All information in these pages is copyright (c) 1989-2003 by Roger Nichols.
All rights reserved. Permission for personal reference only, and may not
be reproduced by any method without written permission.
Alive At Last
by Roger Nichols
The Mixing
They told me that this issue was alive issue and could I please write with
that in mind. First of all, I couldn't write with anything in mind if I
wasn't alive, so what the hell were they talking about? Alive issue... does
that mean they are going to cover issues about life in general, or life
after death, or life before birth, or life after 50, or Life magazine? Oh,
alive concert. Is that the opposite of a Dead concert? I guess I have wrung
all I can out of that bad pun, almost.
It just so happens that as I type this column, I am one week away from finishing
the mixes for the Steely Dan live album. Well, almost live. I have mentioned
before that we went into the studio and "cleaned up" a few things.
C'mon now, it is a Steely Dan album, and we couldn't let any afterthought
recordings of raggedy-ass playing by a bunch of old farts (besides the Eagles)
out into the public, now could we? Steely Dan fans have come to expect a
certain quality control that could only be achieved by spending lots of
money in a recording studio.
Because of the fact that we have performed some moderate "repairs"
to the songs, it would probably be illegal somewhere to call the album "Steely
Dan Live", even though that's how it started out. So somebody (probably
Donald) came up with the idea of calling the album "Steely Dan: Alive
in America". Kind of catchy, don't you think? Like how it skirts the
issue?
There has never been a live ( how did that space get in there after the
"a"?) Steely Dan album. In the box set there was a live version
of Bodhisattva taken from a board cassette during a show from 1974. Yup,
it has been 20 years since the last Steely Dan tour. We almost didn't make
this album because we thought there might be problems squeezing all of the
walkers and wheel chairs in behind the board. It turns out that they made
us leave them out in the lounge because they didn't want us to bang up the
equipment in the control room.
The Recording
Even though we have good budgets to do some of the recordings we do, I like
to cheat whenever possible. The original plan was to have a recording truck
come to the two shows in Houston. I knew right away that every show would
automatically be better than Houston just because those were the ones we
were recording. We like to record without EQ or effects, so why not just
rent a 48 track digital machine and record every show without a truck? We
connected the input of the machine to the direct outputs from the Yamaha
PM-4000 house mixing console, set the trims once, and recorded all of the
shows the same way, one microphone per channel, clean as a whistle.
This same method can be used for live recording using modular eight track
machines. I know engineers who are recording tours this way. The modular
machines sit out by the mixing console getting the same feed that I sent
to the 48 track machine. Just press record at the start of the show, change
tapes during intermission, and forget about it. With digital machines you
don't have to worry about record levels as much as you would with analog
machines. As long as the levels don't clip from too much level, everything
is fine. If you find afterwards that the volume pedal on the organ was turned
down and the track registers -40dB, you still have 56 dB to play with.
If you have the luxury of having an extra person to continuously monitor
the recording, so much the better, but as long as your procedures are well
organized, you can record every show of a tour with the minimum of effort
and expense. Some bands have no plans to release a live album, but record
every show "just in case" something great happens. I know someone
else that gave each of the players a tape of a whole show with his instrument
in solo. That had to deflate a few egos real quick. I told Donald Fagen
that I was going to give him a tape of his vocals in solo. He said he would
have me killed if I even mentioned the possibility of doing such a thing.
I guess it wasn't that great of an idea after all.
The Part of the Column That Will Get Me Free Back Stage Passes
Sure, I have done some live recordings over the years. I started out in
1960 recording a band with Stuff Smith (jazz violin player) in the lounge
of The Bowlium in Pomona California. After working with house mixers like
Dave Kob and Tripp Khalaf, I feel as though I really know that my place
is in the studio where I can always say "OOPS, sorry, can we just do
that part one more time"? Live guys have to know their stuff (no pun
intended, but I reserve the right to use this in the future). There is no
place for error. You have 20,000 drooling fans listening to everything you
are doing. If the lead guitar player comes sliding in from off stage ripping
off the perfect solo and you forgot to turn up his microphone, you could
be sorry that you are right in the middle of the audience with only your
mixing console to protect you from the mob.
I will confess, however, that during the last two summers out on the road
with Steely Dan people would come up to me to comment about the house sound.
If they said it sounded great, I would smile and say "Thanks, I'm glad
you enjoyed it". If they had any complaints I would say "I am
just recording, that guy over there is responsible for the sound in the
house", pointing vigorously toward Dave or Tripp. When someone complains
to them about this live album and says "I was there and that is not
the same guitar solo as on my bootleg tape", they can point the finger
at me.
Not to Change The Subject
I am mixing this album through Apogee 20 bit A/D converters. Bruce Jackson
at Apogee went out of his way to make sure I got one of the first production
units (serial # 0002). (Bruce said that if I mentioned his name I would
get another ride in his Mooney. I told him that I don't do things like that).
Even with all of the rip roaring crowd and screaming guitars pushing meter
segments toward the dreaded "overs", you can hear the difference
between 16 bit and 20 bit. I can't wait until we get real 20 bit CDs. HDCD,
UV-22 and SBM all help make 16 bit sound like 17 bits or 18 bits, but nothing
compares to straight 20 bit uncompressed audio. The extra resolution just
adds to the fine detail, warmth and soundstage (I have been reading The
Absolute Sound). I stored the 20 bit mixes to 24 bit Sound Designer II hard
disk files, and also on Tascam DA-88 using the Rane Paq Rat bit splitting
box (the new Apogee AD1000 will support the PaqRat format directly). The
hard disk files are backed up to EXABYTE tapes. The 16 bit mixes were converted
using my 16 bit Apogee AD500 and stored on DAT and Akai DD-1000 optical
disc. The Akai mixes are backed up onto CD-R. I always print the mixes to
two different types of media in case there are drop-outs.
My Meter is Running
I have mentioned in the past that I hate most DAT level meters because they
are so inaccurate when it comes to displaying the amount of headroom remaining.
I have been using the Sony DMU-30 digital audio meter which is the same
meter unit that is found in the Sony PCM-1630. I recently discovered the
DDD-603 digital meter from Mytek. It performs the same function as the Sony
meter with some welcome additions. Besides the regular peak hold mode and
fine resolution for accurate level setting, the DDD-603 can be set to show
analog ballistics and peak levels at the same time. There are also two modes
for over display. In one mode a numeric display shows the number of times
an over was triggered. In the other mode, the display shows the number of
samples that exceeded the over limit during each excursion. The meter is
also less than half the price of the Sony DMU-30. For mixing final masters,
a high quality digital domain meter is a must.
As we close, I want to leave you with a few words. How do you spell: HDCD
UV-22 CD-R Exabyte SBM BMW Bruce My spelling checker couldn't figure it
out. Oh yes, can you correctly pronounce the word "Houston"?
Return to EQ index