Caution: The following section relates to techniques used in recording music. If you are the spouse or significant other of a musician you know what it's like to be at a dinner party with other musicians when the conversation turns to 'recording'. Your eyes roll back in your head and you excuse yourself to go get more wine, walk the dog, do the dishes--anything to get away from the endless loop of babble-chat about microphones, mixing boards and such. But if you desire to break through this conversational obstacle (from the Latin obstaculum) and learn a little about what goes on in a studio, now's your chance.
Still Your Man was recorded live at Pan American Sound in Nashville, a large room where musicians can perform together with minimal separation and often without headphones. The producers chose to use complete performances rather than edit (or combine) the best sections from multiple takes (or attempts). Pan American Sound's sonic characteristics--an open, airy, slightly mid-range sound-- were a perfect match for the vocal and instrumental style of Still Your Man. The album was recorded and mixed to tape with assistance by Phil Lipman and mastered by Eric Conn & Don Cobb at Independent Mastering. Though there are a number of excellent digital devices for music, using tape allowed the producers and engineers the option of choosing a tape formula that best suited the music, much in the same way photographers choose a film stock. And lastly, all of us performing on the album have had our own form of a digital-nightmare-recording experience where what was a warm, inspired, and complex performance becomes one-dimentional, boxey, airless, and flat after it reaches the digital world. So, tape it was. Today there is a renaissance in equipment design making it possible for anyone to make very good sounding records. The producers and engineers can stand by this remark since--being self-taught-- we fall into the 'anyone' category. Here are a few items the producers were especially fond of.
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One of our favorite microphones is the all-but extinct Neumann U47 on rare occasions also found under the badge Telefunken. The U47 came into production in the late 40's at the very advent of tape and became a studio (and LP cover) standard immediately and was the favorite vocal mic for Sinatra, the Beatles, Sam Cooke, Joe Williams, Ray Charles and others world-wide. The mic provides voices, upright basses, string sections, and guitars a rich, authoritative yet natural sound with a slight but very sweet 'warmth' that is the result of the U47's electronics and tube. Several modern companies have come close to re-creating this microphone which went out of production in the early 1960's. Telefunken USA, Bock Audio Designs, and Horch, are a few of the fine modern mic designers. Our favorite for those on a budget is the Sputnik made by M-Audio. Most of the vocal and upright bass performances were recorded with a Neumann U47 courtesy of Blackbird Audio.
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On the right is the AEA 84 which has many of the same characteristics of the classic RCA 44, (a favorite of Sinatra during his years with Columbia) and the RCA 77 (used by talk show hosts). This type of microphone uses a thin aluminum ribbon placed between the poles of a magnet to generate voltages by electromagnetic induction. It 'hears' sound from the front and back and has a slightly soft but overall natural characteristic. The only mic for accordian in our book and quite nice on everything. A great mellowing choice for loud tinsley instruments, raspy voices, loud drums, and horn sections. 
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