Hi Fletcher

[DJL]

Hi Fletcher,

I drool every time I view the awesome gear you have for sale at your Mercenary Audio http://store.yahoo.com/mercenary-audio/index.html store. You’re the gear pimp that sells some of most awesome gear on the face of earth and you did that “Behind the Gear” Interview for TapeOp (Issue #34, page 22) http://www.tapeop.com You also host your own online forum http://recpit.prosoundweb.com/viewforum.php?f=11 for ProSound, plus you’re an accomplished recording engineer and etc, etc. In other words… your famous dude.

Now, that I’ve got all the ‘brown nosing’ to ‘butter you up’ out of the way…

So anyway, you also seem like a cool dude and tweak head with access to gear like the Slam, Brauner VM1 KHE, and etc, etc. So, I was wondering if you would share what some of your personal favorite microphones are? Preamp? All in one type boxes? And what are some of your personal favorite microphone, preamplifier combinations for vocals, or any particular instruments, and etc. Much of this gear way beyond my budget, but, I’d like to know about it just the same…. Never know I could win the lottery some day.

NOTE: Fletcher, I'm the originator of this thread and therefore nothing you say here in my thread will be considered spam or gear pimping... because I'm asking for your "personal favorites".

However, if your not comfortable with an "open letter" here so many others here can learn from your hands on experiense, just say so...... and I'll just PM you instead.

Thank you very much.

 

[Giganova]

hey DJL -- is this a spam test??

 

[Gidge]

I hope he's not tyring to start shit.......

 

[omtayslick]

No problem here. I love hearing what experienced guys with proven skills like to use.

 

[Fletcher]

I was wondering if you would share what some of your personal favorite microphones are? Preamp? All in one type boxes? And what are some of your personal favorite microphone, preamplifier combinations for vocals, or any particular instruments, and etc.

This is really pretty easy... my favorite microphone ever made is the Shure SM-57. They never suck. They're rarely ever "genius"... but they never ever totally suck. You can point them in the general direction of a sound and you'll get a pretty decent representation of that sound that can be recorded and pounded to death later.

Everything else is pretty much open to negotiation. I do mostly 'unsigned' artists which means that very often the "A list" gear isn't an option. Above and beyond that... there is always a ton of shit I'm checking out for the shop... so it's not all that uncommon for me to be in the position where I'm working on a project with nothing but tools I've never seen before... and am trying to define uses [or reasons why I'll never use them again] for stuff that is a total and complete mystery.

A lot of times I'll hit on piece of gear that I absolutely think is the fucking balls... only to get to the mix or mastering and find that it wasn't all that fucking great [so now I have a self-imposed problem I have to try to work out of].

The only things I really stress about in terms of the whole recording process is the sounds I'm recording. You can have all the $10k mics in the world... but if the sound you're recording is shit, the recording is going to come out like shit... if the 'emotion' from the performer isn't there... you're going to come out with a pile of shit... if you have great sounds with great performances and can use whatever tools you have at your disposal to capture those sounds and those performances in a manner that compliments the musical statement... then you're sitting in a damn good chair.

Having access to some of the hardware I have access to will often make the job a hell of a lot easier... it can often make the product maintain the emotional content that was the artist's vision of how the product should be presented... but it's never a means to an end. The whole goal is to be consistently 'upper mediocre'. Nobody is a genius everyday, nobody sucks every day [OK, some do suck everyday but they're destined for failure in anything they do], the idea is really to be a little better than average everyday, and genius when you can, and try to avoid being totally shitty always.

In real life I'm a mechanic by hobby... just as many of the people that might read this are 'recording engineers' by hobby. When I go to a custom motorcycle shop and see the tools they have at their disposal... I drool.

We have a moderately well set up shop that we play in on weekends [I'm like the little 'intern/learning wrench']. We have some pretty cool shit... a lot of the tools here run on compressed air, we have lifts and bead blasters and some specialty tools... we can build a scoot pretty much from the ground up... but we don't have the CNC stuff that a lot of the "real" shops have... and we never will... because it's a hobby and not a 'profession'.

By the same token, I like some of the stuff we "build" in our shop way more than some of these 'customs' that sell for $50+ thousand dollars. If you're drawing the parallel... it's all about making the best product you can with the tools at your disposal..

After building a few motors, I've learned some tricks to make it easier to build motors and I've learned some tricks that make the motors come out better.

After like 30 years of being an audio engineer I have a pretty good grasp of theory and a repetoire of techniques from which I can draw that will pretty much insure a good translation of the artist's intention.

At the end of the day it ain't how you got to the finishing line, it's that you got there at all. I don't think there are a dozen things I've done in my career as an engineer that I've sat back and llistened to and said 'holy shit that's good'. I'm the same way with a bike... I've never owned one that's been "finished". There is always something I'd like to change, there is always something where I feel I could have done better, there is always something I wish I'd done differently... I just take that to the next gig, and the gig after that and so on.

Recording is a medium because it's oh so rare that it's ever well done.

I doubt that was the "answer" you were looking for... but it's the best I happened to have today.

Peace.

 

[Light]

Thank you Fletcher. It is important to remind us all, the gear does not matter, only the work. Time is much better spent in the studio than at Banjo Mart of (even) Mercenary.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[Sky Blue Lou]

That ought to be required reading. Very well put.

Thanx Fletcher.


lou

 

[DJL]

Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

This is really pretty easy... my favorite microphone ever made is the Shure SM-57. They never suck. They're rarely ever "genius"... but they never ever totally suck. You can point them in the general direction of a sound and you'll get a pretty decent representation of that sound that can be recorded and pounded to death later.

Fletcher, thank you…
That's exactly the kind-of “answers” I like… thank you for taking the time to share some of the insights you’ve learned through years of experience. After reading about your motorcycle’s, it made me think-of the old saying, “speed cost money, how fast do you want go?” hehehe Building engines is some heavy duty stuff and way beyond me.

Anyway I find it exciting that many recording engineers like really love the SM-57. I mean with all the very expensive high-end microphones like you have available the Shure SM-57 still is a favorite and a must have tool. Do you have the older SM-57’s or the newer one’s that are made in Mexico… and if there is a difference between the older and newer SM-57’s what is it? Also, the Shure SM-57 can sound different through different microphone preamplifier… what are some of your favorite preamps for the SM-57? Or maybe you use a board most of the time? I'm asking about your favorites for the 57 -- you know, most of the time. Thanks.

 

[Flatpicker]

Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

...what are some of you favorite preamps for the SM-57? Thanks again.

I bet it’s the Great River MP-2-NV "Mercenary Edition”.

Fletcher, since we’re on the subject of the SM57, I’ve been very curious about something that someone such as your self could probably answer.

First off, I know you’re not crazy about mic “shoot-outs” and the like, and I think I know why (because they only give us 1/10th or less of the information we need). But, on the “3D MIC CD”, the SM57 ($146) sounds sort of like the Manley Reference Gold ($5500) on the female voice through the Great River MP2-MH. Of course the ‘57 may not sound as good in person before being dithered down to 16 bits, but on the CD it sounds close enough to be a little scary.

My question is: Is the SM57 really that good through a decent pre, or am I clueless?

 

[chessparov]

My guesses for Fletcher's "most affordable" signal chain that he might suggest to try out for commercial release product;

1) SM57 (duh)
2) Fmr. Audio RNP
3) Fmr. Audio RNC
4) Speck ASC parametric EQ (with transformer)

Do I win an extra set of earplugs, with any future Mercenary
purchase, with these correct answers?

Chris

P.S. Any further reports on the Toft line soon?

 

[Fletcher]

Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

Do you have the older SM-57’s or the newer one’s that are made in Mexico… and if there is a difference between the older and newer SM-57’s what is it?

Dude, it's a 57... how fuckin' crazy can you get over a 57? FWIW, they all sound a tad different... but they all sound like 57's. In the middle 80's I had one that had a screwy transformer on it... greatest fuckin snare mic in the world. Between an asshole drummer that I did a live recording with, and not keeping a careful eye on it... it's no longer in the collection [it was the 80's... the schmuck did the 'water on the snare drum' spray trick... the capsule element was never the same after that... the mic was lost sometime later... chaulked it up to the 'real costs of drug abuse']

Also, the Shure SM-57 can sound different through different microphone preamplifier… what are some of your favorite preamps for the SM-57? Or maybe you use a board most of the time?

Obviously... the Great River MP-2NV... There are a whole bunch that totally rock. The Phoenix DRS-2, the Pendulum stuff, the ViPre, the DW Fearn, Daking, yada, yada, yada.

I often use 'board pre's... but then again I work on shit like Trident "A-Ranges" and 8078's a lot. The desk in our little demo room is a 32 input Yamaha PM-2000... a neanderthal 'sound reinforcement' desk that happens to run a discrete 'op-amp' that is similar to the Jensen/Hardy "990"... which was an off shoot of the API 2520... the API runs on bi-polar 16v DC rails... the Yomama runs on bi-polar 24v DC... it has headroom for days. Fuckin' thing sounds as big and clear as some of the best API's I've used... all for $2k!! Ebay's a beautiful thing if you know what you're looking for...

 

[Fletcher]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

My question is: Is the SM57 really that good through a decent pre, or am I clueless?

Yeah... it's really "that good"... while we're here... M-A did a "mic-pre shootout" back in '98... which was damn educational if you were in the room and heard the 'source' material for a 'point of reference'. We recorded one of the 'sessions' and made a CD of it.

When I listened to the CD [frankly I couldn't get through more than half of it without nodding into a near coma] all I could think was "what a crock of shit this is".

Besides the '16 bit resolution issue' [which wasn't minor by any stretch of the imagination]... there was no point of reference. Without hearing the "source" you can't really get a handle on what a microphone is hearing... without 'positioning' the mic your own bad self... you have no idea what the positioning of the mic actually did to the end result.

These kind of 'shoot out' things need to be taken with a 50lb bag of fucking salt!!!! There are just too many variables that need to be taken into account. Mic placement being a huge one... how the mic couples with the 'source' is another. Context is probably the biggest one.

What sounds good in a 'solo recording' could be abso-fuckin-lutely irrelevant when you try to put the same track in context with all the other tracks that comprise a song. Just like "EQing" something in 'solo' often has absolutely no relevance to all the other shit that makes a song... the solo recording of an instrument or vocal usually doesn't make much sense on it's own. Sometimes things don't sound the absolute best in the world on their own... but can really come to life when put into the context of a balance.

Many times a Telefunken ELA M 251 will sound OK in solo... often 'upper mediocre' but not $25,000- great. But many of those 'upper mediocre' tracks when put into the context of a song are drop dead to die for gorgeous. It's all about 'context'... a song is a hell of a lot more than the 'sum of it's parts' if it's presented properly... everything adds up to make the presentation a "special event"... so what any one element of it sounds like in "solo" doesn't necessarily mean jack shit.

At the end of the day, you're presenting the performer(s)'s material... at the end of the day the complete presentation is a complete song... nobody on the buying end of this gives a shit about any individual sound... but if you are able to capture and balance all that is special about all of the performances... present it with a depth of tone and all the emotion that was presented in performance??? You're totally onto something.

It's one of the things I've heard that has been missing for years in 'modern rock and roll'... the presentation seems more like a 'collection of tracks' than a seriously 'cohesive representation of the artist's intention'.

"Train" is a great example of this... great fucking rock and roll band... with pussy sounding records. The first one came the closest to capturing that band as it should be captured... the next two seem like they were calculated to hit a specific audience that some idiot seems to think expected "X"... OK, so they had a 'hit'... the albums are still disposable fodder. If you have a chance go see the and live... it's a fabulous night at the theater...

 

[David Artis]

Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

In real life I'm a mechanic by hobby... just as many of the people that might read this are 'recording engineers' by hobby. When I go to a custom motorcycle shop and see the tools they have at their disposal... I drool.

Peace. [/B]

Fletcher:

Ever get into car engines. I just helped a friend pull a 426 Hemi out of a 71 Dodge Dart.

Rated at about 750 horses. We plan to blueprint and rework the engine but keep all the original numbers.

Powerhouse stuff.

Peace.

 

[DJL]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

<snip>

There was a rumor on the Internet saying that older and newer Shure SM-57’s were different… I just own older 57’s and didn’t know, so that’s why I asked you. Thank you for setting the record right on the SM-57 matter. Talking about consoles… IMO, I don’t care for the preamps in my Mackie 32x8 bus, but the SM-57 sounds pretty sweet through my Soundcraft Ghost. I’ll have to try the 57 and MP-2NV… I wish I had the Manley Mono to try… oh well. Have you heard the SL 4000 G+ and if so, do you like it, and do you think it would be a upgrade from my Ghost pre's?

[After talent] and getting back to rooms…. For vocals, what type of sounding room do you prefer ‘most of the time’… lively, dead, 50/50 or what and room size? I know it really depends… but you know, what do you use most of the time? In other words... please paint a word picture describing some of your favorite rooms, isolation booths, etc? Thanks

 

[Flatpicker]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

Yeah... it's really "that good"...

Thanks for the ton of info, Fletcher!

 

[Light]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

The desk in our little demo room is a 32 input Yamaha PM-2000... a neanderthal 'sound reinforcement' desk that happens to run a discrete 'op-amp' that is similar to the Jensen/Hardy "990"... which was an off shoot of the API 2520... the API runs on bi-polar 16v DC rails... the Yomama runs on bi-polar 24v DC... it has headroom for days. Fuckin' thing sounds as big and clear as some of the best API's I've used... all for $2k!!

What do you expect? Those large Yamaha live sound consoles are some of the best ever made. I cut my live sound teeth on a PM-3K, and it is still one of the best sounding live consoles I have ever used. Midas makes you sound good, sure, but Yamaha lets you sound like yourself. And the EQ is quite and clean. You gotta love them.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi

 

[chessparov]

Let's not forget the Tascam 3500 either, sonically crucial to selling
millions of the top selling dance craze of all time, the "Macarena".

Chris

 

[Fletcher]

Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

Ever get into car engines.

Yeah... but they started to get all crazy with the pollution control bullshit in like '72... it's just too much of a pain in the balls.

Used to have a '68 Camaro with a fairly well worked 327... stroked, bored to 350cui, blueprinted heads, Edelbrock 'hi rise' manifold with a pair of Holley '850' double pumper 4 barrel carbs... when we got done it did high 10's in the 1/4 mile... pretty bitchin' machine.

 

[Fletcher]

Let's not forget the Tascam 3500

I keep trying to forget that piece of shit... everytime I get close... somebody reminds me it existed... thanks [not]

 

[DJL]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Hi Fletcher

Yeah... but they started to get all crazy with the pollution control bullshit in like '72... it's just too much of a pain in the balls.

Used to have a '68 Camaro with a fairly well worked 327... stroked, bored to 350cui, blueprinted heads, Edelbrock 'hi rise' manifold with a pair of Holley '850' double pumper 4 barrel carbs... when we got done it did high 10's in the 1/4 mile... pretty bitchin' machine.

That reminds me when I was a kid...... I bet your '68 Camaro halled fuckin ass.

I had a '69 Firebird (that was the year they had the pop-up hood) with a '68 all chrome front bumper, and a 3/4 cam, Holley '650' double pumper 4 barrel carb, 421 rock crusher trans, MT covers, slip positive rear traction, nitro, big meats, painted Chev yellow (#74?), etc... man, I loved that fuckin car, I could burn first, second, and bark third gear. At the time, my friend had a SS muscle car...... and he use to put a $50 bill on his dash and if anyone could grap it while he was shifting gears they could keep the $50........... most people were to worried about shitting their pants than the $50. Needless to say, no one every got that $50. lol. Those where the good old days.

sorry, my spelling sucks.