Recording - May 2011 - 4

PUBLISHER: Thomas Hawley ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER: Brent Heintz

EDITOR: Lorenz Rychner ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Mike Metlay MÚSICO PRO EDITOR: Fernando Curiel

EDITORIAL

Hearing Voices It’s no secret—what sells a song is the vocal. Capture a great voice in a great performance with great emotion, and if you do it well and the song is adequate or better, you should have a successful recording. If the song itself is not just good but great, you may have a hit. If all the players are great, too, and the arrangement and the mix both are outstanding, it might be Grammy time. Now take away the vocal and you have—nothing. When we decided to make vocal recording the editorial focus of this issue of Recording, we asked Paul Stamler to contribute a centerpiece on the topic. He modestly asked if it was permissible for him to draw on his own earlier writings on the same topic in Recording. Turns out that it has been 13 years... I think we’ll forgive him if he reiterates a thought or two that he shared back in 1998. The principles and good practices of the craft have hardly changed. Paul outlines what those are and how they are still relevant, while he also considers how many new tools have appeared—mostly mics galore, and not only from China. He brackets mics into three tiers, by price points, in a thoughtful and useful manner that clarifies some misconceptions—see if the distinctions he makes agree with your needs and budget. We’re reviewing four new mics in this issue, four mics that couldn’t be more dissimilar from one another in design and sound: a large-diaphragm from Lauten, a multi-capsule tube condenser from Chameleon Labs, a ribbon from sE Electronics, and a Samson USB mic that comes with its own built-in tripod. The biggest development in recent years to affect vocal recording would have to be pitch- and now also time-correction software. It began with Auto-Tune, and as Sebastian Arocha Morton says in his article (page 38), first it was cool. Then people took it to the extreme, like everything else that’s new and causes people to go nuts (can you say Pet Rocks, Crocs, and Krispy Kreme?), and I believe we all know what I’m talking about (hey, I just said it...). So then it was uncool. Now it’s cool again, but no longer the only game in town—Melodyne from Celemony is the contender for the heavyweight crown. Sebastian uses them both, and he spells out how and why they each do what he needs them to do, from his producer’s perspective. He points out that pitch perfection at all times is the wrong goal: “For those of you saying, “Well if they can’t sing in perfect tune, they shouldn’t be artists” I point you to The Police’s “Roxanne”—if Sting wasn’t sharp on that word, it wouldn’t have the same vibe, period.” Joe Albano looks into Melodyne and tells us how it works and what seeming miracles it can achieve. Giles Reaves does the same with the latest version of Auto-Tune, version 7. We hope that these contributions give you a balanced view of these new trends. Another new trend in audio production, one that could easily become someone’s career path: Game Audio. Ben Long used to be a gigging musician, often supporting his love of music with day gigs, until he got deep into composition and sound design for games. It’s tricky and challenging, finding the right music and sound effects that will hold the user’s interest over and over, audio that sounds good while being minimized to fit the restrictions of available memory that is typically tiny on portable game devices. We bring you just a one-page excerpt of an eBook Ben recently released, to give you a nod in a direction you may not have considered. There’s money in them thar games... As always, there is more good reading in this issue. Thanks for reading, and may it all lead to much— Happy Recording!

CONTRIBUTORS Paul J. Stamler, Paul Vnuk Jr., Joe Albano, Sebastian Arocha Morton, Giles Reaves, Marty Peters, Todd Gascon, Bruce Kaphan, Ben Long, Brian Tarquin, Mark Hornsby
ART DIRECTOR: Scott Simmonds PRODUCTION MANAGER: Colin Courtney WEB GOALIE: Colin Courtney

ART & PRODUCTION

EDITOR/PRODUCER:

PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES Lorenz Rychner CIRCULATION Tiffany Sepe

CIRCULATION MANAGER:

ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR: Brent Heintz CLASSIFIEDS MANAGER: Stephanie King
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE:

ADMINISTRATION Stephanie King

PRESIDENT: Thomas Hawley VICE PRESIDENT: Brent Heintz

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

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RECORDING MAY 2011

Recording - May 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2011