No!! Sound proofing is acoustically isolating a room from the outside world. Practically this usually means building a “room within a room”, blocking up any air gaps (particularly doors and windows) so that sound leakage in and out of the room is drastically reduced. This is actually very hard to achieve on a small budget!

Acoustic treatment means altering the surfaces on the walls to provide a different reverberant characteristic to the room. This does not intentionally provide any “sound proofing”.

2. Egg cartons and/or carpets on the walls will help my recordings!

NO NO NO!! Egg cartons do pretty much nothing. Carpets absorb high frequencies (treble) within a room which may be perceived as a “deadening” of the acoustics but actually leaves a very boomy acoustic as the bass and midrange is still echo’ing around the room. “Broadband” absorption is a considerably better treatment as it’ll absorb most frequencies evenly, resulting in a much more natural and even room tone. Masses of Rockwool are what you need to do this – placed at key points (particularly room corners), it works wonders for bad sounding rooms.

I refer you to Ethan Winer from RealTraps: http://www.realtraps.com/art_basics.htm

3. Record as “hot” as you can (in digital) to make use of “all the bits”

No thanks. Most digital recording is done in 24bits these days, which means the dynamic range / noise floor of recording is considerably better than the human ear. You can record at low levels without any perceivable loss in quality. There are actually far greater benefits of recording at a lower level:

a. When all the tracks are mixed together, the output is less likely to clip, and you won’t have to move all the faders really far down.

b. Analogue-Digital equipment is usually calibrated and optimised as 0dBU = -18dBFS. Recording at a high level far exceeds this “calibration” and pushes the input electronics beyond their optimum operating level, potentially resulting in a harsher sound.

c. Many plugins are optimised at this standard operating level, and may sound better if the input level is lower!

My first experience with them was while working at Electronic Arts recording speech and foley. The chief engineer there had a few of them and they got used on every speech session. They were so clear and quiet, so when I began my own studio I bought one second hand, as I wanted a great primary vocal microphone. It was initally bliss, although I soon started to feel that the recordings were coming out almost TOO clear, and quite characterless because of it. The mic’s frequency response is incredibly flat for a large-diaphragm condenser (LDC) and the off-axis response is as impressive as it is on-axis, but this is not always what’s needed when recording vocals for various genres of music.

At this realisation I started to look at the TLM through different eyes, and it got very little action during quite a long period. As I began getting more Classical recording work however, it began to come out of it’s wooden case and shine once more. As a spot mic within an orchestra or quartet, or as part of an M/S main pair the mic sounds so beautiful. Transients come through very nicely and instruments tend to just sound “as they should” – not usually what you’d want for a Rock/Pop recording, but for a Classical recording that’s usually just the ticket. The low self-noise makes it an excellent choice for recording very soft instruments, and the lovely off-axis response means it sounds very natural in a diffuse field.

I think this is a great mic for several applications but definitely not one for Rock/Pop productions. The high price is a bit of a downer (go for a second hand one if anything!) and there are small-diaphragm condensers that’ll do a similar job for less money. Nonetheless, I love it again and it’ll be my ‘cello mic of choice for a long time!

My initial sonic impressions were just as I expected – they have a very prominent mid-range without much treble or bass, which really brings vocals, guitars and snare to the forefront of the listeners attention. They’re actually quite pleasant to listen to when a recording is well mixed, and it’s nice to listen to the focal points of a mix without being distracted by deep bass or extreme treble.

The “bass” is there, but slopes off (approximately) from around 200Hz, and recordings actually sound quite warm on them (not harsh or brittle, unless mixed that way). Compression on mid-range instruments is very easy to hear and mixing these elements seems a lot easier on the Mixcubes – levels become “obvious”!

Off-axis these speakers sound pretty nasty, so make sure you set them up properly. The “cum-white” colour is a bit odd… the heavy varnishing makes them seem pretty robust though.

All in all, possibly one of the best purchases I’ve made for the studio.

Next time I’ll bring an air-rifle to take down any pigeons cooing outside…

Dave and I are so stoked to be producing the upcoming album from Matt Chanarin. He’s currently rehearsing with Colin (Telling the Bees) and Evan (ALAMAKOTA) before coming to the studio, so there’ll be magic hitting the tape machine as soon as I hit the red button. Magic I tell you.

“The Chief”

Hopefully they’ll be back soon record

There have been a couple of reviews of the album since it’s release, so have a read if you’re interested:

http://www.facebook.com/notes/david-simon/first-review-of-collision/473017048834

http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2010/07/review-david-simon-collision/

The gig was filmed and recording so we’re now working on Post Production for the DVD…

http://www.myspace.com/jb

http://www.sfxsource.com/news/index.php/2010/06/16/interview-with-filmmaker-carlo-ortu/