How do you go about micing things up?

[GothicV]

I don't want to get into specifics, or start a war or whatever. I just want to know how you go about doing it: do you throw the mics up, record a small take, move them around a bit until you have the best tone? Do you have someone else play, and solo a mic through headphones while you fiddle with it in real-time? Do you just stick it up and hope it works? Any other ways some people do it?

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Most important is knowing your equipment.
Know the purpose and capability of the mics.
Read the journals, literature, and the DUC on how to mic a room and instruments.

If you are a beginner, you will have to do the best you can, make sure you're not going to redline the meters; know that you have a good solid and quiet location; check to make sure you minimize your noise floor; make sure the headphones don't bleed sound into the recording; (you seeing a trend here yet?); and practice sessions! Make sure the artists know this, and schedule it. You never know, you might get lucky and even capture a few good takes.

Remember, with PTLE you have the ability to easily cut, paste, swap, and corrects many ills and sins. Capture good audio, and you can put it together later.

Try the Home Production using ProTools book. It's a good book that will answer most of your immediate questions.

IMHO

[GothicV]

ummm, thanks for assuming I dont know what I'm doing.... I can record stuff just fine thanks.

I'm just interested in how others do things, so that maybe I can pick up and try a few different techniques... trying to expand my horizons and whatnot. Unfortunately I know my gear inside and out so I suppose I have to go buy some more .

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Most important is knowing your equipment.
Know the purpose and capability of the mics.
Read the journals, literature, and the DUC on how to mic a room and instruments.

If you are a beginner, you will have to do the best you can, make sure you're not going to redline the meters; know that you have a good solid and quiet location; check to make sure you minimize your noise floor; make sure the headphones don't bleed sound into the recording; (you seeing a trend here yet?); and practice sessions! Make sure the artists know this, and schedule it. You never know, you might get lucky and even capture a few good takes.

Remember, with PTLE you have the ability to easily cut, paste, swap, and corrects many ills and sins. Capture good audio, and you can put it together later.

Try the Home Production using ProTools book. It's a good book that will answer most of your immediate questions.

IMHO

LOL, no, I know you are not a beginner. ^^^that up there is how I do it, Gothic^^^ ...and all the pain I went through

[bb_aus]

buying more gear is always fun - even if it leaves your wallet a few pounds lighter
you would be better asking about micing a certain instrament
the book 'Mixing With Your Mind' has some great mic'ing techniques - there is no right or wrong way as such. you can try sticking a mic in what you would thing would be a compleatly wrong stop and yes usualy it wont be great but sometimes you get lucky and get a great sound
[bleep] mics with bad positioning running into old pres on a basic yamaha console and onto 4-track tape gave me a realy good overall drum sound. but i still rather do things propley where possible

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

If you ever do cab micing, try micing a set of Martin Logans. Excellent on high def mid-to-highs with a hint of FX. Sweeeeeetttttt

[cruisemates]

If it is something I have never miked before, I usually walk around it and losten to it and try to decide where the sound I am looking for is coming from. Sometimes I plug one ear (because mics are single transducer) when I do this. For mic techniques, check out this mini-book on recording techniques I wrote many years ago:

http://www.cruisemates.com/video/77secret.doc

[Stiff]

That looks great cruisemates!

[nightshadecrisis]

cruisemates,
absolutely fantastic and well thought document you've posted. I think nearly everyone on this forum would get alot out of reading it.

[nightshadecrisis]

but to add to that, i usually (when working in a control room looking into tracking rooms) record everything from engineers viewpoint...ie...Kick out, Kick in, Snare bottom Snare Top. Hats. floor tom rack tom 2 rack tom. left overhead, right overhead. left room, left right. spot mics.

when this is all lined up on the console and your trying to troubleshoot or figure out whats going where, i've found this set(or any set you get used to i suppose) works well.