Members hangwire Posted June 30, 2011 Members Share Posted June 30, 2011 ??? Thinking about this as my 4 track days are possibly over and technology is knocking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted June 30, 2011 Share Posted June 30, 2011 I mic the "room" fairly often. Nearly every time I mic a drum kit, I have at least one dedicated "room mic" up, sometimes multiple room mikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted June 30, 2011 Author Members Share Posted June 30, 2011 I mic the "room" fairly often. Nearly every time I mic a drum kit, I have at least one dedicated "room mic" up, sometimes multiple room mikes. What do you find to be good placement in a room with an angled ceiling? I have the roofline in my music room, and I want to just mount and forget a mic in a decent enough position to do quick simple recordings via tapco USB interface and MacBook Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chakosh Posted June 30, 2011 Members Share Posted June 30, 2011 What do you find to be good placement in a room with an angled ceiling? I have the roofline in my music room, and I want to just mount and forget a mic in a decent enough position to do quick simple recordings via tapco USB interface and MacBook Toss some headphones on and move it around until you hear where you like it! I just bought my buddy's FP-10 off of him, so one of the things I was going to do since I have a plethora of SM-57s is use one to mic up the front of the speaker and one to mic the back of the cab. Just an experiment. I have no idea how it will sound, but who knows? Maybe, just MAYBE, Eddie Van Halen is really in the back of the cabinet and not the front. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members V Posted June 30, 2011 Members Share Posted June 30, 2011 What do you find to be good placement in a room with an angled ceiling? I have the roofline in my music room, and I want to just mount and forget a mic in a decent enough position to do quick simple recordings via tapco USB interface and MacBook Maybe mount a stereo pair on the ceiling with sound absorbent materials behind them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 1, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 1, 2011 no more phil? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bobby D Posted July 1, 2011 Members Share Posted July 1, 2011 cheap PZM mics from radio shack often can give you cool room sounds. you can get a pair of PZM style mics for under $100 easily....they are FUN, you just leave them mounted on the wall, for whenever you need them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mind_Riot89 Posted July 1, 2011 Members Share Posted July 1, 2011 Phil, in all your infinite wisdom, tell me the benefits/placement of a room mic when recording drums. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cirrus Posted July 1, 2011 Members Share Posted July 1, 2011 Sorry for not being Phil (just loving me hair too much to make the switch... ) but I think it totally depends on the drums, the room, and the setup. You've got to use your ears and figure out where the drums sound best in the room. The further away from the drums you go the more reverberant sound you'll have in relation to the direct sound. So a lot of the descision on how far back to go will depend on how roomy you want the drums to sound - further out for more ambience. Depending on the room you might have standing waves that mean at certain points the drums will sound thinner, thicker, more bassy/full etc, so that plays a part as well.But then you've got the rest of the setup to consider too. If you're tracking a band live and the best spot for the room mics happens to be right next to a guitar amp, you need to reconsider. And if the drummer is not very good, you're going to have to rely on the flexibility of the close mics more to "fix" the performance - leaning on room mics and overheads works better when the drummer really sounds good.I believe the most common room mic technique is an xy stereo pair - you get a more natural reproduction of the room than if you used a spaced pair, and also it's easier if you put both the mics in one spot. M/S recording might work too, but if it's about the ambience of the room specifically and you just want that to augment all the close mics/ overheads then the M part of that setup might not be that interesting for you.Some interesting tricks I've heard of; -If you have a room with high ceilings, place a room mic high above the drums, pointed at the snare and triggered by the snare close mic - so whenever the snare is hit you get a quick burst of space.-A trick I heard of U2 using is to put a mic right in the corner of a room, pointed into the corner, and use the boundary effect to get a completely boomy distant sounding drum noise, and bring that mic in as an effect in certain parts of the song.-The "When the Levee breaks" drum sound - room mics up a staircase so the entire drum tone is shaped by that reverberant sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 2, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 2, 2011 cheap PZM mics from radio shack often can give you cool room sounds. you can get a pair of PZM style mics for under $100 easily....they are FUN, you just leave them mounted on the wall, for whenever you need them. Which wall? Should I include a pic of the room or diagram/dimensions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members *PiP* Posted July 2, 2011 Members Share Posted July 2, 2011 Some interesting tricks I've heard of; -If you have a room with high ceilings, place a room mic high above the drums, pointed at the snare and triggered by the snare close mic - so whenever the snare is hit you get a quick burst of space.-A trick I heard of U2 using is to put a mic right in the corner of a room, pointed into the corner, and use the boundary effect to get a completely boomy distant sounding drum noise, and bring that mic in as an effect in certain parts of the song.-The "When the Levee breaks" drum sound - room mics up a staircase so the entire drum tone is shaped by that reverberant sound. Very good examples, especially how they recorded the drums on "When the Levee Breaks". One of my favourite recorded drum tracks, the natural reverb captured by the room along with the drums is just fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bobby D Posted July 2, 2011 Members Share Posted July 2, 2011 Which wall? Should I include a pic of the room or diagram/dimensions? put mics up and LISTEN. your ears are your best asset Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cirrus Posted July 2, 2011 Members Share Posted July 2, 2011 Ah good, I was afraid I'd smothered this thread to death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 put mics up and LISTEN. your ears are your best asset Information from a professional to give axiom like guideline is also a very good asset. A better use of time is to get a's much information so I can get things done quicker rather than comparing minutea details over and over. Just simple known factors like usually/avoid "_______" placement etc... Would be great and why I posted this thread for Phil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 Plus, avoiding the "well the recording would sound a lot better if the mic was set up _____ " comments later would be nice Remember, I'm looking at impact of room dynamic for room recording, I'm not going to be micing down staircase and other studio tricks.... Just straight ahead getting idea down in the most informed way possible to get a good result for what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cirrus Posted July 3, 2011 Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 Oh no... you don't understand I don't think many professionals do anything other than use their experience to make decisions based on the situation they're in - if there were catchall rules like "you should place your overheads 2/3rds of the way between the bass drum and the opposite wall" then a lot more people would be good audio engineers. Just saying... don't hate on me plz! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FlogRock Posted July 3, 2011 Members Share Posted July 3, 2011 What do you find to be good placement in a room with an angled ceiling? I have the roofline in my music room, and I want to just mount and forget a mic in a decent enough position to do quick simple recordings via tapco USB interface and MacBook What do you actually want to record? Room mics work well with drums, but not so good with electric guitar for instance. Even with the amp turned up relatively loud you're going to hear the direct sound of the strings. Although I haven't used room mics often, I agree with the others. There are some basic rules of thumb (common sense really), and beyond that, you're just going to have to experiment and use your ears, and think about what you actually want to achieve with a room mic. There's no magic formula where you post the room dimensions and Phil calculates the optimal position. Btw, I think the absolute basics of room micing are:-do it only in a room that sounds good-further from the source = more room sound (reverb)-mic in corner = boomy/bass heavy-something between mic and source = muffled-stereo mics = good-use your ears Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 4, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 4, 2011 cheap PZM mics from radio shack often can give you cool room sounds. you can get a pair of PZM style mics for under $100 easily....they are FUN, you just leave them mounted on the wall, for whenever you need them. realistic brand? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 14, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 there is a local sale of mics... **** -Microphone grab bag. Some new, some used for demos, all in excellent condition(2) AKG C 562 CM Omni Cond Bdry "Button" ceiling/table mic (4) A-T AT891R Uni Cond Bdry w/ Low Cut, PTT Switch (1) A-T ES945 Omni Cond boundary, black (1) A-T ES947 Uni Cond boundary, black (1) A-T ES933PM/H Hyper Cond hanging mic w/ceiling module wht (1) A-T Pro42 Uni Cond boundary mic, black (1) A-T ES961P Uni Cond bdry mic, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Beyer160 Posted July 14, 2011 Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 -The "When the Levee breaks" drum sound - room mics up a staircase so the entire drum tone is shaped by that reverberant sound. Don't forget about nuking the snot out of the room mics with a compressor, that's key. Room mikes and compressors go together like college girls and Boone's Farm- you're guaranteed a good time unless you use too much, then it gets messy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 14, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 14, 2011 No Phil today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 18, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2011 891r will be $25 Seems like a decent deal Ps- Phil thanks for the pm box increase Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryan. Posted July 18, 2011 Members Share Posted July 18, 2011 Spend whatever it takes to get a better internet connection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members hangwire Posted July 18, 2011 Author Members Share Posted July 18, 2011 iwould if I knew exactly what needed to be changed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 Spend whatever it takes to get a better internet connection. I'm currently having some "issues" with my ISP myself. I'll come back to this thread as soon as I can get things a bit more stable in that regard... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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