The order of importance....

by Chuck Kirkpatrick
(Cooper City, Florida)

While we all love the old analogue / tape sound and those lovely Neuman mics, it is important to remember that it was the musicians alone who made these recordings by their skills alone. Playing all together in one room with little or no overdubbing was the norm back then, because the musicians were good enough to do it that way. And there wasn't the insatiable need to fill up every single space with some kind of sound. What makes these recordings magic is simply the air...the space between the notes, all so well-placed.

There would not be that much sonic difference were one to record these musicians today in the exact same way, in the same acoustical environment, and with the same microphones to a Pro-Tools system. All digital has done is eliminate tape hiss, harmonic and intermodulation distortion...nothing else. It is simply the way we go about recording music nowadays that is completely different, not the technology.

Chuck Kirkpatrick