Ambiance track?

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

One challenge is whether your room actually sounds good enough to want to add that sound in. For most of us recording at home, the goal is often to keep the (poor) sound of the room out of the recording...

One option is to simulate it. Bob mentioned the Cooper Time Cube, and here's another example, a UAD plugin I sometimes use, which lets you "remic" with mics from some distance and blend that in however you want. Here's 2 pairs of mics added at 16 and 22 feet, supposedly giving you the acoustics of Ocean Way studios:

Attachment 91238

I've used this a few times, a little goes a long way. I've also lately been finding that a small amount of a closer room mic seems to sound ok for me. I just posted a video in Show and Tell where I used a "room mic" about 3 feet back at a low level in the mix.

As always, great recording and great playing.

I just realized, that with my gobo's, a room mic probably won't work to well. There are ways around it ...I suppose...having the mic up higher for instance. But the Gobo's block the initial sound.

* Did you notice a difference in sound between your room mic and the UAD Ocean Waves Studio Plug in?
* Did you still use the Sound Radix Auto Align with your room Mic? I would assume that would defeat the whole purpose?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by AcousticDreams

* Did you notice a difference in sound between your room mic and the UAD Ocean Waves Studio Plug in?

I didn't try the Ocean Way on this, haven't really used that much in quite a while. Sometimes I use it to soften another effect - like I can run an actual delay, or maybe a shimmer reverb and pipe that thru the Ocean Way to sort of diffuse it, so the effect is not so discrete.

* Did you still use the Sound Radix Auto Align with your room Mic? I would assume that would defeat the whole purpose?

Yes, I did in this case, I don't really want the phase issues that come from having mics a few feet apart in distance. I just found the difference in room sound, and perhaps even the difference in tone between the two sets of mics that seemed to work (subtly). But I just shot another video this morning, still in progress, using the same setup, but different guitar (and tune), and so far, I'm not feeling like the room mic does anything positive, so I probably wont end up using it.

I think there's often a feeling, I certainly get it..., that more is better, more mics, more reverb, adding delays and so on, and often when I do that, and then go back and listen to just the basic stereo close-mic'd track, I like that better. Less messy, more direct, more natural, more like what I hear when I'm playing. But it's all a matter of taste, and for me, it can vary day by day, track by track.

[b1j]

I have to admit it’s probably a good thing that I only have two mic preamps, or I’d dive into this idea, and it would probably throw a speed bump at my development.

[DupleMeter]

There are a lot of historical examples of using a room mic for various sources. A lot of of early engineers used a room mic to send to reverb. This created a natural predelay, which could be extended by sending that signal to a 2nd tape deck, and playing back off of the repro head to the chamber or plate.

For me, room mics aren't useful or pleasing until you can get about 8 feet of distance. Then when you apply compression you can get this big, juicy sound that incorporates a lot of ambience. I'm big fan of running my room mic through a diode-bridge (Neve style) compressor. I'm also a fan of ribbon mics for room mics, but anything you have will work.

Don't overthink it. Just set one up and keep moving it back until it adds something you like. If you're room isn't large, you can point your room mic up to the ceiling or down tot he floor to increase the perceived distance.