Behind the stage at Lincoln Center, with Steve Remote

[u b k]

so this past sunday i had the honor of joining steve and the crew of aura sonic as they worked their magic on a location recording in one of the finer halls in nyc, the alice tully hall at lincoln center. it was a blast, and i'm grateful to steve for opening up his time and his truck to give me a peek at how it's all done.

i gotta say, this work is far more labor intensive than i'd imagined. these gents showed up at 8am and didn't expect to be leaving until well after midnight. your gracious narrator showed up at a posh 6pm, just in time to get a brief overview of the truck --- nice! --- before being whisked away to my first ever production meeting before a live show of this scale. the production meeting was fairly uneventful, so i'll just cut to the chase.

if you've read any of my posts in the other forums, you may have gotten the sense, and rightly so, that i'm a bit of a snob when it comes to tone, recordings, and production. so it is in that context that i feel obliged to say that steve is hands down one of the best engineers, live or otherwise, that i've ever seen at work. his mic technique is enough to humble anyone, he knows which mic to grab and where to put it and suddenly 36 channels come up on the faders and the whole damn thing sounds like a record.

mind you, i'm talking about two dozen players on stage with drums, strings, piano, acoustic and electric guitars, voice (and loud monitors)... not only was every single sound tonally rich and punchy as hell, the separation was a bit mindblowing. he'd solo out the drum overhead, and all you hear is the kit, with a piano somewhere in the vague distance and nothing else. if i hadn't been there to witness it, i'd have a hard time believing this was a live recording of a large group on a big stage in a big hall.

also, he has a sweet mic collection, a crazy 96 channel splitter, and a truck whose acoustics sound better than most project studios twice the size. and, if it isn't already obvious to those who hang out here, steve is just one helluva nice guy who just seems to get more relaxed and humorous as the pressure and stress rise, and that's no small feat here in new york city.

in short, i had a blast, was extremely impressed with the talent and professionalism i witnessed, and i didn't stay around long enough to have to carry anything because it all looked terribly heavy. rumor has it i'll be whisked off to queens soon, where i will be given top secret glimpses of the much-abuzz but little-seen 'dual expando' truck. more on that later.

truly, if you need a location recording, whether it's a jazz trio in a club or a small yiddish orchestra with a vegas lounge frontman singing in some vaguely unrecognizable accent to a large hall, you would do well to give steve a call and have the aura sonic truck working it's love on your music. this guy is passionate, fun to be around, and has the chops to boot. what else is there? well, i reckon there's a solid crew of good people backing you up, and he's got that too... many thanks to josh for the invite and heads up.

thanks again steve, for everything. catch you on the flip side.


gregoire
del
ubk
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[Musiclab]

Steve's a magician with mic technique, especially with separation.thumbsup

[Plush]

Right oN!

nice experience it sounds like

Major dude!

[Remoteness]

Greg,

That was very of you to say, especially since it’s coming from (a cat like) you!

In this situation, I’m only as good as the crew I keep. The folks at ATH were awesome to us. What a great team effort all around on every level..

Yes, we showed up at 8AM but our day started at the field shop at 7AM. We also put in a day of prep and testing of our mission critical equipment. We always test and address all major components before each and every gig – There’s no need to show up with our own problems and issues since there’s always the potential of that kind of stuff already out there and waiting for us to stumble across.

We finished just after 12 midnight and got back to the field shop at 1AM only to find my car leaked out 16 gallons of fuel in the shop. A gasoline hose clamp broke – Luckily I had an extra clamp so, Adam and I repair the problem on the spot. I usually park the car in the side yard. It’s pretty wild that this had to happen when I parked the car inside the shop. At least I was parked over the drain. Most of the fuel drained off.

Yeah, that was some “production meeting.”

We ended up with 42 or 43 inputs that included four room mics that were provided by ATH. Two pairs, front and rear pairs.

MASS56 Mult snake to/from ATH/TBM
Channels 1 through 42 went directly to the recorders.
Challels 49 through 56 were (XFMR isolated) tie lines to the stage.

01 Kick

02 Snare

03 Hat

04 Rack

05 Floor

06 OH L

07 OH R

08 Bass

09 GTR

10 AGTR

11 PNO Low

12 PNO Hi

13 Keys L

14 Keys R

15 Trumpet

16 Sax

17 Bone

18 RF 1

19 RF 2

20 RF 3

21 RF 4

22 RF 5

23 RF 6

24 RF 7

25 Orch DSR

26 Orch DSC

27 Orch DSL

28 Cello Spot

29 Strings Spot

30 Perc 1 Congas / Bongos

31 Perc 2 SR O/H

32 Perc 3 SL O/H

33 Downstage Sax

34 DVD L

35 DVD R

36 Front Room HL

37 Front Room HR

38 Rear Room HL

39 Rear Room HR

40 Podium

41 DuDu hardwired SM58

42 Violin DI

43

44

45

46

47

48

49 2MIX L to Video

50 2MIX R to Video

51

52

53

54 TC - 29.97ND

55 Clearcom to ATH

56 Chaos Audio to ASL

So, there you have it. Any questions or thoughts? -- I’m all (g)ears.

[Remoteness]

The hall...

I wish I had a wider lens!

[Remoteness]

The Truck...

[Remoteness]

The Music Producer & Client...
Larry Gates / Gater Music, Inc.

[Remoteness]

The U B I K (our gracious narrator) and ASL associate Josh Reynolds backstage...

[u b k]

so the question that photo begs is, is josh 6' 7", or am i 4' 10"?

steve, did you ever get the center and side stage mics moved to a position where they got less vocal monitor?

iow, less dudu in the mics?

that sucks about the gas from the car!


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[Kris]

5'7" and 6'1"?

[DaInGaIlToAgL]

i'm only 6'4"... but 6'7" was a good guess!

The gig did go well, and we were all introduced to some very interesting and cultural music. We were multi-tracking the event as audio-for-video, I think they are making a DVD of the evening, so it will be interesting to see what it was like from out in the audience... From the side of the stage it seemed to be going well :-)

[Jim vanBergen]

Was this Dudu Fischer?

I did a remote for them when he did his Off B'way show- live show CD.
nice guy, great pipes.

JvB

Steve- hows the breadmobile treating you?

[Remoteness]

Yes, it was this Dudu Fischer!

How long ago was your off B'way live show CD?
Did you do it with the Stepvan or a portable rig?

JvB, "The Bread Mobile" is treating us very well -- Thank you very much for that!

The furthest we've been with TBM was St. Louis, MO twice; Branson, MO for PBS; Medinah, IL for CBS/PGA and a bunch of runs to the New England area for various clients. Believe it or not the vehicle can do 75 MPH with no sweat...

It just needed some minor repairs and needed updates -- as you know, little TLC goes a long way.

The truck was close to mint condition when we got it from you in 2003 and I'm very thankful for that. I hope you get a chance to work on it someday soon. You deserve it my man!

[Jim vanBergen]

I think it was 2001 or 2002, I brought a flypack since it was in a theatre and I used direct outs from a console plus my audience mics- the General Manager of the show had a "set fee" in mind and when I quoted the bread truck he flipped out! It ended up only being about 18 tracks including two channels of 480L... but he's got some nice pipes.

I DID use the truck at Lincoln Center but your pics look like Merkin Hall and I recorded operas at Juilliard...

I'm glad you've got the truck- you put more love into it than Chris & I did, probably more than Randy & us combined!

One of these days, we'll get to do another nice gig!

Best,

JvB

[Remoteness]

Thanks a lot Jim.

That's very nice of you to say.

[henryrobinett]

Steve Remote is my hero. One day I hope to go to NY and see a remote session of Steves. Such a great guy willing to share his knowledge. And he's the best. I didn't know I'd be doing as much remote stuff as I am. And he's my point of reference. Not that I'll ever be close to that reference mind you!

Thanks for all the good stuff Steve!

[edwinhurwitz]

A couple of questions:

To what were you recording and at what sample rate? I see you have video feeds and am curious how stuff gets resolved after the fact, or do they use the mix you give to them on the fly?

Also, what is RF? Radio frequency?

Thanks for the thread and the photos, etc! It's always nice to see in action what we aspire to!

Edwin

[Han]

Kudos to Steve and Ubik, but.................

Of course I'm curious about these OH mics that work like binoculars.

So please Steve.....................................

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by henryrobinett

Steve Remote is my hero. One day I hope to go to NY and see a remote session of Steves. Such a great guy willing to share his knowledge. And he's the best. I didn't know I'd be doing as much remote stuff as I am. And he's my point of reference. Not that I'll ever be close to that reference mind you!

Thanks for all the good stuff Steve!

Wow, that's very heavy! Thanks a lot Henry. I look forward to meeting you in NYC or anywhere for that matter!

Originally Posted by edwinhurwitz

A couple of questions:

To what were you recording and at what sample rate? I see you have video feeds and am curious how stuff gets resolved after the fact, or do they use the mix you give to them on the fly?

Also, what is RF? Radio frequency?

Thanks for the thread and the photos, etc! It's always nice to see in action what we aspire to!

Edwin

The project will end up in ProTools as per the clients request. We recorded to dual DTRS at 48K / 24Bit with timecode at 29.87 DF.

We sent TC to Video World but didn't resolve to video black (like we normally do) since the video guy said he didn't need to do that. It's a strange world we live in I'm affraid.

The client will mix the tracks and provide the mix with TC for the video department.

Yes, very good. RF stands for Radio Frequency.

Originally Posted by Han

Kudos to Steve and Ubik, but.................

Of course I'm curious about these OH mics that work like binoculars.

So please Steve.....................................

Well, the binoculars I use are the beyerdynamic M160s. They have been my secret weapon for decades. I do not leave home without them.

Here's a picture of the drum setup from (the soundcheck) that gig. I normally like to point the mics straight down on the kit focusing the mics over the applicable points I want to pick up. Larry, our music producer and the person that's going to mix the project adjusted the mics to his liking. He wanted more spread.

An important note: No Plexiglas baffles were harmed in the making of this recording!!!


.

[Han]

Thank you so much Steve! I posted somewhere about the Beyer M260 I did use for recording percussion like shakers and tamborine in a recording with a rock band in one room, all together.

This is really unbelievable, so little bleed and such a great sound, one must hear this.

OTOH I use C451/CK1's in an ORTF placement in jazz recordings as OH and though you get quite some bleed, it sounds pretty decent so if the room sounds good you don't need any room mics.

But I guess I'll need more Beyer ribbons.

[akushner]

Hey Greg. Thanks for stopping by the gig last Sunday (I work on the Aura Sonic Crew). It was a lot of fun and a great glance into our Aura Sonic Universe.

Let me just say in regards to prep work.....
We go crazy prepping the trucks before gigs. Everything is set up and tested exactly as it will be at the gig (as far as signal flow goes). This is a necessity, especially because of our modular setup - we bring in different racks or equipment depending on what the client wants. Then we bring tons of backup cables and equipment so we are prepared for anything.

And before all this we almost always scout out the location and get as much information as humanly possible about the gig....cable runs, how we will interface, who is involved, good places to eat around the area (no joke). We come up with our plan of attack and a backup plan as well (just in case). All this prep work as well as excellent engineers and crew members is definitely the key to our successful live recordings and broadcasts.

Jim - I didn't know you worked with my man DuDu Fisher.....he is quite the superstar.

In my opinion....best part of the live orthodox jewish recording session....the kosher deli style catering.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by akushner

...And before all this we almost always scout out the location and get as much information as humanly possible about the gig....cable runs, how we will interface, who is involved, good places to eat around the area (no joke). We come up with our plan of attack and a backup plan as well (just in case). All this prep work as well as excellent engineers and crew members is definitely the key to our successful live recordings and broadcasts...

For me it's about the FOOD -- Balducci's RAWKs right across from Alice Tully Hall on 66th street!

[1979]

To everyone involved in this thread - thank you. By far one of the best GS threads ever. Very enlightening. I have been a live guy for several years, and am attneding audio school to fill the blanks with computers, mastering etc. The type of operation Steve and his crew have going on is just deadly. -thats what I want to be doing someday. Although it is a site for gear slutting - its so nice to see a thread lately where people are n't bitching at people about how to spend $3k properly , etc.

Thanks U-b-i-k and Steve for the insight,& happy thanksgiving

Cheers.

[Remoteness]

Thanks bro...

I could tell you how I would spend 3K (USD) on some serious FOOOOD spread!

Lurk around this forum a bit -- We have all sorts of killer threads with observations and thoughts that enlighten most folks.

One more thing, FOOD is GOOD!

[jazzbutcher]

Wowzy Steve, what a gig...sounds like all kindsa crazy. That's a heckuva hall...I hope to visit it one day. I did have the good fortune of checking out the Jazz at Lincoln Center facilities at last year's AES - and that was a pretty mind-boggling facility too.

How in the world do you guys keep track of it all? It looks pretty overwhelming for a gig so large...

I love the Beyer 160's too...they are great mics for drums. Speaking of the drums, what kind of mics are we seeing there in your drum photo? Looks like one perched over a tom or snare (is that a 609?) and then what is that in the kick?

I am still struggling with live gigs where the instruments are acoustic, but the monitors are pretty loud (not by my choice!) -- how in the world do you cope with the evil monitors? They drive me nuts!

Long live the BreadMobile!

best,

-dave

[jwh1192]

steve,

happy to hear the bread mobile is rocking the east coast ...

we were up in Sf doing Snoop with mark linetts rig a few weeks back ... watch for it on Control Room Direct TV .....

hope to use the bread mobile soon ... if not the big truck ..

very nice steve ...

[Remoteness]

Dave,

The crazy part for me was when I entered the field shop after that long arse day.

Believe it or not, i wasn't too big of a deal -- Keeping track of it all that is. It wasn't that big (input wise) of a show. 48 input channels is usually a starting point so, 42 inputs were no sweat.

Yeah, those beyer M160s work well for me. We had MD409s on the toms and a beyer M88 on the kick. I forget what we had on the snare -- I know it wasn't a SM57.

The "Virtual Gobo" technique comes into play when dealing with those "evil" monitors and their friends, the naughty instrument amplifiers.

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by jwh1192

steve,

happy to hear the bread mobile is rocking the east coast ...

we were up in Sf doing Snoop with mark linetts rig a few weeks back ... watch for it on Control Room Direct TV .....

hope to use the bread mobile soon ... if not the big truck ..

very nice steve ...

Thanks John,

Working with Snoop must have been a lot of fun .

It's nice hearing from you.

[Larrysings]

Its great to see Steve get the kudos he deserves. I've seen him in action and the audio world doesn't even do him justice. He's more akin to a field General as far as icy coolness under pressure and logistical genius. He must have been Alexander the great in a past life. But I am biased, he's also a great friend. Love you man.

[Musiclab]

I'm doing the transfer of these tracks from dtrs to daw, and they are as usual, impeccable. I had to call Steve last night because I liked the snare sound so much,
I had to ask him what mic he used. From the picture tho it don't look like a tlm 103.
The isolation, the phase coherency, the sound, just great of course I wouldnt call Alice Tully Hall a bad sounding room either.