RECORDING TECHNIQUES

Recording Techniques

Close Mic Techniques - Electric guitar / bass guitar (essentials)

• Dynamic mic (for high SPL)

• Cardioid polar pattern placed in front of the amp (around 15cm away) - Close to speaker grille

• Centre of cone gives a bright sound, edge of cone gives a dull sound

• If mic is on-axis then sound will be brighter compared to off-axis

Close Mic Techniques - Electric guitar / bass guitar (extras)

• Can also use a condenser mic with a pad switched on

• DI box can be used along with DAW amp plug-ins

• Can use both a DI and mic and choose one - look at potentially differing phase characteristics of each signal

• Second mic (condenser mic placed 5m away) can be added depending on the room

Close Mic Techniques - Acoustic Guitar

• Generally recorded with condenser mics due too wide frequency response and accurate reproduction of high frequency content.

• Content mics also capture wide dynamic range with good sensitivity

• Small diaphragm (fast transient response) captures full frequency range and brightness of instrument

• Large diaphragm better for greater sensitivity

• Usually set to cardioid placed around 15cm in front of 12th fret.

• Can use two small diaphragm condenser mics, one pointing at hole and one at the 11th fret.

Close Mic Techniques - Brass and Woodwind

Trumpet/trombone - Dynamic or Condenser - Placed in front of bell or slightly to side for more mellow sound. Pad required for condenser.

Sax - Dynamic or condenser - Condenser for distance, dynamic for spot miking - Careful to avoid sound of keys

Flute / Clarinet - Condenser - Mic placed above is best

Close Mic Techniques - Grand Piano

• Condenser mics to capture the brightness of top strings

• Mics should be far enough away to not emphasise a few single notes. (30cm is good)

• One mic for treble and one for bass

• Shock mounts required, mics should point toward the hammers

• XY pair outside piano gives more realistic sound

• Single mic can be position over where the strings cross (Common in live sound)

Close Mic Techniques - Upright Piano

• Remove front panel and mic the strings with spaced or XY pair of condensers

• Can mic soundboard of piano if it is far away from nearby walls. Mics pick up less noise from pedal thumps and piano action noises but sound will be duller

Close Mic Techniques - Vocals

• Large Diaphragm condenser mic to capture full frequency and dynamic range

• Performer can be up to 30cm from pop shield which itself should be 8-12cm from mic

• Use shock mount to isolate mic from vibrations

• Use pop shield to avoid capture of plosive sounds

Close Mic Techniques - Drum Kit - General

• Spot mics widely used for different parts of drum kit

• Not easy to avoid spill between mics and drum miking is a compromise between capturing natural sound and minimising spill and ambience

• Prepare and tune the kit. Rattles must be fixed.

• Acoustic screens can be used to reduce spill of other musicians

Close Mic Techniques - Drum Kit - Bass (Kick) drum

• Large diaphragm dynamic mic for low frequencies in drum facing batter head.

• Second mic can be used outside the kick drum facing the resonant head.

• Polar polarity inversion may be required

Close Mic Techniques - Drum Kit - Snare drum

• Dynamic microphone (Shure SM57) or condenser with pad switched on.

• Can be mic’ed from above and below - Below emphasises the rattle but issues can arise from spill - Above produces a rounder sound.

• Polarity (phase) switch may be needed to avoid cancellation.

Close Mic Techniques - Drum Kit - Toms

• Dynamic mics (Shure SM57 or Beta 56As)

• Position mics up to 15cm away from skins at approximately 30^o

• Common to use clip on dynamic mics for live sound

Close Mic Techniques - Drum Kit - Hi-Hat

• Small diaphragm condenser

• Placed above top cymbal between 10-15cm away

• Pointing down to avoid air blasting

• If mic is too close then proximity effect may arise

Close Mic Techniques - Drum Kit - Cymbal / Overhead

• Pair of overhead condensers

• Can spot mics for other cymbals such as ride and crash

• Spaced pair gives wider stereo picture but could leave a hole in the middle.

• XY or mid-side pair can be used to avoid this and have better mono compatibility

Stereo mic Techniques

Stereo mic Techniques - Coincident (XY) pair

• Two cardioid mics placed so that the capsules are right next to each other

• Combines the polar pattern of the two capsules to create stereo image

• Because mics are basically touching, good mono compatibility is maintained

Stereo mic Techniques - Spaced (AB) pair

• Two Omnidirectional mics placed around 30-50cm apart (depending on ensemble size)

• Useful for recording large ensembles and performances requiring a sense of ambience

Stereo mic Techniques - Mid-side (MS) pair

• A cardioid and a figure 8 mic

• Set up 90^o to one another

• Cardioid mic should point straight at sound source while figure 8 picks up sound from the sides

Processing Mid-side recordings

• At mixer or DAW, signal captured from the sides on the figure-of-8 mic should be duplicated, and one version phase inverted

• Should then be hard panned in opposite directions at same level

• If side tracks are panned centrally, they will completely cancel out. Therefore mid-side recordings exhibit excellent mono compatibility