Ken Blair (Jazz and Orchestral recording)
Ken Blair is a Recording Engineer / Producer that works for the Association of professional recording services in the UK and in the USA. Ken’s company is called the “BMP the sound recording company”. His main skills lay in Post Editing and recording Orchestras and Jazz bands. He records both on Locations at venues/concerts and in the studio.
Ken has taught “music production” at the University of Surrey for 4 years.
These are some key points from his experience of recording Orchestral Music:
>Classical music, the microphones are further away then in Jazz
>Recording takes place live because of the acoustical elements that are in the music.
>Mix is done before you start in the classical genre
>Get things rigged and sound good in broadcast industry is good
>Tweak mix before the end
>Classical, do a take one at a time, edit the good bits , and delete the mistakes
>Rig in advance when you have time to rig mics
>Film score; micing each one separately isn’t normal really, usually a stereo mic set up
These are some of Ken’s main points for recording Jazz bands:
>Head to venue 2 hours before, to set up
>Different places around the world
> Getting all the right spaces for recording,
> Cable length, walking around them can be dangerous, h&S to take into account (Applies to both Jazz and Orchestral recording)
>Focusrite interface, DAW, monitor station W/talkback key
>Producer, engineer, client usually sit in on the session listening on headphones, so they know what’s going on.
>South bank centre recordings, understand the health and safety
>Perseverance… keep going to where you are aiming for.
> Eric Clapton, boy George, black Sabbath etc etc he worked with
>Be helpful, ‘play mum’ doing cups of tea for the musicians etc as this builds up a good rapport with them and will help to make the session easier.
> Talk back mic manners. Saying the right things, in terms of with the styles of music they are making. For example if it is a sad piece of music, he will talk to them in a calm collective way, being careful not to make his tone of voice inappropriate, because this can throw the musicians off from what they are doing.
>Abbey road. This is one of the most difficult places to get work because of its reputation.
Ken highlights:
CVs: Its Not particularly important to talk about student jobs etc, it should be more of a skills based CV because this is what Audio Based employers will most be looking for, experience etc. I found this useful, as I probably would have just included everything in my CV for audio related jobs. Ken specified to keep it to a minimum, about one page.
MPG (music producers guild)