Recording - October 2015 - 22

after the session, I am worried that
I may have set myself up for phase
issues. Several days after we finished, I woke up in the middle of
the night, realizing I should have
placed a second, narrower-spaced
mic pair on this all-important instrument. Yes, recording engineers
also suffer anxiety dreams!
Unfortunately, the studio's Pro Tools rig was limited to 28 inputs, and
there simply was not enough real estate for more mics. We actually used
all 64 channels on the console for this session! Maybe I should have sacrificed some drum mics for the piano. Oh well, I'll find out in the mix...!
Electric guitar
Miking Drew and his guitars was fairly simple. On his Fender Twin, I placed
the ever-popular Shure SM57. Next to it, as close as possible in order to minimize phase issues, was a Royer R-121 ribbon (see Figure 10). I love a ribbondynamic mix on guitar amps. The 57 dynamic provides midrange bite, but
rolls off gradually in the low end. The ribbon, conversely, is mellow in the top
end but offers the bigger, fatter bottom, key to Drew's jazzy sound.
As a side note, there was a notable guitar tragedy on the session. When
removing his Les Paul from a multi-guitar stand, his just-purchased, perfect condition 1969 Gibson ES175 fell from the stand, striking the floor, snapping the
headstock clear off. Drew was beside himself, and faced an uphill battle to
maintain composure. Following this disaster, we rented several incredible guitars from Brett Allen Studio Rentals, but none inspired Drew. He instead
recorded all electric songs on this trusty Les Paul. Unfortunately this may mean
we might need to overdub several hollow body guitar tracks at a later date.
As for the ES175, we've been told that guitar can be repaired.
Acoustic guitar
Several songs featured nylon classical guitar and one sported steel
string acoustic. Two classic Neumann KM84s miked the guitars, their
positions changing somewhat between the nylon and steel stringed instruments. See Figure 11.
As mentioned earlier, we crammed Drew into the guitar amp booth to
isolate his acoustic guitars from the drums. This proved problematic. The
booth had no acoustic treatment, and significant air conditioner rumble
was audible, even after turning the AC off. Resorting to the same tricks
used in low-budget home studios, we gaff taped multiple packing blankets to the walls to reduce high frequency reflections. As for the rumble,
little could be done, and I placed a steep high pass filter on the monitor
side of the console to imitate the drastic EQ that will be necessary in the
mix. Luckily, both guitars featured great-sounding pickups, which were
captured through an Avalon U5 DI. The DIs provided ample, rumble-free
low end to make up for the filtering on the mics.
Horns
Each song also featured a single horn soloist, and with two trumpeters
and a tenor saxophonist alternating. Similar to the issues faced in the guitar
booth, the horn iso was not acoustically treated, a fact I would have caught
on a pre-session tour had I not lived on the other side of the country. The
space sounded like a bathroom, and the horns would certainly suffer phase
issues from reflections off the close, hard, walls. With no alternative spaces,
we assembled a pile of blankets and foam and did our best to treat the
room. Unfortunately, under time pressures to get recording, it wasn't until the
second day that we squeezed a gobo into the booth, finally swallowing the
room's low mid resonance. This meant the sax tracks, only recorded on day
one, all sound honky to me. I hope mix EQ can save the day.
As for mics, the horns were captured with a vintage Neumann M49 tube
condenser and a Royer R121 ribbon (see Figure 12). The horn players preferred the ribbon, but the room issues are more significant with that mic, as
its bi-directional pattern captured the ambient reflections off the front wall at
the rear of the mic. Unfortunately, the size of the 49 meant I could not get
the two mics' capsules close enough together to mix them without phase
issues. Thus I learned another important engineering lesson: if I am going to
use two simultaneous coincident microphones, make sure they are small
enough to both truly occupy the same location!
22

RECORDING October 2015

Talkback
While not recorded, multiple additional mics, all Shure
SM57s, were placed at the musicians' stations for talkback. This meant that communication could easily be
heard in the headphones and control room between
songs. I would simply mute the talkback mics on the console whenever recording commenced.
10

12
Moving forward with the project
Despite the technical challenges, the two days of
recording went quite smoothly from a musical standpoint,
and Drew and the others are pleased with the outcome.
At the time of this writing it is still too early to know if all
eleven songs are keepers. With dozens of takes to sort
through, it will be a while before we know if an additional tracking session is required for the record.
Overdubs also await, including horn sections, guitar
layers, and possible solo fixes. I'll keep you posted, as
this should continue to be a very interesting project.
Eric Ferguson (ferguson@recordingmag.com) spent
a dozen years as a freelance audio engineer in Los
Angeles, and is now on the faculty of the New
England School of Communications (NESCOM) in
Bangor, ME.
Eric would like to thank Miguel Pola for his fantastic
photography; learn more at www.miguelpola.com.
Drew Simpson's music can be heard online at
www.drewsimpsonmusic.com.

http://www.miguelpola.com http://www.drewsimpsonmusic.com

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