STUDIO WORK, HOW TO SURVIVE...1970.......Its important for music students and musicians of all kinds to look into the Past, both for historical value and also to learn how the Top Professionals act when doing Studio Work, kind of a lost art of the art of PROFESSIONALISM Today that always gives you Succe$$....! Parts 1 and 2 of Studio Work: >>>>>>>>STUDIO WORK. Pt. 1 and 2 of 3 parts Note, Oct. 2009: For those of you who have the Bass Course youve probably read this already, but thot Id post it here for fun anyway. Theres been so many people making up our history lately, some are complete frauds, using our images and skewing our interviews for their private agendas....like the film-maker trying to get money for licensing with his false charity....it takes only $500-1,000 to license for a legal documentary. And then theres always someone wanting to be famous...such was not the goal of most of us at all...we were just trying to work for our families. Most of us grew up during the 30s and 40s, and played with either the big-bands and/or jazz groups of the 1950s....studio work helped us support our families. Our story is of the dedicated experienced top musicians that helped invent lines for the records, and could sight-read fly-specks for movie scores (as well as solo etc.), and we were always professional, earning good monies, and having the respect due us too, we worked hard for it. I wrote this at the time I first quit (1969)....tiring of the rock record dates and wanting to get back to some good music playing live as well as writing my well-known educational books and courses...it was an interesting time, the 1960s into the 1970s was. ------------------------------------------------------ Since recorded sounds began in 1920s, theres always been 100s of Studio Musicians always un-credited, who were used to record for records, movie scores, and later TV-film shows here in Hollywood. Studio Musician work was the epitome of the finest, most-respected high-paid work, most-stable work you could get, and thoit was all Union, you got your own work calls which paid about 5-10x more than any touring work. Usually only the finest most-experienced musician in big-bands, and Jazz were hired for their experienced technique, abilities to sightread, create, and have fine time groove working with the click track of the films....record date work was not quite as rigid in hiring, but you still had to be a top professional. About 350-400 Studio Musicians recorded day and night in the busy 1960s and 70s. ------------------------------------------------ STUDIO WORK -- HOW TO SURVIVE by Carol Kaye (c)1970 A lot of you probably have thought that to reach studio work is the epitome of being a great musician. It certainly is very lucrative compared to nightclub and even casual wage scales. A true musician is a great artist who is very sensitive and dedicated in his/her work in all work situations. If you are thinking of aiming toward studio work and have the necessary creative and trained talent, here are a few things to consider. The great talented musician who immediately plunges into studio work early in his/her life feels he is missing something. Something is left out of his life when he faces the everyday scene of trying to find a parking place and getting to work on time. By Union rules, you are LIABLE for hundreds of dollars (1,000s in the 90s) overtime pay for the whole band, studio costs, etc. if you are late. Seeing 4 sterile sometimes dirty florescent-lit walls 10-18 hours a day; playing a lot of uninteresting music and trying to make it sound good with a groove; working with tired, irritable musicians, A and R men (now called producers), engineers and arrangers; and having your ego injured when barked at by music contractors is not exactly thrilling. This is a taste of the bad side. It is off-set somewhat by: working with the finest all-around musicians, arrangers, engineers, and conductor/composers in the world; the pleasure of playing a great piece of music, the crazy fun times and jokes that only musicians can understand, and the feeling of being in and having arrived in the most respected and admired field in the music business - the Studio Musician. The musical greats who are happy in this business - Ray Brown, Quincy Jones, Bud Shank, Howard Roberts, Conte Condoli, Shelly Manne, etc., manage to treat studio work as a business, yet keep that necessary creativity level high. These are players who have made their mark in the glory of being great artists first before settling down to studio work. In short, dont frustrate that urge to play by aiming toward studio work too early in life. Its hard to get in studio work (dont believe anything else you hear), even harder to stay in and its a lifetime job, once youve made it. There is not time or energy to do other kinds of playing without really knocking yourself out physically and mentally. Take a mental trip with me and you will see what it is like to be a top studio musician. First of all, the word studio legitimately used to mean only the FILM STUDIOS, but its commonly used since the start of the 60s to mean all forms of recording -- records, TV film, documentaries, commercials (jingles), industrial films, and wherever recording occurs, which includes some garages. If its a film call (movie or TV film which is what most TV shows are cut on), you get up early (6:30AM) and rush to an 8:00AM call at Universal, Fox, Desilu, Goldwyn, Columbia, Paramount, MGM, Disney or Warner Brothers. There is less travel time if you are lucky to live near one of these spread-out studios. The traffic is usually a snappy 10 mph bumper-to-bumper on the freeways and maybe worse in town. You make it about 15 minutes before the date. Down-beat is at 8:00AM sharp - you must be set up, tuned, ready to play at that time. Usually no coffee or food is allowed on the scoring stages. You try to find a parking place within walking distance, usually off the lot after unloading the instruments (your cartage co. has set up your amp for you). And dont ever park in the Alfred Hitchcock parking place at Universal like I did once, the musicians got thrown off the lot then. Before this however, you run to take a quick check of all the music to see what instruments and accessories you need. By 5 minutes of, you are back on the scoring stage out of breath, but ready to play. You quickly say hello to the few people who are near you. The contractor (who hires musicians using his own discretion or under orders from the arrangers, or other people) tenderly hollers time in. Most contractors are fairly nice and helpful as long as YOU DO YOUR JOB. The contractor calls M102 or M whatever number the cue is. You pick up the correct instrument, look hard at the music, then start playing as perfect as possible. Usually the first cue is the hardest for all concerned - chops are a little cold and the mind is not yet functioning. The mallet players are doing their choreography in moving marimbas, tympani drums, vibes, shuffling parts, etc. You make the necessary corrections on the music, but may have to bother the conductor for the correct notation if youre not sure of the music. The red light turns on, indicating a take is going to roll. Lights dim. Maybe you rehearsed the cue 1x, but mostly not too, sometimes they just rolled the tape. Bandstand lights are used on individual music stands to help you read music as the main lights go out (in most studios). The conductor watches the movie for previously placed cue lines and dots for his timings. You wear earphones that give you a click track (and electric metronome sounding click that coincides with the frames of the film). This click track keeps the band together as well as being mathematically coordinated with the film. It bothers drummers ar first who are used to laying down their own time - its of perfect time-groove. Yet, one can learn to swing with the click track, contrary to popular belief, when you get accustomed to it. The conductor counts the amount of clicks to the downbeat, usually 8. You watch while the conductor (he sometimes looks like a good salad mixer) cues musicians where to play. The conductor is very instrumental in the feel of the mood music. Your eye is on him even tho youre reading the music too. You have to be constantly aware of the click track, the music, the conductor and your own COUNTING of music bars. A lot of musicians turn around to look at the screen if they are tacit a few bars but they always keep track of their place in the music by COUNTING silently. The secret of doing well in film work is to be able to SIGHTREAD and COUNT with the highest concentration. This sounds easy but when you have a lot of different sounds, rhythms, and different time signatures going on around you, its sometimes difficult. Concentration is of the utmost importance and this takes self-discipline. Even if you switch instruments in the middle of a cue, you must keep track of each beat. The feeling of stage-fright left you years ago -- the honeymoon is over after a few weeks of tough studio work. The feeling of tiredness (actually boredom) is the thing you have to fight. After one hour, a 10-minute break is called and you make a mad dash to the phone and coffee room -- these things sometimes are more important to you than going to the rest room if there is little time. There are 3 extension phones there representing the phone services where the studio musicians usually pick up messages of work calls from, each studio has these -- Your Girl, Arlyns and Call Nina were the 3 back in the 60s-70s. Everyone has known each other for years and quite a lot of kibitzing goes on. When a personal crises occurs (you try to keep your personal affairs totally out of the business but once in awhile you cant), it always amazes one to see the generosity and sympathy displayed by all these busy studio musicians. Sense of humor is a must. During the scoring of the film Stilletto, at Goldwyn Studios one day in 1969 with Sid Ramin conducting, Bobby Helfer, the master contractor (at Universal for many years), was a little more strict than usual in quieting down the out-of-hand talking. The orchestra was large, 40-50 musicians, and the session got off to a bad start. The violent subject matter of the movie didnt help things either (you heard the sounds on the playbacks). Mike Melvoin is a fine pianist-arranger who usually dresses a little mod (most musicians tend to dress conservatively or in old but clean jeans), and he tripped over a mike cable during a take while racing from the piano to the harpsichord and fell down HARD. Bobby Helfer yelled disdainfully KILL THE TAKE, as he slammed down a book in anger. Drummer Shelly Manne yelled, KILL KILL KILL, and guitarist Tommy Tedesco yelled, BOO HIPPIE. Well, everyone broke up including Mike. There wasnt much Mr. Helfer could do. When he finally yelled for quiet -- you could hear drum sticks falling, guitar strings sounding, picks dropping, all accidentally of course and we caused the date to go into overtime. Usually we never do something like that, and we all respected Bobby Helfer, but once in a while the musician has his day too. I have seen some musicians who didnt want to wait 80 bars to play one note on a music cue simply put the part in their hip pocket and walk away (we wont mention names here but hes a guitar player). Usually the conductor didnt miss this one note or if they did, skipped it anyway, assuming that the music never was delivered. Doubling pays more money per instrument doubled and at times there were bets going on to see who can get the most doubles by the end of the day (most of the fine String Bassists came to me for lessons on the Electric Bass for this reason). One player sometimes deliberately wrote different instruments on unmarked parts just for this -- this was rare tho. These infringements were very minor when you consider the great intense work that the musicians really do in the studios. There also were races to the telephone to call the stock broker, etc. After 3 or 3-1/2 hours of work, you take a 1-hour lunch break, or it may be just a 3-hour call and you run off to the next work call of the day. After an all-day film call, you are usually tired, mostly from intense concentration and hours of sitting. Sometimes that 10-minute game of catch ball during the break keeps you from feeling stiff. Some musicians run foot races to wake up the blood that has been sitting for hours. Sometimes you can walk around the studio lot and see the interesting sets. Fox has the loveliest set Ive seen for Hello Dolly. Warner Bros. has very realistic Brooklyn-type sets. Paramount has a great western set. Universal is loaded with tourists (one of their best money-making ventures) but the sets are located away from the scoring stage. Youll bump into all kinds of movie stars, which may sound glamorous but youre too much in a hurry to care -- besides you see them at food stores too. An interesting sight is the wide film being run in another small room as we are recording. There is a series of internal communication systems between the conductor, clock starter/timer, outside studio engineer (if there is a monitoring board in the main room), booth engineer (the real mixer), and projection booth. There is also one or two stage hands to change mikes, adjust scoring stage equipment and keep things running smoothly in their function. Directors usually come down to hear the scoring (recording) being done. You can tell who they are by their old blue jeans and holey tennis shoes. Goldwyn is the oldest scoring stage still working. The Jazz Singer was recorded there. Altho Goldwyn has the old look (and musty odor), it still gets a great sound (IN COLD BLOOD, GUESS WHOS COMING TO DINNER, IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR,etc.). MGM scores a close second for age (TO SIR WITH LOVE, YOURS MINE AND OURS, the SHAFT theme, etc.). Universal is responsible for most of the backgrounds of many popular TV Movies and Shows you see (KOJAC, IRONSIDES, AIRPORT, MCCLOUD etc.) while others we cut at FOX: MASH, ROOM 222 etc., HAWAII 5-O (and later Wonder Woman) at Columbia. Many an era has been put on film at the older studios. Sometimes you almost sense a long-departed musician still playing their instrument there. After the job, you repeat the process backwards of picking up your instruments and fighting the traffic home (your cartage company picks up your amp later, you have 3 or 4 amps for all the various multi-daily recording sessions which they deliver promptly quite awhile before the session and plug it in). Modern Van was my cartage co., it was Earl Palmers too. Settling down to dinner (after a quick run-through with our spouse and kids of the days events - theirs), you take a 10-min. nap, gulp down a cup of coffee and run to your 7:00PM or 8:00PM record date call maybe sandwiching in a 1-hour commercial (radio or TV ad) before -- or you might just run on to another 2 recording dates without going home -- I always tried to make it home to be with my kids as much as I could. The record dates are a lot looser (in human relations, music, etc.) but you still have to fight traffic, try to find a good parking place, haul your instruments in (guitarists later had huge storage cases made for the cartage company to haul everything but you had to have 2 or 3 of everything), check the music for more needed instruments, BE ON TIME, and work inside of 4 walls -- they usually didnt have rugs then. The music may be more physically exerting as you run down a tune 5 or more times before a balance (presence of sound between all instruments being miked) is made for the earphones you usually wore to hear each other in spite of the foot-thick high sound baffles surrounding the players. After music corrections and balance play-throughs, you usually play constantly and consistently at peak performance values for 2-1/2 to 3 minutes each take. At times, Ive seen trumpet players from famous big bands almost blow their lips to pieces for many takes in a row while some other player would be goofing (this was usually due to a newcomer), the singer(s) would be unhappy with their performance (if this was cut live, usually most settled for tracking, band tracks cut first), the A & R man (producer) wouldnt be happy or simply was talking on the telephone. Even so, there are many musicians ready to argue the point that record dates are more fun because you get a chance to play a tune all the way through, get to swing more and kid around a lot more than on the stricter film calls. The engineering is usually more critical in recording studios (but the film men were just as great believe me, maybe even better in some cases). The background of a record is more important for that hit record sound and feel than music used under dialogue in a movie or TV film. But this is not to devalue the film studio music importance -- fine music saved many a mediocre film. Try cutting out the sound of a horror film or love scene of a movie sometime, without music those things can be funny -- proper music makes the moods, acting, and whole scene work well. There are many young A and R men (stand for Artists and Repertoire, now called producers) in the recording industry. Their talents and capabilities I will not discuss -- most of them seem to know what they want. The reason why record date work is so closed, except to only a few select musicians, is because these good musicians are able to communicate with the A and R men and understand what is expected of them for certain tune style or sound - that process needed entire concentration and no input from watchers etc. Not many musicians were aware enough to second-guess what a producer wants. These musicians produce the music expected of them for a short time -- they read well but early on, we all had to make up good on-the-spot arrangements ourselves with invented hooks, lines, key changes, etc. which arrangers later more or less got their ideas from at first. We did it in a very short time which saved on studio expense and musician wages (plus costs etc.). It was nothing for us to be able to create and complete an album of pop or rock or whatever music, 10 tunes recorded and in the can in 6 hours - no problem. Most of the early 60s studio musicians either came from the ranks of fine jazz musicians, or were from big bands, all were highly seasoned musicians. We all knew what the ingredients of improvising in all styles instantly. Most of the producers were not highly trained in music (true of 3-4 recording musicians also, but most were, about 300 of us) but knew exactly what they wanted for a certain style hit record. They told the singer how to sing certain phrases; they told musicians what they wanted in the way of sounds and styles (you helped by anticipating their needs and with your own suggestions); they told the engineer what sound they wanted -- louder, softer, more treble (highs), more bass (bottom) and the right kind of balance (which was critical when we only had 2 or 3-track machines). In short they ran the whole show, even to the point of telling the arranger (if there was one, sometimes you the musician also had to write chord charts, and certainly had to interpret some chord charts, making up parts etc.) how to arrange a tune to their satisfaction. The producers definitely knew who the creative hard-playing great studio musicians were, we were called the clique back then, about a core of 50-60 of the most popular-working studio bunch for the record dates. And the hot producers would mostly book the studio and their time around your availability as rhythm section players too, asking you to put a hold on that time, getting back to you within 24 hours. Personally it takes time to get to know producers. They are a sensitive lot, superstitious by nature and very open to positive or negative attitudes. A negative attitude from a musician, engineer, arranger, or singer can actually hurt or destroy a good musical mood. Usually the songwriter was kept OUT of the studio, away from influencing their baby, as most of then had no idea how to make a hit record. The producer (and the arranger) has to delicately walk the line of allowing the musicians (and all concerned) to personally have fun (tell jokes, banter a little) on a recording date, yet capture that exciting musical ingredient of a players great performance on a record. You could make a hit out of ordinary music, with mostly ordinary talented lead singers, but you had to have the exceptional talented skills of the background studio musicians to make anything great happen. Above all, the band had to SWING (GROOVE), whether it was a ballad, fok-song, bossa nova, country-western, rock, blues, pop, gospel, or boogaloo (double-time funk). This meant each musician pulled together as a team. No room for an ego-satisfying individual virtuoso except for certain musical parts indicated or on head (made-up) arrangements material. -------------------------------- STUDIO WORK Pt. 2 of 3 Pts. There were usually contractors on all record dates -- they always earned double the studio musician. Sometimes a record company would have one of their secretaries join the Musicians Union (as a cocktail drummer?) and then collect the contractors big fees for the record company rather than pay it out to the contracting musician or regular contractor. The contractors job is nonetheless important and sometimes (as in the case with Motown Records who didnt have a recording license from the Union mid 60s in LA after someone busted them with the Union, we were doing those dates, I have 149 Motown dates in my log, mostly cash dates, demo pay), contractors like Ben Barrett (with Motown) have a recording license which record companies could borrow which was a further enticement to use certain contractors, maybe not always fair. The contractor had to make sure all the musicians arrived at work on time, and not overstep their limits with too much kidding around, talking, Union breaks, etc. He took responsibility if the answering service (phone exchange, see the 3 listed above) made a mistake at giving out dates and times for sessions or simply forgot to make the calls (which was very rare). Rhythm section musicians never had to play politics like a few of the others did, your playing got you hired. If a musician got out of line on a session and didnt play consistently good, he simply was dropped and wasnt called anymore (you quickly heard the grapevine reports). There was always another musicians waiting in the wings, trying to get into the lucrative studio work. The contractor called the work breaks according to Union rules (at first it was only 5 minutes, 2 breaks during the 3-hour dates) and started and stopped the date on the specified times. He advises the record company of their rights according to Union overtime rules, instrument doubling fees, and sometimes did their bookkeeping for them too. They also filled out the Musicians Union contracts accurately, gave us W-4s to fill out, and took care of all the paperwork, it was sometimes a tough job, they were a strong lot. The arranger sometimes farms out arranging jobs to ghost writers if he doesnt have the time to finish an arranging job properly. Sometimes the record companies give very little time for music to be written, leaving a terrible responsibility for the arrangers and copyists. This in my estimation, has been the cause of most of the studio time being wasted. The performance of professional musicians, arrangers, copyists, conductors (normally the arrangers conduct), and background vocalists (if any) is usually fantastic -- great from the start. Time is most consumed by changing the music and in getting good balances in engineering (this latter cannot be helped, it just takes time). Engineers now have a lot more work using those 16-track (NOTE: this was written in 1970) machines, baffles in studios to keep sound form leaking into other mikes, on-the-spot equipment maintenance, mixing an earphone sound that is satisfactory to players and singers, and to arrive at a sound and balance that satisfies the producer, singers, and musicians. You cant play well if you cant hear well. All this points up the fact why amateur musicians (or undisciplined musicians) have failed to take the place of our bunch of studio musicians in most fields of recording (outside of doing their own group recordings which a few did in the 70s -- later in the 70s, synthesizers did replace a lot of musicians as our group phased out and groups were finally successful in cutting their own things later, i.e. Toto etc.). Even studio musicians did practically all those 60s group recordings you think they did (Beach Boys, Hondels, Jan & Dean, Dino-Desi-Billy, The Buckinghams, Monkees, Gary Lewis & Playboys, Gary Puckett Union Gap, Paul Revere & Raiders, etc.) and even supplemented Frank Zappas Mothers Of Inventions 1st 2 albums (most were studio players on his stuff at first). All this detail work requires the work of professionals, no matter the style. Bob Keene (as his name was spelled back then) would hire us to cut the surf records and if they hit, he hired some handsome young men to be that group and go out on the road while we cut all their recordings, this was commonly done back in the 60s. There were times when a non-studio musician (usually buoyed by over-confidence from live stage work) has walked into a recording date, set up his nightclub equipment (much different gear is required in the studios), played very loudly, and wondered why he didnt get on the record. If a musician plays too loudly, the mike is shut off because his sound cannot be balanced and leaks into other mikes which ruins the sound of the rest of the band. He starts getting jittery when he finally realizes hes in deep water and doesnt read the music very well. The producer requests certain sounds from the live musician which he either does not understand or cannot produce. Hes usually very glad to go home. The old saying anyone can go in a studio and record Rock and Roll shows how very little the speaker knows about the recording business. Rock and Roll needs a very exacting performance from everyone concerned. I have personally spent 12 sessions (3 hours or more each) with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys in recording their hit, Good Vibrations. Is it worth it? It certainly is to the artist and company. For the studio musician, recording is very lucrative and the respect is huge in all of LA too, you mention studio musician and youre treated with the utmost respect. Creative-wise, TV film music is catching up to records. For interesting music to play, record sessions still hold the reins, altho there are times when you wished you had not taken the call. Sometimes the singer is bad; the music is dumb or written improperly (you still had to make up stuff, even later in the 60s when the arrangers finally got their arranging chops together); the producer may have personal problems (you might have personal conflictive problems that creep in your playing too); the sound in the studio may be bad (acoustics are important to your ear to play together properly, usually with one ear on and one ear off the earphones); it may be hard to hear the rest of the band (sound barriers are put up to hold down mike sound leakage). As one drummer said to an engineer in RCA one day (after tying to hold a big band together on a Quincy Jones date), you sure have great sound separation, so good we cant hear each other play. The rhythm section uses earphones much of the time to hear each other and the singer. This helps quite a bit altho you may come home with ringing hears, especially after being blasted by feedback or maybe Glen Campbells guitar solo. A lot of musicians are going deaf from earphone use (much like the stage musicians), loud room amplifier noise (altho thats rare), and LOUD playbacks (ala Phil Spector). Dennis Budimer (fine jazz guitarist, top studio man) wears cotton in his ears. The engineers especially are losing their hearing more and more. Jingles, unlike the 3- or 4-hour record date, usually run only 1-2 hours most and pay handsome residuals if run a long time also (royalty re-use monies). Known as commercials, these are the ads you see on TV or hear on radio. The pay is lower per job (usually), but you get a re-use payment every 13 weeks during its running. Clark-Teaberry (ad for gum) and Summer Clairol Blonde both ran about 5 years worth of re-use check for me (played guitar on Herb Alperts tune for Clark-Teaberry and bass for Clairol). The usual is only one check however. The music is either easy or extremely complicated, depending on your particular part (written out and timed to the split second with click tracks always used). Your focus on reading without mistakes is essential. To me, jingles are short and sweet. You do have to pay more attention to overall timing and must instantly swing on the downbeat. The commercials (aka spots) run either 10, 20, 30, or 60 seconds long. Most of them are recorded to film already shot. The arranger watches his stopwatch just like the conductor on film calls watches his timing clock. Timing is crucial. You cannot get away with the slightest mistake here that you sometimes can on a record date (where overall feel is usually the most important thing). For larger bands, there is also a contractor (like the other phases of recording). You are promptly on time, have the correct instruments, and attentively listen to the arranger or producer for correct interpretation of the music. Live TV shows are either liked or thoroughly disliked by musicians. The scale is lower per hour worked but musicians still have to be accurate, well-rounded in show-type orientation and employ good TV personality if on-screen showmanship is needed. The early 60s recording musicians had learned to be kind of stone-faced, we couldnt move a facial muscle of emotion as we played -- the younger producers were very sensitive, so many of us wouldnt be that great on stage. But Ive done enough of these TV specials to give you an idea of what they were like. TV requires lots of waiting for hours while other phases of TV production are going on (blocking - TV visual practice, rehearsing of singers and dancers, setting of stages, etc.), then rushing in at a moments notice to play your heart out for a short time. If you like to dress up, put on make-up, play poker for hours, and do maybe Las Vegas show-type music, then this is for you. The TV studios (CBS, NBC, etc.) are huge and contain many levels of stages, sets, giant film cables, drop lights, curtains, and other paraphenalia in one big factory-type building. To a visitor, it looks like utter chaos. Much time is consumed by waiting to play while other technicians and workers do their jobs. This is a different phase entirely of recording, and lots of patience is needed. Nothing has been said about the sound I get on the Elec. Bass yet in all these types of studios. Needless to say, you all know I constantly play with a pick (which accidentally started a new trend in the prominence of the Electric Bass sound on recordings) beginning late 1964. The pick sound recorded better than finger sound (back in the 60s) for all kinds of recording. I also used a doubled up piece of felt muting for the strings which stops the unnecessary sound-killing overtones and undertones. It distinguishes the bass sound from other low-sounding instruments such as: rhythm guitar, bass drum, low horn, cello, etc. For TV film work, I use more highs and/or bottom accordingly. Sometimes too much bottom makes the bass sound like a tub. You have to be careful to not place your amp next to a wall, bass drum, drapes, or on chairs just as you do in the nightclubs. The AKG mikes are the best mikes for the Elec. Bass. They seem to record a truer room sound than other mikes. RCA mikes require less bottom and more highs as do the Sony mikes. Shure mikes require more bottom and less highs. Electro-Voice mikes require more highs and bottom - its an elusive mike. The mike should be placed about one foot away from the amp to capture the full range of the amp sound. It should not be very far away from the middle of the main speaker (or one of the speakers). There are other mikes used in studios, but less prominently. I was always miked in the 60s and toward the end of the 60s, they started to take me 1/2 direct and 1/2 miked, but still miked me in the film/movie studios exclusively. The amplifier sounds a little different in every studio. See the Next Part, Part 3 of STUDIO WORK.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 21:39:12 +0000
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