Recording Challenge #5 (One Condensor Mic!)

[musicturtle]

Thanks [mention]JD01[/mention]

Yeah listening to Straight Ahead right now and I can definitely hear the similarities.

And yeah there are some things in the mix I might change to polish it up...but I like it the way it is as well.

Won't be doing too much with the "drum set" in the future. It drove my wife crazy. The "snare" or steamer pot was pretty loud and grating...had to some serious eq on it. It was fun though.

[vomitHatSteve]

Pretty cool, @musicturtle.

Here is my drum set up for the song, a guitar case, two hanging pieces of cast iron and a steamer pot with a chain on top.

20200425_163024.jpg

I assume the screwdrivers were your drumsticks? lol

To me, it sounds like it's in the same family of sounds that @vomitHatSteve's puts in his tunes

Absolutely, that is the sort of thing I'd do! Ha ha!

Nice harmony work, Bob!

I'd planned on collecting a handful of new samples for my drums on this one, but clearly I'll really have to step up my game.

[JD01]

Thanks @JD01

Yeah listening to Straight Ahead right now and I can definitely hear the similarities.

And yeah there are some things in the mix I might change to polish it up...but I like it the way it is as well.

Won't be doing too much with the "drum set" in the future. It drove my wife crazy. The "snare" or steamer pot was pretty loud and grating...had to some serious eq on it. It was fun though.

It's a bleak album that. I like it.

[heatmiser]

[mention]CrowsofFritz[/mention] - Nice track! Sounds surprisingly like your usual stuff. Nice vocals and a great melody. I'm guessing this particular challenge wasn't really all that different for you.

Not wild about the percussive sound there though - sounds kind of like someone just tapping on the mic? Regardless - well done!

[heatmiser]

[mention]liv_rong[/mention] - That was really nice.Guitars and reverb in particular sounding pretty sweet. The cymbals had kind of a weird swishy quality to them at least through soundcloud, but overall I thought it sounded great. No obvious auditory issues with using the one mic on either of the two entries I've heard so far. Well done.

[heatmiser]

[mention]Lt. Bob[/mention] - Haha! Fun tune man. The improvised percussion sounded pretty slick on phones. I had fun trying to pick out the wine glass. Funny lyrics, and a nice, clean capture.

I do not believe I will be able to approach the level of quality displayed thus far.

[heatmiser]

[mention]musicturtle[/mention] Nice job! The singing on this is great. Did you strike the guitar case with one of the screwdrivers for the kick?

That sounds pretty nice for such a ghetto kit!

Great job so far everyone.

[CrowsofFritz]

@CrowsofFritz - Nice track! Sounds surprisingly like your usual stuff. Nice vocals and a great melody. I'm guessing this particular challenge wasn't really all that different for you.

Not wild about the percussive sound there though - sounds kind of like someone just tapping on the mic? Regardless - well done!

Yeah, it was pretty easy for me lol. If I can buy a single kick drum, that’s all I need for a lot of my stuff.

[musicturtle]

Thanks [mention]heatmiser[/mention]!

I actually used a foam ball to beat the guitar case. You can see it on the guitar case in the photo.

[rayc]

Lt Bob & musicturtle,
FABULOUS - not just the innovation/compensation but the performances. Thoroughly enjoy 'em.I'll have to dig back into the other stuff during the day.
I was particularly impressed with the percussion.
Oh, sax was just lovely. Lisa Simpson needs to hear it.

[CrowsofFritz]

Good news, guys! With my new interface, I’ll finally be able to listen to your files!

[SweetDan]

OK, I drug out the gear and recorded a take or two this afternoon, then spent some time attempting to mix. I'll need another few months to practice the drums if I want to take this further than a musical sketch (which I probably won't). Even so, it was fun to experiment with the single mic for all the parts.

(The music is a take on that youtube video "Heard It In The Daily Mail" someone posted on one of the other threads over here. If I do take this beyond the "musical sketch" phase, I may even attempt to sing it.)

hiitdm_soundcheck.mp3

Mic choice was a Behringer C-3. I chose that one from my small collection simply because it's the only one with multiple patterns (cardioid, omni, and figure-8); in comparing with my other condensor mics, it's the worst sounding of the bunch. (It's also super cheap!) But being that I wanted to attempt to capture the sound of the drum set by putting the mic in not-the-usual-places, I wanted to have the extra response patterns.

What I ended up choosing for the drums was the figure-8 pattern (cardioid for the guitars/bass), with the mic nestled between the kick and the snare, pointed so one "node" of the fig-8 was peeking over the rim of the snare, and the opposite node was pointed at the shell of the kick. Unfortunately, with one side peeking over the snare rim, I also captured way too much crash, and it's kind of a weird, phase-y sound at that; I'll have to place it more carefully if I ever use that technique again.

Overall, this was a pretty fun thing to try out.

[Greg_L]

OK, I drug out the gear and recorded a take or two this afternoon, then spent some time attempting to mix. I'll need another few months to practice the drums if I want to take this further than a musical sketch (which I probably won't). Even so, it was fun to experiment with the single mic for all the parts.

(The music is a take on that youtube video "Heard It In The Daily Mail" someone posted on one of the other threads over here. If I do take this beyond the "musical sketch" phase, I may even attempt to sing it.)


hiitdm_soundcheck.mp3



Mic choice was a Behringer C-3. I chose that one from my small collection simply because it's the only one with multiple patterns (cardioid, omni, and figure-8); in comparing with my other condensor mics, it's the worst sounding of the bunch. (It's also super cheap!) But being that I wanted to attempt to capture the sound of the drum set by putting the mic in not-the-usual-places, I wanted to have the extra response patterns.

What I ended up choosing for the drums was the figure-8 pattern (cardioid for the guitars/bass), with the mic nestled between the kick and the snare, pointed so one "node" of the fig-8 was peeking over the rim of the snare, and the opposite node was pointed at the shell of the kick. Unfortunately, with one side peeking over the snare rim, I also captured way too much crash, and it's kind of a weird, phase-y sound at that; I'll have to place it more carefully if I ever use that technique again.

Overall, this was a pretty fun thing to try out.

Not too bad. I don't think the figure-8 works for the kit like that. It does sound weird. The cymbals have this crash and bloom that sounds like both comb filtering and compression.

A lot of people experiment with using a single mic on drums from in front of the kit or some kind of way over the kit. That's all fine, but no one really ever tries a single mic behind the kit. Like low and behind the drummer. Or put one up next to your head looking down at the kit. I've had good single mic results miking behind me. Just make sure your throne and kick pedal aren't squeaky. A single mic behind you can get a nice kick thump and snare attack while keeping the cymbals under control.

[liv_rong]

[mention]SweetDan[/mention] cool, dude! Drumming is coming along nicely, got a nice rhythm with your right hand(if you're right handed haha). Recording and mix is not bad, pretty dark sounding but that's probably that mic.

[SweetDan]

Thanks. [mention]liv_rong[/mention] - yes, right-handed. [mention]Greg_L[/mention] - I'll definitely try the "low & behind" mic placement, I've not tried that one yet.

[musicturtle]

OK, I drug out the gear and recorded a take or two this afternoon, then spent some time attempting to mix. I'll need another few months to practice the drums if I want to take this further than a musical sketch (which I probably won't). Even so, it was fun to experiment with the single mic for all the parts.

(The music is a take on that youtube video "Heard It In The Daily Mail" someone posted on one of the other threads over here. If I do take this beyond the "musical sketch" phase, I may even attempt to sing it.)


hiitdm_soundcheck.mp3



Mic choice was a Behringer C-3. I chose that one from my small collection simply because it's the only one with multiple patterns (cardioid, omni, and figure-8); in comparing with my other condensor mics, it's the worst sounding of the bunch. (It's also super cheap!) But being that I wanted to attempt to capture the sound of the drum set by putting the mic in not-the-usual-places, I wanted to have the extra response patterns.

What I ended up choosing for the drums was the figure-8 pattern (cardioid for the guitars/bass), with the mic nestled between the kick and the snare, pointed so one "node" of the fig-8 was peeking over the rim of the snare, and the opposite node was pointed at the shell of the kick. Unfortunately, with one side peeking over the snare rim, I also captured way too much crash, and it's kind of a weird, phase-y sound at that; I'll have to place it more carefully if I ever use that technique again.

Overall, this was a pretty fun thing to try out.

Nice job [mention]sweetbeats[/mention]!

Love the guitar sound.

Snare sounds good too.

Yea the crash is really loud.

Fun stuff!

[Tadpui]

[mention]SweetDan[/mention] I think that sounds great as a 1-mic recording. Guitars are nice and crunchy, drums actually sound full (and yeah, that crash is kinda out of control, but so what).

[Tadpui]

Here's what I ended up with. The mic I picked was an AKG C414 XLS, since it's relatively neutral and is multi-pattern. All of the tracks are through my BAE 1073 preamp, since I've only got one of those and I could use it every time. And I pushed the preamp hard on just about everything.

I learned a lot about this mic in the process. Excellent on a bass amp, admirable on a drum kit. Terrible on electric guitars and "meh" on vocals. There is so much EQ happening in this project LOL. And obviously a lot of compression. Like, so much compression. And it shows. Sorry the song turned out kinda "screamo", but that's just where I'm at lately

I pretty much gave up redoing parts, despite some pitch and tempo issues. I'm just ready to move on to something else, so pardon the off notes and missed beats.

Battle Scar Gigantica-001.mp3

[SweetDan]

Here's what I ended up with....

Cool. Bass, drums, and though you said it was only "meh" on vocals, I think they sound good here too.

I'm curious about how you set up for and recorded the drums, if you don't mind sharing.

[Tadpui]

Cool. Bass, drums, and though you said it was only "meh" on vocals, I think they sound good here too.

I'm curious about how you set up for and recorded the drums, if you don't mind sharing.

Hey thanks man. I ended up really sculpting the mic with EQ to make it work on vocals. I basically manually gave it a bit of a "vocal mic" curve with ReaEQ. I guess that's the good thing about a neutral mic: the frequencies are all there, just gotta boost and cut until it sounds good haha.

For drums, I'll attach a picture below. I've been playing with only 1 rack tom lately, so I put the mic right up in the middle of the kit where the lower rack tom used to be. The mic was in its wide cardioid pattern, but I bet it'd work with a regular cardioid as well. I raised it up until it was just peeking over the top of the snare by 1 or 2 inches. And I tuned the snare low because it sounded all weird and thin and papery at a normal tuning. Then I compressed the holy living snot out of it (fast attack, fast release, 6:1 ratio, peaking at 12-14 dB of gain reduction). And I did some sculpting in ReaEQ to help out the low end of the kick, and remove some mud and boxiness.

P1010667 (Large).JPG

ReqEQ.JPG