The Score Magazine - Archive June 2015 issue! | Page 41

Studios over the span of three weeks. We also recorded three songs
for singer/songwriter PRATYUL JOSHI at Yashraj Studios, which
took a total of four days. And we also recorded the vocals, trumpet
and acoustic guitar for composer Anirbann Chakravorty for the
Bollywood feature film NH10 at Studio Nyasa and Studio Songbird,
which again was spread over four days. Sandeep Braganza from
Pro Visual Audio was kind enough to loan me an assortment of AT
microphones for these projects, and I must say that everyone who’s
worked on these projects - artists and engineers alike - were blown
away with the quality and performance of the AT gear that they used.
Please enlist the AT gear that you’ve used in the
aforementioned projects.
To briefly sum it up, we used the AT5045, AT4060, AT 5040 mics on
vocals, acoustic guitars, electric guitar cabinets, and trumpets, along
with the AE2500 dual capsule mic on the kick-drum. We also used a
combination of ATH-M50 and ATH-M50x headphones for the dubs.
As the chief engineer on these projects, please talk to us
about your experience of using AT products and the kind
of impact it had on the work. Did you have any favourite
product(s) in particular from the entire lot of AT products
you’ve used during the course of the project? What
according to you are the key USPs of the product(s) that had
you ‘hooked’ on to them?
Without a doubt, my favourites were the ATH-M50X headphones and
the AT5040 microphone.
The ATHM headphones, being a true price vs features winner, are
natural true sounding headphones that not only reveal a lot of details
but also go really easy on the ears, as they translate amazingly well
from the material heard on speakers to headphones and back. From
our projects’ point of view, this ensured that the artists and engineers
were on the same page in terms of what they were listening to, which
translated into fewer takes and more efficient work.
The AT5040 on the other hand is a solid microphone that’s hig h on
performance and value. From an engineer’s point of view, the mic is
absolutely amazing for its high gain and clarity. The AT5040 does not
sound brittle or harsh, and is really good at handling upper registers
of any vocalist or the notes of the loud trumpet. Since it is a high gain
mic, we could have the singers placed at least a foot or so away from
the mic, which meant that we got a very even tone. There was hardly
any need to hard compress the voices, with virtually no need at all
to high pass. Plus, considering the distance that the singers were at
(with respect to the microphone), there was hardly any proximity
effect. These little things makes life for the engineer so easy!
How much did the artists enjoy using AT products during the
course of the respective projects, and what kind of positive
impact did the AT product have on their work?
The artists were very comfortable with the ATHM headphones as
it played back the music way we heard it on speakers in the control
room. The fidelity and wide frequency response that the artists
received from the ATHM headphones made them perform better. And
since the headphones are closed back, there was hardly any bleed
into the recording mics, which makes the engineer’s job so much
easier.
The vocalists absolutely loved the texture of the AT5040. It turned out
to be our favourite mic over other major brand mics that the studio
had. Not only does the AT5040 look and feel amazing, it also comes
with a great mic holder clamp which further adds solid stability to its
amazing tonal quality. The moment it is patched in, one gets to hear
the solid performer that the AT5040 truly is. The AT5040 handled the
male and female vocals with absolute ease as it faithfully reproduced
every nuance perfectly - from loud baritone to sheer whispers -
without adding any unwanted artefact or colour. Plus, another factor
that singers were surprised with was the high gain and clarity of the
AT5040 - it took them some time to get used to the fact that no one
was asking them to come closer and sing ‘into’ the mic as opposed to
me telling them to step back! I think using the AT5040 was such an
amazing experience, I won’t be surprised if it gets super difficult for
them to go back to using other microphones now!
So based on the fact that you’ve had a super positive
experience of using AT products during these projects, when
do you plan to kick start your next project? And what AT
products do you plan to put to use for that one?
Well, I am always working on new projects - be it audio for a
feature film or a documentary (I am co-directing one right now!) or
producing bands/artists and mixing for them or live mix engineering
duties. So the scope of using AT products across these applications is
always huge. That being said, I’d certainly love to continue using the
present gear in the studio as I believe it enhances the fidelity of my
work and imparts a certain characteristic quality to my recordings.
That apart, I am now super keen to come across specific projects that
will allow me to try out their entire drum kit mic set and some of the
older classics like the AT 4050. I’m so sure it’ll blow me away further!
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