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Neal: Introduction to Studio Tips and Sound Advice by Neal Schmitt - 4/5/2002
Editor's Note: Neal Schmitt is part owner and operator of Workbook Studio based out of Columbus, Ohio. Neal is also a member of the band Pretty Mighty Mighty, which got it's start in Athens several years ago. If you have an recording, producing, or mixing questions, please email Neal.
So, I’m in hotel’s grand ballroom setting up a medium size PA system for a show tomorrow and the speakers that I had just flown 20-ft. overhead are not producing sound. I distinctly remember double-checking the connections before the truss was raised. I’ve double-checked the cables with a cable tester. I’ve double-checked the snake. I make sure the CD player is metering on the board.
After hearing a few horror stories about the last audio guy to fiddle with the amp rack, I grab a flashlight and start checking for loose or wrong connections. Now there are two of us working on the problem. With a sigh of relief, I produce sound from the flown speakers by using a different amp but I need that amp for the subwoofers. I’m scratching my head in confusion. Everything seems to be connected properly but yet . . . I have no sound. Now a third person walks over, glances around and states simply "It’ll work better if you turn the amp on."
There are two points to this story. One. Employ the KISS principle: Keep It Simple Stupid (yes, I had to pay Gene Simmons for the trademarked use of the word kiss). Two. I don’t pretend to know everything about audio. I enjoy learning and am constantly evaluating how I do things, both in the studio and out. With my partner, Jon Chinn, we’ve operated Workbook Studio in Columbus for five years recording tons of records. Before Workbook, I worked three years at another local studio and I’ve always done a variety of live sound gigs. Now, the differences between studio and live sound are vast, but almost nothing gets your troubleshooting chops in order like the stressful situation of live sound. I highly recommend it.
If you haven’t seen the movie or read the book, Hi-Fidelity, (they’re completely different entities but both very good) a theme throughout the story is Top Five lists. So here’s mine for this column.
Top Five Influential Records
1) Def Lepard’s Pyromania. Produced by Mutt Lange. My first musical purchase made with my grass mowing money in sixth grade. I used to know all lyrics. I had heard other kids talking about them at school, saw the video for "Photograph" and had my Dad drive me to Peaches to pick up the cassette. The biggest revelation to me was that the radio only played one song, when the whole record was full of great songs. Why is that? And who couldn’t help but walk around saying that fake German intro countdown.
2) REM Murmer and Reckoning Produced by Mith Easter. With an older sister away at college, she sent me back a taped copy of this band she thought I’d like with their first two records. At first, I just wore out Song #1 Radio Free Europe. I would play it, rewind the tape and later on, listen to it again. But once I continued, I was floored.
3) del Amitri S/T 1985 Produced by Hugh Jones. This record, in my eyes, continues to stand up as an amazing work. The production, the songwriting, the hooks, the melodies, the musicianship, the lyrics, its all there. No one knows this record and it’s a shame. And the fact that Justin Currie was 17 or 18 when he wrote it, is just sick.
4) Mix Tape by Joe Banks Madonna died and we sold her body to the glue factory for 50 cents I was washing dishes at a country club and one of the waiters worked as a DJ in Cleveland. This mix tape turned me and a bunch of others onto a whole new music scene. Aussie pop, industrial, new wave, punk, goth, brit pop . . . It was eye opening.
5) My Bloody Valentine Loveless Produced by by Kevin Shields but Alan Moulder certainly played a big roll. I was the music director at WLHD, the radio station no one can hear and was receiving so much crap music followed with so much hype that it was frustrating. This CD sat on my desk for about two months before I put it in with a stack of music to take home and check out. The first listen gave me the worst headache and I don’t think I got all the way through. For some reason though, I spun it again and was hooked. HOOKED I tell you.
I will be writing this studio column about a variety of subjects related to the recording studio. Mostly I’m hoping to answer questions emailed to me at workbookstudio@hotmail.com. I’ll try to answer them all and no question too small. I’m also addicted to Ranch Wheat Thins and Garden Herb Triscuits.
