Tony Bennett ‘Live’ In The Studio

he irony lost on no one, Neumann’s famous ‘studio sound’ embodied in the Neumann TKMS 105 live vocal microphone came the full circle back to the studio in a ‘live’ recording with legendary crooner, Tony Bennett, singing duets. Produced by Phil Ramone and engineered by Joe Moss, Tony Bennett Sings the Blues features the artist with such lumi- naries as Ray Charles, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, and Stevie Wonder. Ramone recorded the entire project with everyone in the same room sans headphones so that, to the musicians, the session felt just like a live performance. To exploit his expertise in such situ- ations, Tony Bennett brought in Tom Young, Bennett’s FOH engineer of seven years. Before joining Bennett, Young honed his craft during 13 years with Frank Sinatra. Blues follows Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool, the first album that Bennett recorded in this ‘faux live’ manner. He loved it. With no one on headphones and no isolation, everyone naturally heard everyone else and the excite- ment, dynamics, and authenticity of the perfor- mance benefited. “It’s understandable that Tony would prefer the live feel to the studio feel,” observed Young. “He’s spent 50 years on stage. That’s his office. That’s where he’s at his best.” Two concerns were paramount. The produc- tion team needed to capture the session with high-end, ‘big studio’ fidelity while simultaneously rejecting the sort of serious bleed unheard of in normal studio sessions. Track separation had to come from the directional characteristics of the microphones used and the careful placement of musicians and microphones. On the Ellington album, Bennett used a Sennheiser SKM 5000 wireless microphone. While obviously an excellent choice for wireless stage use, the production team thought they might do better with a wired live vocal microphone on Blues. Enter the Neumann KMS 105. Built to possess Neumann’s ‘studio sound’ coupled with rejection and mechanical characteristics worthy of stage use, the KMS 105 seemed a natural choice. Young brought one into Capitol Studios, and its sound floored everyone. “We had Tony and his singing partner on an eight foot by eight foot by one foot riser facing the band, each on a KMS 105,” recalled Young. “The fidelity truly was on a par with Neumann’s studio microphones and the rejection was incredible. Throughout the sessions we had people holding them, using them on stands, crowding them, standing back from them, and on and on. Throughout it all, we had no problems with plosives, distortion, or any lack of clarity. The KMS 105 is an engineering marvel!” FBT take it to the MaXx The New Generation of FBT MaXx2, MaXx4 and MaXx9 polypropylene cabinet powered speakers from Italy are manufactured utilising gas injection moulding technique to achieve compact, lightweight yet ‘extremely sturdy’ speaker cabinets. The plastic shell also has four built-in flying points allowing for vertical or horizontal ‘array flying’, floor wedge use, or you can stand mount it. Input is on 6.5mm jack and XLR, and there’s a XLR output/thru socket for daisy-chaining. A variable gain control is provided to adjust incoming signal from a variety of sources. There’s a three-band EQ with ±12dB adjustment, master volume and a ground lift switch feature is a boon to the musician and roadie to eliminate AC hum. A mic/line switch permits the self-powered FBTs to be used directly with wired or wireless microphones versatility. Internally the flagship MaXx4a has a frequency response from 50Hz to 20 kHz (at -5dB through) coming from the 12-inch neodymium magnet, aluminium framed LF driver, and a one-inch compression horn at the HF range dispersed at 90 by 60 degrees. LSW: (02) 9568 2100