Mike's Mobile Mics

About Mike's Mobile Mics

Michael B. Broadhurst, a professional instrumentalist and singer himself for many years, is the Mike of Mike's Mobile Mics. He began his career as a saxophonist and sound technician in rock bands (long, long ago . . .) and participated in the recording and mastering of his band's recordings. His tenure in the U.S. Army's Continental Army Band was as both a Special Bandsman (woodwinds) and as the resident sound and recording engineer. Michael has recorded everything from individual audition demos to full operas; from string quartets to symphony orchestras; from church choirs to professional 100-voice choruses; from harp duos to big bands.
If you perform live, we can capture the experience.

I like it real

I decided to operate my business as a mobile recording facility because I like it real. I like to faithfully record sounds as they are produced, where they are produced. I know that almost all of today's Pop music is a product of studio synthetics and I applaud the talented engineers who can make electronics sound like music. However, I prefer music produced by humans and I prefer it in real time. Yes, I have the capability of multitrack recording and I can correct bad notes for soloists, but as much as possible, I prefer to record the performance just as it happened. I like to keep it real.

Recently, I discovered a web site written by a rather opinionated British recording engineer, Chris Burmajster, who approaches his art much the same way I do; with aural reality as a goal. Go to Innocent Ear to read some very good and persuasive arguments for reality recording as opposed to "knob twiddling" recording. Here's an excerpt:

. . . recording sound naturally is essentially a passive role. The engineer's job is to capture the sound in the hall. With multiple microphone techniques, the engineer's role is much more involved. The use of multiple microphones and multi track tape recorders came of age in the 1960's in the field of pop music. Due to the sheer complexity of making a pop record (where there is rarely if any live acoustic performance) the engineer's input is far greater and even 'artistic'. Also, most engineers suffer from the desire to play with all the wonderful (and usually very expensive) equipment that the use of pop techniques requires. It's a 'boys and their toys' thing. Hence these types of engineers are often called 'knob twiddlers'. This method allows the engineer to play God with the music. If they can play around with 2 channels, imagine what they could do with 5 in 5.1 surround sound recording! Recording with single point microphone techniques uses just a fraction of the equipment (and cost) of pop techniques but you don't get to play with so much equipment . . .

For those who need to produce demonstration recordings or for those small groups that want a live recording without the audience, I have access to venues with good acoustics and pianos. Contact me for details.

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