Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 23, 2005 Moderators Share Posted August 23, 2005 I tried something for percussion overdubs that really worked for me. I've got a tall front room in my house... one of those, waste a lot of space, but look majestic front rooms they put in newish track homes. 18' high ceiling, hard floors. I've always wanted to do percussion overdubs in there. I had 12 tunes ready for the percussion overdubs so we got to it... First off, I wanted to try and capture the room, not a real direct percussion sound... very ambient. After trying various mic / stereo configurations, I settled on 2 Groove Tube GT33's in an XY. The kicker in all of this... I wanted natural panning. For a tamborine overdub we had the player move to the left to balance with the hat on the right. If we stacked things, we'd move over the other way on the next pass to balance things. This is obvious stuff, I'm sure, but I've just never done it this way. In the past I'd pull the balance to the left or right with panning at mix time. Crank the verb to set it back, etc. More ambience? Back up a few feet. Less sparkly? Step back into the dining room. Intimate? Pull your chair right up under the mics and play those hand drums lightly... I've got to tell you... I love the sound of this. Does anyone else do things this way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doug osborne Posted August 23, 2005 Members Share Posted August 23, 2005 Absolutely. If you have a mic technique that captures a solid image the way you want (and a great room and performance that you want to capture), this can work great. Makes it harder to overdub, punch, or re-create later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 Makes it harder to overdub, punch, or re-create later. True... so make sure you get what you need when you track it to begin with. I agree that this sort of tracking is VERY cool. Try it with BGV's sometime... use a Blumlein pair, and arrange the singers in a circle around the mics and track a pass. Then for the stacked o-dub, reverse everyone's positioning in the room. Mic placement has become a bit of a lost art. It seems like a lot of people just want to cram a mic right in front of something and track it... and that can work well sometimes, but different distances and placements can offer up a lot of tonal goodies too. NEVER be afraid to experiment with different mics, placement of mics and musicans in the room, etc. etc. folks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jbr Posted August 23, 2005 Members Share Posted August 23, 2005 Could you also set-up a couple of speakers in the room and stereo mic the feed from the console? Sort of like a reverberent room that can be recorded to it's own track and mixed in with the original. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 23, 2005 Author Moderators Share Posted August 23, 2005 Originally posted by jbr Could you also set-up a couple of speakers in the room and stereo mic the feed from the console? Sort of like a reverberent room that can be recorded to it's own track and mixed in with the original. Sure... that's what the old reverb chambers were. But the act of physicaly moving in the room for placement has got something special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted August 25, 2005 Share Posted August 25, 2005 But the act of physicaly moving in the room for placement has got something special. Lee, two words: Early reflections. Okay, three more: true stereo recordings. Think about it, then go ask Brucie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kendrix Posted August 25, 2005 Members Share Posted August 25, 2005 FWIW- A few of us had asked Bruce about doing the physical panning during XY tracking you are describing versus panning tracks at the mixer post tracking. At that time we were talking acoustic guitar.Bruce's view was that it was best to keep the sound source centered when tracking in order to optimize the detail recorded- He then pans the tracks when mixing. However, with percussion, I typically allow allot of space between the source and mics cause the transients can be so extreme and I usually want more room sound on perc. So, for that case, I would think the benefits of "natural panning" might outweigh any compromise in terms of detail recorded. It sounds as if you got a happy result. Im gonna try it next time.Ive got a big live-sounding area just off my studio room that should give me lots of options to get it right. However, for real natural panning during tracking I might have tried an ORTF instead of XY mic configuration. Anyone have any comments on the =/- of these two as it relates to realistic/natural panning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 25, 2005 Author Moderators Share Posted August 25, 2005 Originally posted by Kendrix FWIW- A few of us had asked Bruce about doing the physical panning during XY tracking you are describing versus panning tracks at the mixer post tracking.However, for real natural panning during tracking I might have tried an ORTF instead of XY mic configuration. Anyone have any comments on the =/- of these two as it relates to realistic/natural panning. I actually went into it thinking ORTF. I tried it and it sounded good but the XY seemed to tame the wild nature of this room just a little. XY won out in the end , and I still think ORTF would be the way, or Blumlien and Bruce suggests, if the room allows. Hey Phil, Early reflections for sure. I can hear the nuances of left vs. right patters in the early reflections. Really neat... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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