Some Large Condenser Mic Placements
I'm still trying to run a new recording setup thru it's paces to (re) learn what's where, etc, and thought I try a few mic placement experiments - always fun and instructive - to work on. Also 815C posted a nice sounding track a few days ago with a setup I'd never seen before - mics horizontal, one aimed at the ceiling, the other at the floor, so I wanted to try that out.
Here's my results. Just a short noodle with three placements: the horizontal one, Mid-Side and Spaced Pairs. I'm using a pair of Brauner VM1s into an Apogee Ensemble Thunderbolt, into Logic on a Mac. There's not much processing here, a tiny touch of EQ to taste, and a bit of reverb. I tried to match levels but between differences in performance, and different percieved levels, it's far from perfectly matched. The differences in the mic placement should be evident, maybe more dramatic in headphones. These are all pretty quick and dirty, and all could be changed with even slight movement of the mics, so take them with a grain of salt, but I'd be curious what people hear in these. Here's a soundcloud playlist: PlayList Or here's the direct link to the individual tracks: Horizontal Mid-Side Spaced pairs |
Thanks for this, Doug. Here's my take.
When quickly moving from one track to the other, the differences are interesting and my brain, I think, is fascinated, titillated even, by the difference. I wouldn't say that I have a strong preference for one over the others. But once my ear settles into one track or another for a few seconds, it just is what it is and it quickly becomes all about the song - not the stereo field. Jim McCarthy |
Great playing!! Great sound too!
May I suggest another placement? One around the 12th fret area and the other next to your right ear (over the shoulder. Pay attention that they are three times further away from each other than they are from the instrument. Pan hard left and right and see how it turns out. ;) |
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All three samples sounded different to me, but all also sounded good.
I think I lack either the ears or the terminology to properly analyse effective microphone placement. Kym |
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Man to me the horizontal placement just sounds huge. They are all nice of course, and any one would work fine for a recording. But comparing the three in sequence the horizontal sounds a bit bigger and fuller.
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Try it with your ADKs and see how it works! |
Hi Doug,
Could you describe the mic location for your M-S setup? I'm curious where you place them and how far out from the guitar. When I've experimented with it I had to have them pretty close in order for the ribbon mic to pick up sound off the guitar (and not just reflections) because the guitar would be in the ribbons null if it was backed off very far. My results seemed very sensitive to placement. I'd say I prefer your spaced pair recording, but the M-S was nice. To me, the bass in the M-S recording seemed to be centered while the rest of the spectrum had L-R separation. The spaced pair seemed to have the best overall clarity, and has a lot of interesting variation in the L-R channels. Thanks |
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I've found with a ribbon, that they tend to be really sensitive to placement. I recorded a track once that I just loved the sound, with an AEA R88, in MS. I know exactly where I was sitting, where the mic was, etc. I can't reproduce the sound I got on that take... Sigh. Actually, it's interesting that I got the Brauners because I heard a track done with a stereo Brauner, either in XY or MS, and was impressed with the sound. But a stereo Brauner is really pricey, and it's a custom oder, so there's not much chance of trying one out. I came across these 2 VM1s used and figured I could do the same thing by stacking them,and I was able to test drive them before commiting. So that was the first thing I tried, several years ago. And I didn't like it, just couldn't make it work. Here recently I started messing with it again, and what do you know, this time, I like it. Don't know what I'm doing differently, but it seems pretty nice. I like MS because the core sound seems centered. You have a good mono recording to start with. Spaced pairs ends up always fighting the imbalance of the guitar when close mic'd. But that same imbalance helps create the wider image, I guess. |
All three sound nice.
But Spaced Pairs are most natural to my ears. |
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Phil |
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