Don’t Be Afraid of Leakage – The Recording of Passion

The more I push the boundaries of minimal isolation in an orchestral setting, the more I’m pleasantly surprised with how much I can get away with. Engineers are often encouraged to gobo off instruments as much as possible. This isolation-heavy type of thinking has been instilled in me at Berklee, where I learned how to blanket off a piano, create tunnels for a kick drum, use gobos, ect…  I was continually exposed to this philosophy as an assistant engineer back in my days at Sound on Sound, where I assisted many engineers who insisted on doing the same to various degrees. I’ve subsequently found out through my own experimentation that focus on isolation is not always necessary, especially if you’re recording in a good sounding room (like the fantastic rooms at Avatar where I do most of my tracking).

Here’s a snapshot from the recording of Passion, which came out this week. Around the piano, from left to right is the violin, viola cello, upright bass, reed 1, reed 2, and trumpet.  The bass has gobos around it and there is one short line of gobos in the middle of the room that cut off the direct sound line between the cello and the reeds. Othewise, there is no isolation of any kind, and the piano lid is off, opening up the sound even more.  While mixing this album, I had no leakage issues. Each direct mic sounded direct enough so that I could freely mix without worrying about bleed. As usual, I relied heavily on the room mics, and the sound of Avatar studio C made mixing easy. Check out the album and hear the results for yourself.