Robo Mic - Posted on 2017-09-30 by Jim Battles

Got to try out a new studio toy--a remote-controlled microphone mount. Operated from a phone app, it has X and Y motion with a mount rotation. We mic'ed a guitar amp. Starting placement was where you're taught to place it, but blindly, we adjusted the settings until we found a sweet spot. Interestingly, it was not in a place where Dave ordinarily would have placed it: a SM57, at the edge of the speaker, rotated slightly off axis. It picked up the full body of the sound we wanted and eliminated some higher frequency elements that were distracting. Cool experiment.

We recorded the epic Nick playing through an interesting box that gave the guitar an almost 'organy' sound. Background to some tracks already laid down. Duplicates, actually. I recorded several takes using the playlist function, and edited them down to one track. He then challenged me to edit another version not using the same parts of the clips in the same spots. Those were then added to similar tracks and panned around go give fullness to the mix. A latter-day Phil Spector Wall of Sound element.