Sound Recording - the WellMixed.com Blog

It may come as a surprise to many that there was a time when home recording was almost impossible. When Cubase was a twinkle in some lunatic scientist’s brain, Richard Nixon was still a wannabe and Sarah Palin wasn’t even a twinkle in her Daddy’s eye!. But there is something to be said about what the pre-technology days gave us - the techniques it tuaght, the discipline it engendered in how we use the wonderful technology we have today. (Aw, c’mon grandpa, tell us about it!)

I’m NOT a grandpa and I’m NOT talking about the “good old days” when times were hard but life was good. (Note that one for a Country song lyric).

I am talking about the days when I had hair down to my shoulders …. I had hair, come to think of it …. when the Beatles were charting and the Stones were rolling rather than rolling-in-it.

My kid brother and I could write music, sing well, and play too. He could make a collection of cardboard boxes sound like an acceptable drum kit. But recording one live take of two guitars and two voices was limiting. My brother won’t mind me saying that he couldn’t do the Don Henley thing - play those “drums” AND sing at the same time.

We needed more. The first step up came with the purchase of a tiny cassette tape machine - a Phillips 3302 to be precise. It came with a tiny plastic mic, no mains, no power supply (buy an adapter separately) and the sound quality wasn’t great. If you used it for any length of time, the “drive belt” - a glorified rubber band which transferred power from the tiny motor to the capstans - would stretch. Wow and flutter become a huge problem.

Songs in E would dip alarming, as low as C and then rise equally dramatically to F or above and all of this repeatedly giving the impression that the music was being played on a roller coaster or a storm-bound ship. We must have spent a relative fortune replacing those drive belts.

But we had a method of recording and we soon began to explore the possibility of “double tracking” - laying down a backing track and then putting another take on top of it. With no way to split the four tracks on the tape, or the input to them, this meant more expense, and a second, identical machine.

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We just released a new commercial for the web in time for AES.

Now there is at least one picture of an actual person on the website….. nice!

One interesting thing about directional microphones is the “Proximity Effect.”

The proximity effect occurs when a sound source gets so close to a microphone that the normal frequency response curve (like from the SM-57) become inaccurate in the lower frequencies. Normally these curves are measured with the microphone in question set at about 4 feet away from the sound source.

The response remains true under normal recording conditions, until the directional mic is moved very close to the sound source. Extreme closeness creates a sharp rise in bass response.

Here is a bit of acoustic guitar recorded with an SM-57 about 12 inches from the neck:

Here is the same passage with the mic at only 4 inches:

When a vocalist “eats” the mic, he or she is attempting to take advantage of the proximity effect and add some bass to give the voice extra body.

Check out Shure’s technical discription of why Proximity Effect occurs here.

A couple posts ago, there was talk that placing 2 mics on an amplifier can produce exciting nü tones. Wait… what if we can only afford 1 mic, Mr Money Bags?!

Alright, time to hit the essentials last. Better late than never, though…

So pictured below is a diagram of a speaker from a guitar cabinet. Usually you only have one speaker … don’t try to mic an entire Marshal 4×12 cabinet with one SM57. It just don’t rock… Choose just one speaker (as pictured here).

Mostly what we want is a small, single speaker boutique amplifier… it sounds better than Direct Injection any day.

The cone of the speaker is exaggerated, but you get the idea. It produces the most high end, and therefore the tone is “crisp” near it. If you listen back to your recording, and it seems like the guitar tone is a little muddy try moving the mic nearer the cone, away from the speaker’s edge. The further off center the microphone is, the more mellow the sound will become.

Now how far away from the speaker should the mic be? I’d say about 4 inches.

Also, you will notice that I have placed my SM57 at an angle. I’ve found that this adds a touch of high end air to the sound.

The 57 handles guitar quite nicely. Electric guitar is almost always recorded with a dynamic, cardiod mic. What do those words mean? We haven’t had posts just yet on them… so here are the Wikipedia entries, because we know that you are going there any way!

Dynamic Microphones

Cardioid Polar Pattern