A match made in Heaven

that is very cool, thanks for sharing that!

Cucco wrote: What I thought was fantastic was - despite the fact that our setups were so dramatically different, we switched headphones for a minute and the sounds coming through were quite similar.

It's very cool that you decided to work alongside each other like that! Do you think you would have done the same thing had you not known each other (either through this forum or other means)? Could it possibly have gotten ugly?

A paid job???

How many microphone stands on stage?!?!

It is also cool that you both arrived at similar results using different equipment. It is the other side of what I often tell my students - there's no point copying what someone else does (in terms of mic choice/placement, use of processing, etc.) in the hope of getting the same sound, because it rarely ever works that way.

This was so cool!

I was really quite surprised when I found this other crew setting up. It was even funnier when Jeremy looked at me (whom I've never met in person nor seen) and said, " high Remy". Obviously he knows me too well?? And remarkably, I wasn't! I don't know what I was thinking? I think when anybody sees anybody as beautiful as I am, they automatically know it's a Remy?

I was actually talking to a friend on the phone after this event. My comment was almost identical to Jeremy's. I said we had 2 vastly different systems with 2 completely different approaches. The sonic differences, through different headphones, different preamps, different microphones, different interfaces, were remarkably similar with what I thought was nuance differences. Of course I always appreciate watching other pros who are more precise in their approach and technique than my sex/drugs/rock-and-roll like Hack Lucky broadcast meters moving approach. And I think Jeremy is correct, I think we scared the crap out of this poor kid, Eric that was apprenticing. This interaction we had was much more like the experience I had while working for NBC. I always enjoy working with other professionals. It's the amateurs I can't stand. Especially when they think they're professionals, like myself. Did that come out right?? Jeremy knows and thankfully, he's not talking. I don't think that came out right either? For that matter, it didn't come out left, thankfully.

Could it have gotten ugly? Sure. Paid gig? You bet. I think there was only a single microphone stand on stage. Jeremy's microphones were on stands, in the audience. Even if I hadn't known him, I wouldn't have acted or responded any differently. If you're a professional, you act professionally. But Jeremy was more than just a little accommodating. I couldn't have hoped to work alongside anybody as sincerely as he was. I even said we should set up next to each other, so we did. It was hard to keep from laughing backstage during recording. I was worried he would get upset with me as most everybody else has here @ Recording.org. But scheduling faux pas do happen. I was only a subcontractor here. So I'm really not involved with whatever dollars are changing hands. And since Jeremy is a member of this orchestra, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Sterling Productions loses this contract. Because as everybody knows, sound happens.

OK, so what was the difference in setups and equipment? The stuff I was using was an API 3124m which load the microphones at 1,500 ohms. I let the staging guys fly a pair of Neumann TLM170's for me spaced approximately 8 feet apart in wide cardioid. Tracking into a TASCAM DA78 with a backup to an EDIROL UA1ex into my HP laptop with Sennheiser headphones all at 24-bit 44.1kHz. Yes, yes, I know, I've said all record at 16-bit but because I know Bruce likes 24-bit, that's how I rolled on everything. The software was Adobe Audition 1.5. Practically an old budget system.

I hope I get this right Jeremy? He was using a David Royer passive stereo ribbon in Blumlien crossed figure of 8 with a pair of Schoeps left & right outriggers and a highlight microphone of some type on the timpani. Microphone preamps were Millennia Media, which load the microphones at 6,500 ohms into an RME interface, which I found very impressive. His software was Magix Sequoia, which was totally awesome with a backup to the new Korg DSD interface and Beyer TK270 headphones. I think? One hell of an investment. And his microphone stands were incredible. Much nicer than those lightweight Manfroto crappy light stands or my old Shure equivalents.

Did you hear the one about the Jew and the Italian recording engineers?
Ms. Remy Ann David

Great story!

Simmosonic wrote: Do you think you would have done the same thing had you not known each other (either through this forum or other means)? Could it possibly have gotten ugly?

You know - I was kind of the outsider on this one, so I wouldn't have had an issue. However, if it weren't Remy, I would have expected some hostility and would have full on accepted it.

Had the tables been turned and it were my regular and someone else were on sight - I'd like to think I would have been a gentleman about it. Of course if it were Remy, I would have been no different than I was last night. If it was some snot-nosed little punk setting up his pair of AWESOME sm81s into his DAT or MiniDisc recorder...I probably would have been pissing and moaning under my breath the whole night.

Do you guys wanna get a room or something? :wink:

That happen to me once. I got there and somebody was already setup with their 414 omnis. I thought "good, I don't have to do this one!" The guy was wearing a life-alert pager so I decided to not rock the boat.

Were did you two go after the concert?

Nice...
"Help me...I've fallen and I can't get up. Oh...and I need a wider angle on my spaced pair..."

Like fools, we all stood outside in the 40some degree weather watching our breath turn to mist while talking excessively.

Very cool indeed.

Jeremy
What are the microphone stands you were using?

The main stand was a JTL 20' light stand with a K&M articulated boom arm attached at the top allowing me easy forward and rearward mobility of the ribbon mic (with the mere 20" leg span that I was constrained to and 12' height, there was nary a sign of tippage).

The aux stands were AEA 15B stands.

Very cool. Big web - small world.

The guy paid both of you.....without trying to get out of it?

I had something similar happen to me last spring '07, recording a piano recital. I was about 90% finished setting up, when I came back out to the piano/stage area to see ANOTHER mic stand with two SM-81's on it.

I was totally surprised, shocked, really, to see something so unexpected and out of the blue. Here was a guy with a portable DAT running on batteries (or an outlet in the floor?) and wires running to a lone stand set up in the middle of the first aisle.

Here I was; Mr. Self-important with my four DPA's - two in close and two ambient for the hall, my Grace m802's and Sequoia, while this guy shows up with two SM-81's and a DAT. (I probably sneered visibly. Hahaha...)

More than anything else, this guy obviously saw my stuff already set up, but went about his biz anyway, and didn't bother to follow the wires back to where I was. He set up in the first pew.

It was ugly at first; I was pretty hostile and wanted to know just what he thought he was doing, etc. etc. Turns out he was hired by the artists' AGENCY and he does all of their concerts. I was hired by the concert venue/promotor, and it seems one party hadn't clearly communicated to the other that they'd be sending an engineer in to record.

In the end, we both got paid, and actually calmed down and talked shop to each other once the initial shock wore off. (To his credit, he was much nicer to ME than I was to him, initially.) Turns out we knew each other profesionally, although I didn't know he was living and working in the area.

I don't know if the pianist's agent ever got my recording to A/B it against the SM-81's, but who knows. My version was broadcast last week on the radio, so I guess they heard it.

What a business, eh? :roll:

So.... Who's up next on "Throwdown with Remy Rad"?

We were asked to do the Senior Recital of one of my interns. The Conservatory also was asked to do the recording or more accurately were not ask not to do the recording. Meaning that the record every Senior Recital unless asked not to for the fee of $25.00. They used hall microphones and we set up a small setup at the back of the hall with microphones on stage. No problems UNTIL afterward when the audio people came down to talk to the Senior Recitalist and were "shocked" to see someone else had recorded the performance "without permission".

My intern forgot to tell them that we were recording the performance and they would not be needed but told them that he would pay them the $25. They have closed circuit television and can see the stage of the hall and could plainly see that someone was recording the performance with stands on the stage and if they had problems with the double recording they should have said something earlier. There was nothing that they could do and the matter was completely forgotten UNTIL a couple of weeks later when the same thing happened again ONLY this time they WERE told not to record the concert but did so anyway. My intern refused to pay them for a job he had canceled and this ruffled a few feathers but nothing really came of it.

I guess the moral of this is that communication is the MOST important thing to have going on between all the parties.

Well, after speaking to my contractor, Bruce Kane, of Sterling Productions, what I had thought had happened, happened. The dates were given to me a couple of weeks ago by the conductor of the organization. Which I passed on to Bruce. Neither Bruce nor George called to confirm the dates of the recordings. Because Jeremy had a small mishap with his 2 1/2-year-old and while waiting for his lip to heal after a $3000 Crown, he wasn't ready to play French horn yet. Good thing he is so accomplished at recording and was there to save the day.

Now this was a little like what Thomas W. Bethel went through. He had the good stuff as did Jeremy. I had mostly Bruce's equipment along with my laptop and crappie EDIROL USB audio interface. OK, so the microphones weren't bad as they were Neumann's. The microphone preamp were the mid-1960s designed, API's which ain't bad either. Just not esoteric like the Millennia preamps. The only Sequoia I ever got near was the one that left me with a painful prick..... Just outside of Tucson. The cactus that is. Not the kind that Thomas or the rest of us have had to deal with much. Hopefully.

That's not to say that Thomas's experience is unique. I had a similar problem in 1978 in Montréal. I was working for Hallmark Films & Recordings and we had been contracted to record a weeklong medical convention. Our equipment was quite sophisticated. 2 Pioneer analog cassette decks and 2 SM58's. One set up for each conference hall. A Montreal-based video production company was contracted to record and provide video. They were having problems getting their own equipment set up and configured properly. They told me that my cassette deck was interfering with their video equipment.??? A single cassette deck and an SM58? They indicated I would have to shut down my equipment. " No way! I don't have anything here that interferes with video. You need to learn how to set up and plug in your equipment properly." Well, as you may have guessed, we nearly had an international incident on our hands as I was not going to turn off my little cassette deck. It almost got physical and I was the foreigner in their country. Not good. It wasn't pretty but I was. I continued on with my recording and they finally figured out how to plug in a couple of cameras. There is a lot of competition and passion amongst folks like us. AND AUDIO RULES! Because pictures of highly acclaimed medical professionals isn't as important as the audio content of their speeches.

It hurts when I do this doctor.
Ms. Remy Ann David

pictures of highly acclaimed medical professionals isn't as important as the audio content of their speeches.

Similar to what I like to say to the stereotypically annoying lighting guy: Without us audio cats, you flashbulb wiggle light types wouldn't have a gig!

(Who's gonna go to a show just to look at a band?)
:lol:

At the Hawk & Dove in Washington DC, every Wednesday night is Galudet university night. The deaf University. An incredible place for an audio engineer to drop in, like I did one night. Loud music comes to the end of the song and you can hear a pin drop. Whilst hundreds of conversations are going on. I made a small video that I believe I'm going to post on You Tube, entitled, " Quiet Conversations". Quite the opposite of spoken word recording! I didn't have much to say about this. Although it was fun scribbling down little messages to folks since the only sign language I know is the one used most often when driving.

Talking to myself and making with driving sign language.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Ahem... I hadn't thought of that...
:oops:

OK, so, I guess I should apologize to 4, maybe 5, lighting techs...

(Yeah, like that's gonna happen!)

:lol:

Hey, that was my first recording with Jeremy!

I guess I should clarify -
Gibsonsg1090 would be Eric - my new intern.

Welcome to RO dude!

Hey Eric! I hope I didn't scare you too much? You sure looked scared. And I can't blame you. Jeremy is pretty funny looking.

The always beautiful
Ms. Remy Ann David