Some Kind Of Voltage with Rob Maile (AEA Microphones)

Rob’s a producer-engineer & classically-trained musician. He produced his first record just last year. His DIY spirit and engineering chops combine for a unique mix of science and magic. An alchemy of the recording studio.He’s modded and restored classic gear. Builds microphones at his day job (at the legendary AEA Microphones in Los Angeles). And is passionate about pairing the right tech with the right moment.We talk boundary microphones and ribbon mics, the history of the tools, and how to deploy them for the maximum vibe. In a recent blog post on The Pixies’ Surfer Rosa, I talked about how boundary microphones defined the guitar sound. It’s serendipitous Rob actually knows how they all work!For 30% off your first year of DistroKid to share your music with the world click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DistroKid.com/vip/lovemusicmore⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🌎Watch guest episodes on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 📺Subscribe to this pod's blog on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to receive deeper dives on the regular 🏊‍♂️Tune into my music and surf the different-yet-connected platforms at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ScoobertDoobert.pizza⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠🍕⁠Score pod ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🥥Connect with Rob on:✏️ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠IG⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠A word salad poem cut from episode excerpts by the podcast producer 🫛Things that tell our stories and that bring us together. A very interesting game of what plugs into what. A really rewarding experience. Another layer of compression. Built arrangements. Mostly creative. Consider to be innate. The presence. These really sensitive audio devices. A wall of weird interesting guitars. Art is what gets us. Innovations. Part of the fun. Some bizarro stuff. An aspect of interaction. In unexpected ways. Speaking of things that just happen. The cumulative amount of insight and wisdom. That low push. Industry, infrastructure, all of that. Can have that experience. Set the tone. It’’s a vibe though. The idea of noise is ever-present. Kind of bellowing. The beauty of it. Like listening through snow. Talking a waveform alternating current. Setting up signal chain. There’s a lot of moments. Capture the movement of the air. A great unifier and an antidote to division. Really cool interactions between the different components. A type of transducer. The limiting factors are also unlimiting. Exploding tambourine. All of those little micro-decisions. Oddly intertwined. You have a speaker. Attenuate and boost. Little tools in the toolkit. The headwaters that’s the spring. String arrangements and stuff. Just a spark. Like a snowball. Interesting things, interesting moments. Different speakers. That big sweep. New unforeseen cool sounds. Like subharmonic. The connection or the inverse relationship. In such a way. How translatable it is. The inspiration hits. That foundation. Putting the energy into it. Technically inclined. Something like a graphic EQ. Recipe book or whatever. To improvise around the problems. That training. The physics or the electronics of sound at that time. The tools available. You get sound. The impression of an instrument. Used in all different applications in music and recording. Great connection between. Wire the woofer. A strong magnet and a coil. Just experimenting. A hodgepodge. As sensitive as possible. In stride. Those glowing things down there that look like light bulbs. The palette of sounds. The story of gear. About adapting. Still sounds cool. Very fresh. Strange names like the bubble machine. 🧼Edited by Rebecca SansomSet Design by Max HorwichPodcast Produced by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Beformer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠