Recording - February 2011 - 2

PUBLISHER:

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER:

Thomas Hawley Brent Heintz

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: Lorenz Rychner ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Mike Metlay WEB EDITOR: Justin Peacock MÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel
CONTRIBUTORS

NAMM Visitors—Welcome! Once again we welcome the many who picked up their copy of this issue at the tradeshow in Anaheim. We hope you’ll like what you see. Come by our booth 5416 in Hall B, we’d like to meet you. Our readers, by definition recording musicians all, do an excellent job of letting us know who they are and what their concerns are, by ongoing feedback and by their participation in our occasional Reader Surveys. In the well over twenty years that we’ve been doing this, we have seen many readers grow their studios into full-time careers. There is much diversity among our readers, and all are striving to make the most of their equipment and their skills. We aim to help each and every one of our readers to make better recordings. This month we focus on mics and miking, by interviewing four industry stalwarts who share how they do it, and with reviews of five new mics and a preamp. Al Schmitt is a household name to anyone following the careers of high-profile musical performers. He has won his share of Grammys, as have a great many of the artists he has recorded. In this issue he shares his insights and his personal preferences in many aspects of miking and recording. Long-time contributor Brian Tarquin, guitarist, producer, and recording engineer, produced a Les Paul tribute that involved some major marquee names. For this issue I asked Brian to get specific about details of his production methods and electric guitar miking techniques. You can hear audio excerpts on our website, under Resources & Info/Magazine Extras. Terry Wollman has done it all, from being the musical director/band leader on talk television to playing guitars for others on their studio projects, and right now he’s completing yet another album of his own that we’ll soon be able to talk about and learn from. He has a knack with acoustic guitars of many makes and tonal shadings—I looked him up in his L.A. studio and quizzed him about some of them. You can hear them on our website, once again under Resources & Info/ Magazine Extras. Mike Pappas has made quite a few appearances in our pages in the last few years. This Editor collaborated with him on a miking seminar for Neumann/ Sennheiser that he conducts now and then in studios around the country (see the Fade Out on page 80). He has access to the finest mics, as many as he needs, and yet for a big symphony recording last June he only required seven mics plus “Fritz”, the dummy-head mic array that hangs up high and faces toward the rear, capturing the audience and room sound for the 5.1 recording. Well, this time around, as you’ll read on page 58, it was a case of ‘the more mics the merrier’ when he recorded the full symphony plus four jazz musicians, all backing up Dianne Reeves in concert, in 5.1. Mike describes the thinking behind the system he built, the miking setup he used, some of the difficulties he encountered and how he and his crew overcame them. We have more material for you to peruse than we could fit into this issue, so—again—please look up the added information in Resources & Info/Magazine Extras on www.recordingmag.com. Rounding out these real-life reports are an account of a band’s dedication and commitment to getting tracks done old-school, all in the room; a piece on recording a drum kit as a complete instrument, with room sound included; a step-bystep tale of using a live string player to enhance sampled string sound; and more. We hope that whatever instruments you mike, and whether you’re a longtime subscriber or new to our magazine with this issue picked up at NAMM, that our interviews, reviews, and tips bring you many hours of... Happy Recording!

Paul Vnuk Jr., Daniel Rolnik, Rick Barrio Dill, D. Bruce Moore, Scott Dorsey, Jon Bare, Todd Gascon, Bruce Kaphan, Marty Peters, Brent Heintz
TAXI METER

EDITOR: Kenny Kerner
ART

PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin Courtney PHOTOGRAPHY: Brent Heintz
PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES

EDITOR/PRODUCER: Lorenz Rychner
CIRCULATION

CIRCULATION MANAGER: Tiffany Sepe
ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING

DIRECTOR: Brent Heintz CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Stephanie King
ADMINISTRATION

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Stephanie King
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz
Subscriptions/Address Changes:

1-800-582-8326 832-886-1126
Advertising/Classifieds/Main Office:

(303) 516-9118 RECORDING MAGAZINE (ISSN 1078-8352; USPS 002-298) is published monthly, 12 times per year, by Music Maker Publications, Inc., 5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301-3523. Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 email: info@recordingmag.com

Periodicals Postage is paid at Boulder, CO and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RECORDING, Subscriber Services, P.O. Box 334, Stafford, TX, 77497. Tel: 1-800-582-8326 or 832-886-1126. Subscription rate: $19.95 per year. All material is subject to worldwide copyright protection, and reproduction or imitation in whole or in part is expressly forbidden without written consent from the publishers. All reasonable care is taken to ensure accuracy in the preparation of the magazine, but Music Maker Publications, Inc. cannot be held legally responsible for its contents. The publishers cannot assume responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or materials. All trademarked names, whether indicated as such or not, are owned by their respective companies. Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #41491032. Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON N6C 6B2
© Copyright 2011 Music Maker Publications, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

RECORDING FEBRUARY 2011

http://www.recordingmag.com

Recording - February 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - February 2011