James T. Hill (Engineer) and David Carbonara (right)
Burbank, CA (August 7, 2012)—AMC’s Mad Men has been a popular and critical hit for five seasons, and one of its calling cards has been its evocative music by composer David Carbonara, which gets captured during recording by microphones from Mojave Audio and Royer Labs.
Recording engineer and mixer James T. Hill works with Carbonara on the show’s musical recordings. In addition to his work on Mad Men, Hill worked with composer James Newton Howard on numerous movie scores including The Sixth Sense, as well as composer Jane Antonio Cornish’s In Luce and numerous additional projects.
“Jim started using Royer’s in 2003 and Mojave mics in 2007—the year we began work on Mad Men,” Carbonara reports. “In the five years we’ve been working together on Mad Men, we’ve deployed the Mojave MA-100 on acoustic guitars, drum cymbals, and hi hats; and the MA-201fet on vocals, acoustic guitar, and a variety of other soloists. We’ve been equally pleased with the performance of our Royer ribbons. We find the R-121 works really well on brass, woodwinds, and guitar amps while the R-122V does a great job on woodwinds, acoustic guitars, and strings. With the Royer SF-24 being a stereo microphone, we typically use this for piano, drum overheads, and room ambience. Jim likes using the R-121 and R-122V ribbon mics because of the null points, which help provide isolation between instruments when used in a room full of musicians. We’ve also used a pair of R-122V’s in a Blumlein configuration for capturing acoustic guitars, small acoustic groups, and drum overheads.”
Carbonara added, “Jim and I have been using the Mojave and Royer mics to help create the sound that gives the music of Mad Men that touch of elegance that goes so well with the overall style of the series. For me as the composer, it’s a perfect match all around.”
David Carbonara
www.davidcarbonara.com
Mojave Audio
www.mojaveaudio.com
Royer Labs
www.royerlabs.com
