Countdown to Judy

If you’re going to talk tech, you might as well do it with Phil Ramone. The proud owner of 13 Grammys (and 31 nominations), the veteran producer is in charge of recording Rufus Wainwright’s re-creation of Judy Garland’s show at Carnegie Hall for a CD and DVD release. These days, he is attending rehearsals and watching over myriad details, down to which mike Wainwright will use—and it won’t be cordless since, Ramone notes, “Rufus is from the school that loves to swing the cable around. I pick the microphone for the artist. It may not be the most perfect one for a recording but it’s great for the artist’s comfort. The biggest part of what I’m supposed to do is capture the artist for the archives and for the world. On her album, you can hear Judy say, ‘Oh I’m popping some P’s’ and stuff like that. The microphones that were made in the 1950s and 1960s for PA systems—well, the PAs weren’t that great to begin with, so the microphone didn’t sound great. I’ve done albums where we’ve duplicated the feeling and the look of period equipement. But I’m not using a certain mike that was used in 1962 or something. You can get crazy with these things!”

Miking is actually a crucial element when you’re putting a 40-piece orchestra in Carnegie Hall. “Any classical hall has problems with the drums, which can obliterate the first ten rows,” Ramone explains. “People always think that you can turn off a microphone and the sound goes away, but it doesn’t do that at all, it leaves a print on other mikes. It’s as if you turned on a light in the center of the stage and it spilled everywhere. There are also time delays: If you play the drums real loud, the sound will come off of the back wall and there will almost be a repeat because sound is slow, so suddenly you’re playing against yourself. So you have to find a balance.”

It’s well known that as technology has progressed, it’s become easier to smooth out a singer’s rough edges in the studio. The producer, then, has a choice between offering a faithful document of what happened on stage and offering a technically perfect recording. “First of all,” Ramone explains, “it’s not as easy as people think to fix something. Some performers require and want nothing but a perfect performance, and that’s an attitude that happens in the studio as well as live. Rufus has a really amazing voice so we would probably say, Let’s go for the performance. I will know better as the rehearsals starts to come to fruition. It’s like, If the parachute needs to open, let’s open it, otherwise let’s go for it.”

Since Wainwright is doing two shows, one wonders, of course, which one the recording will document. “Probably both,” says the producer. “My intent is to capture it all in one night but sometimes there are things that you would like to have better. If something is better the second night, you use that performance. I think it’ll be a documentary of exactly what goes on.” In the end, of course, the goal is to leave a memento of a unique event. “I believe in capturing what happens as is,” says Ramone. “You’ll hear what went on with both the audience and Rufus. When you capture a great show and you feel the audience, that’s a great record.””—Elisabeth Vincentelli

· Week 1: Rufus Wainwright
· Week 2: Stephen Oremus
· Week 3: Jared Geller
· Week 4: Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoere
· Week 5: Rufus Wainwright
· Week 6: Phil Ramone
· Week 7: Kate McGarrigle