To continue our series of Ask Me Anything sessions from NAB 2014, here are the highlights from our sit-down with Robert C. Bigelow. Robert Bigelow is an audio mixer, sound editor and live music recordist for film and TV with over 20 years of experience. His recent projects include NCIS: New Orleans, Star-Crossed, Chef and the HBO series Treme. Treme, like some other Bigelow projects, breaks the audio mold in that the show’s music is recorded live on set during filming, rather than added during post-production. This is a substantial innovation in the field of TV sound. Bigelow has also worked on shows and TV movies like Welcome to the Rileys, The Final Destination,  and In the Land of the Free. Additionally, he heads a mentoring program in audio recording for film and TV at the University of New Orleans. Question: Is live recording the norm for TV shows? Robert Bigelow: For dialogue, yes, always… but as far as the music goes, no, and that’s what makes what I’ve tried to do so special. Why I feel this is so important, particularly for programs and shows that really want to focus on the realism of the show, it adds to the overall textures of the film. We concentrate a lot on capturing the ambient for the show using various techniques from 5.1 surround sound miking to mid-side work, so that we can have a natural feel, instead of in-a-post feel, for like the 5.1. That was a challenge to work it out, so that we can consistently record the musicians in their natural environment. Q: Why do you think most shows don’t do live recording? RB: I think initially it was for consistency. I don’t think people put a lot of thought into how… I think they tried it, and it didn’t work out. The mic techniques were not as advanced. You didn’t have these wonderful 5.1 recording packages. You also didn’t have these multiple track recorders. I think that was a big deal, as well. Also, it’s not made for all shows. It just came down to being more efficient. It took us a full season to work out all the details so that everything clicked, so that it wasn’t a burden. Q: What would you say is the most challenging thing you encounter when recording live on location? RB: Environment. Primarily, when you’re dealing with cities like New Orleans, you have so many venues that will pump music out in the streets to bring people in. Those kinds of things, your environment is really the biggest battle. Other than that, when you’re in a challenging situation where you have a 12-person brass band and you can’t have the mics exposed, those were the big challenges, so you begin to get creative between your music only takes and hiding the microphones. Also, making sure everybody’s on the same page, making sure somebody’s monitoring their tempo. We have somebody that monitors the tempo constantly to make sure it doesn’t fluctuate too much. Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in New Orleans?  RB: I would have to say Emeril’s… oh, and K-Paul’s. That’s a pretty good tie there, so there you go.  Q: Boom mics or lavs on actors for location recording?  RB: Obviously, you’ve heard before the boom mic is your best option. But now that we’re filming more on locations, you’re in hostile environments, if you can do it, it’s always better to have both. This way if they have to go to do alternate tracks down the road, or the environment is too harsh… it’s best to use both simultaneously, especially in episodics. Everybody gets wired… and episodic is so fast-paced. Q: Robert, I see that you also worked on the movie “Zombie Farm”. Any tricks to miking up zombies? RB: We had to lav all of the zombies because they kept eating our boom operators… Actually, I wasn’t the production mixer on the show, I was the post sound supervisor and mixer, but all the zombie sounds we created. We created those later. So me, my friends and my dog sat in the studio and kind of groaned. Q: Do you think coming from the studio background helped you with live TV and film recording and mixing? RB: I think it did just for basic concept. But really they’re totally different. Just because you’re a successful music recordist doesn’t mean that you’ll be a successful film recordist. Q: Which microphone would you recommend when you’re shooting on the beach, right next to the ocean, to capture clean dialogue? RB: Very few of us will use a directional type lav generally, but in situations like that you would want to use a directional lav. But the problem with that is, if the actor turns their head, you lose them. Have a really good boom operator and try to get a directional lav working there if you can. Thanks, Robert! Recording music live, on set is an incredible innovation in the TV recordist space. We hope that your idea catches on and we see more of it. For musicians, it’s so frustrating sometimes to see a guitarist-actor on a TV show or in a movie that is clearly not playing the music, nor does it even sound like he or she is. With the boundaries Treme is breaking, we’re excited to see what happens next! Watch the full video below and stay tuned for more AMA interviews from NAB 2014!