Here is a tasty tidbit of some of my broad ranging work, through my 38 years. There's more to come but let me know what you think about these?
http://www.box.net/shared/qhf7rcaqj7
I'm not quite sure how to link to my entire box? Not very savvy of me huh?
Recording fool
Ms. Remy Ann David
Comments
I suppose I should also tell you a little information about thos
I suppose I should also tell you a little information about those?
They were all made with the most rudimentary of recording equipment. Heck, it wasn't even all recording equipment as I don't consider that Yamaha PM1000, PA Board, a valid recording console. But it was all discrete transistor & transformer input & output and sometimes referred to as a baby Neve. It sounded fine with one passthrough but certainly not with more than one. It went through many more times than that. The other equipment used was 2-1176's, 2 KEPEX, broken AKG BX20E, Eventied H-910 Harmonizer. MCI JH110A-8 & 2, Scully 280B-2. Microphone selection was a honorable but rather sparse consisting of 2 Neumann U87's, 2-KM86's, 2 Shure SM 81's & 2 Sennheiser MD421's and that's it. No computer nor software in 1978, no samples but lots of engineering tricks.
Because I had a dearth of headphones, the brass, strings, woodwind overdubs, all done separately, were all recorded with the studio speakers blaring. Phase inversion with secondary passes eliminated all of the bleed. The woodwinds, strings & brass, were recorded in two rows of seats. They would play one pass. Then I would have them move to the row behind them. Microphones stands were taped to the floor to prevent any being moved. If they had been moved in the least bit, the phase cancellation would not have been effective.
I missed my EMT plate at that studio and the BX 20 sure doesn't sound like a plate. So I had to EQ the living hell on the send just to get that EMT like sizzle, in addition to adding some delay by running a 1/4" machine in record/repro. Some of the stereo string tracks were really a mono string track that was the BX 20 at its shortest decay time and was used directly without mixing in any of the mono string track. It was quite effective. This was essentially a mix and bounce as you go project. Much of which entailed "no turning back" decisionmaking. Quite hairy when you think about it. The vocals were cut on a separate piece of 8 track tape utilizing lay-ups of the music tracks. Then the vocals were in turn, mixed to stereo and then laid up back to the music track 8 track. Then there was a request for stereo vocals with the stereo music. Eesh! My eyeballs were bouncing along with the recorded tracks.
These jingles were never intended to be utilized nor released in stereo back in 1978. My archived tapes were also quite sticky and I had not baked them. The dropouts you hear are a result of shedding oxide of my 8th generation archives. The tape noise is not as foul sounding as it would have been at 15 IPS. Bass drum & snare drum were also gated and were recorded with the 421's & the pair of SM 81's. Many of the musicians you heard were from the Miami Symphony Orchestra & a lot of the people playing on the Bee Gees albums. The writer/composer was Donald Moen who later became a very well-known contemporary Christian artist.
It wasn't easy convincing the president of the advertising agency that I could produce jingles that would be competitive with a 24 track studio. This studio was only designed & intended for voiceovers. Michael Laskow, owner of Triad studios in Fort Lauderdale & founder of "TAXI music.com" site wanted to do this for us. But I was quite happy that the president of the Company believed in me & my talents and pretty much gave me free rein. It was mixed on JBL4311's with Yamaha amplifiers in the near field, on top of the console Cabinet.
Thanks for your wonderful comments, everybody. I'll be posting some cool rock-and-roll projects to also demonstrate an even more minimalistic approach to some projects. And, some grandiose projects that truly maxed me & my truck out. So although I seem like a kook most of the time, I figured, it's time to put my recordings where my mouth is. Everything I've ever suggested to everyone, I've done. I'm not just blowing smoke, all the time.
For instance, try this one on for size. 7 inputs, no EQ, no dynamics processing, Lexicon PCM 60, mixed through KOSS PRO4AA directly to DAT at a little pub in Wellington New Zealand.
http://www.box.net/shared/q4i3fj63bn
Hope you like it?
Ms. Remy Ann David
Dam.. I was two years old when you snatched those tracks! They t
Dam.. I was two years old when you snatched those tracks! They tickled a spot between my ears that seems to have layed dormant until I listened to them. I spend a shit load of time in this forum fishing for knowledge, and always gain alot from your posts. Needless to say.. You've cut another notch in the headboard!!
No, FlyBass, I didn't duck any of the percussion when the vocals
No, FlyBass, I didn't duck any of the percussion when the vocals came in. But it is a decent example of "dynamic mixing", since they wanted to hear every instrumental solo part.
pr0gr4m, nope, that's not me, that's Don Moen, the composer you hear on the studio talkback microphone.
Greener, that SusanNZ drum set is only recorded with 3 microphones 414 overheads with a Crown PZM phase flipped on bass drum. IMP2 loading down the bass guitar direct with an even worse looking DI on the keyboard. Vocals and saxophone are an SM58. Manual gain riding on the vocalist because I didn't have a compressor with me in New Zealand. Only seven inputs total.
In another minimalist recording from 1993, this is on the front lawn of NBC-TV, DC for a picnic party. I brought my API 3124m's in along with my first DA 88. The 3124's have dual, transformer isolated outputs. So one output went to the PA Board that I was running and the other outputs went directly into the DA 88. This differed from Susan New Zealand in that it was mixed after-the-fact on my Sphere EclipseC. Judicious amounts of digital reverb devices were utilized to create this more spacious stereophonic mix from an 8 track recording
http://www.box.net/shared/q4i3fj63bn
I believe the name of the group was Groove Junction.
This is my first real musical recording opportunity of a Jerome Kern song, "I Dream Too Much" This one, was simply 2 Electro-Voice 636 Omni directional microphones, tight inside the Mason Hamlin concert grand piano, that were not matched and quite different from each other, on the piano with a passively combined Sony $3.98 cent dynamic cardioid on the vocal. I cheated on this one as it was recorded directly to a Sony TC 630 1/4 track on Scotch 206. Some reverb & a little noise reduction was added in Cool Edit 96 software in 1996 of this 1970 recording. The singer is my mom, with her accompanist. This is my first opportunity at age 14 to record music & something on location.
http://www.box.net/shared/vd4xss0l9x
Moving up the equipment latter is this live recording, recorded with my then new Soundtrac 16-8-16 with the world's cheapest microphone preamps. The microphone preamps consisted of a single Signetics 5534AN IC chip. So, a five dollar microphone preamp. I utilized my Beyer M160's ribbon microphones on the solo saxophone, with a consumer DBX119 compressor & a M-160 on guitar. 421's on-base drum, phase flipped & snare drum with SM 81's for overhead. 2 Radio Shaft "DI's" impedance matching balanced to unbalanced converter. The keyboard's were also supplemented with an SM 53 for the 3 keyboards. A pair of SM 53's for ancillary percussion. Mixed live, October 31, 1987 direct to the worst sounding portable DAT machine ever manufactured by Casio. And to my TASCAM 38 analog 8 track, which I never used. This is the live 2 track. It was incredibly difficult since I was in this rather large & loud club mixing through my KOSS Pro 4AA headphones. I really don't like to have to do things like this through headphones but speakers were not an option. A Lexicon PCM-60 was also utilized.
I like minimalist recording
Ms. Remy Ann David
The Groove Junction track links to the SusanNZ track. You may wa
The Groove Junction track links to the SusanNZ track. You may want to change that.
Your mom has an amazing voice, for one I can understand half of what she sang. Which is really not normally the case with opera singers and some of those notes were really cleanly high and I can imagine the projection. Full on.
Oh yeah. Just a little confused incompetence on my part. Here
Oh yeah. Just a little confused incompetence on my part. Here is Groove Junction.
http://www.box.net/shared/m2xmm5ku8m
And this one should be the five dollar microphone preamp.
http://www.box.net/shared/1dfilr16q7
Now this one ups the ante. I was taking the split provided by the PA Company. They were using the BSS active splitter system. When asked if I wanted microphone level or line level, I told them I would prefer microphone level. Because I couldn't accept 96 inputs they were just switching multi-pin connectors back and forth. What I got was tootie fruity levels, some were line level & some were microphone level. There was no consistency which made for a nightmare. When they would switch bands at this 65,000 screaming youngster stadium event, I'd either be getting blown out or missing things. I was feeding the local rock-and-roll radio station & MTV simultaneously. This was my most challenging gig of anything I've ever done. I rolled the digital 24 track DA 88's but this is my live 2 track mix as it was broadcast live. A bird in the hand, is worth a Bush on stage.
http://www.box.net/shared/zx49tktrgm
This particular job was much more fun and particularly well organized. It was a live FM broadcast and a simultaneous television show for then a relatively new startup Internet TV network. One of the few times I was asked to put a limiter on my live stereo output. I never mix through stereo bus compression. Adam Durwitz & The Counting Crows were emphatic about not having any reverb. All of my digital reverb units were switched off. The reverb you hear at the Meriwhether Post Pavilion outdoor venue is actually the ambient reverb emanating directly from the stage. We had a rehearsal so he could verify my mix. My center room in the truck I had configured as the disc Jockey/interview booth. So it was pretty cool having Adam come in for the interview. I really hadn't listened to their CD ahead of time. Apparently, my skills & instincts were good. When I listened to their CD after the job, I was a little surprised by my mix. I took my live stereo mix and had a little fun with this. Remember, the reverb you hear was emanating from the stage which was all wood. I only spent 10 minutes creating this mix for the live broadcast. I think they spent a little more time in the studio for their CD? So, is this live? Or, is this Memorex? This was recorded & mixed on my recently acquired Neve. Not sure what they used on their CD? I thought this was rather cute editing on my part. This was not exactly presented this way on the broadcast.
http://www.box.net/shared/rfkk8n3424
Crazy mixing fool
Ms. Remy Ann David
Listening now. Sounds great!
Listening now. Sounds great!