Recording - May 2015 - 64

Last summer a talented singer-songwriter
approached me to engineer/produce his next CD
album project. There was a budget of about zero, so I
decided to use the sessions as a grand experiment. It
helped that I knew Ryan, the artist, very well, and had
worked with him on other projects-so there would be
a good "bro" vibe going on. We talked about other
project parameters, such has how we'd determine who
had the final say on things that were bound to happen
on the session: when arrangements could be improved,
or when songs could be less wordy, shorter, or more
refined.
There were only two of us and we mostly agree on
musical things, so the sessions were smooth.
Furthermore, since I'm pretty comfortable with the
recording system and am able to work relatively
quickly (and Ryan is someone who actually practices
his parts prior to entering the studio), I knew we
weren't going to be spending a bunch of time struggling with multiple takes.
After a few preliminary meetings at the bar (preproduction can be done in a bar-it can be fun that way!),
we spoke about instrumentation, which would all be
performed by the artist. Starting with acoustic guitars,
we made sure we had two Taylor instruments on hand,

since they sound so great. No electric guitars would be
used. Electric bass would be there, running direct. We
settled on limiting percussion to a kick drum and a hihat to be played on separate track passes (with a hefty
dose of Beat Detective-thank you, Pro Tools!), and
then maybe some shakers and tambourine. We also
had a nice piano to work with, so he and I looked forward to adding piano tracks. Ryan had the idea that
he would like to have fully developed backing vocals
to help the sparse arrangements and to show off his
singing ability. These parts would be developed as the
songs came together in the studio.
Anyway, it was summer and I had the summer attitude
going... easy breezy. And I thought: What if I just took
out one single mic for this, and recorded all the tracks
with that one mic through the same preamp? Recording
setups would be really fast, and I could just reposition the
mic to accommodate the new instrument or voice I was
recording, changing the sound that the mic produced
through placement.
Meet the mic
The mic I chose was the Neumann M 149 Tube, a
dual-large-diaphragm tube condenser with very fine
onboard adjustment of low-end cutoff (seven settings)
and polar pattern (nine settings). We put the mic
through a Focusrite ISA Series preamp with a built-in
A/D converter that went right to Pro Tools via AES/EBU
connection. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was it.
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RECORDING May 2015

I will admit that using a $5000 tube microphone was an extreme luxury and probably helped the recording in ways both large and small.
However, a mic like this is certainly rentable for one session, and the principles would be the same with a more moderately priced mic... as long as
the engineer understands it intimately in terms of its frequency response
and how it reacts to placement.
It deserves to be mentioned that doing a project this way only requires
an audio interface with one input, definitely within reach of entry-level 2in/2-out systems. I should also note that while it didn't cost $5000 per channel, the Focusrite preamp was more than up to the task of presenting the M
149 Tube at its best.
Placement is everything
We started each song with acoustic guitar recordings, so that we'd have the
road map for the song laid out. Capturing the acoustic guitar alone can be
tricky if you're used to remembering where you are by singing as you play, but
Ryan is very good at silently singing the lyrics in his head as he plays, so we
were able to lay down these tracks in a single take most of the time.
For the Taylor Jumbo guitar, the mic was placed about one foot away from
the soundhole, angled somewhat so that it pointed at the soundhole while
positioned about one foot away from where the neck meets the body. When
we used the smaller Taylor, the mic still "looked" at the soundhole but was
positioned about one foot away from the guitar's body. Each guitar track
was doubled; we recorded a second track with the exact same (unmoved)
mic position, then panned the guitar tracks away from each other.

The next tracks required for each song were usually percussion, which for
most songs consisted of a kick drum, hi-hats, a shaker, and sometimes hand
claps. I wanted to get a natural kick sound, like you would hear if you were in
the room with the kick drum, and not with your head inside the kick drum shell.
The problem with this approach is that the further away you put a mic on a
kick drum, the more natural and infused with room reverb it gets, and the less
impact and low end thump it gets. After some experimentation I determined
that the spot was going to be just outside the kick, aiming down toward the
center of the outside head. Ryan put his whole leg into it so that we would get
a kick sound with some meat to it, and the result was a balanced recording-
a natural kick with some impact to it as well. Good thing the M 149 Tube gets
down pretty low in terms of its frequency response!
After the kick was recorded, I immediately used Beat Detective on the track.
Ryan is not a drummer by trade and the kicks were close but not exactly on

Recording - May 2015

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