INTERVIEW
Sign up for your digital AM at
www.audiomedia.com
Handling Pressure
With 41 productions on four continents under his belt in 2013, German recording engineer, mixer, composer, and location recordist Jakob Händel has become one of the most in-demand professionals in the pro-audio industry, writes Jory Mackay.
FROMan early age, recording engineer Jakob Händel knew he wanted his life to revolve around music. After training as a violinist and percussionist during his school days, he went on to study business administration in Germany, France, and San Francisco (a more ‘useful’ career path, according to his father). Upon graduating he started working for one of Germany’s philharmonic orchestras as an administrator, all the while recording them using two Neumann KM140s he bought with a loan. Tired of counting money in the back
room, Händel embarked on a massive career change, starting as a coffee boy for an OB company, quickly becoming a technician, and then taking off on his own as a freelance recording engineer. Now, with multiple awards to his
name (including two Grammys, four Echo Klassiks, and a Gramophone), we catch up with Händel to find out about his rise to critical acclaim, working around the globe, and, most importantly, what he packs in his luggage…
Tell me a bit of where your job has taken you in 2013. I did 41 productions last year. I’m jumping from one thing to the other but mostly do orchestra productions. I’m open to everything and I think I’m really not compatible to [working for] a company. I’m very emotionally led. If I’m convinced of anything I can move mountains. If I’m not interested, I couldn’t care less.
42 February 2014
You worked on the Keanu Reeves movie Man of Tai Chi. Can you tell me more about that? Yes, it was quite a funny project. Volkswagen was a co-sponsor of the movie and Sennheiser was the sponsor for the sound. My duty was to record the film scoring and the sound of the supercars, so I had to record all the Lamborghinis and Bugattis and Bentleys. We had some fun. I went to China for almost three
weeks to work with the composer. The funny thing is that we did everything at once, so we were working while the movie was being done, which was a great opportunity to see the production side and meet Keanu Reeves a few times.
How has your mobile set-up evolved over the years? In 1996 I bought a Stagetec Reference A-D, one of the first in Germany, and I had a Genex 8-track recorder. It was a wonderful unit to learn how a microphone sounds and how acoustics work. It’s really neutral. It’s not musical so you need to create the music with it. Then I went into a very nice system
called Metric Halo. The first production I did with it was immediately bought by Deutsche Grammophon. I then went into Merging
Technologies’ Horus and I’m very happy with it. It’s just there. I don’t want to have to concentrate on technical issues when I record music. It’s just a tool and that’s it. In 2002 I met Claude [Cellier, CEO
of Merging Technologies] at the Music Fair in Frankfurt and said ‘what is this toy? Can I make money with it?’ and I became one of the first people in Germany to have Pyramix. I bought Pyramix because it was offering the MADI solution. I still have the card but now I’m travelling only with a MacBook Pro working with a Pyramix express card and from tomorrow on I’ll be working on Ravenna. I have a JoeCo as a safety on stage
along with the Horus. I had the whole thing modified because I sometimes have it on the rooftop, and if there’s any sort of power down, even just for a millisecond, the machine goes off.
What about microphones? I’m fully on Sennheiser and Josephson, which are wonderful microphones. It’s a Gefell capsule with a Josephsen body and I’m in love with it. For live recordings Josephson is a wonderful microphone as it excuses a lot of noises and concentrates on the musical happenings rather than making everything very clear and transparent, like page turning or breathing. I’m even modifying my DPA 4041 with a custom-made Josephson body. I’m reducing the amount of
microphones compared to years ago, not only because I know how to use them but also because I have better rooms and halls. I’ve been touring with orchestras and using 20 microphones and setting up the same way every night and then
being able to cut between different halls. By doing this you learn a lot about acoustics and the sounds of the halls when you have A/B comparisons. That’s what I’m doing now in
Belgrade as we don’t have access to the big hall. I have done some recording in the big hall and have been able to recreate this atmosphere in the rehearsal room. I’ve also been experimenting with
Sennheiser twin microphones quite a lot where you can adjust the different acoustics by changing the characteristic of the microphone, which is very nice.
Lastly, I heard a rumour that you’ve also worked with Rammenstein? Yes! I did eight live concerts with them. The situation was that the OB van with a DiGiCo console didn’t work together with the FOH. So they asked me to come with my mobile MADI recorder plus 16 microphones in the audience, which was huge. I bought 500m of cable just for those microphones. I hated it the first two concerts and
loved it after that. I thought it wasn’t my cup of tea but now I’m open to anything.
www.classicaudio.de
www.audiomedia.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44