IEEE Spectrum February, 2009 - 19

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jobs

Marco Migliari Studio Virtuoso

at real world studios in the British countryside, he masters the mix

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arco migliari steps into the
vast recording studio and shuts
a heavy metal door behind
him. silence fills the cavernous
space where peter gabriel, Van morrison,
coldplay, and robert plant have all taken
their turns behind the microphone. "i like
this sort of steadiness, the quietness of the
studio," migliari says. "it's kind of waiting for
something to happen."
and a lot does happen here at real
world studios, a recording facility founded
by gabriel and best known for its vibrantly
eclectic world-music productions.
tucked amid farms and stone houses in
the village of Box, a 2-hour drive west
of london, it's regarded as one of the
most high-tech and innovative places for
making music. migliari has worked here
as a sound engineer for 12 years. in that
time, he's kept pace with a sea change in
recording technology, as digital systems
and software have gradually supplanted
vacuum tubes and analog electronics.
and he's worked with top recording artists
from all over the world. it's migliari's job to
make them sound good.
His introduction to audio technology
came in the early 1980s, when he was
still a schoolboy in osimo, a small town
in central eastern italy. Hanging out at a
local radio station, he learned to patch
cables, work the reel-to-reel recorder,
and sequence music in cassettes. that
experience eventually led him to enroll
in electronic engineering at università
politecnica delle marche, in nearby
ancona, in 1988.
He found the courses dull but didn't
give up. on the side, he worked as a
freelance sound technician, setting up
sound systems for theater and dance
performances and "lots of scruffy rock
bands," he recalls. Five years later, he
was still struggling in engineering school
and beginning to tire of the sound gigs.
at the age of 24, migliari had a "bit of an
existential crisis."
that summer, in 1993, while operating
the sound system at an academic
conference, he got to talking with a sound
engineer from rome. He told migliari about
a two-year music-technology course at
Newcastle college in england. "that was a
major turning point," migliari says. "i realized
i could just get out and start again."
He wrote to Newcastle-"with the
really terrible english i had at the time"-

24

NA * IEEE SPECTRuM * FEBRuARY 2009

and the college asked him to come for
the room itself is a technological
an interview. the interview went well, and
marvel. the floor hides kilometers of
he was accepted. He still remembers
cables for hooking up instruments, and
touring the school's facilities and feeling
a closet houses racks of computers and
like he'd landed "in a gold mine." life in
data-storage systems. Dominating one
northeast england, though, took some
side of the room is a custom Xl9080K
getting used to. "it was bloody cold," he
mixing console, made by solid state logic,
says. "i had, like, three flus in a month,
which is based in oxford. the console
one after the other."
has hundreds of input and output ports
at Newcastle migliari learned about
and some 2000 control buttons. "the
technologies like miDi (musical instrument
technology choices here i haven't seen in
digital interface), recording and mixing
any other studio," migliari says.
techniques, and all aspects of record
During a session, he determines how
production. as part of the program, he
to position the performers and how best
got an internship at real world. the work
to capture their voices and instruments.
wasn't glamorous; he spent
it's a deceptively complex
most of his time hauling
task that requires an
gear, fixing equipment, and
encyclopedic knowledge
stringing cables. But his
of such esoterica as the
age: 39
boss let him fiddle around
characteristics of different
What he
in the studios that weren't
sound-baffling materials
does: records,
in use. "i'd stay up until
and the capabilities
mixes, and
4 o'clock in the morning
of advanced audio
produces music.
studying the console, trying
compressors. often
for Whom:
things out," he says.
musicians show up with
real world
one day, a manager
exotic instruments, some
studios and
other clients
asked him to help out on
of which he's never seen
Where he
a studio session. "i said,
before and a few that don't
does it:
'Yeah! No problem!' " migliari
even have names, because
Box, near Bath,
says. the session turned
the performers built them
england
out to be with peter gabriel
themselves. "You just walk
fun factors:
himself and members of
around the thing, and
works at the
his former band, genesis,
you think, where does it
forefront of music
who were remixing
sound best to my ears?"
technology; gets
some archival material.
he says. "and then you put
to interact with
working with such famous
a microphone where your
famous artists.
musicians was a surreal
ears are."
experience, migliari says,
after setting up all the
but he kept a low profile:
equipment, he decides
"You watch, you learn."
what sampling rates,
after he graduated
encoding schemes,
in 1996, real world offered him a job.
and storage formats to use. as the
Barbara, his girlfriend back home, agreed
session progresses, he tweaks the
to join him in england. He took the job,
audio signals, adjusting gain, volume,
they got married soon after, and he's
equalization, and dynamic range. in that
been a fixture at real world ever since.
way, he helps transform electric current
on a pitch-black November night,
into beautiful music.
migliari pokes around the biggest of real
although enamored of technology, migliari
world's seven studios. it's a 200-squareis always conscious of its subservience, in
meter, high-ceilinged, acoustically sealed
his profession, to art. "You cannot fake a
chamber where musicians and sound
performance," he says. "there's no computer
engineers square off in the same space.
that can do that for you. there's got to be
in conventional studios, he says, artists
someone to make it real."
-Erico Guizzo
and engineers sit in different rooms,
separated by a glass window. "peter
recording in progress: marco
[gabriel] wanted to get everyone to be
migliari, an ieee member, helps the moonfish
prepare their upcoming cD at real world
part of the creative process," migliari says.
studios, in Box, england. photo: RoSS KiRton
"it works just great."
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum February, 2009
