FEATURE

Dalhousie, Northern , 1972: Lewiston at Tashi Jong Using hand-held EV RE50s – the monastery, 1998. informant holds one of the mics in place, freeing up Lewiston’s “ …what could be left hand for operating the recorder. better than travelling to incredible places, meeting amazing musicians, and recording them?”

He’s spent the last 40 years With a career spanning 40 years of recording that had evolved with little or no Western attitude and create the impression that what and releasing the music of other cultures, influence. His earliest Balinese and Tibetan you’re doing is simple and no big deal. Also, DAVID LEWISTON recording in Indonesia, David Lewiston could be described as the releases provided a timely soundtrack for a rather than hiding behind the musicians, , , India, , father of world music. His pioneering field Western world that was dabbling in Eastern you want to be among them, expressing recordings of Balinese music from the 1960s philosophies, transcendental meditation and your pleasure at the music. This encourages The father of world music Istanbul, Nepal, Georgia, gave many Westerners their first taste of the other consciousness-altering endeavours. them to give a better performance. If a take Pakistan and more. He’s music of other cultures. No discussion of Lewiston would be complete is unsatisfactory, just keep going, and tell the recorded everything from But what makes Lewiston worthy of such a without acknowledging the contributions of musicians their music is really great. Then, later on in the session, tell them you really Balinese gamelan to Tibetan lofty title (and one which he would probably the late Teresa ‘Tracey’ Sterne, the visionary dismiss as ‘pretentious’)? Field recording head of Nonesuch Records who saw the enjoyed the piece that was poorly recorded and monks. Greg Simmons talks to legends like folklorist John A. Lomax and potential of Lewiston’s first recordings and that you’d love to hear them play it again. the father of world music… his son Alan had been archiving the music of pushed to have them released, launching the You have to create a relaxed atmosphere other cultures from the moment they were famous ‘Explorer Series’ in 1966. In a working conducive to music-making. I always ask Text: Greg Simmons able to lift a record cutting lathe into a pick-up relationship that lasted over a decade, Lewiston a local informant what the musicians truck. Lewiston’s work is unique because it and Sterne created and defined the genre we traditionally expect to have while playing, so was the first to be mastered and released as now call ‘world music’. they feel taken care of and comfortable. In entertainment for discerning listeners, rather Greg Simmons: 2006 marks your 40th year as some cultures it’s traditional to have booze than archives for anthropologists. Those a field recordist. What’s the most important on hand, but don’t offer too much – I’ve had before him mapped the relatively accessible thing you’ve learnt during that time? musicians pass out and ruin the session! musical terrains of Europe and the Caribbean, GS: David Lewiston: The most important thing is Let’s talk about your equipment. What gently easing the West into the music of other microphones do you use? cultures and opening the way for Lewiston to not to bore or scare the musicians. You need venture into the peculiar sounds and musical a rig that allows you to set up quickly and DL: I have three microphone rigs, depending structures of Asia and the Himalayas – music unpretentiously, so you can maintain a casual on the application. For street work I am

AT 58 AT 59 enamored of the MS configuration, mounted Both those rigs use condensers, and sometimes cause problems with condenser microphones, in a Rycote windscreen. I use that rig for 80 they don’t suit the music and circumstances. If the RE50s deliver reliably glorious sound. to 90 percent of my recording. It’s great for the music is very loud it can overload condenser recording anything outdoors and it works very mic electronics (I’ve done it!), resulting in GS: I expect you’ve used many different well for indoor recording; say, a singer with horrendously distorted and unusable sound. recording devices. How about a brief history? harmonium, tabla and flute. I simply point the Also, in highly humid places like Bali, DL: Okay… There were no battery-powered business end at the soloist, arrange the other condenser microphones are problematic. So I stereo tape recorders to be found in New York musicians in a semicircle, and say ‘Ready’! keep a pair of Electrovoice RE50s handy for before I headed out to Bali in ’66, so I packed a GS: What’s in your MS rig? such situations. mono Uher 4000. Stopping over in Singapore I GS: found, to my delight, a Concertone 727 battery- DL: You need a decent small-capsule cardioid The RE50? But isn’t that an interviewer’s powered stereo recorder. It was well within my mic for the M signal; I use a Neumann KM84. microphone… budget, so I took it to Bali with the rest of my For the S signal I use a Sennheiser MKH30. DL: Right, it’s an omnidirectional dynamic gear. I used the Uher for a few recordings, but Hemis Monastery, , microphone designed for hand-held outdoor 1 977: Recording Thukse GS: Many people would’ve chosen M and S everything else was recorded in stereo on the Rinpoche, a highly respected use. Being dynamic, it doesn’t have electronics mics from the same manufacturer. Why the Concertone. incarnate lama, as he to overload when the music is very loud, and it’s explained the significance of mixture? one of the monastery’s rites. not affected by humidity. GS: Those are the recordings on your first DL: I wanted a bidirectional to use with the release, Bali: Music from the Morning of the GS: Oh, of course! Also, omnis have excellent RECORDING TIBETAN BUDDHIST RITUALS – THE PITFALLS KM84, but one problem of bidirectional mics is World? that they have an inherent low-frequency roll- low frequency response, no proximity effect, and The dynamic range of these rituals can be extremely high, someone will forget and hawk, spit, or cough noisily, DL: Yes. That album was very successful. It up to 50dB, so switch the recorder’s preamp sensitivity at which point I stop recording. I let the monks know off. When I was putting together my MS rig I very low handling noise. The RE50 looks like a was a sampler of what you could hear in Bali to low, ask the instrumental ensemble to play as loudly that their chanting was beautiful, but we have to start asked [microphone designer] David Josephson great solution… at the time. as possible so that you can set levels, then set the pots again because the cough spoilt it. They usually decide for his opinion and he recommended the DL: …and it’s easy to get a good sound using so that the modulometers read no more than –10dB. to leave a door open so that anyone with a tickle in his MKH30. It uses internal EQ to deal with a pair, especially outdoors, holding one in each When I left Indonesia to head West I sold the Watch out for distortion, in the mic preamps and in the throat can tiptoe outside, cough as much as he needs, microphone’s internal electronics, during the loudest and then rejoin the session. the inherent roll-off, producing a fuller and hand, fairly far apart. The only problem is how Concertone to a Javanese friend, who told me patches. it broke down a few weeks later. Cheap crap! Monasteries often have several dogs, and their flatter response. I really like the results that the to hold the two mics in the appropriate positions A potential problem that needs discussing with the barking can ruin a recording. Also, novice monks are Neumann/Sennheiser combination delivers. and adjust the recorder at the same time! Then, in ’67, I was walking along Nathan Khenpo (abbot) is that of unwanted sounds. Monks are always curious about recording sessions, peeking in Road in Kowloon [Hong Kong] and spotted accustomed to clearing their throats noisily during rituals, the windows and making noisy comments, which also GS: …and your other microphone rigs? I made all of my successful 1987 Balinese “ With the passage of a battery-powered stereo recorder from Akai. which ruins the recording. Naturally, the Khenpos want the ruin the recording. I discuss both of these potential recordings outdoors, direct-to-stereo, with just a time field work seems DL: For formal recordings in Tibetan temples It was bulky and heavy but it was stereo, so I recordings of their rituals to be as perfect as possible, problems with the Khenpo. Typically he will decide to pair of RE50s. If you have access to Nonesuch’s so they understand the need for banning throat-clearing. have the novices drive the dogs away from the temple, I use a pair of KM84s in the classic ‘crossed’ lugged it around South America for 18 months. Before recording starts, I make sure that all present are and then stay away from the temple themselves, too. progressively harder configuration, with the angle between the Explorer Series album Bali: Gamelan & Kecak Lusting after a real pro deck, I saved my reminded about the ban. As the recording gets under way, – David Lewiston and much more time- capsules either 90 or 130 degrees, depending on or the Bridge album Kecak – a Balinese Music pennies and, in 1972, bought a Stellavox SP7 preference. Drama you’ll get an idea of their utility. For consuming.” environments where volume and/or humidity with a matching pair of T-powered Neumann KM74 cardioid condenser mics, plus my first pair of Electrovoice RE50s. I took that rig to expecting t he worst, but it cont inued working India in May ’72, along with a stereo Uher wit hout complaint. It s only drawback? 16 bit s… “ By t his time my so-c alled 4200 for backup. By this time my so-called A ye a r ago I plu n ked down the c a sh for a po rtable r ig ad d ed u p to 13 ‘portable rig’ added up to 13 pieces of baggage; S ound D evice s 744T p or table four-track ha rd pieces of baggage; I was I was forever counting it – in and out of hotel disk re corder. Br i l lia nt design ( it’l l do ju st lobbies, in and out of taxis, etc. – to make sure about a ny th i ng you wa nt exc ept pick out a foreve r co u nting it…” nothing was missing! Returning to New York re a l ly c ute hooker), but the ergonomics suck. in February 1973, I added some bits and pieces Most of the i mp or ta nt f u nc t ions a re stored i n to the Stellavox (the 10.5 inch reel extension menu s , but the menu str uct u re ha s 84 items plate and a custom-made clip-on Dolby A ( ! ) a nd, to my t ired eye s , the L CD is nea rly box), and used it until 1986. i mp ossible to re ad. It took me forever to get Digital recording had arrived by then so I comfor table w ith it . went looking for a new rig, settling on a Sony G S: T he 744T is a mazi ngly p or table , w ith PCM F1 feeding a pair of Panasonic 8420 ma ny f u nc t ions a nd s ome clever idea s . I portable VHS recorders. I also bought a pair pa r t icu larly li ke the idea of p ower i ng it from of Neumann KM83 omnis, a pair of KM84 c a mcorder b at ter ie s… cardioids, and a fresh pair of RE50s. The F1 didn’t provide phantom power, so I used a D L: C amc order batter ie s are c o mmod ity Stellavox preamp. I took this rig to Karnataka ite m s, of c ou r s e , which i s preferab le to using in Southern India to record the rites of the e xorbitantly pr ic e d c usto m batter ie s . But the great Tibetan monasteries, then on to Bali, re c e s s for the c l ip-o n battery i s o nly suffic ie nt where it had endless problems. The F1 would to m atc h rel ative ly low-capac ity batter ie s, have level drops in one channel from time to rather th an the 6AH batter ie s we ne e d for time... I soon discovered that a hearty slap fie ld work . I g et the impre s sion they were would restore correct functioning. Sessions think ing of s ound re c ord i sts for film and TV were nervous affairs; I never knew which bits rather th an tho s e of us who do fie ld work . of equipment would function properly. O h we ll… By 1994 I had converted to DAT, using an G S: How doe s it s ound ? HHB Aiwa Pro – excellent recordings, but at DL: Ver y goo d. A month ago I re corded a pa ir Dalhousie, Northern 48k sampling rate only. For field trips in the of B enga li mu sicia ns w ith it . I u s ed the KM84s India, 1 972: Lewiston, late ’90s I used an HHB Portadat. Amazingly a s a crossed pa ir ju st over the mu sicia ns’ local informant, musician and monk setting up for rugged: recording in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1998 heads; much clos er to the str i nged i nstr u ment recording. I dropped it five feet on to concrete. I was (H i ndu sta n i slide gu ita r! ) tha n the tabla to get

AT 60 AT 61 the right balance. I ran them directly into the Ubud, Bali, 1 966: Lewiston 744T’s internal mic preamps. I also placed two and the Chok orde Gde Agung Sukawati, a very great prince KM83 omnis close-up as ‘detail’ mics, using a and patron of the arts, after a Mackie 1402 as a preamp into the 744T’s line recording session in his palace. inputs. A very pleasing recording. GS: Judging by your methods for recording Balinese gamelan and similar difficult ensembles you’ve obviously had to figure out some unique recording solutions… DL: I’m a firm believer in learning by doing. Even after doing this for 40 years I still screw up. For instance, I’m not at all happy with the recordings made in Georgia in ’98, and the recordings made in Jammu in the same year can only be charitably described as a disaster, unbearably distorted. After discussing this with Klaus Heyne, we concluded that the mics’ FETs had overloaded. To guard against similar problems in future, Klaus tweaked my KM84s and replaced the FETs. RECORDING BALINESE GAMELAN & KECAK In Bali in ’87 it took five months of work, lots Recording in Bali calls for very unusual recording part of the V, facing forward so that the mics pick up both of sessions, to figure out how to record big techniques. For everything there I use a spaced pair of sides of each drum – it’s difficult for them because they’re Electrovoice RE50s, and record outdoors. The hardest part accustomed to playing facing one another, but if you explain gamelans effectively; that’s when I realised that is finding the right space for recording – if it isn’t quiet, its importance for recording, they’ll adjust. If there’s a suling condenser mics weren’t suitable, and switched away from packs of howling dogs and noisy two-stroke (flute) or rebab (two-stringed instrument) player, he goes to the RE50s. Same applied to the Kecak: it motorbikes, the recording will be ruined. in this central space with the drummers. In such a setup the took four tries to get something usable. What The way the Gamelan [Balinese percussion orchestra] sets mics are separated by 18 to 25 feet, roughly six feet above the ground. The widest part of the V extends several feet has this taught me? Patience. I like to allow up for a live performance isn’t suitable for recording. After many unusable sessions, my collaborator, Cliff de Arment, beyond the mics. enough time in the field so that I can screw up and I came up with a setup that worked amazingly well. The Kecak is based on an excerpt from the Ramayana, and then redo the work until the recordings Think of the recording soundstage as an inverted ‘V’, with and is usually performed in the local Temple of the Dead. are satisfactory. Jammu was a problem because the widest part of the V nearest the mics and the narrowest It consists of the cak chorus (typically 80 to 100 men) I had only a week there. And in ’98 at the back. We positioned the big gongs at the back of the seated in concentric circles in an open courtyard, with the soundstage. Then we arranged all the gangsa (single-mallet performers (a narrator and several singer-dancers) in the was another disaster; 10 days in a city that had metallophones) on the right of the soundstage with the middle. The powerful rhythms of the cak chorus are derived been turned into an armed camp! highest-pitched kantilan (‘flower parts’) nearest the mics. from an ancient trance exorcism and provide the ‘motor’ The left leg of the V was occupied by the reong (frame for the performance. It’s important to get the right balance It’s interesting, though… When I first started containing gong pots), with the gender (softer two-mallet between the caks and soloists, so I string a length of 1/8th doing this sort of thing I would make very metallophones) close behind them. inch diameter nylon twine across the courtyard and hang short visits to these locations, just one week There are two things you don’t want to hear much of: the the mics off it. They’re positioned about 10 to 12 feet above in Kashmir in ’72, for example, and less than time-beater, and the chengcheng (cymbals). Both are the performers, and separated by about 20 feet. – David three weeks in Bali in ’66, and wind up with placed behind the gangsa, so the mics don’t pick up too Lewiston remarkable recordings. With the passage of much of them. The two drummers are placed in the open time field work seems progressively harder and much more time-consuming. GS: …and I thought technology was But when I returned home and played the DL: Some people think that what I do is supposed to make our lives easier! Speaking recording, it seemed flat. I eventually realised difficult, but do you know what the hardest of technology, do you use much processing that the very large dynamic range of the thing is for me? Writing the liner notes! I feel in mastering, or do you prefer to leave the recording robbed it of excitement. I restored it that if people are reading the notes then they recordings in their pure form? with some hefty limiting from Waves L2. aren’t listening to the music. From time to time The other thing I add to my field recordings is a a journalist will ask me something like “As an DL: I want the released versions of the ethnomusicologist…” to which I reply “No, no, recordings to convey the excitement that was very discreet amount of reverb to provide a sense of ‘place’. Samplitude’s Room Simulator has a ‘musical tourist’ is a better description”. To me, present in the live performance, and that an ethnomusicologist is a boring person who often means some modification is necessary. Nature category, and there are a couple of setups there (‘forest’ and ‘valley’) I very much enjoy. I takes wonderful music and analyses it until Recordings that sound perfectly OK through all the joy is lost. I can’t stand such pretension. headphones often sound tame when played use just a touch, typically setting dry at 0dB and wet at -18 to -24dB. For outdoor recordings I I just want people to enjoy the music; that’s back over speakers, so, after doing the editing the reason for my wanderings. After all, what in Samplitude, I use a bunch of Waves plug- remove most of the early reflections to create the illusion of limitless space. could be better than travelling to incredible ins to ‘sex up’ the recordings and return the places, meeting amazing musicians, and excitement. By the way… Seva, a good friend who worked recording them? An example: A decade ago I was present at at Waves for many years, advises me that when a huge festive occasion in Ubud, Bali, where using a plug-in or other process, it’s prudent a very large gamelan played the traditional to set the output level within the process to Barong repertoire while two famous Barongs just under 0dB so there are no ‘overs’ from one danced. It was an exceptional event; the process to the next. I thought that 32-bit float loudness and richness of the gamelan, the made this unnecessary, but he says it isn’t so. enthusiasm of the huge crowd, and the power Now I do as he suggested, and the sound is of the dancing. It sounded amazing and, much sweeter. by good fortune, the two mics suspended GS: That sounds like good advice… Do you overhead captured the music very well. have any closing comments, David?

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