There are a few ways to approach microphone placement on an
acoustic guitar. The most commonly used method is to place an
electret or small diaphragm condenser mic a few inches from the
12th fret and second mic, usually a large diaphragm condenser
somewhere in between the sound hole and the bridge. I have also
this second mic placed at the bottom of the guitar facing the
bottom strap peg and even sometimes on the back of the guitar. This
however is not the only way to get a good sound.
If you happen to own a microphone capable of a figure 8 polar
pattern as well as one with a cardioid pattern you can do what is
known as a mid-side technique. This is more commonly used on pianos
but can be used in any situation where you’re looking for a more
spacious and ambient sound. This works especially well when you
want to capture a vocalist playing acoustic guitar in a very simple
live off the floor manner, when the goal is to make a recording
that sounds like the performer is in the room with you. To achieve
this simply take your figure 8 pattern microphone that is facing
your subject and turn it 90 degrees. Then take your second
microphone and aim it directly at your subject and make your
recording with each mic on its own mono channel. Take the figure 8
track and make a copy of it. Pan the original track hard left and
the copy hard right. Next invert the phase on the copy track. Leave
the other microphone’s track panned center and viola! This might
not be the ideal way to record all the time but I think you’ll
agree its definitely a cool sound to use when it’s
appropriate.
Another method is the old XY axis, using two microphones that have
a cardioid pattern placed one atop the other forming an X. This
produces a very nice stereo image and can be adjusted to be more or
less ambient simply by placing the microphones closer (more direct)
or further away for a more ambient sound.
And hey experiment! Try placing microphones out in your room. Try
hanging a PZM mic on a wall or blu tack it to a window and play
into the window! I really feel that this sort of experimentation is
what is sorely lacking in today’s plugin, preset-centric, over
compressed, dynamic lacking music world!
But perhaps I am the only one,......
Tags: Recording, Acoustic Guitar
14/07/09 01:28 Filed in:
Music
Production
The “Live Room”
This room has to sound as “natural” as possible, so you definitely
want a carpeted floor, and neutral wall material, drywall is good,
with some fort of diffusion type wall treament. If you find that
instruments or sounds with a lot of bass sound overly boomy then
bass traps may come in handy. You can use egg crates for diffusion
and cardboard boxes stuff with foam rubber or insulation and or
shredded paper to make your own bass traps. Please keep in mind
that these items are highly flammable and this is reason enough to
use store bought acoustic treatments as most of them are fire
treated and will not support a flame.
Isolation is the
Key
The main reason for a 2 room setup is
being isolated from the direct sound of the performance as it's
being played. What you are most concerned with is the sound that's
coming through the microphone. This way you can hear any noise or
distortion in the sound as well as beginning to shape what the
final sound of this performance will be. When you are isolated from
direct ambient sounds of a drum kit you can make better decisions
about where to place microphones apply some compression to even out
the volume of the kick and snare drum and generally shape the sound
of the kit as you record these sounds. This is very important for
those operating demo studios where time is money. This also helps
ensure that a great performance won't have to be scrapped because
of a technical problem that results from you not being able to hear
a problem in the first place. This of course is less critical if
you are recording your self or your own band and you have unlimited
time for re-takes. If you are a hired gun recordist you should
always strive for the situation where you are always waiting on the
client, but the client is never waiting on you.
If you only have a one room setup, the best way to compensate is to
develop you own standard way of getting a fairly neutral sound
recorded that you can play with in the mix. It's best to record dry
sounds and use plugins or patch in outboard gear to add effects
afterwards. You may also want to master the art of re-amping your
guitars. This involves recording a plain jane guitar signal into
your recording rig and then routing that signal back out to an
amplifier with a microphone on it. There are also many plugins that
allow you to make great sounds from an un-effected dry direct
guitar. I personally always seem to prefer the sound of an actual
microphone on a real guitar amp!
Tags: Home, Recording, Live, Room
14/07/09 01:23 Filed in:
Music
Production
The Control Room
A basic home recording setup usually consists of a computer system,
some sort of computer interface and speakers. A pair of speakers
that are connected to an external amplifier that runs off your
computer is the ideal situation. There are also a wide array of
powered speakers on the market that will work for this application.
Ideally you want the left and right speaker and your head to form
an equilateral triangle with the tweeter on the speaker at ear
level.
An easy way to measure this it to measure the distance between the
speakers and then sit that far back from them. Start with the
speakers facing straight ahead, and then as you listen to something
that is well recorded tow in the speakers until the singer or lead
instrument is well focused between the two speakers. This will give
you the ideal tow in, once you have this set don’t move the
speakers! If there are bass and treble controls on your amplifier
or speakers you will want to switch them off or put them in the
center or detent position so they have as little effect on the
overall sound as possible.
Next you must determine if mixes done in this room will translate.
In other words, is the sound you hear from your speakers in this
particular room accurate? Does the room have a bright or dark sound
to it? If you are lucky you have a fairly well balanced sounding
room, but how do you tell?
Scoping Your
Room
Scoping a room involves playing pink noise through your system and
using a spectrum analyzer to ensure that your are getting a flat
response. The characteristics of your room may cause sounds in it
to be bright, dark, muddy or boomy. The odds are that this room in
your house was not designed for sound. You do however want your
mixes to translate well and sound good on stereo systems in other
places and so we use the process of scoping the control room to
ensure this.
What you need to do is create some pink noise and play it through
your speakers. Don’t use white noise because it has more 1KHZ than
other frequencies. Pink Noise has all frequencies from 20Hz to
20KHz in equal amounts. Next you will connect a microphone to your
system and place it where your head will be when you are sitting at
your system. Basically you have the pink noise recorded and the mic
is setup as if you are going to record it. Next you will find the
spectrum analyzer plugin and apply it to the track you are using to
“record the microphone (Most computer recording software packages
have them). Next you will look at the analyzer to determine what
frequencies you need to boost and which you have to cut. You will
then use a graphic equalizer plugin setup on the overall stereo
master tracks to adjust the sound until you have as even as
possible a balance of Lows, mids and highs. Once you have this
setting you will save it as a preset and call it up whenever you
begin a new mixing session. You always want it to be the last thing
on the Master Stereo channels and this should be the first thing
you do before anything else. This will save you valuable time in
the future.
Tags: music, Home, Recording
14/07/09 01:20 Filed in:
Music
Production
Pro Recording
In a professional recording situation you have three separate and
distinct groups of people working to create a finished product. You
have the technical element, the recording engineer and assistant
engineers. Then there is the production staff who oversee the
budget and organize the personnel and are usually there to
represent the client whether that be the band itself or the record
label to which they are signed. Lastly you have the most important
group of people, the musicians, songwriters, in short the
talent.
Home
Recording
In the home recording setting in many cases YOU are all of the
above! You are Engineer, Producer, Talent AND Client! In order to
produce the best possible recordings you must master some of the
skills in each of these areas. This especially true if your goal is
to eventually open your home studio to the public or build a more
professional studio for profit. When you are deciding what
instrumentation to use, what equipment to buy, what the order of
the songs will be on the finished CD and how everything will be
paid for you’re in “Producer Mode”. When you’re deciding what mic
to use to best capture an instrument, which frequencies must be
boosted or cut in order make a vocal cut through the mix you’re in
“Engineer Mode”. While you’re writing the songs and playing the
instruments you’re in “Talent Mode” . If you think about recording
in these terms as you develop your own personal process of
recording, you will begin to see the process as a whole and this
will enable you to anticipate how what you do in the planning
stages of your recording will effect the tracking and mixing
process.
A
Studio Setup
What you need to create is a controlled environment, a control room
if you will. There are 2 reasons it’s called a control room. The
first reason is that where all the controls are housed, your
computer, mixer and other recording equipment. The second is more
scientific. In science the concept of a control is a known quantity
to be used as a basis of comparison. In this case your control room
will be setup so that there is an even balance of low, mid and high
frequencies. This will allow you to more accurately judge the
characteristics of the sounds that you monitor before you record
and the sounds you playback once they are recorded. You need to do
this so that your final mixes will sound the way you intended them
too when played back on other systems in other places. This very
important step is overlooked by many home recordists and this is
why many home recordings sound unprofessional.
The other room in a typical studio setup is referred to as the
“Live Room” or “Studio Floor”. It is a good idea for this room to
be treated with materials that absorb sound. The reason for this is
that it is ideal for microphones to capture the direct sound from
what you are recording with as few reflections as possible. This
sound dampening material also serves to minimize outside sounds
from finding their way into your recordings.
By isolating these two rooms from one another you are able to use
tools like compression and equalization to get the sounds close to
the way you want them to be in the finished product right from the
word go. For this reason it comes in handy to have an accurate idea
of what the final mix will sound like. It also comes in handy to
have a track sheet where you map out exactly what instrumentation
you are going to record, in what order and which tracks will need
to be recorded in stereo as opposed to mono. Not everyone has two
rooms to work with and so the recording and mixing method must be
altered a little but some people may prefer to record in a single
room.
Tags: Home, Recording, Digital