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One man band


OneManBlues

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2 hours ago, Riley Wilson-naX9B said:

Marc, thanks for sharing this. I do recommend a different vocal mix or vocal mic setup so the voice and harmonica are louder and can be heard over the drums and guitar. A bit of sound deadening may also help the instruments overall clarity. 

I agree. There is lots to figure out on the sound. On this video,  I just used two relatively low cost condenser mics and then the mixer is straight into my iPhone.  I need a proper interface.  Also a dedicated harmonica mic.   As tricky as it is to mic drums, it is a real challenge if there are other microphones close by.  I do need to figure out a good way to dampen the snare and high hat without losing the tone. I do have a couple of SM57s, a bass drum mic, and a vocal mic.  It is a puzzle but I will enjoy working on it. 

Thanks again for your feedback  

 

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This is cool!! I agree with Riley on the sound source imbalance...It looks like you got a pretty good handle on sound so I'll just bore you with a short story that may or may not help you. Many years ago I was helping a sound tech with mic-ing up a bluegrass band for a local music festival. Well it was a nightmare, none of the performers were happy with their instrument sound through the monitors. Getting testy with each other cause "he is so loud, I cant hear myself yadda" and it kinda sounded like ass out front as well. The sound guy asked them how they rehearse. The reply was they pretty much stand in a semi circle and do their thing....so we killed the monitors, got rid of all the mics with accompanying phase problems, feedback, yadda. got them to stand in a semi circle and placed a good condenser mic in the right spot, which did take a little time to get instrument/vocal balance...but the difference was amazing...Super loud through front of house speakers with no feed back and happy performers...Perhaps you could experiment with one or two mics and get everything balance with simple placement....just a thought. Regardless, keep at it. Its cool!

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I love the drum rig with the sticks alternating on the hi-hat...that looks like it took some doing!:thu:

So...on the sound mix...yes, even one good vocal mic on an arm would get the harmonica and the vocals more out front. I would turn the guitar amp down as well. Close mic the snare and the hi-hat with drum mics or the SM57s.

At first I thought this was all being done on one mic...which, as a solo, is hard to get the placement correct...I know from trying myself.

What were you using to shoot the video? Your iPhone?

 

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i hate to say this..  but after all the mic testing and placement experiments for the gongs, i did a fast and dirty recording on my ipad pro...   i just wanted a quick reference recording  to check a new instrument against and got an incredibly pleasant surprise with the accuracy!   i didnt even have a stand handy so i attached it to an umbrella, opened and placed to hold the recorder...  the detail and nuance was surprising!    dont sell the little electronic gizmos short...  im taking another look in the spirit of simplifying things for some applications... 

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17 hours ago, Voltan said:

i hate to say this..  but after all the mic testing and placement experiments for the gongs, i did a fast and dirty recording on my ipad pro...   i just wanted a quick reference recording  to check a new instrument against and got an incredibly pleasant surprise with the accuracy!   i didnt even have a stand handy so i attached it to an umbrella, opened and placed to hold the recorder...  the detail and nuance was surprising!    dont sell the little electronic gizmos short...  im taking another look in the spirit of simplifying things for some applications... 

I know what you mean. It’s particularly tricky with a one man band set-up that includes drums.  I also play acoustic and prefer to play it through a microphone.  With a vocal and guitar mic, the drums will bleed over through the vocal and guitar mics.  I even tried using an SM57 for vocals but with the close proximity to the vocal and guitar mic, the snare would be way too loud and the tone was terrible. I had dampened the snare to compensate but when I recently added the hi-hat, then the high hat was louder than the snare so I un-dampened it and switched over to condenser mics.  My thinking was that I could adjust the sound at the sources and try to get a mix that way.  When I use the condenser mics, I have to turn on the phantom power on the mixer and if I want to add a regular mic for vocals then I would have to plug it in through one of the non balanced (non XLR) inputs.  I find that if I just mess around with these things , then over time it will come to me.   

Since that video, I have dampened the high-hat and also tuned the snare.  I am trying to practice the right amount of attack with the drum pedals.  

 

 

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Good stuff and the best one man band drum solution I have seen yet😀. For harp I think you would love the Audix Fireball mic, should be less than $100. It's significantly hotter than a 58/57 with less feedback, also it may be better at minimizing bleed from your amp and drums. I say that because it is also good for vocals (and beatboxing) but you have to stay more on top of it compared to others mics. The volume knob is a great feature, also.

I got mine to use with a band where I had to cover harmonica on some country songs (ala Mickey Raphael and Charlie McCoy). The primary harp player was more blues oriented and had a bullet mic, but he and the bandleader much preferred the Fireball. So both of us ended up using it. It lives up to its online reviews. 

But all that isn't to say your Shure isn't getting the job done.  

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On 5/29/2020 at 3:32 PM, pinkfloydcramer61 said:

Good stuff and the best one man band drum solution I have seen yet😀. For harp I think you would love the Audix Fireball mic, should be less than $100. It's significantly hotter than a 58/57 with less feedback, also it may be better at minimizing bleed from your amp and drums. I say that because it is also good for vocals (and beatboxing) but you have to stay more on top of it compared to others mics. The volume knob is a great feature, also.

I got mine to use with a band where I had to cover harmonica on some country songs (ala Mickey Raphael and Charlie McCoy). The primary harp player was more blues oriented and had a bullet mic, but he and the bandleader much preferred the Fireball. So both of us ended up using it. It lives up to its online reviews. 

But all that isn't to say your Shure isn't getting the job done.  

Thanks for the suggestion of the Audix Fireball mix. If It works for vocals and harp and had less bleed over from the drums, that would be great.  
 

It may be down the road before it is in the budget but I will let you know how it works out if I get one  

 

Thanks again

 

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