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Engineering Winners
Board
Certified
Dylan Beasley
Daniel Blanck, a senior at
Manlius Pebble Hill
School in DeWitt, N.Y.,
has been studying studio engineering
and design for two years
at Syracuse University under the
tutelage of James Abbott. He has
recorded professional independent
projects in addition to his
own school’s orchestra, wind ensemble, jazz
groups and soloists. He has even founded
his own recording engineering company,
Basement Recording Corporation.
Blanck, who plays guitar, included in his
SMA entry a studio recording of “Body
And Soul” that featured him with a trio of
piano, drums and bass. Another standout
selection from his submission was “Come
Rain Or Come Shine,” sung by a female
vocalist with a trio. “I hoped to achieve a
Blue Note, smoky-bar-room 1950s feel,” he
said. “This recording was influenced by the
work of Rudy Van Gelder. The vocals are
upfront in the mix and spot-miked. The
stereo pair-recorded piano provides a wide
foundation for the vocals. The bass is also
spot-miked, providing a solid, clear, low
resonance. Finally, the drums were spotmiked
with an overhead stereo pair. The
sweeping of the brushes on the snare can be
felt from the snare’s spot mic.”
Blanck has been working with another of
his teachers, Joe Colombo, on recording a
live big band once a month in a club in
downtown Syracuse, N.Y. “This project
allowed Dan to experiment over time with
mic placement and mixing of a live 17-piece
band,” Colombo said. “We are in the final
stages of mastering the recordings.”
Dylan Beasley has completed three
years at the New Orleans Center for the
Creative Arts (NOCCA), where his official
discipline is media arts, including audio and
video classes. He focuses his energy on
audio engineering under the instruction of
Steve Reynolds. Previously, he was under
the jazz discipline at NOCCA, practicing
trumpet and gathering connections that
have since become major recording
sources. “My goal as a recording engineer
is to record things I believe to be worth
recording,” Beasley said. “With so much
talent around my school, I focus on that.”
Beasley has become the requested engineer
of NOCCA’s jazz students for college audition
recordings and personal demos.
“Dylan is particular about microphone
choice, placement and room acoustics,”
Reynolds said. “Advanced stereo techniques
were used on some recordings. Mixing techniques
such as parallel compression, EQ,
reverb and/or appropriate use of natural
room ambience were used depending upon
the musical genre.”
Brian Gerstle’s recording experiences
range from course work and independent
projects to an internship with one of his professors
at University of Miami, Paul
Griffith. A jazz trombonist and music engineering
major, Gerstle has taken the university’s
recording services and sound reinforcement
class every semester, which has
allowed him to progress from setting up
gear and wrapping cables to being chief
recording engineer on campus for the past
two semesters.
Gerstle has also gained recording knowledge
in his studies with professor Joe
Abbati, which have focused on the studio
environment in particular.
Gerstle’s SMA submission was a jazz
quartet session originally recorded for a
friend, graduate student drummer Daniel
Susnjar, who was applying to the Betty
Carter Jazz Ahead program last year. “I
miked the drums with two overheads, two
kick drum mics (beater and head on the
opposite side), and two snare mics (top and
bottom), as well as tom mics (one high and
one low),” Gerstle said. “Every time I mic
drums, I always measure and apply the
appropriate sample delays to each spot mic,
with reference to the overheads. This prevents
comb filtering and cancellation, which
allows for a fuller, more natural sound. On
piano, I added a shotgun mic below the
piano to add more body and low end. I chose
to use only one mic each for bass and sax.”
At press time, Gerstle was about to be
named the University of Miami Outstanding
Senior for the Music Engineering Program
for the past academic year, according to one
of his instructors.
—Ed Enright
94 DOWNBEAT June 2009