On Recording

In the style of Jen’s blog I present two links I’d like to be able to find in the future, and that I think some people on here would find very interesting reading.

Trevor, if you’re reading this you’ll find these enlightening I’m sure.

Without overstating my appreciation for the content in these pieces, I’d say that I absolutely agree with the techniques and sentiment expressed by the two authors.

Okay, so I’ve had 2 glasses of wine, and I’m a bit effusive here. Let’s get to the point.

Producing Sarah McLachlan, on Land and on Sea by Paul Tingen. This piece explains the process used by Pierre Marchand, Sarah’s recordist/producer, to get those fantastic sounds. Now his Merlin technology isn’t something I’ve experienced, and so it isn’t necessarily on that basis that I recommend the article, but more on the level of engagement of the technician with the music. I firmly believe that the only way a recording or an amplified performance is going to be convincing is by direct engagement of the technician with the process. By getting out of the booth into the room, and by taking on the role of an artist rather than a technician you will get the results that a pot-tweaker will only dream about. Live show after live show I watch the sound guy set the faders and then open the paper. Not so Pierre Marchand. Plus, the setting of his studio is positively idyllic.

Article number two, courtesy of Andrew, is Rip Rowan’s Over the Limit. A discussion about how you can take a great recording and utterly destroy it by essentially smashing the sound into an immovable barrier called 0 dB. The translation for regular folk: when you turn the volume up to 11 on a digital recorder it stops sounding good. So why are we turning it up?

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› music     2005-02-04 20:34   ...0