cave & the Bad Seeds, The Smashing It’s a totally positive thing, because you can speak F: I tend to lik like e having the vo vocalist calist be in the control  Pumpkins, The Killers, 30 Seconds to your mind and argue your point while being respectful  room with me, for a lot of different reasons: 1) First Mars, to The Charlatans, and on. of the other person, because they may well be right. and foremost is for communication. If you’ve got the  What is one thin thing g you’ you’ve ve fou found nd You’ve got to be in a position where you can both person right next to you, it becomes unsaid. 2) For a common to recording all of them? trust each other and be respectful of that. performer, most singers prefer to feel as though F: One person cannot cannot take credit, credit, and I’m very much much a A: I think we basically enhance each other, other, in terms of  they’re doing it live. A lot of times I use a single, person who feels that you should try to capture the we know what each other means. A lot of the time it’s handheld [Shure SM]58 because it frees them up. If  essence of people playing together. It’s that funny; we don’t even have to talk. We can just look they can hear themselves coming out of the speakers, collaboration; that’s what’s brilliant about music. and know what each other means. It’s almost like a generally, their pitching is much, much better. When Capturing human beings reacting, working together, secret language going on, because it only takes a they’ve got headphones on, they’ve got the sound of  and providing an emotional response – you hope that little glance and we know, “Well, that’s not the voice in their head and the vibe coming back you can capture that, which I think you can. It’s happening” or, “That’s good.” through their ears. You have to have the voice so almost a gift and privilege to be part of a creative Flood, you’ve got a unique pedigree as loud, or with such an extreme effect on it, in order for group of people who make great works. If you can find a producer who’s also a musician. the singer to hear it. Often you find there are tuning a way to learn something new, and to have people How does being able to relate to both issues. That’s another reason why I would do it. It’s you work with and respect push you in differen differentt ways, sides of the board make you better in all about the performance. With the advent of Pro that’s an amazing experience. For me, it’s not about your craft? Tools, you can go through and fix bits and technical  one single person; it’s about the group of people. F: I suppose calling myself myself a musician musician is probably a very things, but, generally, if it’s not about the Everybody is vitally important to the whole process – bad term. I would say the reason I became a producer performance, why bother? even though they might not do as much physical  is because I was probably the world’s worst guitar labor. I always hope that I can capture that energy in  You’  Yo u’ve ve lon long g had ha d a gift fo for r chan ch anne neli ling ng player. I’ve never had a formal lesson in my life. I a really positive way, rather than in a negative way. the power of an artist’s rage on tape, suppose I’ve just trusted my instinct of what I hear, and from Trent Reznor famously  That’s the beauty of making music; that’s exactly what then applied it in a way that if I’d had the formal  screaming, “I want to fuck you like you can do. You can capture the sound of four people training, I wouldn’t necessarily do. A lot of the decisions an animal!” to Billy Corgan’s [ Tape Op who are just out of this world. It’s living proof that it come from the phonics. I feel, really, that you’ve got to can change people’s lives. When you’re making #115] roaring chorus on “Bullet with have some musicality in order to be a producer. Unless records, it doesn’t matter if it’s a double album, a Butterfly Wings.” you’re one of these people who come in and it’s more F: In the studio, th the e singer is doi doing ng a performa performance nce in triple album, or an EP. I feel you have to let songs about arranging the people and getting the right beat, front of a group of people, which is me, the engineer, have their natural life. People will start to play things in the right place, at the right time. Otherwise I think and the assistant. But even if it’s just for me, it’s a and it will start to fall into its own space. it’s not fair on the people that you’re working with that Flood/(continued on page 46)/ Tape Tape

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 You  Yo u prod produc uced ed an an amaz amazin ing g coll collec ecti tion on of of music with both Billy Corgan and Trent Reznor. How did working within that co-producer dynamic differ from a collaboration where you’re pretty much running things from behind the boards?

there and just do it. For me, mixing should really be an and I both came up in the same school, so if we found extension of the recording process. It should be that something we liked, we’d commit to it, because you never you’re able to get a simple balance, and you’ve got the know if you’re going to be able to get it back. essence of what’s going on. Then you have somebody like Do you ever know ahead of time in the Alan, who’s a master of the mixing process. He basically studio that you’re onto something sends it out into the stratosphere. special in the “hit” category? Does that A: Back when we were cutting on tape, we didn’t have a make you treat the production any  choice. We had to commit, because we only had 46 tracks differently from the other songs on F: I take pleasure being in a highly creative creative situation, which and a lot of guitars going on there, between 15 and 18, the album? is the same with most of the bands I work wor k with. They push so we had to make commitments and choices. But we had F: I’ve had this view for years that you should never label  label  me, I push myself, and they’re open to hearing new ways enough to be flexible. We would each have a mic at the a song as being a single. The moment that that of doing the same old thing; then they manage to desk, so it was mainly in how we recorded the sounds. The happens, it attaches itself as weight and baggage. translate it into playing it as a band. That’s all you can EQs and compression were all committed to tape. Flood Everybody tries too hard, and there’s a pressure on the want: to be open, do something that you feel proud of  that is a representation of you as a person.

Making records can be a frustrating at times. Have you had to put on your proverbial “psychologist” hat over the years? I assume you’ve used that frustration to your benefit, from time to time? F: I use that frustration frustration to benefit benefit the music music al alll the time. [laughs] All the time! That’s the nature of the job, but it’s incredibly difficult because those frustrations will  work positively – because everybody’s open-minded open-minded and there’ll be an outburst, or somebody disagrees with something – and then that will lead to something else, and then it’s all forgotten.

 What ar  What are e so some me of th the e gr grea eate test st wa ways ys Pro Tools plays into your recordmaking process? F: I’ve spent so many years working with different bands and effectively doing guerilla recording with the bare essentials. That sort of thing becomes relatively easy to set up if you’ve got the right room and the right vibe. Essentially you’re mic’ing a live gig, and you better cover your bases in case somebody screws up, or you don’t like something. Now you can take it out and fix it much more easily. When Pro Tools first came out, I’d been working with Trent. I was very, very used to working with whole songs based in Pro Tools and committing them to tape.

  l  e  e   n   f  o   ”   u   t  i o  o  .   y   a   t   n   t  e   n   r s  o   a   s   h  s   t  e    e e   r   p  g    p   n   i    e e  s  a   r   h   t   a   a  e    s s   u   i   m  o  o   a  t   y  s   f   h  o  o   t   f   “  D  o  d   u  o  o   r   p

 You  Yo u an and d Al Alan an ha have ve gi give ven n ro rock ck ‘n ‘n’’ ro roll ll some of its most sonically mindblowing mixes over the years. How  conscious do you stay during recording of decisions you’re going to be making later in the mix arena? F: I think because I grew up using tape, it means I have to make decisions – from arrangement to instrumentation, and even decisions about balance. [On tape] for some songs it’s impossible to have the drums over 15 tracks, so you suddenly make a decision, “Well, we’ll just have it on two tracks.” If you don’t like the sound after a few weeks, you change it. It’s such a vibe type of thing, because it’s all about the song and a feeling. It’s like, “How do I get that feeling from the balance of the instruments that serves the song?” If you’ve got a whole album that’s based on “we’ll fix it in the mix,” to me that’s the kiss of  death. To leave everything to chance by waiting until the end just seems like total madness to me. You’ve got a group of the most amazing musicians in the world, so have some balls and make decisions. Then, if you make the decisions, that creates momentum and creativity. People react to what they’re hearing. You’ve got to be 46/Tape

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on page 48)

photo by Mike Banks

song to deliver. Quite often it can never live up to that, or it ends up as a compromise, because everybody’s piddle-paddling around trying to make it the greatest thing since sliced bread. When you try to make something sound good for the radio, you’ll end up making it sound like garbage… or worse.

Every producer I’ve talked to through the years has a great lastminute rush story about finishing up a record they almost didn’t get delivered to the label on time. A: With the Smashing Smashing Pumpkins’ “Toni “Tonight, ght, Tonight” Tonight” I remember remember the mix on that was really, really, really difficult. I think we had gone through the night, and we had to hold the door shut to stop Bobby Brown from getting in so we could finish it off!

 Anyy fa  An favo vori rite tess se sess ssio ions ns or al albu bums ms yo you’ u’d d hi high ghli ligh ght, t, lo look okin ing g ba back ck?? A: Smashin Smashingg Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, and The Cure were my three babies. I’ve been very, very fortunate to have more than one. F: I think the thing you have to concentrate on is being proud of managing managing to get something through the door that stands the test of time.

 Any cl  Any clos osin ing g ad advi vice ce for the the be begi ginn nner erss re read adin ing g th this is who who wa want nt to become producers in their own right? F: Try not to second-guess yourself, yourself, because that’s the worst thing you can do.

 What’s  What ’s it li like ke to kn know ow yo you u ha have ve a fa fanb nbas ase, e, th the e sa same me wa wayy the the ar arti tist stss you produce do? What is it like to know you’ve been an influence on others? F: It’s nice to hear. I was talking to Johnny Marr once, and and we were talking about songs as a producer or performer that he’d released. One in particular I felt was a brilliant song but that the production wasn’t very good. He said, “You know what? That song changed my son’s life. He listened to that song religiously.” That’s the power of music; don’t abuse it and don’t take it for granted. If one person in the world is served or changed, then you’ve done your job. So it’s brilliant to hear that doing what I love doing is translating and helping people have a different way of looking at life. I try to learn something new, and I try to do something different every day. We’ve only got one life, and I feel very humble because I’m just a bloke from the suburbs. r  Award-wi  Award -winni nning ng aut author hor Jak Jakee Brown Brown has wri writte tten n 43 boo books ks cov coveri ering ng the the wor world ld of of musi music. c.

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Op#117/ Flood/(Fin.)

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g n a p S s s o Ma t  tt R  HE P AS T  T H G U O R  H  T E R  FU TU E YEING THE

b y Larr y Crane thing he was doing, and he told me I should come  You u we were re excit excited ed about about studi studios os from from a How does a Memphis-born teen become an  Yo back and intern sometime. I loved playing guitar, but intern, and eventually chief engineer, at Sun pretty young age? Studio? How does the same guy go on to Yeah, I got to record at Sun when I was 14. I got a 2I always knew, deep down, that I’d never be a  gre  great  at  record Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Chris Isaak, guitar player – I just like being a good rhythm guy. hour gift certificate for my birthday! Me and a friend and  d  Kris Drive By Truckers, the Rival Sons, an But when I started interning, I knew pretty quickly had a little duo; we never played out live or anything. Kristofferson, as well as win a Grammy? And that that’s what I wanted to do the rest of my life. The goal was to just get into a studio. That was the how the heck did he follow in Sam Phillips’ I’ve always felt really lucky to have been that young dream. The session started at six o’clock at night. The legendary footsteps to end up recording at Sam and figured it out! So I started out as an intern and engineer was James Lott, who I would later intern Phillips Recording Service and mixing Elvis tour guide when I was 16 and could drive. and assist. He was just a character. He treated us like records? How did he end up working on  Yo  You u wer were e one one of th the e tou tourr gui guide des? s? we deserved to be there, which we didn’t! When he amazing upcoming releases, including albums started mixing on the big console, I became Well, I started out as a tour guide and also became the by Emily Barker, Sean Rowe, Patrick Sweany, studio intern a few months later when the other and Margo Price’s follow up to Midwest  transfixed. He was making it sound like something! I assistant left. My cousin, Johnny, ran the business Farmer’s Daughter . We find out below. started bugging him and asking about every little

updating his gear as well. Sun Studio reopened in the ‘80s – it had been empty for about 20 years. They had a lot of ‘80s kinds of equipment; like an ‘80s home studio with a really big Soundcraft board. We used Cakewalk Audio instead of Sonar. There was a big 2inch machine that was basically an ashtray, and not a lot of great mics. But we had a great room. I didn’t know anything about gear when I started. I feel very fortunate to have learned on something like that. I remember the console had so many issues; only 12 channels worked. We just had to work harder. It was probably ten years before I used a [Neumann] U 47 or some of these bigger pieces of gear.

it was a lifelong dream to come to Sun and record. You You have to be really good at calming people down, welcoming them, and being patient. I’d get people from all over the world who couldn’t speak English. They wanted to record, and they wanted to hire session musicians. musician s. They have to work that out, and then try to figure out what they want to do. I think all that really helped me later on; to not have an ego, or not be upset if someone’s not that good. I don’t get upset, because I’ve done the worst there is to do, musically. But as long as they’re happy and having fun, I am too. That’s part of the job at Sun.

I always always figured figured there there were were certai certain n Sun Studio is unique in that during the sessions there that were just for day there are always tours, and then them to take home and say, “I did it. after six are the sessions. How late did I went there.” Yeah, some sessions were like that. The hardest part of  these sessions go? A lot of the time it was by the hour, with a two-hour the gig is when you care more than the client about minimum. Some people would just come in and do their own session. But most of these people came in two hours, but most would go late into the night. I to have a good time. I would try to cater to that, was a manager as well, so I was there most days by while also getting something that sounds good. They 10 a.m., so it could be some long days. The session never forget you either. I would get Christmas cards could finish at midnight, but I was often there until  and notes from some of them, and most would 2 a.m. James was a mentor, hero, boss, and a dad; all  become repeat clients. The music and talent may not these things rolled into one. He’s also a phenomenal  have been incredible every time; but if you are guitar player. I’d just sit there and learn guitar licks helping someone realize a dream, there is no reason from him. He’d tell me stories, and I just soaked it up. to think, or feel, that you are “too good” to do that. I never wanted to leave. I had to go home because I  Wh  When en yo you u di did d so some meth thin ing g th that at wa wass a had high school the next day. My parents would kill  longer booking, how did you work me if I didn’t get home at a certain time, but I with setting up and tearing down? learned so much from him there. Sessions couldn’t We could push things to the side. I would take the start until about 6:30 p.m., and we couldn’t set up microphones down, because there are tourists in beforehand. They could drop equipment off  there every day. Believe it or not, people will steal  sometimes. I really enjoyed part of that. I had culture stuff. When I first started we had [Shure] SM81s. shock going into Nashville and other places. “Wait, About six months in, we no longer had SM81s. I could we’re supposed to set up the day before, and the band leave some of the stands up around the drums. doesn’t come, but we’re supposed to get a Playback is always about what headspace you’re soundcheck somehow?” Or, “The drummer comes at currently in, and it never sounds like it did initially. 10 and the bass player comes at 2?” I loved it at Sun. So the one thing I liked about re-setting up every It’s one room, and we all soundchecked together. I night was that it got me back into the music. I’d needed to hear everybody together. Whether you’re in remove the mics, question what I did, have an idea, a booth or not, you still need to hear how the drums and move them back. The faders were all the same, play off the bass. I enjoyed that, and it made me but I still muted tracks and listened. I don’t know work really fast. I felt like, “They’re paying for this, so how to explain it, but it really helped. Oftentimes I’d we better be cutting by 7:15 or they might be beat the sound the next day, instead of just leaving pissed.” I had to tear down every night. it the same and saying, “No, we had it.”

 Were most  Were most of the the sess sessio ions ns for for fan-b fan-bas ased ed I feel like I could get better every  kind of reasons? session. We’d get a lot of that. Everyone from all over wants to Me too. I always want to experiment and make it better. record at Sun, whether it’s a souvenir or they’re actually Sometimes I feel like when it’s day six of a session,  c Emily Barker making a record. Memphis, in general, general, is the place that t hat or so, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. Sometimes when and asked if I wanted to come work there. Of course people are coming to do the one “funky” track that I’m mixing I’ll hear people say, “I’d like to go do a I jumped at the opportunity! I worked up from tour ends up being the best track on the record. When I shaker.” I almost want to go, “No! I’m set up for guide, to operations manager, and from intern, to became head engineer I left the hourly rate kind of  mixing!” Of course that’s not the answer. It’s, “Of  assistant, to second engineer. I became the main high, because often people just want to do two hours course. Let’s do it.” But sometimes, with tracking, I engineer when James left in 2010. and you can’t get much done in two hours. I tried to feel I’ve committed to this drum sound for two or So the gear that was in there when you make it way cheaper for the day, cheaper for three three songs and I don’t change it. But the other side started was not anything like the days, and way cheaper for the week. I’d rather have of me is like, “Make it better!” I don’t know about original Sun equipment. those people in who are going to spend time and get you, but I go home and think about the session at No. Sam Phillips was only at Sun for nine years. Then he things done right, instead of rushing for two hours. But night. I might have a dream, or wake up and think, left and built Sam Phillips Recording Service, and he it did help me get really fast. We were getting people “What if I put a [Shure] SM7 on that?” took everything with him. Technology changed so of all different talent levels, and coming to a historic Totally. It’s always a little production much from ‘51 to ‘59. They went from direct to disc, place where they’re already nervous. For a lot of them idea or such. to single track, to 3-track. So he was constantly Mr. Ross-Spang/ Tape Op#117/ 51 Tape (continued on page 52)/ 

I did a lot of recordings live to mono, like Sam did. Then lots of projects live to 2-track. I really enjoyed that. I think the band does too, because it puts this extra little bit of pressure on them. To be in there with no headphones, you cut it, we roll it back, play it, and there it is. It’s pretty fun.

 Were  We re yo you u doi doing ng th that at to ta tape pe?? Yeah. I had an Ampex 350, and then we had a Studer A80-RC that I did a lot with. I did a Dale Watson 7inch, in Johnny Cash style, live to 2-track. He met the band that night; they learned the songs, and it was a blast. I also had a 1-inch, 8-track Scully 280 that I later upgraded to a 1-inch, 8-track Studer A800.

 Were yo  Were you u set setti ting ng up pl play ayer erss to to br brin ing g in in on some sessions?

Sun Studios control room under Matt

 c

Sean Faust

A lot of times they would get an upright bass player and/or a drummer, because they’d come from England or somewhere. I’m such a fan of Scotty Moore [Elvis Presley’s guitarist]. I would never call myself a session guitar player, but if you need someone to do “That’s All Right,” or some rockabilly, that’s my one thing that I can do. So it would be fun to hit “record” and go out there and play together.

And when you have to re-set up it’s easier to change it Yeah, a lot of the equipment was in museum cases. There out and say, “Hey, let’s pause the song for a second. were two Ampex 350 [tape decks] on display upstairs. I want to try something.” There’s good and bad to it. There was an RCA 44 and an Altec 639 in the display  What at wa wass you yourr eve event ntua uall pat path h the there re?? I try to t o see the positive in everything. You know there case. I remember remember going through through some of of the old  Wh are things that are negatives to other people in the shelves, cleaning up. There was a drawer with two RCA Well, I’d been there for 11 years. I worked my way up to manager, and I’d been chief engineer there for about studio, like someone may worry that you don’t have 77s, two old Neumann U 87s, an old [AKG] C414 – five years. I loved it at Sun. You don’t have any an SSL or a certain type of Pro Tools. I got good when some crazy cool mics. problems booking Sun. I remember the last whole people called Sun and said, “It’s kind of a bummer These were not things that Sam left year I was there, it was like 330-some odd session that we have to tear down every night.” I would say, behind, correct? days. And, because I was a manager, they were extra“Actually, it’s cool. You get to improve every day.” I Yeah, Sam left in 1959 and took all his gear with him. long days. The time I had off, I went to Canada to got good at selling what some people would call the Sometime in the ‘80s or ‘90s they stopped working, make a record with this band called The Sheepdogs. I negatives about it. and the engineer just never used them again. I asked really love to work. If I’m not in the studio, I kind of  the owners if we could get the RCAs re-ribboned, and  Wass an  Wa anyo yone ne ev ever er lo lock ckin ing g th the e st stud udio io do down wn,, freak out. Everything’s an audition. audition. I got a call out the cables checked. I got them back and we started like to do day after day without tours? of nowhere from this guy named Dave Cobb, a No. We did a T Bone Burnett [ Tape Op #67] produced using those. Then I was like, “Can we pull these producer. He said, “Will you come down to FAME record with John Mellencamp [ No Better Than This]. I Ampexes out?” We started using those. When I Recording Studios and engineer this Anderson East went to the owner and said, “They want to book three became the head engineer, I told them about my idea session for me, for a day?” He gave me a heads-up days. This is the biggest producer, and this is one of the t he of wanting to have the same kind of equipment Sam that FAME, at that time, needed a lot of work. He’d biggest artists.” But it was still, “Well, they still have had, but also having a different kind of setup. I heard from a mutual friend of ours, Mark Neill, that I to start at 6 p.m.” I think Chris Isaak [ Beyond the Sun] showed them Ardent [#58] and some other studios, was a very patient, easygoing engineer. I don’t get was in the wintertime, when it was a little bit slower, because they’re not typical studio owners. They own a flustered, angry, or throw things and shut down. and the owner let us start at 5 p.m. It’s not so bad studio, but they don’t know about recording spaces. though. Who wants to sing or play guitar at 9 a.m.! They own a landmark, and a tourist That’s something you don’t usually 

Hundreds of people go through there! I was watching a tour from the control room today.

attraction.

hear on someone’s list of qualifications. I hear FAME is in better shape now.

Yeah. And when someone sees a 12-foot wide Soundcraft, and then you want to go to a 4-foot wide Neve, to them, now. When I went down there, there, it When I started there, especially in the winter, you’d get they’re like, “You want to do what?” I explained to them Oh, it’s in great shape now. sounded incredible. They’ve got amazing instruments, five or six people a day. Nowadays it’s nonstop, all the that this gear is part of what brings people in, and it microphones, and gear. It was just the console, and time. It’s great to see young people caring about that has a sonic difference. I worked up a budget. I put a lot patchbay, and things like that. Dave called and said he’d music and history. of my own money into the original RCA equipment. I heard a lot of records I’d done and really liked them. I’d said, “If I leave or die, the next guy probably doesn’t The tourists were sitting at the drums met him once before, at my friend Chris Mara’s annual  want to record four mics live to mono.” We ended up and piano, and moving mics around. Welcome to 1979 Recording Summit, briefly. But I met It drove me nuts. I’d take that gear out all the time, build buying a cool little Studer desk and a RADAR studio. I him at FAME, we set up, we got sounds, and about an little walls around the drums with mic stands, keep bought some of the old RCA gear, and we got an hour in he says, “This sounds incredible.” I’m like, “Yeah. the Leslie [speaker] in the corner, and have the B3 lid amalgamation of the two. We got the tape machines It’s FAME. It’s Rick Hall’s [Neumann] U 87. I’m loving it closed. The worst was the piano. It would be tuned working. I can’t say enough good things about the too.” He said, “You want to do the next Jason Isbell  for a session, but the constant flow of 50 or so owners. They believed in my idea and really let me run record [Something More Than Free] with me?” I said, tourists every hour would swing the temperature in with it. I also want to mention that Mark Neill [ Tape Op “Well, yeah!” But, you know. How many times have you the room and the piano would go out of tune before #29] was huge help and ally in helping me with locating heard, “Want to do this record with me?” And then the session started! and operating the period correct equipment! nothing ever happens… Did you start replacing some of the gear  We  Were re yo you u do doin ing g so some me se sess ssio ions ns li live ve to on one e

in the control room? 52/Tape

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track?

Ross-Spang/(continued on page 54)

Oh, I know what you mean!

“You have to make a leap of faith if you care about it.  Alll I wa  Al want nt to do is re reco cord rd an and d pr prod oduc uce. e.” ”

Matt and Patrick Sweany  c Nate Burrell I drove home that night thinking, “That’d be really cool. I didn’t want to be sitting there just trying to recreate I’ve met some engineers where I get the Let’s see if that happens.” He called about two days “the Sam thing.” All of this played into it, and I feeling that this is just a job – a clocklater and said it would be in March, at Sound knew if I didn’t do that Isbell record that I’d regret in, clock-out thing. To me, it’s just Emporium Studios in Nashville. I went to the owners it forever. It was the easiest decision and too important a role to think of it at Sun and said, “This Jason Isbell record is huge. I’ve simultaneously the hardest decision, and I figured that way. got to do it, but I’m going to be gone for a month.” that I had to leave. So I went and told them, “I’m Yeah, I agree. I didn’t want it to feel like that. You have They didn’t want their salaried engineer and manager sorry, but I’ll be leaving in two months. I’m going to to make a leap of faith if you care about it. All I want to be gone for a month, even though I had a do this record.” Everyone thought I was crazy. I did to do is record and produce. replacement lined up. It was a little weird. I went that Isbell record, and this artist I’d co-produced one  Wh  What at kind kind of pl plac aces es did you you work work with with back and said one more time, “It’s a really big deal. year before, Margo Price., her record [ Midwest  Dave Cobb? This will be a big record, and will help bring people Farmer’s Daughter ] came out. It was a good one-two Well, you know, it’s funny. I called Jeff Powell one day, to Sun, believe it or not.” punch.. I went indepen punch independen dent, t, and I only had one and I said, “I have the keys to Sam Phillips record booked. But then Dave Cobb booked me for 20 Right. And Sun’s a nice job, but it’s kind Recording, Sun Studio, and RCA Studio A with me or so more albums. of a cul-de-sac. right now, and that’s a weird feeling.” It’s a really wonderful job, and I put my whole heart into  Yo  You u and and Dave Dave sta start rted ed wor worki king ng tog toget ethe herr “What year is it?” that place. But, for me, recording comes first. The pretty good as a team? Yeah, exactly. I feel very lucky. All these classic studios. artist comes first. At Sun, the studio tours come first. Yeah, we’ve worked very well together! We are both fans of  We also work out of Sound Emporium, House of  So that was always hard to come to terms with. I’d live performance-based recording; we both love to David, FAME, and Dave’s house. Dave’s little studio at been thinking for a while about needing to make a experiment and have fun in the studio. I have really his house is one of the best-sounding rooms out  jump.  jum p. I’d alw always ays be been en kn known own as “th “thee Sun Stu Studi dioo guy guy.” .” enjoyed working with him. He’s just an amazing there! Mark Neill came in and did some adjustments, I wanted to be known as Matt, rather than just the producer/engineer, and I’ve definitely learned a lot from and it’s really quite amazing what it can do. I can’t Sun guy. I wanted to work in other rooms! It’s one how he hears things. A great thing about me going remember the last time I worked on an SSL console, thing to work in the same room, every day, with the independent was I felt like I was getting a little lazy at or in a “modern” room, so to speak. I’ve only been in same microphones. Most could be good at that. But Sun; in the sense that the phone was always going to funky, old studios! Dave and I have probably done 20 I wanted to know if I could be good elsewhere. I ring. There was always going to be bookings. I talked to records in the year or year and a half since the Isbell  wanted to push myself to be better. Sam Phillips said, my close friend Jeff Powell [ Tape Op #95], who went record. But he also uses Vance Powell [ Tape Op #82], “If you’re not doing something different, you’re not independent from Ardent Studios, and there’s something someth ing Darrell Thorp, and Eddie Spear a lot. And I’ve been in doing anything.” to be said about going out there and fighting for gigs. Memphis producing a lot too. We like to work quick, It was one of the best things I ever did. I remember that quote. so we usually do a record in 7 to 12 days. 54/Tape

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Ross-Spang/(continued on page 56)

“The Phillips family still owns the place. They said they   want  wa nted ed to ke keep ep it ju just st a studio, make it right, and do what needed to be done to keep it going.”

How did you and Jeff Powell end up landing at Sam Phillips Recording?

Matt and Jeff Powell during Emily Barker sessions  c Stacie Huckeba here – it’s a really tight-knit group, and very private. It’s like happy hour in this building!

But it’s great too, because I can go to Nashville and Exactly! Exactly! You nailed nailed it. It’s happy hour. hour. It really really is do something at RCA with Dave Cobb. Or I love doing We’re independent, but based out of Phillips. Roland incredible. The Phillips family is here every day. I’ll  projects with Boo Mitchell at Royal Studios – we’ve Janes was the great engineer here. I came to visit be cutting and then Jerry Phillips will come in and done a lot of projects togeth together. er. I like being able to do him a lot and really loved Roland, as did most of the say, “I don’t mean to produce, but what if the Wurli whatever the project needs. If it needs to be done at Memphis music scene. The Phillips family still owns started that song?” I’d go, “Shit, hey, that’s a great Phillips or Royal, we’ll do it there. the place, and I’ve always been close with the Phillips idea!” idea !” Jerry and Halley Halley are great great music fans, fans, and family. When Roland passed away, there was a lull as Running a studio is a lot of work they want to host. When I bring an album in, they’ll  though. A lot of maintaining gear. to what they were going to do. I voiced to Jerry drive down from Alabama and hang out. They Phillips (Sam’s son) and Halley Phillips – who is Luckily I don’t have to deal with too much of that. It’s probably lose money on the hotel rooms, versus enough of a pain trying to keep my gear going! Jerry’s daughter and very much wants to keep on the what the studio’s getting. Is Knox Phillips [Sam’s other son] legacy – that I would want to do some recordings out They don’t live in town? involved? of here. I needed a place to base myself out of and No, but they come in to introduce themselves to the Yeah. Unfortunately, Knox has been really ill lately. He’s put all my gear. Jeff was getting into vinyl cutting, artists, welcome them to the studio, and take them mostly at home, and it kills him that he can’t be here had left Ardent, and needed to put a lathe out to dinner dinner.. I think it’s mind-blowing for the artists every day! somewhere. I didn’t want to be at Phillips if they were to be treated like that, because usually it’s, “We need going to be doing a bunch of tours like Sun. They said I know he was really passionate about to charge you. You drank 20 bottles of water.” Or, “It’s this place when he was younger. they wanted to keep it just a studio, make it right, $10 for a blank CD.” None of that’s here. Halley’s He still is. He calls in all the time. I get these beautiful  and do what needed to be done to keep it going. That starting to produce as well. She’s produced produced about two letters from him on Sam Phillips’ stationary. Knox and meant a lot to me, because you don’t want to go into or three projects now, and has done great. Jerry spent their whole lives keeping the legacy of  Is she engineering as well? a place where they’re not putting the money back Sam and this place alive, and we want to keep it Not yet, but she wants to get into that as well. into the building. You’ve seen it... this place. It going for them. sounds and looks incredible.  What  Wh at se sess ssio ions ns ha have ve ha happ ppen ened ed in th this is

 And d Hal Halle ley’ y’ss rea reall llyy int into o it it too too??  Just  Ju st ar arch chit itec ectu tura rall llyy an and d de desi sign gn-w -wis ise, e,  An Halley’s great! Big-time into it. She has really carried the this is a unique looking studio. Sam made sure it caught your eye. Jeff and I did an initial session here, and we both said, “Man, this place has a sound!” They don’t really have a house engineer, but Jeff and I are based out of here and we bring most of the projects in. It just feels like family 56/Tape

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torch for the legacy and the studio.

It’s visually inspiring to walk around this building. And you never want to leave. It always feels like five o’clock, or something!

Ross-Spang/(continued on page 58)

space now since “moving in?” I’ve been mixing Elvis in here, here, which which is funny. He got tired of recording in Nashville, so he demanded they record him at home. He’d done the record at American [Sound Studio], obviously [ From Elvis in Memphis].So then Felton Jarvis [his producer] bought a bread truck, turned it into a mobile studio, and drove it

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down to Memphis. It promptly broke down in Jackson, Tennessee, so they towed it to Graceland, where it stayed until after Elvis died. We found one picture of the outside, but we’ve been trying to find pictures of the inside inside of the truck. They recorded a bunch of dates in Graceland’s Jungle Room, so I mixed a lot of that. They put out the original  masters, as well as all my mixes of the unreleased music [Way Down in the Jungle Room]. Now they’ve got me mixing some live shows, and rehearsals from the live shows.

Is it pretty wild to hear that vo  voic ice? e? It’s amazing! The studio banter is incredible too, because you hear Elvis completely relaxed in his “element.” He really controlled the sessions musically, as well. He really pushes the band to get the feeling he wants. When I was mixing, they brought the guys down, so James Burton [guitar], Ronnie Tutt [drums], and Norbert Putnam [producer, bassist] were there.

Oh, Tutt’s such a good drummer. He’s like Animal [ The Muppets] on the drums; just endless energy, especially with that double bass drum! Mixing the Elvis tracks has really inspired me with the artists I have been working with lately. Those Elvis records had incredible arrangements, with horns, strings, and The Stamps Quartet that really make choruses huge and the songs feel so cinematic. I really love the impact that they have on his records,

so I’ve been stealing that idea! I just finished a record insertion, it’s quite a lot of cable you’re going with Sean Rowe, whom I’m really excited about. We through. It sounded sounded great. It It would have sounded sounded used a string quartet and Jeff Powell’s wife, Susan really good if we hadn’t done all that too, but we just Marshall with Reba Russell on background vocals. But wanted to get really nerdy. I think that record came I used that just in sections of songs, to make it really out amazing. maximize the heart heart of the song. I also used this trick Is Emily’s record out? with this great artist from Nashville, Patrick Sweany. No. They’re shopping it right now. We’ve done all these, We did his record in five days. This is a whole new  justt in the  jus the past past few few mont months hs.. Jeff Jeff did did some some over overdu dubs bs kind of record for him – it’s like ‘70s country funk. We here for St. Paul & the Broken Bones. I’m doing Margo wanted strings, but not so “classy” sounding. So I Price’s next next record in a couple couple weeks here. here. We’re used this great Memphis string arranger, Sam Shoup, making country records in Memphis, which I love! but had him play all the parts on a mellotron! Emily  Yo  You u tr trac acke ked d he herr fi firs rstt al albu bum m [ Midwest Barker, from England, came and we made this other Farmer’s Daughter] at Sun Studios amazing album. I wanted to do a Burt Bacharach[Tape Op #115]. style, classic sounding record. Jeff Powell engineered They booked two hours on the way home, after South by it. We put all the mic preamps in the live room. I’ve Southwest. I just got this call. “Hey, it’s Margo Price. done this a couple times, where I put the pre in the We want to come record.” I don’t like checking people room – usually for a vocal – run a short cable, and out when they call. I want to be surprised and go off  skip everything else. It just sounds more hi-fi to me. my first impression. I don’t like listening to people’s Jeff and I thought about it one night. Jim Dickinson previous albums, because I hear all these things I feel  [Tape Op #19] talked once about how much crap the like I have to do; which I don’t. They’re coming to me signal goes through, because of the patchbay, the to do something different. I don’t listen to a record console, digital, and so forth. I usually cut everything that’s all Auto-Tuned with really precise drums and to tape first and then dump it; but we put the pres in click tracks, because they’re coming to me, and this the room, ran ten-foot cables to all the mics, and place, for a reason. I’ll second-guess or psych myself  went straight from the back of the pres into the tape out for a minute. They came in and we tracked it to machine. We skipped the patchbay completely. When my 1-inch, 8-track. We just recorded one song during you think about every connection, and every the two hours. We started at 11 o’clock at night,

“I wanted to do a Burt Bacharach-style, classic sounding record. We put all the mic preamps in the live room.  Jim  Ji m Dic Dicki kins nson on ta talk lked ed on once ce ab abou outt how much crap the signal goes through, because of the patchbay, the console, digital, and so forth. We put the pres in the room, ran ten-foot cables to all the mics, and  went  we nt st stra raig ight ht fr from om th the e back of the pres into the tape machine.  We  W e sk skip ippe ped d th the e pa patc tchb hbay  ay  completely. It sounded great.”

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Ross-Spang/(continued on page 60)

playback during the Emily Barker sessions, left to right: Amy Fleming, Wesley Graham, Dave Smith, Matt, & Emily  c Stacie Huckeba

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Matt on bass, Rick Steff on the Wurlitzer  c Stacie Huckeba

She pawned her wedding ring and sold their car to make the record. Later on I told her, “You know, if I’d known all that, we could have done an IOU or something.”

Yeah, the Top-10 Billboard  country charts. She was actually the first solo artist to debut in the top 10 without any history on the Hot Country charts. Margo has an authentic voice that needs to be heard, just as much off stage as on. We knew we made something amazing when we finished. We tracked it in three days, mixed it in three days, and everyone turned it down. Then Jack White [ Tape Op #82] heard it, and [Third Man Records] put it out exactly like it was. I think that it was a perfect fit for her. Both [artists] are just focused on what’s real, and not worried about being tied down to trends. Margo’s record is not trying to sound old; it hopefully sounds timeless, and I think Third Man single-handedly resurrected vinyl.

Like the kick drum doesn’t go tap-tap like a “new” record, but it’s not missing from the mix, like on an old record might sound. Do you know  what I mean? Yeah. The goal was to get it and the bass to feel like one instrument. instrume nt. That’s an old “Elvis” “Elvis” mic [Shure [Shure 55SH], which Mark Neill hipped me to!

 When a re  When reco cord rdin ing g is ju just st re retr tro, o, yo you’ u’re re probably missing some potential. I agree. Back to that Sam Phillips quote, “You aren’t doing anything different.” What I mostly take from old records is the fe  feel eling  ing you get when you listen to them, and the performance! That’s what I am always trying to capture when I record. Being from Memphis, and surrounded by the history of all these classic records, has definitely refined me. Yes, I’m in an old room and have old mics, so it ties into that, but there’s no, “This needs to sound like 1956,” or something. It just needs to be what the song needs.

If you’re trying to imitate albums, you’re probably going to fail. Yeah. And by that time, you’ve probably missed the take, you know?

 You  Yo u hav have e to to be be a li litt ttle le ca care refu ful. l. Li Like ke do don’ n’tt throw everything old out, but don’t be afraid of the new.

because that was the only time they could do. They didn’t have the drummer that th at they have now. Without isolation, the drummer’s just as important as the vocalist, or anybody, for that matter. You know when you’re cutting, and it isn’t happening, but it’s not your fault and not necessarily their fault? But I was impressed with Margo, and the songs, and the sound of the band. I pulled her aside and said, “I think you’re incredible. You guys have been driving all day, and it’s hard to be creative after a South by Southwest run. I’d love to work with you again.” They left, and we kept in touch. I’m not Sam Phillips – I will never be Sam Phillips. But that was the first time at Sun that I felt what it was like to be Sam, like when Carl Perkins or Johnny Cash knocked on the door and auditioned for the first time – this raw 60/Tape

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When I hear “I’ll Take You There” by The Staple Singers, it doesn’t sound old to me. It sounds punchy and super hi-fi! “Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles, and Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” – I don’t hear 1957 or ‘67, I  justt he  jus hear ar incred incredibl iblee record records. s. When When I he hear ar somethi something ng like a Bruce Springsteen hit from the 80s... well most talent that no one had ever heard. I was blown away albums from the ‘80s, or the modern “stomp and clap” by the songs and Margo’s voice. That must have been hit records of today, I feel like those productions are so what Sam felt like when Jerry Lee Lewis or one of  dated sounding that they actually hurt the longevity of  those cats came to the door. Like, “Whoa, I gotta the song. work with you. This is the real deal.” I begged them Obviously records are sort of a fantasy  to come back. They’d worked a lot of places in anyway. Nashville, but when it was time to make the record, That’s part of the fun! That’s why Sam Phillips said he came they called back, came down, and we did the record up with the slap echo. He heard the music echoing from in three days – after 6 p.m. She pawned her wedding a jukebox in a restaurant and wanted to recreate that. ring and sold their car to make the record. Later on I When you hear Elvis doing “Blue Moon,” that’s one of my told her, “You know, if I’d known all that, we could favorite Sun cuts that initially never came out. That have done an IOU or something.” But, listening back, slow, 7 1/2 ips, delay makes my neck hairs stand up! I think that lends the album the urgency of, “We’ve With this upcoming Patrick Sweany record, we tracked it got to make this record, now .” .” to tape and I was riding the faders as I went, because I Put it all on the line. It’s so real. Didn’t it always commit. We played it back and I said, “That’s go into the charts? done. I’m going to save it just like this, and we’ll come

Ross-Spang/(continued on page 62)

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back in three days. I’ll mix the record, and if I find some trick that works, I’ll do it.” But it ended up that we just left it how they performed it. It feels amazing to me, and it moves. I feel like if I sat there and tried to EQ things, or automate it, it would just become more “safe.”

the same again. That’s also what’s fun about recording, and why I love jumping between Memphis and Nashville, and all the various studios. I never feel like I’m just going through the motions.

Patrick does a lot of the bluesy hollering, but we got him to sing quiet on this record. It’s almost like William Bell, or something. He has the most amazing, emotive voice. When he sings softly, all these other things come through. It grabs you. Plus, we had Ken Coomer on drums and the legendary Reverend Charles Hodges on B3 organ!

Is it unique if I steal from everybody? [laughs] Recently I’ve been lucky to work on projects with people I really admire, like Mark Neill, Vance [Powell], and Andrew Scheps. The records they make, the way they hear things, and their approach to recording is very inspiring and makes me think differently. I love learning things from them and blending that with what I already do. Honestly, I don’t do a lot of processing or EQ’ing. I really  justt move  jus move micro microph phon ones es and and let thin things gs blee bleedd into into each each other. Gear-wise I’m really a huge fan of Spectra Sonics’ [Tape Op #102] preamplifiers and their 610 Complimiter, both of which are big parts of Memphis’ classic sound. I do think I probably use 610s differently than most. But, then again, it can all can change, because it’s just about the song and the artist.

Do you feel there are certain things you He gigs a lot and has a great control over gravitate towards as an engineer that his voice. What else do you need? are unique to you?

 What do yo  What you u se see e in th the e fu futu ture re he here re at Sa Sam m Phillips Recording? More great records! Once people start hearing the records that are coming out of here, and see the place for themselves, I think they will all be drinking the Kool-Aid. I’m really excited about getting the B room set up with some of my gear and doing a control room/tracking room in one.

 You  Yo u we were re ta talk lkin ing g ab abou outt ma maki king ng th the e Broom kind of limited; like a one-room The Auditronics consoles that were being facility with limited tracks? built there were being built with a lot Phillips has a great 1-inch, 8-track Ampex 440C and I of Spectra Sonics parts.

recently purchased John Fry’s original Ardent console Yeah. Originally Auditronics were basically Spectra Sonics [Tape Op #58]. It was a custom Spectra Sonics by parts, just rebranded and made in Memphis. After the Auditronics, a 12x3, later modified to a 12x4. So we will  early ‘70s they stopped using Spectra parts and went to all set up in the same room. I like the idea of the big an early op amp design. I’m totally obsessed with all  Studio A with the 24-track machine and all the toys, and kinds of music, but especially Memphis history and then this cool, smaller room with 12 inputs and 8 tracks. Memphis studios. I’ve found the same Auditronics I often find in the studio that nothing ever works twice, console – one of five made by Auditronics in ‘69. Stax so it will be nice to jump between two different styles of  bought one of them. Ardent bought one of them. This rooms and recording. When we tracked the Emily Barker was the third one made. This guy, Warren Parker, from record, we did it with session guys. We ran it all live, and Canada, bought it in 1969 and used it in his studio and they didn’t learn the songs beforehand. They came in and mobile rig. I bought it from him; it’s a 20x4, all discrete we’d figure out the groove or lick. Then the next artist I Spectra Sonics console! And I just recently got that did, three weeks later, was Sean Rowe. I had almost the original Ardent desk, which I am really excited about. same session guys. We’re all riding high off this incredible John Fry and Terry Manning [Tape Op #58] cut some of  record we just did, live, in four days. We’re like, “We’ve got my all-time favorite records on that desk. I had a great this! This is what we do.” We get in there, and Sean is one tech make a small sidecar frame so I could take ten of those guys who has his own unique timing. He doesn’t channels with me when I travel. I think the Spectra often play with a band, so he purposefully speeds up and Sonics preamps are one of the few pres that, when I slows down in the song to fit the lyric. We got in there hear the source in the room and then I pull it up on a and tried to do it all live. The drummer’s trying to keep fader in the control room, sounds the same. It does have him in time, and it wasn’t happening. We quickly were EQ, but even just 2 dB is a lot. I can be very specific like, “Oh, shit.” I’m usually a live guy, but it wasn’t called about gear but, at the same time, I don’t really care for for most of this record. Later Sean would end up about what I’m using. Like I said, it won’t work two playing acoustic guitar and vocal. We’d get the take, and times in a row. And now that I travel so much, I don’t then Ken [Coomer] would go and overdub drums. It have the luxury of always having the same gear, so it worked out amazing, because he’s not playing straight doesn’t matter to me as much I thought. There are times drums. He’s doing these drum moments around the vocal, when I miss something I know really well. But when we and around the lyrics. There are moments when we’d slam made Patrick’s record, I felt like I had been using the door to the echo chamber, and that’s the snare sound. condensers too much on drums and I was tired of that sound; we went with all dynamics, and it sounded It’s good to know when something isn’t incredible! Every day I’m excited to try something going in the right direction. I just knew it wasn’t working with the band, so I sent the different, and I want to find those new sounds. It’s fun guys home and told them to come back tomorrow. to try different gear, as long as it doesn’t get in the way “We’re going to get there.” And we did. It wasn’t the of the session. I can swap out a mic rather quickly, but original plan, but it couldn’t have come out better. Any if an artist is ready to go, we’re not swapping out other way and it wouldn’t have been as great. That’s why anything – it’s go-time. go-time. If the performance performance is great, who I’m never too attached to things in the studio, because cares what the damned damned kick drum sounds like! like! r the thing I used that one time often times won’t work < fa  faceb cebook ook.co .com/m m/matt att.ro .rosss ssspan pang> g> 62/Tape

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Ross-Spang/(Fin.)

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Stuart Staples From Kitchen to Barn with Tindersticks

by John Phillips  photo  ph otoss by  Neil Fraser to make an album, as well as collaborate with Abbey Road [Studios]. For The Waiting Room there Tindersticks’ recording journey began over two filmmakers. The album started to exist in sketch form was a point where we had this song “Help Yourself” decades ago, in a kitchen in Kilburn, London, where at the end of 2014. At that point the conversation and we didn’t know where it was taking us. It was so the band made demo recordings for their debut  album (by the same name). These days the band’s started with festivals, and we began to pair directors different to songs we’d written in the past. I said to creative meeting place is Le Chien Chanceux, a studio with songs we thought would be right for them. The Julian, “Why don’t you just do whatever you feel on located in the �� ��� � year-old converted barn behind the album mixing finished in June [2015], and the films this song. We can listen to it afterwards and see what home of vocalist/guitarist Stuart Staples in Limousin, were ready by September. It gradually worked out, but happens.” He did this great brass arrangement, and France. The bulk of the band’s �� ���� �  album, The it could have stopped and fallen any step of the way. that led on to the conversation for “Second Chance Waiting Room , was recorded there and features brass Did knowing the songs would be Man.” That was very much a conversation between arrangements by longtime collaborator Julian Siegel,  visu  vi sual ally ly in inte terp rpre rete ted d in infl flue uenc nce e ho how  w  myself and him about the album, and the voice that a guest vocal from Jehnny Beth of the band Savages, the brass had within it. you made The Waiting Room album? and a poignant duet with the late Lhasa de Sela. A I think the album is part of our line of work. We are not  Were  We re the the songs songs feat featur urin ing g Jehnn Jehnnyy Beth Beth  visu  vi sual al compan companion ion,, The Waiting Room Film Project , thinking about images when we are writing, of Savages and Lhasa De Sela written features short film interpretations of each album track arranging, and recording. It’s the music that’s given with them in mind? by several directors, including Claire Denis. The tour to the filmmakers. It’s a side project that’s been No, they are very different stories. Jehnny Beth and I includes a number of cine-concerts with the band rewarding to be involved in, but I wouldn’t want were both guest singers at a concert in London for an performing the songs live to the projected films. these songs always shackled to these images. evening of music from David Lynch films [ In Drea Dreams ms:: Stuart Staples spoke with me about this ambitious ] ]. . I was working on the song “We  What  Wha t was your collabo coll aborati ration on with David Lynch Revisited  project, his studio, and how the band makes and Are Dreamers” and was talking to Julian about what  Julian  Juli an Sieg Siegel el like for the bra brass ss records their music. the brass arrangement needed in the second half. I arrangements? Was there dialogue How did the collaborative film project heard Jehnny Beth sing live for the first time and it that influenced what you and the for The Waiting Room come about? was, “Okay, this is the color and feeling that this song band played? I was invited to be on the jury of the experimental  The relationship with Julian is a growing relationship. needs.” I was fortunate enough to give her the song section at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short He played bass clarinet on The Something Rain [2012] and she liked it; she understood it, and she gave Film Festival. This was long before we were making and put together brass sections for  Ac herself to it. That finished the arrangement for me.  Acros rosss Six Leap the record, and I thought there would be a time frame For “Hey Lucinda,” I had a weekend singing it Years [2013], our retrospective record we made at 64/Tape

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Staples/(continued on page 66)

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together with Lhasa, who was a great friend of mine. After that she became ill and we lost her, and I had to put the song away for a long time. When I went back to it I heard it in a very different way. It was very much a moment in time.

I think when you’re a young band, or a young band at that Yes. Around 1996 I was able to have a small studio in time… We spent maybe ten years between [the ages of] London, on the side of my house in a converted garage. 16 and 26 going to make demos to please record I had our dutiful MCI JH-400 [console] in there. We companies, and going into studios where the engineer acted as an overdub/mixing studio; I could work wor k one-onwould be tuned into the production techniques and one with people. In 2005 I recorded my second solo sounds of the time, which was quite dangerous in the album [Leaving Songs] in Nashville with Mark Nevers “Hey Lucinda” is a standout song to me. late ‘80s! We got to a point, when we moved to London, [Tape Op #21] and brought it back to the studio. As I The conversation between the that we just needed to turn our back on record finished these recordings, I realized I needed to be in an characters really comes across. Were companies, studios, and the perceived wisdom of how ambient space where people could come together, play, the vocals cut simultaneous simultaneously ly live? We had an evening in the studio in Montreal, and we sang records should sound at that time. We started to buy and capture an idea at a very early stage. A natural kind it together. When I wrote “Hey Lucinda” it was exciting, recording equipment and made our first single, of progression happened. We needed more space for our because it broke down structural barriers that I’d felt in “Patchwork,” in our kitchen. Probably all of the bestfamily, for my studio, and for my wife’s studio. My wife duets before. In the past I felt as though I was fitting sounding things I’ve ever made were done on a no-brand is a painter, and she was painting bigger paintings! We the conversation into a song format, whereas with mixing desk that we picked up in a second-hand paper. found this property in the middle of France when we “Hey Lucinda” I found a way for the song to follow the I think it’s gone on from there. We demoed the whole of  were driving through one summer. s ummer. It’s a big house for our conversation. It was a breakthrough moment; but I our first album in this kitchen, so by the time we were kids, and behind it was this big shell of a barn with a struggled with how to arrange it, and how to approach able to step into a proper studio we knew what we were hayloft on one side. I found this old ladder. I went up, the recording of it. I was thinking about it in too linear looking for. [The debut was recorded at Townhouse 3, fought through the cobwebs and thought, “Okay, this is of a fashion. When I went back to it, I was able to just formerly The Who’s Ramport Studios.] We had Ian Caple where my studio needs to be.” It’s been evolving ever connect with that moment of myself and Lhasa singing [engineer and co-producer] to help us and it was a really since. It’s our meeting place, it’s our studio, and we can to each other. I was able then to go, “Oh, it just needed great mix at that moment. He was trained at EMI a long rehearse there. What’s great about making albums there some glockenspiel notes around this bit. It needs time ago, and I learned so much about engineering from is we can find our sounds and leave the drums, bass, and tension here.” It was a real step forward in the way of  Ian on the records we made with him. It was a positive guitar setups intact. We can go back months later when viewing a song. thing to step into our own world, and not try and be in we have time to be together [the band members reside this music business kind of world. in different cities] and we’re in the same sonic space. We  You  Yo u be bega gan n se self lf-r -rec ecor ordi ding ng ea earl rlyy on in can go for the moments of spontaneity; the excitement Tindersticks. Was this a creative  Yo  Your ur st stud udio io,, Le Ch Chie ien n Ch Chan ance ceux ux,, me mean anss of being together. decision? “Lucky Dog” in English? 66/Tape Op#117/ Mr. Staples/

Is Le Chien Chanceux an analog, digital, or hybrid studio? It’s hybrid. I spend so much time on my own that I have to use Pro Tools for the accessibility of the ideas. I think the ideas have to come first, and I’m not enough of a technician to be dealing with a tape recorder. But I use digital recording as an “editable tape recorder.” recorder.” What I love about digital recording is keeping spontaneous moments together. We used to have to think so much about structures of songs. Digital recording takes away that pressure, so you can enjoy playing music in a room together. We have an MCI JH-500 desk, an Ecoplate [plate reverb], and an AKG spring reverb. With the colors all of this equipment brings, I have a balance of being able to work on my own and the feeling of  authenticity with the sounds we create.

Do you master to tape? I always experiment. I have an old Studer B62 1/4-inch machine. For this album, all the final mixes sounded better on the Studer.

How is your space set up?

Lots of this album was recorded with me behind the  Ar  Are e th ther ere e an anyy ot othe herr sp spec ecif ific ic pi piec eces es of ge gear ar desk, singing, playing guitar, and trying to get the or instruments that are important to drum sound at the same time. There’s no control  your sound or recording process? room. The desk is in the middle of a 100 square-meter There are certain things I use on the drums and certain room, and the ceiling, at its highest point, is six and things I use on the guitar because I want us playing a half meters, so it has a color. It’s lively, but it’s not together. I’ve been in studios where you spend so overpowering. The first time somebody played drums much time finding the sounds that by the time you in the studio I had my heart in my mouth because it find them, the musicians are exhausted and have could have just taken over the room. We’ve gradually lost their energy. I am happy to put a [Shure] 57 on found where it sounds good. the guitar and just start. At least then if something Do you have a specific vocal mic you like happens immediately you have it in some form, to use at your studio? which I think is the most important thing about Yeah, I use a [Shure] SM7. I’ve used many expensive recording, from the musician’s point of view. If you microphones, and it will always be a quest. When we have an engineer who is not a musician, and doesn’t recorded at Abbey Road, it was amazing! You can walk understand that mentality, you can end up killing a into Abbey Road’s mic store, talk to the engineer, and say, moment or not recording something because things “What do you think for my voice?” He’ll say, “Okay, you aren’t “right” at that time. I always put the should use this [Neumann U]67.” Being at Abbey Road emphasis on playing as soon as possible, and and having beautiful, vintage Neumanns on everything recording everything from the moment people walk makes it a great experience; a different sounding record. in the door. I think you get great things that way. When we’re in our own place I like the way our sounds The bass on this album is a real departure for us, are colored. They are slightly fuzzy and dirty. The SM7 because it’s not a [Fender] Precision. Every album works with the palette that we’ve created in our studio. we’ve made has probably been with a Precision bass.

C hien Chanceu x. Two views of  Le Chien For perspective, note the wood burning  stove in both photos and Stuart at the console in the photo at left. Previous page photo is of  Stuart sitting at the console, looking into the room.

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This is a Guild bass; a kind of twang-y bass. Just finding the bass sound, and the way that it sat in all  the ideas, was really exciting, because it was new territory. It still ended up in its channel on the desk with the dbx 160 [compressor] across it.

Do you typically have the bulk of a song worked out before you record? I suppose, as a writer, the more loose I can be with an idea, and the more space I can give the guys in the band, the more exciting things can happen. In the past I’ve tried to understand an idea fully, rehearse it with my guitar, and make a space that’s already defined where the drums fit. Now I try and understand the idea and keep it as loose as possible. Even if I understand the chords, or how I would play it, I might leave that behind and just sing it and see what people take from that. If you’re going to work with great musicians, there’s no point tying their hands together. I want to know how they respond to something. I think it’s the same if other people bring ideas into the band. The more tight they are, the least successful they are in the moment.

Does having your own studio play a great role in the way you create? For sure. With the song “Help Yourself” I was working on my own recording a loud guitar part for a different song, and I stopped and leaned the guitar against the mixing desk. I started to tap the back of the neck, and because it was jacked up so much it created this rhythm that started going on in the room. I started recording this loop, and a half an hour later I had

sketched “Help Yourself” out very roughly. When the band turned up, the drums were ready to go, the guitars were ready to go, and I said, “I’ve had this idea.” Everybody listened to it and 45 minutes later we made the version that’s on the album. It was able to go through that process to capture that moment of  spontaneity. I think, at its best, what we do is an exchange of ideas, or an exchange of energy. The idea goes through the band, then I give it to Julian Siegel  and he does this amazing brass arrangement for it, then I give it to Claire Denis and she makes this amazing film for it. That’s when things really start to feel as though I have momentum behind them. Also, the way I write words comes from singing and nuance. It’s important to hear it in context. On a song like “Were We Once Lovers?” with all the echoes going on, it needed to be built in that way. I needed to sing against the echoes for that song. Having your own place helps ideas like that. The production becomes interwoven into the actual writing process.

So you develop lyrics from musical cues? I generally use a guide vocal as a leader of where it’s going, with the idea that it gives people something to latch onto. I’ll sing a song without knowing what the words are, but I understand the feeling. I might have a chorus, or a few lines. I like to explore a song without knowing what the words are and then find the words gradually, with the shapes I’m trying to sing.

Has the solitude of the French countryside impacted your writing? For sure. When I had the studio in London, I lived in an area with people like me; very liberal, open people. But I felt like I was hemmed in in London. Being in France these last eight or nine years, my studio feels like it’s afloat somewhere in Europe. It’s not defined by being in France, or this town. That gives a real kind of  freedom. It allows it to be a dream space. I don’t think the studio in London ever escaped a certain kind of  reality, and I think with making music you have to try to suspend reality. I do think that it’s had a massive effect. There’s more space to explore ideas, and that space allows an internal wandering as well.

Have you used the studio for projects outside of Tindersticks? The first person that was record recorded ed in my studio was Lhasa de Sela. She was writing songs for her last album. She sat down at the piano, I put my SM7 up and a ribbon mic on the piano, and she just started to sing. She was writing this song called “Fish on Land,” and when I heard that I knew it was going to be great. It was like my studio was being blessed! You know what I mean? Lhasa de Sela, sitting in my studio at the piano – singing, playing, and me recording it – totally set it on the right path. I would love to have made an album with Lhasa in my studio. I would have put everything I wanted to do to one side to do that. That doesn’t happen very often. r  John Phill  John Phillips ips is the the foun founder der of Ae Aesth stheti eticc Creat Creative ive Man Manage ageme ment  nt  and the singer/multi-instrumentalist in the band Metroscene. < fa  faceb cebook ook.co .com/ m/met metros roscen cene> e>

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Staples/(Fin.)

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Soyuz Microphones SU-017 large-diaphragm tube mic  The first time I heard the Soyuz SU-017 , it was facing backwards. A singer was wailing away into the wrong side of  its cardioid-only pattern, and it wasn’t half bad. It actually sounded pretty focused and musical, despite its accidentally reversed capsule — maybe a bit weird sounding, but good enough that a roomful of engineers and producers didn’t notice it was facing away from the singer, longer than anyone would care to admit. I was at an intensive mic shootout at composer Richard Gibb’s Woodshed Recording, a beautiful, innovatively designed, solar-powered studio on a gorgeous piece of  property in Malibu, CA, next to Point Dume. With tons of  natural light, scenic views, and great gear, the place was packed full of mics, singers, and a crowd of folks with long, storied careers in music recording, who all just sort of missed the fact that the SU-017 was doing a wonderful job capturing the sound reflecting off the iso room’s wall. The event was cosponsored by Vintage King, and mics from Bock, Flea, Wunder, Telefunken, Audio-Technica, and Aston were presented. Also included were the tube-based Soyuz  SU-017 (owned by Woodshed) and its FET-based counterpart, the SU-019. Eight mics were set up in pairs, and singers of  different genders and genres moved from mic to mic, singing the same verse and chorus of a song. The resultant recordings were then compared blindly. It was really, really fun, and a bit exhausting — but completely illuminating — to hear the differences between all these mics on varied vocalists. I was really pleased to take part in that day. People were cool, Richard is an awesome host, and my ears learned a lot. Even in that room of experienced engineers and producers, the SU-017  sounded so rich and musical backwards, and it took a little while for everyone to realize that there had been an issue in setup. The mistake took the SU-017  out of the running for blind comparisons later, but I was still impressed. The FET SU-019 also hung in against all the other contenders. It sounded natural and extremely flattering on every singer, regardless of style or delivery. The experience made me want to hear the SU-017 correctly, so I arranged a demo loan of the mic for myself. I can now say that I’ve had a good amount of  time with this hand-made, large-diaphragm tube mic, and it’s been wonderful. One part classic “bottle mic,” one part Victorian starship, with a sprinkling of Constantin Brâncui's Bird in Space (Google it), the SU-017 ’s ’s cream body with polished brass fittings, orbitalspace-station–like shockmount, and water-drop–inspired detachable capsule, will either be your thing visually, or won’t. But fixating on its looks will make you miss just how musical and stunning the SU-017 sounds. Straight up, it’s just a fantastic mic. It’s wonderfully constructed, and its harmonic balance makes 70/Tape Op#117/Gear Reviews/

everything it captures sound exceedingly musical. Plus, this mic gets along with EQs wonderfully. While on the expensive side of  everyday mic purchases, the SU-017 is a great value for what you get — not just for its sonics, but also for the thoughtfulness in build. This mic will surely hold up to everyday, intensive studio use, for years to come. The Soyuz factory is located in Tula, Russia, where a long tradition of precise machining exists in the city. A wonderfully soothing series of videos on the Soyuz website shows off a combination of kitschy, late-afternoon classroom spirit, and a fascination for clean-rooms. The videos immerse you in the Soyuz manufacturing process and culture. Each mic also ships with signed cards that include the names and photos of the mic’s assembler and tester. My particular mic was assembled by Olga Andreeva, blonde and smiling in her photo, and tested by Vladimir Seleznev, the company’s head mic designer, charming in your favorite math teacher sort of way. These cards serve an overall aesthetic of hand-built and bespoke construction with a focus on exacting detail. Machining as much from scratch as they can in house, Soyuz takes special  pride in the manufacture of their own K 67–style capsule, repeatedly touting their lathe, repurposed from a Kalashnikov factory that can cut with a tolerance of 2 microns. The body design and layout is based on the Golden Ratio, to minimize acoustic and mechanical resonance. The internal  circuitry is properly minimal, wired point-to-point, and it features Soyuz’s in-house-wound custom transformers and a 6G1P tube sourced from a Russian factory that’s been producing them continuously since 1962. The overall build is exquisite, and each part feels lovingly machined and completely thought through. The one caveat to this is the flaw that led to issues during the aforementioned shootout. The front of the capsule is hard to distinguish visually, and during disassembly or reassembly, the body shell can easily rotate 360°, placing the badge in the wrong spot relative to the capsule orientation. You can therefore find yourself  singing into the backside of this cardioid mic. Luckily (or not), it sounds much better than it should that way. You just need to pay attention when putting the mic back together after showing someone how lovely the interior build is. The mic ships in a beautiful wooden box with a 5 meter, multipin cable and an overbuilt shockmount with spare elastics. The shockmount is lightweight, but heavy duty enough to last forever. It’s a great design — a little on the large side, but easy enough to use. I was happy to find the shockmount has a solid gripping clutch that doesn’t feel like it’s going to strip with daily use. Thankfully, standard Neutrik connectors are used for the cable, mic, and power supply; and any esoteric elements of the design are meaningful, without detracting from the everyday functionality of the mic. Speaking of everyday use of this mic, one word comes to mind: humanist. The SU-017  seems to expect the best and appreciate the sweetness in every sound it captures. It is maybe the most lifelike and tonal microphone I’ve run across in some time. The mic’s harmonically rich and detailed highs felt like a brand new palette to explore, with an inherent sweetness and musicality that can really help strident sound sources. I’m so used to hearing the myriad examples of  “presence lift” in classic mics that immediately read as “records” and not “recordings,” so initially, the SU-017 seemed maybe a tad gentle. But using the SU-017  over time, I was struck by its easy naturalism. An unhyped treble — but not dark. Warm low mids — but never too boomy. Clear and open — without being penetratingly hi-fi. Furthermore, the SU-017 takes EQ beautifully, as was exhibited during my first long-term run with the mic.

My friend Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith was working on her newest record, and in conversation, I discovered that she was having difficulties tracking her vocals. She had auditioned more than a few mics, and nothing was quite connecting. Her music incorporates a Buchla Music Easel, several other analog synths, and her densely layered, pitch-shifted vocals. There can be a real struggle for the higher harmonics in everything to come across properly. Vocal top end is often sacrificed to keep the structure of the synth interaction. I brought the SU-017 to her space, set her up, and checked in a few days later. She was ecstatic at the sound of the SU-017 , saying she had bonded with the mic and felt that it brought out strong performances. In examination of the tracks, her vocal layers weren’t fighting the synths and horns, and everything was interacting easily. Also, one of the benefits of the SU-017 ’s ’s clear top end was that the stack of pitch-shifted and processed vocals sounded much, much better, with fewer artifacts. On other projects, I found the SU-017  to be great on acoustic guitar, with the mic gently accentuating pick attack and harmonics, and the lower-midrange glow of the mic bringing out bassiness, but never taking over. On various percussion instruments, it was detailed but never harsh; and tracks recorded through it sat easily in the mix, without me having to chase levels on small speakers. It brought out articulation on piano, without any stridency; and complicated chord voicings never seemed cluttered. I didn’t get a chance to use it on drums, but I can see it excelling on cymbals. And musicians consistently commented on how much they loved the sound of the SU-017 in headphones and on playback. Of course, in its main habitat, the SU-017  was always flattering and natural on vocals, especially with doubled melodies and multitracked harmonies. It’s really just stunning on vocalists, and it naturally captures the low resonance of a chest vibrating without any additional work — something that I struggled with for a long time and would use two mics to record properly. If you’re working with aggressive music, I can see wanting to EQ in more top end, but you can go ahead and crank away, because the SU-017 doesn’t seem to suffer as much from the ubiquitous resonances that jump out of other condenser mics. I’d love to pair the SU-017 with heavy distortion; it would be easy to sculpt and EQ just what you need. There were a few comments from musicians on the visual  aspect of the mic; like I said before, it will either be your thing, or it won’t. I was initially lukewarm towards the visual  design, but thrilled with the sound. What’s important is that I came to love this mic. Its flexible musicality begs using it on any sound source you can get in front of it. With Soyuz’s focus on build and value for your money, I think it’s a good candidate for “modern classic” in every sense of the words, and surely you’ll start seeing the SU-017  in recording situations everywhere, alongside or in lieu of the betterknown favorites of today and yesterday. ($3,499 street;  street;  www.soyuzmicrophones.com) –Thom Monahan

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LA320 tube condenser mic 

King Bee & Worker Bee condenser mics

I recently borrowed a demo set of the Lauten Audio Black Series microphones. I have been a big fan of the company’s Signature Series mics and was excited to try the new Black Series LA320 tube mic. At first glance, the LA320 does not scream sophistication. It has a humble but sleek body, and it appears to be well built, but it’s not a flashy look. It comes in a metal flight case, which holds the mic, shockmount, power supply, and cables — a very convenient and classy package for a mic at this price point. All looks aside, the LA320 performs like a sophisticated microphone. I first used it to record some vocal overdubs. It sounded clear and warm through a Universal Audio Apollo interface running a Unison 1073 preamp model, with no compression. I enabled the mic’s high-pass filter, as I always do, unless I am recording a source with a low fundamental. I did need to pull the gain up to 50 dB, more than I would expect with a tube mic, but the singer was about 10’’ away and singing on the quiet side. Nevertheless, the signal was clean — a good sign of high signal-to-noise ratio. I next moved on to a mandolin overdub and repositioned the LA320. The instrument was by no means high quality, which typically ends in a chintzy sounding mandolin track. However, this mandolin sounded quite good through the LA320. As this mandolin was on the bright side, I considered using the LA320’s high-cut filter, but decided against it. Later, when mixing, I was glad I left it off, as the high frequencies sat nicely in the mix as I lowered the mandolin volume to blend it in. Lastly, I tracked a dobro solo over the song with the LA320. In repositioning the mic, I noticed how versatile and easy to use the shockmount is — a small but important detail. I pushed the gain up another 10 dB to make the preamp sizzle a bit, and the signal remained clean. The dobro shined through the LA320 with Nashville-esque quality. I added a Universal Audio LA-2A emulation to compress the signal slightly and was super impressed with how the track turned out. The next time I pulled out the mic was for a full band session at FM Recorders in Oakland, CA. I set up everyone in the live room, including the vocalist with an LA320. The mic sounded great through a custom-rebuilt API preamp and a Purple Audio MC77. The drums were on the opposite side of  the room and bled through just the right amount to give the track a nice roomy vibe without overpowering the vocals. The final context in which I tried the LA320 was for drums, in tandem with a pair of Lauten Audio LA120 small-diaphragm condensers [Tape Op #116]. The LA120s were used as overheads, and I put the LA320 about 12’’ in front of the kick. The three mics together sounded full and complete. The LA320 gave the kick an articulate but warm sound, and picked up the low end of the snare sufficiently to complement the overheads. The mic’s high-cut filter was very useful for sculpting the sound. All in all, I find the LA320 to be a well-rounded and versatile tube mic at a great price-point. The sound is clear, accurate, and warm. If you are looking for an affordable largediaphragm condenser with a big sound, the LA320 is a solid choice. Its versatility will give it a place in your mic locker for years to come. I’d even suggest buying two for stereo mic’ing  justt about  jus about an anyth ythin ing. g. ($499 street;  street;  www.lautenaudio.com) –Ben Bernstein  Bernstein 

If you haven’t already heard of the King Bee and Worker Bee mics from Neat Microphones, do me a favor, and watch one of  the numerous “unboxing” videos uploaded to YouTube by customers of these mics. Neat’s packaging is a visual treat, as are the mics themselves. Each mic in the Bee line arrives in beethemed packaging that’s clever and imaginative, including a milk-crate-like plastic box with honeycomb-patterned grille, and lots of yellow-and-black cardboard and foam. Per the whimsical, hexagonally cut Field Guide booklets included with the mics, all of the packaging material is 100% recyclable, and you can re-purpose the plastic box for things like cables and other studio sundries. Regardless, that’s still a lot of volume and weight (4 lb according to my postal scale) that needs to be shipped from China, and I feel like I should go and purchase carbon credits after taking delivery of these mics. Guilt aside, the whole experience is entertaining, especially when you pick up the actual mics in your hand. Both the King Bee and Worker Bee mics are beautifully designed and manufactured, and they’re quite heavy. Each mic has yellow silicone bands that form grippy “bee stripes” around its black body; and connected to the body by a thin neck is a headbasket, with a yellow-gold mesh front and a black-mesh rear. A pop filter made of superfine yellow-gold weave, sandwiched within two layers of honeycomb plastic, snaps directly onto the front of each mic’s headbasket. A velvety slipon cover with an embroidered Neat logo and a black shockmount with yellow elastic bands are also included with each mic. And lastly, a bee-shaped tchotchke that’s not quite a dreidel is in the box too. I’ve been told by Gibson that a unique number on it identifies you for future giveaways and prizes. If this emphasis on fanciful styling and theme-based marketing reminds you of Blue Microphones, give yourself a pat on the back, because these Neat mics are the handiwork of  Skipper Wise [Tape Op #40] and Martins Saulespurens, the original co-founders of Blue, working together with Ken Niles and Clayton Harrison, also former key employees of Blue. With the help of Gibson Brands (Neat’s parent company), Skipper Skipp er and his team are offering high-performing, eccentric-looking eccentric-looking mics at very affordable prices. Currently, there are four mics in the line. The Bumblebee and Beecaster are “desktop” USB mics, while the King Bee and Worker Bee are side-address studio mics. I’ve spent many months using the latter two mics on o n a wide variety of sources, and I’ll start off by saying that I’m very impressed. Inside the headbasket of the $349 King Bee is a 34 mm, dualbackplate capsule, with only its front diaphragm wired to the preamp circuitry — hence, the mic’s cardioid polar pattern. The all-discrete Class A circuitry is JFET-based, with a transformercoupled output. At distances of 2 ft or greater, frequency response is relatively flat from 50 Hz to 16 kHz. Extending further down and up, I measured 8 dB at 20 Hz, and 6 dB at 20 kHz. I also confirmed a slight midrange midrange scoop of 1–2 dB from 400 Hz to 2 kHz, as well as an octave-wide presence bump with a 3 dB peak centered at 3.5 kHz, and another octave-wide area of lift from 7–14 kHz. With a decrease in mic’ing distance, proximity effect results in greater bass response, as expected. For example, at 8’’ distance, the King Bee’s frequency response exhibits a gradual rise in the lows, starting at 350 Hz and measuring +6 dB at 60 Hz. My tests of off-axis behavior confirm that the polar pattern is actually supercardioid, with the greatest rejection at 135°, especially in the midrange. The frequency response at 45° tracks very well to the on-axis response, but with the highs starting to slope down at 9 kHz. Beyond that angle, the response starts to take on significant −

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dips and peaks. Importantly, there’s very little harmonic distortion across the whole spectrum, even in the extreme lows and also where lesser LDCs tend to resonate between 4–8 kHz. What does all this mean? In one sentence — the King Bee makes things sound bigger than life, without overdoing it. The presence and high-frequency boosts are subtle, which is not the case with many affordable mics. This additional “excitement” “excitement” to the King Bee’s highs results in greater detail, sparkle, and air, without undue sibilance or harshness. Proximity-based “enrichment” “enrichm ent” to the lows adds girth and chestiness, without the distorted “fog” of poorly implemented LDCs. Granted, you can still achieve a “tubby” sounding vocal by singing 4’’ or less from the capsule (which is easy to do when you’re using the snap-on pop filter), but if you’re careful with mic’ing distance, you can really control the low-frequency response to your advantage. I’ve used the King Bee for a variety of purposes — front-of-kit, vocal, guitar amp, bass amp, saxophone, etc. — and I’ve been very happy with the results. It wouldn’t be my first choice for acoustic guitar; in this role, I found the mic too difficult to position without boominess. But otherwise, it’s a good LDC allrounder and a great vocal mic, especially if you’re shooting for a deeper and warmer, classic sound. Moreover, if you want to tone down the King Bee’s slight emphasis of the highs, using the snap-on pop filter results in 2–3 dB of attenuation from 6–10 kHz, according to my measurements, with a bit less attenuation at higher frequencies. Although the Worker Bee shares the same headbasket as the King Bee, the Worker Bee is a medium-diaphragm condenser with a 24 mm electret capsule. Its body is shorter than the King  Beee’s, and its transformerless output is about 6 dB quieter. The Be internal circuitry is still all-discrete, Class A. The Worker Bee’s frequency response is also relatively flat, but with a smaller midrange scoop centered at 2 kHz, as well as less presence boost, a little more energy at 5 kHz, and a little less at 13 kHz. Expectedly, I measured less distortion in the mids and highs, and more in the lows, especially below 50 Hz. I also measured an off-axis response that’s truly cardioid and remains surprisingly smooth, even at 135 degrees. In use, the Worker Bee is a great complement to the King  Bee; you can use both mics in the same recording session, and the images they capture seem to stay out of each other’s way. The smaller Worker Bee is less about bigger-than-life sounds, and more about midrange smoothness, tight transients, and overall balance. Vocals through it sound honest and natural, acoustic guitars warm and full, guitar amps bold and up front, and hand percussion clear and airy. Because proximity effect is far less pronounced and therefore therefore easier to control, the Worker Bee is also more predictable for close-mic’ing all types of instrumen instruments, ts, including drums. If you have yet to try an MDC on toms or snare drums, you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise. The Worker Bee is great at capturing the snap, body, thud, and resonance of drums, whether the mic is an inch over the drum head or it’s a few inches back from the rim. Placement is easy too; being a side-address mic, you can position it so it’s peeking over the rim of the drum at whatever distance or angle you desire. And with a street price of $199, you can afford to mic the snare and the toms with a few Worker Bees. It’s also a very neutral room mic with its exemplary off-axis response, and for this same reason, it’s really forgiving when you use it to record a piano, no matter the distance you choose. Furthermore, if you’re tracking a whole band live, the in-room bleed that t hat the Worker  Bee captures is nicely balanced, and because it doesn’t suffer from a sudden ramp-up of proximity effect, you can close-mic vocals or instruments with less worry. The only caveat is that I recommend using a high-pass filter to cut out the distortion

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in the extreme lows (some of it is even infrasonic) so that this hidden energy doesn’t end up affecting downstream Over the years, I’ve replaced most of the incandescent bulbs compressors or other aspects of the mix later on. in my home and in my studio with LEDs. The incandescents With both mics being so utilitarian, I really wish that they ranged from 35 W low-voltage halogens, to 60 W standard had lighter bodies and optional rigid mic-clips. The shockmount “Edisons”, to 75 W reflectors. Meanwhile, the replacement LEDs included with both mics is a nice enough design, but it’s not are 3–12.5 W bulbs. That’s a power-requirement reduction of  very flexible when it comes to positioning the mics within tight roughly 3,000 W for the 60+ bulbs in my studio building alone. confines. The square cross-section of the mics, and the layout If I were to run those lights for 10 hours/day (like a commercial  of the two captive thumbscrews that lock the mic into the studio might), I’d be saving 900 kWh of energy per month. At mount, restrict the mics to forward or backward–facing an average cost of $0.16 per kWh for a commercial account in orientation only. Most round-section mics, on the other hand, Massachusetts, that would equate to an annual savings of  can be rotated 360° 36 0° in their shockmounts. Also, one of my Neat $1,728. Just a few years ago, good LED bulbs cost $20 per shockmounts slips from the weight of either mic. The two bulb. The bulbs I purchased most recently were $7 per bulb. Do rubber o-rings within the clutch of the angle-setting clamp are the math, and you’ll realize that the initial investment in the being compressed to the point that they fail to grip the surfaces bulbs will pay off very quickly in energy savings. (LED bulbs last opposite them. Neat assures me that this problem has been for decades or longer; therefore, you won’t be purchasing new fixed, and current production shockmounts do not slip. bulbs very often.) So, which bulbs should you buy? Other than Complaints about the shockmount aside, I am very bulb shape, light output, color temperature, beam width, and impressed with these two side-address condensers from Neat wattage — all of which are usually specified in standardized Microphones. Both sound great individually, and together as metrics — you should be concerned about audible noise, complementary siblings. If you were to ask me which one to EMI/RFI, flickering, and dimmability. These last four traits are buy, I’d say get both! For $550, you’d have two mics to add to associated with the driver electronics in the LED bulb, which your locker, and between the two, you’d have many recording from my experience, can make or break a bulb (so to speak). scenarios covered. Or even better, pick up one King Bee an andd ••• For example, I would not recommend Hyperikon LEDs several Worker Bee mics, and you’d really be set. While you’re .   I’ve tried many different styles of  contemplating this recommendation, check out the personal  . Hyperikons that suffer from driver-related problems: RFI website of Skipper Wise , President of  emitted by the bulbs cripples nearby wireless equipment, like Neat Microphones. It’s presented as an autobiographical  garage-door openers and producer-talkback remotes; timeline of his life as a musician, producer, studio owner, record momentary variations in supply voltage cause all of the bulbs label employee, company founder, product designer, and on the same circuit to stutter and flicker in unison, horror- entrepreneur entrepreneur.. The personal stories stor ies and philosophies he presents movie-like; and in groups of four or more, the bulbs flicker are meaningful and enlightening in regards to the design and together when used with a dimmer, even an LED-specific one. manufacturing of the Neat mics, as well as the Blue mics that Moreover, for the 12V MR16 models, the voltage conversion preceded these. Also, the aforementioned Field Guide to each method (magnetic transformer or ELVT, whether LED- mic is definitely worth reading. Under the section entitled compatible or not) doesn’t seem to affect the poor “Pollination” are four pages of invaluable mic’ing tips that are performance I’ve seen from this brand. I also don’t recommend relevant to any mic, not just the Neats. (King Bee $349 street, Worker Bee $199; www.neatmic.com) $199; www.neatmic.com) –  –AH AH the Sunthin LEDs available on Amazon  Amazon  . These are incredibly cheap (as low as $4 per bulb), but they exhibit visible 60 Hz strobing. ••• My favorite LEDs are from Delphos large-diaphragm A, SlimStyle SlimStyle,, and LED Spot lines the Philips LED A, .   The LED A bulbs have a lower condenser mic  output/wattage ratio, but they work with all styles of dimmers A while back, Tape Op contacted me to review Roswell’s (not just LED-specific ones), and they can dim to a much darker follow-up to their Mini K47, the Delphos. I had heard good level than any other 120 V LED bulb I’ve tried. On the other things about the Mini K47 [Tape Op #109], and knew Matt hand, the SlimStyle bulbs are more energy efficient, but they McGlynn to be the mind behind the resource-rich microphone don’t dim nearly enough on Lutron Diva and Maestro website, website, <  , .com>, as  as well as one of the best DIY incandescent dimmers; and even on the Diva and Maestro LED microphone parts websites, . dimmers in my home, they still won’t go as dark as I’d prefer. The pair of Delphos mics arrived very well packed, inside The LED Spots work well with all of the transformers and ELVTs a sturdy Roswell-labeled flight case, along with a nice, in my studio and home. Importantly, none of these Philips screw-in shockmount that incorporates a unique cutaway in bulbs have given me any trouble with RFI or flickering. I had its design, for better close-mic positioning. I was an early batch of four SlimStyle bulbs make an audible whine immediately impressed with the weight and quality of the as soon as I turned them on (I relegated those to the mic. The Delphos looks the part of a mic that’s in a much basement) but the other 30 or so SlimStyle bulbs have been higher price bracket. Its body sports a glossy, metallic, darkdead silent. ••• In my studio, I’ve always used Lutron blue enamel paint job and an embossed brass nameplate. It Centurion high-capacity dimmers “with certainly looks like a quality piece. superior RFI suppression.” As far as I know, this line is not  Being the gear nerd that I am, I had a peek inside the available in an LED-specific model. With that said, my Philips mic. The Delphos is very much a boutique microphone, built LEDs work just fine on the Centurion dimmers, and the by hand in California. According to Matt, the mic body and SlimStyle bulbs even dim to near-dark. Plus, I’ve never had some of the components are imported, but the PCB is problems with conducted EMI or radiated RFI from these manufactured and populated in the US, and the assembly, dimmers. If you want to use Centurion or other incandescent testing, and tuning of the mic happens in the Roswell shop. dimmers with inferior LEDs that flicker, a good trick to know is The Delphos uses a new-old-stock JFET that is selected for that a single incandescent bulb on the same dimmer with the low input capacitance, and each one is individually and LEDs will usually cure the flicker. –AH manually biased biased in the Roswell shop for maximum

Gear Geeking w/ Andy…

Roswell Pro Audio

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headroom. The Delphos is built using low-noise transistors and metal-film resistors (with 1% or better tolerance) throughout, as well as USA-made polypropylene output capacitors. And the circuit layout is designed to insulate the high-impedance components, to minimize noise. The 34 mm, dual-backplate capsules are selected for high sensitivity and consistent frequency response. An acoustic sweep test is performed on every finished mic, and each one is hand-tuned to meet a strict performance specification. Matt states that the Delphos is not a recreation of any vintage circuit. For comparison’s sake, it may fall more closely in the Neumann U 87 camp, in that the Delphos uses a K 67–style capsule coupled to a circuit with corrective EQ. However, the Delphos has a more extended frequency response that’s relatively flat in amplitude from above 12 kHz all the way down to 20 Hz. And unlike the U 87 with its transformer-balanced output and three polar patterns, the Delphos is transformerless, and its pattern switch has selections only for cardioid and omni. A 10 dB pad switch is also included. I was able to use the pair of Delphos mics on a variety of  sources while tracking an indie rock project. For overhead duties as well as for stereo room and front-of-kit, the Delphos did not disappoint! They always sounded full and balanced, with a nice top end that was never harsh. The extended frequency response of these mics makes them an easy choice for any drum applications. Similarly, the Delphos was a treat to use when mic’ing up a Swart AST guitar amp. This amp has a strong midrange presence, so given the balanced nature of the Delphos, I didn’t worry about too much buildup in this range. I paired the Delphos with a Samar VL37 ribbon mic, mixing the Delphos track under the Samar for a touch of definition. Smooth! It was a beautiful pairing. For acoustic recording, my go-to is usually my Neumann KM 84, but I swapped it for the Delphos during this session. Placed 12–18’’ out from the 12th fret, looking towards the soundhole, the Delphos delivered a rich and full-bodied sound, perfect for the singer-songwriter vibe that suited this track well. With the mic’s upper frequency extension, the sparkle and jangle captured in the guitar’s top end was a perfect match for the rich and balanced low end. For vocals, the Delphos really earned its keep. I found myself using little to no EQ to get vocals to sit in the mix. The air of the vocal mic was really nice, and we were able to work the proximity to good effect. I couldn’t hear much in the way of capsule overloading or distortion. The Delphos is a clean mic and really captures true to the source. I also didn’t detect much “zing” from the capsule that is often found in budget-friendly b udget-friendly mics. I did miss having a figure-8 polar pattern, as I wanted to try mid-side mic’ing during drum tracking, as well as use the pair to mic the vocal and acoustic simultaneously during the singer-songwriter session (to take advantage of the strong nulls typical of figure-8 mics). But really, that’s about the only thing I can critique. It’s a small compromise for such a versatile mic. I’m really, really impressed with the Delphos. It’s a fantastic workhorse mic that shines in a variety of situations, and its price puts it within reasonable reach for most studios and recordists. The Roswell Delphos should easily earn a place even within the most well-stocked mic lockers. ($899 MSRP   ; www www.r .rosw oswel ellp lpro roaud audio io.co .com) m) –Adam Monk     −

Empirical Labs  Arou  Ar ouse serr plu plugg-in in  Arouse user  r , a dynamics The same day that Empirical Labs, Inc. (ELI) announced the availability of  Aro processor plug-in that looks like a suped-up, virtual version of the hardware EL-8X Distressor [ Tape Op #32], a number of Tape Op writers volunteered to review it. We gave the assignment to two seasoned reviewers. Dave Hidek’s examination opens the review below, and opinions from Eli Crews follow. And finally, comments from ELI founder and designer, Dave Derr, close out the review. –AH When ELI releases something new, everyone pays attention. From the makers of the acclaimed Distressor comes a compressor plug-in inspired by (but not a clone of) the hardware legend. I’ll  refer back to the hardware Distressor in this review for the sake of a familiar reference point.  Arouse user  r appears very familiar to ELI veterans, with its classic At first glance, the interface of Aro white knobs, the tiny white text crammed into every nook, the horizontal compression-ratio layout, and the black faceplate cordoned off by rectangles with rounded corners. But there are a few key, very exciting additions. The first and most curious is the Attack Modification knob. This changes the character of the attack to allow for some really interesting takes on what you already know as that snappy Distressor  Arous ouser  er ’s attack. The default value is 2.00/10, so I assume that ELI wants this feature to be core to  Ar persona. The easiest way to understand what’s happening here is to dial up a very aggressive setting with a snare drum. For example, I tried my input at 10.0 (as high as possible), my attack at 0.0 (as fast as possible), and my release at 7.0 (to isolate the character of the attack). With these settings and a 6:1 ratio (not too much, not too little), the meter was showing 23 dB of gain reduction, which is pretty heavy-handed. As I turned up Attack Modification, the snare drum transient was allowed to poke through more and more, but only for a split second before the compressor clamped down. It was very clearly different than just making the attack slower. I would say you could easily label this knob as “Snap,” and it would make a lot of sense for this example. Regardless, this feature allows for some crazy flexibility in the way that you compress. Other scenarios for Attack Modification could be heavily compressing vocals, but wanting more “spit” in the sound, or compressing a palm-muted clean guitar, but wanting more “bite.” The other features are already found on a Distressor — to a degree — including a detector sidechain, detector high-pass filter, and harmonic saturation options. The difference is that now you can choose their values, which is very handy, particularly in the case of the Saturation knob.  Arouse  Aro user  r ’s ’s Soft Clipping section can really create some havoc — and quickly. It’s not subtle unless you want it to be. You can’t specifically choose between even or odd–order harmonic distortion, but being able to put the “pedal to the metal” — regardless of the compression settings —  Arouse user  r , which is useful for makes up for that. ELI has thoughtfully included a wet/dry knob on  Aro such instances.  Arouse user  r sounds like the Distressor. I’ll say At the end of the day, everyone wants to know if  Aro this: If you dial up the same settings, it will not sound the same. I found that I had to be more  Arouse user  r to emulate the Distressor. The good news is that I got pretty darn close aggressive with Aro at lower ratios — close enough that my interns wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. At higher ratios, above 6:1, the hardware unit started to pull away in terms of flexibility under pressure.  Arouse  Aro user  r needed slightly more fidgeting to keep up. So, if you want to absolutely wreck something, the hardware Distressor is still king. Even in normal use, there’s a slight thickness and weight to the Distressor that I am not able to get from  Arouse  Aro user  r , but this is by no means a dealbreaker in any way, shape, or form.  Aro  Arouse user  r is incredibly fun to use, and I have no qualms saying that it has fully lived up to the hype. It’s easily one of  the best sounding plug-in compressors that I’ve used, and I strongly recommend trying out the demo to hear for yourself. –Dave Hidek  y.com> I’m sure it will come as no shock to anybody reading this that the first plug-in sold directly by ELI — and only the second with their brand stamped on it (the first being the UAD FATSO) —  Arouse user  r looks a lot like a Distressor, which is nothing short of completely bad-ass. At first glance, Aro for the three people out there who don’t know, is the closest thing to a modern classic piece of  studio hardware that has been made in the last two decades. (For the record, I really don’t think this is hyperbole. I honestly can’t think of a more ubiquitous pro audio processor. Can you?) In my opinion, the Distressor became famous and beloved for three reasons: its overall sound quality, its ease of use (including recallability), and its versatility. Not only does it sound amazing when pushed into sonic extremes, it has been my first-reach compressor for well over a decade when the utmost subtlety is called for.  Arouser   Arous er has these same three attributes, with even more versatility. Dave Derr, founder and chief brainiac of ELI, clearly wasn’t content merely porting his best-known product into the  Arouser  er ’s digital realm. Some of Arous ’s extra features include variable control over the amount of soft clipping (saturation), a dial for the sidechain HPF frequency, and a fully parametric EQ for the sidechain. (The Distressor only has one or two settings for each of these functions.) There’s also a wet/dry Blend control for onboard parallel compression. My favorite new feature is the −

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 A compresso compressorr this big should take up  y yoour entire rack.  At $995 it leaves some room in  your  yo ur wa wallllet et,, to too.o.

The Retro Doublewide Compressor Everything sounds better through a Retro.

dbx 

Attack Modification control, which allows you to easily dial  in more attack on an instrument once you have the 560A 500-series compressor  compression characteristics set to your liking. The feature is The venerable dbx 160A is a compressor you see frequently in a little hard to describe, but it achieves different results than backing off the attack time, especially when used with studios — home and pro alike. It’s super easy to use, and it’s extreme amounts of gain reduction. It’s a little like having flexible enough to perform relatively unnoticed gain-reduction, half of an SPL Transient Designer circuit modded into your or extremely colored slamming. At the 2016 AES Show in Los Angeles, dbx celebrated its entry into the 500-series market with Distressor’s signal path. dbx  x   Arouser  ser  is quick, partly thanks to a handful of new products. I was most interested in the db Overall, working with  Arou scroll-wheel support, which I always appreciate. Plus, for a 560A, which the company described as having the same plug-in, it sounds incredible. Although I won’t be selling my compression characteristics as the rackmount 160A, including Distressors any time soon (since I love them for tracking, the dbx trademark OverEasy curve. The first compressor to bear the dbx name was the classic and  Arouser  ser has immediately and I still mix mostly in analog),  Arou found its way into my workflow. As a side-note, I think Derr still highly regarded model 160, which debuted in 1976. This VCA made a smart move in choosing a different name for the compressor used a feed-forward design, and it provided clean plug-in, even if the powerful name recognition of the gain-reduction, without excessive distortion or oscillation. The Distressor could likely have moved a few more units, so to unit’s attack and release times were program dependent, and speak. This allowed him and his team to incorporate and with its OverEasy soft-knee curve, the 160 quickly gained a expand on the best parts of the hardware, without being following for its smooth and natural-sounding operation. Four overly beholden to it. The result is a unique tool for those decades later, with the 160 family lineage represented by the of us who are always looking for better ways to make our 160, 165, 160X, 160XT, and several other models, including the still-in-production 160A, the new dbx 560A module offers the recordings sound vibrant and exciting. For years, I have told budding engineers, without same no-fuss approach to compression as its forebears. I have owned a 160A for many years, and it has never given hesitation, that their first serious compressor should be a Distressor. Now, when I get asked the same question about me trouble. I use it on almost every recording in some way,  Arouser  er is the ultra-clear choice. And typically on guitar or snare drum. It is neither completely a plug-in compressor, Arous I’m not just saying all of this because my name is on them. transparent, nor overly colored. As previously mentioned, it can perform smooth gain-reduction in OverEasy mode, as well as offer –Eli Crews  Crews  audible compression effects in more extreme settings. In fact, Here are some final notes from Dave Derr:  Arouser  ser to the the only time I ever used an original 160, it was on a room mic “When Dave Hidek was directly comparing  Arou Distressor, part of the reason why the plug-in was hard to for drums with a fair amount of “smash” dialed in, in the same match to the hardware at high gain-reduction settings was manner I use the Nuke setting on a Distressor. Over the past few years, I have become a bit of a 500-series a faulty Gain Reduction bargraph in the software. The  junk  ju nkie ie.. I lik likee the the for formm-fa fact ctor or and and th thee cos cost-s t-sav avin ings gs.. I wil willl admi admitt  Arousor  sor  bargraph was missing lots of transient Rev 1.0  Arou peaks. That has now been fixed, and I personally have that some modules that claim to mimic the qualities and performance of their rackmount counterparts simply do not live tested if it makes matching easier — and it does. “Eli Crews nailed why we used a different name for the up to the hype. But in many cases, the designers have done obviously Distressor-like plug-in. We thought we could incredible things to shrink down their products and create some expand on what the Distressor does — and do a few things great pieces of gear that do make the grade. Truth is, you that are easy to do in the digital domain, but prohibitive in typically get what you pay for. That said, I was pleasantly the analog domain. Besides, I have learned a bit about surprised by the low cost and high performance of the dbx 560A. The 560A module itself is sturdy, and a full enclosure shields its compression since 1995, so why not apply that knowledge? Then to ignore what plug-in compressors have brought to circuitry, in contrast to the uncovered PCBs of many 500-series the table in the last five years — the product would have modules. The knobs are in the familiar color scheme of red, blue,  Arousor  sor  and green; and the 19-segment LED level meter is parallel to the been uncompetitive and outdated. Plus, the name Arou 12-segment gain-reduction meter, just like on the 160A. Also puts it right at the top of the pull-down plug-in lists!  Arousor is expensive, but we really spent a lot of time copied from the 160A are the controls and indicators. Compression “ Arousor  trying to make something sonically superior — and Ratio is variable from 1:1 to ∞:1, and beyond to 1:1. Threshold infinitely upgradeable. There are over 16 new ranges from 40 to +20 dBu. Output gain goes up to +20 dB but features planned that should continue to excite our drops further down to 30 dB (as opposed to the 160A’s 20 dB customers for many years. With that in mind, we will be minimum). Three LEDs indicate if OverEasy mode is enabled, and  Arouser  ser customers free and extremely cool upgrades when the input level is below or above threshold. And finally, giving  Arou there’s a bypass button with a corresponding LED. Just like with until at least 2020.” After reading these statements from Dave, Eli, and Dave, the 160A, it really only takes one session with the 560A for the I’m heading to the ELI website to download the 14-day, knobs, indicators, and meters to become second nature. How does it sound? I would highly recommend the 560A (o (orr  Arouser  er myself. fully functional demo, so I can try  Arous the 160A) as a great first compressor compressor.. It sounds great on a variety ($349; www.empiricallabs.com) ($349;  www.empiricallabs.com) –AH of sources, and it’s a snap to use. But, as someone who is not a beginner — but still loves simple, straightforward straightforward tools that get 560A to professionals that the job done — I can recommend the Tape Op like to grab and go. For nip-and-tuck applications especially, it’s a no-brainer. I liked the 560A on both acoustic and electric guitars, and I and  d  Please support them them an would say that it gave a slight midrange bump that translated as tell them you saw their their ad  fatness and glow. I used it on bass with good results, although in Tape Op . I am partial to some compressors in my rack for certain tasks −

A Fairchild will set you back $30,000 but you can have real tube compression today for just $995 from Retro Instruments. The Doublewide is the best value of its kind and is handcrafted in California’s Central Valley alongside our 176 and Sta-Level. Contact your pro-audio dealer today for a demo.

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such as bass and vocals, so I struggle to go anywhere else. Old habits die hard. With that said, the 560A certainly locked the bass into place, and it was easy to get workable settings dialed in. On snare and toms, its program-dependent attack and release could be just the right thing for a groove, and the extra bit of  tone the unit imparts can add girth to a signal. In general, I preferred the 560A for compressing and leveling instruments at low ratios, and I could use ten more units for this very purpose. They just work well. I did get a little more extreme when I patched a pair of 560A modules into an aux bus and blew up a drum loop using parallel compression, and then mixed the result with live-tracked drums. It sounded great, proving that the 560A is far from a one-trick pony. Remember I mentioned the price? The 560A is less than $200. I have “utility” 500-series compressors that are more than and  d has the ability double the cost, and the 560A does the basics an to go to extremes. Not long after receiving the 560A pair, I was on a call with John Baccigaluppi, who had received a pair of the new dbx 530 parametric EQ modules for review. We were both commenting on how well constructed the units are, how the controls felt firm, with a nice bit of smooth resistance, and how great they sounded. Neither of us could believe the price-point for the build-quality and the sound they delivered. With this new line of affordable 500-series modules from dbx, for the cost of a plug-in, you can have a piece of hardware that will long outlive your never-ending upgrades of  software, operating systems, and computers — just something to dbx  x  think about. For its flexibility, sound, price, and longevity, the db 560A is a real winner. ($199 street; www.dbxpro.com) street; www.dbxpro.com) –G –GS  S 

Universal Audio Sonnox Oxford Limiter v2 plug-in  forr UAD  fo UAD-2 -2 & Apo Apoll llo o Version 2 of the renowned Sonnox Oxford Limiter [ Tape Op #68] introduces the plug-in to the UAD-2 platform and brings with it a few under-the-hood updates. For those already familiar with Oxford Limiter, not a great deal has changed on the surface. Most notably, the Auto-Comp mode has been updated to fully comply with the ITU-R BS.1770-4 true-peak measurement standard for broadcast delivery, and there is also an added overall threshold for more limiting control. For new users like myself, Sonnox Oxford Limiter v2 offers all the standard controls you’d expect from a limiter — input and output gain (±18 dB), attack, release, variable soft-knee, and output dither options. Yet there are several  unique add-ons differentiating Oxford Limiter  from its competitors, namely the Recon Meter and the aforementioned Auto-Comp. Recon Meter displays the reconstructed true-peak program material — i.e., the level  of the post-conversion analog signal. Metering this way lets users see and account for any intersample peaks above 0 dBFS that could clip a DAC during the decoding process. Auto-Comp automatically corrects these problematic “true peak” events, but leaves the rest of the material  untouched.. Whether you’re a mastering engineer or simply untouched boosting reference mixes for clients, this is a safe way to get loud while ensuring you stay out of the red.

The Enhancement section is taken from the Sonnox Oxford Inflator plug-in. Instead of relying on conventional  sample-value limiting techniques, it modifies the dynami dynamicc and harmonic content of the material to increase perceived loudness without raising the maximum peak value — while avoiding the nasty artifacts and loss of transien transients ts that can result from traditional over-limiting. A “Safe Mode” button controls the function of the module, while the Enhance fader adjusts either the curve or amount of the effect. I tend to leave Safe Mode enabled and use between 40-50% of the Enhance feature at the end of the mix chain. I find it thickens the mix and adds a greater sense of depth without obscuring the kick and snare transients, or overhyping the general balance. Like anything else, too much can quickly sound overcooked, so blend to taste. Lastly, an Auto Gain switch compensates for drastic changes in level and helps eliminate any pumping or distortion effects, even at the fastest release times. Again, this is an extremely useful safety-net tool for smoothing out sudden changes in a track’s dynamics. Sonnox Oxford Limiter v2 has remained one of the most popular software limiters on the market for good reason. It’s as unobtrusive as any limiter I’ve used and offers features that let you confiden confidently tly boost volume and impact without degrading the clarity or punch of the material. This is a very welcome addition for UAD-2 and Apollo users. ($249 direct; www www.uaudio.com, .uaudio.com, www.sonnox.com) –Dave Cerminara

PreSonus Temblor T8 active subwoofer  Last year, while Scott McChane was evaluating a number of  affordable nearfield monitors for his home studio, we had a conversation about subwoofers. I’m a big proponent of using subwoofers with monitors that aren’t purpose-built into the room (like soffit-mounted mains are). Scott, on the other hand, wasn’t convinced that a subwoofer would help his mixing. When the opportunity arose to review monitors from the PreSonus Eris MTM family, I asked Scott to also give the PreSonus Temblor T8 subwoofer a try. I had purchased a T8 for my EDM-producing son a couple of years ago, so I already knew how effective it could be in a home studio. –AH SM: A few months ago, I reviewed the Eris E66 active monitors [Tape Op #115] without the Temblor T8 subwoofer. Originally, I felt (and still do) that a nearfield monitor should stand on its own qualities. However, after less than three months of use with three different sets of nearfields in my project studio, I’m here to say that a carefully tweaked, inexpensive subwoofer like the PreSonus Temblor T8 can change your little world. I’ve had the opportunity to work in control rooms with soffit-mounted mains. Their big, full sound is quite emotional, and in my opinion, the simple addition of  a subwoofer to your floating nearfield playback system can get you closer to that big production feel. AH:: Generally speaking, in a professionally designed facility, AH soffit-mounted mains are precisely positioned in a carefully treated room in an effort to attain the best possible frequency and

time–domain response of the playback system. On the other hand, in a DIY project studio, the sound emanating from nearfield monitors positioned in free-space (on stands or on a meter bridge) b ridge) will interact with all of the room surfaces in such a way that bass response will suffer. In other words, many DIY studios are subject to room resonances that cause serious dips in amplitude as well as pronounced ringing at low frequencies. This problem is exacerbated when speaker position corresponds to null points of  the room’s modal frequencies. To put it succinctly, the best position for nearfields to maximize stereo imaging and detail is rarely ideal for bass-response accuracy. To solve this dilemma, you need effective bass traps — but you can fit only so much trapping in a room. Another tactic to use alongside alo ngside acoustic treatment is to separate the bass driver from the rest of the speakers, so you can generate the bass frequencies from an optimal room position. That’s what you’re effectively doing with a subwoofer. SM: The Temblor T8 is designed to be a permanent part of a project-studio or editing-suite monitoring system. With the use of the Temblor ’s ’s built-in crossover, setup is a snap — simply plug the outputs of your interface, mixer, or monitor controller into the T8’s pair of balanced 1/4’’ TRS or unbalanced RCA jacks, then patch the T8’s TRS or RCA outputs to your nearfields. The T8’s rear panel also offers a switch that enables an 80 Hz high-pass filter on the signal that you route to your nearfield monitors. A low-pass filter rotary control sets the upper end of the frequency range that the subwoofer will  represent. In most instances, I preferred to set the LPF  manually with the HPF off. Because its crossover controls are located on the back, like on most subwoofers, the T8 can be a

bit of a bear to tune t une — but once it’s right, it feels like l ike it should be in-line all the time. AH:: Scott’s preference for setting up the T8 so that his AH nearfields receive the full-bandwidth signal brings up another point. Instead of asking the subwoofer to take all responsibility for the bass frequencies in its operating spectrum, the subwoofer can be configured to augment  the nearfields. Even if your nearfields reach down low enough for your needs, a strategically located subwoofer can help to reduce the aberrant low-frequency behavior brought on by room modes. Case in point, I have a pair of HEDD Type 30 monitors in my control  room that reach down to 30 Hz. (I measured 3 dB at 30 Hz.) I borrowed my son’s T8 and placed it in the corner of my room, where it could excite all room modes. With the feed to my HEDDs at full bandwidth, and listening at moderate volumes, the T8 was able to fill-in several room-mode valleys from 30–90 Hz, measured at mix position. On the other hand, my son has a pair of compact monitors, and in his room, the T8 is configured to handle everything below 80 Hz. This frees up his monitors to make more volume with less distortion, since they’re not being tasked with generating the power-hungry sub-bass frequencies of his electronic music. SM:: The front power indicator lights the T8’s PreSonus logo SM blue when powered on; while in sleep mode (in accordance with EU Power Efficiency Standards) the logo is white. I love that I can just leave the sub on o n all of the time (only consuming 0.5 W in standby) and not have to worry about groping around under my desk to find the power switch. With a powerful, yet tightly controlled, downward-firing 8’’ glass-composite driver, −

and a compact front-ported cabinet (just under 12’’ around all sides), the Temblor T8 offers a small footprint that won’t get in the way physically or sonically (when used with taste and subtlety, of course). You don’t see it or really notice it; you just feel it. AH:: The down-firing woofer was one of my primary reasons AH for choosing the T8. You can place the T8 anywhere, without fear of the driver being kicked in (or damaged otherwise). And despite its compact size, the T8 has significant reach. I measured 7 dB at 30 Hz. Contrast that to the frequency response of the much bigger Behringer B1200D-PRO that my son has for his live rig. Even with a 12’’ driver, the Behringer’s response is down 10 dB at 40 Hz. The T8 does have a slight resonance at 36 Hz (due to its driver/port tuning) that impacts its impulse response, but otherwise, it sounds relatively tight and controlled for a tiny cabinet with a long-excursion driver. The bigger brother Temblor T10 has a forward-facing 10’’ driver, and PreSonus claims a frequency response down to 20 Hz. It also offers XLR I/O in addition to TRS, with a dedicated subwoofer output for daisy-chaining multiple subs, as well as a 1/4'' jack for the included subwoofer-bypass footswitch. SM: In use, I never felt that the T8 was overcoloring the mix, so much as exposing when I went too far with bass guitar or kick drum levels — or when I just simply overhyped material below 100 Hz because I could not hear that detail  otherwise. The T8’s frequency response is listed as 30–200 Hz, and I did not feel that is a “hyped” specification, nor did I feel I need more low-end for my small project-studio space. True, I’m not getting down to 20 Hz with this sub, but 30 Hz is more bottom than most $500 nearfields can provide. The theory of having to “work for the mix” or make the mix sound good in a low-cost, band-limited monitor is valid, but given the choice, I’ll take information over ignorance. With −

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three sets of budget-friendly nearfield monitors on hand, I felt that the inclusion of the Temblor T8 to my system bumped those monitors into a higher class! Great work, PreSonus. Not a big-risk decision here. Highly recommended. ($329 street; www.presonus.com) street; www.presonus.com) –AH & SM

Mix With The Masters Online tutorial videos Mix With The Masters is doing an excellent job of getting

some of the music industry’s most renowned producers and mixers to share their creative processes with the rest of us. MWTM has been offering exclusive, week-long music production seminars at a residential studio in the French countryside since 2010. More recently, MWTM added a membership program for access to hundreds of online videos. In addition, members can register for interactive webinars and one-day, in-person seminars that are offered throughout the year. (Attendance fees need to be paid separately.) MWTM’s video content, which is accessed in your desktop web browser or through an app on your iOS device, is broken down into useful categories. Acoustic guitar, converters, clocking, bass guitar, hybrid mixing, and mix bus compression are just some of the topics offered — all of  which are easy to find and navigate. The list of “Masters” is impressive, and video tutorials are available from the likes of  Andy Wallace [Tape Op #25], Michael Brauer [#37], Jacquire King [#45, #88], Sylvia Massy [#63], Mitchell Froom [#10], Eddie Kramer [#24], Tchad Blake [#16], Joe Chiccarelli [#14], Andrew Scheps, Chris Lord-Alge, Al Schmitt, Young Guru, Greg Wells, Tony Maserati, Alan Meyerson, and more. New content is added weekly, so if you have a voracious appetite for the audio buffet, MWTM is essentially all-you-can-eat.

If you are like me, self-taught (with the exception of the occasional call to a fellow engineer, producer, or mentor to discuss a specific issue or ask a question), MWTM is a fascinating view into the ideas and practices of mix engineers and producers at the top of their game. Some of it is reassuring (“I do something like that!”), and some of it is new information or a new concept that could find a place in your own workflow. For example, I loved watching Tchad Blake talk about his in-the-box mixing and his use of plug-ins. Or how, when he moved into his new space, he threw some panels up — so it “looked like a real studio.” It’s inspiring to see him using tools that are within reach of almost everyone. It’s one thing to watch someone mix a record on an SSL with a mountain of outboard gear, and another to watch someone do it with software and plug-ins that are available for instant download off the web — and achieve a great sounding mix. Insights like this will certainly light a fire under your ass. Some of the tutorials go into specifics about gear or mix placements, but I found myself gravitating to the more conceptual offerings from these storied engineers and producers. It’s in many ways what I have always loved about Tape Op; for me, the tales and experiences are where the real  knowledge comes through, and I can pull from them what is useful to me. Also, strategies like tuning the room, choice of  instrument for the task, and minor adjustments — all with the end goal of making the drums sound better in the room — are great examples of tips and suggestions to consider, even before you walk into the control room. One of the first segments I watched was Michael Brauer discussing his “Brauerize” compression technique. He talks about the process as well as the path that led him to this technique — and again, I found his narrative to be far more

interesting than a demonstration of the settings on a processor would have been. He shares just enough with his viewers so they can go off and experiment with their own tools, using his theories as a jump-off point. Similarly, I appreciated that, in the Joe Chicarelli tutorials, he walks you through his use of EQ and compression to give the kick some extra this and the snare a little that, without getting into the nitty-gritty of “+2 dB at 3.5 kHz” or the like. He leaves some room for you to listen with your own ears and find your own path — with a touch of his guidance. I have always thought that anyone actually “cutting and pasting” someone else’s settings for EQ or compression is a bit misguided. Each situation is different, and there’s always more than one way to achieve a great result. In the case of  MWTM, the viewers are asked to listen, think, and consequently, make their own evaluations of their own music or projects. That’s not to say that straightforward advice is missing from these videos. For example, committing three snare mics to one channel, and similarly themed decisionmaking to eliminate option fatigue and save time at mixdown, are fantastic reminders to get it right from the start and be smart about your choices. For the same reason I liked watching the Classic Albums documentary series for insight on the thought process of  making a great record, I enjoyed firing up an episode (or five) of MWTM in the evenings, after the family was all tucked in. Although, in contrast to the high-level overview approach of Classic Albums, MWTM gets much more inside the nuances of record-making, hitting it from an engineering and production perspective, instead of from an artist or audience angle. In that way, MWTM is a deep dive into techniques, ideas, and audio geekdom. Also, MWTM’s collection of videos is carved up into bite-sized, readily digestible segments. Even

if you only have 20 minutes to spare at a time, you’ll find meaningful content to watch. The videos are photographed and recorded well, and if you listen on decent monitors or headphones, you will actually hear the changes being made when EQ, dynamics, and other effects settings are tweaked during the tutorials. Ultimately for me, it’s all about the approach. No one person approaches the same challenge in exactly the same way, yet their individual paths get them where they want to be. This is the ethos behind MWTM that comes through clearly and makes these tutorials so valuable and inspirational to me. Granted, you shouldn’t expect that watching a video of Sylvia Massy is going to make your mixes sound like hers. I still can’t paint like Bob Ross, but I sure do enjoy watching him do his thing, and it’s always enlightening. The same holds true here — only we’re all painting with sound. (I know I’ve used the Bob Ross example in the past, but it’s just so damn good I couldn’t refuse.) There is no chance I could have gotten through all of  the MWTM material during my review period, but what I did sample as I jumped around was consistently high in quality and informational value. The content covers a wide variety of genres and styles of music, so there is certainly something here for most everyone. Whether you are just cutting your teeth, or you’ve been at it for years, Mix With The Masters is a great sharing of ideas and techniques — all in one place — and is a serious deal for such a wealth of great content. And, if you still need additional  of Paintin Painting  g  inspiration, you can watch full episodes of Joy of with Bob Ross on YouTube. (Annual membership $289 ; www www.m .mixw ixwith iththe thema maste sters rs.co .com) m) –GS 

The Mic Shop MS47 Mark II tube mic  For many years, Bill Bradley ( Tape Op #42) has built a reputation for expertly repairing microphones in the Nashville area. Over ten years ago, Bill branched into building his own mics, and the MS47 was born. Recently, Bill decided he could do better, and with James Brian, he’s introduced the MS47 Mark II , an upgraded and “future proofed” version of this mic. I’ve been using one for the last few months and can report back that I am most impressed and happy with the MS47 Mark II . The mic is obviously based on the classic Neumann U 47 tube mic, and features cardioid and omnidirectional polar patterns like the original. Its tube circuitry is remotely powered, so it comes with a Mic Shop–built power supply and cable, and includes a typical shockmount and a sturdy Pelican carrying case. For my first test, I put it in front of a drum kit, a few feet out pointing at the drummer. I was able to easily get a clean image of the drums. The kit remained as balanced as the drummer sounded in the room, and the low end of the kick was nice and solid and felt correct. The MS47 Mark II doesn’t have a ridiculously hot output level, and it was nice not to hear any distortion/overloading coming from the mic itself — you wouldn’t believe how many modern tube mics won’t even work near a drum set without a pad. Like a classic U 47, the MS47 Mark II  doesn’t get super shrill in the top end, and the cymbals sounded clear and natural, much like I was hearing in the room. I noticed this same relaxed but natural high end on some fiddle tracks I tracked for Jolie Holland. Though I was on the ready to pull the mic and grab a ribbon mic if needed, I kept the MS47 Mark II up and got some great takes. On another session, for The Jackalope Saints, I had to track a song with a seven-

person group chorus and six verses sung by six different vocalists. I decided to do it in a single pass, so I put the MS47 Mark II up up,, switched it to omnidirectional mode, placed all seven singers in a circle, and had each lead vocalist move up closer to the mic for their verse. The variety of voices was wide, and what’s telling is that every single person, male and female, sounded very clear, up front, and present on this mic. I also noted that the group vocals were captured superbly. Despite the vocals being a little, er, “rangey,” the mic didn’t crap out with the high volume levels or loose pitch. Being in omni mode, it also picked up the room ambience really well, which worked great in the acoustic-based track. Over the years, I’ve had a few go-to mics that I could put in front of a singer when I was in a rush and trust that they would perform well. This is already one of those mics for Jackpot! I was so impressed that I called Bill and James to find out how this mic was designed. Bill, you’re known as one of the premier vintage mic restoration people. What led to building a mic? Were all the parts just lying around? Bill Bradley: As a matter of fact that’s exactly what happened. James and I were in the parts room one day, and I saw this little box on the shelf, and I picked it up, and it was full of [Neumann] U 47 capsules. I went, “What do you do with 35 U 47 capsules?” It was the impetus to start building a mic. Was it easy to find mic bodies? BB: The bodies I buy new from a company in Europe. I know that finding the original Telefunken Telefunken VF 14 tubes is impossible. BB: VF 14 tubes are basically gone. We tried EF 14s and had pretty poor luck with those. But there’s a tube called a Siemens E 81 CC that has worked out brilliantly. James Brian: The new circuit uses that, so this is the MS47 MARK II — the first version used the EF 14. We just couldn’t get enough of them that were suitable noise quality. It got to the point where it was just impossible to even find one tube to make a mic anymore. BB: It was really tough! JB: So we decided to develop a new circuit that was just as good, and this actually measures better than the old EF 14 circuit. The point was to use parts that were not going to go extinct, instead of relying on these tubes that there is a finite amount of. We wanted to use parts to make a “future proof” U 47–inspired microphone. BB: Those old metal tubes had been made in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and they are rough. What do you do when you are repairing a vintage U 47 and it needs a new tube? BB: If it needs a new tube, we try to talk the owner into going with something a little more civilized. How do you source the capsules? JB: The capsules are Siegfried Thiersch [Thiersch Elektroakustik] M7s. Originally, we had that glut of K 47s, but we made it through that. BB: They’re long gone! JB: We do prefer the Siegfried Thiersch M7. BB: And I can go out and actually buy them. How many original Neumann U 47s were made? BB: There were slightly over 5,000. Maybe 5,500. That doesn’t bode well for supplying everybody with one. BB: Not exactly, no. We get U 47s in all the time for service, and they vary from almost pristine — like the day they were built — to, “Oh my god, what is this inside?” JB: A lot of them have been changed over to various tubes, whether it’s a nuvistor, an EF 14, or a UF 14. We have to deal with them as they are. If that needs to change, we’ll change it to another configuration. It’s pretty rare that the ones with VF 14s

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really have any issues. We do also have a rejuvenation rig for VF 14s, and we are able to bring most of them back. BB: We can kind of wake them up. This sounds like magic. JB: It’s definitely not magic. BB: When they were originally built and set up, they were done at a very relaxed voltage. Consequently, the tubes get kind of lazy. All they need is a good kick in the ass, and they come back to life. Have you had clients do shootouts with other  U 47–style mics? BB: Oh sure. They like ours! I’m certainly glad for that. I haven’t heard of a losing shootout. It’s encouraging. JB: A lot of our mics are in the hands of the top engineers and producers in Nashville. BB: They get a lot of exposure, and they get used all the time. Is there a noticeable difference between the original MS47 and the MARK II? JB: There are some users where we have converted their EF 14 to the new MARK II version. Across the board, everyone prefers the MARK II version. It’s a little more open, and it’s got a little more solid bottom end. Lower distortion, and the output impedance is extremely low for this type of circuit. It also has lower noise and will be a lot more reliable than the EF 14s are. BB: It’s basically the same mic but quite a bit better. JB: We’ve only got one capacitor involved in the entire signal  path. We chose all the components by ear. We went through a mountain of output capacitors to pick the one part that was gonna work with everything else. We designed the circuit to work with wit h the original, custom Haufe Bv 8 output transformer transformer.. I designed a bunch bu nch of circuits with different tubes, and everything measured great, but we ended up choosing this one based upon how it sounded. Were you able to take it around to different studios? JB: Once we had the start with firm measurements, and then took it from listening and got it to where we thought it sounded good, then we sent it out to trusted users, without trying to poison the well with our opinions — to people who know and love the original mic, who are U 47 people. It’s definitely a type of person who really likes U 47s. Mike McCarthy [ Tape Op #94] was a big help. He loves U 47s! He owns a MARK II now. Have you built other mics based on older designs? BB: We build an MS12, which is basically an [AKG] C 12, and it’s great. I am a big-time fan of C 12s, and this definitely satisfies satisfies my need for a C 12. Everything in it is available; I can go out and buy every part. There’s a variety of prices for current U 47–style mics. How do you determine what to charge? JB: We wanted ours to be priced competitively. Our mic has a lot more hands-on work in it. I build every one of them myself. I make the power supply and the cable. Each one of these microphones is labored over intensively. It does not leave until it is 100% perfect. There’s no assembly line or army of college students soldering circuit boards. This is all point-to-point wiring inside, and I make them one at a time. I prefer to do it that way. Do you do a burn-in time and leave them running for a few days? JB: Oh yes. The burn-in time is ridiculous. Most mics will be on for weeks. I listen to music while I’m working, so they’re sitting on a rack burning in, and being exposed to all sorts of sounds. Everything changes and settles in the tube as it burns in. The voltages will settle. One aspect of this circuit is that everything is adjustable, so for each tube, the bias is adjustable. Each tube will  need a different adjustment. It’s all tuned to that individual tube, burned in, and we make sure everything is rock-solid and doublechecked before it gets put into the Pelican case and deemed to be ready to go out the door. ($4700 direct; www.micshop.com) direct; www.micshop.com) –L –LC  C 

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Little Labs Monotor headphone amp Boutique equipment maker and former studio technician Jonathan Little has built a business around making useful (and small) boxes that solve specific problems in the recording world. Each of his Little Labs products boasts a unique feature set — and a humorous name. With this new Monotor , Little has built in the kind of monitoring flexibility often found only in a mastering room, and strapped it to a superb-sounding, high-power headphone amplification system, with one dual-mono amplifier driving a set of paralleled 1/4’’ and 1/8’’ headphone jacks, and a second dual-mono amp driving another set of 1/4’’ and 1/8’’ jacks. He also added an unbalanced stereo 1/8’’ aux input on the back, alongside the balanced XLR/TRS Combo jacks that make up the main input, and a loop-through capability on separate TRS jacks, which allows the Monotor to bridge out the balanced inputs to the studio’s monitoring system (or other destination). But wait, there’s more! On both sides of the volume knob are little holes in the front panel. Stick a paper clip in the left hole, and there’s a switch to bypass the left side of the volume potentiometer. The little hole on the right leads to a switch that does the same for the right channel. As the well-written manual explains, this feature is for people using a DAW or DAC with its own high-quality volume control. You can also utilize these switches with the Monotor in mono mode for a “more me” cue mix. For example, feed a mono DAW mix to the left channel, bypass the left side of the volume pot, and control its level from the DAW; then feed the singer’s mic to the right channel, and leave the volume pot enabled for that side, so that the singer can change that level as desired. Furthermore, the recessed switches should prevent you from accidentally pushing the buttons and subjecting your ears to a full-volume signal, if you’ve got an unattenuated source feeding the Monotor . And then there is the monitor-mode selector, controlled by a larger knob next to the volume control. The mode selector has six discrete positions: reverse stereo (R/L), regular stereo (L/R), summed mono (L+R), left-channel to both ears (L), right-channel to both ears (R), and differencee to both ears (L R). This last option is immediately useful in the 2016 recording world. differenc If you want an ear-opening experience, use this setting and listen to some originally-mono material via Spotify or other lossy sources. That “digi-hash” you’ll hear is made up of artifacts caused by lossy data compression. In a true mono recording that was mastered in true mono (for instance, The Beatles In Mono CD box set), you will hear almost no sound in the L R position, because there is no out-of-phase material in a true mono source. Back to the Monotor details — as with all products from Little Labs, the Monotor is a small  box built out of heavy-duty materials so it can handle life in a working studio or on the road. The external power supply is about twice as big and more than twice as heavy as the Monotor  box itself. The manual explains that one of the several capacitors in the power supply is larger and weighs more than a typical USB dongle DAC/headphone amp. Bigger reserve capacitors allow the power supply to deliver more peak power to drive anything plugged into the amp with less distortion. I asked Little to describe the philosophy behind Monotor ’s ’s design, which he calls “Zen circuit topology.” He answered by way of a comparison to more common headphone amp designs: “The Rupert Neve RNHP, for example, uses a classic-style, three-stage design — basically a buffer at the front end (balanced to unbalanced), a potentiometer with another buffer, and then a driver stage. Another well-regarded design uses a transformer to buffer (balanced to unbalanced), potentiometer with buffer, then a driver stage. Both are similar to a console linedriver output used in classic consoles. “The Monotor is unique in that it is completely passive, including the mono summing circuit, and it uses just a single driver stage for the output to the headphones. If fed a balanced signal, the signal remains balanced throughout the unit, until the final and only active part, the drivers. “I experimented for a few years with variations of classic designs, using both transformers and multiple stages. I could make them work very well, but I had an idea to do this completely passive — including the mono summing part, which, even if you don’t think it’s a feature you need, once you have it, you will use it all the time. “Once I got it all figured out, and built my fourth prototype with this unique single activestage circuit, I was astonished at the incredible detail in the resulting sound. Obviously, there’s much more to it, like the special, super-low-noise voltage regulators I use. I could go on and on, but all that is in the product PDF that you can download from the Little Labs website.” According to Little, the only active component in the circuit is a modern, super-clean, monolithic driver; and the gain level is purposely set somewhat high: “Despite what a lot of old-school audio guys say — and I am one — there are transistors on a bipolar process that are far more advanced than any discretes available on the market. Also, matching internal capacitances at femtofarad level to preserve the common-mode rejection performance can only be done on a die. “You might notice with a mic preamp that it comes to life at a certain gain, usually higher. When you have multiple stages, like in a typical headphone amp, you might not be able to run −

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The New MS47 Mark II

$4700 Direct Siegfried Thiersch M7 capsule Custom Haufe BV8 output transformer Siemens NOS E81CC tubes. Hand built point to point construction

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those amplification stages in their happy place. The gain on the single-stage Monotor is high, but you’ll notice it’s not the volume so much as it’s the Monotor ’s ’s quick, lively performance — even at a low volume. That is the result of gain in its happy place. So that’s the Zen thing!” As I noted in my review of the Hafler HA15 and HA75 headphone amps [Tape Op #115], we now live in a musicproduction world where it’s essential to end up with a master that sounds good on traditional headphones, earbuds, and a new generation of devices with active electronics for personalized sound profiles. Making a mix that jumps out of  the big soffit monitors and blows your hair back just won’t do it anymore, unless it translates very well to earbuds connected to an iPhone. So, an essential part of the mixing and mastering environment today is a good headphone system. Ideally, this means an amplifier that can drive a wide range of headphone designs and impedances, and put minimal sonic fog, noise, or “character” between your sound source and your headphones or earbuds. The Little Labs Monotor  definitely meets those requirements, and its many monitoring options make it uniquely suited to the pro-audio world. To test the sound quality of the Monotor , I set up two signal  paths: first, fed directly from the line-level outs of my Lynx Hilo interface [Tape Op #90], using the Monotor ’s ’s built-in level  control; and second, plugged into the line outs of my Benchmark DAC1 HDR with a loop-through to my Benchmark AHB2 power amp [#111] and Amphion Two18 monitors [#108], using the DAC1 HDR’s level control. Both the Hilo and DAC1 HDR were connected to my DAW via USB. I listened to material I was working on in the studio, as well as numerous recordings from my digital library, ranging from 24-bit, 96 and 192 kHz high-resolution files; to CD-resolution; to various lossy formats. I used my three go-to headphones: Sennheiser HD 650 (300 Ω nominal impedance) [#43]; Audio-Technica ATH-M50 (38 Ω) [#63, #113]; and AKG K 240 DF (600 Ω). I also compared the Monotor to the built-in headphone amps in the Hilo and DAC1 HDR. First of all, let me say that I wish the Monotor had the loopthrough circuit after the stereo-mono-mode selector. It would be great to have those facilities ahead of monitor speakers, too. Yes, they are pretty much standard-issue in a high-end mastering suite, but that kind of monitoring flexibility is not common in the DAW-based home-studio world. I asked Little about that, and he replied: “I didn’t want to add any buffered thing, and it’s a tricky balance of parts the way I do it internally so that nothing is compromised. The thru jacks are straight-wire, to tap in-line before a monitor controller or console, and they also allow you to daisy-chain multiple units together. (Four units fit in a 1RU rack space.) However, you can always use one of the Monotor ’s ’s headphone jacks to feed your powered speakers. I do that with my Meridian M20 speakers in my lab at home, and it works great.” I also didn’t find the 1/8’’ aux jack as useful as an inputsource switch would have made it for studio use. The signal  from this jack is summed with the signal from the main inputs, post monitor-mode selector. So, for example, you could use the aux jack to inject a talkback source into the headphones. Or, you could use it with a portable device to listen to a client’s rough mix or to play back songs meant to inspire a tracking or mixing session. But it would have been more useful if one could switch between the mobile device and the master mix out of the DAW. Theoretically, you could just hit “pause” on each source in turn, but what if you want to sync both sources up, and A/B the sound quality of master file to lossy playback?

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Another good reason for a switch is, what if the device on the unbalanced aux jack puts out hum, hash, or noise while it’s paused, as some smartphones do? But as Little explained, the aux input is a “convenience feature” he was able to add to the Monotor , but there wasn’t any space left over to incorporate an input selector. My only other critique is minor — I would prefer a larger level-control knob. It should be the same size as the monitormode selector, or at least big enough to get a couple of chubby fingers of a ham-hand on it for a quick adjustment in the middle of a busy session. On the plus side, the volume control  is detented, so settings are repeatable, but there are no marks along the arc of movement on the front panel, so writing down a setting would require something like, “5 clicks left of center.” As for sound quality and user experience, I have no complaints or nits to pick. This amplifier sounds fantastic — plain and simple. It sounded at least as clean as the Benchmark DAC1 HDR’s built-in amp, and seemed to have a bit more power in reserve, perhaps operating at a more “Zen” place in the power curve. It had more bass punch than the Lynx Hilo’s built-in amp, or perhaps less midrange emphasis, but the Lynx could drive those 600 Ω AKG headphones to painful SPLs — something neither the Monotor  nor the Benchmark could do. In the end, I thought the Monotor was the most direct sonic line to the output of the two converters. No matter what kind of music I listened to, at my normal  listening levels (just loud enough to hear details and dynamics, depending on the music, and not loud enough to make my ears ring), the Monotor  sounded honest and in control of the headphones. I should mention that, when listening to true mono sources, the average level is louder in the L+R setting versus the L/R or R/L settings. Little explained: “When you add two signals together in mono, they do get louder by 6 dB electronically. I gave that some thought, and rather than compensate for that, I left it how you would hear it if you combined two tracks on a console.” As previously mentioned, the L R option is extremely useful, perhaps essential for working with lossy file formats. It’s important to hear what sorts of artifacts are created, as well as what sound qualities and timbres are lost. My trusty editor and sounding board, Andy Hong, suggested two more great uses for L R listening: “If you’re going to check the mid ‘channel’ (of a mid/side recording) for mono compatibility, it’s nice to be able to hear the side ‘channel’ (which is L R) so you understand what you’re losing when the mix is folded to mono. Also, hearing the amount of ‘stereo-ness’ (the difference between the left and right channels) as you work on a mix can provide insight into how you might want to move forward with the mix.” It’s very ear-opening (and eyebrow-raising, if not hairraising) to carefully listen to our work as it streams out of  Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, or Amazon Music. This is what we’re up against in the modern world of audio production. What our work will sound like through earbuds over a “digistream” is as unknown as how it would sound after it’s been cut to lacquer and pressed to vinyl — perhaps even more so in the realm of streaming. Careful production work referencing the listening environment of most of the music-consuming public can take some of the mystery and angst out of the process. With the Monotor , Little Labs has provided the audio professional the right tool for this job, and the most transparent-sounding headphone amp I’ve ever heard. ($540 street; www.littlelabs.com) –Tom Fine −

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SoundRadix 

Chandler Limited

Drum Leveler plug-in

TG Microphone Cassette channel strip

Here’s the very short version: Drum Leveler is a brilliant plug-in. If the name “Drum Leveler ” sounds useful to you, you can stop reading and go download the trial. Drum um Le Leve vele lerr is a compressor/  By definition, I suppose Dr expander/gate, but in use, it doesn’t act or sound like one. Drum Leveler is designed with one purpose: to transparently even out the levels of individual drum hits. So unlike traditional compressors, it analyzes incoming audio to find each drum hit, then applies gain to push the hit towards a target output level. Have you ever sliced apart drum tracks in your DAW so you could use clip-gain to change the volume of inaudibly quiet hits or crazy-loud “I got excited” snares? This plug-in basically does that for you. The big, clean UI is easy to learn without a manual. A moving waveform highlights each drum hit, colorized to indicate that upward or downward gain is being applied. Controls overlaid on the waveform set the target output level and a minimum threshold, which means “leave everything alone below this level” — perfect for ghost notes or hits that are so quiet they would sound bad if  gain-adjusted. (There’s also a maximum threshold to allow very loud hits to get through untouched; I haven’t found this useful and leave it at 0 dB.) A Compression knob controls how far each hit’s level is pushed toward the target. I like 50–80% for most applications. Most of the remaining controls further tweak detection; these will look familiar to anyone who has spent time with drum trigger plug-ins. There are no attack and release controls (although there is a knob for Recovery); and within reason, drum sounds don’t change in “shape” or envelope, as they would with a compressor. Therefore, if you want the sound of an 1176 on snare, for example, use it in addition to Drum Leveler . A nice side-effect of  compressing after application of Drum Leveler  is that the compressor’s detector will work more consistently, since its incoming transient levels are... level. One last feature worth mentioning is the gate. The analysisbased engine means that Drum Leveler  doesn’t work or sound anything like traditional noise gates. The Gate Range knob is powerful and almost seems like a magic bleed-remover. That said, a little goes a long way; the output of the gate can quickly get too artifact-ridden for my liking. And a quick editorial aside: I’m sure some folks reading this are saying to themselves, “Why would anyone want to level out drums? Dynamics are music!” First: Great. Take a stand with your own productions. Don’t use plug-ins like this if you don’t want to. Second: Sample replacement/reinforcement is everywhere, and this is a solid alternative. I do take a stand against drum samples in my productions; I dislike and avoid them whenever possible. But in a dense mix, it’s wild how things can gel when the drum hits are consistent. With some drum performances, Drum Leveler  helps get me there while still retaining the sonic character of the drums and player — without using tons of  compression compressi on or tedious automation. Speaking of automation, Drum Leveler  automates well, and I recommend taking advantage of that. For instance, snare rolls will  never sound good through this kind of processing, so if I have Drum Leveler  on a snare track, I’ll automate bypassing of these sections. You might also try duplicating a track to process certain sections differently. differently. For instance, on a thrash-metal kick drum, put all of the double-kick sections on their own ow n track, then apply Drum Leveler  on that track more aggressively and with different hold/recovery settings. Drum Leveler  is a great, unique plug-in. Check it out, and ($149; www.soundradix.com)  www.soundradix.com) remember not to overdo it! ($149; –Scott Evans

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The buzz on this box was unlike any I have encountered, and it was a challenge to get a review unit from Chandler due to demand. But it was well worth the wait. Chandler and its main man Wade Goeke have been producing lust-worthy, licensed versions of audio gear from EMI/Abbey Road Studios for many years. I remember coveting a friend’s Chandler TG1 Limiter [Tape Op #37] when I first heard it over a decade ago, and loving the sound it achieved on piano and drums. It was one of those pieces of gear that just imparted a vibe and emotion to the music, instead of simply being an audio utility. In my opinion, this has been the case with all of Chandler’s gear since the company’s inception. The mic preamps, dynamics processors, and EQs in the TG-series in particular are all glorious specimens in their own right, so imagine a channel  strip that incorporates all three functions. To describe it succinctly, the Chandler Limited TG Microphone Cassette is a console-style channel-strip that incorporates elements of the historic EMI TG12345 recording and mastering desks of the late ‘60s and ‘70s. Imagine the TG2 TG2 mic preamp [Tape Op #39, #105], the Curve Bender EQ [#115], and an “Opto” version of the TG1 Limiter [#37] assembled together in a single 2RU-height chassis. The unit is finished in the now familiar, EMI gun-metal grey, with red, black, and grey chicken-head knobs for the switches and pots. An external  power supply is sold separately. The preamp and EQ are tied together, with the preamp feeding the EQ. The compressor, on the other hand, has its own I/O, so it’s possible to use it independently. In addition, you can link the compressors of two TG units with a standard 1/4’’ cable for stereo use. During my evaluations with a single TG , I patched the output of the EQ to the input of the compressor with a short XLR cable, so that I could use all the functions of the whole channel strip. I started to write a brief history of the TG12345 console and then came across this perfect and succinct bit of writing in the TG Microphone Cassette manual: “Conceived from meetings in 1967 between Abbey Road and EMI’s Central Research Research Laboratories Laboratories teams, the the EMI TG12345 Mark I desk ushered in a sea of change in sound and flexibility at Abbey Road Studios. The new, transistorized EMI TG12345 console was modular in design, with twelve dualchannel microphone ‘cassettes.’ The TG desks featured expanded EQ, and for the first time ever, a compressor/limiter on every channel. Installed in Abbey Road’s Studio Two in November 1968 and making its debut on an 8-track recording by The Shadows, the transistorized desk marked a departure from the earlier REDD valve consoles. The EMI TG12345 desk  Abbey  ey  helped shape the sound of The Beatles’ final album,  Abb Road , which was markedly richer sounding to that of the band’s earlier work. The sonic qualities of classics like ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ Sun,’ ‘Come Together,’ and ‘Something’ would have been very different without the EMI TG12345. The desk encountered many revisions throughout the ‘70s and became the main recording console used throughout the studios until  1983. The EMI TG12345 console Marks I–IV were used on everything from Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon an andd Wish You Were Here, to John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band , Geo Georg rgee Things gs Must Must Pass Pass, to epic film scores, including Harrison’s  All Thin Raiders of the Lost Ark .” .” I have to say, the TG Microphone Cassette looks, feels, and sounds great; and it does feel a bit like having a piece of Abbey Road in my studio. Chandler has done a beautiful job of  recreatingg this piece of recording history with immaculate detail. recreatin

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Looking at the sections of the TG more closely — the preamp has mic/line and DI inputs, with a stepped switch for Coarse Gain and a variable potentiometer for Fine Gain control. Overall, +70 dB of gain is available. A low-cut filter can be enabled, and it offers six fixed frequencies ranging from 33 to 110 Hz. The EQ has two shelves labeled Bass and Treble, and a semi-parametric Presence band with five frequencies ranging from 300 Hz to 6.5 kHz. An output attenuator at the EQ allows you to drive the preamp and EQ hard, and then turn down the output — a similar action to moving the channel fader down on a console. The compressor has the standard controls for attack and release time, as well as a switch for soft/hard knee and a pot for makeup gain. A knob labeled Hold is also included, and its operating manner is not what you might expect; I’ll get to that later. The original TG1 compressor was meant to exist in the same sonic realm as the variable-mu Fairchild 660/670 and EMI RS124. EMI engineers had experimented with using optobased gain cells in their compressor designs, but these prototypes were never put into production. The “TG1 Opto” is the first implementation of an opto cell in a Chandler EMI product. Because of this, the compressor in the TG Microphone Cassette has its own unique onset and release characteristics. I love the sound of the TG1, and it would have been a welcomed integration, but the opto version in this channel  strip is equally impressive and useful. One interesting feature of this compressor is the ability to set the desired dynamic range, using the aforementioned Hold knob. This should not be confused with the “hold” timeconstant control on a more typical compressor, or even the “hold” function on the EMI RS124, which prevents the compressor from recovering after clamping down on a signal. On the TG1 Opto, Hold moves the meter needle into position, allowing you to see and set the desired compression “base line” before sending signal to the circuit. Setting the compression amount this way was a little odd at first, but once I got my head around what I was seeing versus what I was hearing, it became a non-issue. I was soon appreciating how highly useable and addicting this sound-shaping tool can be, both for recording and mixing. Starting with a few recommendations for settings from Chandler’s Adam Fiori, I tracked my Gibson Dove acoustic guitar to a simple drum-machine groove, using a Royer R-122 MKII active ribbon mic [Tape Op #113] feeding the TG  Microphone Cassette. This was the kind of situation that reminds you how experience and great tools can make the job easy. Even with the EQ set flat, there was a nice shimmer to the tone. Glossy, high-quality, cultured butter may be a decent way to describe it. Straight into the DAW from the TG , the guitar track simply sounded finished, with just the right amount of compression and sheen. Bass direct was also a snap to record, and it too sounded great. I plugged my ‘73 Fender P-Bass into the front-panel 1/4’’ jack; dialed in the right combination of Coarse Coar se and Fine Gain for a touch of grit; set the compressor for just enough reduction to lock the performance into place; added a little bump of Presence at 1.2 kHz so the instrument would poke through the mix; and started recording. The resultant sound was sublime, and I could truly appreciate how the TG falls falls nicely into a place between simple and well-appointed, without being difficult to use. Screwing around with gear is not what I want to be doing mid-session. Optimally, I want great results with personality, and I don’t want to spend a bunch of time getting there. The TG delivers in this regard. I also used the TG Microphone Cassette to record guitars, bass, keys, and vocals on a track by Los Angeles artist Blake Hazard. It was a last minute, “can you do this yesterday” request, and we had to work quickly. In almost any other case, I would have Mr. Reviews/(continued on page 92) 90 52/Tape Op#117/ Op#116/ Gear

patched in gear which I already had a history with, so that I could achieve a desired result without fussing around. But even after my short time with the TG , I felt comfortable and confident trusting it, and I was not disappointed. The unit clearly has a sound and feeling all its own, and it contributed to the performances in a positive way. There were some soft-synths on my iPad I wanted to use, and plugging the iPad into the TG Microphone Cassette’s DI input immediately beefed up the tone. Utilizing the entire channel strip really took it to the next level. Adding some harmonic grit to the otherwise anemic iPad sounds and dialing back some of the hardness of the highs with the TG ’s analog processing made the iPad sounds quite usable. This may seem like a small or unusual  application for such a serious piece of gear like the TG , but when you can turn $10 iPad synth apps into useable instruments, it becomes an appreciable “value add” situation. My favorite application for the TG Microphone Cassette was on electric guitar. I loved roughing in levels with the Coarse Gain control and then adding some extra special magic dust to the signal with the Fine Gain. You can get the box to distort in a cool way, or you can just tickle the hairs of a wild boar to have the guitar knit right into the mix. Also, the EQ was colorful, and it was a snap to dial in tones ranging from “sit in the mix” to more extreme treatments. If you like the sound of  John Lennon’s electric guitar on later Beatles recordings, try plugging straight into the unit via the DI and cranking up the gain to desired effect. With a little tweaking of the compressor and EQ, I was able to achieve a sound reminiscent of some of  my favorite Lennon guitar tones. The TG Microphone Cassette is one of those pieces of gear you will return to again and again — and fall in love with for many recording and mixing duties. It definitely has a “sound” of its own that adds to the creative process. Those technicians at EMI were onto something special many decades ago, and we can thank Wade Goeke and his team at Chandler for making these designs available to us today. Given its price, the TG is not an entry-level device, nor is it intended to be. But given its sound, build-quality, and features, it is an incredible value. If you want to put your hands on a piece of gear that will serve you dutifully for years to come, for a wide range of recording and mixing applications, the Chandler Limited TG Microphone Cassette should be on your short list. ($2849 street;  street;  www.chandlerlimited.com) –GS 

Dynaudio LYD 7 active monitor  The Dynaudio LYD 7 is a new, bi-amplified, 2-way nearfield monitor aimed at the mid-market project and personal studio. It offers a great value by including cool features and solid performance at a reasonable price-point. It sits in the middle of  a range that includes the LYD 5 and LYD 8, with the numeral  indicating the woofer diameter in inches. As with all Dynaudio professional monitors, the LYD series is manufactured in Denmark. I have been looking to upgrade my own monitors for a while now, but also have been a little price sensitive. I was eager to hear the LYD 7 , since its $669 street price is within my budget. Unpacking my review units from their sturdy and stylish shipping boxes, I was a little disappointed to see that styrofoam was used as the packing material, which was already beginning to crack and break down, sending lots of little white “styro-flakes” floating into my studio. It is 2016, and there are many more environmentally friendly and sturdier packing materials available (like extruded fiberboard). Once the speakers were unpacked, I noted the LYD 7 ’s ’s polymer woofer, soft-dome tweeter, and rear-mounted “voicing” settings for Bass Extension, Sound Balance, and Position.

The included documentation is clearly written and illustrated, providing a nice mini-tutorial on studio monitor setup in general, and these speakers specifically. Worth noting is that the section on the rear switches, which control the internal DSP, occurs after the speaker-placement section, when those switches are likely to be less accessible or harder to see. You may want to start with some initial settings before placing the speakers, and then, adjust accordingly, using the calibration steps outlined in the manual. If you want to get tweaky, there is a free Dynaudio app that you can download to do some basic SPL and RTA measurements. I checked it out, out , and it proved fairly usable. Reassuringly, the app was developed by the respectable Studio Six Digital folks, whose pro version of  the software I already own. I personally dig it when manufacturers provide tools and information to educate and help consumers achieve success with their products, so this was a welcome gesture. Suffice it to say, there are some useful  settings here that will allow owners to customize the LYD 7 ’s ’s response to their room, speaker position (e.g., near a wall), and desired voicing. I was unable to confirm whether the speakers had gone through the recommended break-in period, so after making some adjustments to the DSP settings and positioning the monitors properly, I set about cranking some tunes, just to get sense of the sound and have my own “Memorex” moment. I appreciated the LYD 7 ’s ’s even tone, ample loudness when pushed, and nice level of detail in the high frequencies. Reverb tails (one of my go-to HF subtlety tests) in some slow-tempo classical  pieces were nicely articulated. I never heard any turbulence, distortion, or “chuffing” from the rear port, even with low frequencies played back loudly — likely due to the unique, flared shape of the rear bass port. After trying out some commercial releases of rock, pop, and electronica, I would say that the LYD 7 ’s ’s low-frequency response is somewhat restrained, despite the ability to make some adjustments in that area. Many folks would argue that a lack of  hype is a good thing, but if you are a hip-hop or EDM producer, you should consider the LYD 8 instead (or a subwoofer), especially during the production phase, if you need some extra excitement down there. Folks should know I am a low-end  junkie  jun kie,, so my eval evaluat uation ion of the spea speaker ker’s ’s low lowss sh should ould be understood with that bias in mind. I have noticed that I will  tend to mix a bit bottom heavy, and my mixes have definitely needed correction in that domain during mastering or subsequent mixing. So given that, and that my own RTA measurement of the speaker (using pink noise at ~72 dB SPL) looked relatively flat, I think it’s fair to say that the LYD 7  is accurate in frequency response, though possibly to the point of  being cautiously so. That could be a plus, a minus, or a neutral  point, depending on taste, usage, and musical genre. Regardless of your need for “boom in the room,” I did appreciate that the low end, and the frequency response overall, were consistent through a wide range of volumes — a valuable trait when evaluating how mixes will perform in the real world, and also to avoid listening fatigue in longer sessions. Moreover, I am a bit sensitive to high frequencies, and I found the highs to be very pleasing, detailed, but never harsh, even after extending listening. I noticed that the horizontal (side-to-side) off-axis response of the LYD 7  was fairly forgiving, with a wide “sweet spot.” Standing to one side, I felt like the frequency response was still  good, even though the stereo imaging obviously suffered. Vertical off-axis response was less forgiving, and the manual  was clear about the importance of the speakers being on the same plane as your ears — something to keep in mind as you move about the room, or when you are getting client input.

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Time-domain response seemed good as well. Transients on percussive instruments were well-articulated, and low-end stuff like kick drum and acoustic bass (one of the t he trickier things to reproduce well, in my humble opinion) was “tight” and defined. Some of my favorite monitors have been ones with concentric-driver layout (e.g., Tannoy, Tannoy, UREI), due to their time alignment, phase coherency, imaging, and what I would call a “natural” sound akin to an actual acoustic source in a room. The LYD 7 , despite being a standard 2-way configuration of  drivers, has decent performance in this regard, though you really must have your ears on the right plane between the t he vertically oriented drivers, as previously mentioned. mentioned. Gratefully, I have a sit/stand workstation that allows me to dial this in pretty quickly. I wanted to see how mixes on the LYD 7 sounded on other systems, including my modest home hi-fi, my car, some decent “pro” headphones, and of course, the ubiquitous earbuds. Overall, my mix of a highly produced pop tune made a decent showing in the various environments. I was forced to swap out a synth bass patch during recall because the plugin wasn’t loading properly (that never happens!), so I had to re-balance that instrument, as well as the lead vocal. On the first pass, I found myself mixing the vocal a bit low, and the bass part a bit too forward, which would suggest the “bass kindliness” previously mentioned, mentioned, as well as some midrange forwardness. After two more passes, I was able to get something I liked. I would credit this more to “learning” the characteristics of the LYD 7 than to anything inherently wrong wrong with its performance. Over time, I am sure I would mentally adjust my mixes to compensate. I can say that the LYD 7  gives an honest, neutral presentation that will  translate nicely to a variety of playback systems. One of the least important yet most notable aspects of the LYD series is the white faceplate. I initially found it very off-putting when I first saw the series in photos. After setting up the LYD 7 s and having them at my workstation for a while, I began to appreciate the modern styling and distinctive look. The speakers blended in after I got used to them, and I appreciated them as a nice break from the ever-present “black boxes” we all seem to collect. Like the ubiquitous Yamaha NS-10M, the LYD models are easily identifiable. identifiabl e. I would encourage anyone in the market for new studio monitors in this price range,, but who might be dubious about how the LYDs look, to go see them in person and range give them a serious listen. Any minor gripes aside, I really like the LYD 7 . It offers an audible upgrade to my current system, and though I reluctantly had to send the review pair back, I am now strongly considering a purchase for myself. (Each $669 street, www.dynaudio.com) street, www.dynaudio.com) –Kerry Rose

Hazelrigg Industries VLC-1 preamp & equalizer  Hazelrigg Industries might be a new name, but founders George and Geoff Hazelrigg are no strangers to professional recording equipment. For years, they built and repaired gear for their own studio. In 2010, they joined the team at D.W. Fearn [Tape Op #37]. Of course, all  of their engineer and producer friends gave them grief about it. Adored for sound and construction, the D.W. D.W. Fearn offerings are priced beyond most people’s budget. It wasn’t long before the Hazelriggs were developing strategies to bring Fearn-quality to market at a lower price-point. The VLC-1 is their company’s first offering. The VLC-1 is a mic, line, and DI preamp integrated with an inductor-based EQ, and it features an all-tube signal path. The amplifier section and power supply are licensed from D.W. Fearn. Both input and output stages are transformer-coupled. The EQ is passive, using custom, in-house-wound inductors. Built in the USA, sold factory direct and through a few exclusive dealers, the VLC-1 features a five-year warranty (with a 90-day warranty for its tubes). Part of the cost savings comes from cosmetic changes. There is no VU meter, and instead of a deluxe, Formula 1 gloss-red g loss-red panel like on the D.W. Fearn units, a simple chocolate-brown face is used. The hefty knobs remain as the lone visual clue to the product’s heritage. A great feature is the locking 48 V switch, which appears to be a standard toggle, but closer inspection reveals a clever pull-before-it-will-move design, which reduces the odds of  accidental engagemen engagement. t. During our tests, we compared the VLC-1 against a Millennia Media STT-1 in tube mode, and a Peavey VMP-2 [Tape Op #29] with Mullard valves. But we also added an API 212, a Chandler TG2 [#39], and the preamps from a well-known live/recording mixer, since most people will have some sort of solid-state alternative. I need to thank Daniel Carballal for doing many of the recording tests for this review. The VLC-1 is clearly a quality preamp, as no source sounds inherently bad or unusable through it. Even when I didn’t prefer the VLC-1 over the other preamps, the reason was a gut feeling or appropriateness call — never because the VLC-1 was better or worse. I can see why producer types would grab a pair of these preamps and forget about it. You won’t have to worry that this box will burn you. It is obvious that this design has more headroom than Gear Reviews/(continued on page 94)/ Tape Tape

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standard solid-state preamps. When some transistor designs overload, the resulting distortion is strong in third-order harmonics.. Some people describe this as a softer, veiled sound. harmonics In high-fidelity tube designs, such as the VLC-1, the distortion is mainly second-order harmonics, which is often perceived by the human ear as being a fuller and richer sound. Perhaps this is why the Hazelriggs chose to include an EQ rather than a compressor.. Commitment considerations aside, there is no need compressor to control dynamics during the recording stage if the circuit provides enough headroom. With that said, here are some interesting observations from our evaluations. Direct instruments — I’m not going to use this as a DI box if I’m recording a band, but since many people stack tracks in writing or smaller studio setups, I sought an appropriate test source. I tried the VLC-1’s DI on a Fender Rhodes, and get ready — I’m no keyboardist, but simple chords had a chime and dimension through this preamp. Here, the high headroom was evident as a Rhodes can distort lesser preamps. And even those that don’t distort often flatten out the bell-like chimes of a Rhodes. The VLC-1 is a winner here. On acoustic guitar, my immediate thoughts turned to “different” versus good/bad. If you are looking for shimmering and stabbing acoustic backing parts, you might be better bet ter served with other options, but finger-picked or strummed bluegrass is another story. The VLC-1 was spectacular on a Martin. You could almost taste the soundboard, and the midran midrange ge had that magic that some vocalists experience with a vintage Neumann. There was something that made this track sit so well in the mix. Classical, folk, or bluegrass guitarists will love the VLC-1. It presents the instrument instrument in a very natural way — very similar to how the artist hears their instrument in the room. Some engineers will not use a tube preamp on a drum room or overhead setup. There is a perception that tube preamps can be poor custodians of transients. I’m sure some designs behave that way, but the VLC-1 was detailed and nuanced in this application. As a mono room mic, the VLC-1 was a beast. If you do a minimalist Glyn Johns three-mic recording, you might want the VLC-1 handling your overhead mic. I was angry I didn’t ask for a second preamp to test stereo overheads, but I heard all I needed to hear from the mono room mic. It just goes to show that some of our long-held preconceptions can be wrong. For kicks and giggles, we tried recording a male voiceover. Wow. I expected the 212 to win the day. I know national VO artists who swear by API. I don’t want to say larger-than-life, but there was clearly more dimension to male voices with the VLC-1. Remember, this was without any compression applied. If  your studio has voice and speech–recording clients, you will  want to try the VLC-1 before you buy another preamp. I would characterize the VLC-1’s EQ as emerging from the same philosophy as the Kush Clariphonic [Tape Op #88] or original Joe Meek designs from Ted Fletcher, like the British Channel [#28] — “Turn this until it sounds good.” In other words, you can stop obsessing about specific frequencies and use your ears. I really like inductor designs. (Well, most of the inductor designs I’ve used are cool; it’s really in the designer.) Anyway,, these are custom-made, in-house inductors. So I’m in. Anyway To my ears, the bands interacted, so using your gut is the best course of action. Given the midrange detail that we heard from the preamp, having top and bottom bott om shelving controls in the EQ makes a lot of sense. If you purchase two VLC-1 units, you will  want to invest in appropriate patchbay wiring, because you will  want to have these EQs for bus and mixdown duty. Finally,, I really liked the VLC-1 as a front end for ribbon mics. Finally We have a Royer R-121 [Tape Op #19] and some vintage ribbons, and they don’t perform without a suitable suitab le preamp. The raw gain available with this preamp is what ribbons need . If you

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have a darker ribbon, the high-frequency shelf can open things up a bit. I could see buying the VLC-1 for that application alone. My reservations about the unit are as follows. First, I wish that I had requested a stereo pair to demo, because it seems that a lot of people using the VLC-1 are doing so in pairs. Second, recall is not easy. You’ll want to mark your settings with a grease pencil or tape. Alternately, print tones in your session so you can null them later. If you have clients that need goldplated gear and shiny lights to impress them, the VLC-1 won’t do you any favors. Also, the dark panel can be slightly hard to read in low light. If you’ve been a fan of euphonic tube gear but were reticent to make a purchase due to the cost, the VLC-1 could be the answer. With headroom to spare and a musical EQ to boot, this is a formidable front end for many situations. Try one, but don’t blame me if you end up wanting a stereo pair. Thank Hazelrigg Industries for all the work they did to bring this quality design to market at a price like this. ($2,249 introductory price; www.hazelriggindustries.com) –Garrett Haines

Shure MV88 iOS stereo mic  At the 2016 AES Show in Los Angeles, I was shown a slew of great new gear. For me, the products I saw typically fell into a few different categories: (1) Cool product, but doesn’t make sense for me; (2) I’d probably use it if someone gave it to me; (3) Need that and would use that regularly. In the case of the new Shure MV88 stereo condenser mic for iOS, it was #3, and I immediately thought of several great applications the moment I saw it. The MV88 mic has two 10 mm electret condenser capsules — one cardioid facing forward and one figure-8 sideways — inside a single, compact basket that can swivel  and tilt. The mid-side signal from the two capsules is digitized and made available to the connected iOS device through a Lightning connector that serves as the only mechanical union between the mic and device. Claimed frequency response is 20 Hz – 20 kHz. With the free ShurePlus MOTIV software from the App Store installed on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, you can record a stereo signal from the MV88 while controlling mic gain and stereo width, as well as advanced features like EQ, compression, limiting, wind reduction, channel swap, and polar pattern. Patterns include adjustable L/R stereo, mono cardioid, mono figure-8, and raw M/S stereo. Five preset quick-settings titled Speech, Singing, Flat, Acoustic, and Band are a button push away. The main record-mode window has a high-resolution input meter; a familiar waveform/timeline display; filename, time, and time-remaining statistics; and a big record/pause button. Bitrate is adjustable, maxing out at 24-bit, 48 kHz uncompressed. The MOTIV app is compatible with all of the mics and interfaces in the MOTIV line, and version 2 of the app even provides basic editing functions, like trim, split, and adjustable fade curves. Moreover, you can save and share recordings via email, text, iTunes, Camera Roll, AirDrop, and Dropbox directly from the app. Sweet! Note that the MOTIV app is optional to use. The MV88 requires no specific drivers, so you can use it with other apps to record and capture a raw M/S signal. The manual even explains how to manually decode M/S into standard L/R using your DAW’s mixer. A short headphone adapter cable is included that automatically disables the iOS device’s built-in mic, so that the signal from the built-in mic doesn’t spoil your MV88 recordings.

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It’s fun to adjust the stereo width on a touchscreen and listen on headphones in real-time. The MOTIV app’s stereo bargraph meters are extremely useful and a nice upgrade from the skeuomorphic VU meter in the standard iPhone Voice Memos app. The mic itself tilts and rotates into various positions to accommodate a wide range of recording angles — an essential feature when you’re filming a video while simultaneously recording audio. One reason I was interested in the MV88 was for recording interviews for Tape Op and other projects. In this regard, I have used a variety of devices, including my Zoom H4n. I like the Zoom for its ability to use external mics that are better than the ones onboard. But, although small, it is nowhere near as compact and streamlined as my iPhone 6S. I also use my iPhone’s Voice Memos app, when various field-recording needs and opportunities arise, to gather sounds for productions or mixes. And occasionally, I use my iPhone to record those special moments, like when my kids were discussing the merits of swear words, just so they could use said language. (I swear — I have no idea where they learned such parlance and verbiage.) The Voice Memos app is a decent option when in a pinch, but when I plugged in the MV88 and opened up MOTIV, the difference was wildly appreciable. The presentation of spatial properties and the stereo realism were clean and clear. And unlike the Zoom, MOTIV offered me files that were immediately available to transfer or share, as opposed to having to pull out the SD card to copy files to my laptop first. My first real application of the MV88 was alongside my Zoom H4n when recording an interview. The audio difference between the two (when using the onboard mics of the Zoom) was negligible to me, but the convenience of the MV88 was an incredible advantage. Also, I learned that the MV88’s figure-8 pattern is great for capturing a nice balance between subject and interviewer. On another occasion, my daughter and her friend needed a quick-and-dirty live recording of a song for a class project. Acoustic guitar and vocal — en Español. The MV88 worked great and was quick to set up — and the result was anything but dirty. I emailed the recording straight from my iPhone to my daughter and friend, and they downloaded the file onto their devices and were ready to play/present for their class. I of course emailed it to myself too, and added a touch of  reverb, did a simple bit of mastering using some UAD plug-ins, and then sent them that. Sure, it was a seventh-grade Spanish class project, but I just couldn’t let it go. The MV88 comes in a compact, molded, zipped carrying case, with a foam windscreen and the aforementioned headphone adapter cable. An optional Rycote Windjammer synthetic fur-cover for outdoor field-capture is also available.No batteries, no memory cards, no sub-menus buried deep in an LCD screen, and truly no fuss required to achieve good, clean audio recordings on the fly. ($149 street   ; www www.sh .shure ure.co .com) m) –GS 

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Los Angeles–based producer and technophile Scott Eric Olivier recently debuted a new product called the PEDALpUNK! This guitar pedal–sized device works principally as an all-analog interface for re-amping or processing tracks with guitar pedals, but it can also function as a DI box or as a standalone saturation/overdrive unit. The anarchy symbol used for the “A” in its name connotes the hidden mojo of this innocent-looking, white box. On the surface, the PEDALpUNK! solves the problem of re-amping recorded recorded audio tracks through guitar pedals, or any other device that works with instrument-level signals, like my old rackmount DeltaLab Effectron II delay. The PEDALpUNK! takes in an analog line-level signal (XLR or TRS) and converts that signal to a guitar-level (1/4’’) output to send to an effects box. Simultaneously, the PEDALpUNK! takes in a guitar-level input (from the aforementioned effects box) and converts it back to a balanced linelevel (XLR or TRS) output. This allows a roundtrip path from your DAW (or mixer), out to guitar-level  effects pedals, and back into your DAW. We all know that a simple, passive direct box may be used for re-amping line-level sources via a guitar amp or pedal, right? While a DI box can work in a pinch, passive DIs cause some problems that limit our possibilities. The first problem is that a direct box normally lowers the signal level of an instrument to that of a microphone — a passive DI is basically a 10:1 transformer. Used in reverse, the DI box takes the DAW’s output and hits the guitar amp at an extremely high level — possibly as high as +25 dBu. That will surely overdrive any guitar amp or pedal, unless we bring the DAW’s output control down by at least 20 or 30 dB. Second, a DI in reverse results in an impedance mismatch that may cause some guitar amps or pedals lacking built-in buffering to sound more thin, bright, or buzzy than usual. PEDALpUNK! solves the above problems and expands the tonal possibilities by providing an active level control on the send to the guitar pedal, enabling the user to optimize, overdrive, or underdrive the pedals or amps being used. Further, the PEDALpUNK! provides a Focus knob which changes its output impedance as seen by the pedal or amp, effectively providing a tone control before the effects unit. Focus mainly affects pedals without buffered inputs, but also affects many guitar amplifier inputs. If  that’s not enough control for you, the PEDALpUNK! provides a Return control, which allows you to overdrive its input op-amp and gain a bit more saturation and dirt. As with most DI or re-amp boxes, the PEDALpUNK! also provides ground lift and polarity switches. In the studio, I patched patc hed an unused input and output outp ut of my Pro Tools HD interface into the PEDALpUNK!, which then allowed me to use the PEDALpUNK! as an analog insert on any track. Alternatively, the PEDALpUNK! could be used with an analog send from the DAW and returned to a DAW input (aux input or audio track). (In the send/return case, latency may be an issue to contend with, as with any integration of analog processing while mixing in a DAW.) My first attempt at using the PEDALpUNK! was to beef up the guitars and bass on a pop/rock song where the players had recorded direct, relying on plug-in amp simulators. The sounds were decent, but by the time the drums, synths, and vocals were pumping, the guitars and bass were failing to hold up their end of the production. As an insert on bass, I first simply connected the send of the PEDALpUNK! back into its return jack and twisted the Send and Return levels on the PEDALpUNK! to dial in some transformer overdrive. I was surprised how much attitude and depth this little trick contributed to the bass. The PEDALpUNK! allowed me to quickly audition a few pedals before I settled on my trusty SansAmp Bass Driver. This combo let me dial in an aggressive bass-amp tone with the tight low-end punch of the direct recording. Later, a mono drum loop sent through the PEDALpUNK!-SansAmp combo resulted in a great drum texture that I would struggle to match with plugins. At extreme settings, I could get the drum loop to distort and bloom like a vintage breakbeat on vinyl. There is enough range in the Send and Return knobs to dial in shades of overdrive — from a subtle push, to fierce tonal destruction, similar to a transformer-based console channel in full overload. For those still  wondering, this is where the anarchy element comes into play. On the main electric guitar riff, I opted to re-amp through the PEDALpUNK! to a Fender tube guitar amp, and mic up the amp to get some real air. The Focus knob on the PEDALpUNK! provided a wide variation in tone, even exceeding the range available from the amp’s own tone control. I was able to dial in a very full and aggressive sound on the main guitar. On a funky guitar fill, I experimented with a handful of drive pedals from DOD, Ibanez, Chandler, Hartman and F-Pedals. Between the PEDALpUNK! and the Chandler Germanium Drive, I dialed in a clean but nicely-driven funky Strat sound that suited the song perfectly, à la Prince’s “Kiss.” The PEDALpUNK! also proved to be a perfect interface for some neglected studio gear, like the hipstercool Korg Monotron Delay as well as the aforementioned vintage Effectron II, allowing me to employ some very unique chorus/phaser/flanger tricks during mixing. Having the PEDALpUNK! patched in also inspired real-time manipulations of my effects — much more fun than using a mouse or control surface. Riding the overdrive/buzz on a drum loop throughout a song or even cranking up the feedback of a delay unit into a chorus section seems so intuitive when the pedal is right next to you! With this kind of interactivity in mind, the PEDALpUNK! would be a great in a live keyboard rig or even a DJ setup, in addition to being an effective, creative, and pro-quality pro-quality utility for the studio. studio. (Single unit $349, pair w/ Pelican case $649; www.pedalpunk.com) $649;  www.pedalpunk.com) –Adam Kagan inja>

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Common Misconceptions About Recordingby Larry Crane The art of recording music is one that seems to fascinate everyone. For folks that never have set foot into a recording studio, the concept of being there at the moment of inspiration, as well as capturing the songs and sounds that resonate in our lives, must look pretty magical indeed. It would appear that the recordist gets to be the lucky, rare audience to pure, emotional performances and moments of brilliance. But when the art of recording is discussed by anyone not intimately familiar with the process, many times the information is jumbled. Words and workflow are mixed up and misconstrued. If you’re a regular reader of Tape Op, I’d hazard a bet that you already have a clear knowledge of everything I’m saying here already, so pass a copy along to your friends so they can gain a better understanding of the craft and work that we all are involved in! 1. Tracks and Channels are two different things. In this usage, a Track is a single linear recording of mono audio signal. A Channel is the route which audio (as an electrical signal) passes through a console or outboard device on the way to and from the recording unit. You can’t add more Channels and have more Tracks to work with while overdubbing or mixing. Recently, in the liner notes of a CD reissue, I read about how more Channels were added to a studio, and thus more overdubs could be done. Not true. Which leads us to… 2. The amount of Tracks on a recording device doesn’t limit how many different instruments can be recorded to it. That’s right, if your console has a bunch of Channels, then you can mix as many mics as you can plug into the console down to one track, or maybe two, or three. You can record several instruments on a single mic. If more than one Track is being recorded, submixes can be routed to a Bus (no, not spelled “Buss”), or multiple Buses, in order to create different groups of  instruments or vocals. Therefore, one Track could contain several musicians’ contemporaneous performances. 3. Most songs don’t get recorded in a single take. Sure, with some music, like live jazz or Phil  Spector productions, this magical event occurs. But, in many cases, it’s multiple live takes edited together to keep the best parts, or a basic track that is overdubbed onto. In both these scenarios there is no one moment of recording where we hear all the elements of the finished song go down in a solitary pass. In fact, in many recording sessions we never hear everything together until  mixing commences. So remember this next time you see a movie scene where the crew in the control room watches, mouths agape, as the hit song gets tracked (you know, the one that changes careers overnight). It likely didn’t happen that way! 4. “That record took four years to complete.” Uh, yeah, right. I doubt it. Even Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy  couldn’t possibly be the product of 40 hour weeks, every week, for 10 years (That’s over 20,800 hours). That’s right, albums that aren’t knocked out in several days or weeks are usually worked on in segments, with sessions booked for various parts of the process. Pink Floyd’s The Wall was completed in 11 months of fairly continuous work, but even that included a few breaks. I remember when the Eagles released The Long Run and the ads proclaimed, “Three Years in the Making,” as if they’d never had to tour their asses off for Hotel California during some of that time. 5. Mixing and Mastering are two different processes. How many times have I been reading an article, memoir, or biography where the writer refers to the Mixing process as Mastering? Too many times. Please stop doing this. Mixing refers to balancing the levels of a multitrack session down to a mono, stereo, or multichannel mix. In general terms, Mastering is the process of assembling the final mixes (the result  of the Mixing process) and creating a master for mass production of  CDs, vinyl, MP3, or whatever format is being utilized. If you wish to be really correct, digital  assembly of an album for CD or vinyl is actually pre-mastering, and the creation of a physical CD master, or cutting vinyl, is Mastering. But I don’t even expect professionals to get this correct, as we seem to interchange Mastering for pre-mastering all the time. 6. Producer or Engineer? So many times I’ve read articles and seen websites where these titles are randomly assigned when talking about a specific project. Read the liner notes! People constantly, and erroneously, credit Brian Eno [ Tape Op #85] with producing David Bowie’s Low . Although he had a great influence on the sounds and compositions, the actual Producer credit belong to Tony Visconti [#29] and Bowie himself. I’ve seen this in the reverse as well, with a Producer getting referred to as the Engineer – a case that’s certainly not always true. These are just some of the misconceptions that people often seem to be confused about. Maybe this is one small step towards clarifying our craft? We shall see… r 98/Tape

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Rant/

Lots of Channels:

Not Lots of Tracks: