Walt: What's your history with modifying microphones?
I was a recording engineer for about a hundred years, right after the coal era, just before running water. I started buying tube mics in the late seventies. One night I had a session that I wanted to use an M-49 on and it was dead as a doornail. So I took it across the hall to the tech room staffed by five full time techs and said, "Help, help! Fix my mic!" They said, "No. It's your mic, you fix it." So I set up a different mic for the session and came back after I was done and stayed that night and fixed it. That was my introduction to the inside of a microphone.
Walt: Were you a musician before you were an engineer?
Yes, absolutely. I was a clarinet player who became very interested in recording in high school and then started in the business when Chess moved their studios back in 1968. Half-inch 4-track was the medium that was brand new at the time and that was a big deal. Whilst being an engineer I started buying my own stuff and I ended up with about 60 mics in my locker. I did a lot of orchestral stuff so it came in handy. I have been doing only microphone repairandmodificationsinceabout1990.
Walt: What do you think of the all the re- makes of classic mics being made today?
