Recording - April 2013 - 8

Note to faithful writers: When sending your letters by email,
please remember to include your name and where you hail from.
Copyright or wrong?
Hi, I have been a reader for many years now... have learned
quite a bit from your mag.
My question is concerning copyright. Is it that important to
have your song copywritten these days? Back in the day people
used to mail songs to themselves for security. But today we have
YouTube, the Cloud and a few other sites... my point is that when
you use the Internet for something like that, your song is already
uploaded with a date, year, time, etc., attached to it. So who can
possibly steal it from you or claim it as their own?
Max
via email

Hi Max: Your question is a modern twist on the questions we
got all the time when the USA finally subscribed to the Bern
Convention, the international agreement that states, in effect,
that the moment your song “is created and fixed in tangible
form that is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a
machine” (per the language of the Copyright Office), your work
is copyrighted—not “copywritten”, that’s a common misnomer.
But having a copyright and having a defensible copyright are
two different matters; you can have copyright in a work the
moment you record it or write sheet music (or, yes, post it on
the Internet)... but if someone steals it and claims it’s theirs,
your copyright isn’t worth a darn thing in a court of law unless
it’s been registered. So you can save yourself some money if
you’re pretty sure you’re never going to have to sue someone
for stealing your music, but if you do anything with any thirdparty organization that handles your songs—a record label,
music clearance house, licensing firm, etc.—you really owe it
to yourself to register.
By the way, that “mail yourself a copy” thing is, and
always has been, a myth. It’s barely admissible in court and
sure as heck doesn’t replace copyright registration with the
government.
Copyright registration is easier now than it used to be, with
online forms and relatively easy filing systems. Yes, it costs,
but this is one place where having the government on your
side can really save your neck. I recommend taking a little
time to surf the Copyright Office’s website at copyright.gov;
you’ll find a lot of useful information there.
Thanks for reading!—MM
One piano, one mic
I am taking the opportunity to write in response to the article
“Miking The Grand Piano” by Nathan Rosenberg, which I found on
your website at: www.recordingmag.com/resources/resourceDetail/
196.html
This article was amazingly informative; I absolutely love technical details and Mr. Rosenberg provided plenty of good suggestions.
I am playing piano in a club setting with a very high ceiling.
When I played there in May, no one could hear the piano, although
we tried miking it with a standard (assume vocal) wireless mic. It

did not work with the room’s PA system, even when we
placed the mic inside the raised lid of the piano case and
near the strings. In addition to this being the wrong type
of mic, it may have had other issues.
I am to play again next month at the same facility.
The piano is a 5'2" baby grand and will need to be
miked if anyone is to hear me over the chatter and noise
of the clubroom with its 19 ft. ceilings. Is there a single
mic that won’t cost me a fortune that you could recommend just to get the sound somewhat decent into the
house PA system?
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
Mark
via email

Hello Mark: As a former gigging piano player I can
tell you that I used to get good results from a single
Sennheiser MD 421 in small grand pianos like the one
you describe. I would carry a piece of foam and place
that on the metal harp near the treble end, facing
across into the guts of the piano. The mic on that foam
made no direct contact with the metal, which is what
you want.
The MD 421 has a gradual adjustment for bass cut,
it goes from M (Music) to S (Stimme, German for
Voice) and lets you deal with low-end boom that
could build up when you put the lid of the piano
down, at least to the short rod or—better still—close
it entirely.
There have been several models of the MD 421
released over the years (see www.coutant.org/md421u4/
index.html); they are still very common, and as long as
the PA has standard mic connectors and you have a cable
that’s long enough, you should be in business. Maybe take
a connector adapter with you (XLR-to-1/4" and possibly a
low-Z to high-Z reamplification or direct box) or scope
out the PA before the gig.
I’ve used other mics, too, even a Shure SM58. But if
you have no way of adjusting your own eq and level
before you send the mic signal to the PA, you can get
ringing and overly emphasized midrange, etc., and
the MD 421 at least has its own built-in adjustment
which works very well.
I hope that helps. Cheers and thanks for reading.—
LzR
Correction
In the March 2013 Fade Out, I stated that the
newest MacBook Pro from Apple “has a customshaped Solid State Drive that can’t be removed”.
That SSD isn’t interchangeable with conventional
SSDs, but it is in fact accessible with a few special
tools (including a spudger), and a few third-party
vendors have begun selling replacements for it.—MM

Write to us at: Talkback, Recording Magazine, 5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301
Or save stamps and send email to talkback@recordingmag.com
8

RECORDING April 2013


http://www.coutant.org/md421u4/index.html http://www.coutant.org/md421u4/index.html http://www.copyright.gov http://www.recordingmag.com/resources/resourceDetail/196.html http://www.recordingmag.com/resources/resourceDetail/196.html

Recording - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2013

Recording - April 2013
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
2013 Winter NAMM Show Report
Write Not Just Any Song, But A HIT Song! Q & A With Songwriter Robin Frederick
Royer SF-2 Active Ribbon Microphone
Big Money Drums—Part 3
Moog 500 Series Ladder Filter
Nimbit, Self-Promotion, Me—And You?
Eve Audio SC205 Monitors
Reader's Tapes
Akai MAX49 USB/MIDI/CV Keyboard Controller
Songwriting—The Money Angle
Advertiser Index
Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 16: Sweet Spot Conundrums—Part 3
Fade Out
Recording - April 2013 - Recording - April 2013
Recording - April 2013 - Cover2
Recording - April 2013 - 1
Recording - April 2013 - 2
Recording - April 2013 - 3
Recording - April 2013 - Fade In
Recording - April 2013 - 5
Recording - April 2013 - Contents
Recording - April 2013 - 7
Recording - April 2013 - Talkback
Recording - April 2013 - 9
Recording - April 2013 - 2013 Winter NAMM Show Report
Recording - April 2013 - 11
Recording - April 2013 - 12
Recording - April 2013 - 13
Recording - April 2013 - 14
Recording - April 2013 - 15
Recording - April 2013 - 16
Recording - April 2013 - 17
Recording - April 2013 - 18
Recording - April 2013 - 19
Recording - April 2013 - 20
Recording - April 2013 - 21
Recording - April 2013 - 22
Recording - April 2013 - 23
Recording - April 2013 - Write Not Just Any Song, But A HIT Song! Q & A With Songwriter Robin Frederick
Recording - April 2013 - 25
Recording - April 2013 - Royer SF-2 Active Ribbon Microphone
Recording - April 2013 - 27
Recording - April 2013 - 28
Recording - April 2013 - 29
Recording - April 2013 - 30
Recording - April 2013 - 31
Recording - April 2013 - Big Money Drums—Part 3
Recording - April 2013 - 33
Recording - April 2013 - 34
Recording - April 2013 - 35
Recording - April 2013 - Moog 500 Series Ladder Filter
Recording - April 2013 - 37
Recording - April 2013 - 38
Recording - April 2013 - 39
Recording - April 2013 - Nimbit, Self-Promotion, Me—And You?
Recording - April 2013 - 41
Recording - April 2013 - 42
Recording - April 2013 - 43
Recording - April 2013 - 44
Recording - April 2013 - 45
Recording - April 2013 - Eve Audio SC205 Monitors
Recording - April 2013 - 47
Recording - April 2013 - 48
Recording - April 2013 - 49
Recording - April 2013 - Reader's Tapes
Recording - April 2013 - 51
Recording - April 2013 - Akai MAX49 USB/MIDI/CV Keyboard Controller
Recording - April 2013 - 53
Recording - April 2013 - Songwriting—The Money Angle
Recording - April 2013 - 55
Recording - April 2013 - 56
Recording - April 2013 - 57
Recording - April 2013 - 58
Recording - April 2013 - Advertiser Index
Recording - April 2013 - 60
Recording - April 2013 - 61
Recording - April 2013 - Recording Fundamentals. Chapter 16: Sweet Spot Conundrums—Part 3
Recording - April 2013 - 63
Recording - April 2013 - 64
Recording - April 2013 - 65
Recording - April 2013 - 66
Recording - April 2013 - 67
Recording - April 2013 - 68
Recording - April 2013 - 69
Recording - April 2013 - 70
Recording - April 2013 - 71
Recording - April 2013 - Fade Out
Recording - April 2013 - Cover3
Recording - April 2013 - Cover4
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