￥Join the legendary Al Schmitt and his assistant engineer Steve Genewick at Studios La Fabrique to record jazz singer Melody Gardot with her musicians. We begin with Steve explaining how he plans a session with Al and the roles they both undertake when working as a team. He then elaborates on the procedures taken prior to tracking (preparing the console, polarity checking, headphone mixes, and choosing outboard processing for EQ, compression and reverb). Following this, Al Schmitt illustrates his microphone placement and signal processing techniques for vocals, drums and double bass, while discussing microphone choice, acoustic space and performance style. He also explains why he advocates simplistic microphone setups and no EQ while tracking.

 

PART 1
00:08:28
Steve explains console preparation, polarity checking, headphone mixes and outboard processing.

 

PART 2
00:03:01
Al discusses microphone choice, placement, acoustics and processing for double bass.

 

PART 3
00:03:29
Al reveals his typical microphone choice, setup, space and compression for tracking vocals.

 

PART 4
00:09:25
Al shows his drum kit setup, mentions alternative microphone choices, and explains why he uses no EQ.

 

PART 5
00:04:31
Recording a full take of ‘Wayfaring Stranger’ cover by Melody Gardot