New Vintage Mic Book In Progress

Sylvia and Chris are busy researching, photographing and cataloging vintage microphones for their next book, tentatively titled “The Great Vintage Microphone Book”. The full color tabletop book will be the “bird-watcher’s guide” to the most iconic and important microphones through history. Stay tuned… the book will be released in 2019 by Hal Leonard Publishing.

Adventures In Recordingland

RECORDING UNHINGED – Creative And Unconventional Recording Techniques

This is a recording book like none other! It’s a volume loaded with memorable quotes, fascinating ideas and inspirational stories from the netherworld of music recording. The book includes dozens of never-released historic photos, including many from Sylvia’s personal archive of candid session Polaroids.

The book also features Sylvia’s enchanting illustrations – impossibly detailed pieces that are laced with zany humor and sharp wit. This is the book that finds a way to entertain, educate and inspire. It leaves the reader burning to test the limits of their next recording session. Drawing on her storied career (30 years and counting) in the music industry, Sylvia includes selected interviews and quotes from distinguished musicians, producers, engineers and other studio critters including Hans Zimmer, Al Schmitt, Jack Joseph Puig, Bruce Swedien, Geoff Emerick, George Massenburg, Bob Clearmountain, Tchad Blake, Bob Ezrin, Linda Perry, Dave Pensado, Eric Valentine and many others..

Released by Hal Leonard Publishing, Recording Unhinged is now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s, Sweetwater and other great booksellers.

Unhinged Coloring Books

For the artist in all of us, now released are the official Recording Unhinged coloring books! Get the Audio Icons Unhinged Coloring Book and the Recording Unhinged Coloring Book, with black and white artwork from the best-selling Recording Unhinged. The prints are on sturdy, perforated pages, ready for you to color and frame! Enjoy the “Drummer’s Brain” or “How To Mic A Chicken”, hours of recording studio coloring fun!

And for audio fans, here is a coloring book with all your favorite Producers, Engineers and Mixers. Black and white prints on sturdy paper, ready to color! Easy perforations allow you to remove them neatly from the book and frame them for your studio walls. Super fun surprises for the studio geek in your family!

Andrew Scheps

Quincy Jones

Al Schmitt

Dave Pensado

Geoff Emerick

T-Bone Burnett

Unhinged Book Club

Click Here To See Who's In The Club

See who has bought the book (and what they are doing with it.) This gallery is continuing to grow, so check back to see who else has joined the club!

Click here to find out more about publisher Hal Leonard.

Unconventional Techniques

What does it take to open up a scene where the creativity flows? Becoming a bit unhinged is a good starting point.

Unusual Devices

Explore weird mechanical wonders (like this orchestrion) that create, record and reproduce music and sound, throughout history and from around the world.

Studio Tip

Make Your Own "Phone Mic"

The best way to get that telephone effect on a vocal is to use a real telephone! Buy an old telephone from a thrift store. Take apart the handset and replace the wire to the mouthpiece mic (the carbon button) with a length of mic cable. Keep the male end of the mic cable attached to the cable. Solder in a 1.5v small battery on one side of the cable. Reassemble the handset and plug your telephone mic into a line level and you are good to go!

How To Play A Chicken

Get Gear Horny

Telefunken CMV-3

Oh, the stories this mic could tell!
Born before WWII in Germany, this bottle mic is still one of the most desirable mics on earth.

Meet the Author

Get Your Book!

Recording Unhinged

A year in the making, the book Recording Unhinged is now available through Amazon and other retail outlets including Barnes and Noble, Book Soup, Powell's, Sweetwater and through Hal Leonard's website. Click the image above to buy your own hardcover copy!

Click Here To Buy Your Hardcover Copy!

Co-Authors

How Exactly Do You Write A Book?

Sylvia and her co-author, the unpredictable Chris Johnson.

Studio Stories

Shotgun Mic?

Explore studio lore including techniques for proper micing and shooting of pianos.

For The Love Of Gear

Beyond The Ordinary

The book explores incredible instruments and exposes unconventional recording techniques to inspire studio magic!

Recording Unhinged Coloring Book

This book has everything from the "De-Evolution Of Vocals" to "How To Mic A Chicken", all you need to noodle the hours away while you are waiting for your assistant engineer to finish tuning the vocals. Just add coloring pens and have loads of fun!

Gear Love

Teisco Tabletop Amp

SM: This strange little Japanese amp has a speaker pointing straight up, diffused by a plastic white cone. It has a wonderful deep rich tremelo which actually is useful!