RECORDING May 2022 - 54

Log
L Session
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L Session
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All photos by Marc Urselli
onsidering this issue's focus on instrument miking,
I thought, why not talk about some of the most
unusual instruments I've ever recorded? I could talk
about sessions with New York-based Kenny Wollesen
and his homemade percussion instruments (Wollesonics)
or the Wollesonic Laboratories Sonic Massages, or about
Ken Butler's Hybrid Vision stringed instruments. Instead,
last year I had the opportunity over a two-day session
in Bogotá, Colombia, to record a variety of super weird
hand-made musical contraptions along with some unusual
ancient instruments.
C
Pick a place
Booking a session out of town begins with finding a studio
with an appropriately sized live room with the right equipment
for the job. In Bogotá, that studio was Esutdios Audiovisión,
a two-room facility designed by famed studio architect John
Storyk [John designed Electric Lady Studios for Jimi Hendrix
-Ed]. Audiovisión sports a very large live room which was a
key factor for this project.
Next on my list is what console, mics, and preamps are available
and are they working? This is something you have to ask
about specifically when working abroad. Although Studio B
houses a Neve console, Studio A has a Sony MXP3036 desk. I
focused my attention on the available external preamps [Universal
Audio 610 Mk II, Millennia Media HV-3D, BAE 1073 MPF,
Rupert Neve Designs Shelford, Portico and 5052] and used
those instead since I had a pretty low mic count for this session.
Pre-planning
Usually, when preparing an input list, I assign each instrument
to a specific mic and preamp, but I had to plan differently
on this session. A recurring theme of many of my sessions is
that we had five different artists in sequential time slots bringing
new instruments to the studio every four hours. Some of
these instruments were ancient, others hand-built, many had
no names, and some had never been recorded before. Consequently,
I had no preexisting knowledge of how to mic them.
After discussing available gear with the studio assistant,
Stefano Pizzaia, who aided me in the sessions, I decided to
keep things simple. I chose twelve microphones, assigned them
54 RECORDING May 2022
by Marc Urselli
Estudios Audiovision control room
looking into the live room
Trasfrontera at Estudios
Audiovisión in Bogotá Colombia
Preamp selections for the session
to the preamps, and labeled them as such instead of my usual
labeling the preamps with the name of the instruments. I did
the same in my Pro Tools session template, where I also noted
where the mics were placed in the room. Whenever a new
configuration would take shape, I would rename the tracks with
the instrument and where that instrument was positioned in the
room. When mixing, these track names offered a consistent,
coherent representation of the space, which was very important
since these sessions were being filmed for YouTube.
Early in the morning
Always start with the easiest thing on the first morning. Most
variables come into play at the top of the day, and you want
everyone to get comfortable and at ease. Kicking things off was
RECORDING May 2022

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