Recording - March 2016 - 4

PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Brent Heintz

EDITORIAL

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

CONTRIBUTORS
Pat Bautz, Bruce Black,
Bill Stunt, Paul J. Stamler,
Marty Peters, Brian Marshak

What are we hearing?
I just got back from the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, where a fantastic array
of new audio gear was on display. There were the usual stalwarts (a fair number of
microphones, audio interfaces, and plug-ins), technologies gaining momentum and
market share (apparently the buzzword these days is "wireless"), and some hot items
that I don't think most folks would have predicted (I'm not complaining, but where the
heck did all these modular synthesizers come from all of a sudden... to say nothing of
the ukuleles?).
But going to NAMM when I did, in the final stages of finishing this issue on monitors, headphones, and monitoring/acoustics topics, I tended to notice the many new
products in that category. This issue's Fast Forward features some of the highlights,
and we'll have more-along with the rest of our NAMM coverage-next issue.
Long story short, all things monitoring are healthy and growing in our industry, and
we're now hearing things more accurately, in rooms that sound better for less money,
than ever before. The many monitoring products we're reviewing in this issue will
soon be joined by even more choices: better speakers, better headphones, better
monitor controllers, and better acoustical tools and room treatments. We'll bring them
your way in a whole slate of reviews over the coming year as they become available.
In the meantime, however, we must return to the simple fact that the best speakers
won't give you their full potential in a room that's not optimized for the clearest and
best-isolated sound. Our acoustics issues are always very popular, and this time
around we have sage advice from a variety of great sources.
Pat Bautz is an occasional contributor to Recording, a studio drummer and recording engineer who adds professionally-recorded, well-played drum tracks to mixes sent
to him by clients all over the world. Pat recently completed a months-long process of
building a studio from the ground up as part of his new home. He gave me a fascinating play-by-play of the process over the months that it took to complete, taking a
ton of pictures and keeping me up to date from foundations-down to faders-up. In this
issue, you can read about the process, learn what's involved, and determine whether
the benefits of this approach (Pat says it's the best space he's ever recorded in) outweigh the significant costs in time and money.
On the opposite end of the scale is the situation that many of us encounter when
recording live shows or clients in their own spaces: a room that is about as bad as
bad can be for tracking music. Bill Stunt, a veteran producer and engineer for the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and a contributor to our pages since the 1990s,
returns to Recording with a bag full of down-and-dirty tricks for getting usable tracks
from rooms that would make any engineer turn pale and reach for the whiskey bottle.
No money? No fancy gear? No problem!
Rounding out our coverage of all things acoustics are an interesting article by studio designer and acoustician Bruce Black, in which he discusses the basic problem of
understanding why we hear what we hear in our recording spaces, and a Fade Out
editorial by LA-based engineer/producer Brian Marshak, in which he explains the
innate value of listening to your music on speakers that might not be up to your usual
standards.
On the review side, we're entirely focused on monitors, headphones, and monitor
controllers. We have reviews of speakers ranging from small desktop models to highend passive systems and cutting-edge subwoofers, and a huge Ears On collection of
headphone reviews, from fancy phones for the discerning listener to great-sounding
budget models and mix-friendly in-ears. There's a little something for everyone, so we
can take our knowledge of what we're hearing and apply it to tools that let us hear
accurately and with confidence.
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

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EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley
VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz

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RECORDING March 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2016