recording

VOL. TWENTY SEVEN • NUMBER FIVE

FEBRUARY 2014USA $5.99 CANADA $5.99

®

FEBRUARY 2014

Sing, sing a songIf you’re of a certain generation, those four words will resonate with you strongly. For

many people who grew up in the 1970s, that song on Sesame Street was their first affir-mation that it was okay to “sing out loud, sing out strong.” Of course, those of us whowent into pro audio have to stop singing before we get to the second-to-last line: “Don’tworry if it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear...”

Yeah, not so much. We worry if our recorded vocals aren’t good enough... boyhowdy, do we worry! And with good reason. Of all the sources of musical sound thatsurround us in this world of ours, nothing hits us as hard or as deeply as a human voice.Laughter makes us smile, a child crying puts us on instant alert to run and help... and avocal performance in a song, when done right, makes us want to laugh, cry, rejoice,mourn, dance, celebrate, throw our hands in the air... or just sing along.

In this issue, we revisit a topic that never gets old—the endless quest for the perfectrecorded vocal. We feature diverse viewpoints and a wealth of information that will helpyou along as you polish your vocal recording craft.

We start with Eleanor Goldfield, a rock belter who also happens to know her wayaround a studio backwards and forwards. Her advice covers everything from choosingand placing mics to what a singer can do to deliberately affect his or her tone beforethe session. Not all of her advice will click with every one of our readers, but there’sbound to be a number of hidden treasures that you didn’t know about before.

We haven’t heard recently from engineer/producer Bruce Kaphan, a well-respectedname in these pages for many years. We welcome Bruce back with an article on histried and true approach to making a vocal recording session successful. Bruce was kindenough to share, in addition to his words and photos, three tracks by the duet Misner& Smith that he recorded; we’re offering them at tinyurl.com/RecMagKaphanMyTakewith permission of the artists.

John McVey weighs in with a fascinating article on the art and science of backgroundvocals. This article will be of special interest not only to engineers but also to songwrit-ers, producers, and vocal artists: while it does cover techniques in the studio and makesuggestions about tracking and mixing strategies, a large part of John’s advice comesinto play while the song is being written and polished, long before the artist sets foot inthe studio. A great backing vocal begins with a great idea, and John’s article will helpyou tease out those great ideas when crafting your songs.

And (literally) last but not least, our Recording Fundamentals teacher Eric Fergusonreturns to our magazine with a back-page Fade Out editorial entitled “Auto-Tune Ethics,”in which he looks hard at when and why we use the many pitch correction programsout there (of which Antares Auto-Tune is the most famous), when they do our tracks aservice, and when they do genuine harm. It’s thought-provoking reading.

For the gearheads among you (I know, who isn’t?), we have a great slate of reviews thistime around, from awesome mics by Blue and Pearlman to world-class monitoring andinterfacing hardware by Dangerous Music and Antelope Audio, from marvelous monitorsby PreSonus and Samson to ultracool controllers and apps by Novation and plug-ins fromiZotope, Universal Audio, and U-He. Some very inspiring tools to be found here! Andthere’s more... plenty to interest recording musicians in all genres and pursuits.

If you’re seeing this issue for the first time at the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim,January 22–26, I hope you get a lot from it and are inspired to come back for more.Please stop by the Music Maker Publications booth in Hall A and ask for me. I’ll be therefor a little while every day, near the close of the show, and would love to meet you andchat about all things recording. I would like it very much if our magazine would becomeyour magazine.

Enjoy the issue!

PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Brent Heintz

EDITORIALEDITOR: Mike Metlay

SENIOR EDITOR: Lorenz RychnerTECHNICAL CONSULTANT: Paul Vnuk Jr.

EDITOR AT LARGE: Beto HaleMÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel

CONTRIBUTORSEleanor Goldfield, Paul Vnuk Jr.,

John McVey, Bruce Kaphan,Joe Albano, Marty Peters,

Eric Ferguson

SOCIAL MEDIABrent Heintz, Paul Vnuk Jr.

ART & PRODUCTIONART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin CourtneyWEB GOALIE: Colin Courtney

PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIESEDITOR/PRODUCER: Lorenz Rychner

CIRCULATIONCIRCULATION MANAGER: Tiffany Sepe

ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETINGDIRECTOR: Brent Heintz

CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Colin Courtney

ADMINISTRATIONACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE: Thomas Hawley

EXECUTIVE OFFICERSPRESIDENT: Thomas HawleyVICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz

SUBSCRIPTIONS/ADDRESS CHANGES: 1-954-653-3927

ADVERTISING/CLASSIFIEDS/MAIN OFFICE:(303) 516-9118

RECORDING MAGAZINE (ISSN 1078-8352; USPS 002-298) is publishedmonthly, 12 times per year, by Music Maker

Publications, Inc., 5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder,CO 80301-3523.

Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 email: [email protected]

Los Angeles Editorial Office: [email protected]

Periodicals Postage is paid at Boulder, CO and at addi-tional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes toRECORDING, Subscriber Services, P.O. Box 5024, Fort.Lauderdale, FL, 33310. Tel: 1-954-653-3927, Fax: 1-954-772-3393. Subscription rate: $23.97 per year. Distributed to themusic trade by Hal Leonard Corporation. All material is subjectto worldwide copyright protection, and reproduction or imita-tion in whole or in part is ex pressly forbidden without writtenconsent from the publishers. All reasonable care is taken toensure accuracy in the preparation of the magazine, but MusicMaker Publications, Inc. cannot be held legally responsible forits contents. The publishers cannot assume responsibility for thereturn of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or materials. Alltrademarked names, whether indicated as such or not, areowned by their respective companies.

Canada Post: Publications Mail Agreement #41491032.Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box25542, London, ON N6C 6B2

© Copyright 2014 Music MakerPublications, Inc.

PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

RECORDING February 20144

Follow us on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/recordingmag

Become a fan ofrecordingmag on Facebook

RECORDING MAGAZINE FEBRUARY

FEATURES16 Recording Vocals—From An Insider’s

Viewpoint.A rock vocalist and studio tech guides us throughthe ins and outs of a successful vocal session, from singer preparation to final tracking.BY ELEANOR GOLDFIELD

26 Recording Background Vocals.A lot goes into a great backing vocal arrangement,and some of the most important parts happen before you press the Red Button. Here’s a survey ofsome of the things to keep in mind when capturingthose backing tracks.BY JOHN MCVEY

40 Vocal Recording—My Take.A successful producer discusses some of his strategies for capturing great vocals.BY BRUCE KAPHAN

52 All About Reverb—Part 2.In the second half of our 2-parter on adding ambience to your tracks, we cover vocal reverb tricks, explain how modeling and convolution reverbs work, and look at some successful softwarein use today.BY JOE ALBANO

78 2013 Annual Index.If you want to find a review, interview, or feature that ran in the past year, here’s where to look.

REVIEWS22 Blue Bottle Rocket Stage One.

This versatile solid-state mic comes with one of up to nine different capsules with widely varied and beautiful sonic characters. Also: Hands-on comparisons with the tube-based Bottle Rocket Stage Two, previously reviewed in our pages.REVIEW BY PAUL VNUK JR.

30 PreSonus Sceptre S8 CoActual Active Studio Monitors.A coaxial driver design and powerful onboard DSP combine to create a speaker that’s transparently smooth, balanced, and ultimately truthful.REVIEW BY LORENZ RYCHNER

34 Pearlman TM-250 Tube Microphone.This handmade mic brings the spirit of the famous Telefunken ELA M 250 to life in a mannerthat’s magical to hear.REVIEW BY PAUL VNUK JR.

36 Dangerous Music Source.Your monitoring system is critical to the final quality of your tracks—this versatile controller fitsunder your laptop and provides classy and flexibleaudio routing to speakers and headphones alike.REVIEW BY MIKE METLAY

38 Antelope Audio Orion32.Wait a minute... 32 channels of high-end 24-bit audio, all in one rackspace and communicating via USB? Believe it.REVIEW BY PAUL VNUK JR.

44 Samson Resolv SE Active Studio Reference Monitors.Clean, clear monitoring for the desktop rig or the small control room at an unheard-of price.REVIEWS BY MIKE METLAY

46 Novation Launch Family.These hardware controllers and iPad apps make music composition portable, easy, inspiring, fun... and in a couple of cases, free.REVIEWS BY MIKE METLAY

58 Plug-In Outlet.Universal Audio Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection for UAD-2 and Apollo; iZotope Nectar 2 Standard Edition and Production Suite; U-He Satin Tape Machine.REVIEWS BY PAUL VNUK JR.

REGULARS4 Fade In.

8 Talkback.

10 Fast Forward.New product releases, plus a special report from PreSonuSphere 2013.BY MIKE METLAY

70 Readers’ Tapes.BY MARTY PETERS

80 Fade Out.Auto-Tune Ethics.GUEST EDITORIAL BY ERIC FERGUSON

71 Advertiser Index.

16

38

36

44

30

46

22

8 RECORDING February 2014

Note to faithful writers: When sending your letters by email, please remember to include your name and where you hail from.

Room Modes: not the whole storyHi there. I read a very interesting article where Mike

Metlay interviewed Peter D’Antonio in your October 2013issue of Recording.

In the article, Peter D’Antonio says that RPG DiffusorSystems, Inc. used to sell a a software programme called “RoomSizer” and he adds that the ratio calculator for room volume isall basically done online now. The calculator Peter D’Antoniorefers to works out the most appropriate dimensions for a roomfrom the maximum and minimum room dimensions. I havesearched the Internet and while I can find a demo version ofRoom Sizer, that version is only for Windows 95/98 and XP. I usean Apple MacBook Pro, running OS X.

Are you able to point me in the direction of a version ofRoom Sizer that will work on a Mac? I am about to build ahome studio and I suspect that the calculator will be a veryuseful tool when designing the room.

I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards,Ian Sweeney

New Zealand

Hello, Ian, and thanks for writing. As far as I can determine,Room Sizer was never supported for the Mac; you’ll want tocast a wider net for room dimension programs. There are abunch easily found with a Google search, including someonline options like www.bobgolds.com/Mode/ RoomModes.htmand others. But I also encourage you to read what else Dr.D’Antonio said in his interview!

A room mode calculator, if it doesn’t take into account speak-er placement and listener location, gives answers that are notonly wrong but misleading. You have to worry about modesthat are excited at the speaker location and heard at the lis-tener location; optimizing for axial mode spread does neither.And any deviation from a perfectly rectangular room, even bya couple of degrees, invalidates the calculation. It also doesn’ttake into account room materials, assuming a perfectly reflec-tive room with no absorption or diffusion at all.

Dr. D’Antonio’s advice is to understand and treat theroom you have. If you’re going to truly build a room toexacting size and shape, with construction contractors andthe like, hire a studio architect who can design the roomperfectly. But if you’re going to be working with an exist-ing space, he advises to figure out where your speakerswill go, figure out where you’re going to sit, and thensweep the room and listen for (and treat) frequencies thatvanish or are very strong at the listening position.

Once you know which frequencies are a problem, you cantreat them directly. For example, in an upcoming issue of themagazine, we will run an article describing how to easilybuild a Helmholtz resonator to attack a particular frequen-cy in any size/shape room without taking up a lot of space.

If you insist on finding room proportions that optimizefor modal distribution, here’s the easiest way to do it. Go tothe webpage realtraps.com/modecalc.htm and click on theimage there to blow it up to full size. There’s a list of eightrecommended room dimension ratios. Pick one and start

there... and be prepared to shoot your room and treat forbad tones anyway, because you’re going to need to.

Thanks for reading and good luck. Please keep usinformed as to how your room is turning out, and remem-ber: treat for the problems you actually have, not the prob-lems a spreadsheet says you might encounter in a perfectworld. Best—MM

Tape for tape’s sake?Dear Scott Dorsey: I got your email address from an article

you did in Recording some years ago, on RMGI tape. I amnew to recording and have a TASCAM 38 reel-to-reel in theshop getting dialed in.

I was wondering if you think the RMGI 468 tape, for record-ing anything from classical style stuff with strings to hardrock stuff with a lot of mid bass, would be the best choice forthat deck? As I’m sure you know, it’s a 1/2" x 10.5 reel deck;I have the 2 noise reduction units. With thanks,

Ron MasterjohnYelm, WA

Scott Dorsey replies:Ron: I would really like to discourage you from using a

TASCAM 38 machine for classical work. All of those nar-row-track “semi-pro” machines have noise issues; the noisereduction system helps but then adds another set of arti-facts on top.

That said, as far as I know, the RMGI 468 is the only cur-rently-made tape that the 38 will bias up. It might bias upRMGI 911 and that could get you a little bit better Signal-To-Noise, but I would first give 468 a try. My inclination isto keep operating levels fairly low because the heads onthose machines will clip before the tape will... I would stickwith 250 nW/m.

As always with narrow-track machines, be very careful withtrack layout! Keep important stuff on center tracks, neveredge tracks; expect substantial bleed between adjacenttracks, so leave a blank track between a timecode track andan audio track, etc.. You’ll get the hang of it. Peace—SD

Ron, I’d like to elaborate on one of Scott’s points for allour readers’ benefit. With all the continuing discussionabout how awesome vintage analog tape is, prospectivebuyers should remember that not all reel-to-reels will giveyou more magic than grief.

The “pro” tape formats were and are 1" 8-track or 2" 16-or 24-track, with each track being 1/8" or perhaps 1/12" wide.As you shrink the width of each track, your usable dynamicrange drops rapidly. Machines with 1/16" tracks (4 tracks on1/4" tape, or 8 tracks on 1/2" tape like your TASCAM 38) canstill give you great recordings if you have the right noisereduction, follow Scott’s tips, and are very careful. But youwon’t get the same “tape sound” as a wider-gauge deckgives you when you hit the tape hard with hot levels.Understand what you’re buying!—MM

Write to us at: Talkback, Recording Magazine, 5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301 Or save stamps and send email to [email protected]

Sonic Reality Records Nick Mason Drum Libraryfor FXpansion BFD

Sonic Reality’s newest drum library for the FXpansionBFD virtual drum instrument is Nick Mason Drums. Thisdrum kit was played by Nick Mason, drummer for PinkFloyd, and recorded by Alan Parsons, who engineeredDark Side Of The Moon. The library reunites player and engineer for the first time in 40 years,and was recorded using a EMI TG12345 console, the model that used to record the originalalbum.

The library features nearly 5 GB of samples of Mason’s Ludwig drum kit with multiple micchannels of live and deadened sounds, room mics, and more, all recorded with the same micsand miking techniques used by Parsons in the 1973 Dark Side sessions.

Price: $69.00 • More from: Sonic Reality / eSoundz, www.esoundz.com

RØDE Releases New Stereo-Paired Pencil Condenser MicsThe M5 is the newest condenser mic from RØDE. Sold in pairs, the M5 was inspired

by the company’s successful NT5 pencil condenser and features a 1/2" cardioid elec-tret condenser capsule. Lacking the NT5’s interchangeable capsules, the M5 repre-sents a more affordable RØDE condenser for interested recording musicians.

Each mic in the pair comes with a windscreen and stand mount; pairs are certi-fied to match to within 1 dB across their frequency range, and are unobtrusively cladin a proprietary matte-black ceramic coat finish.

Price: $199/pair • More from: RØDE Microphones, www.rodemic.com/m5


New for the UAD-2 and Apollo: Universal Audio Maag EQ4 Plug-inThe Maag EQ4 is the latest plug-in emulation for the UAD-2 DSP engine and Apollo

interfaces by Universal Audio. Developed by Brainworx for UA, the new plug-in pre-cisely emulates the hardware EQ4 developed by Cliff Maag, developer of the famedNTI EQ3 equalizer from the 1980s.

The new EQ4 plug-in, like the hardware, offers six bands of EQ, five with a 21-step control for boost or cut at five predetermined frequencies, plus an Air Band with five selectable frequencies (2.5 to 40 kHz)and its own Gain control. The EQ4 is designed to provide natural sound combined with exceptional clarity and top-end presence.Look for a review soon.

Price: $229 • More from: Universal Audio, uaudio.com

Positive Grid Launches New Amplifier Modeling App for iOSBIAS is a new amplifier modeling app for the iPad from Positive Grid. Designed from the ground up for the best possible tone,

BIAS offers 36 modeled vintage and modern guitar amplifiers and speaker cabinets, all with extensive customization.The new app allows users to quickly swap out tubes, preamps, power stages, transformers, cabinets and the speakers inside

them, and more, to produce unique tonal signatures that might be difficult or impossible to create in the real world. Features includea room simulator, noise gate, and one-tap recall of favorite presets.

BIAS also allows for seamless integration with Positive Grid’s JamUp series of guitar effects processor apps, for a complete guitarand bass effects processing solution. Look for a dual review of BIAS and JamUp Pro XT in an upcoming issue.

Price: $19.99 • More from: Positive Grid, www.positivegrid.com

Sound Devices Premieres New Field Mixer/RecorderSound Devices has introduced a new field mixer/recorder, the 633. This is a com-

pact, rugged 6-channel mixer with built-in 10-channel SD/CompactFlash recorder. Itoffers three mic/line inputs with phantom power, highpass filter, input limiter, and vari-able pan, along with three line-level inputs on mini-XLR. All six inputs can be assignedto the stereo output, six output buses, or any of the four Aux buses.

The internal 10-track recorder captures all six inputs, the L/R output bus, and Aux1/2. Ten tracks of 24-bit audio at up to 48 kHz can be recorded, six tracks of up to24/192. The unit can hold an SD card and a CompactFlash card at the same timeand record to both at once, either realtime backup or WAV on onecard and timestamped MP3 files on the other.

Designed for ultimate reliability in the field, the 633 can be pow-ered by external DC supply, removable Lithium-Ion cells, or six AAbatteries. It switches from one power source to the next as needed,and a special PowerSafe function provides 10 seconds to graceful-ly save all files and shut down the unit when all power is exhausted.

Other features include a built-in time code generator, two channels of AES digital input and four of AES output, stereo linking,Mid-Side processing, and user-configurable headphone presets with quick source selection via a “headphone favorite” mode.

Price: $3095 • More from: Sound Devices, www.sounddevices.com


ADK Premieres New Line of FET MicsIn addition to the five Z-MOD 9-pattern tube mics shown at the

AES Convention and written up in our convention report(January 2014), ADK / 3 Zigma Audio has also announced fivenew solid-state mics called the T-FET Custom Tri-Polar mics.Designed to emulate the sonic “DNA” of five historical micsthrough capsule design, the T-FET line eliminates much of theneed for electronic filtering in the electronics.

Each of the mics is a low-noise 3-pattern Class A FET designwith a special slow-saturation circuit and Oxford transformer,and comes with shock mount, ring mount pop filter, foam wind-screen, and flight case.

Prices: $1299 each • More from: ADK Microphones / 3 Zigma Audio, www.adkmic.com


Great Gear, Great Advice, and Great Times at PreSonuSphere 2013Since 2011, the PreSonuSphere Annual Users’ Conference in the PreSonus

hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has brought together industry profes-sionals and end users in seminars, discussion groups, and hands-on productclinics, aimed not only at PreSonus products but at a wide variety of topics ofinterest to music professionals.

PreSonuSphere 2013 (October 25-26) was the third and largest outing so far,with some 500 participants running between some three dozen events over twolong days in four different performance spaces at Baton Rouge’s gorgeous ShawCenter For The Arts. After last year’s successful hookup with Audio-Technica onmiking and wireless products, the event was opened to other firms besidePreSonus, demonstrating their products in a vendor gallery and even hosting afew of the seminars. Audio-Technica was back, along with Blue,Fishman, Obedia, PCAudioLabs, and more.

The Hartley/Vey Studio Theatre was adorned with a com-plete live PA setup on a full-sized stage. Audiences got to watcheverything from vocal comping sessions with producer JustinLassen, to tutorials on mic selection with Audio-Technica’s SteveSavanyu, to a session where Nashville-based zydeco bandL’Angelus took a live recording from tracking to mix to postingfor sale online in just 90 minutes, with the help of PreSonus’Studio One DAW and the Nimbit online promotion service. Italso hosted lectures by luminaries like John Storyk (on studiodesign principles and applications) and Bobby Owsinski (onreally effective ways to self-promote).

The smaller Hartley/Vey Workshop Theatre had a more intimate setupwhere lecturers covered a wide variety of topics. The remarkable FishmanTriple Play MIDI guitar interface was demonstrated by Burr Johnson; CraigAnderton gave a talk on guitar tone in DAW recordings; PreSonus’s JohnMlynczak brought his passion for music education to talks on using PreSonusproducts (including the newly acquired Notion notation software) in the class-room; and musician and educator Martin Atkins (Public Image Ltd., Nine InchNails, Pigface, and others) brought listeners his uniquely accessible and funnyviews on touring and musical success.

Upstairs, the Sternberg Conference Room was setup as a hands-on classroom for topics like computeroptimization, recording software, and listening ses-sions for the new Eris and Sceptre monitors (seereviews in May 2013 and in this very issue). Theroom was fitted with a dozen Mac and PC worksta-tions set up with control surfaces, audio interfaces,and PreSonus’ Studio One and Capture software.

This year, the beautiful Manship Theatre, the cen-terpiece of the whole Shaw Center, was in usethroughout the entire conference, hosting high-atten-dance events like a seminar on putting digital consoles

to work in houses of worship, wirelessremote control of PA elements, and a 2-part seminar where a PA was set upand tuned, mics were placed and test-ed for soundcheck, and a recordingsetup was put in place, all in prepara-tion for a free concert by the band

Royal Teeth in the Manship that evening. Finally,famed engineer Khaliq Glover wowed the audiencewith a straightforward and easy-to-understandapproach to getting great mixes.

The weekend was an amazing learning experi-ence; participants left with huge smiles and promisesto return. My only regret was that with all the stuff hap-pening between the pre-conference Jambalaya Feedand the final PreSonuSchmooze dinner at the end ofDay Two, there was simply too much to see and dofor any one reporter to take in. I was proud to repre-sent Recording and its Spanish-language sister publi-cation Músico Pro at PreSonuSphere... but next year,I’m bringing Músico Pro Editor Fernando Curiel withme so I’m not run off my feet!—Mike Metlay

Photos courtesy Steve Oppenheimer of PreSonus andTom Kibodeaux ([email protected])

Khaliq Glover

Royal Teeth

L’Angelus


“I guess you’re a cheap date,” he said, smiling.

I shrugged my shoulders andlaughed, taking a few more sips of

water and honey tea before continuing.

Yes, you’re reading the correct article. And, no, I don’t drink tea on

dates... usually.

Finding the vocal micWhen the engineer/producer placed the Shure

545 in front of me, we had already been throughthe vocal-mic heavyweights: the Neumann U 47,U 48, and U 87, and AKG C12. I already knewthat my voice didn’t sound good on a Neumann U67 so we skipped that one. The Shure SM7 didn’tfit either, so we kept climbing down, from top shelfto middle, eventually getting to the Shure 545, sortof like an older brother to the Shure SM57. (I bringan SM57 and SM58 to every vocal session, just incase I’ll want to use them. I know that every studiohas these, but I would rather use my own, beingslightly germaphobic...)

Then a visiting engineer friend of mine suggestedan Electro-Voice RE20. I was wary, but a half hourlater I had to give him a hug. The characteristics of

this mic parallel ideally with my voice: A smooth broadcast-style rolloff startingat 200 Hz, a nice bump at 3 kHz, followed by a dip at 4.5 kHz, a gradual hillover 7-10 kHz, finishing in a slow decline after that. The RE20 is now my go-tostudio mic.

Why all the fuss?Vocals are the most uniquely personal instruments of all—just like we each

have our unique DNA and fingerprints, each of us has unique vocal cords.Capturing these nuances, and finding the right mic to do so, goes beyond easycategorizations like “a rock vocal” or “a jazz vocal”. It requires experimentalpatience, knowledge and creativity, both from the producer/engineer andfrom the vocalist. Singers entering a recording studio should not assume that“their” perfect vocal mic will be ready and set up for them; they should makeit their business to find out what mics complement their vocals, just like a gui-tarist walking into a session has to know how to adjust their amp setttings.

Singers, you don’t have variable settings like an amp head does, or switch-able speakers or tubes; your voice is your voice. You don’t have the ability toadd a little presence to your voice, or cut a little midrange. However, thereexists a vast range of microphones, some of which will highlight or dull certainparts of your voice, essentially acting as the controls on an amp head.

Singer—know thy voice!How do you find out what may suit your voice? While the specs of a mic

are obviously easy to find, we singers can’t Google our frequency curves aseasily. We have to test and build them.

For singers, this task requires you to sing into a DAW and slap a multi-bandEQ on whatever it is that you just sang. Either you or an engineer can then sitdown and start moving those bands up, down and over. Don’t be light-hand-ed here, either. The point is to find the frequencies that resonate the most, in agood or bad way. Crank that 3 kHz band up and see if that’s where your bite

sits. Crank 450 or 500 and see if it sounds like you’re wrapped in a blanket.This way, you’ll carve out a nice frequency response curve for yourself and canthen match that with mics that complement that curve.

As an engineer, if you have no idea what the frequency response of yourclient’s vocals are, listen to previous releases of theirs. (This is essentially howthat engineer came to recommend the RE20. He knew the frequency responseof the RE20 and, having mixed my vocals more than a handful of times, hehad a visual memory of my frequency curve as well.) Maybe you’ll have thetime/ability to do a vocal-mic shootout, so you can ask the client to come inand test with you.

Cases in pointFor example, I sing rock/hard rock and blues rock and my voice parallels

well to that of Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave) and Brent Smith(Shinedown). A little online digging will tell you that Cornell has used SM57sand SM7s in the studio. SM7s are good because they can handle enormousamounts of SPL and they add a nice clarity to beefy rock vocals. They can,however, also add sibilance to voices like mine... voices that just need a littlesheen in the top end, not a heavy silk mumu.

Recording Vocals—From An Insider’s ViewpointA vocalist takes us into the studio to learn how to make a vocal session run smoothlyBy Eleanor Goldfield

Microphone preamplifiersIf you can, try out a number of high-quality mic

preamps, as they can make a difference. Not asmuch of a difference as, say, the tonal differencebetween an SM58 and an RE20, but still important.

The thinking behind mic pres, at least from myperspective, is that studios and home setups should

A singer I have worked with has the most amaz-ing pop/R&B voice and sounds outstandingthrough a Sony C800, a Neumann M49, AKGC12VR and Blue Kiwi. (So she’s not a cheapdate...) The Sony C800 is a beautiful-soundingtube mic, with more than a handful of people say-ing it’s their favorite tube mic. The M 49 is a clas-sic, with smooth and clean highs and well-round-ed lows. The Kiwi sets a high bar for solid-statemics, with a relatively flat response and honest fea-tures. The C12VR exposes more than the others,without overtly highlighting. The reason this singersounds good on it is because she has a honey-smooth voice with just tinges of rasp here andthere. The C12 picks up on those without focusingon and pushing them—unlike, say, a U 47.

The highly praised (and highly priced)Neumann U 47 is a beautiful-sounding mic that

doesn’t really hype in one place or the other, but it does have a smooth andwarm tone to it that a lot of people love. In my case, that’s precisely why it does-n’t work: I like the harshness in my voice and even want it to be accentuated.The U 47 will glaze it with a warm goo that sounds awkward on my voice.

For classical vocals, the Audio-Technica AT2020 is a favorite, as well as theSchoeps MK4 that has pretty much an entirely flat frequency response. Forcountry, I’ve found that many of the same pop mics sound great, as well asthe RCA 77 ribbon mic.

Allow for creative surprises: As you put up the typical choices for yourgenre and style, throw in something a little off the radar. Add an AKG C414to your lineup of the SM7, SM57, U 67 and U 47, or a RØDE NT1-A, whichstraddles several genres, having been used in studios by Amy Winehouse aswell as Cornell, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and 30 Seconds to Mars.

Make sure that when you’re testing these mics, you don’t have compressionor EQ in, and that the mic pre is at an appropriate level. Which brings us to...

invest in a couple or a few solid mic pres that focus on transparent-ly passing along audio signal without augmenting or affecting it. Inthe years that I spent working at the Village in Los Angeles, I heardof maybe two or three people using a mic pre other than the 1073savailable inside the Neve 8048 console. Why? Well, because theysound amazing! They work on anything and everything, from spo-ken word to death metal. Besides that, what’s more convenient thanusing the mic pre that’s built into the board?

Chances are that if you find yourself in a professional studio, thehouse engineer will suggest using whatever gets used the most. WhenI was at Sunset Sound, the home of my RE20 epiphany, I sang throughtheir custom-built mic pre. That’s obviously not something I can pick upat Guitar Center. When we recorded tracks at my home studio, I useda Vintech X73 (modeled after the Neve 1073).

In short, when you go to test mics and to record, go through atrusted mic pre that won’t color the sound too much.

EQ and compressionNow, on many channel strips and certainly in your mixer and

DAW, you have EQ options. My suggestion is that of one of mymentors: mess with everything else before you record with EQ!

The thinking here is that if you’ve done your homework by choos-ing the correct mic and the correct placement and a mic pre thatdoesn’t come in a “starter pack,” you shouldn’t have to tattoo EQonto your vocals. Even if you think you know what EQ is needed lateron for that voice to sit in the mix, you should still record onto twotracks, with and without the EQ.

As far as compression goes in this signal chain, a general consen-sus is to “salt” the track, i.e. to use it sparingly or not at all. I, for one,always record with a little light compression. I have a very dynamicvoice and need something to smooth out the highest peaks and low-est valleys. Between that and good mic technique, I typically don’tneed to really clamp down on anything, nor do I like doing so.


Engineers, if you have a singer who is incrediblydynamic, stay your hand from smashing the hell outof that vocal. Consider how that singer will reactwhen hearing a metric ton of compression restrainevery pushed word or phrase. The goal is, after all,to get the best performance, and as any producerwill say, half (if not more) of producing is psychol-ogy. If a singer doesn’t like the way he/she soundson record, that recording won’t sound good.

This is often ignored when it comes to com-pression. It’s obvious when you’re listening to amicrophone that sounds awful or a preampthat’s buzzing. But as you sit there, pleased withyour controlled and contained waveform, thesinger may be out there wondering why the hellhe or she has to keep singing harder with lessdesirable results each time!

Depending on the singer, start with somethinglight, and adjust for taste. If you feel that you absolutely need harder compres-sion, try this trick: Create two audio tracks inside of Pro Tools and set two com-pressors (either hardware or plug-ins) that feed those audio tracks. Make thefirst one a light compression and record that pass first. When you’re at thatplace where takes start coming, and the vibe is up, ask them to double.

Switch over to the second track and record through the heavier compres-sion. Let the singer listen to the first take while they sing the second. Whilethe current pass will sound more compressed, the singer is less likely to noticeand be bothered by it because the more dynamic track is still audible.

This of course assumes that the singer (1) can double themselves without issueand (2) doesn’t mind hearing themselves as they sing doubles. But if you can getthat dynamic singer to give this a go, you’ll be quite pleased with the blend.

Now, if you happen to be working with someone like Donna Summer, whoasked that the compressor be removed even before the needle moved (truestory), go ahead, and then sit back and enjoy. If you have a singer who canso masterfully work their relation to the mic, to the point that the fade-out looksquite literally drawn in, don’t mess with that beauty of artistic technique.

For the rest of us mortals, add a little salt to the mix.

Care and feedingVocal cords are soft tissue, basically muscles. When we push them togeth-

er, they create vibrations in the form of sound. You non-singers don’t knowhow lucky you are that your instrument is not a part of your body. Sure, youhave to lug kick drums and guitar cabinets around, but if you skimp on sleepor have too much coffee, your instrument isn’t affected. Well, ours is.

Everything we drink, eat, inhale, think, and just simply do affects our vocal cords,for good or bad. So engineers and singers alike, here are some tried-and-true waysto care for and carefully manipulate those two magical wings of soft tissue.

~ Sleep: Lack of sleep translates to your vocal cords. In short, get enoughsleep the night before a session or gig, and don’t plan on re-grouting your bath-room that morning.

~ Stress: Stress also shows itself in your vocal production. Being a musician isstressful in and of itself, so all I can say is maybe try yoga and stock up in the otherdepartments, like hydration. My guitarist constantly makes fun of me for walkingaround with a water bottle as if I were about to cross the Mojave. It’s true, I drinka lot of water (about half my weight in ounces a day); but I would argue that every-one should, particularly if it’s a necessary part of keeping your instrument in opti-mal working order. Without proper hydration, your voice won’t just lose desiredtimbre, it’s more likely to crack, falter and quiver, making a smooth vibrato soundlike a hacking square wave. [Here in Colorado, a mile above sea level in the highdesert, it’s amazing how quickly dehydration can trash your voice, wear you out,and give you a headache. You can never drink too much water!—MM]

~ Dairy products: Dairy products have been given a bad rap from classicalsingers (which I used to be), simply because dairy triggers your body to pro-duce more mucous. In classical music, this is bad. Mucous obviously interfereswith the desired pristine, crystal clear tones. But how about rock? Or someedgy country or R&B where you’re not looking for pristine and crystal clear?

Dairy products give singers a little more gravel to push off of, something abit dirty and unrefined, a little bit of gritty growl. But be careful and don’tthink that the more pizza you have, the more gravel you’ll get. It affects most-ly the midrange and could cause cracking and wobbling in the lower and

higher sections of your range, so choose yourdairy consumption wisely.

~ Alcohol: Then there’s alcohol, in particular whiskyand other dark liquors. I don’t include wine or beer inthis because they aren’t harsh enough to get aresponse out of your cords. All they do is dry them out.

I’m not sure of the science behind this but if youtake a shot of whisky, you’ll get some nice gritty rasp,and it’ll be easier to hit the lower notes in your range.I say shot because you shouldn’t start blending thealcohol with sweet mixers like juices or sodas. Thesugar and laboratory-made multi-syllabic poisonswon’t do you any favors. Stick with a shot or two.

Don’t go overboard, not just because of the dry-ing effects on your cords, but also because you don’twant to be standing there at noon recording vocalswhilst having to decide which of the two mics in frontof you is really there. And if you’re opposed to alco-hol use in general or just in the studio, feel free toskip this step and try my other suggestions.

~ Coffee, Tea, Honey, Oil...: Just stay away fromcoffee. In my experience, no fun or interesting effectshave come from drinking coffee except cracking andmissing notes. Coffee basically just dries out yourvocal cords, and even with drinking water after-wards, the effects are lasting for at least a couple ofhours. As much as it may suck, give some green teaa try and ask to not start too early in the morning.

As for tea, there are several brands made specif-ically for the voice including Throat Coat andGolden Voice. When I go into the studio, I typical-ly take one bag of that, a packet of honey and aspritz of lemon. That’s my go-to drink.

Honey is also good—just take a spoonful. Itssticky yet smooth nature does wonderful things fora fluid, consistent vibrato.

And while you have the spoon out, you can alsotake a spoonful of oil; olive, rice bran, safflower,etc. The oil will coat your cords (just like a doorhinge...) and smooth them out beautifully. It canmake it a little too slippery to get a good handle onyour gravel or grit, but as you’ve read, there’s aremedy for that as well.

~ For your top end: Neither milk nor whisky (please don’t blend) do muchto help your top end, but green apples do. They have to be green. Somethingin green apples gives a hydrating crisp to your cords that’s immediately notice-able. Green apples are also great to have in case you forgot about not hav-ing coffee... or you want to etch-a-sketch the whisky and milk you just downed.

~ Food: Food can be just as hydrating as water, or as dehydrating as coffee.Vegetables are typically great for the voice because they contain a lot of water.Anything with a lot of salt or sugar isn’t. Grains are not too far to either side, butmy vocal cords feel a bit swollen after I’ve eaten a lot of gluten, so that may besomething you want to watch out for.

~ Smoking, exercise, and the meaning of life: I won’t get too naggy hereabout smoking or exercise (especially since I’ve just suggested that drinkingcan be good for a singer!) but I think we can all guess which one of thoseis good and which one is bad. And none of the other information is rocketscience either. Your body isn’t afraid to tell you when it likes or doesn’t likesomething. You’ll know just by feeling and listening to yourself sing whetherthat coffee cake and soda was a good idea (which it probably wasn’t).

The same goes for choosing mics and setting up your signal chain. Useyour ears and take note of how it feels and sounds to sing or recordthrough that mic, through that pre, that compressor. Allow yourself thetime and freedom to experiment and to be an overly expensive or over-ly cheap date.

And for the record, as a wino, I’m not a cheap date. Happy recording!

Eleanor Goldfield ([email protected]) is a Los Angeles-based writer, musician and freelance tech and studio consultant. She islead singer in the hard rock band, Rooftop Revolutionaries, and workswith several studios and pro audio professionals in management andconsulting capacities. For more info, check out eleanor-swede.com.

All photos, including the shots of Samantha Blanchard on the Blue Kiwiand AKG C12 on pages 18–19, by Eleanor Goldfield. Photos of EleanorGoldfield on Shure SM57 and Electro-Voice RE20, on these pages, byChris Owens. Vocal photos taken at Bell Sound Studios, Hollywood.


B Y P A U L V N U K J R .

Blue Bottle Rocket Stage OneA choice of capsules gives this mic amazing versatility

Blue’s first mic, the Bottle, was released in 1996and based upon the 1928 Neumann CMV3, alsonicknamed “The Bottle”. Aside from its largeimposing size, what made the original unique wasits system of removable M-series capsules thatcould be swapped out for different applications, asystem used on Blue’s Bottle as well. Note that bothBlue’s line of Bottle Caps and the originalNeumann capsules can be used on either mic.

Eventually, after World War II the EastGerman division of Neumann, what we nowcall Microtech Gefell, refined the idea furtherby shrinking the body into the CMV-563.Many years later, in 2005, Blue did the samething when it released the Red Type A throughthe company’s Vintage Microphones division.

When the Red line was discontinued in2008, the Type A was rebranded into the BlueBottle Rocket Stage Two, reviewed by JustinPeacock in our March 2010 issue. Comparedto the $6000 Bottle, the $2500 Stage Twowas a much more affordable option for enter-ing the world of Blue’s Bottle Caps.

Concurrent with the original tube-based RedType A was the Solid State Red Type B, whichalso earned a new Blue designation in 2008as the Blue Bottle Rocket Stage One and nowsells for $1000 street. We’d missed reviewingit the first time around, but felt it was worth ahard listen now, especially since many of thesecapsules excel on vocals, this issue’s focus.

The Bottle Rocket Stage OneThe Stage One has a similar body to the

Bluebird and of course the Stage Two. Unlike theStage Two’s glossy dark-blue exterior the StageOne features a rough texture. It is a bayonet-stylemic, which means it has a large post on its topside where the lollipop-style Bottle Caps attachwith a spring-loaded push and twist. A great fea-ture of this mic is that—as on the Stage Two—thecapsules are hot-swappable. They can bechanged and auditioned while the mic isplugged in, even with phantom power engaged.

The Stage One comes with a foam-lined,slide-top hardwood box and a screw-on shockmount. This is an upgrade to earlier BottleRocket mounts, which used a vintage-style com-pression-clamp mount.

A few relevant specs: frequency response20 Hz–20 kHz, sensitivity 27 mV/Pa (±10 mVdepending on capsule) at 1 kHz (1 Pa = 94 dB

SPL), noise level not more than 7.5 to 14 dBVdepending on capsule, dynamic range 130dB, and max SPL 138 dB.

Cap it!None of the Bottle-style microphones offer

pattern switching; when you desire a differentpolar pattern, swap a Cap. Currently there are9 capsules in the series, each sold in its ownhardwood foam-lined box. They are:

B0: a cardioid large-diaphragm capsule witha solid low end, a slight mid dip and a signifi-cant 8 kHz rise. Blue calls this “ultimate bigvocal sound”.

B1: a cardioid small-diaphragm capsule witha gentle low-end rolloff below 50 Hz, a flat, evenmid section and slight peaking at 5 kHz and 10kHz. This is Blue’s “accuracy plus” capsule.

B2: a large-diaphragm figure-8 capsule with de-emphasized lows and low mids, with a smoothsloping peak up to 8 kHz and then a smooth high-end roll off; Blue calls it the “vintage” capsule.

B3: a mid-size diaphragm cardioid capsulethat Blue calls the most neutral of the bunch.This capsule is smooth in the lows and lowmids with a slight 2 kHz rise followed by themost subdued high end of any of the capsules.

B4: a Perspex Sphere small-diaphragm pres-sure omni. This capsule is based on the NeumannM50. This will find its most use on room mikingand orchestral work, thanks to its smooth evensound. It is a favorite of classical engineers, andseemed to be reviewer Justin Peacock’s favorite ofthe bunch in his Stage Two review.

B5: this is a large-diaphragm omni that Bluecalls the “presence omni”. Unlike the B4, thisomni is big and bold, with a nice low-endbump and the most open top end of the entireBottle Cap family.

B6: a dual-backplate large-diaphragm car-dioid capsule with a very nicely weightedsmooth frequency response, with some slightmidrange presence around 2-3 kHz followedby a forward 12 kHz peak. The company callsthis “The Blue Standard”, and this is the capsulethat is recommended and usually ships with thefull-size Bottle. This one is one of my favorites!

B7: a single-backplate large-diaphragm car-dioid capsule that Blue calls the “vintage vocal”sound. This one is the most mid-forward around3-4 kHz with a subdued low end and equallysubdued highs. Essentially this is the capsule

Capsule choiceThe first capsule I grabbed was

the B7. I put it on the Stage Twobody where it did a great job onfemale lead vocals. I had theopposite reaction with male leadvocals, preferring the naturalopenness of the Stage One body.The capsule kept the mid-forwardpush that 47-ish mics have a rep-utation for, but the Stage One hadbetter clarity and the vocal tookup less space in the song.

Moving to the B8 capsule, Ihave always been a Bluebird fansince I reviewed it years ago in ourMay 2004 issue. I find its naturalwidth is great on acoustic instru-ments and vocals for folk andAmericana music. The Stage Onewith the B8 capsule is of coursevery Bluebird-like, but what I likedeven more was the slight presenceboost that the Stage Two gives theB8 capsule. The lows fill out atouch and the highs seem to pullback a bit more.

It’s easy to see why Blue recom-mends the B8 with either body asthe best all-rounder. If you canonly afford one mic and plan touse it on everything, I would

agree that the B8 is the safest bet. I didsome quick tests recording a verse andchorus of a song using cajon, hi-hat, twoacoustic guitars, vocals, tambourine andshaker, taking turns with each mic andcapsule on every source, just to see howeach mic stacks on itself in a mix, and theB8 is the hands-down, all-around winner.

Second to the B8 for versatility was theB3 in my opinion. It is very neutral andoffers an un-hyped naturalness. While thesoundstage was not as wide oropen as that of the B8, the B3was smoother and verypleasant on the ears acrossthe spectrum. This was thecapsule I chose for use onthe string trio (cello & 2violins) and it did a greatjob of capturing a full andwoody tone, but not high-lighting too much string bite.I also found the B3 to be myfavorite of the group on electricguitar cabinet about 3 feet back,where it added a nice depth, againwithout being bright or biting.

Next it was the B1’s turn. As asmall-diaphragm capsule the B1excelled on sources needing a

smooth, clear focus. It was my favoredcapsule for hand percussion, close-upstring work, again violin and cello,acoustic guitar, and even up close in thegrille of a guitar cabinet.

While I expected my favorite capsuleto be the classic B7, which was awe-some—especially on vocals, I foundmyself enjoying and returning just asoften to the B6. Although Blue calls it“modern”, I think it nicely straddles theline of modern punch and vintage full-ness. It offers the most overall presence ofthe collection, but it still stacks surprising-ly well in an only-mic situation.

I liked its tone on male vocals a hairmore than the B7 and also found it to bea nice front-of-drum-kit mic. It also didwell on percussion and on acoustic guitarwhen I wanted a touch more character.This is the best descriptive word I canthink of for this capsule: it takes a sourceand adds a hint of character. It’s alsoeasy to see why this one seems to be soloved, used and recommended for usewith the Bottle, as it is quite full and dis-tinct, especially with a tube body.

Whenever I see someone describeBlue’s Cactus tube microphone or even theBottle, I often see phrases like “it has theBlue sound”. I think that thanks to the B6, Inow know what they are talking about.

Wrap upI know I have only scratched the surface

of what these mics can do and what theyare suited for, but reviewing this collectionis a bit like reviewing 10 distinctly differ-ent microphones in a few months’ time.

What they all have in common, fromthe Bottle Rockets to the Bottle Caps, isquality, from their build to their sound,even to their look and presentation. Thisis a system that lets you start small andgrow over time to cover every sonic needthat you may have.

If I was starting my collection today Iwould go with the versatility, clarity andprice of the Stage One and I would choosea B6 or B8 capsule, as I think those cover

the most ground. Then I would adda B7, then a B3, of course I still

want to try the B4, and the B1was nice...!

Prices: Bottle RocketStage One, $999 withB8 capsule; Bottle RocketStage Two, $2499.99

with B8 capsule; singleBottle Caps, $599.99 each

More from: Blue, www.bluemic.com

Paul Vnuk Jr. ([email protected])is a recording engineer, producer,musician, and live sound engineer, liv-ing and working in Milwaukee.


that Blue has been manufacturingfor years as a drop-in replacementfor when they refurbish NeumannU 47 mics. Of course, without therest of the electronics this does notsound exactly like a vintage U 47,but it’s in the ballpark with a veryclassic sound all its own.

B8: this large-diaphragm car-dioid capsule is the same oneused in the Bluebird. This one isthe most open and modern, withruler-flat mids, a round and slight-ly bumped low end, and a 5 kHzboost followed by a smooth andeven rolloff. This is Blue’s best “allround” capsule, and the one thatthey typically recommend as yourfirst Bottle Cap.

2 microphones, 5 capsulesFor this review Blue was kind

enough to send me not only theStage One Bottle Rocket, but alsoa Stage Two so I could comparethe sonic differences of eachbody. They also let me choose 5capsules to try and I chose the B1,B3, B6, B7 and B8.

Over a period of two months Iused both mics and the capsulesin front of a few drum kits, on elec-tric guitar amps, acoustic guitar, percus-sion, male and female vocals, and even astring trio—which made me wish I wouldhave also chosen a B4 capsule.

Solid state or tubeThe solid-state Stage One is easily more

clear and open and less weighty. By con-trast, the Stage Two is more filled outacross the low mids, and has a nice softdustiness on the top end. It’s not overlysmooth, muddy or rolled off, just less crisp-sounding than the Stage One. To simplifyit into an old illustration, the Stage One islike video and the Stage Two is like film.

One is by no means better than the other,and—like when choosing any micro-phone—it comes down to context. What isyour source? Where do you want it to sit inthe mix? What capsule are you using?

Overall I found myself favoring the StageTwo tube body for things like lead vocals,acoustic guitar, and percussion that neededthe filling out and the weight, but I preferredthe solid-state Stage One body on electricguitar, the string trio, and backing vocals,where I wanted a clarity that sat more inthe mix. On drums it was a toss-up depend-ing on how huge I wanted the front-of-kit/room mic to sound in the mix.

Blue Bottle Rocket Stage One

For this issue of Recording, with its emphasis onvocal recording, I’d like to teach you a bit aboutbackground vocals. I love arranging and recordingbacking vocals... it’s one of my favorite things.They’ll be different for every song, because everysong has different needs. Background vocals cando so much for a song, and it’s a challenge to comeup with the perfect arrangement, one that makesyour production of the song the best it can be.

The number of ways background vocals can be sungis infinite, so in this article I’ll be scratching the surface ofa huge subject. I’ll talk through some valuable optionsand use some commonly known songs as examples. ButI’ll mainly focus on songs that have just a lead vocalmelody, and discuss what to do around it—as opposedto songs that are conceived with vocal harmonies, likethose of Crosby Stills & Nash, for example.

What does the song need?First and foremost, remember—the song is king.

The meaning of the song is what dictates the kindsof decisions you make in any production. Yourecord the song in the style, tempo, key, instrumen-tation, and general vibe that not only fit it, but makeit mean more to the listener and bring out the emo-tion of the song. Some work better as rock songs,some as folky ballads, some as bluesy productions,some as funky groovers. The same considerationsare true for the use and treatment of backgroundvocals. Remember, form follows function.

Think about what the song wants to say, and how background vocals mighthelp say it. Some songs may not want any background vocals at all! This is asimportant a decision as when and how to use them. A ballad about lonelinessmay have the most impact with one solitary vocal throughout. A song aboutlove may want one harmony only with the lead, playing up that relationship.Other songs, particularly big anthems with lofty lyrical themes, might want abig powerful background vocal arrangement. Humorous songs may want funor sarcastic background vocal arrangements.

Some bands or artists want to make use of lots of tracks and overdub manyvocals for a big-sounding production. Others want just the sound of what thecore band can do live. Some songs want big, full-voiced choruses. Some wantbreathy, quiet harmonies. Listen to your production and focus only on whatbackground vocals might do for it.

Where does the lead vocal want support? Does it need harmonies all theway through, or just in certain sections? What spaces need to be filled in?What lines need to be accented? When should background vocals sing lyricsand when simply “ooos” and “ahhs”, syllables like “la”, or humming. Howdoes the song build from beginning to end?

When to record background vocalsThis is an important decision. When you create a song, or when you’re lis-

tening to a demo for the first time, you may have an idea that backgroundvocals are needed and where and how they might be used. But at what pointshould they be put into the recording?

In some cases, the background vocals come to the recording process withthe song and are such an integral part of it and how it was conceived that they

must be among the first considerations. These should be recorded (at least asscratch) along with or soon after the basic instrumentation and lead vocal. Thisway, any overdubs or additions take them into account, either adding to themor staying out of their way, and the rest of the production is built around them.These instances are usually obvious.

In other songs, particularly those in which it has not yet been decided whatbackground vocals might be needed, if any, I like doing background vocalslast, after the rest of the production is recorded and the lead vocal is finalized.I do this for two reasons: First, it may not be clear what the song needs untilthe end, and second, the background vocalist(s) may be harmonizing with thelead at times, and those harmonies must match the final vocal.

In cases where the background vocals are the icing on the cake, it’s easierto see what function they will perform when the production is closer to finished.If all of the instruments have been recorded and there’s still something missing,background vocals may be just what the production needs. I like to listenthrough the song, after not hearing it for a day or so, making notes of placeswhere something needs to happen. Then I’ll go back and try some things outin those sections. Once I’ve tried something, I listen again. Did it work? Did itget better? Would something else work better? Would nothing work better?

When to bring in background vocalsAt what point in the song do you bring in background vocals? Do you have

them come in right at the opening of the song, or wait until later? When they comein, do they come in strong, or start out in a smaller way and build? Smart use ofbackground vocals can be a great way to build energy as the song goes along.One typical strategy for me when the song calls for it—and using a very commonsong form—might be something like this:

~ Let the lead vocal be by itself in the first verse and chorus. Since this is thefirst time a listener will hear this melody, letting them get used to it by itself firstallows them to know what’s being harmonized later.

~ In the second chorus bring in simple background vocals, either harmoniz-ing lyrics, or singing oos or ahhs.

Recording Background VocalsSolid strategies for best results

By John McVey


RECORDING February 2014 27

~ Throughout the bridge have the back-ground vocals doing something support-ive—again harmonizing lyrics, or singingoos or ahhs. Since the bridge is often abit of a departure from the rest rest of thesong, these background vocals can oftenbe used to create an atmosphere that isdistinct, one that sets the bridge apart ina cool way.

~ In the last verse add a few harmonylines. Now that the listener knows themelody, it may be time to embellish. Thesecan be used to keep the listener interested,or add emphasis to particular lines.

~ In the last chorus, bring back thesame background vocals as in chorus 2.But maybe double them, or add a newline to counterpoint what’s alreadythere, thus making it bigger than previ-ous choruses.

From a whisper to a roar?How close to the mic do you want your

background singer(s)? If what you’re afteris a soft, breathy harmony vocal, you maywant the singer(s) right up on the mic. Ifso, then use an omni mic to avoid the bassboom you get from directional mics atsuch close proximity, and take care to iso-late the singer(s) in all directions whenusing that omni-directional mic.

When you mix these breathy vocals in,you may add a bit of reverb to help themmove to the background, or add atmos-phere. Background vocals like these canoften sit close to the lead, sharing similareffects with the lead, and be very effective.

If, on the other hand, you are trying tocapture big, full-voiced backgroundvocals, allow your singer to move backoff of the mic and belt it out. Allow a bitof the room sound to get into the record-ing. This can add some authenticity anda cool vibe.

GuidanceAs the producer, it falls on you to let the

vocalist(s) know what to do. Most per-formers need the benefit of another set ofears. In the control room, you have a bet-ter perspective than those singing. Andoften they don’t know if what they’redoing isn’t working.

Sometimes a person singing a back-ground vocal doesn’t hear that the style inwhich they’re singing is more “lead” thanthe lead! Sometimes a bit less vibrato (ornone) can help. Other times singing lessfull-voiced, more breathy, or in a falsetto(even if the pitch isn’t very high) can yieldthe right vibe. Feeding them some notes,suggestions on vibe, and rhythmicalideas, and then hearing what they dowith those can be a good strategy.


ahhs make a great pad in the right song. But unlikeany other instrument they can include lyrics, andnot necessarily the same ones the lead is singing,which makes them a great tool!

Adding harmonies to the lead vocal, singing thesame lyrics at the same time, as we all know, soundsawesome. But you can also fill in space, add energyand emphasis by using the same lyric sung at a dif-ferent time, for instance an echo. Or use completelydifferent lyrics sung in counterpoint to the lead vocal.

A great example, and one with which we’re allfamiliar is The Beatles’ “Getting Better”. In the firstverse, the lead vocal sings “I used to get mad at myschool,” and the background vocals answer “No Ican’t complain.” And in the Chorus, the lead sings,“I’ve got to admit it’s getting better,” and the back-ground vocals sing “better” in a longer, drawn outway. Then the lead sings, “A little better all the time,”and the background vocals sing “It can’t get noworse.” Brilliant.

This can be a very useful tool in building the mean-ing of a song. In cases where the words in the leadvocal are not saying a lot, or repeating a shortphrase, the background vocals can say something dif-ferent and add meaning to the lyric as well as inter-est to the arrangement. As in the above example,using a combination of harmonized lyrics and oosand ahhs can make a good song sound way better.

Handle with careThroughout this process, it is important to keep in

mind that you are dealing with the human voice.Yes, it is an incredible instrument. It is also some-thing to which listeners are particularly attuned andsensitive. If it is not treated with care, listeners canbe turned off by it. Keep this in mind when arrang-ing any background vocal part. It ought not to betrampled on by or clash with other things in the pro-duction—especially not the lead vocal!

Some arrangers prefer to have the backgroundvocals mimic or sing the same notes as another instru-ment is playing. This way, there’s not too much har-mony happening, which can be confusing to a listen-er. But however you do it, in addition to thinking aboutwhat notes the background vocals sing, so that theymatch the chords, think too about what rhythms, stylesand dynamics are happening in the other instruments,and be sure that the background vocals fit with these.

And, as with the lead vocal, each vocalist has theirown set of talents, limitations, stylistic leanings, andpoints of view about music and their own abilities.Aspire to being a producer who knows how songs, pro-ductions and particularly background vocals work, andbeing someone who can listen to ideas and make sug-gestions about them, or come up with completely newideas. Then you need to be able to communicate themto artists and singers, in a respectful way that keepseveryone happy and excited about the direction thesong is heading. That is a worthwhile talent to develop!

Have the singers pay special attention tothings like note length, when exactly to comeoff a note and how, and if a long note endswith a sharp consonant like a T or K that theycan’t seem to hit exactly in sync, ask all but onesingers to simply not sing that consonant. Onewill suffice, better than three conflicting ones.

To double or not to double:Doubling any vocal, lead or background,

can add girth and vibe. It’s a great tool, and ithas a particular sound. Doubling backgroundvocals can give them a fatness that is very sat-isfying. But it can also make a productionsound very different, and in some cases toobig! The best way to figure out whether it willwork to double the vocals is to try it. In somecases just a doubled lead vocal is all that’s

needed! Consider The Beatles’ “Something”. There are fully harmonizedlyrics in the bridges and some harmonies in the last verse. But the chorusesare only a doubled melody vocal! Way cool.

And what if you’re looking to build a choir out of only a few singers? Doubling,tripling, quadrupling and more can work great. In these cases, it can be effectiveto have your singers change their voice a bit from take to take, use falsetto on oneor two, move their voice back or forward in their throat, or swap mics betweentakes. This way, it is less obvious that it’s only a few singers, and doesn’t sound ashomogenous. On the other hand, there are times when this homogenous soundcan work for you... consider Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Enough said.

Matching the chords, not the melodyWhen singing harmonies—solo lines in verses, or multiple harmonies in

bridges or choruses—it’s important to pay attention to what the chords aredoing. This is especially true in songs with fewer vocals, like just a lead vocaland one harmony. I’ve noticed that many background singers tend to simplyharmonize a third above the melody, singing parallel to it no matter what’sunderneath. But this can clash badly with the chords and make things soundless than stellar. Singing a third above the melody can be awesome, but listento what chords are being implied by that harmony, and be sure it matches thechord you’re singing with at every moment. In some cases, changing the har-mony up or down a half tone or so outside of that parallel third is necessary.

Sometimes leaving a note hanging a bit longer, past where the melodychanges, or using pedal tones (singing a one-note harmony on a note that’scommon to more than one chord throughout a section) can yield great results.But you may need to alter notes here and there to be sure all is well.

A great example of all of this is The Beatles’ “Nowhere Man”. As the harmoniesmove through the verses, they are not completely parallel to the melody, but rathermove with the chords—to the extent that when the song starts a cappella the chordsare all there! In particular, check out the lower harmony in the verses!

For an example in a completely different style, listen to almost any GillianWelch song. David Rawlings, her brilliant guitarist and harmony singer, is amaster at picking out the right harmony notes to match the melody and thechords, also to add meaning, emphasize a word, phrase or note, and just tomake the song more interesting.

Lyrics, or ooos and ahhsThe voice is an amazing instrument. And it can be used in so many ways.

Oos and ahhs can add something wonderful to verses or choruses. (Checkout the Beatles’ “Oh! Darling”, in the second half of each verse. Listen to theharmonies used. Listen to where they come in!) Doing big doubled oos and

First and foremost, remember—the song is king. The meaning ofthe song dictates the kinds of decisions you make in any production.

The back end—mixing them inAs with how to use background vocals, how to mix them is also a big subject. Some

producers like them way in the background. Some like them as up front as the lead.Some songs call for one or the other in an obvious way. Others take a bit more exper-imentation and thinking.

One way to check out how all of the vocals are working together is to solo them.Some of the tracks may need their volume ridden, so that no words or lines poke out.You’ll also hear where words or consonants don’t line up, and where an edit or twomay be needed. Once you’ve got the individual tracks working well together, put themback into the mix and see where they should sit.

Compression is a great tool to help thebackground vocals sit well. Don’t beafraid to try hitting them a bit hard to findwhere the limits of effectiveness are. Oftenthey can take a good deal of compressionto help them sound great, to help all thewords and parts be audible, and to helpthem sit just right. After compressing them,you may find they can be turned down abit more and still be heard.

EQ can also be effective in makingyour background vocals sit well, or speakmore in the mix. Again, soloing the back-ground vocals and the lead is a greatidea. This will tell you whether you’rehearing the lead clearly and, if not, howto bring it in front of the backgroundvocals in the best way. Adding some highend to multiple background parts canhelp add air, roominess and reality tothem. Taking out some lows or low midscan often clean up background vocals,and as a result the whole mix.

When there are more than a few back-ground vocals, I tend to use an Aux Inchannel in Pro Tools as a sub for all ofthem. This way, by soloing that channel, Ican easily hear what they are doing atany point. And I can use one set of plug-ins on all of the background vocals atonce, and turn them all up or down withone fader. Also I can easily send thatwhole mix to a reverb or delay, ratherthan sending each individual track there.(See Figure 1.) This can be particularlyuseful when there are lots of vocal tracks!

Again, I tend to listen a lot, and on dif-ferent systems, to figure out how the back-ground vocals blend in. Giving it a dayor so without hearing the recording, I’lllisten straight through and take notesabout how the background vocals are sit-ting. Then I’ll go back through and tweakthose sections or lines and listen again.

As usual, experimentation with some ofthese ideas is key to figuring out the best wayto use them. Have fun and rock on!

John McVey ([email protected])is an engineer/producer working atCoupe Studios in Boulder, CO.

Figure 1. Note that all 6 bg voc tracks are sent to Bus 1–2; the input of the Aux INis Bus 1–2; there is a send on the BG VOCS SUB to Bus 3–4; and the input of the sec-ond Aux IN, the VERB, is Bus 3–4.


B Y L O R E N Z R Y C H N E R

An innovative coaxial design combines with DSP for an amazing listening experience

PreSonus Sceptre S8CoActual Active Studio Monitors

Did you just do a double take on seeing the wordCoActual™? It’s a word that the folks at PreSonus have coined,and you thought you read “coaxial”, didn’t you? Maybe thatwas the intent all along? Let’s see what we have here.

The two models in the same series, the active two-way SceptreS6 and S8, share lots of features. It’s easier to list what they don’tshare, so let’s do that before we concentrate on the S8, the modelwe received for evaluation. Ready? The S6 and the S8 differ in thesize of their drivers and cabinets, in their crossover frequencies,low-end extension, and maximum SPL. That’s it. So, on to the S8!

The S8 cabinetThe black cabinet is made of vinyl-laminated MDF, measuring

11.4" W x 11.8" H x 15.75" D and weighing 24 lbs. each.Two integrated amplifiers, each rated at 90 W, power the twospeaker elements.

The speaker elements are an 8" woofer made of glass-rein-forced paper and a 1" high-frequency compression driver. In the

center of the woofer sits a black plastic piece of unique shape,which turns out to be a very special horn projecting the soundfrom the compression driver, with a dispersion of 110 degrees x90 degrees. More about that in a moment. There is a horizontalbass port low in front, and around back is the regular 3-prongIEC A/C socket for the detachable power cord, and an on-offpower switch. Audio connectors are balanced 1/4" TRS and XLR.

A level control adjusts the incoming audio signal before it reach-es the internal amps, so it’s not a conventional “volume control” andis best left at unity if your studio’s gain staging is what it should be.

What’s different? Coaxial Speaker Coherence Alignment, and TQ™ Temporal

Equalization Technology, that’s what’s different. Both are from a com-pany called Fulcrum Acoustic. At www.fulcrum-acoustic.com/technologies/temporal-eq.html you can read a detailed account ofthe concept and process that aims at eliminating reflections in thehorn, thus preventing a phenomenon called “time smear” that canoccur in horns where sound gets acoustically reflected back to the dri-ver repeatedly, smearing transients in the process.

Fulcrum tackles the problem with DSP, after having addressed theknown issues of coaxial speaker arrangement in the hardwaredesign. The result: A speaker that articulates transients withoutsmear, offering increased clarity and definition. You can read muchmore on the above-mentioned web page, and the new design con-cepts of the coaxial arrangement are described in great detail atwww.fulcrum-acoustic.com/technologies/building-better-coax.html.

PreSonus managed to incorporate Fulcrum’s design conceptsin these affordable monitors, including the massive DSP, withremarkable results.

User controlsThere is no need for the user to do anything about those issues of

acoustic reflection in horns and problems of coaxial transducerarrangements—they are taken care of by behind-the-scenes DSP anddesigner wizardry. But there are other issues a user is confrontedwith, and the S8 offers considerable control to remedy those. A com-mon quandary is bass buildup as a result of compromises in monitorplacement. In our less-than-perfect rooms we can’t always place thespeakers in the acoustically ideal spots, much as we would like to.

Maybe the wall behind where you have to place the monitorsis a bit too close, and you can’t help that this placement results inexcessive bass? Your mixes sound bass-deficient when heard else-where, because you heard too much bass while mixing and there-fore dialed it down? Use the first of three user controls on the rearof the Spectre S8 and some of that bass will be attenuated. The“Acoustic Space” control offers one passive (“linear”) and threeactive settings: –1.5 dB, –3 dB, or –6 dB of the frequency rangebelow 250 Hz can be attenuated. You probably won’t be usingthe rather drastic –6 dB setting unless your speaker is not onlyclose to a wall but maybe near a corner where bass buildup canbe just as drastic. Your ears will have to be the judge.


If you use a subwoofer and you want toavoid—as much as it can be avoided—anoverlap of frequencies, you can use theHighpass Filter. It rolls off lows at a rathersteep 24 dB/octave at the selectable cutofffrequencies of 60 Hz, 80 Hz, or 100 Hz. Ifyour bass build-up (without subwoofer) isreally egregious, you might want to com-bine the “Acoustic Space” and HighpassFilter controls for even more bass attenua-tion. Both can be active at the same time.

If you need to permanently adjust thehighs as they come off your speaker andare sounding in your room, you can boostthem by +1 dB or attenuate them slightly by–1.5 dB or –4 dB. This is to be used withcaution, of course—the owners’ manual isquite clear about that, as it is about otherissues where good advice is dispensed.

Sounding offOut of the box these brand-new speakers

sounded somewhat tight, and after pushingaudio through them for hours on end theyloosened up nicely. So far, so normal.

I set the speakers up a good five feet fromthe nearest wall in front and behind, and fur-ther from the side walls, on individual standsout in the middle of a carpeted room withmostly walls of wood and with a futon andan upholstered love seat. The room is notvery live, but as I sat on the futon, listening,situated in an equilateral triangle with thecabinets, the wall behind me caused megrief with splashy reflections. Luckily, stand-ing up the massive queen-sized futon againstthe wall stopped that, and as I sat in front ofit I was able to focus intensely on nothing butthe sound coming off the speakers.

The bass was rich and full, but notboomy, and following it down low I could-n’t detect any resonances from the porthole. I was interested in playing with theuser adjustments—to the extreme, combin-ing the “Acoustic Space” and Highpass fil-ter at maximum settings, which produced asound that screamed “get me a sub”—buta sub wouldn’t have substituted all the miss-ing frequencies, of course. So I reset themboth to Linear and all was well again.

The treble on the S8 is quite smooth, inmy listening room I experienced no benefitfrom the available High-Frequency adjust-ments. I heard none of the stridency thatsometimes shows up in hyped tweeters; onthe S8 under review, cymbals and trian-gles and the sheen of well-recorded stringsections sounded natural.

The midrange proved to be the most inter-esting listening experience. Having readabout the design challenges on the webpages mentioned earlier, I set out to detect

a symptom of those inherent design flawsthat the DSP-enriched S8 is said to over-come. Well, you know how you can end uphearing something if you really want to hearit? Even if it’s not there? I put up a disc of apercussion sample library, and some brasschorale music, to listen for smeared tran-sients. And I thought I heard some, but thenI also heard them when listening to the samesamples on two other speaker systems ofvery different designs, and through goodheadphones to boot. So, no, the transients Iheard were not smeared by the S8 unlessthey were so on the source.

All in allI found the overall tonality of the Sceptre

S8 to be evenly balanced from low to

high, open and even forward withoutbeing brash in the mids and upper mids,presenting voices with acuity, and pro-ducing enough quality bass to obviate theneed for a subwoofer.

Whatever wizardry and science hidesbehind the unwieldy vocabulary of termslike “Coaxial Speaker CoherenceAlignment” and “TQ Temporal EqualizationTechnology”, it’s working to your benefit.These speakers will reveal the truth in yourstudio at any volume level you care to dialin. Highly recommended.

Prices: Sceptre S8 (as reviewed), $749.95each; Sceptre S6, $649.95 each

More from: PreSonus, www.presonus.com


Dave Pearlman is a designer of high-quality bou-tique-level microphones that evoke famous modelsof the past. He uses construction methods andmaterials that are as close to “the good old days”as possible—if you look inside one of his mics, youwill find no PCBs or modern shortcuts of any kind.

Like many gear gurus, Dave got his start as aprofessional touring musician, then he became astudio engineer and found himself maintaining,fixing and tinkering with the gear, and eventual-ly he began building his own.

Dave’s original microphone was the RotundRascal Mic, named after his studio, followed bythe TM-1 and the more affordable TM-2, bothinspired by the venerable Neumann U 47.

Soon the Pearlman line would grow to includea spec-for-spec copy of the Stanley Church-modi-fied U 47 built for MGM studios, known as thePearlman Church mic, as well as the model weare reviewing today, a pretty darn close recre-ation of the Telefunken ELA M 250 known in thePearlman line as the TM-250.

Historical note: There was a time when theoriginal German company Telefunken (that hadgrown out of Siemens) had a Telefunken U 47mic, made for Telefunken by Neumann. WhenNeumann stopped production for Telefunken (butkept making a Neumann-branded U 47, ofcourse), Telefunken turned to AKG as a resourcefor a high-quality Telefunken-branded mic, andthe Telefunken ELA M250/251, based on theAKG C 12 capsule, was the result.

The TM-250Dave Pearlman’s design is based on the dual-

patterned 250 and, like the historic model, offerscardioid and omni polar patterns. It also offers ahigh-cut (no, not a low-cut) filter which gives themic a very focused, darker vintage tone. Whilethe body and grille are of Chinese origin, every-thing else about this microphone is a handmadecustom product. Dave even has the bodies pow-der-coated locally.

The capsule brass is a custom-designed C12-style capsule made in Denmark by TimCampbell. As I mentioned in my introduction,there are no pre-printed circuit boards or modernshortcuts. The mic is wired internally point topoint and uses old-style carbon resistors andother period-specific components. The tube is a

hand-picked 6072 (12AY7); in the mic I wassent it was a GE-made GL-6072. The outputtransformer is made for Dave by Cinemag andis a spot-on replica of those found in the origi-nal. If and when an original vintage CK12 cap-sule becomes available, Dave will build thatinto his mic for you, for a charge.

The mic comes as part of a kit which includesa robust, large-thread shock mount, a micpouch, cables that Dave soldiers himself, and acustom US-built power supply, all housed com-fortably in a quality aluminum carrying case.

The look of the TM-250 is tastefully simple andunassuming. Its 81/4" by 21/8" body is dressed ina simple grayish tan with an etched “dp” logo. Iwon’t bore you with specs and numbers, as therearen’t any published by Dave. What matters issound, so let’s move right into our sessions!

In the studioI put the TM-250 up initially at a female vocal

session, and the sound of her voice on this micwas an instant Wow Moment with big dumbsmiles all around. On voice, this mic is just astunner. Both male and female vocals are roundand full with a great controlled depth. This michas a great proximity effect; if you have asinger that can work a mic and control his orher plosives, you will end up with a low chestyyet natural tone that is amazing.

In omni mode it has essentially no proximityeffect and as such makes a great room mic fordrums, guitar amps, acoustic jam sessions andmore. As a test I turned the mic slowly in a cir-cle as I spoke and sung, and listened to theresults; this has to be one of the most even omnipatterns I have ever heard, with no noticeabletonal change off axis.

Over a few weeks time I put the TM-250 touse with a variety of other male and femalesingers, nylon- and steel-stringed acoustic gui-tars, drum kit (single mic overhead and front ofthe kit) and percussion.

The TM-250 manages to sound open, smoothand full all at once. Compared to my high-endU 47 clone (a BeesNeez Tribute 1) it has a fulleroverall mid section and is less high-mid for-ward. It does have a nice presence to its highsand mids, smoother and more natural sounding.This even smoothness also continues into its low


Pearlman TM-250 Tube MicrophoneA handmade mic that evokes a vintage classic mic of old—and sounds like it, too

end, which is full and warm, but notpushed or hyped like many vintage-wannabe mics.

It was nice and balanced onsteel-string acoustic guitar. I alsoliked it on a solo nylon acoustic, butdue to the round, dull nature of theinstrument I needed to eq some ofthe top end back in to make the gui-tar pop. (Guitar’s fault, not themic’s!) Similarly I liked the smoothwall-of-sound tone it gave to a vin-tage drum kit when used in front ofthe kit. On the flip side, it was a tadtoo rounded and full for my tasteson overheads, where I like just a bitmore cymbal shine.

Tube choicesAs an added bonus and for more

flavor choices, Dave sent me threeother hand-picked tubes to try out inthe TM-250: an RCA 12AT7/ECC81, a GE-5814A Jan, and anold GE HE 188-3.

Each tube made the TM-250 soundlike a slightly different mic. The stock 6072was imprinted on my brain as the best andmost hi-fi of the bunch; the RCA was moreforward and tight, and bordered on nasally;

the GE-5814 was the cloudiest of the group,and the GE-HE—despite having a bit of dog-whistle high-end whine—was tonally my

favorite with a rich, relaxed sound. I amguessing the tube was starting to go, but find-ing another tube of this vintage and soundwould be a high priority if I owned this mic.

Dave sent me all of these tubes todemonstrate how easy it is to tailor thismic to suit the voicing you are after. If you

order a mic from him, be sure todiscuss the possibilities!

ConclusionsOK, it’s gush time... the TM-250

is freaking great. Period. It’s one ofthe nicest-sounding mics that hasever made it through the doors ofmy studio. It makes you realizewhy a boutique mic is a boutiquemic, and why a classic was and isa classic.

I am not saying that it is the bestmic on every source, or that I don’town or have not heard other micsthat are also amazing. But even at itssignificant price, the Pearlman TM-250 is in a rare class of micro-phones, a mic that sonically lives upto the tender care that goes into build-ing it. It has my highest recommen-dation, as a sonic work of art.

Price: $3000

More from: Pearlman Microphones,www.pearlmanmicrophones.com


Knowing what you’re hearing is a vitalpart of serious music work, and it’s not atall uncommon for pros in the audio worldto carry a reliable reference monitoringsystem with them to studios where theydon’t know the room or the speakers. Thismight include, at minimum, a well-knownand accurate pair of headphones, and atmaximum, a pair of studio monitors to putup next to the ones the host studio pro-vides... but in almost every case, the engi-neer will want a reliable amplifier/routerto run those headphones and/or speakers,one with sound quality he or she can trust.

Even if you don’t plan to take your engi-neering work on the road, having a reallygood D/A converter system guaranteesyou’re hearing what you’re supposed tohear, and it helps if that can be combinedwith a reference monitor switching systemso you can go back and forth betweenmultiple speakers or headphones, maybeadding a subwoofer when needed. This isone area where investing in quality paysmajor, lasting dividends.

No matter which camp you’re in—orboth—you need to hear about the newSource from Dangerous Music. This littlerouter is reference and headphone moni-toring with a vengeance.

Front and backRackmountable with an optional kit but

small enough to live under a 13" laptopcozily, the Source is a rugged and impec-cably-finished stereo routing device thatsupports up to 24-bit/192 kHz audio. Aquick tour of the front and rear panels willgive readers an idea of the options avail-able for audio routing and monitor controlwithin the Source.

Since inputs and outputs are the core ofthe Source’s feature set, we’ll start on theback. The left side of the rear panel hasthe Source’s four inputs: Analog 2 (TRSminijack), Analog 1 Left and Right (com-bination TRS/XLR jacks), AES/SPDIF (alsoon a combination TRS/XLR jack, which

automatically handles 75 ohm or 110ohm cables depending on the signal), andUSB 2.0 (on a conventional B connector).There’s also an AES/SPDIF Through jack(XLR), so you can pass the digital input sig-nal to other gear in your studio.

The right side of the rear panel has the out-puts: Speaker 1 Left and Right on XLR,Speaker 2 Left and Right on TRS, SelectedLine Out Left and Right on TRS. The latter line-level output mirrors whichever is the selectedSpeaker source, and is unaffected by front-panel attenuation control. It’s intended for sit-uations when you’d like to send anuntweaked output signal to an external mixeror recorder. Be careful not to plug yourspeakers into it accidentally; I nearly blewmy brains out when I turned down theSpeaker level to zero and started my DAWplayback, thinking I had my monitors muted!

The rear panel is rounded out by a pairof jacks for a wallwart power supply.Why two? The manual states, “The PSU-SRC can plug into either receptacle. Theother is for possible future accessories thatcould run off the main power supply(shhh).” Intriguing—and forward-thinking,considering that the supplied PSU packs awhopping 2 Amps of current at 12 Volts.

On the front panel, you’ll find dual 1/4"TRS headphone outputs, four HeadphoneSource selection buttons, a HeadphoneLevel pot, four Speaker Source selectionbuttons, a Speaker Level pot, and twoSpeaker Select buttons. All buttons arebacklit, and two of them are pressed simul-taneously to enter a Setup mode with someintriguing hidden features.

Options and extrasAs shipped from the factory, the Source

is trivially simple to understand, set up, anduse. You plug in your inputs and outputs,

B Y M I K E M E T L A Y

Dangerous Music SourceMonitoring and signal routing for the discerning mobile user

select your input, choose a set of speakersor put on headphones, and adjust listeninglevels to taste.

But that’s just the start; the Source adds alot of flexibility to this basic routing. First ofall, the Source sports two independent D/Aconverters; that means the Speakers andHeadphones can listen to two differentsources, analog or digital, allowing you tocreate and feed cue mixes from your audio

interface to your talent while listening to yourDAW’s output directly for mix purposes.

Second, Setup mode allows you tochoose whether each Source Select (inde-pendently for headphones and speakers)works in Toggle or Latch. Toggle mode isabout what you’d expect; select an input,and whatever input you were using beforeis turned off. But Latch mode allows you toselect multiple inputs at once, mixing theminside the Source before you hear them.

Third, all input select buttons can be usedin “Momentoggle” mode, where a buttoncan be momentary rather than push-on/push-off. This lets you do things likequickly route audio to a subwoofer to checkbass, or turn the Source into an on-the-fly“talkback” box.

SoundDangerous has a reputation for gear

that’s solidly built and sounds amazing; thatsums up the Source in a nutshell. All thefunctions work as advertised, and in weeksof constant use in our studio at Recording’sEditorial office, it delivered flawless audioquality to some half-dozen sets of monitorsand countless sets of headphones. As you’dwant in a router, the Source has no “sound”of its own; it’s clear and unobtrusive, effec-tively noiseless, and gives you every bit ofthe audio it’s fed, whether good or bad.

If there is any down side to the Source,it’s the price tag; newcomers to recordingand folks on tight budgets won’t be ableto run out and grab one easily. But quali-ty costs, and quality is what the Source isall about. Dangerous Music has done itagain.

Price: $899 streetMore from: Dangerous Music,www.dangerousmusic.com


Antelope Audio is a boutique companywell known in professional audio andaudiophile circles for its Zodiac, Isochroneand Eclipse audio converters, as well asfor the Isochrone 10M Atomic DigitalClock. Antelope gear, being boutique,spans the gamut from $2700 up to $5995(for the Atomic Clock). Thus Antelope cre-ated a stir last year when it announced theOrion32 that packs 32-channels ofAntelope-quality A/D and D/A conversioninto a single rack space for $2995 street.

I know that $3k is not pocket change,but I say again: 32 channels, Antelopequality... three grand! Kind of grabs yourattention, doesn’t it? The next part hadme even more curious—the Orion32 usesUSB 2.0 to make this happen!

Meet the Orion32The Orion32 is both a 32-channel digital

converter as well as a 32-channel USB 2.0DAW interface. In addition to USB 2.0 itincludes a hearty selection of additionalinterface choices, routing options and more.

It is housed in a clean single-rack-spacehousing with a thick brushed aluminumfaceplate, with a thick plexiglass-coveredLED/LCD display that shows clock fre-quency as well as full-on digital meteringfor each of the unit’s 32 channels. Ninesilver push buttons control power, fre-quency, internal settings and presets, andadditional LED lights indicate clock set-tings and preset choice.

The Orion32 supports sample rates of 32kHz up to 192 kHz. Its internal clock is a4th Generation Acoustically Focused Clockwith 64-bit DDS and an Oven-ControlledCrystal Oscillator. It has a stated stability of< ±0.02 ppm (parts per million), oven-con-trolled at 64.5 ºC / 148.1 ºF.

The Orion32 can also be clocked exter-nally, to Word Clock or Atomically with a10M. Its A/D and D/A converters have

118 dB dynamic range with a THD+N of–105 dB for the A/D and –98 dB for theD/A. For USB it uses a custom designedhigh-speed USB 2.0 chipset with a datastream of up to 480 Mbits/192 kHz.

More options in backUSB is not this unit’s only connection

option, either. The rear panel is jam-packedwith I/O choices that include 32 channelsof analog input and 32 channels of outputvia TASCAM-style D-Sub connections.Digital connections include four ADATOptical sockets (2 in / 2 out), a pair ofMADI I/O, and a pair of standard coaxialS/PDIF connectors on RCA, as well as fourBNC word clock outputs, a single BNCword clock input and, a BNC input for lock-ing to the 10M Atomic Clock. There is alsothe standard 3-prong power cable socketand lastly the type B USB 2.0 socket.

Channel counts will vary with ADATdepending on sample rate settings, and Ishould note that the S/PDIF connectionsare quite handy for connecting to anexternal monitor controller or for connec-tion with older digital gear.

With DAWsThe Orion32’s Control Panel software

helps you choose how and where yoursignals go, thanks to an elegant drag-and-drop matrix that scales itself depend-ing on connection and clock speed. Apair of faders control master volume andthe hardware display brightness, andthere is even an Antelope news feed builtinto the software!

The software also contains a full-fledgedmixer application and settings panel withsignal oscillators, settings for SMUX andS/PDIF, ADC and DAC channel trims (20dBu to 14 dBU in 1 dB steps), buffer set-tings (64 up to 8192 samples), and USBstreaming mode choices ranging from

Minimum Latency for tracking to ExtraSafe for mixdown. This is also wherefirmware updates are initiated.

The Orion32 is both Mac and Windowscompatible for most of the popular DAWsfrom Logic, Cubase/Nuendo, Pro Tools,Ableton, Studio One, Reaper andSamplitude. The only thing to note is thatdue to USB limitations, the Orion 32 canonly achieve 24 channels of high samplerate operation. For complete computabili-ty, latency specs and more, be sure tocheck out Antelope’s website.

Up and...I installed the Orion32 software on my

2.5 GHz quad i7 late 2011 17"MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8.5 (I amnot brave enough to go beyond—yet)and on my X980 3.33 GHz PC runningWindows 7 64-Bit Home Premium (notbrave enough for Windows 8 either).

On the Mac, installation was smooth asbutter. On my PC it was rough. The firstproblem was my fault, as I tried using a 10'USB extension cable in addition to theincluded 3-meter cable (my PC lives in acloset on the other side of my studio wall fornoise reasons). Unfortunately, the Orion32

does not like this and you will need to stickwith just the included cable. Tech supportlet me know that a slightly longer cable canbe used, but extension cables are a no go!

That issue was easily solved and theOrion32 installed and locked up with myPC nicely until I launched Cubase 7.Initially there was an ASIO conflictbetween the Orion32, Windows 7 andCubase that would not allow the Orion’sclock to lock over USB. This was admittedby Steinberg to be on their end, and withthe new Cubase 7.5 software released afew weeks ago, I am happy to say thatthings are fixed and have been rock solidwith the Orion32 ever since.


Antelope Orion32

32 channels of impeccable audio over USB... how is this possible?

...Flying!I did multiple D/A listening comparisons between my Lynx Aurora 16 and

the Orion32, as well as session tracking and comparison mixdowns through14 channels of outboard gear on both units. I am sorry if readers are expect-ing me to say that one high-end converter system “crushed” the other, butoften I heard very little difference at all.

If I had to differentiate the two I would say that I found the Orion32 a tadsmoother and more open than the Aurora 16, which was a touch harderedged and forward. All in all a 5 to 10% difference if that.

This was most noticeable during D/A comparisons of well-known stereo tracks.When comparing my own mixes done through each machine, playing themback on my home system, I could barely tell them apart.

That may sound boring, but I actually find it exciting considering howrevered the Aurora is for its stellar sound quality. Add in that the Aurora is 16

channels only and requires an addi-tional PCIe or add-on cards for DAWconnection, all of which cost the sameif not slightly more than the Orion, it’sreally exciting... not because one is

superior to the other in outright sound quality, but more for just how much bangfor the buck you’re getting with the Orion32.

ConclusionsWhen you combine the sound, feature set, and simplicity of use of the

Orion32 all together into one box as Antelope has, and you consider itsprice, you get a conversion system that could legitimately be called a gamechanger. And that is a phrase I rarely use.

If you thought it was impossible to fit 32 channels of world-class conver-sion into a single rack space, Antelope Audio would like to have a wordwith you. That word is Orion.

Price: $2995More from: Antelope Audio, www.antelopeaudio.com


Most of the vocal recording I produce or engi-neer is for pop/folk/rock, and as such this article isfocused on techniques appropriate to these styles.My preference is for lead vocals to be robust, clear,and detailed—larger than life. For me, the magic ina well-recorded vocal lies in the match of vocalist tomicrophone, preamp, and compression, all in def-erence to the production of the song.

Choosing the micIf time allows, I’ll test a number of mics for the task

at hand. Ultimately I choose a mic, the distance fromthe vocalist to the mic, the height and angle of the mic,the use of mechanical plosive filtering (“pop filter(s)”),

the type of preamp, compressor, and settings, all with relation to the vibe of the pro-duction of the song. I just finished recording an album, Seven Hour Storm, for Misner& Smith (misnerandsmith.com), a vocal-centric group, and in this article we’ll gothrough the vocal recording process together.

I’ve learned time and time again that whenever possible, it pays to avoid pre-conceptions about which mic to use in a given scenario. I’ve been collecting gearfor decades and at this point I own a few outstanding vocal mics, including twoof what mic guru Klaus Heyne refers to as the “Big Five”—the Neumann U 47,U 67, and M 49, AKG C12, and Telefunken ELA M 251.

With that in mind, we started by setting up an asterisk-array test to determinethe best mic choices for our two vocalists—in other words, we arrayed our micchoices in an “asterisk” around a single point so they could all be sung into atthe same time, so we could quickly learn which of our mics was the best fit toeach singer. Paul Vnuk talked about this technique most recently in his articleon home-brewed gear shootouts in our October 2013 issue; to read my takeon the technique, don’t sweat if you don’t have a copy of our March 2005issue where I discussed it in detail... the article’s available for free inRecording’s online reference library, at tinyurl.com/RecMagVocalAsterisk.

We quickly learned from asterisk-array tests that neither my M 249 (a 1961broadcast version of Neumann’s M 49) nor my C12 sounded best for the con-text of this album, for either vocalist! When all was said and done, we chosea variety of mics for lead vocals on this album, most often an AKG C414EB(with a CK12 capsule) for Sam Misner’s lead vocals, and a Sanken CU-41 forMegan Smith’s. For specific songs calling for different approaches, we eitherused dynamic mics—a Shure SM7 and a Shure SM54—or ribbon mics—aColes STC4038 and a Royer R-121.

Positioning the micThe relative position of the vocalist and microphone depend on a number of

factors, including whether or not the vocalist is also performing simultaneously on

an instrument, or is isolated from other vocalists or instrumentalists, the loudnessof the vocalist, the quantity and character of plosives in the lyric, desired intima-cy of the performance, and the singer’s skill at “working” the mic. I also payattention to the “proximity effect” characteristics of the mic, avoiding it for inad-vertent bass response, or taking advantage of it for weakness in the low rangeof the vocalist. In the case of an isolated lead vocal overdub, I’ll usually ask avocalist to keep a distance of approximately 8" from the mic, requesting they“work the mic” by moving a little towards the mic at points in their range wherethey begin losing power, moving away from the mic when they’re belting.

Because condenser and ribbon mics are sensitive to plosives (p’s, b’s, t’s) andto sound pressure in general, I try to avoid the most direct line from the vocalist’s

Vocal Recording—My TakeA noted producer walks us through a typical vocal session

By Bruce Kaphan

of high sound pressure. Beyond this, I take intoaccount the number of plosives in the lyric, and theway in which the singer is enunciating them; if nec-essary I’ll angle the top up to as far as approxi-mately 30º away from the vocalist.

Dynamic micsI don’t use dynamic mics frequently in recording

lead vocals, but I do use them occasionally. UsuallyI turn to a dynamic mic either to capture a “live”, orharsher sound and feel, or when isolation is animportant consideration because the lead vocalist issinging while among a group of musicians.

I’ll almost always position the dynamic mic’sdiaphragm at the same height as the vocalist’s mouth,and ask the singer to be approximately 1" or closerto the mic, knowing that dynamic mics are less sensi-tive to plosives and sound pressure, and that this close-ness is likely contextually appropriate. If a vocalist

mouth to the mic. For that reason I rarely posi-tion the mic’s element (capsule or ribbon) at thesame height as the vocalist’s mouth; instead, Ieither place the mic approximately 3/4" above

the vocalist’s mouth if I’m using a tall mic stand from which the mic hangs, orapproximately 3/4" below their mouth if the mic sits atop a stand.

I choose whether to hang the mic or sit the mic atop a stand based on anumber of factors, including whether or not the vocalist is playing an instru-ment while singing, whether or not the session is being photographed orvideo’d, and whether or not the mic is a tube mic. I once read—andbelieve—that it’s wise to hang tube mics, because of the heat generated bythe tube. Capsule end down, the capsule hangs below the tube, and the heatfrom the tube rises away from the capsule, thereby hopefully keeping thecapsule’s response more consistent over the course of a session during whichthe mic gradually becomes physically warmer. This should expose the cap-sule to less heat over the course of its lifetime.

When considering the angle of especially condenser and ribbon mics, I’llalmost always angle the top of the capsule or ribbon approximately 15ºaway from the vocalist, to reduce possible distortion caused by a direct hit

!"#$!%&'()*+,-./-0)1234 45

tends to “eat the mic” when performing live,you can reproduce that vibe in the studiowith a similar mic placement.

Avoiding plosivesOnce the mic is chosen and set up at the

desired height and angle, I’ll always set upat least one plosive (“pop”) filter on a micstand, and leave it close by, so that oncewe start rolling, if we need it, it’s right thereto be moved into position. My favoritethese days is an Audix PD133. Maybe I’monly imagining it, but compared to othersimilar-looking filters, it seems to performjust as well at reducing plosives, while oth-erwise leaving less of a sonic footprint. Inaddition to the first filter, I’ll have a second,and depending on the vocalist and thesong, sometimes even a third filter set upand ready to swing into position!

I almost always position the pop filter(s)at approximately 3" to 5" from the mic,depending on the power of the vocalist. Ido this both to kill plosives away from themic and to define for the vocalist the clos-est point to the mic at which I want themto sing. If I want the vocalist to move in onthe mic to bolster weak spots in theirrange during the performance, I’ll askthem to get right up onto the pop filter.

The signal chainKeeping in mind the vibe of the pro-

duction, I’ll choose the rest of the signalchain based on the sonic characteristics Idesire. For me this usually boils down tochoosing between technologies—tube ver-sus discrete solid state versus integratedcircuits. How one picks a preamp tomatch a mic is a subject worthy of awhole article in itself, and experimentationyields great rewards and fun surprises.

I almost always use some amount of com-pression, usually a very light amount of anopto compressor (I love my Pendulum OCL-2 for this), and very occasionally a smallamount of limiting on top of that. Since it’salways possible to compress more later,and it’s impossible to remove compressionfrom a signal to which it has already beenapplied, I don’t aggressively compressvocals while tracking unless I’m going for avery stylized vocal sound. When I do gen-tly compress vocals during tracking, Ialmost always set the compression attack

time slightly slower than the amount of timeit takes for transient peaks to decay.

With care and attention, this approachyields a well-recorded vocal that willserve the track well. You can easily adjustthese tips to work in your sessions... allowsome time to experiment but don’texhaust your singers in the process!

The editors asked......what I have been up to. It’s been a while

since I’ve written for Recording, and it’s niceto be back! Recent album projects for meinclude albums by Victor Krummenacher,Jerry Vessel, Kenny Feinstein, Misner &Smith, Charles Charnas, Nancy McGinnisand Jeffrey Halford. I’ve continued playingpedal steel in the studio (Vox Vespertinus,

Francois Nguyen, Jodee Seiders [with pro-ducer Chris Johnson], and Bob Forrest [withproducer Ian Brennan]), and after a long hia-tus I’ve begun playing live gigs again, per-forming with Mark Eitzel, Jodee Seiders andMisner & Smith. I’m currently also scoringJudy Irving’s (The Wild Parrots of TelegraphHill) next film, Pelican Dreams.

By the way, if you’d like to hear some ofthe vocals I have recorded in these sessions,visit tinyurl.com/RecMagKaphanMyTake.

Bruce Kaphan ([email protected])is a composer/musician/engineer/producerbased in the Bay Area of NorthernCalifornia. Learn more about him and hiswork at www.brucekaphan.com. All photosare of the artist Kaze, by The Sportographer.



When did solid, reliable monitoring quality become this affordable?Samson Resolv SE Active Studio Reference Monitors

Samson’s new Resolv SE active speak-ers aren’t the only affordable monitorswe’ve reviewed recently or are about toreview, but they’re among the more sig-nificant arrivals in this Editor’s listeningroom in 2013. Read on... but do me afavor and don’t skip ahead to the prices atthe end until you’ve read the review.

The three Resolv SE models are namedfor their woofer sizes: the Resolv SE5,Resolv SE6, and Resolv SE8. The Resolv120a, an active 10" subwoofer with 120Watts of power and nice extras like built-in phase switch, active crossover, andremote mute switch, rounds out the line.

For this review, I received two pairs ofResolv SE monitors, the SE5 and SE6. Iburned in both sets of speakers with twodays’ worth of music playback, and thenlived with them for several weeks inRecording’s Editorial offices.

On paper and out of the boxThe Resolv speakers are sold individual-

ly, making it easy to build multichannelsetups if desired. Each speaker has a1.25" soft dome tweeter with a neodymi-um magnet and a woven carbon fiberwoofer (5", 6.5", or 8" depending on themodel). The Resolv SE is biamplified:20W+50W (SE5) or 25W+75W (SE6

and SE8) with a multipole active crossoverwith a crossover frequency of 3.19 kHz.The two drivers are enclosed in a solidlybuilt front-ported MDF enclosure with afront-panel waveguide around the tweeter.A bright white LED indicates power on.

The rear panel of the Resolv SE5 offersunbalanced RCA and balanced 1/4" TRSinputs; the SE6 and SE8 add a balancedXLR input as well. A standard IEC powercable connects to a jack with an easilyaccessible fuse panel, near the powerand voltage-range switches.

Each Resolv monitor sports two rear-panelpots: a center-detented Volume pot and afour-position HF Level switch. The HF Levelswitch controls a shelving EQ with a 4 kHzcorner frequency, with settings of –2 / 0 /+2 / +4 dB. A high-frequency control ishandy when you want to use the speakersin an overly reflective or muddy room, orsimply tweak their sound to individual taste.What makes this arrangement unusual isthat there is no corresponding control to rolloff bass excess that might occur if you’reforced to place the speakers too close to arear wall or in a corner. While I was sur-prised at that omission, I wasn’t expectingtoo much trouble in my listening tests; myroom is set up in such a way that bassbuildup is rarely if ever an issue.

Listening to the Resolv SE6I set up a listening position with the larg-

er Resolv SE6 in place of my usual near-fields at one end of a small but well-treat-ed room, on Ultimate Support speakerstands at head height, nicely toed in andsymmetrical (thanks to Genelec’s awe-some SpeakerAngle app for iOS!) in anequilateral triangle roughly 80" on a side.

I lined up many of my usual listening testsfrom conventional CDs and high-bitrateaudio files—lots of reliable rock standardsfrom the 1960s and 1970s, modern releas-es from bands like Florence+The Machineand Neko Case, some well-recorded jazz,country, and classical tracks, and mybeloved electronica, EDM, and ambient aswell. As always, I added in some of myown music, both as artist and as engineeror producer... particularly those infamousmid-1980s recordings from my first homestudio that were so fraught with, shall wesay, “teachable moments.”

I also did some listening at heavier MP3compression levels, as far down as 128kbps; while well-encoded 320k MP3s canbe largely indistinguishable from CDaudio when listened to on any but themost discerning speakers or headphones,it’s not hard to hear artifacts in lower-bitrate files if your speakers are honest.

Samson quotes the SE6’s low-frequencyresponse as 45 Hz–27 kHz, ±3 dB (thetolerance is given in the owner’s manualbut not on the website). 3 dB down at 45Hz is respectable performance for a 6.5"woofer, and listening to bass-critical mate-rial through the SE6, I can believe it.

One of my favorite bass tests is AgaZaryan’s jazz album Pick Up The Pieces,which has several tracks of nothing butAga’s exquisite voice backed up by soloupright bass. If a speaker gets basswrong, it will destroy those tracks, but Ifound them nicely enjoyable with theResolv SE6. Bass on these speakers is tightand well-defined, with no sloppiness ornasty resonances that make certain noteshonky or thumpy. Rolloff at the extremelows was gentle enough so that when youstop hearing the fundamental of the deep-est notes, the harmonics fill in nicely inyour head. If you’re in a small roomwhere bass buildup is an issue, you’ll


have to be careful with speaker placementfor sure, especially since there’s no low-frequency adjustment on board, but in myroom, the low end I got was plentiful andlistenable with no need for a subwoofer.

Transitioning from the lows to the mids, Ifound the Resolv SE6 to be blessedly freefrom the forwardness that plagues someinexpensive “rock-friendly” monitors. Vocalsand guitars, those critical litmus tests in rockmixes, spoke clearly and in their ownspaces without unpleasant smearing ormuddiness. The crossover didn’t call atten-tion to itself with any drastic timbral shifts orunevenness; when a mix was congested tobegin with, as on “Dog Days Are Over” byFlorence+The Machine (from Lungs), it cameacross that way on the Samsons.

The claimed 27 kHz extension of thetweeter is impossible to hear except onhigh-sample-rate audio (my 24/96 versionsof Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon andthe Beatles’ Rubber Soul are specialfavorites), but highs in general were clearand detailed without a lot of hashiness—except when it was in the source material.

I could hear how this tweeter could be over-whelming in the wrong room, making theability to turn the highs down by 2 dB apotential lifesaver, but I couldn’t imagineturning the highs up on these speakers! (Allmy serious tests on both speakers weredone with the HF Level set flat, after somequick listens determined that was best.)

I found the Resolv SE6 to have a nicelywide and forgiving sweet spot with respectto soundstaging. The stereo remaster ofRevolver by the Beatles, with its hard-panned sources, is very interesting to listento in this context, as the “mixing” happensin the phantom center of the stereo range,and it sounded fantastic on the Samsons,even on complex tracks like “Love You To”.The Rick Rubin-produced tracks from late inJohnny Cash’s recording career had amarvelous sense of intimacy and presence,especially in the lead vocal.

My overall impression was very favor-able; this is a speaker that a seriousrecording musician could easily learnbackwards and forwards, creating believ-able mixes that would translate well toother speakers and rooms. With the usualcautions that the extreme low end shouldbe checked on much larger speakers orwith a subwoofer, the Resolv SE6 would bea fantastic first studio monitor that couldeasily keep up with your growing rig.

Listening to the Resolv SE5The Resolv SE5 is a small speaker that

is well-suited to desktop studio setups. Formy listening sessions with the SE5, Iinstalled the speakers on IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R155 monitor stands in a fairly tightarrangement, an equilateral triangleroughly 46" on a side and down-angledslightly for my listening position.

My listening experience with the ResolvSE5 was quite similar to what I heard on theSE6, but naturally with a bit less bass. Forthese smaller speakers, I had to rely a lotmore on the harmonic structure of low pianoand bass notes rather than a clear projec-tion of the fundamental; Samson quotes 50Hz to 27 kHz ±3 dB, but that number mightbe a tad generous on the low end.

Even so, the SE5 displayed the samesolid and well-imaged soundstage, with aslightly smaller sweet spot (due to the muchtighter listening setup), and the same reli-able mids and clear highs. With less bass,I found the highs a bit more potent on theSE5 (another artifact of the very close lis-tening environment), and while most of mylistening was done with the HF Level setflat, turning it down by 2 dB helpedsmooth some of my more strident MP3s—which, by the way, were easy to pick outfrom higher-quality encodings.

I could see the Resolv SE5 doing verywell on its own in a small room with tightdimensions and a lot of natural bassbuildup countering the smaller woofer’sless powerful low end; alternatively, theywould pair well with a properly placedsubwoofer. With monitors like thesearound, there’s simply no excuse to sad-dle your desktop audio system with tiny,cheap-sounding speakers.

We hereby ResolvTo say that Samson is onto something

here would be a massive understatement.These are solidly made, great-soundingspeakers that would be suitable for anysmall room or desktop DAW rig. Theyhave a smooth frequency response, a veryusable sweet spot, lots of detail and verylittle of what makes “cheap speakers” sounpleasant. The lack of low-frequencyadjustment is a small matter that can beaddressed through speaker placement inmany rooms, and once that’s done, theresulting audio will be something any engi-neer could work with in confidence.

Okay, I’m done. Now you can look atthe prices. Just make sure you’re sittingdown first.

Prices: Resolv SE5, $124.99 each;Resolv SE6, $149.99 each; Resolv SE8(not reviewed), $199.99 each; Resolv120a subwoofer (not reviewed),$229.99

More from: Samson Technologies,www.samsontech.com


Novation has a proud history of exceptional tools for the elec-tronic musician and composer, from now-iconic analog-model-ing hardware synths like the Bass Station and SuperNova topowerful controllers like the ReMOTE SL Series. With the Launchfamily of products, Novation has an ambitious goal: put theright tools for working with modern music performance/compo-sition DAWs in everyone’s hands at an approachable price.

The Launch line consists of seven hardware and two softwareproducts, aimed at users of interactive DAWs that allow users toquickly build up ideas into frameworks for finished tracks on thefly. In this review we’ll look at five of them: the Launchpad Mini,Launch Control, and Launchkey Mini hardware controllers, andthe Launchpad and Launchkey iOS apps.

The other products are the Launchpad S, a larger version of theLaunchpad Mini that’s operationally identical to its smaller sibling,and the three Launchkey controllers, full-sized 25/49/61-note key-boards that add control surface features like faders to the functions ofthe other Launch units. When appropriate, I’ll make ref-erences to those products’ special features in this review.

Ready for LaunchSo why “Launch”? The term comes from Ableton

Live, which pioneered the now-familiar method of cre-ating song frameworks by playing back beat-matchedloops and samples—“launching clips”, in Live termi-nology—in real time, trying out and discarding ideasrapidly to build up a track. Ten years ago, the main-stream music composition world dismissed Live as


Hardware and software that makes computer-based song creation a breeze

Novation Launch Family

“cheating” or as “good for nothing but dance music”, but nowa-days millions of users have discovered how easy it is to quicklycapture ideas that then allow for fully-fleshed tracks to be builtatop them with recorded instruments and vocals.

Live is seeing use in every genre from indie rock and jazz tocountry and Americana, and its basic system of clip launchinghas been quietly adopted (and/or adapted) by many otherDAWs. Many users of mainstream DAWs like Pro Tools simplykeep a copy of Live running alongside, so quick compositioncan be married to traditional DAW music production.

But as any user of these DAWs can tell you, this creativeprocess can be badly hindered if you don’t have an easy andinspiring way to launch and work with clips. Pressing keys onyour laptop or clicking with the mouse is a surefire way to killcreativity! Ideally, you’d have a simple, small, portable, unob-trusive controller close at hand, that makes clip-based composi-tion easy and intuitive without a lot of fuss. You could pick andchoose features as needed, say to tweak effects in real time(since those tweaks are recorded by these DAWs and easy torecall later if you like them) or to play a virtual instrument andlay down melodic ideas or chords along with your clips.

The Launch products have been optimized from the ground upto allow you to do just that. They’re portable and play welltogether within your DAW, so you can easily assemble yourdream composition system from affordable parts.

In commonThese devices are all bus-powered from USB; they run happi-

ly on any Windows PC or Mac, and a single unit can be con-nected to an iOS device using Apple’s Camera Connection Kit.(To use multiple Launch System devices with an iPad, you’ll haveto add a powered USB hub. My tests with a 7-port Belkin hubwere all flawless.) They’re built on lightweight but reassuringlysolid plastic chassis for ease of transport, and they give theimpression of being built to withstand serious use, including get-ting tossed into a laptop bag and banged around in transit.

While controls and functions differ from unit to unit, the overallprocess of installing and working with the Novation Launch hard-ware is comfortingly consistent as you add units to your rig, so you’renot really starting from scratch each time. Each Launch device comeswith a registration number that you enter online in a user account that


you create on the Novation website; onceyou’ve registered your device, you candownload the latest firmware updates, man-uals and documentation to supplement thesmall paper Getting Started Guide thatcomes with each device, and (where appro-priate) companion software that helps youcustomize how the device works for your rig.The whole process of setting up each devicetakes only a few minutes. These devices allcome with a free download of a very capa-ble “Lite” version of Ableton Live, so you cantry it for yourself if you don’t have it already.

While these devices were originallyinspired by Live, they can work with anyclip-based or realtime-composition DAW,and come out of the box ready to use withImage-Line FL Studio and (in the case of theLaunchkey Mini) Propellerhead Reason,with adaptation to other DAWs being a rel-atively quick and easy task. CakewalkSONAR users, who have come to enjoy thatDAW’s Matrix View in recent years, shouldtake special note. I did my tests in Live 9.1.

Launchpad MiniI reviewed the original Launchpad in our

December 2009 issue; it was Novation’sfirst Live-specific controller, and became anindispensible mainstay of my rig that I stilluse today. The Launchpad S, a refinementto the original design, added driverlesssupport for Windows, Mac, and now iOS,as well as an optional lower-power modethat allowed it to be used with iPads. TheLaunchpad Mini is essentially a LaunchpadS in a significantly smaller box; the smallerpads are only a little bit more fiddly to use,but you can easily take it anywhere.

As on the original and S, the LaunchpadMini has a grid of 64 soft silicone buttonsto launch clips in Live, and a set of 16extra function buttons along the top andright edges. It comes with three sets ofstickers to label those outer buttons—onefor Live, one for FL Studio, and a blank setyou can write on yourself. The main gridbuttons have three-color LEDs to indicate ifa clip’s loaded (yellow), playing back(green), or being recorded (red).

The Launchpad lets you launch clipsfrom Live’s Session View, the controllermirroring the arrangement of clips asshown in Live. If you have more than 8rows or columns of clips, the LaunchpadMini can show an overview of your entireSession, up to 64 rows by 64 columns,and let you quickly zoom in on the 8 x 8area you’re interested in.

If you select the Mixer mode, theLaunchpad Mini becomes a handy controlsurface that gives you access to track levels,


panning, Send A and B amounts, and toone-touch control of clip stop, trackmute/unmute, solo, and track arm (usefulfor activating virtual instruments as well asrecording clips). Note that the volume, pan,and send controls are very coarse, but ifyou don’t have a dedicated control surfacehandy, they can be very useful in a pinch.

There are also two User modes, whicheffectively allow the Launchpad to be repro-grammed for a wide variety of MIDI-basedapplications. You can use it to trigger drumsounds in Live’s Drum Rack (although thepads are not velocity sensitive), or controlMax For Live devices with it. Some enter-prising programmers have even figured outways to use it as a grid-based performancekeyboard à la Ableton’s new Push.

By powering on the unit with four of thefunction buttons pressed, you bring up a spe-cial boot mode. This is where you updatefirmware, set whether the Launchpad Minioperates in low or full power mode, andwhere you can do one more incrediblyhandy trick: set the Mini’s Hardware ID num-ber from 1 to 16. This lets your DAW recog-nize multiple Launchpads as distinct fromone another, letting you build larger controlsurfaces from small pieces... up to six at atime in Live, for example.

In use, I found the Launchpad Mini just aseasy to use as the original; I didn’t mind thesmaller buttons and actually preferred thisunit’s more portable size to that of the orig-inal. It also felt better built than my originalLaunchpad, with a more solid heft; it’ssmaller but not a lot lighter than the origi-nal. I was easily able to set it up with a sec-ond Hardware ID so it could coexist withmy Launchpad in the same Live Session. Allin all, a total winner... only smaller.

Launch ControlAs I said earlier, control of volume, pan,

and Send amounts on a Launchpad is verycoarse, with only eight steps from zero tofull-on. Also, it can be a hassle to switchback and forth constantly from Session toMixer mode when you’re trying to play orcompose. For folks who’d like to add somehandy extras to a Launchpad or who justwant a very small and focused control sur-face to use with any DAW, Novation hasreleased the Launch Control.

This little box is sized to tuck under aLaunchpad or Launchpad S. It offers sixteenpots, eight pads like those on theLaunchpad S, and a set of six function but-tons that change their purpose dependingon what Template is selected. The LaunchControl comes with eight Templates preset atthe factory and eight programmable by theuser. A free Launch Control Editor program

that the pads can operate like those on theLaunchpads, but are velocity sensitive, mak-ing them suitable for playing and program-ming drum virtual instruments. The LaunchkeyMini comes bundled with Novation’s BassStation and V-Station virtual instruments forMac and Windows as well as Ableton LiveLite and a Loopmasters sample set.

The Launchkey Mini offers rapid andeffective DAW integration for a variety ofplatforms, thanks to a built-in mapping sys-tem called InControl, which instantly mapsthe Launchkey Mini’s controls to appropri-ate parameters. You can check out thedocumentation to find out the particularsfor your DAW; the DAW Setup Guidedescribes how to get the Launchkey Miniworking in Pro Tools, Cubase, Logic Pro,and Reason, as well as Live and FL Studio.Novation offers special software thatallows for expanded integration with FLStudio and Reason; for the other InControl-friendly DAWs, the Launchpad Mini eitheroperates as a straightforward MIDI deviceor emulates the Mackie HUI, a commonly-supported control surface protocol seen inmany DAWs. (That’s how it works in ProTools, for example.)

There doesn’t seem to be direct InControlsupport yet for SONAR or Studio One, butperhaps those will come in a later update.For DAWs that don’t have InControl sup-port, the Launchkey Mini can be operatedin Basic mode, as a conventional MIDI

controller with fixed MIDI messages onevery control that can be mapped to anyfunctions you wish within your DAW. Thisplaces the burden of mapping on yourDAW, but that’s a very sensible decision;no serious DAW lacks such mapping capa-bility, and it removes the need for customediting software. (Having such an editormakes sense for the Launch Control, as itallows the user to create and store multipleprogrammable Templates.)

It’s worth noting that in Basic mode, thevelocity-sensitive pads send MIDI Notes onMIDI Channel 10, and can’t be repro-grammed for other purposes unless yourDAW can use MIDI Notes as control input.Things like Clip launching are done in var-ious DAWs via InControl mode. The MIDIChannel for the pads can’t be changed; allother controls can be globally set to anyone MIDI Channel.

Using the Launchkey Mini with AbletonLive was a revelation. The InControl setup isfantastic; I could arm a virtual instrument forplay just by selecting the track it was loadedto, Scene Launch and Clip Stop functionswere always close at hand, and navigationwas a breeze. My only regret was that I did-n’t have the larger Launchkey to try out, withits full-sized keys and performance controlslike pitch and modulation wheels. If you’rea Live user who enjoys playing keyboardson the fly, the Launchkey Mini is a real treat.If only it had aftertouch! (Aftertouch is avail-able on Novation’s higher-end Impulse con-trollers, along with many other DAW-friend-ly niceties.)

Apps: Launchpad and LaunchkeyNovation is heavily committed to the rapid

growth of music composition and perfor-mance on iOS devices. All of these hardwarecontrollers are iOS-compatible thanks to theApple Camera Connection Kits that connectUSB cables to the 30-pin and Lightning iOSdock connectors. But a good controller is onlyhalf of the equation—you need an app toplay, and Novation has addressed this needwith two apps for the iPad, Launchpad andLaunchkey. They’re free, and you don’t needa Novation controller to try them out.

Launchpad is a 6 x 8 array of pads thattrigger loops and sounds from an internallibrary by Loopmasters; it comes with 8 pre-made kits, and you can build your own usingthe library sounds (the ability to import yourown audio files is a $6.99 in-app purchase,and you can purchase new sound libraries aswell). You can control whether each sampleloops, plays as a one-shot and stops whenreleased, or plays all the way through oncetouched. Samples can hand off to one anoth-er at or within bar or beat lines, with a fine-ness you can set for each pad.

Each of the 8 columns is one audiochannel; one sample per column can playat a time, and each channel has its ownvolume and filter settings (highpass or low-pass). An FX array lets you trigger stutter


for Windows and Mac allows you to easilyset up your Templates in a simple graphicalenvironment—just click on a control and fillin the menus to determine what MIDI data itsends. In addition to Ableton Live Lite, theLaunch Control also comes bundled withsound samples by Loopmasters.

Out of the box, the Launch Control isready for use with Novation’s Launchpadapp (volume and filter control plus soundtriggers), FL Studio 11 (volume and pancontrol in the main mixer), and Ableton Live(three templates for volume/pan/mute, cliplaunch, and device control, the latter lettingyou quickly select Macro knobs inInstrument Racks as one example).

Folks who wish the Launchpad had knobswill adore the Launch Control. It’s a simpletwo-key operation to rapidly switch betweenTemplates, so you can easily do much morewith it than its small size would suggest, andthe pots have a smooth, confidence-induc-ing feel. Because there’s only one row ofClip Launch buttons, you have to keep aneye on the screen in Live to see which Sceneyou’re in, but it’s still quicker than trying tolaunch clips with the laptop keyboard or amouse. The Launch Control works elegantlyas an adjunct to the Launchpad in situationswhere a full-on control surface might not beavailable or appropriate.

Launchkey MiniAs handy as they are for launching clips

and activating functions like solo or mute,buttons can’t take the place of a keyboardfor playing melodies and harmonies. Inaddition to the full-sized Launchkey key-board/control surfaces, Novation offersthe very portable Launchkey Mini, a 25-key controller with some Launch-friendlyextras that easily fits in a laptop bag.

The Launchkey Mini comes with 8 pots and16 multicolor pads, in addition to Track andbacklit Octave control buttons on the left andfour multifunction buttons on the right. Note



and filter-sweep globally on all tracks;there are 16 such effects operated frompads of their own on a pop-up page.

When the app is used with LaunchpadS or Launchpad Mini, you can triggersounds and FX all over the array; LaunchControl and Launchkey Mini let you trig-ger sounds or FX one or two rows at atime, and also control volumes and filtersettings for all eight channels.

I found this app to be a fun and fast wayto create beats and mixes; the controls areintuitive and the sounds are by and large fan-tastic (typical of Loopmasters). One feature Iwished for in my tests, added in version 1.3just as we went to press, was the ability tosave and export songs—in this case, toSoundCloud, to Dropbox, or via email.

Launchkey is a polyphonic analog model-ing synthesizer with built-in arpeggiator and80 preset sounds. There are eight parameterknobs, and an unusual and intuitive visualprogramming surface that lets you morphbetween multiple sets of parameter valuescalled “nodes” by dragging your fingerbetween them. It’s much easier to try for your-self than to explain in words; I strongly rec-ommend giving Launchkey a try, you’ll be upand playing with cool sounds in seconds.

While you can’t create your own pro-grams or save edits to the existing presets,you can send Launchkey’s audio to otherapps via Audiobus, a feature missing thus farfrom the Launchpad app. Speaking of which,if you launch both apps at once, they canplay simultaneously and you can sync theLaunchkey arpeggiator to the Launchpadapp’s tempo. The Launchkey Mini allows younot only to play notes but also to turn theapp’s knobs, jump between nodes with onepad press, jump between the Launchkey andLaunchpad apps on the fly, and select fromeight “favorite” presets of your choice; thelarger Launchkey keyboards add control ofenvelopes, volume, and arpeggiator settings.

Launchkey sounds really good in addi-tion to being visually engaging. I’vealways been a fan of Novation’s analogmodeling, and the presets in Launchkeywere fun and inspiring, prompting lots of

lost hours just playing the app and smilinglike a fool... always a good sign!

WrapupI had a blast playing with these con-

trollers! They work seamlessly out of thebox, provide a huge range of very usefulfunctions for anyone composing in clip- orgrid-based DAWs as well as iOS apps,and network with one another cleanly and

reliably. My tests using all three surfacesat once plus my own Launchpad inAbleton Live were seamless; the line real-ly does have integration dialed in nicely.

The apps are a treat; if you have an iPad,grab them for free and try them for yourself.Alone or integrated with Launch controllers,they’re well-designed, sound marvelous, andwill provide lots of inspiration on the go.

Novation has made the world of easyclip-based performance and compositionopen to anyone and everyone with theLaunch family. Do yourself a favor andcheck them out; if you were feeling uncer-tain about getting to know a clip-basedmusic platform before this, these controllersmay well banish those fears for all time.

Prices: Launchpad Mini, Launch Control,and Launchkey Mini, $99.99 each;Launchpad and Launchkey apps, free.Not reviewed: Launchpad S, $169.99;Launchkey 25 / 49 / 61, $149.99 /$199.99 / $249.99

More from: Novation,www.novationmusic.com

Last month, Part 1 of this 2-part article looked at thebasics of reverberation: the physical components of areverberant sound field (along with all the relevant ter-minology), capturing the sound of real spaces forrecording, mechanical reverb devices, digital reverbplug-ins, including the typical controls for the most com-mon types, and the use of reverb on drums. This month,I’ll continue discussing applications of reverb, as wellas some of the more advanced types of reverb plug-ins,and take a brief look at a few popular brands that arein wide use nowadays.

Since the theme of this issue is vocal recording,applying reverb to vocals would be a goodplace to start.

The voiceJust as with drum reverb, vocal treatment

ranges from bone dry (little or no reverb) todripping wet (soaked in rich reverb), and any-thing in between. Sometimes this is a functionof musical genre—for example, rap/hiphop,and other styles where the lyrics are spoken (orpartially spoken), often feature very dry vocaltracks, while bands that might be described as“arena rock”, who often perform in largespaces, might tend toward a much heavier application.But even within genres, and even between songs on analbum, there can be a lot of variation. A song with aquiet, more intimate vibe might benefit from a lightapplication of room sound, while one with a fat beatand a big, anthemic chorus might be pumped up nice-ly by the sound of a large, echo-y room.

When adjusting the parameters of a reverb that’sbeing applied to a vocal, the settings can be somewhatdifferent from those used on drums, as described inPart 1. While drums (and many instruments) are per-cussive in nature, with sharp attacks, vocals are moresustaining, with less prominent attack transients andlonger held notes. This usually calls for a differentapproach when adding reverb.

As noted, drums and instruments often benefit from atight reverb sound, with a dense pattern of reflec-tions—this would be achieved with a higher setting ofthe Density control and a more irregular pattern (theDiffusion control), both of which would help to avoid asplattery, echo-y reverb quality. But longer, sustainednotes of a (sung) vocal part would benefit from theopposite—a more open, echo-y reverb quality can adda nice sense of depth under a melody, and without thereally strong transient attacks of, say, a drum, thereneedn’t be negative effects from strong repetitive reflec-tions within the reverberant sound field.

So, a lower Density setting can be used to goodeffect, and Diffusion can be set for a more regular pat-tern of reflections—this can enhance a vocal rather thandegrade it, as such settings would likely do with drumsor percussion tracks. In fact, one of the most basic andmost common effects often added to a vocal is called a“Slap Echo”—a simple delay of around 100–150 mil-liseconds added to a lead vocal track for a little depth.Using reverb settings as above, which emphasize theindividual reflections within the reverb, is a more subtleway of applying this kind of effect. Set the Initial Delayto around 100–150 msec, and dial up a room with lowdensity, and you can add considerable richness to thevocal without thickening or muddying it up too much, asmight occur with a denser reverb quality.

By Joe Albano

Part 2


Of course, an echo-y vocal reverb is notthe only way to go. While that approachcan add a nice sense of depth, the oppo-site can also work well. Many people likethe sound of a plate reverb on vocals, andplates are usually dense, without a strongecho component. However, if applied sub-tly, a plate can add a nice sheen to avocal without calling too much attention toitself. A nice bright plate, with enough ofan Initial Delay (as above) to give the orig-inal vocal track some breathing room, canadd some gloss to a vocal, while stillallowing the track to sound up-front andrelatively unprocessed in the mix.

Vocal spaceWhen applying reverb to vocals, you’ll

want to be careful that any extra richnessisn’t achieved at the expense of clarityand lyrical intelligibility. Additionally,adding reverb and delays to a vocal tendsto put the track in a more three-dimen-sional space. That’s a good thing, but thatsense of space can also tend to push thevocal further back in the imaginary spacethe vocals and instruments inhabit.Depending on other settings in the mix,this could potentially result in a lead vocalthat seems to be coming from the back ofthe (virtual) stage, behind the drums, bass,and other instruments. If the reverb is toostrong, the end result may be a vocal that

seems to be overwhelmed by other musi-cal parts, in terms of clarity and presence,even if it’s loud enough in the mix.

Many mixers prefer that the lead vocal sitin front of the virtual soundspace of the mix(closer to the listener), regardless of how wetor dry it may be. At the same time, back-ground vocals may be more appropriatelypushed a little further back in the virtual

soundspace, to reaffirm their musically sup-porting role. Now, this sense of three-dimen-sional placement is subtle, but getting theelements to sit front-to-back in a mix canenhance not only clarity, but reinforce themusical roles of the different parts.

To give myself a little more flexibility inthis regard, I often do the same thing withvocal reverb as I do with drums—set up at

least two different, dedicated vocalreverbs. One emphasizes Early Reflections(ER), to create a sense of depth—addingthis will push the vocal into the virtualspace, potentially further back into thesoundstage. Another reverb emphasizesthe later Reverb tail more—this one canadd depth and sheen to the vocal withoutas much of a sense of three-dimensionality.Sometimes I use a third, a very small ambi-ence ER reverb, like a stage ambience,which can add some dimension to thevocal, but not enough room tone to push itback in the mix (as the other ER reverbmight do). Each of these reverb plug-inswould be instantiated in its own Aux track,and each vocal track would have multipleSends, feeding each reverb independently,allowing the blend of reverb for each vocalpart to be optimized. For more details onthis hookup, see the description of Send &Return wiring in Part 1 last month.

The exact settings for each of thesereverb components are done by ear—there’s no real formula (other than the gen-eral suggestions offered earlier)—theydepend on the specifics of the particularrecording and the particular reverb unitsemployed. Typically, these vocal reverbsmight have lower density than the dedi-cated drum reverbs elsewhere in the mix,but decisions like overall brightness,Reverb Time, and Initial Decay would be


based on the specifics of the recording,the arrangement, and the mix.

For example, if I want a lead vocal to sitin the front of the stage/mix, I’ll apply a bitof the ER verb to put the vocal track in thespace—exactly how much will depend onhow much reverberant depth other ele-ments of the mix have, and how dry thevocal track itself was recorded. When I getit sitting about right, if I feel that the vocaltrack is too dry or plain against the fullmix, I might add a little of the later Reverbunit for some sheen. Too much of this couldcompromise clarity, but the right amountwill leave the vocal in front of the mix, witha little more richness. If I can’t quite get thedepth I want for the lead vocal withoutpushing it too far back in the mix, I mighttry a little of the third ambience (stage)verb, balancing that against the main ERverb until the vocal has both the desiredpresence in the mix, and the desired depthand sheen. Sometimes adding a simpledelay/echo can help, as well.

Needless to say, this is not a linear A-B-C process; it’s a constant back andforth, adjusting and tweaking individualreverb settings, and re-adjusting as themix progresses and other elementschange. In addition to settings likeDensity and Diffusion, I’d pay particularattention to Reverb Time and Tone.Nothing can compromise the intelligibilityof a vocal track like a reverb that’s toodark, with a tail that’s too long. An over-ly dark reverb can muddy up the criticallower midrange, making lyrics moreindistinct. A reverb with too long a decay(RT60) can likewise compromise clarity,as a long tail from previous vocal linescan extend into the next phrase, coveringand blurring the all-important attacks ofthe words following.

A time for reverbGenerally, if I have dedicated vocal

reverb(s), I’d set the Reverb Time (of thelongest reverb, if there are several) basedon two main considerations: How long atail would I prefer for this particular vocalperformance, and how long a tail can I getaway with in this particular mix? Personally,for pop/rock, I typically like a relativelyshort Reverb Time, a little less than a sec-ond, more like club ambience than a hall ortheater. However, if I was mixing, say, anew age track, the style may call for amuch longer, more billowy decay, on theorder of 2–3 seconds or more.

Either way, the question comes up: doesthe Decay Time I prefer when I consider thevocal by itself, work when that vocal is sit-ting in the mix? A really short decay mightoffer just the right amount of depth andsheen soloed, but in the mix other partsmay cover it up, leaving the vocal overlydry, requiring a bit more tail to achieve thedesired effect. Likewise, a nice long tailthat fills the space between vocal phraseswith rich room sound when the vocal isheard alone, might muddy up other instru-ments or parts when everything is on.

This is similar to the dilemma that mixersoften face with EQ—what sounds bestsoloed does not work in the full mix, andvice versa. Typically, the approach is oftento get a good setting soloed, and then makethe necessary adjustments with the track incontext, and again as the mix changes.

Sometimes, if there are both sparse orsolo vocal passages and sections wherethe vocal has dense musical accompani-ment, compromise settings might not pro-vide the best results in either situation. Inthis case, automation could be used toswitch between different reverb plug-ins orchange the settings dynamically, optimiz-ing for the requirements of each different

section in the arrangement. I find that Idon’t often have to go that far if the over-all room sound in use has a short decay,but in songs where a longer Reverb Timeis used, it’s come up.

A tone for reverbAnother key consideration is the tonal

quality of the reverb. To preserve vocalintelligibility, as well as overall clarity ofthe mix, it’s important to avoid too muchbuildup in the lower midrange and bassfrequencies. This can be accomplished ina variety of ways. Most reverbs havesome form of tone controls included, butthese mostly act on the highs (a LPF), oron the reverb tail only. Some reverbshave separate Decay Time settings forhigh and low frequencies. In real rooms,the highs usually die away more quickly

than the lows, but in a busy mix some-times the opposite behavior can beadvantageous, though unnatural.

An EQ following the reverb can beemployed to shape the tonal balance, witheither broad or targeted cuts applied to thelower mids and bass frequencies. If a vocal,or an overall mix, seems to get a bit thickand muddy when the reverb is in, andDecay Time is short enough not to be the cul-prit, then low-end buildup might be the prob-lem. In a vocal reverb, a broad, gentle cutaround 200 Hz and below might alleviatemuddiness. If the reverb seems to be ringingon certain notes, a more targeted (narrow-er) cut (a notch) at a specific frequencycould be needed—a spectrum analyzer, ifavailable, can help to pinpoint the problemarea, allowing for greater clarity withoutthinning out the reverb quality too much.

It’s usual for mixers to add little or noreverb to deep instruments with long notes,like bass, to avoid muddiness issues. Ifreverb was required on a bass track, say,as an effect, a dedicated plug-in could beemployed, with the reverb’s low end fil-tered, or the Send from the bass trackcould be passed through an aux with anEQ to keep the low end under control.

Reverb in the mixObviously, I’ve begun shifting from talking

about vocal reverb specifically to more gen-eral reverb considerations, so let me wrapup this discussion with a few additional com-ments on overall reverb use. I’ve mentionedthat, in a typical (pop) mix, I tend to start witha couple of reverbs dedicated to drums, andanother couple dedicated to vocals. I alsousually start with a third pair of overallreverbs, for instruments and other mix ele-ments. As with the drum and vocal verbs,one has a smaller-room, ER-heavy setting,and the other has a larger-room, later-reflec-tion setting. In terms of Density and Diffusion,these have somewhat more neutral settings,somewhere between the tighter, shortersound of the drum verbs, and the looser,more open, echo-y sound of the vocal verbs.

All of the tracks in the mix have multi-ple Sends that feed all of the reverbs,though each track typically utilizes onlytwo or so at most. By balancing ER vs.later reflections/reverb tail, I try to subtlyplace each instrument/vocal in a three-dimensional space in the mix—lead vocaland instruments up front, drums and back-line to the rear, and other elements asbenefits the mix, song by song.

For pop/rock/R&B stuff, I’d tend toemphasize the ER components for mostinstruments, saving the use of longer reverbtails and larger spaces for certain elements(like background vocals or a snare back-beat). This can still give the sense of a big,ambient space with less likelihood of mud-dying up the mix. For typical rhythm sectioninstruments like guitars, electric pianos, andsynths, I’d usually employ shorter roomreverbs with the emphasis on ERs. For some-thing like an R&B horn section, I might gofor a tighter room or plate, with a brightquality to bring out the brassiness of thesound. Background vocals often get a larg-er room or hall with a longer tail, especiallywordless parts (oohs and aahs), which canpush them way back in the virtualroom/mix—panned wide in stereo, way inthe back of the virtual stage, vocal oohs andahhs with a nice rich, bright reverb tail canfill up a lot of space in a chorus, for exam-ple, without stepping on other parts.

Sometimes, I have one additionalreverb with a general-purpose room set-ting, that I apply very lightly to all (ormost) of the tracks in an arrangement, justto tie everything together. As I mentionedearlier, this would be dialed up very sub-tly, so as not to interfere with the reverbquality that’s been sculpted for each ele-ment of the mix.

The modern mixer’s reverb toolboxSo far, I’ve mainly been describing the

controls and use of the most traditionaltype of (digital) reverb, an algorithmicreverb, where the reverb is generated bymany individual digital delays, combinedby algorithms (formulas) into patternscharacteristic of different types of simulat-ed real spaces and mechanical reverbunits. But there are other types of reverbsin the modern mixer’s arsenal, includingModeling reverbs and Convolutionreverbs. Let’s take a brief look at those.

The very model of a roomModeling is a technique for creating vir-

tual instruments and effects that involvesanalyzing the physical components of thereal thing, and then creating software mod-els of all the elements that produce thesound or effect. For example, a modeledpiano or guitar might simulate the vibratingstring, the interference of the bridge, the

resonance of the soundboard, etc.. Thetone of the modeled instrument or effect canbe tweaked by the user, as if he/she wasbuilding it from scratch, putting all the com-ponents together for a unique sound. Whenplayed, a modeled instrument wouldrespond like the real thing, with simulatedvibrations from one component causingsimulated resonance in another, etc.—thiscan provide a more natural sound andresponse than other approaches.

Applied to reverb, the reverb designermight analyze a real space (like, say, a livechamber), and then write software code tosimulate the interaction of all the elementsof that space that give it its unique rever-berant quality. This is similar to an algorith-mic reverb in that the reverb simulation iscreated from scratch via software, but amodeled reverb would present differentcontrols to the user, based on the physicalcomponents of the real room rather thanmore general elements of simulated reverb.

So, instead of choosing a room type, auser would have to specify functions likesize, shape, number of surfaces, anglesbetween the walls, curvature (like adome), etc.. Instead of LPFs for tone and asimple Decay Time for length, the modelmight call for the user to specify the mate-rial the walls are made of (stone, brickplaster), and covered with (wood, foam,carpet, drapes), etc.. These choices would


determine the behavior of the reverb(decay time and tonal balance), just asthey do when constructing a real physicalspace. Obviously, the user of a modelingreverb must be a bit more familiar with theactual physics of real spaces to be able totweak these controls purposefully, but inreturn modeled spaces can often achievea greater degree of naturalness than allbut the best algorithmic verbs.

Convolve or dieEven more popular than modeling

reverbs nowadays are convolution reverbs.Convolution reverbs are sampled reverbs.The sound of a real space (like CarnegieHall or Studio B at Avatar, for example) iscaptured as an audio recording, and usedto generate the reverb sound later on whenmixing. Besides providing samples offamous real music spaces, as above, manyconvolution reverbs come with software thatallows users to record their own spaces, aswell! Here’s how the process works.

Just as with a live chamber, mics are setup to record the reverberant sound of thespace. The sound of the room’s response toall audible frequencies (20 Hz–20 kHz)must be recorded, so a signal is generatedat all frequencies. The most basic way to dothis is to generate a loud impulse, a burst ofnoise that contains all frequencies, like agunshot (good), a balloon popping (lessgood), or a loud click played through a full-range speaker. Nowadays a 20–20k sinewave sweep is also commonly employed.This is called an impulse, and the mics pickup the room’s response—the sound of thatroom. The resultant recording of that room’ssound is called an Impulse Response (“IR”).

Special software separates the originalsound from the room’s response, leaving theIR to be used as the sound source in anyconvolution reverb. When audio (drumtrack, vocal track, whatever) is passedthrough that convolution reverb plug-in, theplug-in mathematically convolves (multipliessample-by-sample) the two signals (the trackand the IR recording). The result: the instru-ment or vocal sounds just as it would if itwere in the original room, based on theposition of the mics used to record the IR.

This technique can not only offer morerealistic reverb, but also more specificreverb—not just a simulation of a concerthall or room, say, but the actual sound ofa particular concert hall or room.Artificial reverb has never sounded morenatural, but there are some trade-offs...

While reverb processors, in general,have always been very demanding on CPUresources, convolution reverbs are moredemanding than ever. This is not a big dealwith modern computers, but if a lot of dif-ferent reverbs are employed in a big mix, itmight be a consideration. The other tradeoffis that, since the reverb sound is that of areal space rather than an artificially-gener-ated one, there are fewer controls availableto tweak the reverb sound—as a recording,it is what it is. You can, of course, still applyLPFs or EQs, or shorten the decay, but youcan’t change the pattern of Early Reflections,or the Density/Diffusion—you get what’s inthe recording. If that doesn’t work, you needto start with a different IR, making it impor-tant to assemble a large collection of IRs forflexibility in different mixes.

Some convolution reverb plug-ins do tryto offer more extensive controls throughadditional processing, but you’ll stillwant to maintain a nice supply of IRs—fortunately, IRs are just standard WAV orAIF files, so they can usually be used inany convolution reverb (subject only toissues of copyright), and there are manyavailable free via various websites.

When IRs are created, multiple record-ings of the same room/space are oftenmade, with the microphones in variouspositions (on stage, 10th row, back ofroom, balcony, etc.). If someone were touse the approach I like to, with differentreverbs for ERs, reverb tail, etc., havingthese matched IRs is great. You couldplace different tracks at different front-back distances by balancing between thedifferent IRs, for a really natural sense ofdepth in the mix. I prefer convolutionreverbs for most mixing tasks nowadays.

So many reverbsWhich brings me to the last section—

what are some of the popular options forreverb out there these days? Well, oneoption that’s always available is the realthing—using room mics to capture thesound of the recording space, or, if spacepermits, setting up a remote live chamber(as described in Part 1). Also in the analogworld, real plates and spring reverb unitscan still be found, along with many hard-ware digital reverbs from the ’80s and ’90s.

But most people nowadays will get

their reverb from plug-ins, which, thanksto the increases in computer power overthe last ten years, are better than ever. Inno particular order, here are a few of themost popular brands and specific reverbplugs around. This is by no means a com-prehensive list, just a representative sam-pling of some of the reverbs likely to befound in studios these days.

While a lot of the most widely-usedreverb plug-ins are third-party, most DAWsinclude at least one or two, and most areof at least good quality. For example, ProTools comes with two, the D-Verb and thenewer AIR Reverb (both traditional algo-rithmic reverbs). D-Verb has been aroundforever, and, while not as rich-sounding assome newer models, remains a usefuloption, which doesn’t put too much of ahit on system resources. The AIR Reverb isa bit more open-sounding, and additionalversions offer spring reverb simulation andnon-linear (gated) reverb effects. Avid alsooffers a number of higher-end reverbs forpurchase, including a modeling reverb(ReVibe II) and a convolution reverb (TLSpace, though this may not be AAX-com-patible (yet?)).

I use Logic a lot, which has severalincluded reverbs, including PlatinumVerb(a reasonably good algorithmic verb),and, most notably, Space Designer, anexcellent convolution reverb which comeswith a comprehensive library of IRs.

On the third-party front, long-time plug-inmaker Waves’ offerings are a frequentchoice for reverb, with several models avail-able. Their Renaissance Reverb has alwaysbeen a popular algorithmic reverb, knownfor a warm sound that calls to mind some ofthe classic hardware digital reverbs. The IR1is Waves’ convolution reverb, and comes invarious flavors, including a flexible surroundversion. Another convolution reverb that’sextremely popular is Audio Ease’s Altiverb.Altiverb is the dean of convolution reverbs—it set the standard, and continues to be oneof the best out there, with a vast IR libraryand many dedicated users. Somewhatnewer companies also offer high-qualityreverb models, like Overloud’s BREVERB,which has become quite popular over thelast several years.

Some of the companies that were knownfor hardware digital reverbs now have

software-based reverb products. For years, Lexicon was the stu-dio standard in digital reverb—their top-of-the-line models (likethe 480), their PCM series, and several lower-cost derivatives,were found in every studio. These (algorithmic-style) reverbs hadtheir own signature “Lexicon sound”, warm and deep, and theyset the standard for digital reverb for many years. Currently,Lexicon offers the sound of these classic hardware units in a seriesof plug-in bundles (PCM/LPX/MPX) at various price points.

But Lexicon is not the only company to emulate the classic hard-ware digital reverbs. Many other manufacturers do also—one suchcompany is IK Multimedia, with its CSR (Classic Studio Reverb) bun-dle, a collection of emulated versions of classic reverbs like thosefrom Lexicon and others.

Most third-party reverb plug-ins and bundles range in costfrom around $200 to $500–$600, but don’t forget, there arealso many excellent-sounding free reverb plug-ins out there aswell, of all types. The dontcrack.com and kvraudio.com websitesmaintain searchable databases of free plug-ins for those whoneed good reverb on a budget.

Wrap-upWith so many high-quality options for adding reverb avail-

able, any engineer/mixer or studio should be able to find what-ever they need to add just the right ambience to recordings. Butremember, as with many aspects of recording and mixing, some-times less is more. Even if you use multiple reverbs in a mix, ifyou use them subtly and sparingly the end result will be muchbetter than if the mix is slathered with tons of reverb, no matterhow good-sounding that reverb is.

As with other effects, don’t forget to occasionally bypass thereverb, just to remind yourself what the mix sounds like on itsown. Reverb won’t fix a mediocre mix, but it can take a goodone to the next level, ideally without calling too much attentionto itself.

I hope this article has offered some helpful suggestions andinformation on the ins and outs of modern reverb—now crank upthose reverb sends and have some fun!

Joe Albano ([email protected]) is an engineer/produc-er, musician, and educator living and working in New York City.Learn more about his work at www.rooftopproductions.com.

PLUG-IN OUTLET

In the history of compressors, the Big Three arearguably the Teletronix LA-2A, the Universal Audio1176, and the Fairchild 670.

The LA-2A and 1176 debuted in the middle andlate 1960s, respectively, and Universal Audio stillmakes hardware reissues today. By contrast, theFairchild made its debut around 1958 and was dis-continued by the time the others came into promi-nence. Fairchild’s pro audio division does not existtoday; original vintage units are rare, expensive, andhighly temperamental (unless you have the right NOS6383 tubes, which are rare and costly themselves).

Back in 2004, Universal Audio modeled the curvesand characteristics of Ocean Way Recording’s “goldenunit” Fairchild, and created the Fairchild 670 plug-in forthe UAD-1 DSP engine platform.

Now, with a decade’s worth of advances in modelingtechnology, UA has returned to that same Ocean Wayunit and modeled it again, down to the component level,for the new Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection, to which thistime they have also added the mono Fairchild 660.

Meet the FairchildA real Fairchild 670 weighs 65 pounds and takes up

8 rack spaces, with 20 tubes and 14 transformersbehind its faceplate (often but not always anodized—the 660 modeled by Universal Audio was anodizedbut the modeled 670 unit wasn’t).

Back in the early 1960s, a new one cost about$800, or the equivalent of about $6000 today.Vintage ones now sell for between $35,000 to$50,000 depending on condition. Even the third-partyspec-for-spec handmade recreations by ADL, Ear andothers will still set you back close to $15,000. Thismakes Universal Audio’s price of $299 a bargain, aslong as you own a UAD-2 DSP card or enclosure, oran Apollo DSP engine/audio interface.

Tube compressionLike most vintage compressors from the 1950s and

1960s, the 660/670 is a simple push-pull design withminimal controls. Unlike the FET-based 1176 and theoptical circuit of the LA-2A, the Fairchild uses tubes notonly as amplifiers but also for its gain reduction. Thesetubes are directly in the audio path without a separatecompression circuit. The commonly used term for this,trademarked by Manley Laboratories, is Variable Muor Vari-Mu (“Mu” being a term for gain), but that termwas nowhere to be found in the original Fairchild lit-erature.

The 660 and the 670 are laid out and function simi-larly, but some of their internal components and designelements differ, resulting in both responsive and tonalvariation between the units. In the plug-in realm, whilethe 660 appears as a mono GUI and the 670 is stereo,both plug-ins can be used on mono or stereo sources.

Specs and controlsEach channel starts with a large VU meter followed by a large Input knob

that goes from ! to 0 dB in 2 dB steps on the 660 and –20 to 0 in 1 dBsteps on the 670. Next is a Threshold knob with a variable throw of 0 to10. The last control is a 6-position Time Constraint knob that adjusts thepreset attack and release times.

Delivery: Web downloadFormat: UAD-2/Apollo platform; seen by DAW as VST, AU, or RTAS

plug-in, Mac OS X 10.6+ or Windows 7/8Copy Protection: locked to UAD hardware, license added to user

accountLicense: single user/UADDocumentation: PDF user manual available onlinePrice: $299; $149 for owners of legacy Fairchild plug-inMore from: Universal Audio, www.uaudio.com

Universal Audio Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection for UAD-2 and ApolloBy Paul Vnuk Jr.



These time constraints are:1. 200 µs attack / 300 ms release2. 200 µs attack / 800 ms release3. 400 µs attack / 2 second release4. 800 µs attack / 5 second release5. 200 µs attack / program dependent

release: 2 seconds for transients, 10 sec-onds for multiple peaks

6. 400 µs attack / program dependentrelease: 300 µs for transients, 10 sec-onds for multiple peaks, and 25 secondsfor consistently high program level

According to the original manual theunit “can produce [a] full limiting effectduring the first 10,000ths of a second.”

Only available on the 670 is aLeft/Right - Lat/Vert switch. This controlcomes from the era of cutting vinyl andrefers to the height and width of thegrooves. In modern practical terms, it issimilar to what many mastering engineersdo with M/S processing where you cancompress the center frequency material dif-ferently from the outer/stereo material.

Below the VU meter is a pair of setscrews labeled HR for headroom, a plug-in only feature, and Bal which balancesthe bias current. This controls the additivesignal deflection or “thud” of the attackand is perfectly calibrated at its 12o’clock position.

Modern day accoutrementsBelow the standard control window is a

second rack panel which contains a fewmore plug-in-only features: a Side-ChainFilter (20 Hz to 500 Hz in 12 dB/octavesteps), Output/Makeup gain controls, and aMix knob allowing for parallel compression.

The DC Threshold control, originallylocated on the rear of the unit, is the lastcontrol on the plug-in. Turning this changesboth the compression ratio and knee. Theyaffect each other and work in tandem.Between this knob and the Fairchild’sthreshold the unit can achieve compressionratios of 2:1 up to 30:1 limiting.

Just like the GUIs of the LA-2A and1176 collections from UA that also wereupdated in recent years, the new GUIhere is bigger, more 3-dimensional andmore detailed than the previous ver-sion... not to mention more beat-up andvintage looking!

This new Fairchild Collection demandsslightly more CPU power than the new1176 Collection, but not as much as theLA-2A Collection. Compared to the origi-nal Legacy Fairchild plug-in (also includ-ed in the new collection) it takes aboutthree times as much juice.

You can get 7 mono and 6 stereoinstances on a UAD-2 SOLO card, 56mono and 40 stereo on the newer OCTO

PLUG-IN OUTLET

cards. Apollo users should see 14 mono and 10stereo, or 24 and 20, depending on if you havea DUO or QUAD machine (naturally these num-bers also apply to the DUO and QUAD UAD-2cards).

AnalogishnessI ran the new Fairchilds alongside the original

Legacy version, as well as against my hardwarecompressors. When I review plug-ins that modelreal hardware, whenever possible I like to doside-by-side comparisons with the hardware.Unfortunately, I do not own a real Fairchild,although I am gladly accepting donations...

While the compression ratios and tones did notmatch when I compared the Fairchild Collectionto various hardware units by Universal Audio,Chandler Limited, Empirical Labs, dbx, Dakingand others, the one thing I did notice is that itdoes a fantastic job emulating the airiness, har-monics and overall sonic feel of analog hard-ware.

Compared to the original Legacy version, thisnew Fairchild collection is in a whole other sonicleague.The input and threshold are more detailedwith a better throw than on the Legacy version.UA explains this as the older version having been“tuned to have maximum control over Threshold”.This was accomplished by juicing its gain by 15dB over the hardware. This time around the 670and 660 retain the –16 dBFS spec of the hard-ware. However, the unit can be adjusted with theabove-mentioned HR (headroom) set screw.

SonicsSonically the Fairchild 670 is hard to describe; it’s fast and grabby, but not

aggressive like an 1176; it’s smooth like an LA-2A, but weightier. It somehowmanages to be silky, yet open, bold and solid, and wide and opulent all atthe same time. It adds a definite tonal girth to the sound, but never soundsmushy, pillowy or overcooked. All of this is probably why the original is sorevered. Compared to the 670, the 660 is a touch thicker, weightier andmore tonally imposing. It’s like a big baseball bat of compressors.

The Legacy version was my go to plug-in compressor for almost ten yearson backing vocals, strings, orchestral work, synth pads and keys. I also usedit often on female lead vocals, drum overheads and the guitar buss for finalcontrol and weight. In each instance the 670 improves on the original inevery way. For me, the biggest highlight is what it does on piano, both realand sampled. The 670 seats it in the mix and, to use a tired phrase, makes itsound like a record.

While it seems obvious, the 670 excels on stereo sources and bus work,and the 660 is really a meat-and-potatoes workhorse for individual instru-ments, especially when they need fattening up without equalization. Sourceslike bass guitar, toms, and kick drum all benefit from the 660’s sound and con-trol. Another great example is snare drum. If you want your snare to be tightand aggressive with a forward sharp crack, you would use an 1176 or anEL8 Distressor, but if you want that same snare to sound a bit more meaty ina nice thick way, then it’s time for the 660.

On vocals it was a toss-up, in many instances I found the 660 too thick andgrabby for my taste, and I am more of an LA-2A kind of guy. On guitars the 670is great for controlling and filling out anemic acoustic tracks, while the 660 isgreat for electric guitar and can make the strings seem two inches thick.

ConclusionUniversal Audio is hitting it out of the park with these new upgraded collec-

tions that really have the analog vibe down. The Fairchild Collection nicelyupdates the mega-popular original, and the 660 is a welcome addition.

With the Fairchild, unlike with the 1176 or LA-2A, I can’t definitively say howclose they got to the hardware, but I will say that it really does not matter,because this collection sounds so good and is so versatile, you won’t care!


iZotope Nectar 2 Standard Edition and Production SuiteBy Paul Vnuk Jr.

Nectar is iZotope’s vocal-centric collec-tion of processing tools. We looked atVersion 1 of Nectar a few years ago in ourMarch 2011 issue, and Mike Metlayreviewed the entry-level Nectar Elementsversion in our May 2013 issue. In this issue,we’ll focus primarily on what’s new andimproved in the second version.

Nectar 2, like its predecessor, is a com-plete vocal suite. Just like the original, it isnot a collection or bundle of vocal-centeredplug-ins, but rather it is more like a “vocalworkstation” with up to eleven modules—ahearty collection of vocal-specific effectsand processors in a single plug-in environ-ment.

Nectar 2 is available in a StandardEdition for $229, or a Production Suite for$299. The difference is that the BreathControl module and the Advanced PitchCorrection layer of the original Pitch Module havebeen broken out into separate standalone plug-ins, called Breath Control and Pitch Editor.

A new view in 2Nectar 2’s GUI is a complete redesign. It is bigger and more high-tech looking,

and more importantly, it uses better contrast and colors so it is easier to read and


adjust. Like the original Nectar, it has twooperation modes, Overview and Advanced.

The simple version, called Overview,places all of the modules (minus theLimiter) into one window. In this view eachmodule’s controls are simplified for quickand easy editing. Overview is a greatplace to get your feet wet by scanningthrough over 150 style-based presets(Jazz, Pop, Hip Hop, Spoken Word, etc.)and then fine-tuning them to taste. Just likethe original, auditioning vocal presets onNectar is akin to auditioning presets on asynth, and can yield cool new ideas andsoup starters you may have never thoughtof for keeping your vocal passages fresh.

The next level of complexity is found inAdvanced mode, which brings up a tab foreach of the eleven modules on the left, andthen fills the center screen with that mod-ule’s parameters for tweaking. As a coolnew bonus, when using multiple instancesof Nectar 2 in a session, you can nameeach instance with the name of the vocalistor track it is being used on, so you alwaysknow which one you are messing with.

Still goes to elevenLike in Version 1, Nectar 2 comes with

eleven modules, and many are unchangedexcept for the above-mentioned cosmeticoverhaul. The current list includes: Pitch,Gate, Harmony, Saturation, Compressors,EQ, De-Esser, Limiter, Delay, Reverb, andFX.

FX is the only completely new module inNectar 2; it replaces the now-separateBreath Control module. FX is a mini-suite ofseven distortion, modulation, and repeat(delay) effects. To my ears, the coolest ofthese new effects is Shred, kind of a hardstutter effect.

The other noticeable change is that theDoubler has been renamed Harmony.While Doubler could indeed do simple 4-part harmony tricks, Harmony adds scaleand key choice along with key calibra-tion, pitch correction for the harmonypitches, time and pitch variation, andautomatic key detection (for up to fourharmony voices) or MIDI control (whichlets you add up to 12 voices!). This is agreat addition to Nectar 2 and is the clos-est plug-in I have seen to TC Helicon’sHarmony4 PowerCore plug-in, whichwas discontinued years ago. The onlything missing is formant voicing.

Other changes include the addition ofa Width control to the Delay, a complete-ly redone EQ now with 8 available fil-ters/bands, and 10 selectable filter typesincluding new Baxandall curves.

The Reverb in the original was function-al, but in my work I rarely used it; it hasbeen replaced by a newly modeled EMT140 Plate Reverb. I compared it to the

PLUG-IN OUTLET

plates in Lexicon’s PCM bundle and to UniversalAudio’s UAD-2 EMT 140 emulation. It lacks someof the tweakability and decay times of those, butsonically it holds its own nicely and really capturesthe authenticity of the original hardware.

Other improvements include better metering,including the ability to integrate iZotope’s Insightmeter collection which we reviewed in our December2013 holiday Gift Guide. Many of Nectar 2’s mod-els now include better and more intuitive tweaking,improved high- and/or lowpass filtering, and more.

On their ownAs mentioned above, if you get the Production Suite

version, you also get the Breath Control module, whichis used for automatically cutting out breaths betweenspoken and sung phrases, and the Pitch Editor.

Functionally, Breath Control has not changedfrom its module in Version 1 of Nectar, but due tothe extreme power it needs for look-ahead read-ing, it makes sense to run it separately to avoidthe enormous latency it creates. (It was left out ofNectar Elements for similar reasons.) In my expe-rience, Breath Control is better off being renderedor track-frozen offline rather than run in real time,so having it as a separate plug-in isn’t a huge lossin terms of workflow.

The Pitch Editor is also not new, but graphically theoriginal (which was buried in the Pitch module) wascramped and hard to work with. It was so hard toget at that I favored the advanced vocal tuning builtinto Cubase, to which I’d switched after years ofusing Antares Auto-Tune. I expect that may change,however, as in my initial tests Nectar 2’s pitch cor-rection is an aural improvement over both of them!

While you can still hear the obvious T-Pain effectif you overstress the correction, what I am not hear-ing in Nectar 2 is the artifacts like the digitalpopped intros of words or the sizzly digital ends ofsibilant notes that the other programs occasionallyproduce. Also, the newly added vibrato for addinga bit of life back into heavily corrected notes isdone quite well. This is some of the smoothest pitchcorrection I have used, hands down.

HorsepowerAs for CPU consumption, Nectar is a bit heavier

in load than many stand-alone compressors orEQs. But Nectar’s load is not much different thanif you had pulled up similar standalone plug-insthat do the same thing and chained them together.


Delivery: Web downloadFormats: RTAS, AudioSuite, AAX, VST, VST3, Audio UnitRequires: Windows XP SP3 (32-bit)/Vista/7/8; Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later (Intel only)Copy Protection: online authorized serial number, offline

challenge/response, or iLok USB keyLicense: single user/iLokDocumentation: Help button opens HTML manual in your web

browser; PDF Help Guide available for Web downloadPrice: Nectar 2 Standard Edition, $229; Nectar 2 Production Suite

(including Pitch Editor and Breath Control modules), $299More from: iZotope, www.izotope.com.

U-He-Satin Tape MachineBy Paul Vnuk Jr.

U-He is a German software company, started by Urs Heckmann,and known for its softsynths such as Zebra (still popular and havingjust celebrated ten years on the market), Diva and ACE, as well asmodulation, filter, and time-based effect plug-ins such as the Uhbikcollection, Filterscape and MFM2. U-He’s newest creation, the com-pany’s take on tape-machine emulation, is called Satin.

Nectar 2 only draws power for the modules which are actually on and inuse, so it really is not bad in many applications. Overall I could get threefull-blown, every-process-on instances of Nectar 2 running on both my Macand PC (both quad-core i7 machine with 8 GB of RAM) at about a 50% loadin Cubase.

ConclusionsI do admit I am a bit of a Nectar fanboy, simply because it has been one

of my primary tools for video dialogue and podcast recording/mixing on aweekly basis ever since I got to know it for my initial review three years ago.It allows me to work quickly and intuitively without any sacrifice in quality.

Nectar 2 is a step up from the original in every way, well designed andwell thought out. The improvements and additions are fantastic, and I seethe program continuing as my main vocal sweetener for quite some timeto come.

U-He calls Satin a Tape Construction Kit, and in its devel-opment the same modeling methods were applied as dur-ing the creation of the analog modeling synth Diva(reviewed September 2012), resulting in a virtual tapemachine of the company’s own making rather than one thatwould emulate/model an existing “real” tape machine.

!"#$!%&'()*+,-./-0)1234 56

Satin offers three modes of use: Studio,Delay and Flange. Studio is the tape machinemode, Delay simulates tape echo and tapedelay tricks of old, and Flange turns Satin intoa dual tape deck flanging unit.

Satin styleSatin’s interface does away with ani-

mated spinning tape reels, and makes noattempt to look like a 3D model of a fauxtape machine. Instead, you get a pletho-ra of vintage-flavored buttons and knobs,a digital LED peak meter, and even alarge old-school VU meter.

Some tape plug-ins, like Slate Digital’s VTM(reviewed October 2012) are a minimal set-it-and-forget-it affair, while others offer deeplymodeled service adjustments like UniversalAudio’s Ampex ATR-102 and Studer A800.

Satin is a bit of both; using it can be assimple as choosing a modern or vintagetape sound, pushing signal into the unit,saturating the tape and then adjusting theoutput volume appropriately, or it can bedeep and tweaky if that’s your preference.

Satin’s interface is fully sizable, andregardless of your DAW you choose howmuch screen real estate it takes up. This isone of those little features that I wish moreplug-in companies would incorporate.

The top of the screenThe interface screen is made up, top to

bottom, of three portions. Across the topportion (that stays the same no matter whichof the three modes is active) you have thelarge Input and Output knobs flanking thecentered metering window, plus, along thevery top, small controls or indicators forBypass, Save, Presets, Makeup, Tape Type(Vintage or Modern), Metering In/Out,RMS 0VU Ref., and Clipping.

The VU meter can not only display inputor output levels, it can also be set to Peakor RMS, and it can be user-calibrated from0 down to –24 dB. I tend to record andmix with my levels around –12 dB to –18dB, so I appreciated being able to adjustSatin’s metering accordingly.

The center of the screenThis is where you choose and tweak the

above-mentioned modes. A knob on the leftoffers a choice of tape speeds from 7.5 to 30ips. As with real tape, changing the speedaffects the character of the highs and lows, aswell as the overall fidelity. It ranges from thin,scooped, and squonky at 7.5 ips to full hi-fiat 30 ips. Version 1.1, released just beforepress time, lets you dial speed all the waydown to 1.87 ips (remember cassettes?).

~ Studio Mode: In this mode, there is aknob labeled Pre-Emphasis (below thetape-speed knob on the left) that, as per

U-He, “allows for precise control overtransients, tone and fidelity”. For moredetail you can download the manualfrom www.u-he.com. In sonic terms Pre-Emphasis filters out the high end at lowsettings and induces a loudness-style smi-ley EQ curve at high settings.

Like most tape plug-ins, multipleinstances of Satin can be grouped organged so that changing a setting on oneinstance effects all the others in thatgroup. In Satin you can create and nameup to eight different groups. This is handy

for operating Satin like a true multi-tracktape machine with instances on multiplechannels.

Possibly the most unique set of controlsin Studio mode is the Compander sectionthat has an Encoder, a Decoder and aMix knob. The Compander is a collectionof accurate models of the popular noisereduction processes from tape machinespast, developed by Dolby and dbx. InSatin they are called Type A, Type AModified, Type B, UHX Type I and UHXType II.

PLUG-IN OUTLET

You may be thinking, “Noise reductionsucked, just turn the tape hiss off!” and, yes,for modern fidelity’s sake this is the bestoption. However, it can be fun to use andabuse the processes for an effect, vintagerealism, and even nostalgia. U-He claimsthese models to be so accurate that if youhappen to have old tapes that were encod-ed with one of the above types, but yourcurrent tape machine does not, you cancapture the tracks in your DAW, bypass thetape setting in Satin and just run through theCompander to decode them!

~ Delay Mode: Still in the center portion ofthe screen, as you switch the mode to Delayyou get a 2–4 tap tape delay that can be setto Multi-Mono, Cross or Ping Pong left orright. It can be set in milliseconds or temposynchronized, and each tap has settings forTime, Modulation Rate, Modulation Amount,Balance (Pan) and Level. Global controlsinclude Mix, Feedback, a Limiter, and Lowand High cut filters.

~ Flange: Flange is the third mode avail-able from the center portion of the Satinscreen. Flange is an effect created by runningthe same signal on two parallel tapemachines and then manually varying thespeed of one (initially by simply putting a fin-ger on a flange of one reel as a “brake”—

hence the name “flanging”). This was a muchmore distinctive and organic sound thansome modern flanger pedals or plug-ins.

The controls start with a large Manual slid-er which is akin to putting your finger on thereel or capstan to manually create the flangywoosh. You can automate this in your DAW,or there is a MIDI sync-able Trigger buttonthat starts the fader moving from one side tothe other, producing the flange. AdjustableFade settings help smoothly bring the effectin and determine how long the sweep willlast. A Range knob determines how manymilliseconds apart the two tape machinesare which controls the extremity of the effect.There is a phase invert button as well. Thisis the first true tape flange plug-in effect Ihave ever tried, and pretty much worth thecost of Satin all on its own.

The bottom of the screenThe Service Panel at the bottom is the place

where you can adjust Tape Hiss, Asperity (tapeanomalies and edge wear), Crosstalk, Wow &Flutter as well as the Gap Width and Bump ofthe repro head. Lastly you can choose yourrecording and repro head EQ settings from

Flat IEC 7.5 ips, IEC 15 ips, NAB and AES 30 ips. Version 1.1 adds an Auto-Mute thatsilences Hiss and Asperity when no audio is running—great for multitracking with Satin.

A Headroom control allows you to increase or starve the headroom of the entire plug-in for added effect, and lastly there is an overall frequency meter that gives a visual ofhow your tweaks affect the overall sound. The Wow and Flutter feature surprised me; itis pretty tame. It just can not get as freaky, lo-fi and wobbly as UA’s Ampex ATR-102.

In useWhen I first saw this plug-in’s modest price of $129, I asked myself, “Can a plug-

in with this many features being sold this cheaply sound any good?” Now I can say,“Absolutely!” For comparison, Satin is a tad more obvious than the Slate VTM witha touch more character. I found it to be closer to UA’s Studer A-800, but a hair moredense and weighty. Of course, all of this is in the 10–15% realm and I would nothesitate to use any of them in my mixes.

A plug-in this powerful does require some CPU muscle. I was able to run 24mono/12 stereo instances on my quad-core i7 PC with 8 GB of RAM in Cubase,with no other plug-ins running, before topping out my CPU.

Wrap upBeyond its affordable price and excellent sound, Satin nicely fills a void in the mar-

ket by offering tape emulation without emulating a specific historical machine, butsonically holding its own against those that do. Even if tape emulation is not yourthing, Satin is a great effects box as well.

Delivery: Digital download onlyFormat: VST/VST3 for Windows XP/Vista/7/8, VST/VST3 and AU for Mac

OS X 10.5+. U-He reports an AAX version is in beta right now.Copy Protection: serial numberLicense: Single user/multiple computersDocumentation: PDF manual with download, also available onlinePrice: $129More from: U-He, www.u-he.com


When I first saw this plug-in’s modest price of $129, I askedmyself, “Can a plug-in with this many features being sold this

cheaply sound any good?” Now I can say, “Absolutely!”

Adam: Isn’t that more sort of how an exclu-sive library would be? So, instead sort ofdumping a hard drive on somebody’s desk,an exclusive library would be a little moreproactive in securing those deals.

Tanvi: There are many exclusive librariesthat dump hard drives on people’s desks.

Adam: I have a question. What happens ifone of your non-exclusive songs turns out tobe a huge hit and the artist is approached bya major publisher?

Tanvi: Then we work with the artist. We’lllet them out. There’s got to be money on thetable. I’m not going to stand in the way ofsomebody’s career, you know. [applause] ButI’m also not going to have you come to meand say, “I wanna be in Jingle Punks’ catalogexclusively. Can you please let me out of yourdeal?” before the term is over. I’m also notgoing to do that.

Wasn’t the original concept behind a non-exclu-sive deal created so that these guys [points toaudience members] could put their music in acatalog to be repped for film and TV, but at thesame time, still own their copyright so theycould put it on CD Baby or license the song toCeline Dion … And I think what happened wassomebody went, “Wow, I can put my music in

65

PANELISTS:Tanvi Patel – CEO/Partner, Crucial Music Cor-

poration, taking the non-exclusive side ofthe debate.

Adam Weitz – V.P. of Film/TV Music at TAXI(at the time of the debate), playing therole of someone who would be on theexclusive side of the debate.

Moderator: Michael Laskow – CEO ofTAXI, acting as a neutral party to facilitatethe debate.

Tanvi: I wanted to comment on somethingelse from the non-exclusive’s point of viewand why we believe in the model so much.You know, our contracts are made for threeyears and there’s a reason why. It takes along time to get your music out there and infront of people and pitching and the quantityof pitches to get you a placement. You know,I’ve signed tracks and within a week placedthem from when they’ve been up on the site.But then I’ve signed tracks that have takenthree years to be placed. And I personallydon’t believe it’s right for me to, at this pointin time, given everything else I’m upagainst—you know what things are workingfor us and what aren’t—to tie up your copy-rights exclusively for three years. To have allyour eggs in my basket, that scares the crapout of me because all of a sudden I’m goingto get even more emails like, “What have youdone for me lately?” kind of thing.

A lot of the exclusive companies are one-yeardeals. Which, from your point of view is,“Yeah, I can do it in one year, OK, no prob-lem. One year, I can live with that.” Youmight not get a placement in a year and thenyou’re gonna be knocking on that person’sdoor to cancel your contract. From abusiness point of view, if I implemented that,I would be losing copyrights every year and

that’s an administration issue for me. So, youknow, that’s the thing. I believe that the artistshould have … OK, if you’re a financial advi-sor and you have, you’re investing on people’sbehalf, would you put all your client’s moneyin Apple? I mean, would you do that?

Well… maybe just that one stock. [laughter]

Tanvi: Or would you have a balanced portfo-lio so that you can be making money invarious areas? I personally invest in differentcompanies and mutual funds and real estateand you know, that sort of thing. That’s how Iwould want to do it. So that I’m not depen-dent on my income from just one sole person.That’s how I feel about a non-exclusive. It’slike, I want to give you guys [in the audience]the ability to make as much money as you canand it’s also based on the strength of the repthat you’re working with. Sure, there mightbe three people that are pitching the song …

Or have a song available. They’re not all pitch-ing. That’s the one thing …

Tanvi: They might have the song available.They’re not all pitching the song within theircatalog because they have 100,000 songs. Ihave 8,000. I know every song in my catalog.And if a pitch comes to us, I’m gonna pitchthat song. You know, so there’s also that.

Continued on page 66

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4

The Great Debate at the 2012 TAXI Road Rally

Exclusive VS Non-Exclusive Music Libraries, Part Three

Michael Laskow (left) and Tanvi Patel (center) pay close attention to Adam Weitz (right) as he makes a point during a very heatedand educational debate.

66

Audience member: Thank you much. I’vereally enjoyed this. It seems as a consensusthat there should be a balance between exclu-sive and non-exclusive deals for uscomposers. Can you give us some percentagefigure, like how much of your work, Tanvi, doyou get approached for exclusive deals? Whatshould we look at as composers? Should wekeep our best pieces for exclusive deals? Orvice versa? Or how should we divide up ourportfolios?

Tanvi: OK, let me give an example of whensomebody comes to me and says, “Well, whatother companies should I work with?” And Isay, “Well, why do you look at the strength ofthe company, the non-exclusives that you’reworking with currently, find those other non-exclusives that fill the weaknesses of mycompany.” So, for example, at this moment intime, I don’t have any blanket deals and Ihaven’t for a long time. There are reasonswhy, but I don’t. You could go to somebodylike Jingle Punks or somebody likeGetty/Pump Audio, and give them tracks aswell and they will cover that market for you.So, here’s what I would suggest. You know,you’re a composer, you have a large supply oftracks and at least I feel that way when I getmultiple submissions over and over again.But what you can do, whether you want togive your best tracks to an exclusive vs. non-exclusive, well I don’t know about that. But,try it. Try some tracks in an exclusive catalogand then, you know, keep those exclusive.And then try some of your other tracks in anon-exclusive and see which works out betterfor you after a year, or two years, just depend-ing. That’s a decision you need to make. Butyou also need to look at those what exclusivecompanies … How are they managing … Whattype of clients do they have? How muchmoney are they giving you upfront? Meaningthe sync percentage, not necessarily payingyou upfront [buyouts] for the catalog, but areyou getting any percentage of sync, and thensee how it goes. I’ve got guys who are withPump Audio and they’re making decentmoney and they’ve got the same tracks withme, and they make decent money with meand …

Adam: So, why would I license that trackfrom you when I could get it on Pump Audiocheaper, hypothetically?

Tanvi: Well, it all has to do with therelationships. I don’t know that many music

five catalogs and spread my bets. Now I’ve gotfive companies repping my song.” Human greedor maybe good business sense, I’m not sure whatyou want to call it, but if I can five people rep-ping my stuff, that’s potentially five timesbetter than one. And then it just got out ofhand.

Adam: Yeah, and then the artist calls themusic supervisor and says, “Who did [you]get this from? I heard it on the show andnever got paid” and the music supervisor

says, “Please, you know, I just got 30 calls likethis this week, please stop calling me.” Weknow that that happens quite often.

Tanvi: It does. There’s some responsibilityon you as a composer, as well. You know, ifyou hear your song, you reach out. Don’t goto the network. That’s the last thing … Theydon’t want to take your call. They sureenough don’t want to think that you’re goingto sue them. But if you’re in five non-exclu-sive catalogs, reach out to yournon-exclusives and find out. Now, I know alot of them don’t tell you when you’re gettingused and you don’t find out until six monthslater when you look at your royaltystatement. But that’s a responsibility youhave to take on and say, well, my stuff is outthere, it’s gonna get used, I’ll eventually getpaid for it. I don’t need to freak out who usedthis, who didn’t use this.

Adam: What about the situation where alibrary might have a blanket deal with a com-pany and there’s no back-end? For example,like your song is on …

Tanvi: ESPN?

Adam: Yeah, or DVD extras or something,and you don’t see, as an artist you wouldn’tsee …

Tanvi: There have never been any mechani-cals for DVDs, ever in the United States.

Adam: But it could happen under a non-exclusive basis in that regard, that your musiccould actually be used for something andyou’d never get paid for the use.

Tanvi: No. Unless that supplier is into notmaking any money, doesn’t want to make anymoney and give away stuff for free.

Adam: Well, say the supplier has a blanketdeal with like Sony, OK, and Sony makes aDVD and uses DVD extras and uses one ofthe artist’s songs. It’s possible that the artistmight not ever get paid for that, right?

Tanvi: Uhhh … if it’s in the agreement thatsays, “I’m not going to pay you for blanketpayments.” Yeah and that’s a horrible con-tract. But that can happen in an exclusive ornon-exclusive deal.

I’m going to come out into the audience becauseI saw some hands go up and we’ve really got likesix or seven more minutes. Somebody rightaround here.

Audience member: What about digitalcue sheets? I mean, wouldn’t that help tosolve a lot of the issue with …

Tanvi: Fingerprinting is a fabulous use fordigital cue sheets. That’s correct. There’s acompany called Sound Mouse that has donecontracts with a few of the networks andwhat happens is, is you as a supplier provideyour entire catalog to Sound Mouse and thenall the data is available digitally and whatthey do is they, all the network has to do issupply the soundtrack for all the broadcast toSound Mouse and then they match up digi-tally and input all the cue sheets are accurate.Again, the dirty audio is an issue. So, obvi-ously Sound Mouse has spent some moneyand they have people to listen to … wherethere’s a discrepancy, they listen and work itout. That is one of the things that the PROsmentioned to me. That’s where they see thefingerprinting being the most beneficial is foraccurate cue sheets.

Audience member: There seems to besome libraries that are switching over toexclusive that aren’t paying anything upfrontfor those tracks to switch them over. Is itbecause they’re not taking the copyright or …

Tanvi: Correct. You keep your copyright.You’re still keeping your copyright, it’s justthat you can’t have your copyright elsewhere.

Adam: But, in my opinion, they might aswell have it. It’s kind of like leasing yourhouse forever to somebody. They basicallyown your house.

Continued from page 65

Continued on page 69

“It takes a long time to get your musicout there and in front of people, andpitching and the quantity of pitchesto get you a placement.”

—Tanvi Patel

69

supervisors that actually to like to use PumpAudio. The independent music supervisorsthat get placements. It’s a matter of theirclient base. So, Pump Audio is really good atInternet uses, small corporate uses, small

agency uses, online space for ads. You won’tbelieve Coke will only have two grand for anInternet spot. I mean, that’s what it comesdown to. So, it’s a matter of being able tocover your bases. They’re not working thesame clients I am. I’m not working theirclients. They’re not working mine. Theymight try. The supervisor might not likethem.

Adam’s smiling a lot. [laughter]

Tanvi: He’s doing a good job, don’t youthink? [applause]

Adam: I’m really neutral. I’m really neu-tral. I’m Switzerland!

Yeah, our job at TAXI is to look out for ourmembers’ best interest. So this is a daily battlefor us. We get calls every day and we have tosit there for a half an hour and ask, do we runthis listing or not? And in the end, it comesdown to “Would most of our members want usto?” And if we just can’t settle that betweenthe two of us, then we’ll ask our membersonline. I don’t know anything more that wecan do.

Adam: What frightens me is what happensif every single network builds its own catalogand takes all the publishing without spend-ing a dime? To me, that’s almost, in a way, aform of theft because you now own a pieceof my property but you never paid me for it.In a way it’s kind of like payola, because nowthey get something out of it because I knowthey’re gonna use it. And that to me …

And what do we do as TAXI? Do we say sorryNBC, CBS, and ABC, no, we’re not gonna runthose listings for you because we think that’s aform of theft when half of our members wouldwant to do that deal and if we don’t run thatlisting, they’ll go somewhere else and a find away to get that deal. It’s impossible is what it is!

Adam: I think they’re doing their own Cru-cial [style] retitling.

Tanvi: OK, so, it’s a non-exclusive.

Yeah, but it might migrate to exclusive whenthey feel they have enough power and enoughclout. Who knows? It’s impossible to know. But,we could sit here and debate this all day, but Imust say you guys have done an amazingly fairjob of presenting both sides of this argument.[applause] And with that, I’ve got to kick youoff stage because we have to get the nextpanel started. Thank you very much, TanviPatel and Adam Weitz! [applause]

Audience member: On that note, thankyou both for a great talk. What are they giv-ing? Are they literally saying, give me yourmusic for free?

Adam: Yes.

Audience member: So, they’re taking100% of the publishing?

Adam: You’re getting the writer’s shareand that’s it.

Tanvi: Are they putting any sort of identi-fier like, CBS track title? Or are they justtaking the copyright?

Continued from page 66

“What happens if one of your non-exclusive songs turns out to be a hugehit and the artist is approached by amajor publisher?”

—Adam Weitz


By submitting a Readers’ Tapes entry you automatically grant per-mission to Music Maker Publications to feature your submission here,on our website, and in our SPOTLIGHT e-newsletter. We might need toshorten entries for editorial reasons. By listing your name with the sub-mitted work, MMP does not imply any assignment of rights to the sub-mitted work. We can neither guarantee publication of a review norengage in correspondence about individual submissions.

Media can be submitted physically (as in an actual recordingthrough the mail) or online at our website. For online submissions,please go to www.recordingmag.com and click on Readers’ Tapes,then select “Submit Your Recording” and fill in the requested informa-tion. We accept MP3 and AAC files of up to 5 MB size. File bitrate isup to you but we strongly recommend a minimum of 128 kbps; notethat the higher the bitrate, the shorter the song that will fit in the 5 MBlimit. You’re free to submit an excerpt of a longer song if that helps!

Send physical submissions to: Readers’ Tapes c/o RecordingMagazine, 5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301. Please be sure toinclude: a) a CD, CD-R, cassette, DAT, or MiniDisc with only onesong preferably no longer than 3:30 in length (or tell us which trackyou want reviewed); b) a credit list (who did what); c) a list ofequipment used. Remember that CD-Rs with unevenly appliedpaper labels, smudges, or scratches won’t play back reliably.

PLEASE state which part of your contact info we can publish(address, phone, and/or email)—if you don’t tell us precisely, wewill publish the email address that came with your submission.

Suggestions: Ryan has done an excellent job overall here.The tracking and mixing are free of artifact/heavy limitingthat often spoils many of today’s rock recordings, major labelreleases included. As for the drums, it’s very rare that wehear programmed drums compete with a good live player interms of feel. Hey, it’s their job, you know!

Our suggestion to Ryan is that he consider teaming upwith a top notch drummer in his area, or take advantage ofthe many pro players who offer their services long-distance.Computer-based recording and the Internet has made it pos-sible to connect with all types of monster players, many withgold/platinum credits, who will lay down parts on a track,often for much less coin than one would think. Both Ryanand Lauren are serious talents; with a pro drummer “BeSomebody Else” would be headed to our Spotlight feature.

Summary: Good stuff!

Contact: Ryan Nadon, [email protected]

Steve Bonaccorsi

Equipment: PCAudioLabs custom PC with M-Audio FireWire 410interface and M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 MIDI keyboard, run-ning Digidesign Pro Tools M-Powered Version 7 and MOTUSymphonic Instrument plug-in. Mackie MR5 Studio Monitors,Audio-Technica ATH-M50 Headphones, RØDE NT1-A mic (vocals).Fender Stratocaster 70s version, Takamine EF341C acoustic guitar,BOSS GT-10 guitar processor, Yamaha PSR550 keyboard.

Music: “Cooper Street” is a male vocal rock song. Stevedid it all in his home studio.

Recording: This is Steve’s second appearance in Readers’Tapes, the first one being back in July of 2007. At the timeSteve had relayed that he was “an old guy” just getting backinto recording after a long absence. So what has changed withSteve 2.0? Well, track count and arrangement skills for a start!

“Cooper Street” is a full 24-track project, the core drumbeat and opening train effect were played manually on aYamaha PSR550 keyboard. It also has 5 tracks of guitar, 3tracks of lead main vocal, 4 tracks of “ooh’s & harmony” inthe interlude sections supported by choir vocals from aMIDI keyboard, along with 9 MIDI orchestration tracks viaMOTU’s Symphonic Instrument plug-in. Well, Steve, it lookslike you’ve been making up for lost time!

As for the individual sound sources, the results are a bit ofa mixed bag. To our ears the strength of the track is the vocals(and the lyrics, a heartfelt tribute to his dad) along with thestring arrangement, which add a nice Moody Blues vibe to theproceedings. Less to our liking were the acoustic guitar tones,along with the mushy low-end bass/drum sound.

Suggestions: Steve has come a long way with his recordingchops since 2007 and we’re mighty pleased to find him still atit. As for suggestions, the tone of the acoustic guitar would indi-cate that it was tracked using the instrument’s onboard pickup.While this can sometimes be effective as a supplemental tech-nique, it will never replace the sound of a miked-up acoustic inour opinion. Combining the pickup with the RØDE NT1-A con-denser mic would almost certainly yield superior results.

Regarding the bottom-end sounds, clarity and frequencymanagement are vital regardless of what sound sources comeinto play. We encourage Steve to define what he wants thedrum/bass relationship to be, and then find a good solid“voice” for each sound.

Summary: Welcome back, Steve!

Contact: Steve Bonaccorsi, [email protected]

Ryan Nadon

Equipment: Windows 7 64bit PC with M-Audio Profire 610 inter-face running Cakewalk SONAR X2 with Celemony Melodyne, IKMultimedia AmpliTube 3 (rhythm guitar) and NativeInstruments Guitar Rig Pro 5 (bass) and Kontakt 5 / Steven SlateDrums 3.5. Mackie Big Knob monitor controller, M-Audio BX8amonitors. Mics: Shure SM58 (vocals), Studio Projects condenser(ac. guitar). Primacoustic Voxguard vocal enclosure. JacksonSoloist through Behringer V-AMP Pro for lead guitars, ESP LTDEC-1000 and a PRS Mark Tremonti with Zakk Wylde EMG pick-ups used for rhythm guitars. Cort acoustic guitar, Ibanez bass.

Music: “Be Somebody Else” is a male vocal rock song.Ryan did it all with the exception of the vocals, whichwere sung by Lauren Mackenzie.

Recording: Big anthemic rock tracks seem to span gen-erations, from Bon Jovi to the Kings of Leon, and Ryan’ssubmission has all of the ingredients necessary to com-pete with these “big boys”. The first thing required is awell-written track with a strong hook, and “Be SomebodyElse” is certainly that. The majority of the music bed isequally strong, with perfectly compressed/ distorted gui-tars (via AmpliTube) delivering a wall of sound.

We also dug Lauren’s gritty lead vocals, sung dry througha standard issue Shure SM58 dynamic mic. Legend has itthat both Mick Jagger and Elvis Costello were fans of theSM58 in the studio, and its ability to handle powerful voic-es like Lauren’s make it an excellent choice here.

If there was a negative to be found with Ryan’s sub-mission, it would be with the drums. While the program-ming was capable for the most part, there were somelevel issues with the tom fills at times. We also felt thatthe snare drum tone was a bit on the “plastic” sidethrough our monitors. The Steven Slate Drums 3.5 plug-in that Ryan used is one of the best in the business, anda bigger, deeper snare drum sound would have been abetter fit for the size of the track in our opinion.

COMPANY PAGE PHONE WEB ADDRESS

Acoustica 11 www.acoustica.comADK Microphones 53 www.frontendaudio.comAEA 21 www.ribbonmics.comAKG Acoustics GmbH 31 www.akg.comAPI 9 www.APIaudio.comApogee OBC www.apogeedigital.comASCAP 37 www.ascap100.comAudio-Technica 15 www.audio-technica.comAudix Corporation IBC www.audixusa.comB&H Audio 67 800-947-9918 www.bandh.comBlue Microphones 5 www.bluemic.comCharterOak 57 www.coproaudio.comClearSonic 61 800-888-6360 www.clearsonic.comConservatory of Recording Arts & Sciences 35 888-604-4075 www.cras.eduDPA Microphones 43 www.dpamicrophones.comDrawmer/TransAudio Group 45 www.transaudiogroup.com/drawmerEarthworks 13 www.earthworksaudio.com/521Grace Design 69 www.gracedesign.comIsoAcoustics 42 www.isoacoustics.comKRK Systems 25 www.krksys.comLauten Audio/Audio Plus Services 41 800-663-9352 www.audioplusservices.comLewitt 39 www.lewitt-audio.comMasterWriter 47 www.MasterWriter.comMillennia Music & Media Systems 55 530-647-0750 www.mil-media.comMojave Audio 51 www.mojaveaudio.comMusicUnited.com 63 www.musicunited.comPearlman Microphones 61 www.pearlmanmicrophones.comPreSonus 23 www.presonus.comPrism Sound 29 www.prismsound.comRadial Engineering/Primacoustic 18–19, 27 604-942-1001 www.radialeng.comRealTraps 57 866-732-5872 www.realtraps.comRØDE Microphones 17 www.rodemic.com/nt1Royer Ribbons 48 818-847-0121 www.royerlabs.comSamson 1 www.samsontech.comShure 7 www.shure.com/americasStedman 59 www.stedmancorp.comSteinberg IFC www.steinberg.netSweetwater 2–3 800-222-4700 www.sweetwater.comSweetwater/MOTU 76–77 800-222-4700 www.sweetwater.comTAXI A&R Insider 65–69 800-458-2111 www.taxi.comTelefunken 59 860-882-5919 www.t-funk.comVintage King Audio 32–33, 49 888-653-1184 www.vintageking.com

RECORDING FEBRUARY 201472

Visitwww.recordingmag.com

CLA

SSIF

IED

S/

MA

RKET

PLA

CE

RECORDING FEBRUARY 2014 73

CLA

SSIFIEDS

/M

ARK

ETPLAC

E

RECORDING FEBRUARY 201474

CLA

SSIF

IED

S/

MA

RKET

PLA

CE

RECORDING FEBRUARY 2014 75

Please visit www.johnlewitt.com to down-load this Canadian singer/songwriters lat-est collection for FREE.

Country Singer/Songwriter Walter WeyburnAvailable on Youtube or join his growingfanbase on facebook.www.walterweyburn.webs.com

Eric Bolvin; composer, horn arranger, pro-ducer and teacher. Lots of free music,charts and videos. www.BolvinMusic.com

Songwriter with “WOW MATERIAL” suit-able for Michael Bublé,Tony Orlando andMarie Osmond looking for agent with con-tacts. “GREAT FINDERS FEE”. Call Phil609-588-0282

17 year old singer/songwriting KerryD’Azevedo! Available on iTunes or joinher growing fan base on Facebook.

CHARLTON METCALF, SONGWRITERfor all genres. An original song just foryou. myspace.com/charltontmetcalf,|[email protected]

Please Recycle your CDs and DVDsDoes your studio generate much CD andDVD waste? We recycle your discs forfree. Please Go Green!Learn how at www.cdrecyclingcenter.org

This is Improv at it’s best.Singer/Songwriter/Bandleader looking forserious manager/agent.www.myspace.com/andycliftonandcompanyhas material and [email protected]

John Shaughnessy writes and recordssongs that cross genres, with hooks aimedat the part of your brain where unforget-table songs get stuck. Listen atwww.johnshaughnessy.com

We are looking for rappers & singers andsongwriters and producers please sendyour song to myspace.com/mikecaponecontact:[email protected]

Singer Singwriter and Producer with di-verse style of music available for sound-track work. Project management capable.www.myspace.com/trigSongs and Bio posted.Contact: [email protected]

FREE NOTICESIf truth is the most powerful mind-alter-ing substance then new home recordingReality Series Joe Fresh Out Da Peniten-tiary delivers a lethal dose. Like Joe onFB@Fans of Joe Fresh and subscribeYouTube@JoeFreshOutDaPen andhttp://www.joefreshout.com/

My sound? BOB DYLAN meetsTOMPETTY, ERIC ANDERSEN, and WEIRD AL-- in CHURCH. http://www.lexzaleta.com/

Listen to free samples from our new release“Pocket Full of Change” atwww.expenserocks.com

We at long beach city college would like tooffer free music videos to artists in the longbeach, ca area.Write [email protected] for more info orfacebook.com/lbccmvp

Family band,“The Fulcos”, are now seek-ing a successful management/productionteam. Music style Beatlesque/Queenish.www.meetingthefulcos.com

MUSICIANS Seeking Expert Key-boardist, Guitarist, Singers, etc. for NEWBAND. ORIGINAL MUSIC: Jazz/Pop.Some Covers. Serious. Arranging and Im-provising a Plus. Great Opportunity.(480) [email protected].

Hear Chris Williams music for film, tv, andadvertising. Great music for any media proj-ects that you may have. I own 100% of allrights so it is a one stop shop to me for all li-censing requests.Visithttps://www.box.com/shared/ig1p71sxci todownload and listen or www.cwiz.info

The Center for Hearing & Dizziness is aImprovised (Impoprivised) Band weImprovise new sounds to old movies. Seevideos at www.youtube.com/user/cfhd orwww.youtube.com/user/pjcdrummer.

Great sounding professionaldrum tracks, custom designed foryour music, delivered quickly,affordable rates!www.rodneyballard.com

MIXYOURSONGS.COMBroadcast quality mixes of your songsby professional engineers.

REALDRUMSTUDIO.COMMaster Quality Drum Tracks by pro-fessional studio drummer and audioengineer. Great sounding room!Call Pat Bautz 888-755-6957

www.saxtracksonline.comProfessional Saxophone TracksAndy 818-378-8007

drumoverdubs.comCustom drum tracks recorded live toyour songs by professional studiodrummer Brian McRae.

Killer Real Drum Tracksfrom Chet McCracken. Send or bringme your songs. All formats and afford-able! For credits, rates, equipment andinfo call Chet: 818-888-6687Email: [email protected]: www.chetmccracken.com

Only Free Notices ads are free—use this space to further yourcareer, make contacts, announceyour demo, website (non-commer-cial) etc. Free Notices ads (25words or less—we reserve theright to shorten longer entries)are restricted to items where nomoney changes hands.

No phone calls please for FreeNotices ads. Fax 303-516-9119or email: [email protected]

For sales and services, use thepaid categories:

• Commercial Web Sites• Duplication• For Sale• Miscellaneous• Services• Wanted

For details call 303-516-9118or email:

[email protected]

SERVICES

CLA

SSIFIEDS

/M

ARK

ETPLAC

E


FeaturesJan 2012 AES Convention Report

Monitors & Monitoring: a crash courseGetting Into Your Head: all about headphone amps

Feb Big Money Drums—Part 1Stereo From A Mono Mic

Mar Plug-in Performance on Windows-based DAWsThe Mixing Workshop: Better Mixes Through Creative

Editing—Part 2 (The Band)Big Money Drums—Part 2

Apr 2013 Winter NAMM Show ReportBig Money Drums—Part 3Nimbit and Self-Promotion: one composer’s reportSongwriting—The Money Angle

May How To Record Great Vocals At HomePlug-ins To The Rescue—Real-Life Remedies for Vocal

TracksJun SXSW 2013—From Guerilla To Gorilla

Finding Fault: troubleshooting and optimizing your audio PC

Mock-Up Magic: building convincing tracks with virtual instruments

Jul A Guitar Miking Primer, Part 1: Electric GuitarsNine (off the wall) Guitar Recording Ideas

Aug Recording the Gig: tips for field recording from the stage

Recording the Band: converting your house into an all-in tracking studio

A Guitar Miking Primer, Part 2: Acoustic GuitarsMIDI—Happy 30th Birthday!DIY: Keepin’ My Beats Cool—Repairing an E-MU

SP1200Special Report: AES Nashville Recording

Workshop+Expo 2013Sep Better Sounds from Tight Spots: tips and tricks for the

producerDIY: Fix Your Cables—Save Your MoneyStop Sound Leakage!DIY: Build Acoustic Treatment Right Into Your WallsFrom Shed to Studio: turning a back yard shed into a

tracking/mixing spaceOct Live In The Studio: capture a band’s live energy in

the tracking roomThe Mixing Workshop: Spectral BalancingFrom Room to Studio: a veteran engineer builds a

dream room at homeHow To Edit: Applying tape-editing principles to

working with your DAWNov Write—Record—Release—ROCK!: an album from

concept to promotionThe Windup... And The Pitch: pitching your music in

ways that actually workSongwriter’s Intervention: breaking bad habits and

using the right toolsBe Ready!: preproduction as the key to tracking and

mixing successDec 2013 Annual Gift Guide

Taming The Low Frequencies: Helmholtz Resonators vs. Bass Traps in small rooms

InterviewsFeb Clare Fischer’s ¡Ritmo!: Brent Fischer, Matt Brownlie, Rafa Sardina

Miking DeVotchKa with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra: Mike Pappas,Jason LaRocca, Nick Urata, and Charles Denler

Apr Write Not Just Any Song, But A HIT Song! Q & A with Robin FrederickMay Jim Anderson records Patricia Barber’s Smash and Modern CoolJul Mick Conley on recording Marty Stuart’s guitarsAug Steve Avedis on home-recording Jerome Gilmer’s piano album

Remember WellSep Peter Chaikin of JBL on the History and Mystery of MonitoringOct 20 Questions on Mics and Miking with Shure’s John Born

Talking Acoustics with Peter D’Antonio of RPG Diffusor SystemsNov Kristian Bush of Sugarland on songwriting, creativity, and community-

buildingDec Remixing Depeche Mode’s “Should Be Higher”: Eric Alexandrakis, Anthony

J. Resta, and Paul David Hager

ColumnsRecording FundamentalsJan Chapter 13: Monitors—Part 2: the influence of history and speaker designFeb Chapter 14: Sweet Spot Conundrums—Part 1: ergonomics and logisticsMar Chapter 15: Sweet Spot Conundrums—Part 2: room acoustic problemsApr Chapter 16: Sweet Spot Conundrums—Part 3: low end and diffusionMay Chapter 17: Sweet Spot Conundrums—Part 4: nine solutions to common issuesJun Chapter 18: Headphones—Part 1: when and when not to use themJul Chapter 19: Headphones—Part 2: features and choosing the right pairAug Chapter 20: Equalization—Part 1: the basics of EQ and equalizersSep Chapter 21: Equalization—Part 2: EQ workflow, myths, tips and tricksOct Chapter 22: Compression—Part 1: what is compression?Nov Chapter 23: Compression—Part 2: compressors and how they workDec Chapter 24: Compression—Part 3: the Loudness Wars

Fade OutJan Music Apps: When The Prevailing Wisdom Is Stupid, by Mike MetlayFeb Mastered For iTunes: High-Resolution Audio?, by Ethan WinerMar The Mac As Disposable Appliance, by Mike MetlayApr Is It Possible To Record A High-Quality Product At Home?, by James CruzMay Marrying For Love, by Mike MetlayJun A Compression Story, by Scott DorseyJul The Acoustic Guitar Recording Legacy Of Richard Rosmini, by Wes DooleySep Thank Ma Bell, by Scott DorseyOct Sun Studios—Then And Now, by Scott DorseyNov The Song Is Still The Thing, by Sven-Erik SeaholmDec Is “Quitting Your Day Job” Really The Point?, by John McVey

Reviews(* indicates items Reviewed & Revisited)MicrophonesJan Lauten Atlantis FC-387 Condenser MicFeb AKG D12VR Active Kick Mic

Shure KSM9HS Handheld Condenser MicAudio-Technica AT4047MP Condenser MicDPA Microphones Reference Standard MicsLewitt DTP 640 REX Dual-Element Kick Mic

Mar MXL CR30 Large-Diaphragm Condenser MicApr Royer SF-2 Active Ribbon MicMay Lewitt Authentica LCT 940 Solid-State/Tube Mic

Audio-Technica AT5040 Vocal Condenser MicDPA Microphones d:fine Headset Mics

Jul Sontronics Halo Guitar Cabinet MicAug Ear Trumpet Labs Edwina Condenser MicSep Ashman Acoustics SOM50 Condenser MicOct AEA R88mk2 Stereo Ribbon MicNov DPA Microphones d:facto II Handheld Condenser MicDec Bock Audio IFET Condenser Mic

Blue Nessie USB MicIcon M3 Condenser Mic

Annual Index 2013

2013RECORDING February 2014 79

Signal Processors / Effects HardwareJan Earthworks ZDT 1022 Mic Preamp

PreSonus BlueTube DP V2Feb Radial Engineering Firefly Tube Direct BoxMar Kush Audio Clariphonic Parallel EqualizerApr Moog 500 Series Ladder FilterMay Moon Professional 3500MP Mic PreampJun Ingram Engineering MPA685 Mic PreampJul Radial Engineering StageBug SB-1 and SB-2 Direct

BoxesZoom MS-100BT BlueTooth-programmable

MultiStomp Guitar PedalHeptode Virtuoso Phase ShifterSage Electronics Mighty G Active Direct BoxSonic Farm 2DI4 Pentode Direct BoxMillennia Media HV-37 Mic/Instrument Preamp

Aug Daking Audio Comp 500 ModuleSep Sontronics Sonora 2 Mic PreampNov Millennia Media NSEQ-4 EqualizerDec PreSonus RC 500 Solid-State Channel Strip

Eventide H9 Harmonizer Effects PedalRadial Engineering StageBug SB-4 and SB-5 Direct

Boxes

Monitors / Headphones / Audio RoutingJan ADAM Audio F5 and F7 Monitors

Trident HG3 MonitorsAKG K702 65th Anniversary Edition HeadphonesGrace Design m903 Headphone AmpShure SE215 Sound Isolating EarphonesSennheiser HD800 Headphones

Feb Sonodyne SM200Ak MonitorsEmotiva Pro airmotiv 4 and airmotiv 6 Monitors

Apr Eve Audio SC205 MonitorsMay PreSonus Eris E5 and E8 MonitorsJul KEF LS50 Monitor 50th Anniversary ModelSep Emotiva Pro Stealth 8 Monitors

Drawmer MC2.1 Monitor ControllerOct Radial Engineering Gold Digger mic selector and

Cherry Picker preamp selectorADAM Audio A77X Monitors

Nov Yamaha HS7 Monitors and HS8S SubwooferFocal Spirit Professional Headphones

Dec KRK ROKIT Powered RP5 G3 MonitorsAIAIAI TMA-1, TMA-1 Studio, and TMA-1 Studio

Young Guru Edition HeadphonesCAD Audio Sessions MH510 HeadphonesMyth Labs Eclipse HeadphonesReid and Heath Acoustics MA350 In-Ear MonitorsShure SE846 In-Ear Monitors

Computer Hardware / Interfaces / Controllers /ConvertersJan Universal Audio Apollo Interface / UAD DSP

EngineMar Steinberg CMC Series USB Controllers For

CubaseApr Akai MAX49 USB/MIDI/CV Keyboard ControllerJun Ableton Push

Apogee Quartet Interface for Mac and iOSAug Steinberg UR22 Audio/MIDI InterfaceSep MOTU Track16 Audio/MIDI InterfaceOct Apogee Symphony I/O 8x8 + 8 MP and

Symphony 64 ThunderBridgeEcho Digital Audio Echo2 Audio Interface

Dec Keith McMillen Instruments QuNexus ControllerGefenTV High-Resolution USB to Analog and Digital

Audio Decoder

Computer Software and Plug-ins (including Plug-In Outlet)Feb Sony Creative Software Sound Forge Pro MacMar 2C Audio B2 reverb

Universal Audio Precision K-Stereo and Shadow Hills Mastering Compressorfor UAD-2/Apollo

Acoustica Mixcraft 6*Massey Plugins CT5 CompressorKush Audio Clariphonic DSP EqualizerEventide H3000 FactoryiZotope Alloy 2*PSP Audioware PSP BussPressor

May Toontrack EZmix Pack: Vocal ToolboxiZotope Nectar ElementsNoveltech Vocal Enhancer and Character

Jun Ableton Live 9*Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A Classic Leveler Collection for

UAD-2/ApolloSteinberg Cubase 7*MOTU Digital Performer 8 (Mac)*PreSonus Studio One 2.5*Cakewalk SONAR X2*

Jul PSP Audioware PSP SpringBox spring reverbAug Audiofile Engineering TriumphSep Sneak Peeks: Apple Logic Pro X and Avid Pro Tools 11

FXpansion Bloom reverb/ambience processorOct Slate Digital Virtual Buss CompressorsNov Apple Logic Pro X*

Universal Audio NSEQ-2 Equalizer For UAD-2/ApolloDec Sony Creative Software Audio Master Suite: Sound Forge 11 and

SpectraLayers Pro 2iZotope Insight Metering SuiteSonnox Codec Toolbox

Soundware (including Recording’s Showcase Of Sounds)Mar Rob Papen PunchJun Arturia Spark Vintage

Tone2 SaurusRob Papen BladeModartt Pianoteq 4.5

Dec 8Dio 8Dioboe

iOS Music ToolsJan Korg iKaossilator, Moog Filtatron, Wizdom Music SampleWiz, Nonlinear

Educating macProVideoFeb Remote Control Surfaces: Liine Lemur, AppBC touchAbleMay Blue Spark Digital USB Mic for Windows, Mac, and iOSJul MIDI Designer

A Tasty Pixel/Audanika AudiobusAug RØDE iXY Stereo iOS Mic and RØDE Rec stereo recorder appOct iMusicAlbum Audio Mastering StudioDec Apogee One and Duet 2 for iPad and Mac

Mixers, Hardware Recorders, Acoustical Products, and MiscellanyJan IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R200 Speaker Isolation StandsFeb Zoom Q2HD Handy Video RecorderMar Behringer X32 Digital ConsoleMay CAD Audio Acousti-Shield 32Jun For Your Bookshelf: 3 books on MOTU Digital Performer and PreSonus

Studio OneJul Roland GC-1 GK-Ready Stratocaster and GR-S and GR-D V-Guitar PedalsAug Cymatic Audio LR-16 Digital Multitrack RecorderOct IsoAcoustics ISO-L8R Speaker Isolation StandsDec Royer Labs RSM-SS1 SlingShock shockmount

Old Jersey Music Labs Drum Wallet Mk2

For back issues, please call 303-516-9118 or visit www.recordingmag.com


There are a lot of opinionated peopleout there, especially in this business.For every musician who swears by old-school, band-playing-live-in-a-room, no-editing-allowed production methods,another embraces the zillion-track,hyper-edited, DAW-based method oftoday’s record making. Who’s right?

Sure, the critics of modern produc-tion have a point. The “imperfect”recordings of yesteryear possess acertain life that today’s computer-edited releases often lack. There isnothing like a sloppy old RollingStones record. Had the Stones beenquantized and Auto-Tuned, they prob-ably wouldn’t be nearly as cool today.

Does this mean that we should com-pletely forgo modern techniques infavor of older approaches? No, ofcourse not. It is the passage of time,not production methods, that has thegreatest impact on artistic legacy. Asthe decades pass, the bad music isshifted out, and we are left with clas-sics. The 1960s, like our time, werefilled with overproduced music. It wasonly inevitable that we forgot the for-gettable. The cream will rise to the top,technology will advance, and someday,despite modern methods, even someof today’s music will be vintage-cool.

Recorded music has always beendefined by its available technology.Be it the electric guitar, the synthe-sizer, or the drum machine, the tech-nological innovations of an era placea sonic fingerprint on current popularmusic releases. Today is no exception.The explosion of inexpensive person-al computing has brought about avariety of new popular music produc-tion devices. Not surprisingly, manyof these technological advances faceconsternation from traditionalists. Ofthese tools, none is more hotly debat-ed today than pitch correction. Oftencalled Auto-Tuning (named after theworld’s first successful pitch-fixin’

plug-in, Antares Auto-Tune), pitchcorrection allows a user to adjust theintonation of a vocal or instrumentalrecording.

While pitch correction is a fantasticsolution for repairing several notes inan otherwise perfect performance, theeffect is often overused to audibleexcess. Anyone who has listened to popmusic in the last decade has heardAuto-Tune. Like the over-use of gatedreverb in the ’80s, or the cardboard-dead drum sounds of the ’70s, thesound of over-tuned vocals, such asthose made famous by Cher, T-Pain,and others, is a style moniker of today’spopular music. While in-tune singingwill probably not go out of fashion,über-tuned vocal effects might some-day appear dated to this era.

This is not to say obvious pitch cor-rection is a bad thing. Some styles ofmusic, such as electronica, hip-hop,and R&B, actually pursue syntheticsounding vocals. For these genres, theeffect is a perfect addition to thesonic palette. But unless artificialityis your intention, you may want toconsider the ramifications beforeblindly tuning a vocal into submis-sion. Go lightly with Auto-Tune oryour production might be stamped“early 2000s” forever.

Pitch correction has also affectedthe way people make music. Forexample, many lament that Auto-Tuning allows non-singers to recordand perform as vocalists. While thiscan be true, producers have beenmanufacturing image-over-talentartists since long before the advent offast and easy digital plug-ins. Therewere ways to fix bad vocals back inthe good ole’ days... it just took hoursof punching and flying. If “fake”musicians haven’t destroyed musicbefore, it probably won’t happen now.But be warned—if you over-tune avocal, even that of a good perfor-mance, you invite criticism. Listenersare not dumb. They know when thingssound artificial. Do you want to riskyour singer being viewed as one whoneeds Auto-Tune?

Another risk of pitch correction islaziness. While I cannot kiss and tellabout the well-known singers I’veAuto-Tuned and how badly their per-formances needed it, I can say that afew of them were more than happy toleave the studio when the producer

cut short a stressful vocal session bysaying: “That’s a great take. We got it!We’ll just polish a few notes and itwill be perfect!” These artists remem-bered the “good” old days of difficultall-night vocal sessions and were morethan pleased to see them replaced bytechnology. But are we trading conve-nience for the greatness of blood,sweat, and tears? Shouldn’t peoplework, if not bleed, for their art?

Auto-Tune addiction is another issue.I’ve worked with a few singers, a fewgood singers, who wanted every notetuned to robotic capitulation. Sincethey paid my bill, I complied, but I won-dered if their natural talent would havebeen better served by less processing.We’ve all known the beautiful girl whowore too much makeup. Is Auto-Tuneaddiction a similar form of insecurity?

Of course there are ways to usepitch correction that don’t sound soblatant. Reducing the effect’s speed,sensitivity, or amount is one solution.Using a manual mode is another. Inthe early days of Auto-Tune one hadto spend hours manually drawingpitch correction, or risk the ugly sideeffects of the automatic mode.Today’s plugs, such as Melodyne andAuto-Tune 7, reduce the arduous man-ual editing to a few simple clicks. Sounless you’re looking for happy acci-dents, avoid automatic pitch correc-tion. Make your own decisions. Listento everything in solo and don’t relyblindly on computer algorithms todictate musical interpretation.

To wrap things up, I must disclosethat I employ pitch correction fre-quently in my productions. It’s a greattool for enhancing otherwise perfectperformances. I just believe weshould consider the dangers ofoveruse. Yes, obvious Auto-Tuningsounds cool in trance, hip-hop, andother music styles that prefer syn-thetic aesthetics. But is it not moreauthentic to keep country down-homeand rock and roll raw?

Auto-Tune Ethics

Guest editorial by Eric Ferguson

Eric Ferguson ([email protected]) spent a dozen years as a free-lance audio engineer in Los Angeles,and is now on the faculty of the NewEngland School of Communications

(NESCOM) in Bangor, ME. He’s takinga break after two solid years of writingour Recording Fundamentals column.

recording

Documents