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Pro Studio
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| R&B
King Michael Tarsia on Vocals |
 Although
he's recorded it all (jazz, heavy metal, choral, classical), Michael
Tarsia's true music love is R&B. The CEO and chief mixer at Philadelphia's
legendary Sigma Sound Services, Tarsia is a second generation recording
engineer (Sigma Sound was founded by his father, Joe Tarsia) who cut
his chops as an assistant engineer during the heyday of the Philly
R&B scene.
Now Tarsia has 15 gold and platinum records to his credit and has
been the engineer of choice for such artists as Patti LaBelle, Hank
Williams Jr., and Leon Redbone. Pro Studio Edition caught up with
Tarsia and asked him to share some of his insights in making vocal
tracks soar.
Tarsia's recent recording and mixing projects have included an
album for the O'Jays and a remake of the Rick James song 'Fire
and Desire,' performed by Johnny Gil and Coco and produced by Gerald
Lavert for the soundtrack of Booty Call. He is currently working on
two reggae projects and Pure Soul's sophomore album.
What tips can you offer on capturing the
dynamics and emotion of a lead vocal?
Probably the most common error people make is over compressing or
limiting vocal tracks. Besides taking the life out of the performance
by squashing its dynamics, an over-compressed track will often exhibit
that unpleasant "pumping" effect that can really ruin an otherwise
marvelous recording. Generally, I like to put the microphone into
one channel of the console, then come out of that channel into the
limiter, then out of the limiter into another channel, and then finally
out of the second channel to the tape input. That way I can ride the
limiter input at a console fader to take advantage of its balancing
effect and still preserve the dynamics of the performance.
I never hit the limiter very hard: 3-5 db, tops. And I can monitor
meter levels of both the mic channel and the compressor channel at
the same time. If the singer is a real artist, sings dynamically and
knows how to use the microphone, it's a shame to take all that
away by overuse of a limiter.
How do you change recording techniques to
accomodate for different singing styles?
Good singers always make the engineer's job easier. They know how
to make technology work for them. But sometimes you encounter a singer
who just has to move with the music, or even dance. That's when
I consider an omni pattern microphone and carefully place the mic
for the most consistent pickup of the vocal performance. Too often
we engineers get locked into a favorite method of doing a particular
thing. It's wise to look at every situation and carefully select
the microphone, its cardioid pattern, its rolloff and placement to
the voice or instrument, its environment, and the sound you wish to
put on tape. Be creative!
What do you do to recreate the setup for a tracking session?
Traditionally, at the end of a session someone wrote down all the
settings of all the devices and how they were patched together. But
[today's] electronic devices can be deviously inaccurate. Even
most modern resettable consoles can't account for the common variability
of electronic components inserted in the channel chain. For a vocal
tracking job at Sigma we do more than simply document knob settings.
We also use a measured test tone fed through channels with limiters
and other devices to document levels at various points using a standard
metering setup. That way when we set up for re-records or revisions
we can reset the exact levels at which the devices were operating,
not just the placement of their knobs.
Aside from technological knowledge, what
else goes into being a great vocal engineer?
I can't say enough about the importance of studio etiquette in
this job. Time and again success comes down to knowing when to speak
or not to speak, knowing what to say or what not to say. There are
many fine engineers who are masters of the most advanced technology,
but without people skills they would just be technicians. I'm not
a technical wizard. I'm a knob turner who loves people and good
music.
I see recording music like painting. In music, our canvas is sound.
Echo and reverb give us depth of field. EQ brings color and panning
gives placement. Mixing breathes life into a recording by giving color,
definition and texture to a fine song beautifully performed. |
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