wailingalleycat
Forum Manager
Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 694
Location: Jersey C.I (UK) |
| QUICKTIP: Choosing The Right Microphone |
 |
|
I thought I would share a technique on choosing microphones as I read a very good explanation of it in Michael Paul Stavrou's book 'Mixing with your mind' recently. Its something we all do in our heads but i'll have a go at explaining it briefly now and we can expand on it as we go.
The first step is to go through your mic collection or that of any studio you work in with a pair of good headphones that you know well. Lay them all out on a table and get an XLR ready, with phantom power, routed through to your headphones. Start with the microphone you use most often and just talk into it, perhaps say a nursery rhyme and based on how you perceive the way it captures your voice, assign this microphone a 'Hardness Value'. You can interpret this any way you wish but the importance is to have a clear idea in your head of what Hardness is. I'm not talking solely about prescense or frequency response curves. listen to how it makes your voice sound. Does the sound jump out at you? Is it mellow and soft? Is it razor sharp, crisp, clear and hard? You may want to compare it to some of the others first and then go through doing this for every mic and assign every microphone in your collection a Hardness value between 1 and 10. 10 being the hardest and 1 being the softest.
Get yourself some tape and label every microphone with its hardness value (use a code like H1 to H10 to avoid confusion with channel numbers). For example a C414 to me is an H7 and an Audix SCX25 is an H3.
Now comes the clever part. When you come to record an instrument or a vocalist. Go into the live room and listen to it raw before u even think about mic choice or which reverb you are going to use etc. and assign it a hardness value based on the same scheme as your microphone values. Once you have your value, go and get the opposite hardness microphone. An H8 vocalist will be best with an H2 microphone and an H3 bassist with an H7 microphone and so on.
Give this a go, I think you'll be surprised just how effective this technique is. Please comment and leave suggestions in this topic for others to benefit from and dont be afraid to ask questions!
Happy Listening
-Paul |
Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:16 am |
|
|
Rmuse
Family Friend
Joined: 13 Nov 2006
Posts: 109
|
| Hardness values |
|
|
Hey Paul,
Thanks for posting this valuable information. I have been struggling with mic choice forever, and ususally end up trying every mic I own on every performer/instrument. My question then, is will this work when the performance is actually in a mix?
I learned recently that although a certain mic sounds fabulous on certain voices, it may not work well in a mix. This was really evident with a particular singer that sounded great with a U87, but when the track played back with the other parts it just didn't work. A different mic (TLM 103) with the same singer, pre-amp etc sounded incredible in the mix. Is it down to the conglomeration of the other instruments with a certain mic?
Getting a handle on what 'hardness' is also presents some issues for me. When trying out mics for their 'H' value, are there mic-pre issues, or is this done just straight with phantom power only? Lots of questions and issues, I know, but this is good stuff and anything to streamline the process and get the best results from the mics in our lockers is crucial to all of us. Anyone with more ideas and feedback; please share your tips/tricks. Paul has gotten the ball rolling...how about keeping it moving. I, for one, could use all the help from everyone's experiences.
ron |
|
Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:03 pm |
|
|
|
|
 
|
|
All times are GMT. The time now is Fri May 16, 2008 2:38 pm
|
|
|
|
| |
