Originally Posted by
Squids
Wow! That's a great interview! I've never seen it. But, if Cintra was walking in the studio I have an idea of when this was done. Around that time I was his roommate in this funky house that was like a little castle. Stained glass windows and there was even a throne in the front room (the people who owned the house may have been a little crazy). Ed Greene (drummer on Steely Dan and Fagen albums like Aja and Nightfly) lived in the guest house next door.
So, that settles my own question about whether this specific U47 was used on the Toy Matinee album too. Looks like it was! I'm so glad it made its way to me so many years later. Jon had sold it to Mark Hornsby (who recorded the orchestral version of "Long Days Life" on the re-release of Shaming) and then Mark sold it to me. As I said, I almost ALSO bought the other mic Kevin used a lot which was the Neumann M49. Jon still had that and I just couldn't afford to justify owning both. That is another beautiful sounding mic though. But, the u47 is "the one" if you had to pick one... just as he says. His third mic of choice was an AKG C24 that he had which is like a stereo C12 tube mic. He used it as a room mic at the studio as well. But, sometimes for voice. Maybe not his voice but perhaps for different singers he worked with the C24 or M49 would get a chance vs. his U47.
The box says U48 so it might have originally been a U48 which has a figure 8 pick up pattern I believe. What that means is that it picks up signals from BOTH sides equally. That's not as good as a straight cardiod pattern for one vocalist. But, interestingly enough, Ken Scott (a producer/engineer I've worked with at Sonic Reality on the product "Epik Drums") told me that when he recorded The Beatles for the White Album and Magical Mystery Tour that they'd use a U48 to record two vocalists at once (vocalists being John, Paul or George!). That's of course because they had limited tracks back then and had to record multiple parts on each pass. If one person messed it up you had to redo the take... or leave it as it was.
I find it interesting that certain equipment from that era is STILL some of the best you can use today. Now it's "vintage" and costs a ton to get these mics, the compressors (Kevin and Bill used a lot of 1176's, I think he had an 1178 and I believe they had a DBX160 as well. Their only "reverb" I believe was a Roland SRV2000 which they both liked... but they rarely used reverb. Very dry production. Some of the discrete, optical and tube compressors and EQs can at least be modeled in software and more or less do the trick, especially for those that either can't afford a vintage one OR even if you can you can use more of them on more tracks in software. But, a mic is a mic. I'm not convinced yet with "mic modeling". I like owning the real thing... as much as I can afford to anyway. They're super expensive. I also use a Telefunken 251E which is similar in some ways to an AKGC12. I also use a Neumann U67 (another popular Beatles mic. It's a tube version of the popular U87). I got good deals on those. But a vintage M49... just can't do it. Not even Kevin's which if I was ever going to get one it would have been that one. Still, I am so lucky to have this U47. It sounds great AND has a great history AND means a lot to me personally (as I say in the video).
I used it with Randy when we recorded his Lo-Fi Resistance "Chalk Lines" album. Sounded great on his voice.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks