CLEVELAND ROCKS!

The article about Joe Meek (“Production Values: Meek First”) in the February 2002 issue was one of the finest pieces I've read in a music tech magazine. Thanks so much for printing it. I hope it gives more people insight into the extraordinary artistry of this strange figure from modern recording's infancy. Bravo to author Barry Cleveland for making a potentially complex subject so simple.
Richard Einhorn
via e-mail

The article about Joe Meek was spellbinding. Where can I find the three songs mentioned in the article (“Johnny, Remember Me,” “Telstar,” and “Have I the Right?”) on CD or cassette?
Frank Lewin
via e-mail

Author Barry Cleveland replies: Frank — It's Hard to Believe It: The Amazing World of Joe Meek (BMG/Razor and Tie Entertainment, 1995) includes all three songs.

PRAISE THE KIWI!

I tried to calculate the number of adjectives in Brian Knave's review of Blue Microphones' Kiwi (February 2002), but my coprocessor melted. I'm pleased he liked the microphone, and I like using it myself. However, the review, some five pages long, was so glossy and sugary sweet that not only did I reach for a toothbrush but I also kept reading, waiting for his conclusion to be that “the Kiwi has made me renounce God and start my own religion of worshipping this microphone.”

Readers want an objective approach that weighs the pros and cons of shelling out such a chunk of change — and whether the mic will work for them — rather than knowing about Knave's torrid love affair with the Kiwi.
Mike Ingram
via e-mail

Mike — Purple prose or not, the Kiwi is an incredible microphone worthy of the highest praise. Although I would hesitate to establish a religion around the mic, I stand by my review. — Brian Knave

SHRILL OR ANGST?

A colleague just showed me the article about recording acoustic harmonica (“Recording Musician: Taming of the Shrill,” January 2002). It was interesting and informative. I have recorded only one CD to date, but I wish I had seen this article a while ago.

First, author Brian Knave makes it clear that the harmonica produces a shrill, tinlike sound. I suppose from a recording engineer's point of view, that is a good lead-in — the harmonica is shrill, so it's hard to record.

Knave put too much stress on the harmonica's tone as a negative thing. If he's played for 30 years, then I hope he still experiences the same emotions when hearing a piercing first-position, high-end solo piece (for example, “Trouble in Mind,” by Walter Horton with Carey Bell). That “piercing” is where the soul is — the sadness, the angst.

Players get enough bad press already, so it would have been nice if he'd said, “It's shrill and hard to record, but we just love that sound” approach as opposed to “It's shrill and difficult, but let's try to deal with it.” Knave mentions that the recording engineer must work with the player and determine his or her ability. Maybe pros like him have enough skill, but rarely do I encounter a sound or recording engineer who has the first clue about how a harmonica is supposed to sound.

I think there's a national lack of understanding about the instrument as a whole. This article has done a lot, and I hope many recording engineers will read it. I plan to show it to anyone who ever records me again. I hope EM continues using its influence and presents the harmonica as a good thing to more people.
Dan Gage
via e-mail

Dan — Perhaps I overstated my case a bit, and I wish I had worked in the “but we just love that sound” angle — I do love the sound, or I wouldn't have spent all these years listening to, studying, playing, and teaching the instrument. However, I don't see how the harmonica's potentially shrill sound or how long I've been playing relate to whether I “still experience the same emotions when hearing a piercing first-position, high-end solo piece.” After all, I can imagine a soulfully played first-position, upper-octave solo recorded so badly that it hurts my ears to listen to it.

As for your comment that “players get enough bad press already,” I'm not sure how that relates to what I wrote, either. I sure hope nothing I said about Toots Thielemans, Norton Buffalo, Mike Stevens, or Lee Oskar came off as bad press. (By the way, all four read and approved the piece before it was printed. The only disagreement came from Lee Oskar, who feels that even bullet-type mics can be too bright sounding for recording harmonica. Hopefully it was clear, though, that the remarks I made about bullet mics were mine alone.)

In regard to your comment, “rarely do I encounter a sound or recording engineer who has the first clue about how a harmonica is supposed to sound,” I know just what you mean. Indeed, that's one of the main reasons I wanted to write the piece. Still, regardless of whether the engineer has a clue, he or she should be able to distinguish between a warm, pleasant tone and a shrill, painful one.

I'd like to clarify that I did not mean to present the harmonica as a good or bad thing. If put to a choice, though, I'd pick the former.
— Brian Knave

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Address correspondence and e-mail to “Letters,” Electronic Musician, 6400 Hollis Street, Suite 12, Emeryville, CA 94608 or emeditorial@primediabusiness.com. Published letters may be edited for space and clarity.