Recording - August 2014 - 37

a dynamic on the kick. Two VOX guitar amps were
placed on stands a few feet in front of and facing away
from the drums, miked close with 2 Neumann U47s.
John, Paul, and George stood 8 to 10 feet in front of
these amps on either side of a Neumann U48 in the figure eight polar pattern, singing all together. The U48 was
pointed sideways with respect to the drums to minimize
leakage into the vocals. Paul's bass amp was behind a
partition, or "Gobo" (see below), to the left of the drum
set so Ringo could hear it, but with reduced leakage into
the drum overhead. The boys heard what was in the
room; nobody wore headphones!
The sessions were recorded to 2-track reel-to-reel, with
instruments on track 1 and vocals on track 2. Overdubs
were accomplished by playing the 1st take back through a
loudspeaker while the Beatles performed additional vocals,
hand claps, percussion, etc.. These two stereo feeds were
mixed on the fly to a new stereo master, and your final mix
was done at the end of the take. No remixing, no endless
tweaking, just stiff upper lip determination in the English
way. As George once said, "We recorded the first Beatles
album in a day, the second album took even longer."
Engineer Norman Smith and producer George Martin
agreed that as the Beatles were such a powerful live
band, it made sense to record them this way. These early
albums were released in stereo in the U.S., and by muting one side you can hear the isolated vocals, but with
tons of drum and guitar leakage. However, this leakage
gave those records a lively sound that helped convey the
raucous energy that was a Beatles performance. The
band was used to playing with only their vocals amplified (in addition to guitars and bass). As a result, they
were good at blending their dynamics. They played as a
cohesive unit, having proven themselves in the trenches of
a noisy postwar club in the Hamburg red-light district.
This setup isolated the individual instruments enough
that the engineer could optimize the balance. However,
problems arose when trying to equalize vocals. There
was enough cymbal and guitar leakage on the vocal
track that boosting highs made the cymbals louder in the
mix. This problem led to the radical decision to place the
vocal mic a few yards off to the side for the second
album... and with that, the quest for isolation was born!
By the time Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was opened
in a former casket warehouse in 1969, the benefit of isolation was recognized, but the band would still set up in
the same room. Drums, instruments, amplifiers, and
singers were strategically placed around the room to minimize leakage. The drums were set up against one wall
and quieter instruments like piano were placed at the
opposite wall, as far away as possible. Amplifiers were
placed in between, against the side walls. This setup
allowed microphones to be placed close to each instrument but pointing away from the other instruments.
Figure-8 ribbon and condenser mics were used often,
because this narrow polar pattern enables effective isolation with strategic placement, as in the Beatles sessions.
Gobos were used to get even more isolation. These are
movable partitions, usually made from plywood sheets
with fiberglass insulation on one side. They are typically
4 feet wide and 4 to 6 feet high. Tall gobos might be
placed around the drum set with short gobos enclosing
the amplifiers. Sometimes a window was built into the tall
gobos so the drummer could see out of his little fort!

The use of gobos made it hard for the musicians to hear each other,
so each wore headphones, or a "headset" as they were called back
then. Reasonable isolation was achieved, and 8-track tape recorders
were available, so each mic could be given its own track and a careful mix could be achieved after the session. However, there was still
enough leakage that the band had to play great. If the piano played a
wrong chord you might have to replay the whole take, because you
could still hear the drums in the piano mic, and a punch-in on the piano
track might cause a momentary change in the drum sound.
A decade later, the continuing quest for isolation prompted studio
designers to construct isolation booths for different instruments. Drums
were given their own room, singers a smaller room, and the rest of the
band could set up in the "big room".

Fig. 2: The Lamont School of Music Studio A is a typical modern
studio layout.
Figure 2 shows the floor plan of our Studio A at the Lamont School of
Music, University of Denver. You can see the typical four-room setup used in
so many studios, with three rooms for recording and a large control room.
This intimate setting makes it easy for us to record bands playing all
together. We can get the best of both worlds: total isolation between
instruments, and the vibe of the band all feeding off each others' energy. You may not have access to a multi-room facility like this, but
chances are you can achieve the same results in your basement with
a bit of strategic thinking.
Communication
Before I even start thinking about where amps and instruments will
go, I think about where people will go. It is important to place the musicians so that they have eye contact with each other. In our studio this
is easy. In your basement it's easy too-just put everyone in the same
room with the drum set! The players can easily talk to each other, and
there is something about being able to feel the thump of the kick drum
that can drive a performance.
It is also very important to provide multiple, customized headphone
mixes for different groups of players. If you are the engineer, make
sure you have a way of listening to the headphone mixes, and realize
that the players might need a very different mix than you do in the control room. For example, a guitar player in an isolation room with his
amp is hearing plenty of that amp already and might not need any of
it in his headphones, while the rest of the band will. If everyone is in
the same room with the drums, but the amps are elsewhere, it may be
that nobody needs drums in their headphones, or maybe just not much.
If you do put drums in the headphones, make sure that the drummer
hears the drum set from his perspective, with the hi-hat off to his left.
RECORDING August 2014

Recording - August 2014

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