EQ Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 39)

Columbia College Chicago orientation, along with a more traditional classical mix with lots of room and a somewhat more genteel sound. I actually thought it was a very good mix in the classical style, and fully expected Kathleen and Pete to choose it. Yet they had absolutely no interest in the “traditional” sound; both vastly preferred the more present sound. Kathleen said it sounded just like what it sounded like to her as she played, which I later found out was a sound she’d always wanted to hear from a harpsichord recording, but never had. Pete was even more emphatic: When I put on the “traditional” mix, he just said “no way!” MASTERING With the individual tracks having already been “mastered,” and with the mix doing most of the heavy lifting, mastering was really a question of picking the right order for the 11 sonatas she chose, and doing a few EQ tweaks. In addition to the 50Hz peak mentioned earlier, there was another very strong resonance in the 200Hz range. Although this contributes much of her harpsichord’s “character,” it was emphasized a bit too much due to the close-miking. I again used Har-Bal to bring this down just a couple dB, retaining the character yet making sure it didn’t overshadow the rest of the sound. The other tweak that surprised me because it worked so well was reducing everything above 15kHz or so. We all wanted a sound that was inherently contradictory: Something brash and present, yet with a smooth, honeyed tone. After experimenting for a bit, I found that cutting off the really high frequencies provided exactly the sound we wanted. I thought about it for a bit, and realized why: The close-miking was picking up all the highs what would normally be lost in a room, if you were sitting back some distance from the harpsichord and there were people soaking up the highs. While part of me chafed at the idea of deliberately cutting the highs, it gave the right sound. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED A lot of these concepts apply equally well to recording any solo artist. In fact, I plan to incorporate some of those techniques in two upcoming projects at Maricam, including a project with Kathleen and flautist Eugenia Zuckerman. But flute is a whole other story! it keeps getting better! Brandon CUP Program Class of 2009 NEW BACHELOR OF MUSIC DEGREE IN PERFORMANCE: CONTEMPORARY, URBAN & POPULAR MUSIC (CUP) If you’re determined to make it as a professional performing artist, you can get there from here. Our new BM degree is designed for high-level mastery of performance skills plus studio and business know-how. Put your career in fast-forward. Contact cupbm@colum.edu for application and information. Program begins fall 2008. www.eqmag.com MARCH 2008 EQ 39 Photo by Zach Abubeker Audition dates for the CUP program: April 14, 15 & 16, 2008 WWW.COLUM.EDU/MUSIC MUSIC@COLUM.EDU CUPBM@COLUM.EDU 312.344.6300 http://WWW.COLUM.EDU/MUSIC http://WWW.COLUM.EDU/MUSIC http://WWW.COLUM.EDU/MUSIC http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - March 2008

EQ Magazine - March 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Tool Box Dream Theater Nick Drake LO-FI Recording Tricks Guitar Trax Bass Managment Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Tascam Gigastudio 4 Cakewalk Sonar 7 Crane Song Avocet Cad Signature Series Mic Packs Waves GTR3 Kjaerhus MPL-1 Pro SE Ableton Live 7 Centrance Micport Pro, Tapco LINK.midi 4x4, Multi-Gigabyte USB 2.0 Memory Sticks Digital Redux Electrotech, Nine Volt Audio Action Drums, Big Fish Audio Hadeeth 2 Room with a VU

EQ Magazine - March 2008

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