interesting microphone positions

acoustic guitar 

Blumlein Configuration 
the Blumlein requires the use of two Bi-Directional Microphones placed at a 90º angle. Bi-Directional microphones capture the signal in front of them and behind so the room ambience plays a significant factor in the sound. Most microphones have a setting that looks like a figure “8” and can be switched easily into this mode. As you can see by the above image it takes a bit of setup to get the capsules of the microphones as close to one another as possible without having them touch. The next step is getting the 90º angle to face the sound source.
Spaced Pair
This configuration uses two Small Condenser Microphones set about 2.5ft away from one another. One is pointed towards the 8th fret of the acoustic guitar and the other is pointed directly at the12th fret just past where most of the strumming is happening. I set these closer to the player because the microphones retain fewer lower frequencies that the large diaphragm microphones. They also tend to register the high end of the frequency spectrum with more detail.
Vertical Spaced Pair
he bottom microphone’s capsule is pointed directly at the lower three strings of the acoustic and the top microphone is pointed at the top three strings. Angling them inward balances both the high and low end so that there aren’t very many holes in the fidelity of the signal.

drums

XY/Coincident Pair

he XY or coincident pair approach wins points for its guaranteed mono compatibility. Because the two capsules are so close together (“coincident”), sound waves from every drum and cymbal impinge upon the two mics’ diaphragms nearly simultaneously, avoiding any risk of comb-filtering due to partial cancellation of out-of-phase waves when the two OH tracks are heard in mono.

A consequence of coincident positioning is that the resulting stereo field is narrow, even when the two OH tracks are panned hard L/R. This is a good choice for arrangements in which the drums play a supporting role, or when mono compatibility is critical.

Mid-Side 

the M-S technique, like XY, ensures mono compatibility. And like XY, it produces a relatively narrow stereo spread.

A primary benefit is that the perceived size of the space can be changed at mix time, by varying the amount of “side” channel in the mix. This is often described as adjusting the “stereo width,” but to my ear the drum kit doesn’t get any wider. The high and low toms don’t get farther apart. The room gets bigger, but the drums sound less direct.

Drum Miking Cheat Sheet

To minimize room sound, lower the OH microphones and point them toward the center of the kit.

To maximize room sound, raise the OH microphones, angle them away from the drums, or use wider polar patterns.

Avoid phase coherency problems with kick and snare by keeping them centered between the OH mics.

Dry overhead tracks can be optionally supplemented with room mics.

A pair of cardioid mics provides several distinct, viable OH sounds.

signal path

this is the path a signal takes to get from the instrument to the person in the control room. (i swear i can spell desk)

Houston we have problems

problems that occur during the recording process 

signal not coming in to the mixing desk:

• make sure aux outputs are connected to headphone inputs on the patch bay 
• turn up talkback mic volume and aux volumes 
• check headphones are not broken 
• headphones plugged in to wrong output 
• headphone amp levels 

too much reverb on snare drum 

• O-ring isnt on snare
• wrong type of microphone-polar pattern 
• move mic closer 

mics keeps falling down slowly on the mic stands

• tighten the mic stand 
• redistribute the weight of the mic 
• wrong mic clip

distortion

• turn dat gain down 
• mic not plugged in properly 
• check cable is not faulty 
• more mic further away 
• turn down input level on sound car 

humming

• you can EQ it out on the mixing desk - high pass 
• check cable 
• the air con might be on 
• amp hum  

no signal coming through

• check phantom power 
• check power to all the hardware is on
• check mic is on 
• turn up the gain 
• check for faulty cables 
• check that it is plugged in to the correct channel  
• unplug the direct input 

signal too loud in pro tools 

• turn down input levels on sound card 
• turn down gain on the mixer 
• turn down instrument sing quieter 
• move mic further away 

back ground noise 

• move mic closer 
• close doors 
• no talking during recording 
• use EQ to edit it out 
• move mic in the room 
• try a different microphone 

no signal from monitors 

• turn them on 
• assign channel to L&R mix 
• turn up channel level 
• check gain- mic is on- same issues for signal not coming through 

no input to pro tools 

• make sure record arm is on 
• check levels on sound card 
• check groups
• make sure track is mono or stereo
• check signal routing on patch bay  

not output from pro tools 

• turn up the 23 and 24 channel on the mixer 
• assign 23&24 to L&R 
• check output levels on pro tools 
• check gain in 23&24

 damaged microphone 

• replace it 
• tell Pete 

microphone setups and placements

electric guitar 

 this photo shows how we normally set up a microphone to record an electric guitar. as you may notice there is a second amp underneath the one level with the microphone, this has been done to raise the level of the amp plugged in to the guitar because the microphone could not get any lower. the microphone we were using was a SM57 which is the industry standard , it had to be a dynamic mic because that type of microphone can clearly pick up the higher treble frequencies that an electric guitar can produce, however if the volume of the sound is to high it can distort the sound.  the microphone is placed pointing towards the middle of the amp so that the sound is clearer and it has to be quite close so that it doesn't pick up too much reverberation

bass guitar 

This photo shows how we normally set up a bass guitar with it plugged directly in to a DI box. a DI box or direct input box takes a high impedance signal and converts it into a low impudence microphone level input. it performs level matching, balancing, and active buffering to minimize noise, distortion and ground loops.  

drums 

this photo shows how we setup the drum kit, we used 2 c1000's to capture the snare drums and the hi-hat these condenser microphones will require 48 volt phantom power, we are using condenser mics because they are more sturdy and better at picking up a higher volume of sound with out distorting. for the kick drum we used a A D112 dynamic mic this gave us the detail in the bass frequency's we needed and was sturdy enough to pick up the loud sounds of the drum. for the  toms and snare we used  C518 M's these mini condenser mics allow us to get close to the drums with out getting too in the way of the performer, they still need 48 volt phantom power but the can pick up a higher volume than dynamic mics and we need the clarity of the higher frequency's. and finally the overheads (which i have cut out of the photo...sorryyyy D:) are  rode NT2000's in shock mounts, these condenser microphones provide a stereo image of the whole drum kit and make it easier to pan.

vocals

lastly for the vocals we used an SM58 which is the industry standard because it can capture a wider range of frequency's and the thing the headphones are resting on is a reflection filter, this stops noise from the other instruments and masking the vocalist which will be much ,much quieter.     

this is a list of all the things you have to do when you enter the studio

1. fill out the checklist on the back of the door to make sure that everything is in the correct place and not broken/missing
2. then you will need to set up a microphone- you will need a microphone stand (found in the back lefthand corner), a microphone clip (found on the windowsill to the control room), an XLR cable (found in the box under the windowsill), a microphone found in the microphone cases and headphones found in the box. 
3. plug the XLR cable in to the stage box in the first channel and the head phones in to the first jack in put 

now the every thing in the live room is set up we need to move in to the control room it is important which order you turn every thing on

1. mixing desk
2. sound card and patch bay
3.  then monitors 
4. and finally the computer

doing it in this order helps prevent pops from the monitors as there is a sudden jump in the signal. and we turn the computer on last so it can connect to the sound card (which converts the analog to digital) properly. it also makes sure no equipment is broken before your session.

in the studio live room we have

1. drum kit (kick drum, floor tom, mid tom, high tom hi-hat and crash cymbals)
2. bass guitar 
3. 2x electric guitars 
4. 3x guitar amps (including 1 bass amp)
5. XLR cables and jack cables 
6. a stage box 
7. 2x sm57 microphones 
8. 2x sm58 microphones 
9. 2x AKG c214 microphones 
10. rhode NT 2000 microphone 
11. rhode  broadcaster microphone
12. 1 reflection filter  
13. 4x headphones 
14. DI box 
15. A D112 kick drum mic 
16. 2x c1000's 
17. 4xc518's for toms and snare 

in the control room we have

1. allan and heath zed 436 mixing desk, it is important to mention that this is a live mixing desk and not a studio one, so it would be more suited to mixing live performances like at a concert However it can still perform all the requirements for mixing and editing studio performances because it has 32 mono channels, 2 dual stereo inputs with 4-band EQ, 6 auxiliary sends, Individual channel 48V phantom power. 
2. a sound card with patch bay this converts the analog signal from the mixing desk to a digital signal that protools can understand, the patch bay is used to rout the signal around and to add talk back so the people in the live room can hear you.
3. two near field monitors so you can hear back what you are/have recorded so you can edit and mix it as its playing. 
4. an apple mac with pro tools 11. pro tools has a very good sound quality with higher resolution Allows you to use up to 96 audio tracks per mix MIDI, score editor and virtual instruments for use Offers multiple audio formats to your sessions Over 75 plug-ins available which allow you to edit and finish your mixes with tools such as EQ, gain, dynamics and filters. 

intro

hello, as the title says this is my recording blog, here i will post interesting recording techniques and setups. i will then test out these techniques in a recording studio and see which one is best XD