Phil O'Keefe

You DO know that if they catch you using a bot, they'll suspend / delete your account, right?

Naaaah.. it's just the other way around. That's why communication with submarines works best at VLF. If 2.4GHz is no problem, 27MHz won't be either. But when I had CB back then, it was always fun to bother kids with RC toys a bit... I meant that the VEXplorer could start exploring your studio on its own when a nearby CB station transmits... (But maybe modern 27MHz RC units are a bit more sophisticated and CB operators become rare, at least over here.) I thought subs used ELF. And the problem with ELF is the slow speed of data transmission... But I think you're correct - 27 MHz should have the range / non-line of sight capabilities, but would be more prone to interference issues. Looks like I need to install a Faraday cage along with the fields and mountain range...

Or we use a glider...("play faster Jimmy! Can't find no thermals after sunset!") And I guess planting grassy fields and putting nice high hills on the studio floor is out...

Yeah, I thought about that RC frequency potentially being an issue... especially since my studio is practically a concrete bunker, and there are concrete / rebar filled concrete block walls between the CR and the studio and iso booths. 2.4 GHz would be better. The 2.4 GHz Frontier Tranzport works great in here (fantastic product), but lower frequency stuff might be a problem.

Hey! Excellent idea! (Really!) Now I consider if a small RC plane (with a wireless mic attached) flying around a cabinet would make a nice Leslie effect...maybe not. Hmmm... if I throw the motor noise out of phase, maybe it will cancel out the motor noise from the Leslie...

Supposedly it can pick up a full can of soda, so I would imagine it could handle the weight of some microphones.

I think I am getting warmer. RC robotic arm on a mobile base, in kit form for about $220 - with the optional "elbow".

The only problem I can see is with the weight of the mic and the boom extended tipping the truck over. Counter-weights or ballast in the base would probably take care of that issue. My bigger concern would be the motors being able to handle the weight of the mike, and holding it in position. A simple RC tank (with treads, for better maneuverability) with a small, manually adjustable (for height) mike post / stand on the top would allow you to change the mic placement in terms of closer / further away, and left / right, but not the vertical angle of the mic, by repositioning the base (via remote) by "driving" it into position. And it would probably take a bit of time for the user to become proficient enough with controlling it via remote to get just the placement they wanted. Add in the elevation control and rotary control of the "ladder" and it gets more flexible in terms of placement, without having to reposition the "base" by "driving" the vehicle to a different location... Maybe I should talk to someone in the embedded systems classes at UCR... gsHarmony, if you have a name and contact info for one of the professors over there, I'd appreciate a PM with the info.

JM350, do you recall the name / manufacturer of that product? I honestly think that if someone came up with a remote controlled mic positioning system that worked well and was priced at $350 or less, they'd sell a gripload of them.

If possible, you should get some physical separation for those wires - line level vs mic level vs speaker level stuff should ideally NOT share the same snake. Same patch panel can work, but I like to keep a bit of distance between those three types of cables - especially the speaker level cable - whenever possible.

Kinda hard to "read" the graphic, but in general, the answer is yes. Just make sure you don't accidentally do something like patch the Peavey's speaker level output into one of the line inputs on your firewire audio interface and you should be fine.

No, I haven't gone mental. OTOH, maybe I have. Here's what I'm thinking about getting: http://www.hobbytron.com/RCWorkFireTruckRemoteControlFireEngine.html It's supposed to be about 30" X 14" X 7". The ladder is supposed to ascend, decline, and rotate left and right, as well as extend and retract - all via remote. I'm thinking I might be able to use it in the studio. Anyone guessed yet where I'm going with this? If you could attach a mic clip to the end of that ladder, and it could handle the weight (of say a small dynamic mic like a Audix D2), you could adjust mic positioning from the other room. Sure, there are purpose-built, motorized mic positioning systems out there, but the ones I've seen are pretty expensive... The fire truck is probably not heavy-duty enough for what I would like to be able to do with it, but OTOH, if it didn't work, I'd only be out about $35, and I'd still have something to terrorize the cats with. I kind of wonder though, why someone hasn't built a relatively affordable, remote controlled mic positioning system. If one (that actually worked well) hit the market for under $200-$250, I'd buy it. :phil: Would you?

Cheers for the replies guys, really helped. Going to record hopefully next week so I should get a few previews of what I've taken on board and tell me what you think! Cool - please let us know how it goes, and good luck.

SM57 - The standard, but no longer the best. Advantages - if you see a loose screw or nail and don't have a hammer, you can beat it back into place with a 57 and the 57 will work. Disadvantages - you really have to move it around a lot to get the sound you want - which is hard if you're doing it by yourself. E609 - The NEW 57 for miking guitar amps. Just....better, and less finicky about placement, hangs down for side address. Try it! Disadvantages - none, except if you have a metal grille on your amp and you hang it, you'll be wondering what all those annoying "tick" sounds are as the mike bounces off the grille repeatedly. I agree with a lot of what you posted Terry. The Hotplate is more of an attenuator, not a speaker sim. The Red Box isn't the be all, end all of emulators, but certainly beats nothing at all. Haven't tried a Mother Load yet, so no comments on that. The Palmer is actually pretty good - I don't own one, but a client does, and I've used it (although blended with microphones on cabs; IOW, not exclusively) several times. Yes, THD Yellowjackets are (usually) going to knock your wattage down a bit (although not really in a 6V6 amp), but are more about a tonal change IMO - EL84's sound quite a bit different from 6L6's / 6V6's / and even EL34's. But I do disagree regarding the E609 vs the SM57. I find the 609 is far more placement sensitive than the SM57. It has a tighter polar pattern, and IMO doesn't sound very good off-axis. Yes, you can hang the cable over the amp and have it sit flat against the grille, and I wouldn't mind that live, but in the studio, I'd rather avoid the direct coupling if I can - I usually don't like to have my microphones and cables in contact with my sound sources. I use mine on a stand... and I might have it only a few whisker's distance from the grille, but I never have it touching it, regardless of what it's made of. I'm just funny that way I guess. I think the E609 is a nice microphone, but to my ears, it's a bit fuller and darker, and has a more pronounced sounding proximity effect and less presence peak than a 57. If you want extra meat and thump, it works well, and while I do own one, and have been happy with it in some cases and for some sounds, I usually prefer a 421 if I'm going for that sort of a tone. A 57 also isn't a bad mic, but it's not my go-to on guitar cabs either. A lot of the time, for dynamics, I use Audix D2's and i5's. They have some of the meat of the 609, and some of the presence of the 57 IMO. Lately for me though, it's been more about ribbon microphones - a Groove Tubes Velo-8 on one amp / cab, and a Beyer M160 on another cab in a second room, with maybe a LD condenser further back in the room on the same cab as the Velo-8. Both of those ribbons are VERY cool sounding on guitar cabs, and both are less expensive than the (also very nice ) Royers and Coles ribbon microphones. AEA also makes some killer ribbons. I'm not too up to date on some of the Asian built ribbon mikes... But hey - I think it ought to be possible to get at least pretty decent / good tracks with any of the microphones we talked about in this thread. I think the key is getting the guitar to sound great coming out of the amp, and then experimenting so you know the way the mic sounds and how it reacts in different positions relative to the speaker(s), and then placing (or moving) the thing until what you hear coming out of the CR speakers is as close as possible to the way it sounded out in the room. And I agree - it can be hard to get tones without an assistant to help with positioning the mic while you listen in the control room - although a pair of the Extreme Isolation headphones can help a lot with that. There are a ton of viable ways to mic up guitar cabinets, and I've been thinking about them a lot lately - even more than usual (and not a week goes by where I don't stick a mic in front of a guitar cab - or several guitar cabs ) because I have been getting ready to draw up an outline for a instructional video on the subject that I was asked if I might be interested in doing... I think that might be a fun / interesting project.

Palmer - about $600. H&K Red Box - about $120. If you want to mic the amp, but it's too loud and ticks off the neighbors, the THD Hotplate is a good product to consider. As far as guitar microphones, there are a ton of great choices and techniques, but you could do a lot worse than the Shure SM57.

For starters, let's discuss using the speaker outputs to record directly: In a word, DON'T DO IT! Plugging a speaker level output directly into a recorder's line input is like trying to drive a semi truck through a mouse hole - something is going to get destroyed! Of course, if you're using a product like a Hughes and Kettner Red Box in between the speaker output and speaker to obtain a line level output (in the case of the Red Box or Palmer speaker sims, that line out will simulate the sound of a speaker), that's one thing... but a speaker output should never be patched directly into a preamp, line input, etc. without the use of something to knock the level way down. My usual suggestion for guitars is to get the sound you want coming out of the amp first (critically important IMHO), then capture that sound via a mic or several microphones. If you want to go direct, you can use a speaker emulator. If your amp doesn't have one, lots of companies make them. Of course, if you still have that combo amp available, and the emulated output on that was giving you exactly the tone you wanted, you could just use that and let the guitarists use the new amps for live... BTW, welcome to the forum.

Some very clever ideas suggested in this thread - bravo! No time to build a frame, or otherwise hit the hardware store, but need to get a blanket hung around something? Try a few boom arm microphone stands, with the booms set to a "T" shape. Drape the blanket over the top of the stands / boom arms... As far as where to put the blanket, it's really up to you. Behind the singer will help keep bounce from the back wall down, while to the front and especially the sides will help with off-axis pickup and coloration. For those who are putting them up on the walls instead of stands, try to get at least a few inches of space between the wall and blanket if you can. A few moving blankets are always great to have around the studio. They're inexpensive, readily available and you never know when one might come in handy for draping over a piano or kick drum, or cutting a bit of room reflection. But they do have their limitations. Don't expect them to have much effectiveness for isolation or for absorbing bass frequencies.

You're too kind Ken. Thanks again for coming over, and for taking the pics / hosting them. :phil:

I would have shown up, but unfortunately I just moved to Florida from Riverside. RATS!!! I was hoping you'd see this thread and drop me a PM - I didn't realize you had moved! As far as how it went, it was fun. I was worried about the weather, and it was a bit of a concern in some respects. It probably reduced the number of people who decided to come, and it certainly limited our stage setup to what we could get under cover quickly if it started pouring again... but fortunately, but about 4pm the rain stopped completely. But at the end of the day, it was good food, fun jams, and great companions - I couldn't ask for more than that! :phil: Thanks to all of you who did make it out - it was great hanging out with each and every one of you. I WILL try to make sure everyone gets more advance notice next year. This summer has been one of the more hectic and difficult of my life in some respects, and because of that, we weren't sure we'd even have a party this year. But now that it's behind us, I'm glad we did.

No, just bring yourself on over if you can make it Kel! And yes, I hope the weather holds too...

Anyone got the day free this upcoming Saturday? Feel like coming out to Riverside and hanging out? It's time for our annual "Philphest" (no, I didn't name it). It's a potluck BBQ / outdoor jam session / studio tools demo / general party / hangout that we do every year. For the first time, I am announcing it online as opposed to doing tons of individual invitations. Sorry for the short notice - I'll try to give everyone more notice next year. If you are interested in coming, please drop me a PM or email. If you're banned from HC, don't bother asking. And if you are banned and come without asking, you WILL be escorted from the premises. Saturday, September 22nd, 2pm - whenever...

PWND!111 LOL! I'm just messing with you guys. I'll unlock the thread... but I do ask that you guys please quit reporting it (right after you make what you think will be the "last post") and quit posting arguments / objectional material in it. If that keeps up, one of the admins will have to eventually lock it and remove it to "thread jail"; and if that happens, then it will be one of us who last posts in this thread.

You know, we keep getting "reports" about this thread, saying that it needs to be locked / closed, yadda yadda, so I think I'll go ahead and do as asked.

My aim is to get this thread deleted as me as the last poster. Im gonna say something bad and report myself. YOUR ALL... (vulgarity deleted)! Nice try, but if it ever comes to that, then the Admin who deletes the thread will be the last poster. As a matter of policy, we reply to any thread we move to thread jail so the other admins and mods know who moved it and why. PS It's "YOU'RE ALL".

F. Alton Everest is one of my heroes. I've never read that particular book, but I have several of his other books (some signed by him) and they're all excellent. I can't imagine why that one would be any different.