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RECORDING: AUDIO

2nd EDITION
 vii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I would like to express deep gratitude for my professional colleagues and students
over the years who have provided encouragement, insight, as well as all-important
corrections along the way. I feel truly privileged to be a part of the rich creative
environment that is Berklee College of Music, where new possibilities for the future
of music and recording are born each day. I would like to thank our colleagues and
heroes in the industry who have enriched our lives with their stellar recordings
and our creative environment as visiting artists at Berklee, including: Elliot
Scheiner, George Massenburg, Al Schmitt, Phil Ramone, Ken Scott, Michael
Brauer, Bob Ludwig, Don Was, Ed Cherney, Chuck Ainlay, Bob Clearmountain, Arif
Mardin (’68), Sir George Martin, Bruce Swedien, Tom Dowd, Russ Titelman, Barry
Eastmond, Tony Maserati (’86), Jimmy Douglass, Kevin Killen, Hugh Padgham,
David Kahne, Trina Shoemaker, Frank Filipetti, Roger Nichols, John Leventhal,
Daniel Lanois, David Hentschel, Ethan Johns, Wendy & Lisa, Sylvia Massy, Kyle
Lehning, Nathaniel Kunkel, Neal Pogue, John Storyk, Dave Way (’87), Kuk Harrel,
Tony Berg, T Bone Burnett, and countless others.
I would like to especially thank all of my colleagues in the Music Production
and Engineering Department whom I hold in the highest regard, in particular
MP&E Chair Rob Jaczko, with whom I have had the pleasure to further develop and
grow the MP&E program at Berklee; Andy Edelstein for his unswerving technical
eye and generosity in reviewing this text (any errors that remain are my own!);
Dr. Susan Rogers, for her invaluable feedback and shared expertise in the area of
psychoacoustics; Jonathan Wyner for his feedback on digital levels, metering, and
loudness normalization; Tom Plsek for additional insights on the topics of sound
and music acoustics; and each of my colleagues from whom I have learned an
immeasurable amount over the years, including: Carl Beatty, Mark Wessel, Leanne
Ungar, Stephen Webber, Mitch Benoff, Prince Charles Alexander, Enrique Gonzalez
Müller, Alejandro Rodriguez, Chad Blinman, Mike Abraham, John Whynot, Ted
Paduck, Richard Mendelson, Jim Donahue, Mike Denneen, Matthew Ellard, Sean
Slade, Marty Walsh, Dan Cantor, Jason Stokes, Tony Carbone, Mike Moss, Brad
Berger, Brian McKeever, Sean McLaughlin, Matt Beaudoin, Bill Gitt, Burt Price, and
the late Terry Becker and Robin Coxe-Yeldham.
viii acknowledgment

Finally, a special recognition to the late Ivan Tcherepnin and Luise Vosgerchian
at Harvard, who were formative in my own studies of music and music technology,
MP&E founder and visionary Wayne Wadhams, and to Don Puluse, David Moulton,
and Bill Scheniman, former chairs of Music Production and Engineering at Berklee,
each of whose presence is felt within these pages.

PREFACE
It has been over a decade since the original edition of this text was first published.
This revised second edition is long overdue. Obviously, a lot has happened in the
intervening time, as reflected in this update, both in audio and recording and in
the recording industry itself. Audio has moved significantly away from the physical
to the virtual, as well as from analog to digital, and these two are interwoven to
a much greater extent here, as they are naturally in every recording session. This
shift in focus has necessitated changing the order of some previous chapters, in
addition to adding new chapters looking more specifically at DAW signal flow,
digital interconnections, levels and metering, and digital control systems.
It is a funny business that we are in, this music business. Whether producers,
recording engineers, or recording musicians, our common bond is that we love
music, and we love recording music. We have come a long way from the days in
which audio engineers wore lab coats, and musicians were not allowed to enter
the control room. In part, we have artists like the Beatles to thank for that. By
insisting on being involved in the technical and creative aspects of the recording
and production process itself, and by applying to it their own musical and artistic
sensibilities, they, and countless other creative artists, producers, and engineers,
helped give birth to a process that is eminently creative on both sides of the glass.
Since then, we have seen the advent of digital recording, MIDI, the project
studio, hard-disk recording and the digital audio workstation (DAW), high-
resolution audio recording, desktop mixing and mastering, and Audio over IP
networking, audio streaming, and online distribution. These developments have
made music recording and dissemination accessible to all.
But in the process of jumping into the audio soup, we often take it upon ourselves
to know everything about everything related to making music—composition,
songwriting, arranging, production, acoustics, recording engineering, mixing and
mastering, and perhaps even marketing, sales, and distribution. In trying to do
the job of ten people, it is easy for us to lose some fundamentals along the way.
The intent of this book is to try to fill in some of those gaps in our understanding
of audio and the recording process. This is not a book about recording techniques,
per se; there are a number of good titles available. It is also not a book about circuit
design, architectural acoustics, or how to design, build, and operate your own
P reface ix

studio, integrating MIDI, DAWs, and synchronization for video postproduction.

However, if you plan to do any of these things, read this book first.
Understanding Audio explores the fundamentals of audio and acoustics that
impact every stage of the music-making process. Whether you are a musician
setting up your first Pro Tools project studio, or you are a seasoned professional
recording engineer or producer eager to find one volume that will fill in the gaps in
your understanding of audio, this book is for you.
The intent of this text is to give anyone interested or involved in audio and
recording a thorough understanding of the underlying principles of sound,
acoustics, psychoacoustics, and basic electronics, as well as recording studio,
console, and DAW signal flow. It is meant to be of use as a reference, but the topical
flow should also allow the reader to proceed straight through, from beginning to
end, and hopefully come out with a much deeper understanding of audio and how
it relates to sound and the recording process.
Recording, as both an art and a science, is somewhat disorienting in its very
nature. Anyone with experience both producing and engineering knows what
it is like to be constantly swapping hats, from art to technical and back again.
While traditionally the recording industry has afforded one the opportunity
to fully identify as either a creative type or a more technical type, the kind of
duality and fluidity just described is increasingly demanded of all participants.
Further, with the growing scarcity of technical staff and traditional recording
studio infrastructure, even the more technically minded recording practitioner
needs a broadened understanding of audio theory and the ability to both set up
and troubleshoot analog and digital recording setups and signal flow. This text
represents an attempt to bridge the gap—to make the technical aspects accessible
to the practitioner, and to give a practical context to keep the discussion from
remaining purely theoretical.
Do not be put off by any of the mathematical equations. They are included to
deepen your understanding of the concepts being discussed, and are thoroughly
explained and worked through to be accessible to even the uninitiated. We have
attempted, to the extent possible, to include graphical representations of each of the
concepts discussed. The old cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words” certainly
applies here, and the reader is strongly encouraged to take the time to understand
each picture or graph; within them is encapsulated a wealth of information.
We have also taken care to follow each topical discussion with practical studio
applications, as well as occasional end-of-chapter problems to work through for
additional reinforcement of concepts learned.
x acknowledgment

Where mathematical discussions are necessary, especially with respect to

the decibel, we have tried to give the reader enough background and additional
information to make the discussion accessible to all. Mathematics, as a language,
has the advantage of being extremely succinct while simultaneously being capable
of generalizing a truth to a broad range of possible situations. To take an extreme
view, Lord Kelvin once wrote that until you can explain something mathematically,
in numbers, your understanding of that concept is “of a meager and unsatisfactory
kind . . . [only] the beginning of knowledge.” Food for thought.
 1

CHAPTER 1

The Recording Studio:

A Brief History and
Overview
To better understand audio in the context of recording and the recording studio, we
must understand the process first. What is it that we are trying to accomplish? To
appreciate this fully, it is beneficial to look at how we have gotten to where we are
today. Technology and recording has always been a two-way street from the point
of view of development. The emergence of new technologies, such as multitrack
recording, MIDI, and digital audio workstations (DAWs), not only radically changes
the way we do things but also opens up new creative possibilities previously
unimagined. At the same time, the drive for new creative directions and for easier,
faster ways to do what we need to do often inspires and spawns new technologies.
Let’s take a brief look at how recording has evolved over the last century or so.

EARLY RECORDING
Recording through the 1920s
Throughout the latter part of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century,
recordings were made “direct to disc.” The storage/playback media were either wax
cylinders or shellac discs that were cut live, one at a time. These discs were then
played back on one form or another of phonograph (predecessors to the “modern”
turntable). The recording studio setup consisted of a room in which musicians
were arranged around a horn. This horn gathered sound and fed it acoustically
to a vibrating diaphragm and cutting stylus (figure 1.1). As the musicians played,
the disc or cylinder rotated, and a pattern corresponding to the acoustic pressure
changes of the original signal was cut into the wax or shellac. The cylinder could
then be loaded onto a phonograph with a lighter stylus (needle) and the process
reversed. The pattern on the cylinder caused the needle and diaphragm assembly
2 Chapter 1

to vibrate, and the resulting air pressure changes were acoustically amplified
by the horn. From beginning to end, this was a fully acoustic process, with no
electronics involved.

Horn
Horn
Live
Live Music
Music Stylus
Stylus
Cylinder
Cylinder

Edison
Edison

FIG. 1.1. Audio Recording Setup through the 1920s. By the turn of the century, the flat disc coexisted
with, and then eventually replaced, the cylinder.

Initially, making multiple copies required having several horn-loaded cutting

machines lined up and run simultaneously, as well as having the musicians play
the piece multiple times (each time resulting in a slightly different performance,
of course). Thus, one could say that the recording, mixing, mastering, and
manufacturing processes were all rolled into one; it all happened simultaneously
at the initial recording session. “Mixing” simply consisted of arranging the
musicians and instruments at varying distances (and heights) from the main
recording horn(s).
Further development of Emile Berliner’s flat disc as well as Thomas Edison’s
cylinder eventually allowed for the manufacture of multiple copies from the one
master. The flat disc would win out commercially in the 1910s.
The Recording Studio: A Brief Histor y and Over view 3

Mid 1920s to 1950

With the development of the vacuum tube amplifier and the condenser microphone
in the 1920s came a new setup, shifting away from a purely acoustical recording
process to an electrical one. The microphone could transduce (convert one form
of energy into another) the acoustical vibrations of the source into an alternating
electrical current. This current would then feed a drive amp and a cutting stylus
(figure 1.2). The development of the moving coil loudspeaker allowed for the
playback process also to be electrified.

Mics
Mics Preamps
Preamps Levels
Levels Drive Amp Level
Drive Amp Level Cutting
Cutting Stylus
Stylus

FIG. 1.2. Audio Recording Setup through the 1940s. Mics feed individual preamps and level controls,
which collectively feed a drive amp and cutting stylus. Still direct-to-disc and mono.

Before long, driven by both radio and film industries, working in the electrical
realm would allow for the possibility of having a setup that included multiple
microphones, each accenting a different portion of the ensemble, each feeding its
own dedicated preamplifier and associated circuitry, and collectively feeding the
drive amp and cutting stylus. This development in turn gave rise to the need for,
or usefulness of, one device or platform that might group together all level controls
and switches—namely, the mixer or recording console (figure 1.3). It also gave rise
to the development of a two-room studio setup: the studio where the musicians
and mics are set up, and the control room where the engineer and producer can
monitor the performance through the console and speakers under more critical
listening conditions. Note that in the late 1940s, magnetic tape recording took hold
in the United States and began to be used initially as a safety backup to direct-to-
disc recording, and as the standard for prerecorded radio broadcast. During this
same time period, the ribbon microphone became standard in both broadcast and
studio recording.
4 Chapter 1

STUDIO

Mics

Preamps/Amps
Speaker

(Glass)

Amp
CONTROL ROOM
Cutting Lathe
(Channel Levels)
(Master
Level)

Drive
Amp

(Channel On/Off switches)

Console
(Passive)

Tape Machine

FIG. 1.3. Audio Recording Setup through the Early 1950s. Mics feed preamps and amps through a
passive console with level controls (stepped resistor networks) and cutting lathe direct to disc
(and/or tape after 1946).

The 1950s
Up through the early 1950s, the console typically consisted of a small black
tabletop box, with initially just four large rotary knobs (with level markings 1 to
10) for respective input levels, one larger knob for overall level, and a few switches.
The tube amplifiers for each channel were located in separate racks accessible via
a patch bay. These amps would eventually be integrated into the console, as in the
radio-style “consolette” of the late 1930s. Equalization (EQ) originally consisted of
self-contained plug-in cassettes (the original plug-in!) made up of passive resistors
tailored to specific microphones. Rather than being used for creative purposes,
they were meant to flatten out the frequency peaks and roll-offs inherent in the
sonic characteristics of specific microphones. These equalizations would result in
The Recording Studio: A Brief Histor y and Over view 5

a signal “more equal” to the original sound source being captured. Eventually, EQ
would also make it into the console as a series of stepped switches that could be
manipulated as desired.
Magnetic tape recording had arrived in earnest after the war (W WII) and
coexisted with direct-to-disc recording for about a decade, sometimes playing the
role of backup for the main disc master. The great advantage of tape, of course,
was that it could be rerecorded as well as edited. Thus, the best segments of several
performances could be cut together and presented as a single performance, a feature
that alone ensured the demise of direct-to-disc recording. This editing practice
remains with us to this day, even for classical music recording, which we often think
of as representing a live unedited performance. This is, in fact, rarely the case.
Artificial reverb was generally added to the final tape rather than to individual
signals, and was in the form of an acoustical echo chamber. (Both “echo” and
“chamber” are words that linger today on some consoles and patch bays to designate
reverb.) The signal from the original tape was sent to the chamber via speaker
lines, and allowed to reverberate in the chamber. The result was captured using
a microphone(s), and recorded onto the final tape or disc. Before long, because of
its increased fidelity, decreased surface noise, and ease of editing (not to mention
rerecordability), magnetic tape recording replaced direct-to-disc altogether. The
1950s also saw the widespread adoption of “exotic” tube condenser mics, including
the Neumann U47, AKG C12, and Telefunken ELA M 250/251, leading to greatly
improved fidelity and detail in recording. Artificial mechanical plate and spring
reverbs also came to light in the late 1950s.

Late 1950s to 1980: Stereo and Multitracking

With the advent of stereo recording in the late 1950s came the need for ganged
(stereo) faders and equalizers, and of course, stepped pan pots (panoramic
potentiometers), which direct a signal towards the left or right channel. These
last—consisting of two level controls (resistors) ganged in inverse proportion
(as one level is increased the other decreases proportionally)—were employed
mainly to direct individual spot mics, placed to enhance instrument groups
within orchestral ensembles, to coincide with their physical placement within the
stereo field. Toward the end of the previous decade, legendary musician and audio
pioneer Les Paul had conceived of recording using more than one disc cutter to
“bounce” back and forth while adding musical parts, giving rise in the 1950s to the
practice of overdubbing or “sound on sound”—recording new parts to coincide
with and enhance previously recorded tracks (as heard in Les Paul’s classic 1950s
recordings with Mary Ford)—as well as “bouncing.” With the advent of 3-track and
then 4-track analog magnetic tape recording (again Les Paul led the field here with
6 Chapter 1

a prototype 8-track recorder!) came the need for selective synchronization, or sel
sync, to be able to monitor previously recorded tracks off of the record head, thus
maintaining time synchronization with any newly added live tracks.
The birth of this new technology and approach to recording also marks the
beginnings of the modern recording studio, as well as the concept of recording
as a creative art form, rather than pure documentation of a live event. With the
widespread adoption of 4-track analog tape recording in the 1960s (with 8-tracks
soon to follow), a whole new approach to music production was born, as evidenced
in the Beatles classic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a seminal album
whose intricate and creative production was astoundingly all done using 4-track
recording. Monitoring was typically accomplished using four speakers, tracks 3
and 4 being sent to the inner pair of speakers. The possibility of sending more than
one input signal to a given track necessitated the use of combining networks, or
busses, which allowed the operator to combine input signals and assign them to
a given destination track. Busses were also now used to send signals from each
channel via individual level controls to the reverb chamber or device, the output
of which returned to the console and could be mixed in with the final 2-track
(stereo) mix.
Because of overdubbing, it also became necessary for the musician in the
studio to hear what had previously been recorded so as to know when and what
to play. This necessitated the inclusion of a “foldback ” or cue system, which
generally consisted of an on/off switch on each channel (including the reverb
return channel). This switch allowed that channel’s signal to be sent back into the
studio for the musician(s) to hear. At this point, level controls were also gradually
moving away from stepped rotary pots (circular knobs) and towards linear faders
and continuously variable resistor rotary pots. The emergence of the transistor as a
much smaller (and cooler-running!) alternative to the tube for amplification made
it easier for the console to include all level or gain stages internally, first in cassette
plug-in form, and ultimately in either discrete or integrated circuit (IC) chip form.
Few consoles exist with all tube rather than transistor stages.
With the advent of 8-track analog tape recording, and given the implausibility
of using eight speakers, it was found that virtually any position could be reproduced
using just two speakers through phantom imaging.1 It is really at this point that
the modern studio setup and recording console were born in earnest (figure 1.4).
We see the emergence of the monitor mix path for the return of tape track outputs.
Here, every level control, mute, and solo of the record path is duplicated in a path

1 T
 hrough psychoacoustics, a sound reaching both ears simultaneously (from two equidistant loudspeakers,
for instance) will be perceived by the listener as emanating from a phantom source directly in front of the
listener, in between the two speakers. This is the principle upon which two-speaker stereo playback is
based. More on this in a later chapter.
The Recording Studio: A Brief Histor y and Over view 7

independent of the recording, for the sole purpose of creating a preview mix for
the producer or engineer. This development allows for significant experimental
manipulation during the recording session without disturbing the actual recording
to multitrack. At this point, equalization also became available in both the record
and the monitor path, as did reverb. Foldback switches became cue mix rotary
controls, and as tracks multiplied so did the complexity of the cue mix system.
And just like that, glossing over a few developmental details along the way, and
followed by further (and ever-increasing) proliferation of track counts, the gradual
substitution of analog in favor of digital recording beginning in the late 1980s, and
the move to fully-computer-based recording and digital signal processing systems,
we arrive at the modern-era recording studio.

STUDIO
Mics

(Glass)
Preamp/ Fold-Back (Cues)
Amp
Levels Cue Sends

Track Reverb Return

Assign
Reverb Sends
EQ EQ EQ EQ EQ EQ EQ

Mute/
Solo

Speaker(s)

Record Monitor Master

Levels Levels Level

Mono/Stereo
CONTROL ROOM Master Tape Machine

MULTITRACK

FIG. 1.4. The Emergence of the Modern Studio in the 1960s

8 Chapter 1

THE MODERN-ERA (POST-1960s) RECORDING STUDIO

Figure 1.5 shows what a multitrack recording session setup might look like in a
modern-era studio. The console or desk is the heart of the studio. Through it, all
signals pass to be properly balanced, processed, and routed to the appropriate
destination. It also provides a means of communication between the studio and
the control room. The engineer or producer can communicate with the musicians
in the studio via a talkback mic or engineer’s mic on the console. This mic is
routed either through the musicians’ cues (headphones) or to the studio speakers.
A communication or “com” mic (or several) is also set up in the studio and routed
through the console to the control room speakers to allow the musicians to talk to
the engineer or producer.

Multitrack 2-Track
Bass
Amp
Mic Input
Drums Patch Panel

Outboard Gear
Gobos

Console
Glass

Gobos Iso Booth

Guitar
Studio Amp Control Room

FIG. 1.5. Modern-Era Recording Studio Layout (Post 1960s)

Instruments can be acoustically isolated from one another using either isolation
(“iso”) booths or movable barriers called baffles or gobos. Microphones positioned
on individual instruments in the studio are patched into mic input patch panels,
which are connected by cables running through the wall, to the mic inputs on the
console. Within the console, each low-level mic signal is boosted to a usable line
level by a mic preamplifier. The signals can then be processed as needed using
equalizers or “EQs” to adjust tone or “timbre,” compressors for dynamic level control
and/or “punch,” and faders and pan pots, respectively used for level balancing
and stereo (or surround) placement or “imaging.” These effects can be part of the
console itself, or they can be accessed along with artificial reverberation, delay,
and other effects, as outboard gear via a patch bay.
The Recording Studio: A Brief Histor y and Over view 9

Beginning in the 1990s with the advent of digital audio workstations or DAWs
(computer-based hard disk recording and mixing systems such as Pro Tools),
signal processing could increasingly be done within the DAW environment, using
computer-based software plug-ins as part of the DAW workflow. While most large-
scale professional projects will typically use a combination of traditional and
DAW workflows, in more modest setups such as home or smaller project studios,
all recording, signal processing, and mixing might occur “inside the box.” A
small-format mixer or DAW control surface might also replace the console, with
a computer interface and/or monitor controller taking up the task of the console’s
monitoring and cue functions, if in somewhat more limited fashion.
The primary destination for signals is typically individual tracks of the
multitrack recorder, again most commonly a computer-based DAW. (These
recorders can also take the form of traditional analog reel-to-reel tape machines
as pictured in figure 1.5, for either multitrack recording or 2-track stereo mixdown,
though their use has become increasingly rare and specialized.) In addition, the
main stereo output signal from the console or mixer feeds power amplifiers that
boost the signal level enough to drive the control room speakers or monitors. In the
case of self-powered monitors, these amplifiers are built in to the speaker cabinets
themselves.

BASIC RECORDING STUDIO SIGNAL FLOW

A basic global studio signal flow is shown in figure 1.6. Input signals are grouped
and routed to the multitrack via the track busses, where bus 1 out is normalled to
track 1 in, bus 2 to track 2, etc. A bus is a signal path where audio signals can be
combined and jointly routed to a particular destination. A normal is a connection
that has been set up between an audio source and destination such that it does not
require repeated patching. The outputs of the multitrack are normalled back to the
line-level inputs of the console. The main stereo output of the console is normalled
to the control room outputs (speakers), and back to a stereo track of the DAW, or
possibly to a dedicated 2-track machine (as pictured). The specifics of the signal
flow will depend on the type of session occurring. Recording studio sessions will
tend to break down into four general categories: basics, overdubs, mixdown, and
live-to-2. Mastering, which represents the final stage of the production process, is
typically done in a dedicated mastering studio specializing in this type of work.
10 Chapter 1

Multitrack

(Multitrack
Busses)

(Mic
Inputs)

Console
(Control Room Outputs)

(Tape (Stereo Bus)

Returns)

Outboard Effects

2-Track

FIG. 1.6. Basic Modern-Era Recording Studio Flow. Inputs are routed to the multitrack via the track
busses, track outputs are normalled to the line inputs of the console, and the main stereo bus feeds the
control room outputs to the speakers (and may be normalled to the inputs of a 2-track.)

The most straightforward of these sessions is the live-to-2 (figure 1.7). This type
of session is reminiscent of pre-multitrack productions of the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s,
and is also applicable to the production of a live performance or live broadcast.
Essentially, all musicians are in the studio at the same time, microphones are routed
directly to the main stereo mix bus, and the music is recorded to the stereo master
track live, as it happens (hence the term “live-to-2”). All level adjustments, effects,
and other production decisions are made in real time. Figure 1.7 shows the basic
flow for a live-to-2 session. The idea is to make the flow as direct as possible from
source to stereo master, as if it were a mixdown session. The difference is that the
source signals are coming from live microphones rather than prerecorded tracks.
The Recording Studio: A Brief Histor y and Over view 11

2-TRACK
(Mic
Inputs)

(Stereo Bus)
Console

Control Room
Monitors

Outboard Effects

FIG. 1.7. “Live-to-2” Session Signal Flow. Mics are the source, stereo master track and monitors are the
destination.

The advantage of this type of session is that it tends to be very time-efficient,

has a definite immediacy, and captures the natural and spontaneous interaction
between the musicians that is sometimes lost in the course of lengthy isolated
overdubs. The downside is that decisions made about sounds, effects, and levels,
cannot easily be changed. A common alternative, live-to-multitrack, overcomes
this limitation, as it allows for later mixdown (and even potential overdubs), and
is probably the most typical recording situation for jazz as well as classical music.
Most live concerts, when recorded, are also captured in this fashion.
A basics session (figure 1.8) is the initial recording session in a traditional
multitrack production project where the basic rhythm section (drums, bass, and
perhaps guitar or piano) might be recorded. In this case, our source is still the
microphone, but our destination is now the multitrack (as well as the control room
speakers, so that we can hear what we are doing). Individual microphones are
routed to individual tracks or can be subgrouped via busses to individual tracks or
pairs of tracks. Some console and outboard processing such as EQ or compression
may be recorded at this point, or may be included in the monitor mix only, along
with reverb or delay, as a preview. In the case of the DAW environment, software
plug-in effects at this stage are typically preview (monitor) only.
12 Chapter 1

Multitrack

(Multitrack
Busses)
(Mic
Inputs)

Console

(Control Room Outputs)

Outboard Effects

FIG. 1.8. “Basics” Session Signal Flow. Source is mics; destination is multitrack (and monitors).

The overdub session(s) occurs once the basics sessions are completed. Tracks
are typically added one by one, in isolation, to fill out and complete the production.
In this case, we have two different sources. On one hand, we have the live mic
(or alternatively, a line input) for the signal currently being recorded; on the other
hand, we have the previously recorded tracks, which must be monitored and
performed to. We also have two different destinations: the live mic is routed to
the multitrack to be recorded (and control room monitors to be heard), while the
previously recorded tracks are arranged in a rough mix, along with the current
track, to be sent to the control room monitors, as well as to headphones for the
musician(s) via a cue mix. The principal flow for an overdub session is shown in
figure 1.9.
The Recording Studio: A Brief Histor y and Over view 13

Multitrack

(Multitrack
Busses)
(Mic/Line Input)

Console

(Previously
Cues
Recorded
Tracks)

Outboard Effects
Control Room
Monitors

FIG. 1.9. “Overdub” Session Signal Flow. Sources are mic(s) and previously recorded tracks, destination
is multitrack for the mic only (and monitors) as well as headphone mix (cues).

The mixdown session occurs once all material has been recorded (hopefully!).
The source is the multitrack; the final destination is the stereo mix track, most
typically a designated stereo track within the multitrack DAW session, or possibly
a dedicated half-inch or quarter-inch analog reel-to-reel machine (as pictured
in figure 1.10). At this point, final effects are included and will be recorded as
part of the final mix to the stereo master. Several passes may be performed with
minor alterations, such as vocal slightly up (louder) and vocal slightly down, or
an instrumental version without vocals. Additional editing may follow to create a
composite or “comp” mix using favorite sections from the various “passes,” as well
as a shorter “radio edit” version, etc. The principal mixdown session signal flow
is shown in figure 1.10. In the case of an “in-the-box” mix, the signal flow is similar,
but may be entirely contained within the DAW environment, up to the stereo mix
monitoring (figure 1.11).
14 Chapter 1

2-TRACK

Multitrack
(Previously
Recorded
Tracks) (Stereo
Bus)

Console

Control Room
Outboard Effects Monitors

FIG. 1.10. Mixdown Session Signal Flow. Source is multitrack, destination is 2-track master recorder
(generally DAW, or possibly ½-inch reel-to-reel analog tape) as well as control room monitors. All signal
processing effects are finally captured along with the mix.

The mastering session, which generally occurs in a studio specializing in

this type of work, consists of taking all of the final 2-track stereo mixes for the
entire project (or multi-channel mixes, in the case of surround-sound masters),
and making global sonic refinements, including EQ, compression/limiting, level
matching, and song sequencing and timing. Mastering is most commonly done
using a dedicated mastering DAW. The stereo mixdown master tracks are imported
into the mastering DAW; any analog mixdown master tapes are transferred onto
hard disk through a mastering-grade hardware analog-to-digital (A/D) converter
or ADC, possibly preceded by choice analog processing, such as EQ and
compression/limiting. The tracks are then manipulated in the digital domain (or
depending on the style and sound desired, using a combination of analog and
digital signal processing), edited, sequenced, and finally saved as a master stereo
mix file. This file can then be uploaded for duplication, most commonly in the
form of a Disc Description Protocol (DDP) file, which contains not only the audio
files but also the metadata describing the audio (track names, durations, etc.).
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 The steamboat Selkirk, which was to carry the boys from White
Horse to Circle City, was of the old time kind that was used on the
Mississippi and other rivers half a century ago; that is, it was of the
wood-burning, stern paddle-wheel type.
As they stood out on deck the next morning Jack tried to lose
sight of the big issue for the moment and he imagined himself to be
the first explorer who had traced the Yukon River in this region. If he
had not had gold on the brain it would have been an easy thing to do
for here were the same virgin meadows, primeval forests and silent
fastnesses just as they were when the Russians laid claim to Alaska.
And the gold, he reasoned, that was here then is, for the greater
part, here now.
Not once since they had left Seattle had Bill compared anything
with his Noo York, at least not out loud, but when they were passing
through the headwaters of the Yukon he said as though he was
talking to himself, “It hasn’t got anything on the Spuyten Duyvil,”
which, let me elucidate, is a tidal channel that connects the Harlem
River with the Hudson River and so forms the northern boundary of
Manhattan Island on which New York City proper is built. But in the
eight hundred and sixty odd mile trip down the Yukon to Circle City
Bill had ample opportunity to amend his snap comparison and even
then he was fifteen hundred miles from its many channeled delta
where it flows into the Bering Sea.
“Doesn’t look much like the naked north or frozen regions that the
folks back home think it is,” remarked Bill, as they passed a tundra
(pronounced toon´-dra) which was thick with grass and shrubs and
sprinkled with various plants in flower.
“I’ll say it doesn’t,” replied Jack, “but wait, we haven’t run into
winter weather yet.”
As the boat plied its way softly and swiftly down the Yukon they
saw occasional Indian villages, the men taking life easy, the children
playing and the squaws busy drying the golden salmon on poles set
in the sun. Then to the great delight of both boys they saw a caribou
swim out from the shore intending, probably, to cross to the other
side, but frightened by the modernity of the throbbing, smoking
monster he swam back faster than he came, and on gaining the
shore he disappeared from view.
 Another time Bill went over to Jack, who was talking with some
passengers, and saluting as to an officer he said, “I have to report,
sir, a bear on the starboard bow.” And sure enough there stood a
huge bear high on the ledge of a rock and so motionless was he that
he seemed carved out of the rock itself; but inwardly he was fully
alive to this mechanical invasion of his eminent domain.
Never was a river trip of such wild beauty, so full of interest and
yet such soothing quiet as this one the boys were now making and it
would have proved doubly delightful if they had been pleasure
seekers instead of gold seekers. The only breaks in the continuity of
the run were made when the boat nosed its way along a bank and,
finding an anchorage, she wooded up, that is she took on wood to be
burned under her boilers.
Now the river widened and the boat ran into the more placid
waters of Lake LeBarge which Jack pointed out to Bill as having
been the scene of action in The Cremation of Sam McGee, a poem
by Robert Service. On reaching the lower end of the lake the boat
shot down the Thirty Mile River where the swift current winds forth
and back like a tangled rope and it takes a pilot who knows his trade
to hold her to the channel.
But the most exciting piece of navigation is at Five Finger Rapids,
for here the river narrows down into a neck and almost closing the
latter are five ugly finger-like rocks projecting above the surface with
the water swirling swiftly round them in mighty eddies. It looked to
Jack and Bill as if there was not enough room for the boat to pass
between any two of them but this didn’t seem to worry the pilot any
who held her nose hard toward the middle finger.
The boys thought that he must be tired of life. But hold there
matey, just as they had timed her to strike the rock he bore down
hard on his wheel to port and the boat missed the rock by the skin of
its teeth, Their hearts dropped back from their throats to their
thoraxes again and they believed they still stood a fair chance of
finding the gold they were after.
And now comes Dawson into view—Dawson in the heart of the
Klondike—the Dawson of tradition, adventure, romance and—of
gold! This is the identical town where that great army of pioneer gold
seekers, who braved the rigors of the winters, the dangers of the
rapids, the stresses of starvation and the robbers of Soapy Smith’s
gang, found themselves if they were unfortunate enough to be so
fortunate.
As the steamboat ties up here for half a day to load and unload its
cargo the boys went on a hike over to an Indian village called
Moosehide, a little way down the trail from Dawson. On returning to
town they got the borry, as Bill called it, of a couple of horses and
rode out eight or ten miles where some great dredges were at work
bringing up the sand and gravel from the streams and hydraulicking
equipments were washing the gold out of it.
“This kind of mining,” Jack said to his partner, “is simply panning
out gold on a big scale by machinery, and gold fields that are not rich
enough to be worked profitably by a prospector will yield gold on a
paying basis where hydraulicking can be taken advantage of.”
“It’s too slow a game for me,” was Bill’s idea of the scheme, “I
wants to pick it up in chunks.”
“That’s what we’re here for,” Jack made answer.
They left Dawson that evening and the next morning still found
them in the Yukon Territory, but shortly after breakfast the boat
crossed the International boundary line and they were on good old
U. S. soil again. The boat soon made a landing at Eagle City where
Fort Egbert is located and the first thing Jack spied was a big
wireless station which he knew belonged to the U. S. Army.
From Eagle to Circle City, or just Circle as it is called for short, is a
sail of a hundred and ninety miles. Both Jack and Bill were dead
tired of traveling and they hailed Circle as heartily as they would
have hailed their own home town. But they didn’t know what they
were hailing. The only outstanding fact with them was that they had
arrived, or at any rate they had gone as far as trains and boats could
carry them toward the goal of their desires. The bridge was swung
ashore and they got off without delay. The whistle blew a couple of
sonorous blasts, and the boat backed off and went on her way down
stream.
In the days of the gold rush Circle had been the great outfitting
town in these parts. It was built up entirely of log cabins and it had
more log cabins than any town had ever gathered together before or
since. Why Circle City? Whence the name? Because when the town
was started it was believed to be located right on the Arctic Circle but
later it was learned that it was a good eighty miles below the Circle.
As the boys stepped ashore they were greeted by a few white
men, some Indians and the ear-splitting howls of the huskies.
“I tell you Bill, we’re on the very edge of things.”
“You said a mouthful, pard,” was that worthy’s sober reply.
 CHAPTER IV
WHEN BILL AND BLACK PETE MET
The boys wore sorely disappointed in Circle for while it had been,
as they had heard, “the largest log house town in the world,” and as
far as log houses go it was yet, for that matter, still that essential
moving principle that makes up a town, namely the inhabitants, was
lacking.
But times have changed since the early ’90’s and now all that
remain of its population are a few men who look after the stores and
a handful of prospectors, miners, hunters and trappers who come
into town to buy their supplies, and these hearten it up a bit. As for
the empty log houses they serve only as so many monuments to
commemorate the time when the town was alive and full of action.
You ask why the town died out? I’ll tell you. Gold was discovered
there in 1894 and for the next four years its growth was phenomenal
—the wonder of all Alaska; but when the Klondike was opened up
the inhabitants left everything behind them and made a mad rush for
the new gold fields, and so at the present time there is little left to tell
of the glory that was Circle’s.
The way Jack had figured it out coming up on the boat was that
they would get their clothes, grub, sleds and dogs at Circle, which
prospectors and others he had talked with said they could do, and
then when they were all fixed and winter had set in they would push
on over to the land of the Yeehats and there establish a base from
which they could work.
This base of supplies was to be like the hub of a great wheel the
circumference of which would include all of the territory to be
prospected and their local expeditions would be like the spokes, that
is they would strike out with their dog teams, traveling light, taking a
new line of direction each trip they made. In this way they could, he
said, make a thorough search for the hidden gold that those before
them had struck so rich but which for divers reasons best known to
those who had sought it had never been gotten out of the country.
His best thought, as he had previously explained in answer to an
objection of Bill’s, was to make this search during the winter months
instead of doing it in summer-time in virtue of the fact that they could
then use dog sleds and this would enable them to cover the ground
without working themselves to death and do it at a goodly clip
besides.
Now, when Bill had set his eyes on the deserted City of Circle he
instantly took a violent dislike to it. Having become fairly well posted
on the geography of Ilasker, as he still persisted in calling it, he
concocted the notion that what they should have done was to come
up in the early spring and go on by boat to Fort Yukon, which is
about eighty-five miles farther on down the river.
From there, he contended, they could have gotten a couple of
canoes and paddled up the Porcupine and Big Black Rivers until
they were close to where the International boundary line crosses the
Arctic Circle. This done, (according to Jack’s own reasoning he
said), they would be about as near the place where they wanted to
make their winter quarters as they could get. But there was no
getting away from it, they were now in Circle with winter fast coming
on and it was too late to change the work sheet as previously laid
out.
By the time this argument was over, the boys had reached the
Grand Palace Hotel, an enormous log building of two stories of the
regulation kind to be found in all frontier and mining towns.
Running nearly the length of one side of the hall as they entered
it, was a bar with a hotel register on the end nearest the door. At the
extreme farther end of the hall a platform had been built up about as
high as a man’s head, while any number of small round tables
covered with worn-out and faded green cloth were strewn about the
room.
The owner of the Grand Palace in the days antedating the
Klondike rush was Sam Hastings, or Silent Sam as he was called,
because he never spoke unless he was spoken to and his replies
were always pithy and to the point. His face was smooth shaven; he
wore a low crowned, narrow brimmed Stetson hat, a rolling collar
with a flowing tie, silk shirt with diamond set gold buttons in the cuffs,
a Prince Albert coat with a six gun conveniently within reach under it,
doeskin3 breeches and kid button shoes. Unlike Soapy Smith he was
honest, as men of his type went in those days, but like Soapy he
died with his button shoes on.
3 Doeskin is a kind of fine twilled cloth much used in those days for making breeches.
Now let this close-up of Silent Sam fade away and take a look at a
snap-shot of Doc Marling, the present owner of the Grand Palace
and you will observe a further change that time and circumstances
have wrought in Circle.
Doc is a big-headed man and bearded like a couple of pards. He
wears a woolen shirt, under which beats a fair to middling heart; his
breeches are also woolen tied around his ankles and he has on a
pair of deerskin moccasins.
He is no shooter—you could see that the moment you look at him
—but it is history up yonder that he once choked a bear to death with
his hands alone.
He was the only animated object in the great bare room when the
boys walked in and they felt like a couple of mavericks that had been
cut out from the herd. No more lonesome place had either of them
ever been in this side of Nyack-on-the-Hudson.
But Doc Marling didn’t seem to feel that way, since after being
there for twenty odd years perhaps he’d gotten used to it. He invited
them to inscribe their names on the hotel register, after which he led
the march down the hall—it seemed to the boys as if it was a block
long—thence up the stair-way whose well-worn steps showed clearly
that Circle had been very much alive in the days of her youth, and
then to their room which was altogether too big.
“One thing sure, we’ll get in practice here for the long winter that is
ahead of us,” reflected Jack philosophically.
“It wouldn’t be half-bad if we had a ’phone connection with the
American Consolidated Oil Company back in Noo York, but where
are we? Five thousand miles away and not even a wireless station
nearer than Eagle. ‘I blazes!’ as Grizzly Hank down at Juneau says,”
groused Bill. His indisposition was curious in that no matter how
strenuous the tide of battle might be he had never a word to say, but
inaction always behaved as an irritant to his nervous system.
Came soon the loud jangling of a bell and they knew it for a call to
supper. They followed where it led and sat down to their first meal in
Circle, and it was good. There were ten or a dozen men at the table
with them and up here at the very outpost of civilization, where men
are what they are, they all fell into loud and easy conversation.
“We’re in the hands of white men, as I said we’d be, back there in
New York,” Jack told his partner when they were again in their room.
Just as they were about to turn in they thought they heard a
phonograph going, and as “music hath charms to soothe the savage
breast” they went down into the big hall to be soothed.
While in pre-Klondike days it was of nightly occurrence to find four
or five hundred people gathered in the hall, there were now
congregated perhaps some twenty-five or thirty men, and these were
made up of Americans, French-Canadians, Indians, half-breeds, and
a Chinaman or two, to say nothing of the bear.
A few of those who composed this agglomeration of humanity,
were the scum of the earth but most of them were men of strong
character and sterling worth. Considering that they were on the very
edge of things they were bound to be a rough and ready lot but
taken all in all they were well behaved and peaceably inclined—all
except one and he was Black Pete.
While the crowd by no means filled the void of the big hall, still it
breathed enough of life into the stagnated atmosphere to take off the
sharp edges of their lonesomeness.
Now instead of a phonograph they discovered that the source of
the music originated in a tall, rangy miner with a big bushy
mustache, who was sitting on the platform and sawing away on a
fiddle as if his whole soul was in it. Near the platform some kind of a
disturbance was going on around which the onlookers had formed
themselves into a ring. Whatever it was they were greatly interested
and from the roars of laughter they were evidently enjoying it hugely.
Jack and Bill elbowed their way deep enough into the ring to see
what the frolic was and what they saw they concluded was about as
good as an act in a side-show. In a word it was a team of dancers
executing with great precision and solemnity the “bear-trot”, or “bear-
hug”, or “bear-something-or-other”, for a young French-Canadian
and a big brown bear, who stood erect on his hind legs, when he
was as tall as his keeper, were executing a most ludicrous, albeit, a
lumbering sort of dance.
 “IT WAS A TEAM OF DANCERS.”

After a spell Rip Stoneback, the fiddler, ceased scraping the

catgut strings with his horse-hair bow and the trainer and his bear
wound up their exhibition with a wrestling bout that tickled the
everlasting daylights out of these simple northmen, from which it
could be fairly deduced that, after all, they were really only boys
“growed” up.
The boys mingled freely with the knots of men taking in what they
had to say about everything in general and little things in particular,
for it was all brand-new and novel to them. Jack struck up a
conversation with a young fellow named Jim Wendle from ’Frisco
who had staked a claim over on Preacher Creek.
“The boys here are all right,” he was saying to Jack, “there’s only
one fellow who is really hard boiled and that’s Black Pete over there.
He’s laid out every man he’s ever tackled, either with his fists, or his
knife and I’ve heard that he shot a man once. He’s meaner than all
get out when he’s had a few drinks so don’t get into any argument
with him. Agree to anything he says if he talks to you.”
Black Pete did not look the part of a “bad man” though his face
was hard and his complexion was swarthy. He was not very tall, had
tremendous shoulders and having lived in the open Northland all his
life he knew the run of men who gathered here. He was thoroughly
disliked in Circle because of this disposition on his part to always
want to pick a fight and there were men thereabouts who were
actually afraid of him.
At about the same time that Jack was getting his information
concerning Black Pete another prospector was tipping off his history
to Bill and it was lucky for both of the boys that they were “let in” on
his past performances when they were.
 Black Pete and a boon companion were leaning against the bar
when the latter made some passing remark about that young
stripling and his partner who had just landed in Circle.
“Sleem keed heem all right,” returned Pete, “but I no got use for
heem pardner—zat fellow weez da cut cross hees cheek. I give
heem beeg leeking sometime. Maybe theese night. Watch a
meenute. I have som’ fun with sleem keed.” Black Pete called to
Jack and motioned him to come over, but as the latter had not been
introduced he paid no attention and this aroused Black Pete’s ire.
Then he and his companion started over toward Jack and Jim
Wendle.
“Be careful now,” his friend cautioned him.
Black Pete laid his hand on Jack’s shoulder in a perfectly friendly
like manner and said:
“You and Jeem com’ heeva dreenk weeth me?”
At that Jack got up from the table and looked Black Pete square in
the eye.
“I don’t drink,” he said shortly.
Black Pete was mad clear through, that much was plain.
Bill who had been taking a hand in a world-old game called poker,
happened to see Jack and Black Pete facing each other and he
divined trouble. He laid down his cards and went over where his
pardner and the bad un were, to listen in on the conversation.
“Heeve a seegar, then,” the Canuk insisted catching hold of Jack’s
arm and pulling him toward the bar.
Taking a firm hold on Black Pete’s wrist Jack removed his hand
from his arm and said, without the slightest inflexion in his voice, “I
don’t smoke.”
Then the unexpected happened—that which had not happened in
Circle in perhaps a dozen or twenty years before.
“You don’t eh?” growled Black Pete, infuriated at Jack’s cold
refusal to join him in either one or the other, “then deem you, heeve
a bullet!”
At the same time he whipped out his six-shooter and pulled the
trigger, but his marksmanship was bad, for Bill had caught him by his
throat from the side and pulled his body over so that the bullet
crashed through the roof, instead of boring a hole through Jack’s
body.
Expecting that the remaining chambers would be emptied in the
struggle which took place between Bill and Black Pete the crowd
dropped to the floor, jumped behind the bar, crawled under tables—
all except René and he kept his trained bear between himself and
the business end of the gun the bad man of Circle and the Harlem
boy were struggling for.
These latter two were well matched though there was no doubt
but that Black Pete who was the larger was also the stronger, but
sheer brute strength could not gain the mastery where the tricks of
the wrestler’s art are brought to bear and Bill had a little the best of
it.
As the crowd rightly guessed when the first shot was fired, Black
Pete did pull the trigger every chance he got until all of his cartridges
were shot off but each time the bullet that was intended for Bill went
wild and neither he nor the others were scratched. One bullet,
though, shivered the big plate glass mirror over the bar into a
thousand pieces and Doc Marling, the proprietor, knew that he was
having bad luck just then to the jig-time of three hundred dollars,
even if it didn’t keep on for the next seven years.
All the time the struggle was under way Jack stood by as though
he was watching a friendly bout in Prof. William Adam’s Academy on
Manhattan Street in the good old days. More than one of the
onlookers wondered why he didn’t crack a bottle on Black Pete’s
head and so help out his partner, but this was not the way the boys
did team work. In a set-to of any kind whether it was with bare
knuckles, with knives or with pistols neither one would take a hand in
the affair the other was engaged in unless, as Jack had once
explained to me, it was “absolutely imperative.”
And this status of the fray was far from having come to pass, at
least that was the way Jack sized it up. The crowd must have kept
count of the shots fired for when the last one took place they quickly
picked themselves up from the floor, or crawled out from their safety-
first hiding places, and gathered around Bill and Black Pete who
were still at it.
 Whether it was due to the final breaking down of his courage,
failing strength, too much hootch or the superior tactics of the trained
athlete, was not apparent, but slowly Bill overpowered his opponent,
threw him over his shoulder, when he struck the floor on his back,
and pinned him down so that he could not move. After all had seen
that Black Pete was helpless Bill let him up.
There was wild cheering for the victor and some one brought Bill a
big glass of forty-rod.
“You have well earned it boy and you need it,” he said as he
offered the glass to him.
“I never drink,” said Bill and it was given instead to Black Pete to
revive him again.
 “BLACK PETE DID PULL THE TRIGGER EVERY CHANCE HE GOT.”

When the latter had regained his feet, and recovered from the
shock a little, he offered no explanation for his defeat, but in his deep
humiliation he moved over toward the door to make as dignified an
exit as he could in the quickest possible time.
“Hey, where are youse goin’,” Bill called out after him. “Come back
here and sit down at this table and let’s be friends, for I never holds a
grudge after I have downed me man. Sit down here, I wants to tell
youse something.”
Black Pete reluctantly did as Bill requested and the crowd surged
round them to hear what it was this boy from down under had to say
to him.
“I takes it you’re a bit loaded with licker to-night and perhaps I had
the ’vantage of youse for I never lets any of that hootch stuff interfere
with me phys-e-que, see? Now you think you’re some scrapper don’t
you? Well maybe you are, and I’ll give you a fair chanst. Tomorrer
youse keep away from the bug-juice, see? and come ’round in de
evenin’ and I’ll spar’ a few rounds with youse—tree rounds ull be
about enough—just a friendly bout for the sport it will give these
gents here. Marquis Queensbury rules or sluggers rules, I don’t care
which. Youse can go now,” and Black Pete promptly sneaked off
wishing that an earthquake would open a gulch through Circle and
swallow up him, Bill, Jack and everybody else, but it didn’t.
All the next day Black Pete wondered how he could get out of the
‘friendly bout’ that Bill was so willing to pull off for the mere fun of the
thing. He didn’t know what the Marquis of Queensbury rules were
but he finally came to the conclusion that he was a better man than
his opponent and that the only way he could retrieve his standing in
Circle was to give the Keed the beating of his life.
Curiously enough he did ‘cut out the booze’ just as though he had
paid Bill for the advice and then he proceeded to get into his best
fighting trim.
“I knock heem face een eef I ever heet heem,” he said talking to
himself, and then to prove to his own satisfaction that he could do it
he made four well defined dents in the pine board wall with a
smashing blow of his fist.
“An’ you said these folks up here was all of the peace-lovin’
garden variety, and never use a gun,” Bill said soberly when they
were in their room after the fracas.
“I thought they were,” replied Jack.
“You thought they were?” and Bill looked at him as though he had
caught him breaking the nth commandment. “Well don’t youse think
again, Buddy, or youse might hurt yourself, see?”
 CHAPTER V
OUTFITTING AT CIRCLE
In the great hall everything was as quiet as the faces on the totem
poles that reared their ugliness into the air on either side of the
Grand Palace Hotel. While the night before had been the most
exciting of any that the oldest pioneers of Circle could remember
since the days of ’94, in the broad light of the morning after, it
seemed as though “the makin’s of it had just melted away,” as Bill
expressed it.
The boys found Doc Marling in the ‘office’ of his hotel which meant
that he was standing back of the register and ink-bottle. He greeted
his paying guests mournfully and when Jack inquired what he had on
his young mind that grieved him he pointed to the frame-work which
had held the largest mirror north of Dawson so short a time before as
yesterday. It only went to prove how fragile are mirrors and the
mutability of things in general.
“My lookin’-glass is busted,” he said funeral-like, “and I’m out just
three hundred cold dollars in gold.”
“I don’t see how you could blame us because a patron of yours
thought he’d let daylight through me. Black Pete started it and it’s up
to you to make him settle for it,” suggested Jack.
“He hasn’t got anything to settle with; that’s the worst part of it,” he
replied, fishing.
“Then you orter take it gentle-like outen his hide.” This from Bill.
“Well, I kinda allowed that you about did that thing last night,” said
Doc, “and bein’ somewhat of a philosopher I allowed too that while
the glass was worth three hundred dollars it was worth well nigh that
amount in gold dust to see him take his medicine.”
“That’s a pleasant way to look at it, Mr. Marling, and now,” said
Jack, “we want you to tell us which of these stores here is the best
place to buy our outfit.”
“They’re all all right. But you ought to go and make the
acquaintance of Jack McQuesten over there at the N. C. (Northern
Commercial Company’s) store. He is the daddy of Circle for he set
up a tradin’ post here as soon as the pioneer prospectors begin to
come in. Jack’s a man that seventeen dog-sleds loaded with
moosehide sacks of gold couldn’t budge from the straight and
unerrin’ path of rectitude, is Jack, and he’ll fix you lads up bully and
O. K.,” he told them.
So the boys went over to the N. C., and while Jack McQuesten’s
fame had reached them down as far as Skagway, Bill Adams’ fame
had preceded them that morning from the hotel. The old trader was
sitting on a box when they came in and they saw right away that he
was a pioneer of the old school. A low, broad brimmed hat, without a
dent or crease in it, set squarely on his head, and a pair of keen gray
eyes, about half closed as if he didn’t want to see too much at a
time, was boring holes through them.
He was full-faced, his nose was broad and his mustache gray; it
was plain to be seen why he had been entrusted with hundreds of
thousands of dollars by the various companies whose trading posts
were famous all over Alaska. He was, as Doc Marling had said, as
straight as a die and he knew character, even as characters knew
him. He was dressed like a miner and the only outstanding feature of
his rig that the boys caught sight of was a magnificent gold watch
chain and charm—and he had a watch to match them in his pocket
—which had been presented to him by the Order of Pioneers, for of
the first of the hardy pioneers of Alaska, he was the very first.
“Mr. McQuesten,” began Jack, “we came over to get a winter’s
supply of grub and an outfit fit for an arctic expedition.”
Jack McQuesten took a good look at Bill and said with a twinkle in
his eye, “so you are the young chap that whipped Black Pete—well
I’ll be dog-goned. But let me give you a pointer, be careful how you
handle him for his ways are not our ways—and we can’t be
responsible for them. It’s the first time in the history of Circle he has
not done up his man and he isn’t any too particular how he does it,
so watch out he doesn’t knife you.”
 “We’ll be careful all right, from now on, Mr. McQuesten, believe
me,” returned Bill.
“He’s out of his latitude,” put in Jack—that is Jack Heaton; “he
ought to be ashamed of himself living up here on the Arctic Circle
with white people instead of being down there on the Tropic of
Cancer with the rest of the greasers.”
“If he pulls any of that Chilili Mex stuff on me to-night I’ll send him
so far he’ll need a weegie board to get back to earth on, but I’m
thankin’ you Mister McQuesten for tellin’ me as how I should be
careful, sir,” Bill said in an apologetic voice, perhaps because he had
let Black Pete off so easily the night before.
“Now to get down to business, Mr. McQuesten,” began Jack who
was anxious to get things a-moving. “What we want is an outfit of
clothes, mess-gear and grub that will carry us through the winter.
We’re not going so far away but what we expect to get back before
the last ice and first water but we might want to keep on going and
we must have an outfit so that we can pull through if needs be.”
“What you want is an outfit for about eight months but you couldn’t
begin to pack it on your backs or haul it on sleds,” the old outfitter
explained; “such an outfit would weigh in the neighborhood of eight
hundred or a thousand pounds, and a man can’t carry more than fifty
pounds or haul more than one hundred pounds on a stretch. What
you ought to have is a couple of dog-sleds.”
“Perzactly!” agreed Bill, “and the question now is can we get the
dogs.”
“There are some very likely dogs in and around Circle that I might
be able to pick up for you and I’ll see the men who own them over at
the Palace to-night. I’ll go ahead and outfit you on the strength of
your being able to get the dogs.”
“Good!” ejaculated Jack.
“First of all the things you’ll wear,” the old trader struck out genially
and his eyes twinkled more merrily than ever for here was big
business staring him in the face—a volume of it such as he had not
transacted since the palmy days of Circle these many years agone.
The boys were all attention.
 “You’ll want a couple of suits of waterproof underwear, a
Mackinaw coat and breeches for early winter and spring; a caribou
skin coat with the fur on which has a hood fixed to it; a pair of
moosehide or bearskin breeches, a couple of pairs of moccasins and
muk-luks apiece and about a dozen pairs of German sox.”
“Whoa, Buddy,” sang out Bill, “I wouldn’t wear a pair o’ them
Boche socks if I had to go barefoot, see?”
“That’s only the name of them, boy; why they make them down
there in Dawson,” explained Mr. Jack, the storekeeper.
“Well, I might wear ’em in a pinch then,” said Bill.
“Then you must have fur mittens that are lined with wool; several
pairs of woolen mittens to wear when you are building your log
cabin, heavy fur caps and fur lined sleeping bags. Of course there
will be towels and handkerchiefs and all of that sort of small stuff.”
As the storekeeper enumerated the various items of clothing, he
brought them forth and laid out two piles, one for each of the boys.
“Now let me tell you something about taking care of these fur
clothes; if you expect them to last you for more than a month take
my advice and keep them dry, or if they do get wet, don’t wait but
stop where you are, build a fire and dry them then and there. I don’t
care how low the quick falls you can’t get cold in one of these suits.
“Oh, yes; I almost forgot your eye shades but they are absolutely
necessary in traveling over the snow on bright days,” and he
produced a queer looking pair of goggles without any glasses in
them. “These are Esquimo shades and I wouldn’t give a cent for any
other kind,” he said as he handed the boys a pair.
They examined them closely and found that they were made of
wood and where the lenses were supposed to be in a pair of goggles
there were thin pieces of wood instead with a couple of slits in them
to let the light through. Jack and Bill put them on and made puns and
had fun over and out of them. Jack pretended he was a college prof
and then gave an imitation of Teddy Roosevelt. Not to be outdone,
Bill gave an imitation of Jack giving an imitation of him, and then he
wound up by pretending he was Judge Gilhooley of the Harlem
Police Court and promptly sentenced himself to pay a fine of seven