Manley TNT MICROPHONE PREAMPLIFIER - Manual (Page 12)

Consider the singer, headphones on, and getting a
blend of their voice through bone conduction and those
phones. All too often there is something in the chain
with a polarity problem and it is usually a vintage mic
or the headphones, but can also be caused by a wiring
mistake or a power amp. Did you ever get one of those
vocalists that continually complained about her voice
in the cans? Did you try flipping the phase? One way
will be thin and weird and the other will be hopefully
better, but only the person in front of the mic can say.
Might be worth singing into the mic yourself, phones
on, before the session while somebody in the control
room flips the switch for you. And while you’re there,
check out that headphone mix and level, and the room
temperature and creature comforts. This will give
you a bit more chance to work with the talent in the
beginning of the session to also see if there is some
choice reverb in the phones that helps her perform and
hit those notes. Either that or spend more time auto-
tuning later. These ‘tricks’ are not only limited to vocal
sessions because a lot of times the talent is hearing a
blend between the live room sound and the headphone
feed. The benefits of good sound in the talent’s phones
can be subtle, if you as the engineer are focused on the
‘sounds’ in the control room, because the benefits tend
to be in the performances. One might also consider
that one’s skills as an engineer are often more related
to the performances and hit records that they have
been ‘lucky’ enough to record than how great the mix
was. Makes one wonder about little things like phase
switches and using gear versus choosing gear.
As a matter of fact, one can view the TNT as a single
piece of relatively simple gear that offers a fair number
of tints to explore and use. But that is the key! One has
to really dig in and explore the options and approach it
like an instrument with many possibilities. Though it
may be just another preamp that you try for 1 minute
and see if it delivers a sound that you like, it should
be approached as an instrument that needs some time
to learn. After all there is a variety of settings on the
Tube Channel, another bunch of settings to explore on
the Cool Channel and maybe the sound that you are
looking for is really there with a little coaxing in mic
choice and positioning choice and maybe even some
coaching of the talent to get that sound. Maybe one of
the biggest tricks that we can share is that it isn’t just the
gear, it is how one uses it. And before that, it is about
the source, the musician, the music and the instrument
and the room, and you working with all those factors
before going crazy with choosing between 8 different
preamps. The preamp does represent many tints, but
not prime colors.
More “Techniques” from other sources
For a really great source of tricks and techniques like
these, there are too few books. An Australian engineer,
who worked at Air Studios with Sir George Martin and
even has a forward by him, has written one of the best
books. The author is Michael Paul Stavrou and it is
called “Mixing with your Mind”
www.mixingwithyourmind.com , (Flux Research Pty
Ltd, P.O. Box 397, Mosman NSW 2088 Australia) The
inspiring part is that much of his focus deals with the
counter-intuitive and non-geeky approaches that were
learned the hard way through 20+ years of experience.
For those struggling with technology, it may suggest
that some fresh techniques that reduce techno-
dependence, and for those that “just go for it” it may
enlighten them to very practical acoustic and signal
flow thoughts explained in easy visual metaphors. You
may be approaching the task of recording in one way,
and this book can pull you into a completely opposite
alternative, which of course lets you then roam that
entire space between your preconceptions and his.
And because it really is difficult to describe sounds in
ways that everybody understands, some of the labels
and categorizations tend to be personalized and this
makes for a great read.
Beyond that, it helps to know that “Stav” tends to be
a brilliant recordist who truly gets results on tape that
most of us would be jealous of. So he knows, and he
has taken the time to share in print - very rare.
On the other hand, we might suggest avoiding the dry
technical literature that seems to be the majority of
the recent texts on recording technology. Those might
be handy if you can make a living debating math
minutiae or you are curious about those chips in the
box you bought. However most of them are almost
useless for both the recording engineer and the gear
designers, and often cloud the real issues rather than
help. When it comes to audio engineering, it mostly
comes down to the ears and making tasteful decisions.
It may be more an art than a science. It is not “paint-
by-numbers”.
The point is this: If you are hungry for knowledge and
you search books and bulletin boards and magazines,
it all helps. What helps most is advice from guys doing
what you want to do and are deeply experienced and
(importantly) are getting obviously good sounding
results. Artistic mentorship is at least as valuable as
it ever was, and is a huge advantage if you can get it.
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