The Process of Making Records

Be curious to hear some examples of that. What type of austerity we talking about?

 

That is so awesome in the truest sense of the word. Thanks for bringing some humility to my slightly offhanded comment about Californians.

Cheers to Robbie.

 

Sometimes social media turns up gems, like this letter that Steve Albini wrote to Nirvana explaining his approach to recording and to pitch them on having him record In Utero. It's long but a great read. Here's a link to the full text:

https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/nirvana?s=r

Some particular gems that stood out:

"Making a seamless record, where every note and syllable is in place and every bass drum is identical, is no trick. Any idiot with the patience and the budget to allow such foolishness can do it."

"I do not consider recording and mixing to be unrelated tasks which can be performed by specialists with no continuous involvement. 99 percent of the sound of a record should be established while the basic take is recorded."

"...in my experience, remixing has never solved any problems that actually existed, only imaginary ones... Remixing is for talentless pussies who don't know how to tune a drum or point a microphone."

"I would like to be paid like a plumber: I do the job and you pay me what it's worth. The record company will expect me to ask for a point or a point and a half. If we assume three million sales, that works out to 400,000 dollars or so. There's no f'ing way I would ever take that much money. I wouldn't be able to sleep."

"If a record takes more than a week to make, somebody's f'ing up."

 

Sodom worked in a coal mine.

 

Wasn't coal mining his day job and he was trying to play music to escape that? Not trying to steer OT. This thread is incredible

 

I can only speak to a few local friends, but an example locally is living in the same cheap apartment in his mid 40's in a not so safe area of town (Greenspoint), so he can afford guitars, traveling for shows etc. Still driving a 15+ year old car, mostly wearing clothing from the band or sponsors. When we'd want to go grab a bite out, he'd often decline politely unless we made it clear one of us was paying. I never got into actual $, but it was clear that the dude wasn't living large.

 

Someone happened to share this with me. Most of it is over my head, but maybe some of you can get more out of it.



https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/recording-50s-style

 

One of the more boutiquey classical labels is BIS records and I often have a look at their liner notes to see if they mention any gear. One that crops up from time to time is Didrik de Geer mics and pres. I looked him up and he sounds pretty far out, ultra old school hair shirt purist manufacturer of eye wateringly expensive mics and mic pres.

I found an article about him here:

https://user.faktiskt.io/RogerGustavsson/mm_0410_didrik_degeer.pdf

Unless you can read Swedish you can only look at the pictures but I had a crack at an amateurish translation...

Spoiler: Translation

I might as well say it directly: not many people can afford a Didrik De Geer microphone. They are manufactured to order, and entirely by hand by the manufacturer himself. Among the lucky owners here in Sweden are Benny Andersson, Marie Fredriksson, Johan Ekelund and Gert Palmcranz. The microphones are also used by the biggest artists in the USA. Outside San Francisco, Stephen Jarvis runs a high-end audio hire company which owns three of these mics. Because of this, Didrik de Geer can count Neil Young, Metallica and Kenny Loggins among his users. Chris Isaac doesn't need to hire: he owns three mics outright. In Japan, Yamaha test their music instruments with the help of Didrik's microphoness. To date, Didrik De Geer has build 28 microphones, which carry a price tag of 120 000 kr each, exclusive of tax -- hardly something you'd find on the shelf at your local music store.

A Didrik De Geer microphone is instantly recognisable. The earliest mics were built in copper, and the later ones in bronze. In both cases, the appearance brings to mind an ancient marine instrument. The choice of material, and the height of around 30cm, mean the microphone is hardly an understated piece.

WORKSHOP AND ELECTRONICS LAB

I meet Didrik De Geer in his workplace in Stockholm. In two rooms of around 15 m^2 are his workshop, and his electronic lab which also serves as a listening room for music. From here, he runs the whole manufacturing process. In the mechanical workshop are lathes, milling machines, and a circular saw, as well as measuring microscopes and other precision instruments. The whole thing is unusually well-ordered and aesthetically pleasing. It feels like a museum of how a workshop would have looked 50 years ago, and indeed, all the machines are from an earlier era. Didrik shows us round:

"This is from 1953... this is from 1963, it sends mechanics green with envy... and this is from 1890. I prefer these older designs. The precision is often unsurpassed. These machines give more control than computer-controlled ones that blink at you constantly. It's a craft, what I do, a high precision industrial craft. I don't skimp on time, cost or work to ensure that everything is as good as it can be."

We continue into Didrik De Geer's electronic lab. There is a workbench with electronic measuring instruments. Big rolls of copper wire form a neat pile in a corner, and on a shelf are crammed hundreds of CDs and vinyl records. In the middle of the room is a sofa and in front of that, Didrik's stereo system which he has largely built himself. He explains:

"My record player has a mono cartridge -- I only play mono records since I got rid of all my stereo vinyl. The golden era of hifi and personality in recording was 1954-1964. After that, the field thinned out noticeably until 1967, after which there is barely anything worth listening to. When tape recorders got up to 16 and 24 tracks, it was over. You couldn't work with dynamics any more without getting crosstalk in antiphase."

Didrik's electronic lab is fed with DC.

"Music is rhythmic. So I don't want bulbs blinking hundreds of times a second when I am listening to music. It's a rhythm which affects my senses. With DC, the bulbs illuminate with a constant light. It's one of those things that not many people think about."

No, that is certainly true.

"You understand, what I'm doing here could never be mass-produced. This precision and care is a whole lifestyle. I have no TV, no car, no radio, no mobile phone, no computer. No family either, for good and bad. It isn't the easiest way to live. I think I am the most fastidious man since August Strindberg!"

MICROPHONES

- What are your audio ideals?

"It sounds trite, but -- naturality. I think that in Sweden we have a special ideal of purity which is one of the reasons that we have been so successful in music. I think that a microphone shouldn't have a sound. It should only transmit what is happening in the room there and then. It's the musicians, the producers, and the composers who determine the sound. The instruments and the room should have character, not the microphones. It has always been my intention to return music-making to the musicians. Today, many people seem to be afraid of this, and hide themselves behind gear and knobs and tens of thousands of transistors and resistors. Then when all that is done, they take the results to a mastering studio who level it into uniform electronic mush. I get feedback at two extremes from people who use my microphone. The sort I like say: "Your microphone has such a clean signal that it doesn't need any processing." The others say: "Your microphone has such a clean signal that it can handle a ton of processing!" But, of course, it's a good sign that it works both ways."

- But if you want to record clean and uncoloured, isn't it better to use a measuring microphone, for example a Bauel and Kjaer? They have a dead flat frequency response, so shouldn't they give the most natural reproduction?

"Indeed, they do measure flat, but dynamically speaking they aren't that great. They have a lot of distortion and their distortion spectrum isn't dead flat. They aren't as dynamically correct as, for example, a U47, although a U47 can't handle as much volume. It's more important to have low distortion than an absolutely flat response. The frequency response should be as flat as possible, but not at the expense of too much distortion in some register. The microphone should be able to reproduce everything from the tiniest whisper to a thunderclap. My microphone produces barely any noise and can handle an SPL of 140dB."

- You immediately mentioned the Neumann U47 - is that the ideal mic to you?

"It's the last microphone which has a natural energy spectrum and where it's possible to use two microphones to capture an entire symphony orchestra. But a microphone I consider even better is Neumann's M1, the original condenser microphone from 1928. Its capsule is the most beautiful construction I've ever seen. It's quite remarkable. I probably have the world's largest collection of capsules from these microphones - I have five of them. Georg Neumann was a real renaissance man. He really had all the requisite knowledge in one person. That's a necessity, it's completely unrealistic to build microphones in teams."

- Which other microphones do you like?

"I don't know any of the new ones. I don't keep up to date, and I neither compare nor test."

- What about vintage ribbon mics?

"I never really got into those, but I know that some of my customers like them. After 1950 microphone development went backwards, and microphones got worse. 1960's Neumann microphones -- the U67 and U87 -- are terrible. For example, you absolutely cannot record a symphony orchestra with U67's.

- I am guessing that the response pattern of your microphones can be varied between cardioid and omni, in true U47 style?

"No, in fact, my mics have 11 settings between figure-of-8 and omni."

- Is the capsule the most important single part of a microphone?

"I wouldn't exactly say that. It's the first and most complicated link in the chain, but everything is interdependent. The whole thing is a very complex construction."

- You source your capsules from AKG?

"Yes. I've heard from many sources that they are skeptical about modern AKG capsules. For example, I met George Massenburg in the USA and before he'd even said hello he said "I don't believe it." "What?" "I don't believe you use AKG capsules -- there is no distortion in your microphone, like there is in all the AKG's!" But AKG capsules are underestimated and are incredibly good if you fine-tune them. I spend several days on each capsule. By the way, the capsule isn't manufactured in teflon like everyone seems to believe, it's nylon. The only part which is teflon are the little gold wires! Those are teflon isolated. But my intention is to take the capsule manufacturing in-house. I'm going to make my own capsules from now on, from start to finish. It will be the same techniques that Georg Neumann used. Already in 1928 he could make membranes that were 5 microns thick. But my capsules won't be replicas! I admire his original capsules, but mine will be their own original construction. The thing is that I have the same base of knowledge as Georg Neumann had. If you don't have the knowledge base, then you will at best make replicas. But I am an original."

- So you're done with AKG capsules?

"Yes. It will be about two years before I can make my next microphone. But I get total control over the manufacture and can increase the precision even further."

- It sounds like the price is going to go up a bit, then?

"Absolutely. I hope it won't be too much. But my existing customers needn't worry, their mics can be upgraded."

- What tubes do you use for your microphones?

"A JAN6189W. It's a military version of an ECC82, manufactured by Sylvania. It's thanks to Ronald Regan's Star Wars that these stuck around. So at least one positive thing came out of that. On the other hand, he used all the cobalt for missiles, so alnico components disappeared. So he was a devil as well."

- Transformers?

"I wind them myself. There aren't any I can buy which will do the job."

- Why do you make the microphone casing from bronze?

"Bronze is a wonderful material to work with, and it has the right electromagnetic properties, unlike aluminium or steel, for example. Everything is important for a microphone."

BACKGROUND

Like many others in electronics, Didrik was technically minded from an early age. He built his first tube amplifier as a ten-year old with his grandfather. For his military service he was an electrical engineer in the air force and worked with the Drakenflyg (plane) which is a 1950s design and stuffed full of tubes. After his military service he was briefly employed at the hifi store "The Amplifier Doctor", where he among other things worked together with Yngve Malmsteen. Later he worked on heat cameras as a service engineer at AGA Infrared Systems. In 1982 he started his own company which started out manufacturing tube-based hifi amplifiers.

In 1987-88 he was tasked by Polar Studios to modify their Neumann record lathe. The project went on for a couple of years. In the end, the studio owner Ole Ramm thought that Didrik should construct his own record lathe outright. He did so, and it was used to press among others Roxette's "The Look".

- But how did you get into microphones?

"The whole project with the record lathe gave the producer Niklas Flyckt the idea that I should renovate one of his M49's, which I did. He was so happy that he asked if I could rework it a little. What this led to was that over the next two years I made constant modifications to the mic, and in the end was it only the capsule, the chassis, the output transformer and the tube left from the original. Then he gave me his second one as well, so that he could have a stereo pair.

Didrik continued:

"While reworking the M49's I came to understand how simple and elegant their construction was, no circuit boards and large ?isolation distance? I got the idea to build a microphone myself which was as good as the old Neumann mics. At a Polar party I met Johan Ekelund and told him about my microphone project. He decided to support me with an open-ended order for a pair of microphones. I shut myself off from the outside world and seven months later they were done. Their construction has only undergone minor changes since then, and I have continually upgraded my customers' microphones even after they have bought them. So there are none remaining with the old construction.

- Have you thought of making different microphone models?

"No. It is so distasteful, all this talk about a certain mic being light or dark or whatever. It's enough to have ONE good microphone.

MICROPHONE PREAMPS

Didrik also makes a microphone pre. This happened already in 1988, four years before the first microphone was built. Didrik recounts:

"It is a fully discrete MOSFET construction with two-gang volume."

Two-gang volume, I don't know what that is.

"Understandable, because it doesn't exist any more! Potentiometers are entirely forbidden in my equipment. Instead I have two rotary switches, specially made for me with contacts in solid silver, coated in gold. Completely nickel-free. The switches provide 4dB steps in coarse gain and 0.5dB steps in fine gain. The whole construction is mirror-balanced throughout, which requires a careful matching of all the components. About a year ago I figured out an improvement which reduced the noise level by a further 6dB. Not that anyone has complained about noise, but I want it to measure up to my own microphone. The input stage transistors are now placed in an eight-sided bronze block which I have machined myself. So I called my mic pre Octagon. The mic pre has no phantom power, which would spoil the thermodynamic qualities. It's made for the finest tube mics and dynamic mics. A stere unit takes about a month to build and costs 160 000 kr plus tax.

MUSIC

Before we finish the interview, Didrik spends a decent amount of time playing music that has been recorded with his microphones. The music styles span from jazz bands to solo piano to choirs to singer-songwriters. Our listening session concludes with Metallica's version of the Nick Cave song "Loverman" from the covers record "Garage Inc." Didrik seems impressed by James Hetfield's vocal.

"He is like an opera singer. An enormous register. I heard that they had to search for a while for a preamp which could handle the signal from him and my microphone. Incidentally, at the same time Michael B Tretow rang me up to say that my microphone was featured in a Metallica interview which was showing on MTV. So my microphone is obviously good enough to look at as well!"

 

Thanks for doing this. That was a great read.

 

Sound Liason takes its recording process quite seriously and produces some fantastic recordings. I have really enjoyed their recordings when both the recording and the performer mesh with my taste. Their one mic recordings are pure magic because they capture the intimacy and artistry of that one moment in time performance.

 

I'll second that. Great read.

"You understand, what I'm doing here could never be mass-produced. This precision and care is a whole lifestyle. I have no TV, no car, no radio, no mobile phone, no computer. No family either, for good and bad. It isn't the easiest way to live. I think I am the most fastidious man since August Strindberg!"