The Audio of ACL

By Margarita Jimenez

Bringing music to the ears of Austin City Limits fans is no easy task. Capturing the essence of musicians consists much more than just recording raw audio. It takes a dedicated crew, specialized equipment and days of editing to create a show, but skill and creativity capture the emotion and energy of the artists for the television viewer to witness in their home. Ray Benson, from the band Asleep at the Wheel commented that Austin City Limits "has evolved to have the highest production values, audio and video, and they don't tell you what to do. They say… put on stage what you do best and we'll record it an edit it." This simple approach presents to the audience exactly who the artist is.

To capture what makes Austin City Limits so special takes a passion for sound, years of experience and a well-trained ear, exactly what David Hough, the audio director for ACL provides. The music, "it's all filtered through me," Hough says. He would get no argument from Sharon Cullen, the ACL audio supervisor. "Without him [David Hough], we don't have audio," Cullen said. This audio duo have worked so closely together for over 17 years, that it's no wonder why they can finish each other's thoughts, sentences and anticipate the need for certain sound adjustments during a taping.

On a recent visit to the control room, filled with electronics and wires meandering along the sides and middle, a tiny fan on a piece of equipment by the door began sputtering that only David Hough, the audio director, heard. He then commented, "I'm like a captain on a submarine, I hear sounds most people don't." It's this skill that has enabled David Hough to key in on different sounds, to ensure they don't get drowned out by a loud guitar, to create a balanced sound of music. Although the technology has been a large part of capturing the sounds, it takes a well-trained ear to key-in on each sound coming from the instruments and artists' voices to balance them properly in order to present to a television audience that most likely does not have surround sound on their television set. Paying special attention to detail, David Hough listens to each completed mix on a television set to make sure the audience will be able to hear what he hears in the studio.

Hough, who has been with the show since the 1975 pilot, began recording audio with borrowed or self-built equipment. "The pilot came up and we didn't have any equipment at all. There was one fellow, Dean Raybourne, putting together a Public Address, or PA, system. There was another friend of mine, Malcom Harper, putting together an Airstream bus with recording equipment. I also had built and designed some amps for the fellow who had the PA equipment. He was hand-building everything. The economy was pretty bad and we couldn't just run down to a music store or guitar center to buy a mixing console. We built them ourselves from parts and bits and pieces. And that was a lot of fun to put together all that stuff and see what we could get to work and not work," Hough said. A particular incident during the first season demonstrated the limitations of this equipment. " I remember those Radio-Shack speakers, the first time we used them -- it was Rusty Wier who was performing -- and in the middle of the show his monitor caught on fire!" Hough said.

After the pilot, the station had bought a used NEVE console, a professional grade of mixer with 16 channels and a 16-track Studer A-80 audio recorder. The mixer cost about $35,000. The first three seasons had no post-production audio editing: television viewers heard a mix of the live recording. Video editing didn't begin until season four and at that point, the tapes had to be edited offsite in Nashville, Tennessee. It took some time before editing could be accomplished on-site.

The first NEVE console stayed with the studio 12 years, until a request came in from a large Nashville band's producer asking Bill Arhos to purchase a Studer A-820 with longer recording capability and more tracks. The studer had an extra large reel which could record for an hour straight. This provided uninterrupted recording of a performance, improving on the flow of the music and audience interaction with the artist. The studio received, in Season 13 a new NEVE console with 32 channels and a new 24-track Studer audio recorder with noise reduction. This console stayed with the studio until the year 2000. Upgrading their technology, a grant allowed ACL to purchase a 130 channel Euphonix System-5 console which displays 40 channels with more channels layered underneath those.

Since then, Austin City Limits has gone completely digital in recording audio by adding a digital audio recorder that could handle 56 tracks. This has eased the recording and mixing process, but skill captures the essence and beauty of the music being produced. Even though much of the credit goes to David Hough in recording the superb sound quality, he credits the entire sound crew and the working relationships between each other in producing the final product we hear at home.

David Hough discusses the importance of audio to ACL

Terry Lickona on recording