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Once a musician or engineer reaches the top of their craft in their home country, what’s next? Besides simply riding those laurels on through to retirement, they can alternately chose moving to a completely different country to again rise to the top. The latter path—after sessioning as one of Israel’s top bassists on no less than sixty albums by his 22nd birthday—is the path Tal Herzberg chose. Tal, following his L.A. tenures in the Beth Hart Band and as a product specialist
helping push the then nascent audio plug-in envelope with Waves, was an early
“bleeding edge” Pro Tools evangelist. Last year he contributed a
monthly column for EQ called “DAW World,” and he still writes for
and is quoted by a number of recording trades magazines. Along the way he’s
thrown some heavy engineering credits up there—four projects nominated
for and/or winning Grammies, three for the Mix TEC Awards—including Vanessa
Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles,” Queen Latifah’s The Dana
Owens Album, the Aguilera/Elliot/Pink/Mya/Lil’ Kim remake of “Lady
Marmalade,” and Black Eyed Peas’ Elephunk. The latter work was also
nominated in 2003 for the Holy Grail of all recording studio awards: Best Engineered
Non-Classical Album.
TAL: Every engineer I've ever met has a few "go to" choices when it comes to choosing microphones, as do I. You learn over the years how the major "food groups"—condensers, dynamics, ribbons, tube—behave on various styles and applications, and you go for the right combination for the job.
TAL: Professional studios usually provide engineers with a variety of gear that can create many different recording chains, so experimenting with all those possible combinations is always a fun and interesting process. I tend to track with an analog EQ and analog compressor in the chain, versus placing it on the monitor path, and always committing to the results. I usually try not to over-EQ or over-compress by mostly using the EQ just to add some top and bottom frequencies, and by using the compressor more like a limiter to control the louder peaks.
TAL: The three main criteria for me are: 1. The sound source, namely which instrument I’m recording or whether it’s a male or female vocalist I’m miking, or a sound effect, etc. 2. The style of music or application, such as rock, pop, soundtrack, narration, and so on. 3. The acoustic space used, whether that’s a live and bright room, or
a smaller "dead" room, or an outdoor venue. BLUE: Using a track you’ve recently recorded as an example, describe how you set up a mic to record it (pattern, angling, mounting, popscreens, signal routing, etc.) TAL: I've recently had the pleasure of recording vocals with Mary J. Blige, one of the finest R&B singers of our time. Her recording chain was comprised of a tube condenser mic and an Avalon 737 tube preamp/EQ/compressor combo. The pickup pattern was set to cardioid and the mic itself mounted on a heavy-duty boom; I tilted the mic a little bit off axis so she could play with the proximity effect. I also used a popscreen to filter some of the “B's” and “P's” out, set about 2-3 inches away from the mic’s grill.
TAL: I tend to stay away from "weird" things, but I’ve managed to pick up many unique tricks over the years from some of the best engineers in the world. Now, some of those tricks might look weird to someone who sees them for the first time. One example of this is using various sizes of speakers as microphones, an old trick that works great for live drums, bass amps, and even acoustic guitars. [Note: this is accomplished by rigging the speaker’s two wires to be connected to a mic, amp, computer, preamp, etc., input.]
TAL: I must admit that trying once to stick a PZM [pressure zone microphone mounted on a flat plate] to the body of a mandolin ended up becoming a very popular joke around a certain studio I used to work at.
TAL: Just getting the job done! There are so many potential traps and ways things can go wrong—both technically and creatively. It takes an engineer with a poker player type of personality to establish a long and prosperous career in this business.
TAL: There are too many occasions to try remembering, but one I can think of right now is recording a piano and vocal duet between Herbie Hancock and Christina Aguilera. It was for Herbie's new album [Possibilities] at Record Plant Studios in Hollywood, and man, it was magic! Two unbelievable talents, singing and playing together at the same time, was really something to see.
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