Cool recording tip for Bass/Guitars

[Roy Howell]

Thanks Stone... I'm gonna try it on this slide thing for cinemafixer...

[soundsurfr]

Thanks Stone - good tip.

Roy - have you heard from Matt lately? I tried e-mailing him to see if he could get me into the Dicky Betts show here in NY, but he never responded.

[Phil O'Keefe]

The great thing about a program like PT is that you can actually SEE the waveforms and the attacks on the notes and visually align them while listening to things to hear that it SOUNDS right to you.

Sound travels at around 1,130 feet per second, so if your room / distant mic is around 15 feet away, a 15 ms delay is about right... but not exact. Assuming a close mic distance of 1" and a room mic distance of 15', the delay is actually 16.95 ms. This actually will vary, depending on your altitude above sea level, the ambient temprature and the relative humidity - all of which have an effect on the velocity of sound. images/icons/smile.gif

In addition to the close mic (usually a dynamic)and room (distant - usually a condenser) mic, I'll sometimes try a different type of dynamic on the back side of an open backed cabinet. Watch your phase... images/icons/smile.gif And sometimes I'll split the signal and route it to two amps... one a bit cleaner and one a bit crunchier... or one a bit brighter and one a bit darker... Or you can route to a mic'ed amp and to a amp sim at the same time... or to a mic'ed amp and DI into PT and use the BF Sans Amp plug in...

[Roy Howell]

Soundsurfr,

I have not heard from Matt in a few weeks. I'm overdue to lay down this thing for him, and had promised I'de be done weeks ago, but am just now about to do it. But, I truly think he's just doing the road thing. Every time he's written or posted it's been on the run at somebody else's pc. But, they're playing in Memphis on the 25th, and I'm gonna try and sit in with em.

So, hey Matt!... check in with us, old buddy... images/icons/wink.gif

[mattm]

this works well with drum room mics in some instances too. back in the dim, distant past, we would sometimes play the room mics from the sync head (of a 2" machine) then delay them by amounts calculated by measuring the distance between the sync and repro head and the distance the room mics were from the centre of the kit's soundstage. this was very easy on a Studer A80 MkIII as the heads were exactly 3" (or 100ms@30ips) apart.

these days, we just trim the start of the region and nudge them back by the appropriate amount, as no one wants to pay for 2" stock anymore images/icons/frown.gif

[Stone Knife]

From Mix's newsletter:
"When recording bass guitar—combining a direct box with a miked amplifier—a time delay occurs, because the direct box signal arrives sooner than the signal going through the amp, out of the speaker and into the mic. Summing these usually results in a muddy sound. Adding a slight delay (a couple milliseconds or so) to the direct box signal improves the sound immensely, making it full and powerful. The same technique can be applied to guitar tracks, but using two guitar mics—one right in front of the amp, the other 15 feet away in the back of the room. Apply a 15ms delay to the close mic track, and the result is a massive sound where the room reverb of the ambient mic occurs simultaneously with the sharp attack of the close mic. Guitarists love this one!"

[da BaSsTaRd!]

Originally posted by soundsurfr:
Roy - have you heard from Matt lately? I tried e-mailing him to see if he could get me into the Dicky Betts show here in NY, but he never responded.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">same here. i missed the BB's show earlier this month. yo, matt, if some crazy guy comes up to you in ithaca, that's probably my friend, john, hoping to meet the man... images/icons/grin.gif