In today’s hi-tech world of getting the info out,  I would like to say that Mypace does a great job of talking and sharing ideas with other producers and engineers thoughout the country.   With this it is also an easy access for musicians to review both sites.  On a regular basis I often update the Myspace site with new photo’s and post updated bulletins on available recording dates.  We have a busy February coming up but new equipment posting will be up soon.  In the meantime please check out the Fastback Myspace site.

I tell you every time we record a horn session that song really comes alive.  The other night we recorded a tenor and baritone sax with a trumpet.  the mic set-up was very simple we used two Cole 4038 ribbon mics together in front of the horn’s about 16″ away and space the players side by side about 6-7 feet apart.  We also use two RCA 77DX room ribbon mics.  the fist RCA we put behind the players about 4 feet back and 11 ft up in the air.  The 2nd RCA mic was placed about 8 feet in front of them and 2 feet up off the hardwoods.  This was truly a wall of sound and the band was very pleased with the end results.   

Using our live room we created a very cool harp tone.  This is how we recorded it.  We started with the classic re-issue 520 DX bullet mic, patched into a early 1970’s silverface Fender Champ.  To grab a little more of the natural “dirt” sound the volume was set at 2, treble set at 2.5 and bass set at 7.  The room mic was a Coles 4038 ribbon mic set away from the amp about two feet this added more hardwood room tone because the ribbon mic is omnidirectional.  Setting it back two feet also allowed the mic not distort but to reflect the true voicing of the bullet mic.  To finish the end of this chain we ran the Cole 4038 through the UA 2-610 mic pre.  This was one of those times where everything thing worked together very well on the first attempt without moving mic’s around.  

  Since each large room, session and album is different this is a good starting line on how to set a bullet mic.  My opinion would be to run the bullet mic through a clean low wattage amp with a omnidirectional pattern and yes a ribbon will sound different than large dual-diaphragm capsule, such as a Neumann or a Telefunken. 

Today we did some stereo mic’ing on the Tone-Kings lead vocals, this type of recording helps bring body to the vocal sound when mixing.  the mic’s used on this session was the Neumamm M49, in cardiod pattern with the AKG C12VR underneath the Neumann on the bi-direction pattern.  We also added a RCA 77DX ribbon mic for the natural reverb room sound.  To help explain this style of this microphone placement is a short article by Buzz Turner.

  M/S recording shares the attributes of coincident technique with two important advantages for studio sound; 100% mono compatibility and the ability to alter the sound field in production. Mid Side technique employs two microphones aimed directly at the sound source. The Mid mic can be of any pattern, but is most often of a cardioid or hyper cardioid design. The Side mic is a bi-directional or figure eight pattern. What gives M/S stereo its flexibility and mono compatibility is the sum and difference matrix. The M/S matrix takes the sum information M + S, and sends it to the left channel, and the difference information M - S, and sends it to the right channel. When the left and right signals are combined, (M + S) + (M - S) = 2M, the sum is M information only. If the M/S signals are recorded discreetly (without going through the matrix) the signals can be matrixed in post, and the relative gain of the two signals can be adjusted to provide varying degrees of stereo width. When stereo recording techniques are used in large reverberant spaces, mono summing often results in objectionable amounts of “room sound” versus program material. When MS recordings are summed, Side information (most of the reverberant signal) is completely canceled, not added. M/S recording, compared with other stereo recording techniques, provides the best method for recording.

One of the cool things about our live room is the multitude of textures of tones we get from placing drums, amps and mic’s in different areas of the room.  One of the advantages of our studio is the high ceilings, because of this it is like we have two studios in one.  When placing room mic’s higher we have a very bold and natural reverb.  Each microphone has its own style of tone and we often change it around along with the mic-pre we use.  For instance theNeumann U 87 on omnidirectional with work very well with the UA 6-210 mic-pre while the RCA 77 DX ribbon mic needs bit more pre so we switch over to the Focusrite ISA 428 pre.  The mic the captures the all around tone of the room is the DPA 4052 this mic comes from the factory omnidirectional with max SPL of 135 db before clipping.  Since we record many different styles of music we have a nice selection of microphones and mic-pre’s to put high in the air for that live concert hall blend when needed.