Recording - August 2014 - 4

PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Brent Heintz

EDITORIAL

EDITOR: Mike Metlay
SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR: Lorenz Rychner
TECHNICAL CONSULTANT: Paul Vnuk Jr.
EDITOR AT LARGE: Beto Hale
MÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel

CONTRIBUTORS
Paul Vnuk Jr., Eleanor Goldfield,
Michael Schulze, Scott Dorsey,
Darwin Grosse, Marty Peters, Aaron Trumm

You can't phone it in
In 2002, I played at a house concert for a small but enthusiastic group of friends
in Denver. It was the first time I'd been on stage in well over three years, and the
first time I'd played a live solo show in nearly twenty. I was tense, nervous, scattered... and loving it. The set wasn't perfect by any means, but there was a ton of
great energy and the audience loved my performance.
The next day, I emailed a few musical friends and colleagues to crow about my
success, and two of the replies stuck with me forever. The one I want to talk about
here was: "Well, I hope you recorded it...?"
I had, in fact; on a last-minute whim I'd brought along a rackmount CD burner
(remember those?) and recorded my board mix, which I released as a limitededition album later that year. That silly little record, after silence, sold out in three
days; it gave my confidence a tremendous boost, and I still haul out my copy for
a spin every once in a while... and thank Heaven that I thought to bring that burner along.
There's something special about playing a live gig and just going for it, knowing that the audience won't wait for you to play another take or do a punch-in.
You have to get it right the first time or live with the fact that you got it wrong, and
that pumps you up with adrenaline and gives your performance a special zing you
really can't get anywhere else. It takes a special set of techniques to capture that
zing for posterity... and that brings us to this month's issue, on Miking The Band.
Eleanor Goldfield leads off with a checklist for miking and recording bands at live
gigs, full of great advice on mic choice and placement, coexisting with the Front Of
House folks, and getting material you can really work with later. Eleanor also touches on how to use these live-band techniques in the studio, but that topic's covered indepth later on by Michael Schulze. Michael starts with big-band jazz and the
Beatles, and takes us through to a modern studio setup where the energy of a band
all playing together continues to lend its special magic to the music. Then Beto Hale
brings us a look at a very impressive session with live singers and a jazz ensemble
with strings, all going for it at once in a well-prepared recording studio.
Of course, sometimes you don't get to put up special mics or splitters or much
of anything; sometimes you only have a stereo recorder, and you have to figure
out how to get a live recording from a crummy room with a booming PA and a
board mix that may not even have some of the instruments in it. Give up?
Nonsense! Scott Dorsey teaches us a guerrilla-recording trick that's almost blasphemous to read about, but can work like a charm.
Leaving the topic of band recording, this issue also has a slate of fun reviews:
Universal Audio's new Apollo Twin interface, Tannoy's newest Reveal monitors,
insanely cool mics from Cloud and Ear Trumpet, a filter rack straight out of a historic Harrison console, and a slew of gear that overflowed from last month's guitar-recording extravaganza. And finally, new author Aaron Trumm closes out the
issue with some thoughts about how modern technology has caused the act of mixdown to evolve into something new and fresh and creatively stimulating.
Welcome, Aaron!
By the way, remember I said that there were two replies that stuck with me forever? The other one was: "Be careful, man, the live-gig thing is addictive." That
turned out to be prophetic. I play solo gigs a lot now; while I don't record them
all, I manage to capture the magic often enough to keep my fans happy, and I
have no plans to stop chasing the elusive Perfect Show.
And neither should you. Enjoy the issue.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Brent Heintz, Paul Vnuk Jr.
ART & PRODUCTION

ART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin Courtney
WEB GOALIE: Colin Courtney

PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES
Lorenz Rychner

EDITOR/PRODUCER:

CIRCULATION
Tiffany Sepe

CIRCULATION MANAGER:

ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING
DIRECTOR: Brent Heintz
CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Colin Courtney
ADMINISTRATION
Thomas Hawley

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley
VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz

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RECORDING August 2014

Recording - August 2014

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