We received very sad news yesterday that record producer James Mallinson passed away on Friday.
As a friend and colleague he will be missed.

How sad. My condolences

Often seen here in Chicago, a great link to past excellence is now lost.

Sad news.

I had the opportunity to work with him at the Chicago Symphony (now decades ago). Rest in peace.

His name proudly resides on many many recordings in my collection. One of the greats.

That Karajan BPHO Boheme with Freni and Pavarotti is still the best I reckon. Suberb sound quality too. Beautiful bass on the CD too.
PUCCINI La Bohème / Freni, Pavarotti, Karajan - 2 CDs / Download - Decca - home of classical music

So sad and so unexpected. He will certainly be missed by many. Rest in Peace

What a wonderfully open and fun-loving guy, in love with his work. That does it for me.

But-- there is some reason, having watched the video above, I keep pondering the "well this is not really absurd"ity of the concept of moving mics two inches making all the difference. It makes every difference, obviously-- but it sure speaks to me of a protocol where you take what the mikes give you and that's not just only your capture but your final mix.*

It must be a generational thing. The way I was raised, the slightest tweak of an EQ or multiband compressor will completely overwhelm the difference of two inches, even nudging a fader or two will blot out the distinction. Considering the crucial task is bending the audio to your will, you will be engaging this processing and anything else you can think of, because whatever the mikes have to say, the job at hand is a few leaps and bounds beyond that.

Just trying to understand my revisiting this for a few days... not to worry...

* (I understand the "shock value" aspect that maybe is the reason why this comment was included in the production.)

Yeah, the two cm or inches comment gave me some pause. I've been doing this long enough to doubt a couple cm up or down from a main pair will in way change the perspective enough to be noticeable except in the most extreme circumstances. Like he said, he was not an engineer, he was a producer, and I'm sure any engineer who worked with him would have been happy to accept a mic movement instruction for the sake of appeasement if they knew the results would be the same.

Even people great at their jobs can have head scratching beliefs and ideas. Perhaps it comes from an emotional passion toward the work rather than the disconnect that comes from being overly practical. I'm sure I have my fair share of quirks that other engineers think are crazy. I have sometimes posted ideas where people thought I lost my mind. In the end, results matter more than method.

I have heard much of his discography and cannot argue with his results. All recording sessions benefit from a great producer. I find it immensely frustrating to work on projects without an organized leader.