NY Recording Studio Blog

Glenn Berger Recounts Working On Dylan's Classic Blood On The Tracks at A&R Recording

2011-04-18T11:42:00.002-04:00

This is a link to my friend Glenn Berger's blog.
http://shrinky.net/2011/music/bob-dylan/bob-dylans-blood-on-the-tracks-the-untold-story
Glenn and I have a few things in common. We both started our careers very young, right out of high school. We both were trained by Phil Ramone at the peak of his career. Glenn preceded me by a few years and was already a staff engineer at A&R when I started, I doubt he was more than 22 or so at the time. After many years in the music business Glenn became a shrink, I just went to one.

Enjoy it!
It is a great read!

Brad

I'm Back!

2011-04-14T21:33:00.001-04:00

This past year has been a very busy one for me. We have been very fortunate that the studio has been booked solid. I moved a couple of months ago and have been buried under boxes ever since.
I enjoy writing this blog, and it bothers me that I haven't put time aside to keep it up to date.
So if you are checking in, check back in a week or two and some new ideas that I have been working on should be posted.
The great innovator and recording engineer Roger Nichols passed away this week. He was known most for his work with Steely Dan but he was an incredible inventor as well . I only had the pleasure of working with Roger once during the Quincy Jones produced, Phil Ramone engineered Sinatra album " L.A. is My Lady". Inventor of one of the first audio samplers, and engineer of some of the greatest records of my time, he will be missed.
B

What I think Makes A Great Sounding Recording

2010-08-02T22:11:00.015-04:00

Elton John's Tumbleweed Connection
Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of the Moon
Yes Fragile
Les Mcann and Eddie Harris Swiss Movement
Allman Brothers Live At The Filmore
As a teenager listening to these albums ( In my huge groovy Sennheiser headphones ) I was transported to another place. I would close my eyes and I was no longer in my room. Musically excellent but also sonically beautiful. For me it was the sonic aspect that moved me deeply. These records inspired me to become a recording engineer.
Below are my thoughts on the elements needed to make an excellent recording.

These items are listed from most critical to least important.

This list assumes all factors are reasonable, no defective equipment, or poor microphone placement.

1) A great song or wonderful arrangement.

Wait! Wait! this is supposed to be about audio engineering! frequencies, decibels and phase! Op-amps vs. discrete circuits, analog vs digital! For starters, recording quality isn’t all about gear.

Years ago I noticed something odd. One day I was at the beginning of a tracking session and I was struggling to get what I thought were good sounds. As the band worked on the arrangement, boredom set in and they started to play another popular song. Suddenly all the sounds changed, everything opened up and became clearer and punchier. Each instrument had it’s own space, and I was moved by what I heard. I had changed nothing, yet the sonic picture changed completely.

When I’m mixing I usually start with the bass, drums,lead vocal and a single instrument that has the chord changes. In this simple state it is easy for a song to sound powerful, but as more tracks are added if the song is poorly arranged it can sound smaller, not larger.

When I listen to really great recordings I am often floored at how simple they can be. A good arrangement can give the impression that a song is large and complex when in actuality it is very simple. The key is that every note and sound is so well placed they conspire to move your emotions in a certain direction. For some reason it can be hard for the brain to unglue these elements when listening to a stereo mix. At the studio when clients come in to remaster old recordings and we get to hear the original multitracks we are always floored at how simple the tracks are when the sounds can be isolated.

Often less is more.

Back In Black...I rest my case.

2) The musician.

I can’t tell you how effortless it is to get a really good sound with a talented

musician. Knowing what to play and what not to play is huge, but most greats also have a skillful touch. Often they know their sound, their setup, and have good instruments. I find the best drummers have a firm and solid strike, but rarely bash the drums as hard as they can. This allows the fullness of the drum to ring and be close in volume to the attack. This gives a clear attack with a beefy sustain.

When I first worked at Right Track I tuned the rooms with Frank Filipetti. We would listen to his reference tracks as we adjusted the speakers. He’s a phenomenal engineer and one area that I envy him is his Tom sounds. I asked his secret. His response ........“ A great player “.

3) The instrument.

A good instrument is not always the most expensive instrument. Acoustic guitar is a good example. I’ll take a one that has been kicked around for 10 years over almost any guitar that is brand new. The tone just seems to balance out over time. I generally think a passive bass records better than most with active electronics. I'll take a P- Bass anyday. If you find an instrument that records well hang on to it!

Ok now it’s the engineers turn.

4) The microphone.

I can usually hear right off the bat if a mic is right on a certain player. If I find myself eq-ing too much I first try to change the mic position, but usually I just go to a different mic. I drive assistants nuts swapping mics.

5) Mic placement.

Try placing your ear where you want to place the mic. Move your head around the instrument and it’s crazy how the sound changes. ( Of course you should not do this on a very loud instrument) If you are recording a player that has a lot of studio experience don’t be afraid to ask where he/she would like the mic. They’ve heard themselves recorded many times, and they may know what works and what doesn’t. I always ask horn and reed players because they usually are reading music in a tight group so they are going to blow where they are going to blow regardless of where you put the mic .

( I am going to assume that the signal chain is Mic pre, Compressor, EQ )

6) Compressor

A bad choice of compressor, or compression setting will do more to mash your sound than most EQ’s and mic-pres’. If you're going for a Bonham drum sound and your compressor is too smooth it will just sound small and will be missing the pump. Conversely, if you are going for a clear vocal sound and you compressor is too extreme it will just sound like your mic is broken. I tend to steer clear of compressors I don't like. My favorite compressor is a Neve 33609, but I also feel comfortable using a DBX 160X on just about any instrument.

7) EQ

For me there is only one real eq, the Neve 31102 as was fitted in the Neve 8068 consoles. I suffer with all the rest. Though the Massenburg is wonderful, the early Isa Focusrites, are sweet, and Pultecs can be fun. Equalizers are a very subjective topic. I’m a SSL guy, ( I don't like the Neve VR Eq ) and so is Tom Lord-Alge, Andy Wallace and Bob Clearmountain, however some of the engineers I respect the most are Neve V fans such as Elliot Scheiner Joe Ferla, Al Schmitt and David Hewitt.

So I’ll leave you with this thought.

If you eq isn’t good use very little or none.

8) The Mic pre

Most pre’s are acceptable, Some are wonderful. The Neve 31102 is my favorite, Jensen Hardy Dual Servos are sweet and Massenburgs with B&K mics are heavenly, but a mic pre will almost never prevent a recording from being steller. David Baker’s recording of Mediski Martin and Wood’s “Shack-Man” done on a Mackie mixer is proof.

9) The Room

Well, a great room can really help. An Awful room can really hurt. Depending on the type of music and instruments one can usually minimize the negative effects. Well for pop music at least.

10) I’m done,

I’ll leave you guys to argue the importance of converters, clocks, and cables...I’m gonna go get a beer.
A few years into my career my friend Jim Boyer asked me to help him record a concert at the Smithsonian. The remote truck was nothing special. Old and a bit beat up, it had a Quad eight console, a few generic compressors and a limited mic selection. This truck also had an interesting bit of history. Tom Dowd with owners Aron Baron, and Larry Dahlstrom used it to record The Allman Brothers" Live At The Filmore" One of the recordings that inspired me to become a recording engineer.

If the music is good and the players are talented you should be able to pull off a fine recording. Try to turn your limitations into your unique advantages.

Have fun with it and be creative.

Teaching Audio Engineering Seminars!

2010-08-01T01:20:00.003-04:00

I will be teaching Audio engineering and production seminars as part of the Tonica Jazz Seminars in Guadalahara Mexico August 8 thru 14. I'm really looking forward this. Right now I'm working on the course outline. Tomorrow I'll be recording a session to demonstrate some microphone techniques. Hope I get another blog entry before I leave town.

http://www.tonicagdlac.com/seminario_inicio.html

Brad

Engineering Tip- A Better Headphone Mix

2010-03-07T12:00:00.008-05:00

Working with Phil Ramone there were a few basic rules that were never to be broken.
Rule One
Engineering should be as transparent and unobtrusive as possible to the artist recording.
Setups were to be done in advance and tested thoroughly. Your experience should allow you to record immediately on the artists arrival, even if you hadn't had a chance to do a Sound Check or get levels with the band. Having the assistant play as many instruments as possible, setting ruff eq based on mic selection, and having compressors in line with the makeup gain preset to the amount of compression desired but with the threshold set high so it can be dialed in during recording.
Playing a CD through all headphones to be sure they are stereo, in phase and not blown. These are all good starting points.
Phil was very particular about 3 things, Your hands better be on the faders riding or Mixing to tape, always work to have the best monitor mix possible, and you better have a kick ass cue mix. On his sessions the recording engineer should always have a pair of headphones around his neck, and constantly check the cue mix.
Headphones are not really up to the job of studio monitoring , the only exception might be in ear monitors that block outside sound which means they don't have to compete with ambient sound level. Regular headphones are not able to compete with the level of a drum kit or a loud guitar amp in the room without distortion. Here are two things you can do to your cue mix to make it punchier and reduce distortion.

The first is to EQ just the cue mix. The big thing here is to use a High Pass Filter. Headphones in general are not able to reproduce very low frequencies, 30,40 hz or 50hz rolloff will reduce driver excursion and distortion. Look even if your headphones are able to reproduce 30 hz they won't be able to do it at a high SPL. You can add a little low mids (120hz or higher) if you feel a loss of fullness. Next thing we did was just a touch of compression or limiting. Again this can give a higher apparent level and a more forward sound in the cans at a lower level with less distortion.

We always set up the cue mix post monitor fader. I set all levels the equal, and set the pans to match my monitor panning. So with out even listening to the cue mix I know the musician is getting my monitor mix. Any adjustments or improvements I make to my monitor mix will be made to the headphone mix simultaneously. Then I offset that mix to the players personal taste. For example, all my aux sends are set to 1 o’clock, my pans match my monitor mix. I determine that the singer likes his or her vocal level set a 3 o’clock, the Piano at 2 o’clock for pitch reference, and the bass turned down to 12 o’clock.
All my monitor mix changes are fed to the phones post fader. I learn the desired offset for each player, and that way the headphone mix can be pretty much preset before a note is played. Every time I change to a new song for recording or overdubbing I have a better chance of catching the first performance.

Many times an artist would step into the studio to warm up, and do something spontaneous and brilliant. Phil’s head would whip around to see if I was in record, next he would ask me if everything was ok “you getting this? “ if the levels were anywhere near ok I would say yes. Eq I could deal with later. If we got through that first shot at recording with reasonable levels and sounds and without someone stopping because of headphone problems, I would feel a sense of pride, that my preparation had paid off.
Oh by the way, with Phil there was only one answer to “ You getting this? “ and it had better be yes. He was never the type of producer that spent 12 hours on a kick sound. It was all about capturing the magic. Maybe that was the most important lesson of all.
copyright 2010 Bradshaw Leigh

Flashback - Chelsea Sound Studios

2010-02-10T10:31:00.016-05:00

Before working at A&R, I worked at a small downtown studio named Chelsea Sound. It was a cozy little room located on the top floor of a small building on 14th street. I'm having a hard time finding pictures of this room, which is disappointing because it was a funky looking classic 70's tracking room. The studio live room was about 25 ft x 35ft and had a large shag carpet in the center of the floor. The vocal booth was lined Floor to ceiling with blue shag carpet and the drum booth ( which looked like a little shack ) was covered with green and orange carpet inside and out. The drum booth " windows " were open to the live room and didn't contain glass.

Dead rooms like this have some huge advantages. There are less reflections hitting the microphone which makes the sound more coherent, with less phase cancellation and unwanted room sound. The result can be clear and warm. On most instruments except maybe strings this can be quite pleasing, on drums it is amazing. Imagine bringing up a tom mic and getting very little cymbal or snare leakage.

Dead rooms can also help provide a very intimate recording setup. All the players can be close together. A simple gobo can be sufficient to reduce leakage, and since the leakage is direct and coherent, it adds some air to the sound without stamping a sonic imprint of the room on your recording. The last dead room I had the pleasure to work in was the Hit Factory studio 2 before it closed. It had 2 vintage Neve 8068 consoles strapped together to form a single 72 input desk. The control room was surrounded by 4 recording booths. The 1st room was totally dead, the second a live stone room, the third and fourth were wood rooms of different sizes. I was cutting basics on a " Five For Fighting " album. Originally I had the bass in the dead room, 3 different Pianos in the Marble room , Drums in the large wood room, and guitar in the small wood room. After cutting a couple tracks we swapped the drums and bass, putting the drums in the dead room. They were Huge, big, fat, and punchy. It reminded me how much I missed a dead recording space. A very high percentage of pre 1980 recordings were tracked in dead or very controlled studios. A few years later, almost all studios would switch to " Live Rooms ". Hard walls and floors for that ambient sound. Live rooms can be great but the charm and versatility of the acoustically dead studio has been lost.

The control room at Chelsea was next to the hall leading off the elevator. Cutting the width of the control room down to about 10 feet. The console was a MCI JH 428 fitted with 18 modules, and the tape machine was a MCI JH-24 16 track multitrack. Outboard, as you can see in this picture, was Eventide 910 Harmonizer ( used primarily for delay ), an Eventide Phaser, a pair of LA-3a's, one LA-2A, and a pair of DBX 160's. We also had a tape sonic 1/4 inch 2trk for slap delay. This machine didn't have a varispeed which is needed to adjust the slap delay time, so we would just would wrap some masking tape around the capstan to speed the machine up, if you wanted a shorter delay, just add some more masking tape!
In the photo is Engineer Bob Clifford working with Tiny Tim. ( note the deep pile carpet on the walls )

For reverb there were two choices, an AKG BX-20 spring reverb located in the office, and the EMT 140 tube plate in the basement. Having the plate in the basement caused two problems. First, the elevator motor was located down there, so every time the elevator started you heard a loud click and humming sound in the plates. Second (but more humorous) the landlord rented the basement to a Latin band to rehearse on Thursday nights. So in the middle of tracking you would hear the reverb of a Latin band in your echo returns. We eventually built a huge case to mount the plates in and moved them away from the elevator, which solved both problems.
Behind the control room was a small lounge and office. Man, did I love that place.
I was 17 and I had the keys. It was like having my own private loft with a built in recording studio.
© Bradshaw Leigh 2010

Haiti

2010-01-15T23:02:00.002-05:00

I can't begin to imagine the grief of the survivors of the earthquake in Haiti.
There are many ways to help. With internet scams and rumors it is difficult to know where to donate.
Google, UNICEF, Red Cross, and CARE are all good options.
One of our clients Wyclef Jean heads the YELE Haiti Funds.
What I like about Wyclef's option is it is so easy.
If you text YELE to 501501 you will donate $5 to the YELE fund.
It's that simple! You can verify this at his website http://www.yele.org
Donations large and small are accepted at the website as well.

Year End Wrap up

2009-12-31T23:52:00.002-05:00

It's been a good year here at MSR Studios. Our year finished up with Joe Ferla recording and Mixing Pat Metheny's New Project " Orchestrion " in studio B.
I've known Joe quite a while. I assisted him on a Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack record (with Jerry Wexler Producing ) at A&R
recording some years ago. He has an amazing body of work and is a great guy. I can't say much about Pat's project, we were kinda sworn
to secrecy. What I can say is that it was really a pleasure having him at the studio for over a month. One of the smartest, and most kind people you will ever
meet. There were constant technical challenges with what he was trying to do, and he was always patient and positive. When the project was complete
he allowed the entire staff to witness a demonstration playback. I thought that was very classy and everybody loved it.
To learn more about Pat's new Album go to his web site www.patmetheny.com

On the topic of studio B, we plan on starting our cosmetic renovation of the entire facility in that room. Currently we have Frank's Fully blown Euphonix System 5 console in B. Frank is planning on moving at the beginning of the year, and our current plans are to get another System 5 in Studio B.
If you're not familiar with this console these are the reasons we and our clients love it.

It has a pristine audio path, which makes the console beautiful to use when mixing or recording live instruments. Classical, jazz, film scores, and Broadway soundtracks are some of our biggest clients in this room. At the same time I've heard Frank Filipetti do some amazing rock, and pop mixes in that room. Proving you can get some bite and can do compression you wouldn't get out of an analog console. If you don't believe me check out his mixes of Frank Zappa Live he did in 5.1 or Ted Nugent Live.
The console is also perfect for large 5.1 High sample rate mixes. Film scores will often use 96 tracks at 96 khz, mixing to 6- 5.1 stems. At lower sample rates ( This is a Protools limitation ) we can run 128 tracks or more to 32 channels of stem mixes. Try doing that in Protools. For Jazz Clients on a budget the total reset of a digital console allows them to pull off many remixes in one day, saving the budget and not having to compromise due to time limitations. Last the Euphonix is a full blown control surface for Protools, so it even works for clients mixing " In The Box " that want a professional environment.

For a year when there was much talk of the depressed music business, we did quite well. We lost our large scoring room on 38th street, but we managed to devise a system to tie studios A and B to allow us to continue to do very large recording sessions. This system includes a massive amount of digital, analog, and video tie lines. One session occurring in both studios simultaneously can be controlled from either control room. Multiple video feeds and talk back systems keep communications clear.
We place the orchestra in Studio A, and the Singers in Studio B.
One might think that there would be a disadvantage recording a Broadway Show split between two studios but we have found there are clear advantages. In Modern day Broadway shows the " Pit " where the musicians play is really a series of small rooms beneath the stage and back stage. The musicians play every night watching the performance and the conductor on a video monitor. So with our system the conductor is directly in front of the musicians in the recording room, and the singers are seen on video monitors, which is very similar to show conditions.
The conductor has direct communication with the musicians. In studio B the vocal director works with the Soloists and ensemble. All can see and hear each other via video feeds. Cast members coming and going don't interrupt the musicians rehearsals. This method of recording in two studios at once has proven quite successful. In 2009 alone the Broadway musicals '" Shreck " " Hair " " Rock of Ages " and " 9-5 " were all recorded at our studio. As well " West Side Story " was mixed in studio B.

Other notable sessions at MSR this year include Eddie Kramer mixing Hendrix Tapes, Paul McCartney, Erykah Badu, Madonna, Nelly Furtado, and " The Roots " spending many weeks in studio A. ( That was fun!) Not a bad year.
Hope your 2010 is Happy, and healthy.
Brad
©2009 Bradshaw Leigh

Mix Tip - another use for the de-esser

2009-12-02T14:43:00.000-05:00

When mixing I often find the reverb I'm using is perfect except for one thing, certain bright or percussive elements cause the digital reverb to chatter. Sometimes it's the attack of picking certain notes on an acoustic guitar, or finger squeaks when sliding down the strings. ( yes I know I can remove or reduce squeaks in protools ) It also might be sibilance on vocals, or hi hat bleed.

If you try to decrease the chatter by decreasing the high frequency decay time, this often gives the reverb a bit more of a tubby bathroom like sound.
The second approach would be to decrease the high frequency response, usually this makes things cloudy. If overall I am happy with the reverb settings I have, and the body of the song works, and I don't want to reduce the air in the decay. I will insert a de-esser between the aux send and the chamber. This will limit the high Frequency transients hitting the chamber and allow everything else to pass through unprocessed. It is now my default setup on long reverbs.
© 2009 Bradshaw Leigh

Flashback-Meeting Richard Factor

2009-11-29T23:23:00.000-05:00

While ushering at Carnegie Hall I started interviewing for a job in a recording studio . At that time there were dozens of facilities in Manhattan. One of my first interviews was at Richard Factors "Sound Exchange" on 54th street.

As a founder of Eventide Clockworks, Richard Factor is one of the founding fathers of modern recording, with the likes of Bill Putnam and George Massenburg. Eventide designed and built some of the first commercially available digital audio equipment, which included the 1745 DDL , and the first Harmonizer, the H910.
This is an amazing accomplishment, considering in 1971 they were the only company doing this type of work . (Aside from a few prototype units being built by Lexicon and sold through Gotham Audio) They designed their own processors as well as audio analog to digital, and digital to analog converters.

Mr. Factor would later guide Eventide into avionics, designing the first affordable moving map displays.
He is also the founder of The SETI League, which privatized a NASA project (which was dropped due to budget cuts in 1993) to use Radio Astronomy to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. (Jodie Foster was a Radio Astronomer in the movie Contact.)
Factor is currently working on the PriUPS project, which enables owners of the Toyota Prius to use their hybrid vehicle as a battery backup and emergency generator for their home. You can check out Richard's blog here.
He's an interesting man, I wish I knew him. My only meeting with him was this brief job interview at Sound Exchange.

I walked into his office during a lunch break at Carnegie Hall with my friend Chris.
The ground floor of the building was a small factory where the digital delays were built, the recording studio was on the second floor. Richard came out of the shop to interview me. "You always show up for a job interview with a friend?"
At that moment he was called away to the phone. I was left standing there. Embarrassed, I asked Chris to leave. Richard returned and asked what happened to my friend. Now I felt twice as foolish. He sat me down.
“Listen, you are going to go on a lot of job interviews and these people are going to act like they're your friend. They'll tell you they will try to help you out. They're not really your friends, but I am because I'm going to tell you the truth. You won't make much money, and you won't have any social life. So don't get a job in a studio.”
I was dumbstruck and didn't know what to say. And that pretty much ended the interview. In hindsight, he was clever. If I had said at that moment, those things weren't important to me, that I still wanted to become a recording engineer, I now wonder if the interview would have continued.

Was he right? In general, yes.
Did I have a social life? No, not a very good one for the first 10 years or so, but some of that was me, I wasn't as good with people as I was with electronics. Did I make money? Yes, I did pretty good, better than most actually, but I didn't get rich.

Maybe I should start all job interviews at the studio with, "When you go on interviews people will act like they're your friend, .................. "

© 2009 Bradshaw Leigh

Flashback- 1st " Music Biz " Job

2009-11-08T15:20:00.000-05:00

When I was in high school I got a job as an usher at Carnegie Hall. Working every night did nothing for my grades but the music was amazing.
I worked at the hall about 2-1/2 years so I would guess in that time I saw more than 250 concerts. This is where I decided I wanted to become a recording engineer.

My first show was a rough night. It was the jazz/soul group The Crusaders. When the lights went down everybody lit up. My job was to run up and down the steep balcony stairs with the flashlight telling people to put it out. I was only 17 and had a baby face. With only two or three security guards in a 5 level concert hall, backup was hard to find. This was not a good start. The job was usually easy though. I worked the balcony most nights and up there you just pointed the patron to the seat. The lights went down and it was your choice to either stay inside and listen or chill out in the hallway. After intermission we took turns going down to the bar for a break. Most of the ushers were music students at Julliard or studying at The Art Students League. We were young, loved the music and got some pocket cash. It was a good deal. The hall has since gone union so I'd guess much has changed. I'm also sure current ushers get more than the $15 a night we were paid.

The music. Oh my god the music. All the premier orchestras, soloists and Opera singers made Carnegie Hall their New York stop. At that time Avery Fisher still had poor acoustics, and for this reason RCA Records would do many classical recordings at Carnegie. I remember watching from outside the room where they would setup their remote system.
The system was huge and impressive. A Neve console, each bucket was separate and rolled in on wheels so they could get the console through a standard door. The Tape machines were Ampex MM-1000's. Two of these beasts. The MM1000 were about 2 feet by 4 feet, 5 feet tall. I would guess they weighed over 500 lbs.
Many of the pop, rock or folk acts were recorded by the radio show " The King Biscut Flour Hour "
I liked this setup even better. A hippy school bus converted to a remote recording truck.
Always dimly lit and fitted with Tascam gear in a day when Tascam and Tapco were the only companies making Semipro recording equipment. It looked cozy. I wanted to live in that bus.

A young Bonnie Raitt, Keith Jarett and Chick Corea, Gill Scott Heron doing " Whitey on The Moon ". These concerts stand out in my mind.
The greatest moment I witnessed at Carnegie Hall was billed " The Concert Of The Century ". This concert was to raise money for Carnegie Hall, which had been scheduled for demolition before being saved by Isaac Stern. The Lineup was truly a once in a Life time experience.
The Orchestra was The New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein with Vladimir Horowitz piano, Mstislav Rostropovich cello, Yehudi Menuhin and Isaac Stern violin.

On June 3rd I was ushering another concert. I didn't know the act, it was Billy Joel (I had confused him with Joel Grey). There was much I didn't know that night. I didn't know Phil Ramone was in the audience. It was the night he heard Billy Live and decided to keep Billy's band for all future recordings and not use studio musicians. In a month from that night Phil and Billy would go into the studio and produce Billy's classic album The Stranger. In a year and a half I would meet them again working at A & R recording. I would become Phil's engineer and work with him for close to 10 years. I would also work on every Billy Joel pop Album in some capacity from that point on (except Storm Front produced by Mick Jones). As I handed out programs on that June 3rd night I didn't know some 30 years later I would listen as my friends Phil Ramone and Frank Filipetti were remixing that concert at a studio where I would become Chief engineer.
Small world.
To be continued.......
© 2009 Bradshaw Leigh

Tech Tip- LA2a Problems

2009-11-08T11:55:00.000-05:00

In this blog I want to talk about recording studio history, What is going
on at MSR Studios currently, and provide some tech tips.

Today's Tip involves the classic LA2A.

First be warned. The LA2A CONTAINS LETHAL VOLTAGES.
DO NOT OPEN, MODIFY, OR ATTEMPT TO REPAIR.
SEND THIS UNIT TO A QUALIFIED SERVICE TECHNICIAN.

I have seen many LA2As with odd and hard to track down problems.
Blowing fuses, working with front panel open but not closed, and
internal snapping sounds are the most common.
We found two units in the shop left over from the Right Track days
that were gutted in an attempt to track down the problems.
My trusty sidekick Ian Kagey ( A tech at MSR Studios ) had the patience
and bravery to go at these units. Risking life and limb to get these
units operational. I'm sure the prior tech thought the problem
was a shorted power transformer or filter cap as I first did.

The problem turned out to be the most common issue with LA2A.
The LA2A contains point to point wiring. The terminal strip to which
the components are attached is screwed tightly to the metal chassis.
The chassis is grounded and is only insulated from the High Voltage
( 300V! ) terminal strip with a thin piece of insulation. This strip
deteriorates over the years and the high voltage shorts to ground
or arcs intermittently causing all kinds of symptoms.
Placing small insulated spacers under the terminal strip cured the issue.
Ian was happy he had one more LA2a to use when mixing his project that night.
Score Ian 1 - gear 0.
© 2009 Bradshaw Leigh

Career Choice? I Love music, I Love Gadgets, I Hate Going To Bed.

2009-11-08T04:32:00.001-05:00

I started working in recording Studios more years ago then I am willing to admit. As a kid growing up in New York I had two loves. Taking apart anything electrical or mechanical to see how it worked, and Music. When I was little my four older sisters kept a constant flow of new records in the house. First The Monkees, then the Beatles, Stones, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Doors, and Tim Hardin to name a few. My mother and father loved 30's and 40's jazz Pee Wee Russel, Ben Webster, Billy Holiday,and Sidney Bechet. At night I hated going to bed so I would stay up late listening to FM radio . Vin Scelsa, or Alison Steele the " Night Bird " who would speak in a soft bedroom voice as she played the latest progressive music.

While in High School i got a job as an usher at Carnegie Hall. School days, and Music nights. Weekends were drinking beer and listening to music at a friends house. (Any friend whose parents were away). We drank and listened to music. That was it. No TV, internet, cell phones or video games. Most of my friends also played an instrument. I took trumpet in Junior high and tried guitar but was never very good at either. After graduating Brooklyn Technical High School I tried college. I Lasted one semester. I quit school and got my first job in a studio. Chelsea Sound studios on 14th street. The first time I heard a kick drum coming through those Big Red Altec monitors I was in heaven.
I spent about a year at Chelsea Sound then moved to A&R recording. I was a tech for a year and that's where I met Jim Boyer and Phil Ramone. I became Jim's assistant engineer first then assisted Phil. After a year with Phil I became his recording / mix engineer. We spent about 8 amazing years together before I went off on my own.
I've been very lucky. I've worked on dozens of Gold and Platinum albums. I've engineered Rock, Pop, Film Scores, and Broadway soundtracks. About 12 years ago I became Chief Technical engineer at Dave Amlen's Sound on Sound Recording which merged with Right Track Recording and became first Legacy Recording and now it's called MSR Studios. I am currently Chief Engineer and Director of Operations at MSR .
© 2009 Bradshaw Leigh