Recording - October 2017 - 14

T H I RT Y Y E A R S -
Compiled by Mike Metlay

ONE WORD
Sage advice to begin our fourth decade

To give our 30th anniversary issue a fun and useful centerpiece, I came up with a question that I emailed out to contacts in the industry
(along with a request for a photo, either recent or old, "real or faked"-which produced some interesting entries, as you'll see). It went
to our authors, to famous engineers and producers, to gear designers and manufacturers, publicists, CEOs, inventors, studio owners,
songwriters, mad geniuses...

If you could give one word of advice to a fellow recording musician that you
wish you'd known when you were getting started, what would it be?
The answers poured in. Many people were pithy and to the point; others had to squeeze in two suggestions, or three, or thirty (literally
thirty-seriously, Eric?). I wish we had room for all of them, and some of the longest will make their appearance in future issues as articles in and of
themselves. As we light the candles on the cake, here are words of advice for you to enjoy, from our extended family to yours.-MM

Practical bits and pieces

Al Schmitt, recording engineer and producer: For me it would be to take notes of all my setups, detailed notes of microphones and
where I placed them and what microphones I used... so I could look back in time and see how much I've changed.
Matt McGlynn, Roswell Pro Audio and Recording Hacks: I've
spent the past 12 years studying, documenting, dissecting, upgrading, and finally manufacturing microphones, because I deeply
believe that the microphone is the single most important piece of
recording gear in any session. More important than the preamp,
the converter, the console, the DAW. The best outboard gear in
the world won't make the wrong mic sound better.
And yet... when the artist is ready, and inspiration strikes, the right
mic is the one on the stand. Feed your Gear Acquisition Syndrome,
yes. Try lots of microphones, absolutely. But do that before the session.

Eddy Brixen, DPA Microphones: In my
early days I would always focus on the
on-axis response of microphones and
loudspeakers. Today I have learned that in
many cases the off-axis response is at least
as important. To make a clean and transEddy Brixen
"in another century"
parent recording-and reproduce it as
such-the directivity of the unit should be
smooth and fairly constant with frequency.
A clean frontal sound does not always make up for a muddy spill!

Mike Rivers, digital audio
guru, engineer, and educator: This is a piece of advice I
Mike Rivers rocks
received on a class in how to
out at NAMM, 1992
record good audio presented
by National Public Radio that I
took in 1987. This piece of advice was from Paul Blakemore,
one of the staff recording engineers at NPR. Simple and obvious, but really important, particularly for the time: "When
you turn a knob, turn it far enough to hear a change."
He was talking about EQ and compression but it applies
equally to volume, panning, reverb... The reason why
it was worth saying-and I'll bet this still happens
today-was that too many people were making small
EQ adjustments, not because they heard that something was off, but rather that they read in an article that
some famous engineer "boosted the vocal by 0.5 dB at
8.7 kHz" and figured that must be the right thing to do.

James Young, Aston Microphones: Spend time, use your ears, and get the recording path right
the first time. The reason I got into microphones is because they are the single most important part
of your analogue recording chain. Everything which follows is, in some way, correction or embellishment. If you get your mic right for the job, and base it on each application and your own ears
(wherever possible), you take the element of chance out of it, and stand a much better chance of
getting the best results from your recording efforts. Fix it in the mix... those words make me shudder!
14

RECORDING October 2017

James Young

(and friend), 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2017