Will Ackerman's mic setup

[b1j]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Will was the founder of Windham Hill, and one of its main artists, along with his cousin, Alex de Grassi, and Michael Hedges. He sort of defines "new age guitar". Sort of a "soundscape" approach to composing. These days he has a nice studio in New England and produces other people. The LDS are Klaus Heinz-modded U67s, BTW, so no expense spared.

I actually was never taken with his recorded guitar sound back in the day, but then we're talking 80s and vinyl records, and solo guitar sounds were often kind of weak back then.

Here's his newest CD, which presumably was recorded this way:

Just got a chance for a close listen to this. To me, it's a pleasing genre that says more about the recording space and setup than about music. But people listen to music for many reasons. I can appreciate this for the artists achieving their goal.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Yeah, his setup, once I understood it, isn't that different from what I do. I normally have spaced LDs and spaced SD's further apart - but I've never found it useful to combine them, they're just there as alternatives. I've also tried room mics back a ways, and never found that useful. Probably my room isn't up to the quality of Will's. It seems to work better to use plugins to add any ambience I need. What I have done for a long time is use a ribbon mic in the middle, which adds some beef to the sound, but lately, I've been preferring just 2 condensers.

I wish they had the article online so I could share it, the photo's pretty impressive :-)

Interestingly enough his album Conferring with the Moon was what we used as my wife's breathing music when she was in labor with our daughter , who is now 37 for a bit of chronological perspective .

Doug I see you mention plugin's Are you not using your M7 for verb anymore ?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by KevWind

Doug I see you mention plugin's Are you not using your M7 for verb anymore ?

I still have it and use it. But sometimes plugins are easier, and there have been a few reverb plugins popping up that give the bricasti a run for the money.

[runamuck]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I still have it and use it. But sometimes plugins are easier, and there have been a few reverb plugins popping up that give the bricasti a run for the money.

I use the Seventh Heaven plugin and it's my favorite reverb. Have you found others that you prefer?

[SprintBob]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I still have it and use it. But sometimes plugins are easier, and there have been a few reverb plugins popping up that give the bricasti a run for the money.

Originally Posted by runamuck

I use the Seventh Heaven plugin and it's my favorite reverb. Have you found others that you prefer?

I’ve got NeoVerb, Seventh Heaven, and FabFilter Pro R as reverb plug-ins that I play around with. Each one has more options than I can ever imagine using so I can check reverb plug-ins off my PIAS list. I’ve used Seventh Heaven on most of my recordings but recently I’ve been using the FabFilter Pro R with good success and I love the interface.

[rmp]

interesting thread.

as I've been listening to Mr. Ackerman for quite some time now.. (late 90s?)

He has some tremendous tracks... (don't love everything he's done, but some,, yea,, awesome)

Apparently the dude knows what he's doin...

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by runamuck

I use the Seventh Heaven plugin and it's my favorite reverb. Have you found others that you prefer?

I like all the LiquidSonics reverbs. The Seventh Heaven is nice, fairly close to the real thing (which I have), tho the hardware wins pretty easily if you compare. The FabFilter reverb is very transparent and has some unique controls. For what I do, where I want it to sound like pure guitar with no effects most of time, it's a good choice (tho the Bricasti is also quite transparent). The Lexicon Native set is also a nice transparent reverb. For more color, I like the UAD plate reverbs as well as the Capitol Chambers. There are also some crazy reverbs like the Eventide Blackhole that I've found useful at times.

[runamuck]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I like all the LiquidSonics reverbs. The Seventh Heaven is nice, fairly close to the real thing (which I have), tho the hardware wins pretty easily if you compare. The FabFilter reverb is very transparent and has some unique controls. For what I do, where I want it to sound like pure guitar with no effects most of time, it's a good choice (tho the Bricasti is also quite transparent). The Lexicon Native set is also a nice transparent reverb. For more color, I like the UAD plate reverbs as well as the Capitol Chambers. There are also some crazy reverbs like the Eventide Blackhole that I've found useful at times.

Thank you.

[Doug Young]

The photo has shown up online now. Here's Will in his studio:

297133415_10225167385205271_9191691246368451493_n.jpg