Mic Selection - Posted on 2017-07-21 by April Stephenson

Dynamic Mics:

1. Dynamic moving coil mics produce the least bleed.
2. They tend to sound a bit tighter but also a bit less open, or more dead than a condenser mic.
3. Using dynamic mics can help give you more separation of tracks and allow for a bit more control later on.

*A high amount of bleed can be extremely problematic when it comes to editing and mixing and may also introduce additional challenges concerning phase alignment

Condenser Mics:

1.  Small diaphragm condensers tend to have a tighter pickup pattern and look at a smaller area than large condenser mics
   1. ?This narrower focus can be helpful when recording several acoustic instruments close together
2. ?Large diaphragm condensers do a great job of capturing everything in a room, or bringing out the detail and nuance of a vocal performance and tend to have a little more bass response than a small diaphrag

?*Remember that figure 8 and Omni are going to pick up a lot more bleed and feel much farther away than a cardioid*

• Any time you are using more than one mic on a source you have to pay attention to the phase relationship between the mics.
  • ?If not all the mics are phase aligned, the out of phase mics will cause cancellation and end up taking away from the overall sound instead of adding to it.?

Set up:

1. Line of Sight - In many cases it may be easier for the musicians to play together cohesively if they can see each other. f
   1. or example, positioning the musicians along the perimeter of the room facing the center will allow them to see each other’s movements and communicate visually, better than if they all face the same direction, as they would during a show
2. ? Angle - since the perimeter walls of the studio will reflect sound waves it may be beneficial to angle an instrument so that it is neither parallel or perpendicular to the walls.
   1. You can also help to minimize bleed, by angling instruments, so they are facing away from the mics on other instruments.
3. ?Room features - Many tracking spaces have parts of them which are more suited for specific instruments or offer different flavors.
   1. ?Perhaps one side of the room is carpeted and has lots of soft, absorptive surfaces while the other side has a hardwood floor and a brick wall.
4. ? Volume - Some instruments can be incredibly loud while others tend to be more quiet and subdued. 
   1. the mic on the more quiet instrument will require more gain and will end up picking up a lot of bleed from the louder instrument.
   2. it is a good practice to only put instruments close together if they have similar volumes.
5. ?Comfort - Recording is all about capturing great performances. You want to help draw those performances out, by creating the right space
   1. ?In addition to creating comfort with your instrument placement, pay attention to temperature, lighting, cleanliness, and the overall vibe of the room.

??Tracking and Overdubbing:

*Your plan is to track basics for all four songs on the first day and to do all the overdubs the following day. 

1.  Basics will include: Drums, Percussion (congas and bongo), Bass, Keys, Drum Machine, Rhythm Guitar, Lead vocals, and vocoder
2. Overdubs will include: back up vocals, some lead guitar, additional keys, percussion (triangle and shaker), guest sax, and guest rapper.

?Room Set Up:

1. Start by collecting all the mics you will need for today’s session
   1. ?Because the band isn’t here yet you can’t position the mics yet, just get them on the appropriate stands and in the general area they need to be
2. ?Following your Input List, begin connecting mics to their correct spot on the mic panel. 
   1. ?Take extra care when connecting your ribbon mic to ensure that you don’t accidentally connect them to phantom power.
3. ?Make sure all your tube mics are connected to their power supplies before you power them up.
   1. Tube mics need between 20-60 minutes to warm up before they are ready to go

?Control Room Set Up:

1. You should create a protools session based on your input list.
   1. Take a few minutes to label and color code your tracks and make sure you get your routing, grouping and panning situated.
2. ?Next Step, record-enable your tracks in protools. Ask your assistant to scratch each mic starting at the beginning of your list.
   1. Instruct them to keep scratching the mic until you give them a thumbs up, at which point they should move to the next mic on the list
3. ?Now, using a signal generator in Pro Tools send a 1k sine wave to the all the cues and have your assistant check that all the headphones are getting signal.

Getting Tones:

1. Drums and Percussion: while it is a common practice to spend a few minutes working on the tone of each drum separately, it is also very important to listen to the full kit altogether and make your adjustments in context.
   1. ?The unwanted ringiness of snare and tom mics can be reduced by using moon gels on the drum heads. k=
   2. Kick drums can be tightened up by placing a pillow or blanket inside to deaden it
   3. Parts of the cymbals can be taped to soften the sound of the stick hitting the metal.
   4. Make sure there is no loose hardware or metal on metal which can make unwanted rattles.
   5. Listen for squeaky pedals and apply oil if necessary.
   6. Once you get the kit sounding really good, you can move into the control room and begin setting levels for your drum mics.
      1. Be sure to check for phase alignment. you can do this by muting everything except kick drum and listening as you slowly unmute all the other mics.
      2. The sum of all the mics should get greater with each additional mic introduced.
         1. If you are having a hard time identifying a phase issue, you can have the drummer hit each drum individually while you are recording. then you can zoom in and actually see which direction a mic needs to move to to be aligned
2. ??Electric bass - often the most effective way of tracking bass is with a di box. this allows the signal from the bass to go right in to the preamp without going through a bass cab
   1. Using a bass chain, a good preamp, eq and compressor can help fatten up the sound a bit.
   2. You can also opt to mic a bass cab and get your color that way if you prefer.
3. ?Guitar Cab - They say that about 70% of your guitar tone comes from your amp.
   1.  Learning how to shape amp tones and control Drive, chunk, crunch, bite, presence, and sizzle will come with time.
   2. Guitar pedals also play a huge role in getting different sounds. Talk to the guitar player about the tones they are going for, and dial in the different pedals.
   3. Placing a compressor after the eq can help to even things back out.
4. ??Acoustic Guitar - Send the signal from the acoustic guitar mic to a pair of headphones in the live room and ask the guitar player to play for a bit.
   1. Put the headphones on and turn the volume up so that the sound in your cans is blocking out the sound of the guitar in the room.
   2. Slowly move the mic into different positions on the guitar until you find what you like the best.
      1. This technique works well for most acoustic instruments provided that they are quiet enough that you can block out the sound form the direct source without hurting your ears?
5. ??Keyboards - In a situation where you are recording a keyboard that is playing several different patches your best bet may be to apply eq and compression later on as each patch will likely benefit from a different treatment. (the same goes for drum machines)
6. Vocals - Everyone’s voice is a little different, so there isn’t one approach that works for everyone.
   1. ?Auditioning mics will help you figure out what works best for each particular vocalist.
   2. Always use a pop filter when using a condenser mic on vocals.
   3. Putting a mic right in front of someone’s face isn’t always the best option.
   4. If you watch a singer or rapper perform, you will notice that the movement of their mouth is not symmetrical.
      1. Sometimes one side of the mouth produces all the sibilance.
      2. Try positioning the mic a little to one side or the other and see what sounds the best.
      3. You may also try positioning the mic to be off axis in relation to the vocalist that may help to roll off some of the brighter frequencies.

??Professional Behavior

*You are the Producer and the Psychologist. Always stay calm and direct the flow of energy.

1. it’s important to remember that their job is harder than ours, and they are putting themselves out there in a way that makes them vulnerable. be patient with them
2. Troubleshooting: Always follow the chain of signal from start to finish to identify where the signal is lost.
   1. Majority of the time it's operator error and not broken equipment. Just stay calm and don't destroy the energy.