Lessons

Lesson Info

Single and Multi Mic Setup

On a review the single mike set up is what we're going to work on the position on this right now so we have our amp we have the the four fourteen that nick picked out and we have our speaker and now we're going to get into position in a little bit so according to that are diagram we're going to get our basic starting point and it's really hard to tell on this do you have that give the phone again the flight flight it's almost impossible on these speakers because the grow cloth is so thick and yeah, I can't I can't even really see it to be honest with you can barely just see the edge of the desk own I don't know if that consume through zooming in on this or not, but you can kind of see it so we're kind of right on the edge of where I'm saying that you can just see the silver on the dust cone it doesn't cover rather and that's our you know, just our basic starting position. Kellen thank you. Um and then again, I don't generally go for you know I don't usually a lot of people really like ...

eat the girl cloth, they shove them like into the girl cloth, I generally give it like two or three I just said, like I said, fingers that gives you three fingers kind of is a starting point just you know, a lot of times I will go back further even maybe even back here and let the especially if it's about real bottom heavy sound because low frequency waves move slower than high frequency waves d'oh and sometimes you need to let the sound develop so you might want to pull the mic back a little bit and you're still going to get plenty of it's going to still sound but you'd be amazed at how far back you can pull the mike and still how direct it'll sound it'll still sound like it's right on top of it so much more in this room because this room is little echoey uh and it's a bigger space so you probably want a stay closer but we'll also after we get the tone we will be using mike stands and just these packing blankets as kind of makeshift go bows to make sure we don't incorporate too much of this the room because we have a lot of exposed brick here and it's and then the big painted glass at the back sometimes if the if the amp was really loud, it would definitely you might get some affectation from the room back into the microphone so a lot of times will kind of section off the amp just to make sure that we're really getting the sound at the source unless we're going for a room town unless we're going for sounding the space you know again it all depends on preference and taste and fit fitting into the song it's a lot of that but palin's going toe assist us here and then we're going to start playing the amp and he's going to be moving the mike and I'm gonna listen on headphones because it's a little hard to hear and here with the emperor in the room like I said ideally we would be isolated this cabinet would be in a separate isolated space and I would be able to hear through the speakers and base my judgment on base my opinion on what I'm hearing more just through our monitor chain so I'm going to isolate with headphones and then here and we're going to just play around with the sound and you should be able to hear what um position does for e q and a for the sound of the tone and let me say we got to make a new track here and we've got the beachball of death held on way have our signal can you tell him do me a favor just ah can you tap una scratch the mike and make sure we have signal yes we do wonderful okay good all right then oh is this where is our this which is fifty cents yeah, they should be all speakers air off okay, great then let me just see what we got here and for our for our demonstration purposes, we're not gonna have the am super loud because obviously we're in open space here in the amps not isolated, so I'm goingto work on with it with the master twitter, so we can then just hear more purely the mike and I'll be able to hear on the headphones it stinks it's interesting to note on and such as the mesa um, you actually have a third gain stage, so you were able to take the master of the channel and turn it up to get more of the push on the power and decide when we're talking about power and distortion and to saturate the power and you're able to do that, and then you have an actual secondary output way use that all the time because, you know, it's very important to kind of like a dial that, and we'll show a little bit more about that that will be able to dial, you know, get kind of get the relationship available back and forth get get the output set, and they kind of almost rock back and forth between the pre amp in the power and turning him up and down to try and get the right, especially for like, the heavy, the down picking kind of stuff to get that punch in that push and that's a big thing to do because really does affect how it reacts that completely effect it's not just volume, you know, right? So let me go and play and I'm I'm dialing it up tio get a lot of times the same kind of thing that I was just talking about with the guitar ahead especially with this one this is a to preempt so a lot of times you'll turn the game up a little higher and all pushed the mic preempt a little hotter and then dial down the output and not just go for you know allowed thing and then the quiet mike priam because you know, part of the mike pre will play a big a big part into the guitar sound as well certain mike preempts you know have a have a different sound you know, to mike preempt is going to saturate a little differently and it's gonna give you a different town so let me hear what's going on with this if you can hear I'm going to even just show that, uh what with that position there play and I'm going to turn up the mike right now that's our position that's our position with kind of center and bright so let's we're going to trying and go for a little warmer sound so as he's playing really slowly I mean like that very slowly just while making sure just left and right keep it on the same plane not out just just towards the right yeah it's almost actually still almost too fast yeah oh yeah and it's you know it's funny because it's harder with that stand on the floor but yeah did you did you guys hear that how if everybody at home could they hear how much the sound changed just from that I mean he moved it assuming lee slow but it was actually still too fast because I mean centimeters make a difference every little little position that he moved to that change the sound drastically let me you know I wonder if I can well be ableto not really quick I want to hear if weaken going back that way difference could you hear it out there because you hear a little bit no not really uh oh yeah I wish there was a way you guys could hear what we're doing right here but yeah it's for everybody home I mean you could hear the is a drastic difference go ahead now let's start going across it the other way and as you cross the center of the speaker you're going to hear like when it gets really bright you know ah that's a good idea thank you guys you wish your wishes that's a great idea way there's a way to do it okay okay kellen you ready wait let's play that back on. You can hear the difference there there it is in a nutshell I mean that is think about how many different I mean that's like if you were sweeping with women how many variations were there? Hundreds every little spot and you know and I would even honestly we would move it even slower than that but that's really it so you find that's the way to find that position that's like it's massive and then think about the variables of that that now put another mike on that blood on and then the relationship between the two mikes and then add an ambien michael we're going to show all these examples but so let's let's try and get a position for like a like for that kind of heavy down picking kind of thing let's go again way back we over at the last position you stopped out okay, so yeah we're going to go back the other way there's plenty of times where I'll miss it and I'll be like up go back the other way and that's exactly the case right here let's go backwards go back keep playing back leave it where it is a little forced that's pretty good right there let's go back it's funny because they're brighter in the headphones yeah, a little before that was it so no just the tiniest bit go back the other way just a tiny bit let me just try to record that really quick that's a good balance that's got a nice manilow's an attack it's got it's got attack and it's it's a nice round about him without being too to see something like that that's good okay um no so we have that and we could track with that and that's great but now we're going toe to mike's or more weak I guess we can try one with the with the mike on the other speaker let's try that will show that one so let's throw you know what let's throw the it's not hooked up believe that should be in three but the four twenty one no the one that doesn't have a cable connected to it this might be a quick question of sure that chat rooms was asking what headphones are you using for this isolation right now I don't even know what these are to be honest with you to be your favorite pair of that is still what's my favorite pants but I think that might be more appropriate. Yeah yeah what I like the on if I'm not mistaken with the model is the audio technica and major fifties yeah, they're really like a one hundred nineteen dollars yeah, I use those on the road a lot for tracking and you said it is because once I got yeah using the back of the bus yeah, because like they're they're really comfortable they isolate really well that's the most and to me you know I have a bunch of different things I have sony's in the studio of sennheiser is and they're all good uh the technicals for me just for me it's more comfort you know, especially for the for the artists you know that's a big thing I don't generally listen in headphones when I'm getting sounds on my studio because I have isolated you know I will sometimes check it because it doesn't it doesn't hurt when you know we really quick going back to yesterday somebody made a asked me a question about studio monitors and if it all possible I mean obviously I have a studio and I have I have a bunch of different my four different sets of hundreds to choose from um not everybody has that, but ideally uh it wouldn't hurt anybody to at least have a secondary set of something to check it I do that even when I'm due for mixing, but I do that when I'm tracking tio go backto go to the iava highness tens that I have that I usually I don't ever track on them because they're very mid range forward and there yeah, they're very harsh kind of sounding speakers they're great for mixing because I'm and I makes very, very quiet um they're but they're you can't track on them because your ears will get fatigued very, very easily but I will turn them on like when I'm getting guitar sounds and just really quickly just go on and flip back and forth between two different sets of monitors uh, just to hear what they're going to sound like, like closer outside, well, what's going to sound like, and again, I think in the end game, what your what's going to sound like in the mix so it's like, ok, well, that's going to give me a somewhat of a sense of what the guitar sounds like in the mix. It's also important for people to realize that's, not necessarily what sounds best that's going toe compliment they and gulps like, for instance, those yamaha's sound really bad, but that's the point like you're going to hear something stand out there very fatiguing, and if something's in there that you don't hear on a better pair of monitors or some really nice headphones, you're going to hear better on one of these for less forgiving sets of monitors or have phones. And, uh, I found a lot of guys, especially kind of laptop musicians or people who don't have access to all the gear that steve might have. They get like these really expensive, you know, beats headphones and sort of like, you know, bows or something and that's really the worst thing you could d'oh yeah, you actually want tio it always honestly it helps I mean, like I said, that apply that philosophy to mixing that's why it makes honest ends but it can completely apply to tracking as well because it helps you with your end game it helps to have a lowest common denominator source to listen on you don't want I've never I've have gen elex and their quote unquote high end they are a little high nd but assed faras price you know they're like nice really nice sounding speakers but I'm very used to them you know it's all a question of what you get used to but I think it's very very I even have a set up where I can patch into my laptop my mac laptop and pipes sound through the laptop speakers so certainly that's almost people because they think I mean, when you think about it, right, how many people were listening on a laptop or how many people listening tonight so honestly that's the quickest one to me obviously you should have some sort of head phone out to be able to monitor things with in your studio or on your on your computer set up so really simple ipod headphones what does it sound like? What is the guitar when you're getting the tone of what does it sound like an ipod headphones? Because that's what people here and listen to so it helps to have that kind of secondary monitor source and just really quick back and forth and you know if you can figure out a balance and get it to sound good on both of them you're ahead of game awesome like that yeah okay, so this is our second mike set up to mike's arm or one mike on each speaker so again we have kellen out here and we have the four fourteen and then a four twenty one on the other speaker and again if you want we're talking about phase and everything but if you want to just as a general rule of thumb just eyeballing it so I've got like three fingers and about three fingers but ideally on the four twenty one the diaphragm really starts of the microphone starts about it you know about an inch back of where the head of the mike is, so if you wantto say and just kind of roughly compensate you could start this is as a general point but maybe knowing that maybe you want to go in just a tiny bit more and now we're going toe listen first we're going to just listen we're gonna mute the four twenty four fourteen and now we're going to pull up the sound at before twenty one so go ahead let's get a position on that one killing um let's start bye yes sweeping it to the left and especially on this one, make sure the mic stays on access and doesn't tell tio to the side or anything, so go ahead. I went for a little bit, go ahead again. I went for a little bit of a dollar sound let's see couldn't record a little bit of that. Sorry, you know what? Go backwards and then we're gonna demonstrate this again with the sweeping the mike, and I'm going to record it, all right? So if you can hear the difference of how it was sweeping the like, wait ok, but let's, just see just leaving it where it is. Ok, now we're going to blend these two mikes together, and I guess I should keep it rolling and keep playing, and we're going to bring up the four fourteen first and then with the four twenty one in where it is at at the dollar like darker sound and see how that effects what the four four teens doing go ahead now, I don't know if you could tell from the speakers or not, but I'll show you I was bringing that up about forty two sources, different lights by themselves, twenty one and you see, I went for a darker sound on the four twenty one, but I was trying to use what that was doing to fill in maybe some of the holes and you know when we pulled up the four fourteen at first right we're like oh that sounds pretty good and then you felt the four twenty one and again the whole is greater than the sum of its parts you go well for twenty one sounds a little weird a little boxing and little dull but look look what they look what they did together and and you know again you have all those you know variables with all the mic positioning and then we have an infant and other amount of q and variables just by the getting the blend between the two mikes and here I mean in reality what I you know my output of my four twenty one was probably a little oh um so at this point right now you know your eyes can deceive you but the fader is higher on the four twenty one that doesn't mean the four twenty one lower the four twenty one is actually probably still quieter than the four fourteen but I messed up and the signal was a little too low going into our something end but you can see that um so that's ah thing that you know playing around with all of that now let's talk about phase again and making the phase right now it's pretty good the mikes are pretty and phase but let's see what it sounds like I'll show you by flipping the phase how the mic with our blend that's right here flipping the phase on the four twenty one and you can see what the difference is when the mikes are out of face and I'll record this now what this is telling us since especially since the volume cut so drastically and if you could look on the screen, look how much the volume cut, which pretty much just by eyeballing it pretty much tell us that our mikes are pretty in phase because there's a lot of cancellation going up and I was talking about that cancellation thing yesterday, but listen to the difference is sounds like a lot of death, but you know what? Even that sound can work, you know that? Yeah, like I said, that's, how was just saying that? Bennett said that sounds like a lot of death metal records that I used to record back in the early yeah shouldn't really scooped up because what's happening is all the cancellations happening and you're left with a lot of like extreme highs and extreme lows and sometimes you know what? That that sound can be cool that's for an effect that's a great thing it's interesting to note, especially in the last thing that way recorded when he added in that second mike, not only did the tones change, but you felt a lot more with it felt a lot wider and bigger on and if you think about it back in the day there wasn't even a stereo there wasn't the ability to even makes the stereo people or there was something like those early beatles records and stuff like that everything was mixed for mono people were listening to things through just one speaker didn't have stereo and then have the ability or they weren't using the ability even when they had it in the beginning to use the technology toe mix the stereo so they had to create all the depth and they didn't have river plug ins and in how old stuff so they had it create all the death and these really dense, amazing classic records they're moving mike's and stuff like that so like if you felt like something was farther away was because the michaels farther away if you felt like something was more in your face is because the mike was closer because the phase was different so think of all the options and all the death and all that in complexity you could get out of a record and color and feeling and personality just through these things he's showing you now and now imagine then being able to add tanning and beyond to add processing and re verbs and effects and things like that so if you understand these concepts and are able to create a great sounding record without all of the imagine how far you can go yeah, it all again, and I keep always going back to the committing thing and it all starts at the source, but just what's been touched on you look at some of the early right those records in the sixties, like the beach boys, pet sounds and up until the white house by the beatles all the way up through sergeant pepper. The original focus and the intent of all those records was mono, not stereo christian area was an afterthought and if you ever get a chance to hear, like, say, sergeant pepper's, if you listen to the beatles few here, sergeant pepper and mono it's incredible it's sounds better than the state exams, but it's better than the stereo version was they were recording without thinking they had that option, right? Even move things like that funny thing is like this, the funny thing is in panning and a lot of times, like, if you people who are like the recording, really the recording kind of nerd guys out there, they're watching this like and they've there until, like, if they don't know this that you know it's like the beatles thinks it's so cool the drums were on the left it's like that's all they had was the drum for mono it's like what we need to create it and the stereo mixes were an afterthought in the go all we need to do something we need to make a space so let's put the drums to the left and the vocal to the right you know, it's like that that was that wasn't like a production like thing like, I don't think that was a really conscious production, so it was like we recorded this for mono and we we somehow guy record label lettuce mix in stereo what do we do with this? Yeah, I know, but most area was right, you know how to utilize this stereo became popular in states before it did overseas, but they were made rules right made in england and it's, you know, they were really mixing for mono. And so how do you create depth and space? And how do you create? You know? And you're you have to commit to everything and how do you do that? And how do you create depth and space in a mano recording it's like, wow, how do you how is that even possible? Because you know, you you think about stereo and second, okay that's it stereo and, uh, so again, it's sometimes, like I said, you'll be taking the microphone and you're back five feet because like ok. Well, that's, this guitar is not up front, but I want it there. I want to have a presence and I wanted to feel like something. So what do I do? I mean, you know to me, it's a simple thought process. Do you want to get the guitars farther back? Okay. Recorded farther away, it's. You know, I know, it's that that seems like the modern owns a year. The microphones and year cycles. Where is this supposed to be? Where? The drums the drums were in the back. Okay, well, let's, take one what's to one might let's, dude led zeppelin. When the levee breaks let's put one mike in a hallway and record the drums like that. That's it. So, the's, all these these things I'm showing, you know, it's giving you all the options. And again, without you, I didn't do any queuing it all that was just on my position and relationship between two microphones and also, you know, the pre empt like you shall I showed you dialing in the pre empt and driving the preamble little harder as I do, if you could hear it. As I drove the prion parter, the sound got edgier you know, on this pre empt that's, that's, the characteristic of this pre empt, and this is too so it's, saturating in a different way. If I had, say, a solid state preempt, liken eva focus, right, or even the ssl my premiums, you know, they'd overdrive in a different way, and knowing just having those those pallets and having, you know, if you have a few different options, uh, in your recording, set up and knowing what the tendencies just like knowing attend, what tendencies of the heads are knowing what the tendencies of the microphones are, knowing what the tendencies as the speakers are no one with the tennessee, your mic preempt is, you know, and having those options is, they're all it's, all the q it's, all phase it's, all the q without ever touching an actual e! Q!