
Middleman
Professional Amateur
Got this from Mix Magazine. Thought it might spark a few ideas from how the pros use their mic pres and compressors for tracking, mixing and mastering. Enjoy.
ENGINEERING “HALOS AND HORNS”
When Dolly Parton began looking for a place to record Halos and Horns, her production assistant, Gary “Biscuit” Davis, brought her to Southern Sound Studio, a multiroom recording and mastering facility located in Knoxville, Tenn. The Stephen Durr-designed studio, which is near Parton's east Tennessee retreat and less than an hour away from the Smoky Mountains, has been at its current location since 1994. That year, it was recognized by Mix as one of the best-designed new facilities in the country. It is owned by Danny Brown (who engineered and mixed the project) and Paul Jones.
When Brown began working with Parton's voice, he initially worked with a Neumann M149, and his mic pre of choice was a Drawmer 1969. “The Drawmer 1969 seemed to sound the best with Dolly's vocal and the M149,” says Brown. “Though the M149 is very EQ-friendly, we found we had to add quite a bit of 5k to 12k to get the presence Dolly was looking for. We then brought in a Sony C-800G, and the results were fantastic. Her voice translated so well through this mic with no EQ at all.” The Avalon VT-737 became the mic pre of choice for the Sony mic and Parton's voice.
“One of the great aspects of the Sony is that it has little to no off-axis coloration, even in the cardioid position. Every time Dolly stepped up to the mic, she delivered a vocal performance; every song, every vocal track,” Brown adds. “She is a very emotional singer. Her mouth never stayed right in front of the mic. The Sony was very forgiving and seemed to capture every detail of her voice, no matter where her head was turned. We were all very pleased with the end result.”
A new Universal Audio LA-2A was used on her vocals during the mix. Parton's vocals were tracked without EQ and just about 1 to 2 dB of compression from the Avalon VT-737. During the mix, the LA-2A was used with a bit of EQ from the VT-737, mostly just to add a little more air to her sound.
“We did some vocal comping, but that became difficult at times. What I mean is, which line do you pick? Which verse do you go for when they all sound so incredible?” Brown says with a laugh, who did the comps with Richard Dennison and Davis. “We found ourselves basically comping for what we thought would best suit Dolly, because every take was excellent.”
Everything was recorded on the iZ Technology RADAR 24. Brown mixed on a DDA Profile 56-input console with Uptown moving fader automation. The mix was monitored on Dynaudio M-1 near-fields.
“We ran the mix bus through a Waves L2 into an Alesis Masterlink at 24-bit, 44.1,” Brown says. “It then went to Soundcurrent Mastering, which is based at our facility, to be mastered by Seva. Nuendo was used to do some editing. The main monitors for tracking were custom TADs, powered by Crown Macro reference amps.
” Rick Clark
ENGINEERING “HALOS AND HORNS”
When Dolly Parton began looking for a place to record Halos and Horns, her production assistant, Gary “Biscuit” Davis, brought her to Southern Sound Studio, a multiroom recording and mastering facility located in Knoxville, Tenn. The Stephen Durr-designed studio, which is near Parton's east Tennessee retreat and less than an hour away from the Smoky Mountains, has been at its current location since 1994. That year, it was recognized by Mix as one of the best-designed new facilities in the country. It is owned by Danny Brown (who engineered and mixed the project) and Paul Jones.
When Brown began working with Parton's voice, he initially worked with a Neumann M149, and his mic pre of choice was a Drawmer 1969. “The Drawmer 1969 seemed to sound the best with Dolly's vocal and the M149,” says Brown. “Though the M149 is very EQ-friendly, we found we had to add quite a bit of 5k to 12k to get the presence Dolly was looking for. We then brought in a Sony C-800G, and the results were fantastic. Her voice translated so well through this mic with no EQ at all.” The Avalon VT-737 became the mic pre of choice for the Sony mic and Parton's voice.
“One of the great aspects of the Sony is that it has little to no off-axis coloration, even in the cardioid position. Every time Dolly stepped up to the mic, she delivered a vocal performance; every song, every vocal track,” Brown adds. “She is a very emotional singer. Her mouth never stayed right in front of the mic. The Sony was very forgiving and seemed to capture every detail of her voice, no matter where her head was turned. We were all very pleased with the end result.”
A new Universal Audio LA-2A was used on her vocals during the mix. Parton's vocals were tracked without EQ and just about 1 to 2 dB of compression from the Avalon VT-737. During the mix, the LA-2A was used with a bit of EQ from the VT-737, mostly just to add a little more air to her sound.
“We did some vocal comping, but that became difficult at times. What I mean is, which line do you pick? Which verse do you go for when they all sound so incredible?” Brown says with a laugh, who did the comps with Richard Dennison and Davis. “We found ourselves basically comping for what we thought would best suit Dolly, because every take was excellent.”
Everything was recorded on the iZ Technology RADAR 24. Brown mixed on a DDA Profile 56-input console with Uptown moving fader automation. The mix was monitored on Dynaudio M-1 near-fields.
“We ran the mix bus through a Waves L2 into an Alesis Masterlink at 24-bit, 44.1,” Brown says. “It then went to Soundcurrent Mastering, which is based at our facility, to be mastered by Seva. Nuendo was used to do some editing. The main monitors for tracking were custom TADs, powered by Crown Macro reference amps.
” Rick Clark