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HENDERSONVILLE,
TENNESSEE: Well into his fourth decade as a country
star - he made his first televised stage appearance
at the age of seven, sharing the stage with the
legendary Flatt & Scruggs duo - Ricky Skaggs
is still going strong. He records all of his studio
work at Skaggs' Place, his one room facility located
in Hendersonville, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville.
Ricky also maintains an active performing schedule,
and is always looking to improve the quality of
audio he delivers to his audience. Several months
ago Skaggs played a date at the Charleston Music
Hall, which had recently been refurbished. He liked
the sound of the hall so much that he asked the
owners if they would be interested in having him
record live. Management jumped at the opportunity,
and the result, "Ricky Skaggs Live at the Charleston
Music Hall," due for release late in 2003,
featured six Neumann KMS 105 microphones and an
eight-channel True Precision mic-pre.
Skaggs has long been a Neumann fan, according to
Lee Groitzsch, who is one of the studio engineers
at Skaggs' Place. A real Neumann aficionado, Ricky
makes use of Neumann Tube and FET 47, 67s, 89s,
87s, KM 66s, and his newly acquired KMS 105 in virtually
all of his studio recordings.
"There's a group of us who engineer Ricky's
work - Brent King, Alan Schulman and Steve Chandler.
Most of us use the Neumann 47 for Ricky's main vocals.
It really sounds great on him," says Groitzsch.
Skaggs prefers to work with a trio of male background
singers. Using the same mic for them tends to color
all of the vocals the same way. To avoid this tonal
blur, the engineers generally use a Neumann 67 on
the background singers. "Using a Neumann 67
on these tracks makes it easier for us to pull the
background vocals out of a mix."
Skaggs, noted for his mandolin playing, has long
searched for a microphone that can reproduce the
upper frequency range of the instrument on stage
without sounding too bright. "We've been searching
high and low for a microphone that works just right
on his mandolin. The 105 we used on the Three Pickers
show stood up very, very well - so well, in fact,
that we're going to use it in the studio. It's easy
for a mandolin to end up sounding brittle, or pointy,
but the 105 remained smooth throughout the instrument's
entire register."
The upper register of the fiddle- particularly when
it's been reproduced and delivered into a large
venue that hasn't had its reflective surfaces treated
properly, can also cause severe problems. "The
105 let us capture all of the high end in a very
natural way. We thought we might have to use some
EQ to roll out some of the section's upper frequencies,
but it wasn't necessary. We also used a 105 on Ricky's
vocal. He really liked the way it treated the timbre
of his voice. Once again, to create a varied vocal
texture we used a different mic on the three background
singers."
Logistics often influence the choice of equipment
used on a live recording. Skaggs decided not to
bring a truck to the Charleston show. Instead, the
engineering staff hand carried all of the equipment
into the venue, including the True Precision 8 mic-pre
they had not used prior to this date. The Precision
8's small footprint was a factor, but quality has
made it a part of Ricky Skaggs recording studio
equipment list. "I used the Precision 8 again
this last weekend on the Three Pickers concert Ricky
recorded with Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson. I put
it on Doc's two guitar inputs, his grandson's mic
and direct input box. "The results were stunning.
I look forward to mixing this date because it just
sounds so good! The sound of the Precision 8 is
extremely transparent. We choose a lot of mic-pre's
for their color or characteristic. This time, we
wanted the instruments to be the focal point. The
Precision 8 was perfect because it didn't have any
influence at all on the signal."
Neumann's award winning line of microphones has
set the standard in the industry since 1928. In
1999, Neumann received the prestigious Technical
Grammy(r) for their 70 years of innovation in microphone
design and contribution to the music industry. A
continuing commitment to provide innovative, technically
refined products and engineering solutions of proven
quality ensures that Neumann's stature will remain
unassailable.
www.sennheiserusa.com
www.neumannusa.com
