tape op magazine 101
DESCRIPTION
Recording Gear Magazine Issue 101TRANSCRIPT
-
Just BlazeJay-Z, Eminem, Kanye, Drake
Ryan FreelandRay LaMontagnes God Willin...
John OMahonyColdplay, Metric, Sara Bareilles
Colin MarstonGorguts, Dysrhythmia, Liturgy
Gerald SeligmanThe National Recording Preservation Foundation
EveAnna Manleyin Behind the Gear
Music Reviewsw/ Camper Van Beethoven
Gear Reviews
I s s u e N o . 1 0 1M a y / J u n e 2 0 1 4
The Creative Music Recording Magazine
-
Now thatTape Op haspassed the100th issuem a r k a n dsurvived 18years, the astuteamong you may have noticed some changes.
We now offer a FREE protected PDF subscription version ofTape Op, available to anyone who signs up, fills out a shortquestionnaire, and has an email address. You can also view all ofyour current and past delivered issues by signing in on our site.We are excited to be able to send this magazine out, for free,anywhere in the world. We hope that fellow music recordistsaround the globe find out what we have to offer, and takeadvantage of it. Spread the word!
Readers in the United States will still receive a free printversion of the mag, along with the PDF version. Contrary tomost reports in mainstream media, publications like oursremain viable, due to the niche market we exist in. Continuingsupport from our advertisers, and readers who are passionateabout music recording, are of the utmost importance to thecontent of Tape Op.
Weve discontinued paid subscriptions. This may seemcounterintuitive for a small business like ours; but it makes sensewhen you look at the time involved in managing, maintaining adatabase, addressing, shipping, responding to customer issues,and keeping a website updated for paid subscriptions. We haveover 35,000 free subscriptions to the print magazine and lessthan 250 paid subs. It takes us about 5 minutes to process the35,000 free subscriptions and a full day to process the 250 paidsubs. We apologize to anyone who is upset about the lack of apaid subscription service, but the demand for this is so low, andwe cannot find an outside company to handle this small of a job.(You can buy single copies from Hal Leonard; more info on thisbelow.) We wish to thank our friends at Good Mountain andTonevendor whove worked with us for years on this, as well asselling back issues.
Tape OpHello andwelcome to
12 Letters18 EveAnna Manley in Behind the Gear22 Ryan Freeland28 Colin Marston34 Just Blaze40 John OMahony44 Gerald Seligman48 Gear Reviews64 Music Reviews66 Larrys End Rant
Online Bonus Content:Just BlazeRyan FreelandEveAnna ManleyOnline Only Feature:Robert HonablueLou Clark
pa
ge
101!#
Our tireless online publisher and web developer Dave Middleton has built our in-housePDF delivery system (no more relying on Apple and flaky app developers), and we have set
even more delivery systems in motion:Individual back issues, from issue 20 and on, are available for purchase directly from usas PDFs. Tape Op Archive Subscriptions can access PDF versions of this same content (or
text only for mobile devices) for the low cost of $5.99 a year, via a HTML5 PDF viewer. Ourbooks will also be available on PDF directly from us, as well as through Amazon.
Related to all this, the fine folks at Hal Leonard, who have distributed our Tape Op booksfor a number of years, will now also carry print copies of our back issues via their Music
Dispatch arm, and can ship globally. For anyone that misses an issue, or lives outside theUS and wants a printed copy of the mag, this is the way to go.
Check out our books while you are there! This is all in effort to streamline the process of getting Tape Op to people like you, and
hopefully gaining some new folks along the way. Thanks to all our readers for yourcontinued support! We dont take it for granted.
Larry Crane, Editor & John Baccigaluppi, Publisher
Subscription Management and PDF Back Issues Mail Order Back Issues
-
The Creative Music Recording Magazine
EditorLarry Crane
Publisher &!Graphic DesignJohn Baccigaluppi
Online PublisherDave Middleton
Gear Reviews EditorAndy Gear Geek Hong
Production Manager & Assistant Gear Reviews EditorScott McChane
Contributing Writers &!PhotographersCover by Eddie Colla
Bob Katz, John La Grou, Elizabeth Streight, Justin Foley, Zac Meyer,Andrew Piccone, Curtis Wayne Millard, Guido Rottman, Will Severin,
Dana Gumbiner, Chris Garges, Scott Evans, Geoff Stanfield, Joseph Lemmer,Dave Hidek, Adam Kagan and Thom Monahan.
www.tapeop.comDave Middleton and Hillary Johnson
Editorial and Office AssistantsJenna Crane (proofreading), Thomas Danner (transcription),
Lance Jackman ([email protected]) Tape Op Book distribution
c/o www.halleonard.comDisclaimer
TAPE OP magazine wants to make clear that the opinions expressed within reviews, letters andarticles are not necessarily the opinions of the publishers. Tape Op is intended as a forum to
advance the art of recording, and there are many choices made along that path.
Editorial Office(for submissions, letters, CDs for review. CDs for review are also
reviewed in the Sacramento office, address below)P.O. Box 86409, Portland, OR 97286 voicemail 503-208-4033
[email protected] unsolicited submissions and letters sent to us become the property of Tape Op.
Advertising Pro Audio, Studios & Record Labels: John Baccigaluppi
(916) 444-5241, ([email protected])Pro Audio & Ad Agencies:
Laura Thurmond/Thurmond Media512-529-1032, ([email protected])
Marsha Vdovin415-420-7273, ([email protected])
Printing: Matt Saddler@ Democrat Printing, Little Rock, AR
Subscriptions are free in the USA:Subscribe online at tapeop.com
(Notice: We sometimes rent our subscription list to our advertisers.)Canadian & Foreign subscriptions, see instructions at www.tapeop.com
Circulation, Subscription and Address Changeswill be accepted by email or mail only. Please do not telephone.
We have an online change of address form or you can email or send snail mail to
PO Box 160995. Sacramento, CA 95816See tapeop.com for Back Issue ordering info
Postmaster and all general inquiries to:Tape Op Magazine, PO Box 160995, Sacramento, CA 95816
(916) 444-5241 | tapeop.comTape Op is published by Single Fin, Inc. (publishing services)
and Jackpot! Recording Studio, Inc. (editorial services)10/Tape Op#101/Masthead
-
Please Support Our Advertisers/Tape Op#101/11
-
In regards to the recent eat its young letter [TapeOp letters #99] written by Don Hershman, Im notentirely certain that Don has a firm grasp of the pointof an audio education. Its been common knowledgethat back when studio jobs did exist that few would eversee any longevity come from it. The point of aneducation is to prepare an individual for a variety ofaudio disciplines where some form of studio knowledgecrosses over. Because our industry is in a constant stateof flux, one area that may be the bellwether one yearmay not be the next. In light of this, that originaltraining may translate into other opportunities, whetherit is live sound, production or post audio, sales andmanufacturing, or perhaps even education itself. Plentyof opportunities exist in these fields, but only for thecommitted individuals that are willing to stick it out.Not that John McBrides rebuttal needs additionaldefense, but he only focused on a narrow side of thebusiness record production historically a tough fieldto break into. This does not mean the training that heand other schools provide is meaningless. On thecontrary, they can be a major contributor to thegrooming of an individuals lifelong career, despite thechanges we may endure along the way.
Dusk Bennett, Loyola Marymount University
I just wanted to thank you for the PDF version of TapeOp. As a casual reader of your magazine since 2009, Iloved getting your issues in the mail. My intention was tosave every copy. However after moving numerous times itjust made sense to get rid of my precious collection. Eventhough Im not an audio tech practitioner, I wanted to letyou know that there are music loverslike me who enjoy reading thiskind of stuff just to have a bit more thancommon knowledge on the subject of music. Thanks forworking hard at revealing the art of music making.
Luis Hernandez
This is a great way to get your magazine! I reallyprefer it. Now since its just on my tablet I can spendmore time reading the issue. Not to mention its waymore environmentally friendly. It would be awesome ifall things were done in the digital distribution sense.
Kyle Oblivion
For years Tape Op used to arrive in the post and I feltguilty that such a fine product was free n gratis. A fewmonths ago I was delighted to start paying for it via theApple Newsstand app. I even re-purchased the book, justto have it digitally. Then, after issue #97, it stopped. Sonow I have signed up to get the PDF, via email. But itsfree and I feel guilty all over again. What happened?
Mark Gilbert
For anyone that got leftstranded by our Apple appgoing defunct, were verysorry! Please drop us a lineat andwe will set you up withPDFs of missing issues. LC
I just finished readingthe 100th issue, and what a
fantastic collection of quotes! As I read through them, Ithought, Wow, thats hilarious! or, I need to rememberthat, or I have no idea what that means The bottomline is that Tape Op caters to everyone interested in thisfield, and its a true, genuine read every time.
Darren Doyle
One hundred of anything is pretty rad. What a gift.Thanks for the great magazine. And thanks too forrecognizing PBR as an important recording product. Iheartily agree. Im with you for the next 100, at least!
Saul Koll
Thanks for the article on the great Joe Meek [A Joe MeekPrimer for Audio Enthusiasts, Tape Op#100]. In the mid 90s,after suffering a decade in the rotten music business, Idecided to follow his example and start my own studio. I hadno money at all, and began by purchasing non-workingvintage gear for a few bucks and restoring it. I not onlylearned how to use the gear, but I learned how to fix and buildtube electronics. Fast forward to today, and the rotten musicbusiness is 65 percent smaller than it was then, but Im in theprocess of producing the 34th album out of my studio andrunning a successful commercial vacuum tube electronicsbusiness. Joe Meek is the perfect example ofdefiance in the face of the overwhelming stupidity of themusic business, and people will be listening to his productionsas long as people listen to music. He and Les Paul are thegreat archetypes for independent record making. We all owea debt of gratitude to Joe Meek.
Eric Lovre
I had the distinct pleasure of producing a record forEMI in 2003 under the executive production of Arif Mardin[Joe Mardin, Tape Op #99]. Our time together involvedseveral pre-production meetings, and then he came everyday during mixing to review what I was doing. He hadjust won a Grammy for his production of the first NorahJones record, and although his notoriety could not havebeen higher (and mine non-existent), I will never forgetthe grace, humor, and affection he showed me. There weretwo things that, from a geeky point of view, wereunforgettable: One was when he manually mixed a trackwith me (No automation! Its a performance!). Thesecond was the many times he allowed me to pepper himwith fan questions. I was lucky enough to attend his lifecelebration in New York City, and found that everybodyfrom Bette Midler to Phil Collins felt the same way. Arifwas a true gentleman, a great talent, and a genuinelykind soul. What a combination.
Jeff Arundel
The letter from Stan Wood in issue #97 bothered me,because the tone displayed in his letter is so typicalof the condescending, pompousattitude some EEs [Electrical Engineers] display. Hiscomments on college courses taken is not necessarilyaccurate. When I completed my EET at Oklahoma StateUniversity, I was required to take Systems and Signals,which required advanced mathematics, including Fourierand Laplace transforms. And we were required to takeother advanced courses in machine languageprogramming, as well as advanced physics classes. I willadmit that there are several different paths to EET degrees,i.e. some are strictly computer related. But to label all EETsas people not worthy to carry his briefcase is a little harshto me. If there is one aspect to an EET that is quiteappreciated, it is the fact companies are standing in lineto hire us, as we gain a tremendous amount of hands-onexperience during our years in college and are truly readyto hit the ground running as a contributing member of acompany. I hope that someday EEs will realize that EETsare all part of the family, graduate from the sameengineering college at universities, and each hasexperience that is valued and utilized by major companies.
Stephen M. Scott
The End Rant [Its The Little Things That Count TapeOp #99] is one of the best. It points to how importantit is to learn from each experience, and incorporate thatlearning moving forward. I think audio is likephotography, painting, or writing the differencebetween okay, good, and memorable is in how detailsare handled, how much polish is applied (or not), andhow carefully each step is taken. Great audio people aregreat craftsmen. The only thing I would add to your EndRant, based on my own experiences and deepeningmiddle age, is this: write down your lessons as yourlearn them. If youre busy and successful, its notefficient to have to re-learn little lessons. Memory is afunny thing. Writing things down helps, especially inthis day of smart devices that make it really easy. Thiscan be done via short sound memos too, if your memoryis strongly aural.
Tom Fine
I read your short intro, Why Record? in Tape Op #99.Bravo. I taught field recording at a local DC arts schooland tried to pave an employment option, in a newstown, for students to get them to realize that there areother reasons to record, besides making a marketablerecording in the studio. I got them to explore M/Srecording in the field and took them on soundwalks.But, even with their own choral group, I couldnt getthem to consider recording rehearsal where the music ismade. Thank you for pointing out that recording is a lotlike taking pictures sometimes. Not everything is posedin a studio.
Jim Mastracco
Thanks for all your efforts. Tape Op is my favoritebedside reading. (Cant read it in the studio Im toobusy.) Here is a much more likely attribution of thecustomer service quote [from Tape Op #99]:
David
12/Tape Op#101/Letters/(continued on page 14)
Send Letters & Questionsto: [email protected]
-
I thought it was a bit odd that Gandhi would be worriedabout customers. -LC
In all my years of reading recording magazinesnothing ever has been as inspiring,heartwarming, and just plain amazingas the Manny Nieto story [Tape Op #98]. Kudos to you forputting it out there, and hats off to Mr. Nieto!
Brian Cooney
I wanted to thank you for your in-depth and lengthyarticle on Ed Stasium [Tape Op #98]. I knew of himthrough the many hits he produced, but it was cool tolearn about his history as a working musician. One albumthat he produced is The Sighs 1992 album, What GoesOn, which I highly recommend that everyone check out.The Sighs were a Northampton, MA, power-pop bandwhose musicianship, songwriting, and amazingharmonies were fully elevated to classic status with EdStasiums production help.
Jim Gardner
I enjoyed reading the Ed Stasium interview. Its goodto know about the engineer behind Talking Heads: 77.Such a classic. There was, however, a comment near theend of the interview regarding pop music of today. [Idont have a lot of respect for the pop music today,honestly.] While my tastes tend to favor musicalrecordings and styles from the last century, I do feel thatpop music of today is relevant. Ingredients such as agood melody, strong vocals, solid musicianship, and acatchy groove are why such songs appeal to the masses.The engineers and producers behind many of these tunesare doing a fine job.
Mike Eckstein
I enjoyed your article on Ed Stasium. I had thepleasure of working with Ed on Peter Wolfs Lights Outalbum. It was just one track, Gloomy Sunday, on whichI played rhythm guitar. The session was with Ed, Peter,and producer Michael Jonzun at Synchro Sound in Bostonin 1983, and was nothing short of a delight. The warmth,positive energy, and professionalism of those three guysmade it one of the most pleasant and effortless sessionsIve ever done. Peter insisted that we first take a tour ofthe studio and enjoy the Wall of Photos, of which I wassoon to become a happy element. Even though my parton the record was minor, time was taken to chat aboutmusical directions and experiences; when we beganworking, I was totally comfortable, and felt like anintegral member of the team. Ed was amazingly efficientin getting nice guitar tones. I have an indelible memoryof him dialing in a perfect EQ at blazing speed. Michaelssense of time and groove was phenomenal. I was young,and this was a great lesson for me; one that Ive drawnupon countless times, in so many different projects. So Ijust have to say, thanks Ed, for setting such a goodexample, and for a wonderful session!
Randy Roos
Thank you so much for the Tim Palmer interview! Theguy has done some of my favorite recordings over theyears. Ive admired his production style since my days asa teenager, playing my Mission UK and Robert Plantcassettes until they wore out.
Shawn Terry
I absolutely loved the interview with Tim Palmer [TapeOp #99]. I read it twice and plan on reading it many moretimes. What a fantastic, balanced, andrelevant perspective from someone who hasseen a lot of change and has worked with an extremelywide variety of material. As a young producer andengineer, its great to hear such honesty in the assessmentof our industry, without simply wishing for the good olddays. Interviews like this are what make Tape Op stand out.
Cole Isenbarger
Your review of I Dream of Wires [Tape Op #100] was onpoint and mirrors, almost exactly, every discussion Ive hadabout the documentary: the part 1 history, as well as LoriNapoleons DIY switchboard modular project, are clearwinners. Its always great to see an homage paid to thethings that you love (and, in this case, live and breathe),and its an extra thrill to read about it in the pages of amagazine you regularly pore over. It was all good, until thatlast paragraph. No longer a review of I Dream of Wires, buta criticism of modular synth culture at large, you decry alack of musical innovation and point at hipsters with thebread to buy the gear. While I take issue with both of thesepoints (lots of us as seen in the doc, not all hipsters work very hard and make many sacrifices to be able to buildand play our systems!), its really the former that bothersme the most. Sure, theres always going to be some same-old-same-old (that goes for the entire spectrum of musicmaking), but if youre a listener with adventurous tastes itsa damn good time to be alive! It was an awesome year forelectronic music, aided in no small part by the momentumof modular culture, and I expect the coming years will beeven better. No list of names required. Its all out there...waiting. So go get it and enjoy!
-Christian Langheinrich
As I wrote this I suspected that someone would take meto task, but Im surprised weve only received one complaint.Please do name some names; Id love to hear some awesomeelectronic music, and Im sure its out there! I agree; this isa fantastic time to be a music listener, and yes, the same oldsame old music dominates all genres. Nonetheless, much ofthe music in I Dream of Wires started to lose me and rarelysounded new to my ears. Sorry, just my opinion. -JB
I read how impressed the reviewers [Eli Crews] were withthe PreSonus Eris E5 and E8 Active Studio Monitor [Tape Op#96]. As I needed some monitors that werent going tobreak the bank, and because I knew if it was in your magI could believe [the review], I bought them and I am sojazzed. Thank you for all the good advice, interviews, andall the quality things you do for us out here.
Steven
Tape Op has been a beacon of light in thewilderness of my ignorance. So thank you. Please keepup the great work. Im curious about Solid State Drives.Specifically, in regard to the classic hard drive advice ofhaving a tracking drive and a boot drive. With SSDs is thisno longer a necessary (recommended) practice to avoiderrors and/or data loss? Further, are there any additionalbest practices for SSD drives (in audio usage environments)that youre aware of (specifically different from thehandling of classic drives)?
Christopher Allen Stewart
Because SSDs are almost as fast performing randomread/writes as they are doing sequential operations, andbecause file fragmentation is not a concern with SSDs,using a single SSD for boot, application, and data dutiesisnt going to bring your system to a crawl like it will witha traditional hard disk. Years ago, SSDs got a bad rep forreal-time media production because of issues related togarbage collection, memory-cell longevity, and poorly-tested controller firmware. Plus, some OS (namely Mac OSpre-10.6.8) lacked TRIM support. In my experience, noneof these concerns matter for modern SSDs paired withmodern OSes. Ive had no issues using SSDs in all of mycomputers for the last six years. My two year oldultraportable, for example, is equipped with a 480 GBSanDisk Extreme SSD as its only drive, and recording manytracks to the SSD, versus to an external HD (eSATA, USB2.0 or 3.0), requires way less resources. By the way, ifyoure cloning your existing HD to an SSD, read up on SSD4K partition alignment before you start the cloningprocess. Also, if youre on a Mac, you have to manuallyenable TRIM support for non-Apple SSDs.
Andy Hong
Technology is marching very quickly towards solid-statedrives, and Im glad. Im not too familiar with thedifferences in reliability between the competing SSDtechnologies, but I know they keep on getting better andmore reliable. More importantly, these beasties are fast. Iuse SSDs everywhere I can. You can expect that aftermaybe five years of heavy use they will stop writing, butprobably not stop reading. Should you have a separatetracking and boot drive? Of course. One reason is speed.The computer will run a little faster if the hard drive caninstantly access the OS any time it wants. And reliability.If your computer boot drive goes down, and you have aseparate audio drive, then you can plug it into anothercomputer and keep working. Just makes sense.
Bob Katz
John La Grous predictions about the future of audio andaudio engineering are fascinating and disconcerting. Whilehis assessments of future trends in computing power,gestural control, and virtual audio workspaces seemreasonable and rooted in thoughtful analysis of past andpresent rates of technological evolution, these areovershadowed by a statistical Sword of Damocles. Thestatistical truth is that nearly everyone who has tried tomake predictions that reach several generations into thefuture has been wrong. Personal jet-packs anyone? Theyreusually wrong because its too hard to predict theunimaginable technological innovations that maycompletely skew ones speculations, and its equally hard topredict the social, political, cultural, or ecological eventsthat might render these speculations moot. As a musicianwho also loves audio recording, I couldnt helpwondering what place real musiciansmight have in La Grous imagined future.It seemed to me that, in his imaginings, the only futuremusicians wholl be heard will be the ones who learn toutilize the virtual instruments in the soon-to-arrive virtual3D recording studio. The future of a real human hand, on areal vibrating string, being captured by a real microphonewas, to me, oddly absent from La Grous speculations.
Doug Robinson
14/Tape Op#101/Letters/(continued on page 16)
-
Thoughtful observations, thank you. I hope you noticethat I did not talk about flying cars or underwater cities. Youare correct that many future predictions have not cometrue. I dont want to be that guy. Ive kept my analysisconfined to well-understood technologies that are growing atobjectively measurable rates. Alas, my research is less aboutprediction and more about observation. Im not sureanyone will argue that our six core technologies will growany slower than Ive conservatively projected (immersiveaudio, immersive VR visuals, haptics, gesture, head tracking,voice recognition). If anything, I suggest that the social,political, cultural, and commercial climate of next twogenerations will only tend to accelerate these core trends.And when you converge these emerging technologies atsome future point, its hard to argue against an increasinglyvirtual future for audio production. Ive been lecturing allover the country on the future of audio engineering, andquestions about future musicians are asked frequently. Wehad an especially lively discussion about this with JohnChowning and the CCRMA group at Stanford. First, I dontthink our collective interest in live music or live recording isgoing to change. If anything, I think real acoustic recordingwill grow, along with the demand for the live concertexperience. What will change is acoustic recording and postmigrating from a 2D experience to a fully immersiveexperience. Today, right now, we have access to highlyrealistic sampled orchestras and concert halls, yet thedemand for live orchestral film music remains high. Liveconcert revenues continue to grow (excluding the 2008downturn). Demand for real live musicians will not stop, butthe way in which that music is captured, produced, anddelivered will see profound changes ahead, and I argue thatthese changes will deliver an increasingly visceral experience.I think we can both agree that thats a good thing.
John La Grou
Do you read your articles? The Future Of AudioEngineering [Tape Op #100] is wholly aimed for the videomarketplace and has no meaning in the marketplace ofaudio. The audio industry is dying andwill not survive unless someone stands up andshouts, Stop! Nowadays we have low cost MP3 anddigital downloads of questionable quality evolutionshould have exceeded the quality of master tapes, but ithas not. Digital is not good enough for any continuousstream format, and cutting [audio] into bits (sampling)does not work either. It would be nice for someone withknowledge to explain the benefits, as well as the deficits,of current technology rather than the twoddle the articleportrayed. Please address this balance.
Chris Found
Both audio and video are moving towards a fully immersiveexperience. On the pro audio side, we will move from physicaland hybrid work surfaces to virtual working architectures. Iwrote that immersive visuals will play a central role intomorrows pro audio studio, and I think youll find that theoverwhelming focus of my article was on audio engineering.The future of audio post production will employ many non-audio technologies, including immersive VR visuals, gesturaltracking, head-motion tracking, haptics, and advanced voicerecognition. As I concluded in the article, in the not-too-distantfuture, audio engineers will employ a sensory-rich Holodeck ontheir head. You write, Digital is not good enough. Forstarters, I suggest you listen to some of the brilliant digital
music recordings, both native DSD and high resolution PCM, ofMichael Bishop, Peter McGrath, Steve Kempster, Todd Garfinkle,Simon Rhodes, Dennis Sands, and Tommy Vicari. But Iempathize with your longing for great analog. Truth is, themost frighteningly real sounding vocal recording Ive everheard, to this day, was recorded on tape in 1959
John La Grou
Thank you for a thought provoking and entertainingarticle on the future of audio engineering from John La Grou.However, I would like to point out that extrapolating recentadvances in consumer electronics out to a century in thefuture is simplistic, and ignores fundamental physics.Advances in the technologies that John describes, theInternet, dynamic RAM memory, super computers, wirelessdevices, and DNA sequencers, all have depended on MooresLaw, as well as the transistor. Moores Law, a conjecture thatthe number of transistors in an integrated circuit shoulddouble every two years, has held remarkably well since 1970with improvements in semiconductor fabrication. However,by 2024, silicon may finally reach the end of the line interms of Moores Law, and there are already signs of thisstarting to occur. Rocks Law states that the capital cost ofa semiconductor fab increases exponentially over time, intandem with Moores Law; but this does not tell the wholestory. Specific challenges escalating the cost of integratedcircuits include: limitations of photolithography as transistordimensions shrink below the wavelength of even UV light,challenges to ion implantation at ever shallower depths (thevertical dimension of transistors is shrinking too), thedifficulties of growing and handling 450 mm diameter wafers(the industry will have to move to these bigger wafers to tryto keep up with Moores Law), and leakage current, whichgoes up with thinner transistors and drives up powerconsumption. The industry will probably solve, or at leastmitigate, these challenges, but not without some difficulties,including mounting R&D costs. The ITRS (InternationalTechnology Roadmap for Semiconductors), put together bysemiconductor industry scientists and engineers, states thatMoores Law will probably slow to a doubling of transistorsper IC every three years, starting around 2014. After 2024 allbets are off. Today the industry produces leading edgeintegrated circuits for laptop PCs and cell phones at the 22nm node (fundamental feature size), and will soon move to14 nm. After 2024, one cannot reasonably expect transistorsto keep getting smaller, as we will have reached a handful ofatoms per transistor. In an ordered solid, such as asemiconductor, the spacing between atoms is a few tenthsof a nanometer. At a CMOS node of 1 nm, we could have asfew as three atoms each in the gate, source and drain of aMOS transistor. A single out of place atom would render thetransistor useless. Below 0.1 nm, we are talking aboutfractions of an atom! The solutions, at and beyond 2024,could involve graphene, carbon nanotubes, compoundsemiconductors producing vertically stacked transistors, orpossibly biochips. With biochip technology in the year 2050,maybe you would have to feed and walk your DAW to keepit happy. The only certainty is that over the next decade, letalone the next 100 years, advances in electronics will puttremendous R&D and capital expenditures in the way ofbusiness as usual.
Chris Taylor 16/Tape Op#101/Letters/(Fin.)
-
Under the leadership and vision ofEveAnna Manley, Manley Labs has createdand built some of the finest studioequipment (and high-end home audiocomponents) over the last two decades.Studios across the world count on theirmostly tube-based EQs, compressors,microphones, preamps, mixers, and more.
Your stepfather used to work for Ampegin New Jersey.
He owned the company, probably with some otherpeople. Im not sure what the financial structure wasat the time. He organized a buyout from Everett Hull.Les Paul told me, Your father bought Ampeg in myliving room! Thats how I got into the business,through old contacts of my fathers. He married mymom in 76 after he had sold the company toMagnavox in 72. We heard all the stories: that heknew Johnny Cash, that the Rolling Stones usedAmpeg, and all that. It all sounded very interesting.
So you got an idea of that world whenyou were young?
Sure. The rock and roll business sounded reallyglamorous to me. Through high school I was big intoband and art, and I was torn between what I wantedto do. My mother was trying to push me intoarchitecture because I was a very skilled artist. I wentto interview at an architects for a summer internship;everyone was dressed in suits and looked superuptight. I thought, No, this is not going to be myworld. No way. When I was going to college atColumbia, the great promoter Bill Grahams son, DavidGraham, was in my class. He brought Bill into one ofthe classes to give us a lecture. He was sitting there,right in front of us, telling us everything about themusic business.
He was a bigger than life person.Totally. I was so impressed with him. My whole plan was
to take the next semester off from school, go find himin San Francisco, and talk myself into some job withBGP [Bill Graham Presents]. I drove across thecountry, but I stayed in L.A. and got a job at VacuumTube Logic with the Manleys at the time. I didnt goto San Francisco.
How did you end up getting a job there?My dad gave me three names when I went out to L.A. I
called the first guy who worked at Crate Amplifiers - he
didnt answer the phone. The second guy worked atFender and he knew David Manley. I was trying to geta job at Fender. He said, Yeah, call these two crazySouth Africans in Chino building tube gear. Thats howI met David and [his son] Luke Manley. David and I gotmarried, and I was running the factory. We split up VTLand Manley Labs. Within three years he took off andmoved to France, and we got divorced.
You ended up running Manley on yourown?
Yeah. I was already running the company anyway at thattime. I was running the factory, as well as most of thesales, managing the dealers, directing customerservice, and answering lots of questions forcustomers, which I still do. I bought David out. Hewas a bit of a renegade. He didnt like dealers, but ifyou want to be a real company, the traditional way isstill the best way.
By the late 80s, people had basicallystopped making pro audio gearwith tubes.
Yeah, there was Summit and Tube-Tech, basically. Therewerent a lot of boutique audio companies at thetime. Today, if youre a person with an idea, you canput something together, start a company, exhibit at ashow, start selling stuff, and make a nice little livingdoing that. Maybe it had to do with getting the wordout back then. These days with the Internet, you canget the word out.
Your microphone line might not alwaysget a lot of attention, but I know theReference Cardioid Microphone isone of your top sellers.
Its our best-selling product. We started building thosemics in 1990 and debuted them at our first AES show,also in 1990. Wed been working with DavidJosephson [Tape Op #48] during that time. He buildsthe capsules for the Reference Gold mic. TheReference Cardioid mic, which came later that year,uses a Chinese capsule. Theres something verymagical about it. Its basically the same tube stage inboth mics, but the capsules and their voltages aredifferent. That circuit was first developed by SteveHaselton; he used to work for Doug Sax and hedesigned a lot of the Mastering Lab gear. He wasmoonlighting with us. Thats something not a lot ofpeople know. David Manley didnt design that. Evenour Variable Mu; originally the bulk of the circuitry
came out of this obscure old Danish limiter called theDISA [91N02]. We had an engineer working for us atthe time that re-engineered the side-chain andsimplified some things.
Youve also used tubes as a marketingidea.
Sure. Tubes rule! We say tubes rule, but I want to becareful not to get forced to stay with tube technologyall the time.
Your Langevin brand was solid-state andthe Manley was tube.
That was the idea, at first. Weve mothballed theLangevin brand just to keep things simpler, to justmarket the one brand. Some products, like the ManleyBackbone, are all solid-state. The new monitorcontroller were working on is solid-state. You can playwith a lot of other things around the circuit to makethings sound a certain way. With analog circuitry,whether it be tubes or solid state, there are a lot ofother factors, like transformers around the vacuumtube that influence sound besides just the tube itself.The topology determines whether its even or oddharmonics. Its not just tubes versus transistors. Youhave to use your ears sometimes.
I hope so. Do you ever get worried about if tubes are going to bemanufactured in the future?
Most of the tubes were using these days are Russianthat come from New Sensor under various brands,such as Sovtek, Electro-Harmonix, or Tung-Sol.Sometimes we get in Chinese 12AX or 12AT typetubes that are quite good. We put a lot of time intobatching, selecting, and testing tubes. We try tofind uses for most of the tubes, but we build up lotsof reject stock. You just have to be fussy if yourcircuit is demanding. The microphones need a reallylow-noise tube. The circuit is high impedance andhigh gain, so the quietest tube has to go in themics. But if you take something like our Tube Direct(which were not building anymore), those were justfollower circuits and you could just about useanything in there.
How many employees work in yourfactory in Chino, California?
Weve got 32 folks now. Weve got a good crew. We buildour transformers in house. We also do a lot of ourpolishing and line graining in house to get thefaceplate finish really nice, because at our price pointfolks are really fussy about there being a little scratchand wanting a $200 discount. Then theres wiring,building, parts, shipping, R&D [research &development], testing, and QC [quality control].
Is there any sort of normal day for yourjob, or are you covering a multitudeof angles?
Its mostly fighting fires, as well as a lot ofcorrespondence. People ask me questions. Im really aproblem-solver. Sometimes there are so manyproblems around you that you dont see them all atone time. Sometimes it does take 20 years to realizethat somethings ridiculous.
Do you have a general manager whoruns the business end of Manley?
Behind The GearEveAnna Manley by Larry CraneThis Issues Titan of Tubes
18/Tape Op#101/Ms. Manley/(continued on page 20)
-
No, thats just me. Ive been really focused in the last year orso on running the factory and running the business. Ive gota new lady in the office whos got an MBA, a Master ofBusiness Administration, and shes taken me up a levelfinancially where Im looking at the numbers a lotdifferently now. Its great. Theres a lot of boring stuff likereducing inventory and looking at profit.
A business like this has got to have a hugeamount of inventory.
Well, we do. It can be a real challenge to balance minimum orderquantities and low production runs. Sometimes were onlyselling 20 of some model per year, so you dont want to buya reel of 3,000 resistors that only gets used a few times.
Do you do a run of one item at a certain pointand then move on to something else?
At the beginning of the year we look at sales forecasts. We getthe annual numbers. Those all go on a list, and then webreak them out into monthly things. With some products,where were only selling 30 pieces a year, were not going tobuild 30 divided by 12 per month. We might build 15 inFebruary and 15 in August. I make a big spreadsheet andgrid that out. Ive also got a whole bunch of databases inFileMaker thatll show me my labor hours and QC hours. Thenwe schedule everything and figure out what people need, aswell as what were going to be doing. From there, its justpurchasing the supplies well need. Every week, we have aproduction meeting where we go over whats been kittedout, whos going to build it, and how many man-hours weneed for this and that. Sometimes if somebodys not busy,well shift them around to testing or other little jobs to do,like pre-testing and pre-batching.
Is the Massive Passive EQ the only productthats been turned into a plug-in [viaUniversal Audios UAD platform]?
So far, yes. It was scary at first, which was why I was one of thelast holdouts to go into the plug-in world. The first fear wasthat wed never sell a piece of hardware again. But with theprocessing power thats available today they can only emulateso much. Theres still a sonic discrepancy between the realthing and the plug-in world. Id like to say that the plug-in ismaybe 88% of the whole thing. For $299 it is awesome andyou can run a whole bunch of them. But its been really goodmarketing for the whole brand to see that UA has Manley.
Customers get to try it out and get an idea ofwhat that EQ does.
Right. Then they strive to get the real one. They save theirpennies up. I wanted UA to make the tube go noisy overtime, and like every 14 months you have to pay more moneyto re-tube your plug-in, just like real life. Oh yeah, and havea virtual biasing. You could have a little piece of hardwarewhere you go in there with a screwdriver and turn the pots.
Its easy with audio circuits to end up withthings that have been hybridized oradded on to so much.
Sure. A lot of these products are evergreen or classic products,like the Variable Mu or the Massive Passive, and wellprobably keep building them forever. Theyre like standardstaples out there -classics in their own right.
The Massive Passive is a great example. Itsnot cheap. Was it terrifying to putsomething out there at that price pointand hope the market would respond to it?
20/Tape Op#101/Ms. Manley/(continued on page 65) Continues on Page 65>>>
-
Introducing the Single Fin Studio Group; four recordingstudios designed, built, and operated by engineer/producers.All these studios share the common goal of helping working
musicians create great recordings with quality equipment andexcellent rooms while keeping rates affordable. Each one of
these places is unique, but they all follow the samephilosophy of hosting comfortable and creative spaces in
which to make excellent records.
An open studio hidden away in NYC where you'll find a custom API/TreeConsole, lots of Craviotto drums, tape, computers, huge mic selection and
select outboard. Sounds beautifully melt together in a room where musiciansare meant to play side by side. You'll be back in your favorite treehouse.
www.mavericksrecording.com/ [email protected]
Jackpot! Recording Studio in Portland, OR, has been in operation since 1997.The studio features a comfortable working environment, a versatile live room,
and an incredible gear selection, with 2" tape, Pro Tools, a Rupert NeveDesigns 5088 console and an over-the-top outboard gear and mic selection.Jackpot!'s affordable $300 day rates are designed with freelance engineers in
mind. Artists love this space, and engineers enjoy working here.
www.jackpotrecording.com 503-239-5389
The Dock in the General Produce Building is a 1500 square foot historic brickbuilding and the studio is built to track rock bands quickly and efficiently.
Producer/engineer Chris Woodhouse (Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Wild Flag) calls thisanalog centered studio home base and specd it with an eye to speed
and an ear to rock.Studer A-80 16 track 2 tape, Pro Tools HD, a Trdent Series 65 and Daking
A-Range console in a great sounding space are the key elements in this room.Rates start @ $200 a day.
www.thedockstudio.com [email protected] 916-444-5241
The Panoramic House is the ultimate VRBO for musicians. A live-in residentialstudio overlooking the Pacific Ocean with an API/Neve console, 2 tape,
Pro Tools HD, and an echo chamber. Each room of the house is filled withmusical instruments except for the gourmet kitchen with a wood burning
oven and Wolf range. Plenty of room and solitude to get into a creative spacebut only 30 minutes from San Francisco.
Rates start at $350 a day.
www.vrbo.com/505782 [email protected] 916-444-5241
NEW YORK
PORTLANDMARIN COUNTY
SACRAMENTO
JACKPOT! RECORDINGMAVERICKS STUDIOS
THE DOCK in The General Produce Building PANORAMIC HOUSE in Marin County
studio groupsinglefinstudiogroup.com
facebook.com/SingleFinStudioGrouptwitter.com/SingleFinStudio
-
Ray LaMontagnes 2010 album,God Willin & the Creek Dont Rise, may
have won a Grammy award for BestContemporary Folk Album, but Id
refute that narrow categorization. Its analbum of honest songs, real
performances, and some realfeelings. Ray self-produced
the album, but he brought inRyan Freeland as the recorder
and mixer. I had theopportunity to join a group of
attendees at a Welcome to1979 Recording Summit, where we
had a listening party (off 180 gramvinyl) and then a live interview with Ryanto discuss the making of this fine album.
So God Willin came out in 2011?Yeah, we recorded it in March of 2010.Where was it recorded?Its all one room. Ray bought the former ambassador to
Russias [William C. Bullitt] old farmhouse in Ashfield,Massachusetts. Theres a great room the size of a barn,and thats where we did it [The Big Room at Apple Hill].It was all plaster walls and wood flooring. Ray wantedto be in the middle of the room, where he could look ateverybody. I put the drums [Jay Bellerose] right in frontof him, Greg Leisz [steel, guitars, etc.] to his right, EricHeywood [steel, guitars] to his left, and JenniferCondos, the bass player, sat on the floor. That last track,Devils in the Jukebox was the first track we cut.Thats a big track. I was shitting my pants because Idbrought all my gear out, and getting it set up was hard.I was like, Okay, lets start slow. Maybe we should tentthe drums a little bit. They pull out Devils in theJukebox and it was sink or swim! I thought, Eitherthis room is going to make a recording thats great, orIve made a really bad decision to agree to do this.
Is that completely live?There are a lot of edits, but theyre all edits between live
takes. No click.No grid?[laughter] Yeah right. Pro Tools is the most fabulous
random access editing system ever devised. The ideathat youd need a grid, or need somebody to be like,Theres the beat, is ludicrous. You can see it!Its all there, and you can move it wherever youwant. Wherever the beat drops and feels rightis where the groove is.
What gear did you bring out there?I had to bring my whole studio, including mic stands
and headphones.
You live in Los Angeles?Yeah. Now its even more mobile. Ive got six big racks:two compressor racks, a pre rack. A Pro Tools rig withall Apogee I/O. Its like a 32-channel console,done in a mobile system. But back then,because I was moving it myself, I had it allon eight-space racks because that was as
much as I could carry and load inmy car. The records I was doingcouldnt afford cartage at that
time. I had it all in these racks I wasmoving around. Id go to JoeHenrys house, or Id go to
somebodys closet. Wherever somebodyneeded a studio. Ray called and said hewanted to do it at his house. So the truckshowed up, and I watched my lifesinvestments get loaded in. Just themics alone...
Audience: Do you do a lot of recordingsthis way, where you go somewhereelse to make a record?
I do it, but not as much. This was the biggest, becauseit was all the way across the country. But I do take itto Joe Henrys house a lot, which is half an houraway. It seems silly. Every time I do it, I ask myselfwhy Im ripping apart a perfectly good studio to moveit 30 minutes down the street and spend a whole daysetting it back up again. But I love Joe, and thatswhat he wants to do. It gets me out of the house. Ididnt have nearly all the mics I have now, but I had
some pretty good ones, even back then. I investedin mics. I feel microphones are the
hardest modern gear to replace. Theboutique pres and compressorshave a great vibe, but when itcomes to reissues of oldmicrophones, the old ones soundbetter to me, so Ive bought a lotof vintage microphones. Ive hada few too many really obscure and
cool pres and compressors die on mein the middle of a take. If a
microphone dies, it dies in a differentway than a compressor will. If a
compressor craps out in the middleof the take, its really ruined.
Ryan FreelandThe Best Version of What Theyre Trying to Do
by Larry Cranephoto by Elizabeth Streight
22/Tape Op#101/Mr. Freeland/(continued on page 24)
-
What mics did you bring out for Raysrecord, at that point?
I had my [Neumann] M 49. I used that and a [Shure]SM7 on Ray at the same time. Its mostly the M49 inthe mix, but I messed with it. I knew that Ethan Johns[Tape Op #49] had used the Shure SM7 [on vocals],and I wanted to make sure that was the way to go. Itwas a different time for me. I was still thinking, Oh,Ive got to honor this. Ray has a big tradition ofworking with Ethan. I had a [Neumann] U 67 on theacoustic, and I had a lot of Royer ribbon mics. Themain drum sound is Royer overheads. I stopped usingthem a few years ago. I kept having to compensate forthe darkness; so I figured why not put up a slightlybrighter microphone? But I still use the Royers onevery session.
They capture sounds in a great way.Yeah. So there were those, and then I had a pair of RCA
77s. Now I have pairs of mics; a pair of U 48s, a pairof M 49s, and a pair of U 67s. It was a lot ofprioritizing on this album. My whole career felt like Iwas stuck where I had 16 channels of Apogee, andthen 8 channels of crappy conversion. I always wastrying to figure out who gets the good channels, andwho gets the not-so-good. I always had to do that. Itwas the same with microphones. Now Im at the pointwhere its 32 inputs, and Im not sitting there saying,Oh, its a keyboard DI. Fuck it. On this record I wasstill managing that.
How long did you have to put all yourgear in place?
I think we did a full day. I was really sweating. I couldtell it was too live, even though we hadnt recordedyet that first day. We were sending people out toHome Depot to buy tents like for picnics. Wed putthem up, and then Id get packing blankets and putthose over it so that I could at least control the drumsa little. Then I tried to baffle off Ray as much as Icould. Everyone was in the same room on headphones.What I really learned was that Jays hearing his drumsback through Rays vocal mic. So he knows whatsgoing into the vocal mic and back into hisheadphones; hes playing to the room, and what Imrecording. I was really aware of how symbiotic it was.
Did you co-produce?No, Ray produced it.You must have felt like, I want to do a
good job, but I dont want tointerfere.
Well, everything I do is that. Im not trying tomanipulate anything. People whove played a lot hearthemselves in a certain way. Drummers and guitarplayers have been hitting, or tweaking knobs, foryears to get these sounds. If you can be the guy whocan make that sound get into speakers or earbuds, andget the musician to say that it sounds like they thinkit should, thats the whole gig. Youre trying to makethem sound like the best version of what they thinkthey sound like. I hear it too, so Im not trying to say,Hey, have you considered tuning your snare drumdown? I dont do that. If someone has a questionabout it, well talk about it. Ill maybe offersuggestions about something thats interfering.
With a less-experienced player, youmight have to take that role.
It happens with drummers a lot where you tell them,If you bash that hard, theres no way that itsgoing to sound good. It doesnt happen with methat often, but you do have to take that rolesometimes. That capture it recording techniquedoesnt work with guys who dont know how tobalance their own playing. You can compensate,but you need a guy who really has that experienceand knows what hes doing.
Was it trial and error, where youd playsongs back to them to see what theythought?
No, there wasnt any of that. It was me running aroundfrantically on take one and making small adjustments.I went with my gut. I thought it was going to work.Luckily that first song was probably take four or five,so I had a good two or three takes to tweak the setup,an inch here or there, or throw up some more blankets.I had a good 15 minutes worth of that.
Where were you located? Were you in thesame room?
Yeah, I was directly behind Ray.On headphones?Yeah. I was using Sennheiser HD 650s.Its hard to get the exact reference when
youre in the space where the musicshappening.
Yeah. If you do it for enough years, you get used to it.Ive been using those Bose noise-canceling onesrecently. Those are crazy weird; but when you get usedto them, you can figure it out. Plus, when you getenough experience you know that some mics will befine when you switch to speakers, and that it willtranslate the way youre expecting it to.
Audience: What headphones were usedfor the musicians.
They were using Sony MDR-7506s. Theyre bright. Whenpeople spend a few takes with them and take them offto listen, I always wonder whether I should get themsomething else to listen with. I dont want myplayback reference to sound less exciting when theyreused to hyped-up and bright on the Sony headphones.
What monitors did you bring?Just my ProAc Studio 100s. I brought a subwoofer too,
because Jen always wanted more bass. Id turn the subup until she was happy, instead of messing with myrough mix.
Where did you do the mixing at?At my old studio [Stampede Origin Studio]. Ive got a
new studio space now, both in Los Angeles.What was your mixing setup?I guess its modified a bit, but Ive got API 8200
summing mixers. One of my racks is myreplacement for an analog 2-track. Its compressorsand EQs are dialed in a certain way to give me thatsound. I can adjust what goes first; maybe a littlelight here, then a little dark compressor, and I mixand match. Its my equivalent of saying, Im goingto use this tape stock and this tape speed. All ofthose things that, throughout history, youve donewith a 1/2-inch master.
Is that what you use the Maselecmastering console for?
I had everything patched in with XLR cables. Now I havethe Maselec MTC-1, which is fantastic. You can switchthe order of gear with the touch of a button. I love it.You can change the gain control to the whole 2-busssystem. If you want to hit it softer when youre in-line,its crazy. You can hit the first one softer, but youreconstantly in a catch-up game. With this, you can hitthe first one softer, but make it up on the back end.They also have a blend. Ive got a Retro Instruments2A3 Pultec-style EQ. You can really crank the EQ, butblend in a little. Its totally different to blend in a lot ofEQ, as opposed to putting a little EQ.
Thats kind of the way the Mag Air BandEQ works.
Yeah. So much of this great new gear coming out hasparallel processing.
Do you set up so mixing is recallable?Its all very recallable. The majority of the sound comes
from the 2-bus. The 2-bus is where I figure outbrightness, compression, and darkness. You can getyour general vibe there and decide whether its goodor not. Mixing with all the plug-ins is fairly... I dontwant to say minimal, but youre mixing through the 2-bus gear. Youve already made those decisions, and theplug-ins help that along. None of its radical. Its all atouch of bright, a touch of dark, a little fuzz, or a littlehigh-pass filtering.
You end up with a record that sounds likepeople are in there, playing songs.
Yeah. People playing together in a room is special, even ifyou do edits. Once again, Pro Tools is amazing. Icouldnt believe how much I got away with. Theresbleed everywhere. You smear the edit line a little bit.Its just a better version of what the good take was.Thats all you want. The other option is to isolateeverything, get the great take, and then replaceeverything you want to fix one at a time. Then you endup with this weird chasing the tail situation. LikeRock & Roll and Radio is a great example. That oneswith Ray alone. He came in before anybody else showedup and wanted to put the song down. We recorded afew takes of it, and he said he wasnt feeling it. But itwas fucking great. I told him to let me get the bestversions of the first five takes, put them together, andplay him that. He listened to it and was like, Okay,thats the record. There he was, thinking he didnt haveit. If hed come in the next day with that attitude, hemightve gotten it; but it couldve also been this weirdspiral where self-doubt comes in. I knew it was in there.
I would never guess its five takes.Thank you. In some ways, my whole career was based off
this. When I was doing these Aimee Mann records, shehired me right out of working at Bob Clearmountains[Tape Op #84]. Theyd be recording all day; and whenthey left, Id stay late. When they came back the nextday, theyd want to listen to what they did the daybefore. Id play it for them, and it sounded better.Theyd say, Shit, I didnt think we had that, but itsounds really good! Id try to make it the best it couldbe. If youre in control of it, try to give people back thebest version of what theyre trying to do.
24/Tape Op#101/Mr. Freeland/(continued on page 26)
-
How did you end up working at BobClearmountains?
I went to the recording program at Cal State Chico inNorthern California.
I graduated from there right before therecording program started.
The professor there had worked for Gary Belz, who had KivaStudios, which is now House of Blues Studio in Memphis.They were looking for a second [engineer] for that studio.Id just graduated, and I got the job. I went to Memphisand did the normal crap: phones, cleaning out attics, andall. I finally got into the room as a second. I had agirlfriend, who was also an engineer, and she got a callto work for David & David. They had set up a new studioin a warehouse in Hollywood, and she was working forthem as their second engineer. She was connected to theL.A. world and heard that Bob Clearmountain was lookingfor an assistant. Gary Belz said that they should call ChicoState and get another student from that program. I heardabout this, and I was like, Damn if I dont want that jobmyself. I called up and I didnt hear anything. I did oneother call with Betty [Bennett, of Apogee and Bobs wife]for five minutes. I didnt hear anything for a week, and Ineeded somebody to tell me if I didnt get the job. Icalled them up again and they said, Were starting BruceSpringsteen [mixing] in two weeks. Get down here. Iquit, put everything back into my car, and drove to L.A.Bob wanted to have a great studio, and I did everythingI could to make that the best studio I could make it. Hewas great, but you had to do your best to learn. Hes nota talkative guy.
Do you keep notes on the parts ofdifferent takes that you like?
In my experience, notes in the moment are useless. Whileyoure doing it you think, Wow, that was a great take.But when you listen more scientifically, and out of themoment, you always think, Why did I like that? Istopped making notes in the moment. As long as Im leftalone and theres no chit chat going on, I can listenthrough and remember what I like. When its five takes,its not that hard to remember the best phrases. You canedit as you go. If somebody really likes a take right afterthey finish it, that doesnt necessarily mean its going tobe better when you go back and listen. You might beinfluenced by somebody elses enthusiasm.
How long did you spend tracking?The basics were really only five days. We were there for
two weeks, and we pretty much had the record doneafter five days.
What did you do for the rest of the time? We listened. On some songs we went back and made a
change. They booked us for two weeks. We were allenjoying ourselves, so it was silly to send anybodyhome early.
Did you do any vocal overdubs or fixes?There were no overdub vocals. Any vocal fixes were done
from alternate takes. They had to be, because the bleedhad to match. You could grab a word, here or there.Nothing was consistent, but as long as there was someambient sound coming through the vocal mic thatsounded similar to what was on the other take, youcould get away with it. My default would always be totake the whole band and then start making decisions.
Maybe I could get away with leaving the drums or the bassthe way it was. In some cases just the vocal got changed.
I assume you were mixing unattended?Completely unattended.Were you sending MP3s off to Ray?I send CD quality. Heres a guy whos got a million guitars.
He must have had $100,000 of wax cylinder players. Hedbe like, The only thing I have to listen to this on is mylaptop with these Bose headphones. I was getting a fewweird mix comments, so I asked him what he waslistening on. I immediately went out and bought a pairof those Bose headphones, and I was like, Damn. Theseare ripping shit apart in a very strange way a way thatI need to be aware of. You have to draw a line at somepoint. Like people listening on Dre Beats headphones,and you get these comments. There is a line at which Icannot accommodate anymore. I can do earbuds, Boseheadphones, and car stereos. But the level ofcompromise to make Dre Beats sound good is notsomething Im willing to do.
How many revisions did songs gothrough?
When I got the Bose headphones, I made a few littleadjustments. After that, Ray loved it. I sent Bob Ludwigan early version of the title track, which I still love. Itsone of my proudest moments in recording, the way thateverything came together. He had a few comments, so Imade a couple of tweaks. I ended up sending him twoversions of the mixes. I was still a little close to theClearmountain thing where I felt this little voice in theback of my head saying, You dont want to be too faraway from pop radio! Its got to cut and be bright. Youvestill got to have the stereo bus compression. I was sonervous about having something too heavy, or too dark.I didnt want it to sound like a pop record, but if Pinkcame on afterward, I didnt want it to sound weird. I senthim a thinner, brighter version; but he picked the darker,fuller one to master. It was really educational for me.
Did you get any other feedback from BobLudwig?
No, that was it. Hes mastered a few albums for me andhes always been really great about it. Hes a sweet,sweet man; the same way Clearmountain is. Greatmentors to have.
With all the editing, did you get any sleepwhile tracking God Willin?
I was a little stressed out because of [the history with]Ethan Johns to be honest. I really liked those records. Iwas tormented with trying to figure out how much Ineeded to be honoring that, as opposed to going withmy own gut. Its funny, because its now an album that Iget more feedback on than any other Ive done. It was aturning point where I stopped worrying so much aboutwhat somebody else might do on an album. But on thisalbum, I was still really concerned. When it gotnominated, it was liberating. As long as it could still holdup, and sound like Ray and that band, then I didnt needto be too concerned about the rest of it. He was ready.He had the songs, all those little production ideas thathed sing to people. All we did were these ten songs.
No B-sides?No, there was nothing extraneous about the whole process.Were there any demos?
No. Ray would say, This is how it goes, and show us asong. Man, talk about fun. Its like the first time youhear it, an hour later its done and there it is. Theres noprep. Everybodys doing what they feel; including me.
Were there any frustrating momentsalong the way?
I cant think of any. With most of the players I work with,and especially these guys, is that nobody has an ego.Its never like, Ah, if only I had it my way! Theresnone of that. Everyones like, Its interesting. I donthear it that way, but let me think about what youresaying. Through the conversation, you get to a pointwhere it turns out really great. This is what I loveabout recording. I love hearing somebody with an ideafor a song, because I could not write a song to savemy life. I know what theyre doing theyre tappinginto this thing thats deep down. When they like theway it sounds, and everybody thinks its what theyimagined it would be what a great compliment! r
Read more from this interview at tapeop.com. Thanks to Welcome to 1979 and their amazing RecordingSummit!
26/Tape Op#101/Mr. Freeland/(Fin.)
http://tapeop.com/interviews/101/ryan-freeland-bonus/
bonus article:
-
New York Citys independent metal scene hasrecently burst into mainstream view. At least twovenues are primarily putting on heavy music showsnearly every night of the week. Several of the bestmetal blogs are based out of the city, and theres anexciting diversity and cross-pollination among themusicians. Years from now, when people sift throughthe scenes impact, anyone interested bands,audiences, nostalgists will be happy Colin Marstonwas the one recording many of the key records. At hisominously named studio, Menegroth The ThousandCaves, Marston has recorded some of the best music tocome out of the scene, like Castevet, Defeatist, andLiturgy, as well as records Marston has made of his ownbands: Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Gorguts, and BeholdThe Arctopus. His experienced but light touch meansthe music comes through with maximum visceralimpact, while avoiding clichd approaches that cansuck the life out of many metal records.
Whats the first point of approach youtake when a band is coming in?
Ill ask them how they prefer to record, asking questionssuch as whether or not they want to all record at thesame time, or one by one. Usually its more than justone instrument, but then the question is, Are yougoing to keep everything, or are certain thingssupposed to be scratch tracks? I had this one bandtalking about doing scratch drums... I was like, Okay...so what are you going to keep, then? They realizedmaybe it wasnt a good idea. More often than not, fora rock recording, its just drums, the whole band, ordrums/scratch guitar. Vocals are almost alwaysoverdubbed. Alternately, I do a lot of live improvrecordings. In those cases, Ill often set everything upin the live room all at once as if its a show or practice.Maybe Ill gobo off some amps, or something like asaxophone. Once we figure out an approach, Ill alsoask whether were going analog or straight digital.Then its setting up mics and going from there.
For most bands the experience of being ina studio doesnt feel like playing live.
Its completely different. Theres a different weight tothe performance.
When do you deal with figuring out howa band wants to record?
Ill try to get it sorted out before they come in, but lotsof times people will say theyre going to make thesedecisions when they come in. For people who dontreally know, Ill make a suggestion based on the typeof music it is, and the type of recording theyre tryingto do. If its just a demo and it needs to be done asquickly as possible, then speed is the priority. But ifits something theyve been working on for years, andthey want everything to be just right, I may suggesta more piecemeal way of doing it. If its someone Iveseen live and I know theyre a killer live band, I knowthey should probably at least try to record live, evenif they dont think they want to. But I really do wantto leave it up to them. I want to make sure the bandfeels very comfortable. Thats almost more importantthan getting a good sounding recording. For instance,usually the sound isnt as precise if you haveeveryone set up in the same room youll have bleed,and you cant turn the amps to whatever volume you
want because they have to work with the drums. Butif I get the sense that it would really work for theband dealing with headphones can be a distractionfor instance then I may suggest that approachanyway, because getting a good performance of thematerial is more important than how any oneinstrument sounds.
Is that more likely to make them feelconfident about the decisionstheyll be making later on in thecontrol room?
Exactly. Theyll be able to pay attention to the mixing,because they wont be worried about theirperformance. That said, lets take tuning drums: mostdrummers dont know how to tune their drums, so Illoffer to help. Thats something I can do to get a betterrecording that doesnt require them to change or followa different process. That goes for amp settings as well.Maybe youre used to setting your amp a certain wayin your practice space, or at a show. But when theresa microphone a half-inch away from the speaker itmight not translate. Maybe you dont want the bass onten, you only really want it on six.
Is there a particular impression yourealways going to leave on therecordings you work on?
Colin MarstonCapturing Metal
by Justin Foley
28/Tape Op#101/Mr. Marston/(continued on page 30)
-
Thats the kind of thing thats more subconscious, or acumulative result of the equipment I use, but itsnot something that happens on purpose. I havesome things I tend to do, such as give a recordinga more organic sound, particularly in the world ofmetal. Metals usually treated with a moreinorganic approach.
Tell me a little bit more of what organicmeans to you and why its important.
For me, its trying to encourage people to getperformances that arent too chopped up or edited. Ifyou can do the whole thing live, just go in there andplay together because thats usually going to soundthe best. Once you start taking a particularinstruments parts piecemeal, you start losing a senseof the forest, of the way things are interacting. Thiscan get lost once youre focusing on perfecting everysingle little element separately. I try to encouragepeople to have a sense of the bigger picture of whatsgoing on and not to focus too much on their ownperfection. Its okay to leave a few mistakes. Ill givean honest opinion when someone asks, Do you thinkthat was a good take? But my opinion tends to bevery accommodating. As long as its not a train wreckand the feel is good, thats more important thanhaving something perfect.
Then what?Then its making sure the mixes arent too sterile. I like
them to have a sense of the space that they wererecorded in. That can be something as basic as simply
having a room mic. Starting with the idea that I wantthe sounds to be as true to the source as they can beusually ends with a fuller sounding recording, becauseits less tweaked and obsessed over. But there are timeswhen its good to have something sound unnatural, ornot necessarily stick to exactly what was going on inthe room. Maybe the organic approach is a goodrepresentation of the band and the way they play, butits not the material that theyre trying to present. Sothere are changes you may make to place the music inits most ideal setting. Its a bit of a balancing act.
With a lot of metal recordings, itdoesnt start with how the bandsounds in the room.
There is a really broad spectrum of different approachesin metal there isnt just one common way of doingit. But over-producing and overdoing it in the studiois something thats always objectionable to me.Whats special about recording music thats played bypeople? To me its that its played by people. Not allmusic has to sound like that. I like a lot of 20thcentury electronic music, where its all programmed.But if its a rock band and thats what theyre doing,then I want to retain some of that on the recording.Usually the recordings I like best have that.
Do you feel your recording techniqueshave changed a lot over time?
Ive tended to have the same basic approach the wholetime that Ive been recording bands, but I do feel likeIm always learning, and I never quite have it
together. I never go in and think, Oh yeah, no sweat.This is going to be the best sounding thing ever. So,in that sense, I always feel like I could have done abetter job. Ill get the recording back a couple ofmonths later and Ill be really happy with it for asecond, and then Ill start to pick apart the things Idont like. Its like learning guitar you get betterfaster in the first few years, and then the pace oflearning slows down.
How about mixing?I feel like my mixing has gotten better in the past two or
three years from doing more of it. I think when I waslearning, I was more sensitive to overworking the mixand over-EQing. I was very militant: I cant put toomuch treble; I cant put too much bass. My approachto EQing was to find a couple of frequencies I didntlike, notching them out, and trying to leave things asuntouched as possible. More recently Ive been a littlemore willing to mess around. Ill grab the high shelf EQ,start moving it around, and be surprised, Oh, itsounds cool there. Im trusting my sense of whatsounds good a little bit more, rather than trying tokeep everything as pure as to the way it was tracked.I think thats made me let things sound a little moredramatic. Ill have mixes where the instruments allhave more of their own space. It used to be that theywere a lot more squished together in one range.
When you say space, do you meanwhere they sit in the stereo field,or roominess?
-
Spectral space, more than anything else; but alsoroominess. Ive gotten more comfortable with somethings getting drier than I used to think soundedgood. Other times, things sounding wetter than Iused to like. I still dont like artificial reverb on drums;some things wont ever change. But, on certainthings, Ive come to enjoy using plate reverb I dothat more on vocals now, which I never used to do.Ive let myself expand the sounds that Imcomfortable using. Its the same with microphones orchoices of gear: Ive tended to use the same mics andthe same gear, over and over again, and I think thatsbeen helpful for me understanding what stuff actuallydoes. Now I feel like I can say, I can try somethingdifferent. Ill have a sense of how its going to bedifferent from the usual approach. Im getting to thepoint where I think I want to get different drumoverheads. Ive been using the same Neumann KM184s on almost every single recording Ive ever done,and Ive never really liked the cymbal sound Ivegotten. But its useful to have the experience of yearsof recording and mixing with a particular setup. If Itry a stereo ribbon pair, Ill be able to say, Ah! Thatsthe difference. I never used to use dynamicmicrophones on amps, which is funny, because thatswhat everyone is supposed to do. Its the default fordistorted guitars. But on the last few recordings, Ivebeen using less condensers and ribbon mics.
What mic have you been using onguitars?
My go-to mic lately has been the Sennheiser MD 441. Irecently found a Sennheiser MD 409 they haventmade them in years. Im getting more comfortable withsomething that sounds a little bit like a Shure SM57.Its a real slow process, because theres so much gearout there and its impossible to really familiarizeyourself with it all. I feel like to really know something,you have to have worked with it for years and use iton every recording. What do you do? Maybe you canborrow something for a session and get a sense of howit works. But thats still just one session.
What are some key reference recordingsfor you?
Well, even with those recordings, if I can eventhink of some, I rarely like everything. Theresusually one thing about it I would change. Ithink thats a healthy thing, or at least I hope itis! It means youre never satisfied, and yourealways trying to push yourself. I rememberhearing the Neurosis records [Steve] Albini [TapeOp #10, 87] did and thinking he nailed that. Iheard the first one, Times of Grace, and thought,This sounds huge! It sounded like my idea ofwhat a heavy, dirgey metal record should soundlike. That was a good one.
Any that have good instrumentreferences for you?
Im never quite happy with the snare drum. Everytime. Thats the one instrument Ive tried moredifferent mics on than most. I know its not just
the gear, or just me, because any time I listen tosomeone elses recording, I never quite like thesnare. There are perhaps two albums where I think,Yes! Thats the snare drum! Kurt Ballou [Tape Op#76] did a recording of a band from Canada, KENMode, called Venerable. Right after I heard that Iwrote him an email and said, All right, how didyou record the snare? This is the snare sound Ivebeen looking for. He told me, and I went out andbought one of the mics he said he used, a Heil PR-31. It wasnt the exact setup he used, because Ithink he said he used a particular condenser, alongwith the PR-31 on the top, and then a [SennheiserMD] 441 on the bottom. I find the 441 on thebottom to be too dark; that one I never reallyunderstood. In any case, I tried but it still doesntcome out the same.
Oh no.Therere too many factors. Theres the drum itself, theres
the player, the way its being hit, the room its in, theway its mixed with the rest of the context... you cantreally ask someone how they recorded one element ofa recording, then do that and expect it to sound thesame way. It just doesnt work. Which is kind ofinteresting.
And frustrating. The KEN Mode record,the Neurosis record... anything else?
Covenant by Morbid Angel. I would never make a recordthat would actually sound like that, but I think its agood example of a pure death metal album that
-
doesnt sound overcooked. Especially if you compareit to the one they made a few albums later Gatewaysto Annihilation, which has the weirdest drum soundIve ever heard. It sounds like someones playing adrum machine with their fingers. Its completelytriggered. Covenant is one where I think the kicks aretriggered, but you cant really tell. It just soundseven. Its pretty room-y, or reverb-y, or something. Itsounds big and precise. You can hear everythingthats going on. The vocals are way too loud, but itsa good example.
Even though youd never recordsomething that sounds like that.
Thats exactly why to do this. I hear all of these recordsand Ill think, You know, I could do that better. Like,I could combine the guitar sound from this record,and the drum sound from that record. This isespecially true with extreme metal recordings. Themajority of them sound ridiculous. Just horrible! Itslike why would everything sound stupid?
What do you think is up with that?I think its a couple of things. Number one is that its
impossible music to record, because its supposed tobe the most extreme, in every way, at the same time.Those things end up canceling each other out.Everyones tuned super low, theres too muchdistortion, the tones usually tend to accentuate moreof the rhythmic elements of the guitar sound and Iguess, at this point, Im speaking more in terms ofdeath metal. So you want to make the palm mutessound good, and to make you hear every piece of the
rhythm. But, as a byproduct of that, you cant reallyhear the pitches of the notes. Theyre too low and toodistorted, and the sound that accentuates the rhythmcounteracts the melody. Same with the drums. Everyhit is supposed to be the equivalent of a MIDIvelocity of 127, but its so fast that its physicallyimpossible to play that way. So then you rely ontriggering, or compressing and gating the shit out ofeverything. Then you have problems with cymbalbleed, theres no room for ambient mics or anythingthat would make it sound nicer. Its flawed music, interms of being able to make what I would call agood recording of it.
Music too extreme to even be recorded. I think that aesthetic is different from the organic one
that I like. The aesthetic with a lot of these extrememetal recordings is to be brutal. Its caustic andirritating, and maybe its not supposed to soundgood its supposed to sound a little bit bad, and alittle bit disgusting, because thats what the lyricalvibe is. It makes sense, but its just not my vibemusically. I love so much of that style ofsongwriting, but the aesthetic that theyre going for,in terms of lyrics and recording style, is somethingI could take or leave. Same with black metal. Itssupposed to be caustic in a different way: a lessprecise, more blurry way; but its like, Lets turn upthe treble on everything. We want people to beassaulted by the music.
So this is the problem with recordingmetal?
But its not just metal. Ill give you an example from theopposite end of the spectrum: classical recordings.Classical recordings are too accurate. You cant listento them anywhere, as theres too much dynamicrange. Unless youre sitting in a recording studio,theres no way to enjoy a symphony recording. Theonly parts you hear are the loud parts. Or youreturning your stereo up all the way, only to turn itdown. I mean, cant we just find this middle ground?Not too compressed?
Bolt Throwers The IVth Crusade was areal gateway album for me. Myfavorite song off that record isSpearhead, which starts off with abass drum nailing these 16th notes.But it sounds like a typewriter.
Thats such a typical product of that technique. You getto the point where your metal mix sounds awesome,and then you listen to that intro and the drums,played by themselves, sound stupid. My belief is youcan get something thats somewhere in the middle. Ifyou take the purist approach to recording most metalbands, especially extreme metal bands, it doesntquite work. It is kind of unnatural music. Its notsupposed to sound like a blues band; its supposed tosound bigger than it is.
The drum hits are actually very light,because it happens so quickly.
Its so fast. Im someone whos totally comfortableworking with triggers, mostly on the kick. Once youget into the other drums, it gets a little hairy. Buttriggered kicks, thats such a well-established soundfor so many different kinds of metal at this point thatit doesnt bother me as much. I totally see why itworks. To be honest, its not only because of thespeed. Even at a slower rate, theres like one out ofevery 20 drummers that actually plays double bassdrum evenly. When you dont trigger it, it oftendoesnt sound the way it should sound.
But these approaches to solvingproblems end up creating their owndefaults for a recording.
People get used to the way that extreme metal recordssound with this typical processing triggering the kick,compressing everything, gating the toms, having thecymbals be quiet, not allowing a lot of ambience andthen thats the expected way for them to come out.Musicians dont focus on gearing their playing towardachieving that sound without the studio. I think thatsthe case a lot of the time. That makes me feel like thetimes when I do get the drummer that really plays loud,even on the double bass drum, like, Wow. Holy shit.Youre actually doing this for real. And I appreciate it. r
Justin Foley plays in The Austerity Program andsometimes records bands in Kerguelen Studio, which sitsin his backyard. He lives in New York City.
32/Tape Op#101/Mr. Marston/(Fin.)
-
Justin Smith, better knownas Just Blaze, ccatapulted to the upper
echelon of hip hop in the early 00s asthe producer behind a string of hits with
Jay-Z and Roc-A-Fella Records. He hasbeen in high demand ever since, working
with Eminem, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg,Usher, Mariah Carey, Kanye West, Talib
Kweli, Busta Rhymes, Drake, KendrickLamar, and Mac Miller. I recently went
up to his Rebel Base studio withinStadiumred in Harlem to discuss hip hop
beats, videogame soundtracks, liveDJing, and his New Jersey-bred
connection to dance music.
How did you get started?Ill give it to you like this: I DJd my own first birthday
party. My mother has pictures of me running aroundwith records in my hand. Music has always been there.Between my mother being a singer and my fatherbeing a jazz organist, I guess the earliest exposurewas watching him play. I always thought if theycaught me playing that Id get in trouble, because itwas my fathers organ or piano. One day I was playingand all of a sudden I turned to my left and my parentswere in the doorway, watching. And I was like, Ohmy god, Im in so much trouble. And they said, No,keep going, keep going! Im like, Oh I can do this?Okay cool! So I just kept playing. I also had an oldercousin who was there from the early days of hip hop.
He was the one who exposed me to things likeGrandmaster Flash and Run DMC. Back then rap musicdidnt get played on the radio during the day, with theexception of maybe [The Sugarhill Gangs] RappersDelight or Kurtis Blows The Breaks. You had towait until Friday or Saturday night when they wouldhave a mix show. You had two stations 98.7 and107.5 that would play rap music on the weekends,from 9 p.m. to midnight. I used to spend the night athis house and we would tape the shows on theweekend, listen to them all week, and then recordover last weeks show with the next weeks show. Ithink thats where I really got exposed to what a DJwas. You had DJs like Kool DJ Red Alert, Mr. Magic,Marley Marl, and Chuck Chillout. A little bit later you
Just BlazeEnergy and Evolvingby Zac Meyerphoto by Andrew Piccone
-
had Funkmaster Flex, Pete Rock, and Clark Kent. When[Michael Jacksons] Thriller came out, my cousinssister had a rack system that had two turntables in it.Maybe one was plugged into the left and one wasplugged into the right input, but you could play bothof them at the same time. Beat It had the drumintro; my cousin would start one record right after theother one it was the most amazing thing to mewhen I was six years old. You made a beat out of it.I think around that time is when my curiosity aboutDJing was piqued.
When did you start playing withturntables?
When I was in sixth grade I got a RadioShack mixer thathad no crossfader it just had the up and down
faders. I also had one turntable and a tape deck. Istarted my attempts at mixes. I remember I had arecord that had an a cappella on it and a tape thathad an instrumental. One of my earliest memories wastaking this a cappella, and this instrumental, andplaying them at the same time while recording thatto another tape. It was at that point when I knewthats what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Ididnt think it would actually happen, but I knewthats what I wanted to do. Later on I got a second-hand 4-track cassette recorder. I spent so much time[on it]. At this point I was making demos. I had aCasio SK-5, which had 5 seconds of sampling time. Inthe mid-90s I convinced my aunt to buy me an[Ensoniq] ASR-10 [sampler]. I remember reading aninterview in Rap Pages Magazine Wu-Tang Clan wasthe biggest thing at the time and RZA was using anASR-10. I had that and the 4-track I guess that wasmy earliest exposure to engineering and trying to getmy records to sound like the ones that were on theradio. Youre not gonna really accomplish that with a4-track! As a kid you dont know that; youre justdoing your best and trying every trick in the book toget it to sound as good as you can. I was DJing prettyheavily at that time at a lot of local places in NewJersey like nightclubs, skating rinks, and the odd gigin New York.
How did you get into production?The biggest break came when I had the chance to intern
at The Cutting Room Studios downtown, which is backwhen they were on Broadway and Third. A childhoodfriend of mine, who went on to later become mymanager, was interning at The Cutting Room andeventually worked her way up to become studiomanager. During my winter break at college, this ismaybe 96 or 97, one of the interns had gotten sick.I went down there and interned for a week. OnMonday the in