[78-L] Acoustic-era monitoring

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Royal Pemberton" <ampex354 at gmail.com>
> No monitors.  All trial and error.  Record something, take notes of what 
> the
> set-up was, make a test pressing, listen to it, take notes as to what 
> needed
> to be done differently....lather, rinse, repeat.  Mixing was by balancing
> via manipulating distances from the horn(s).  Singers did their own volume
> limiting and gain reduction (as it were) on the fly, leaning away from the
> horn for the loud bits, leaning in for the softer ones.  Some of them were
> assisted in this by the engineer who had to move them gently back and 
> forth
> while they were singing.
>
The "recording expert" (these days'"engineer") knew from experience which
instruments were the loudest (and thus most prominent on recordings)...and
grouped the players around the "mouth" of the recording horn accordingly!
Individual vocalists were "unknowns" until (1) the "expert" had become
used to them...and (2) the singers had learned where they (physically)
"belonged" with respect to the horn...as well as how to use their voices
to best advantage when being recorded!

Note that this approach continued well into the "electric" era! Multi-mike/
multi-track recording didn't appear until probably the seventies; even the
early-LP-era Beatles were recorded using two four-track tape machines,
giving a total of EIGHT tracks to be mixed down to the final recording!

Personally, I would record "live off the floor" into TWO mikes (stereo?!),
with NO "final mix-down!!" The only time I tried multi-track (each player
on his/her/its separate track?!) recording...well, the recording was almost
NEVER finished...each musician insisted that he/she/it could improve his/
her/its track, given a second chance...?!

I am used to playing LIVE...with individual players adjusting their volume
levels according to MY hand signals...with the final issued recording being
the result of the session! In fact, I used to use "dynamics" in live 
performances.
I would, by signaling, bring the band's level down to "barely audible"...and
then suddenly go to "full blast" for the next chorus/stanza/wotever! This
ALWAYS amazed younger players who happened to be in the audience...
they set their "volumes" to MAXIMUM...believing that the whole point of
live music was to blow the audience to the back wall and leave them
effectively deaf...?!

This MIGHT be true for "rock"...but it isn't, and never was, true for 
playing
BLUES music!!

Steven C. Barr