Mike Rivers

I don't have a big enough hammer to damage a Nagra though given that the Nagra D is a tape-based digital recorder, it's more vulnerable than the analog Nagras. The analog ones were designed so you could hang one over your shoulder and run around with it. I don't think a D would like that very much. When I say "Nagra" I mean the III, IV, IV-S, and E models. They're built like tanks and last forever. I was more concerned about damaging myself from hauling around the Ampex and the Revox A700 that followed it. I could never afford, nor justify owning a Nagra myself, but there were plenty of them around here at the time that I could borrow when I wanted one. If I have a "pro" and "sit down" stereo recording gig, I take my Korg MR-1000. It's bigger than handheld and sits nicely on a table. It doesn't have built-in mics, but it has fine preamps and converters, runs about 5 hours on batteries, and if anyone really wants it, it does DSD. (Craig likes DSD) Kind of like 2006's Nagra for people who couldn't offord a Nagra, but I could afford the Korg. The only thing that I worry about is that the operating system and recordings are stored on an internal 20 GB hard drive. It's one of those midget ones like they used in iPods, I think, no longer replaceable, nor is there any more support from Korg and they can't even supply the system files if the disk drive needed replacement. That's when it's obsolete, but as long as it still works, it's still in use. My TASCAM handhelds with outboard mics work just as well as the Korg for what field recording I do, but if I'm getting paid, I'd rather have something with me that wouldn't prompt a "hey, my kid has one of those" when looking at my setup.

I talked to several people who buy technical eBooks, and it's common to look at the book on an tablet (e.g., iPad) so the computer screen isn't obstructed. It seems to me that's not substantially different from having a book open in front of you. Yeah, but first you gotta have the tablet. And I think that a book might be easier to move around than a tablet if it gets in your way. Seems like every time someone hands me a tablet, I touch something and the display goes into the ozone. I don't think my book (in PDF version) was pirated enough to worry about if at all. I asked people to be honest and I think they were. But software piracy was a big issue at the time my book first came out, so I was concerned. And most people liked the printed copy. I used a print-on-demand shop as my publisher (until they decided to stop printing books). It was super convenient for me. The customer ordered from the publisher, paid them, and the book was shipped to them. Every couple of months they would send me my money. The book is about 100 pages and cost me about $12. Selling price was $25, and for an extra $2 they could get a CD with some useful files on it (until the publisher decided that they didn't want to make CDs any more). So I could tell people how they could get a printed copy of my book, I got an estimate from Fedex Office a year or two ago, and it was about $15, printed and bound. Not too bad.

Gosh! And that's the smallest one they make in that series. I was so happy when the Nagra with its eight D cells for power came along that I didn't have to lug my Ampex in its two 50 pound cases. Kids these days!!!

And I like a book so I can have it open in front of me when I'm puzzling with whatever it is that I was trying to figure out from the book, I originally published my Mackie HDR book as a spiral edge bound print book so it would lay flat when open. The secondary reason was that a PDF is easily pirated (this was from 2004, I think) and I was afraid of losing sales. I did have many requests for a PDF and granted a few, though eventually the publisher decided they weren't going to print any more paper books, so I gave up and it's now a PDF download. I don't know that I've lost any sales, but since I've already paid off the Ferrari from book sales who cares?

I was trying to encourage you to take a step beyond a handheld recorder to do everything, and use outboard mics with the mixer/recorder/interface that you already have until you really outgrow the need for more recording channels, and then upgrade the recorder. You can add more mics at any time, even when you're still using the R8 by using its mixer capability. If the footprint of the R8 is really an insurmountable problem, you probably don't really have a very good room for recording your band anyway. Put it on a card table in a corner and run your mic cables out to where the band sets up. I'm a system kind of a guy. I like to have flexibility of adding or changing individual components rather than putting everything in one case and having to replace the whole thing when you outgrow it. You could start out with a $100-150 pair of condenser mics and have that part of the system with the quality of the built-in mics, plus the flexibility of positioning them in many different ways, not just X-Y or A-B stereo, and put the two mics at different distances to balance the instruments. But that means that you actually need to start learning how to record [pardon me if you already know] but that will last you a long time.

That's how it is as it comes out of the box, but it can become a lot better. There's a wide range of stereo mics that plug in to the various (be sure to get the right one) digital port on the phone and can provide the "handheld recorder experience" or better. These mics have the A/D converter built in, they're all 24-bit, some will do 96 kHz, and with all of the analog signal path built into the mic, you don't have the low frequency rolloff, limiter, and automatic volume control that comes with the built-in mic. Micro SD cards are fiddly, but they're available in large enough capacity so that you have plenty of recording time while sharing the memory with phone things, and even a fairly large music library. You'll probably want to get your recordings off the phone and on to something more convenient for working with them ASAP, so you can consider the phone to have essentially fixed recording media. Is this a great solution for The Gov? I don't know, but I don't think so. It doesn't give him many of the features that a handheld offer, and it's an extra piece that needs to be plugged in before using it. But - yeah, it's possible to get good quality audio from an iPhone if your needs are right. Since the video camera is really good, an add-on plug-in mic is a convenient way to make a good video if you're good a making videos and pay attention to the audio.

Well, OK. Let us know how it works out for you. Got an extension cord? Home Depot has very good deals.

Unless you want something you can carry in a pocket, it sounds like you're on the right track with you Zoom R8, but it's just a little limited for where you're trying to go. I'm not surprising that you aren't getting much separation using the built in mics. Having a handy recorder like the H6 will allow you more flexibility in placement, but still, built-in stereo mics won't give you great separation, particularly with amplified instruments. The advantage of a "handy" recorder is that you can put on a set of headphones and move the recorder around while the band is playing and put it in the best position that you can find. A tabletop unit like the R8 is far less moveable. Have you given any thought to using a pair of outboard mics with your R8? That might be a good investment both as an experiment and an investment in your next "upgrade." If you like your R8, you might consider moving up to an L-8 and a few microphones. It allows you to record up to 10 tracks simultaneously so between mics, line inputs, and direct (DI) inputs you should be covered. You can work "live" on the recorder/mixer, doing overdubs as you're working, transfer tracks to the computer, or use it as an interface for recording straight to the computer. These things are pretty well thought out. The only thing I can think of that you might want is a footswitch to start recording if you're working alone. Maybe other models have one.

Bundles can be a good deal, but only if you need everything, or nearly everything, in the bundle. I took a look through the bundles with an H6 and didn't see anything that looked like a good match for what I think you want to do. It sounds like you're attracted to the H6 because it can record 6 tracks at a time. Is that what you really need? There are a few ways that you can record your band rehearsals - what kind of band? Your typical drums, bass, guitars, vocals? Or a steel band, a bluegrass band, a brass concert band, or a taiko ensemble? We have some of each here in the DC area. Most likely, you'll just want to set the recorder up on a stand and record the band straight to stereo. If you want to record each member on a track, you'll need more microphones. The Zoom H6 is kind of a "bridge" recorder between their wide range of 2- and 4-track recorders and their F8 field recorder that's what you'd use when you needed multiple mics and portability and that works like a real recorder (don't ask yet). Without knowing more about what would be best for you at this time and in the near future, I'd have to side with the simple approach - a 2-4 track like the Zoom H4N or the TASCAM that Kuru recommended. You can accessorize as you find the need. For example, the 4-tracks are capable of recording stereo (2 tracks) with the built-in mics, stereo with external mics, and a combination of both. For example, you might start out recording your band with the internal mics, and if you can't find a good place for it where you get a good balance of vocals and instruments, add an external mic on an external input and record that on its own track, then mix it in with the stereo track. You can do that right on the recorder, though it's usually a bit clumsy. But since you mentioned using the recorder as a computer interface, you can import the tracks into your computer and mix them there. So give it some more thought and maybe the H6 isn't really what you need. Or maybe it is. By the way, I'm also in the DC area. If you want to come over and buy me lunch, and if you don't already know these handy recorders pretty well, I'll show you a couple and you can get a better idea of the features and (this is important) external microphone connections.

I don't think that you'll get much use out of the shotgun with the kind of things you're talking about recording. You might do better with a basic H4 or H6 with the stereo mic setup and get a solid tripod (or a good mic stand that you can use as one). Then, either right out of the gate or when you have a few spare bucks, get a couple of today's low priced condenser mics that sound like they cost a lot more so you can have more flexibility with your mic placement. I've heard really good things about the PreSonus PM2 small diaphragm mics that sell for $130 for a pair with a stereo bar mount. I'd also suggest that rather than putting all your eggs in one 64 GB basket, get a few 16 GB memory cards. They're easier to back up and you can still put a lot of music on one. If you'll be working outdoors, a fur wind screen would be a good investment, too.

Is this what sound designers do all day?

The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix. All sorts of stuff from all over the world. A huge place, and things are always changing. My first visit there was to write up the Sennheiser museum tour headphone system that they had just installed. My first visit was courtesy of Sennheiser and now whenever I have the opportunity, I become a tourist. Plan to spend the whole day there. The NAMM Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA. You can do this one in an hour or two. The grand re-opening is .... hey! today, June 15. They were doing an extensive makeover (planned before the Covid pandemic) and I'm not sure what it came out like, but the idea is that it represents what NAMM represents - all aspects of making music, from making instruments to marketing them. They have frequent concerts and workshops so if you're going to be around the area with a few hours check it out. They were enthusiast about hiring me as a docent/guide if I ever went through with my plan to move to that area, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen. I left them several of my most interesting instruments in my will. And as far as historic music venues, the old Grand Old Opry (pre Opryland, pre-renovation) was an inspiring visit. Things were much simpler in those days. One mic on stage with the WSM logo, and I could hear everything. A combination of good acoustic design (or just good luck with it), good musicians and singers, and enthusiastic announcers. Made me want to run out to the lobby and buy some Goo Goo Clusters. The current rebuild is quite good, but now you have to listen to someone mix and it's usually too loud.

Looks like a good start. There are about a dozen different "Glyn Johns" setups here and there. A good way to start the setup is to put one of the overheads looking straight down at the snare and measure the distance between the mic and the snare head. You can use a piece of string for that, Then set the snare mic out front and use your string to set it to the same distance to the head as your overhead. That will go a long way toward having the mics that get most of the snare in phase.

Remember that it's likely a TRS jack so you'll be connecting the right channel headphone to the left channel signal. It won't make much difference if the headphone mix is mostly mono but if you're feeding stereo to the headphones you may need to diddle with the headphone mix to get everything you want in the headphone that you're using. I made a few boxes that would let me select left to both ears, right to both ears, sum to both ears, and I suppose you could go a little crazy (I didn't) and add a one channel off position. But thanks for reminding us of how important getting the headphone mix that makes both the artist and engineer happy, even if it's a little goofy. Tip #2: When trying to make an electric guitar sound like an acoustic guitar, I was getting excellent results from a combination of EQ, and convolution with an impulse response of an acoustic guitar body. But it still wasn't right... So I stuck a mic in front of the electric guitar to record the sound of the pick hitting the strings. Bingo!! Some EQ on the mic to pull back the highs, dip the mids, and boost the bass completed the emulation...and it really did sound very much like an acoustic guitar. I'm not sure what he was attempting to do - whether it was to add to the illusion of an acoustic guitar or something else, but I recall Steve St. Croix describing just that in one of his monthly columns in Mix. Darn, I miss those articles and that guy.

So how about performing musicians who haven't had a tour gig for a year, but have been racking up the pennies with streaming concerts. Suppose some of them have become accustomed to not traveling, not dealing with stages and sound equipment, and such. Might some of them decide they'd rather create concerts from home, and maybe find some other way to pick up some spare change, like maybe teaching, adding tracks or assisting with song writing - taking on the role of producer . . . .

There are two different product categories here. The recent appearance of relatively inexpensive ($200-$500) in-ear devices are "personal audio amplifiers" that can be adjusted remotely from a phone. They're effective for people with modest hearing loss, primarily due to aging. The tricks you can do with a phone is to adjust the overall EQ to your personal test and apply curves and limiting that are helpful for listening in specific circumstances such as restaurants or concerts. Hearing aids (generally $2000 and up) do more stuff, based on customizing from an audiologist who adjusts them based on your specific hearing condition. It's a bit of a racket since the hardware is expensive and can only be optimized by someone who really has all the data about your hearing loss (which is usually an expensive add-on). The two are not interchangeable.

And here's how I propped the console up on end in preparation for the surgery: [$&*#$ the "only 2 file attachments" and lack of the ability (or my ability) to insert images in line] I should add (and I did) that at this point in the resurrection the Soundcraft mixer was still in place with most of its cables still connected, and the d8b lived in front of it on a stack of 2 (on each end) milk crates. Not a particularly good position for mixing, but it allowed me to get access to all of the connectors and controls so I could see what was working and what was not. When I decided that I needed to get to the underside of the d8b I propped it up as in this photo just to see if I could do it myself or if I would need to find a helpful neighbor. Knowing I could move it around bolstered my confidence. Sometimes you just need that!

I don't recall any duct tape on plugs, but there are a few 1/4" plugs labeled with a piece of "artist" or "console" (white paper) tape wrapped around the plug body. When I first made up the console cables (I had a plan, of course), I typed the cable labels on a computer, printed them with a sufficiently small font, and, before soldering the connector on the end, wrapped the label lengthwise around the cable, slipped a piece of clear heat shrink tubing over it, and shrunk it down. When a label became obsolete, I'd make a new one, wrap it over the heat shrink tubing, and secure it using clear packaging tape. The heat shrink labels last forever. The packaging tape starts to come unglued after about 10 years, so it's not hard to replace the label a second or third round. The cables with the white paper labels on the plugs were intended to be temporary, usually an already-made cable, but you know how "temporary" goes. Why were you working on your console when it was hung on the wall? In fact why was it hanging on the wall in the first place? Are you using it essentially as a router rather than an active mixer? That seems like an uncomfortable setup for real mixing. And, as you've discovered, you have gravity working against you when you start disassembling it. I understand why some ribbon cables need to be installed in a specific order because of cable lengths and that they end up being sort of in layers for things like the channel strips. I needed to get to the underside of the d8b to troubleshoot the missing tape returns, and I was able to wrestle it off the table and into a close-to-vertical position using the table edge as a fulcrum and rolling it around on the corners. That way I never had to lift the full weight of the console while being able to flip it over on the opposite end when that got me closer to where I needed to work. That, too, had several circuit boards stacked layers and connected by ribbon cables. Those cables definitely had to be put back in their original places or you'd find yourself holding a few at the end that wouldn't reach between where they needed to be connected.

Here's an interesting bit of cicada sounds. Rather than the constant roar, the amplitude varies with about a 6 second period. There were two trees in from of the house where I heard this when out walking, so I recorded a bit on my phone. Crude, but you can hear the effect. Possibilities??? Different breeds settled in the two trees and alternately courted one another? There could be a temperature difference between the trees which changes the velocity of sound, which could change the phase between the sound coming from each tree. I didn't investigate any closer. I didn't want to get arrested for being a cicada stalker. Here's a link to a short MP3 file: Cicada Tremolo

OK, I'll show you mine since you've shown me yours. - a different but somewhat related Mackie 8-bus console, a Vintage d8b. This was Mackie's first digital console and really the only one that was completely finished before being discontinued. The back story is that I've been using a Soundcraft 600 24x8x16 (mic, line, and tape return channels x buses x monitor returns) since I bought it new in 1985. It's tired, needs too many new pots, switches and faders (all unobtainable as new parts), and because of an imaginative internal grounding system, was fine for tape but not really quiet enough for digital work. I've been shopping for a new digital console for several years now and, while there are plenty of nice ones, they're all designed for live sound in mind rather than multitrack recording. Their common flaws are: - Mic and Line Inputs on the same connector so you can't have everything plugged in at once - No tape returns (not enough independent inputs for that) - Frequently no direct outputs other than as USB to a flash memory card or recorder The d8b was built as a recording console from the get-go, designed to mate with an 8-track up to 24-track analog recorder, have all the tape tracks available for a monitor mix (as well as mixdown, of course), and gee-whiz-it was digital. Plug-in I/O cards allowed a choice of analog or three flavors of inputs and outputs, EQ and dynamics are included for each channel, and a series of plug-ins running on optional DSP cards did all sorts of other stuff. I work on the trailing edge of technology without need for much signal processing, so I decided I'd see what I could find in the way of a used d8b in reasonable shape. I ended up with one that's on loan with no time limit and no agreed buyout. There were a couple of things wrong with it which I was able to repair. Back then you could get good documentation from the manufacturers, so I was even able to track down one of the problems to a digital card, found a replacement, and it's now all working. It'll be ages before I learn all the automation tricks, but what the heck, I never used an automated console before, so why rush into it because it's there? In addition to getting all the gozintas, gozoutas, and faders working, I needed to re-purpose many cables from the patchbay to the console because there were some holes to fill and some plugs that no longer had holes for their functions. There are still a bunch of loose cables back there ready to find homes. Oh, and to the left of the d8b, you'll see the corner of a Mackie 1640VLZ3. That's for emergencies, remote work, and, since it has a Firewire interface to all the input and output channels, it's still hooked up to a computer so I can pretend to know how to record with a DAW if necessary. Anyway, I thought I'd borrow this message thread and put up a couple of pictures. Console in Natural Habitat Back Side of the Console https://imgur.com/e1pmvGo] Just for kicks, back of the patchbay/rack

It all depends on how you define "productive" and who defines it. We're not making widgets. I can honestly say that in none of my office jobs have I ever worked (productive or not) on office work 8 hours a day. However, most days I felt that had made some progress in one way or another.

Well, not all musical instruments are perfect. Guitarists and Bassists learn where notes stick out and play them a little softer. It's indeed possible, though, that the frequency response of your speakers makes them more sensitive to that range so they come out louder. It's not out of the question that there's something acoustic going on due to the positioning of the speakers. You could try relocating them temporarily and see if those notes still bloom. Don't look too hard for the spec sheet for your speakers. If it has a frequency response plot at all, it probably looks very flat.

2001! Was it that long ago? You put ADAM speakers on the map in the US! I remember big exhibits and smaller exhibits at the trade shows but the one that I remember best was a time when I was at your booth and the Music Police came by telling you that you had to turn down the volume. You said you didn't, that you were just at the limit of 85 dBA. They pulled out there SPL meter, and darn if it didn't settle at 85 dBA. I was really impressed (well, with the speakers, too). I remember when you disappeared from ADAM at the shows, I don't recall Summit (too far out of my price range for gear I didn't really need) and I recall seeing you show up at the Wave booth for f few years. So, yeah, it takes time to build up a reputation and a style, as well as have the technical knowledge to be on top of the products. I expect that it takes a while before you can start working for several companies and you must have made your changes at the right time. I admire your success. What's next? And, out of curiosity, what did you do before ADAM? I think that's the first place I met you.

There's a big difference between Dave Bryce working for The Dave Bryce Company and someone working for Apple. As an independent rep, engineer, producer, writer, and lover of sound and music, you're the only one responsible for the success of the company. and you're the one who pays your salary or what amounts to one. Your business is built around you and the work that you do - nobody else. The Apple employee who prefers to work at home doesn't have such a big responsibility toward where the monthly paycheck is coming from, but they want some means of measuring the likelihood that the employee is actually contributing something to the company. That's why they might want to see the real person who is receiving the pay checks. The Dave Bryce Company has that metric every day. I worked nearly all of my career for the US Government - a very secure job though not necessarily the best paying one. The Gov't, in general, was very much against employees working from home, and if you didn't come to work, they assumed that you weren't doing your job. That was liberalized during my last few years - if I had nothing else to do but review a contractor's proposal, for example, I could do that from home, and I occasionally did that, but usually for a good (for me) reason, like that I was able to book a band to come in for recording during the normal workday. As long as I got the job done satisfactorily and on time, the office was OK, as long as I didn't beg off coming into the office too often. And sort of like TDPCo, I was the one who would have to live with what we agreed to when reviewing and encouraging the bidders to revise their proposals to give us what we really wanted. After retiring, I worked as a contractor for Mackie and submitted a weekly "time card" to report how much time I spent working for them. They paid me by the hour so some months the check was bigger, some it was smaller. That worked out pretty well for me but I was happy to get a regular salary for most of my career, with a retirement program that paid me a reasonable percentage of my salary for not working when the time came. It allowed me to build up a healthy reserve of money for periods like now when I'm not getting any money for freelance work. It's a blow to my ego, but not to my economy.

With four inputs, you're bordering on a "pro" setup with a mixer (which may have a built-in interface) and a simple podcasting mixer. A couple of things worth looking at are the Roland HS-5 and the Rode Podcaster Pro. It has four mic inputs, some tricky software for automatic gain setting and adjustment, and it records directly to an SD card or provides USB output to a Mac or PC. I don't now about to a phone other than an analog output, but that could work. Rode, Audio Technica, and several others make plenty of lav mics with XLR connectors (what the Podcaster Pro takes) and you might be able to come up with the right package for what you're looking for there. Another possibility is the Roland HS-5, though it's more oriented toward (up to) five musicians playing together. I think that a setup with four talkers and nobody in control is asking for chaos, but that's a different sort of problem. This sort of product is somewhat out of my area of expertise and I'm only suggesting these two because I've seen the at trade shows, the companies know their business very well, and if you can work with their feature set, you should come out fine.