Lessons

Lesson Info

Micing Demo Part 1

First up, a kg for fourteen this has been a lot of times people ask me it's like what's my go to mike and a lot of people, of course will use nessen fifty seven and I love it, but I've been partial to the four fourteen for a long time. Um it's a condenser mike requires phantom power with if you don't know that, um and it's a multi pattern condenser, which I talked about before there's four different polar patterns of you consume and see it there's cardio it which is exactly what I was trying to show you accept that's drawing way better than what I drew uh and there's hyper cardio omni and figure eight so again cardio it's picking up from the front rejecting from the back, hyper cardio oid it's still picking up from the front it's a modified pattern so it's rejecting, projecting from here from the kind of the sides on an angle here and picking up a little bit in the back but mostly the front and the nominee it's picking up all around, and then figure eight it's picking up equally from t...

he front and back and rejecting the sides and before fourteen because it's a condenser it it reacts to transients in a much different, not much different, but in a different way then say a dynamic mike so that's why I like it a lot on guitar because it really captures that feel like a captured I feel like it captures the transients especially of attack of electric guitar a lot better than a dynamic does but it's not the bl endo I've done records plenty records calculate infinity which that's always one like fifty four fourteen that's it straight up on locals toe on vocal sent and I think it's also important to know that it's actually very affordable like right on well, obviously we're applying these techniques to people at home and this is this will go at the absolute high end uh it's under a thousand and you know honestly for people on a budget look on ebay look on craigslist you confined these for five hundred bucks for killing three fifty I've seen right I've seen him as low is like four hundred like people desperate or selling this there's still plenty of resource is to get things cheaper. Um what steve, what is the sort of you if you shop for that mike on ebay and somebody's dropped it because I was wonder about that, right? Well, like not I mean honestly you can see it you'll see if it's if it has been dropped her yeah and we'll hear it you'll hear it too, okay? But they're pretty hardy believe it or not for even for condenser I mean I wouldn't recommend dropping it or having a nail into the ground with it like people have done with this and fifty seven's to demonstrate I've seen literally people hammer a nail in blue that's a fifty seven it's that bulletproof basically um but yeah I mean you like I said if you're on a budget you khun definitely find them online fairly cheap uh and like I said it's kind of almost a desert island mike for me because it's good on so many different things that's great on guitar it's amazing on drum overheads it's great on vocals it's great on just about everything um so you got that and then we have the absolute standard which everybody uses wishes that sure is some fifty seven it's a cardio mike it picks up from the front again doesn't reject from the back it's dynamic doesn't require any phantom power it can take an absolute ton of level you khun it's basically bulletproof you you khun almost do nothing to this mike that it won't take you know it's like crazy um and it's definitely a lot of big standard for even for live people uses on guitar live blues vocals live drums it's good on everything but you know it really shines on rockets are and then and it's also it's also very cheap I mean new it's I think it's one fifty at the most maybe not even I think I've seen especially people running specials with him for like seventy nine bucks with a cable you know it's it's you know it's very affordable just for pretty much anybody and again you go and go the same by the same principle go online and you can find him for twenty bucks you know uh next here is the sennheiser four twenty one this one kind of came in vogue probably as a guitar mike I mean it's always been there but it was primarily a vocal mike originally a lot of people still use this for broadcast for voice and there's actually on the back if you see here and zoom in there's a roll off switch which changes the low in response and it's actually says s and m which is speech in music which that's what originally stood for and then wants to and united positions one two three four in between cell one two three four five positions uh changed everything that s and m stood for us really but yeah it's it's also great on guitar it's where I was the fifty seven is more mid range focused this I did that's why a lot of people this is like the for a lot of people using multiple mike set up this is the classic combo is the fifty seven in the four twenty one because this is kind of scooped and term terms of frequency response it's a lot of bottom in a lot of top and the mid is less pronounced. It's got plenty of mid but it's less pronounced than it is on fifty seven. So even if you're going on axis the fifty seven, the concept is the fifty seven frequency wise is going to fill in what the four, twenty one's missing and you're gonna get overall on much broader in a much fuller sound. We had a little wild card here. This is a new company called unless and this is a ribbon microphone, which is an entirely different concept than the other guys. This uses an actual ribbon, a thin piece of metal that suspended between magnets here and just like anything. It's, a dye, a friend and the ribbon itself is moved by the air moves and the ribbon waves from the airport from the air pressure from from the sound and same thing. Same concept. The magnets, the the electric. The ribbon moves through the magnets, creates a magnetic field and creates signal goes down the wire. But this one is an active room microphone, so it requires phantom power just like the four fourteen, like the condenser, um and ribbons. Naturally, because it's a flat, uh, it's a flat, thin piece of wire their natural polar pattern is figure eight you can change the polar powder on a ribbon um and the also the thing that works it's interesting I don't know exactly the science behind it but generally ribbons you can go on both sides but the front side of the ribbon is usually brighter than the backside so if you wanted a dollar more mellow sound you can turn it around um but ribbons in general the phantom power ribbons like this and the roy er one twenty two our little brighter but in general the even the passive ribbons that there no for a smoother, more open sound so it's also a good complement with any of these mikes you know it's it's it could be great by itself not necessary for so much for heavy rock some guys swear by ribbon mikes um but, uh it's definitely ah smoother kind of thing. So if you blended with, say, a fifty seven or for fourteen and some of it's a little more aggressive it's a great it's a great other thing tio balance out the sound um there was one other we don't haven't understand this one is actually a staple of a lot of live guys now this is the sennheiser six o nine it's a dynamic mike as well it's cardio oid on debt literally tells you front and so you just so you know which side to use um and a lot of people love it and lifestyle, especially because it's flack and you can really get in on the cabinet and people just like kind of lay it there and it's cool it's it's similar and sound to the four twenty one they're they're kind of to me, cousins of each other. Um, that's cool. I like it. I've gotten plenty of guitar sounds with, right? Yes. So, basically, you know, we're going to show you trying different mikes on different setups and finding the best option. It's the same thing. We have our control. We've established our control with the amp and the cabinet and the guitar. So now let's, try just just on access, senator cohen. Just like how I had it on the cabinet. Just the difference between the different mikes and what's the characteristics and try and find again. Just let's. Listen to this. Might. What is this one sound like let's? Go to the next one. Keep the control the same and just swap the mike out and see what the option. What? That sound is change change more? Yeah, I believe so. Well, the four, fourteen, fifty seven for our for our purpose, for argument they're going into the to the summit excuse me on dh then the other guys are going into the maki but they're all going to get bussed out of the master out of the mast out of the one out of the mackey so that's it's still gonna be the same thing um I mean we could literally just swap out the one mike into maybe we should do that just as good as the control range as the control of the same chain that's going to channel one and to channel one on the summit so just use the sloppy fourteen's on maybe right and then just change them on exactly that's probably best keep exactly so we'll do that and show the difference between the mikes and so we'll do that and then you want to track guitar on fresh mike like a line on one track maybe we should I think it raises you can go through and then we can hear it right that's interesting and see it and everything let's see this thing has been waiting forever so it's kind of frozen a little bit I'm going toe set up a channel here in pro tools um let's just go wherever doesn't matter we want to do it in the in the session in the song due at the end yeah let's do it without without doing the song we're just we're just we're just demonstrated checkouts were just demonstrating this on lee right okay it's and put one on it's going to three four right? Okay, cool what cabinet were we and only remember was the last thing that we're in the orange right? Yeah, the arms with thea director for right right okay, what starts while I'm doing this so we have any other questions? Chat, rumor I'm just kind of we had one from dude guy he was wondering specifically about the four fourteen in your experience do the older for fourteen sound any different than the new I think the brand new ones the ones with the they have a uh uh elektronik selector on the pickup pattern. Yeah, I believe they do, but they still sound pretty damn good. Okay, I prefer the older ones to be honest with you also use a a pretty similar technique when you're making for lead get tellers as opposed to rhythm. Um well no, I mean, I do a similar thing, but you know, I definitely almost all the time I will go with a different mike um just a different option just is a different a slightly different total characteristic even if it's on the same position it's the same kind of thing because you know, stacking up too much of the state, especially in the digital world stacking up too much of the same same sound on top of each other it can get the frequencies buildup in a different way than on alive is still it was so much more forgiving with that tape you could stack a lot of the same kind of sounds on top of each other and it would still kind of take it but when it gets in the digital things, digital tends to emphasize mid range anyway more um in my in my opinion so yeah, I tend I generally tend to use a different thing a different mike or it could be an entirely different set up for for solos just so they it's kind of sits differently cool? Um let's see, you don't have to have it that allowed honestly right now very good to know also so even I'm looking on the summit I'm already over dr overloading when he hits it go ahead, wait that way so it's overloading at the preamble ready? You can see the light goodson it's good to note that the four fourteen as well as the switch is on the back has a couple of options so on the back there's ah to position pad for tend to be down in twenty b down um that a lot of times especially when you're pushing the the the amp really loud you're going to need to pet it down somehow either at the pre empt or the mike I like to do it at the mike a lot of times if the mike has a pan on it rather than on the pre m um just my preference and there's also a ah high pass filter to roll off some excess bottom end because also it's important to note with a cardio and mike um there's something called proximity effect omni mike's do not it's just it's proximity effect is a direct function of the circuitry that makes a microphone cause all mikes are inherently omni and they require either mechanical or electrical kind of plumbing to create the polar pattern to make it car you would or figure eight um, so cardio and mike's have what's known as proximity effect there that they're the biggest offenders. So the closer you get to something to the source, the closer we moved to the amp, the more the bass response is going to be. Just like with the singer when you notice them, the singer gets very close to the microphone, he gets very basic, and then when he backs up it's not as nearly as bad. Um, if I do this, but, uh so there's a roll of position to compensate for proximity effects you can if it's a little too basic you're getting right on. I get that. Yeah, exactly. That lot was that's. What I was saying, we have the pad on the pre em, but I prefer to use at the mike if I can, um so that that michael b on ebay later today for like three, fifty four hundred this is one of the ones that will be that this is what you get for like three hundred bucks perfect all right so knowing that and I saw that it was already overloading without with mike preempt completely down I am going to put the ten dv padden and see what that does for us and I don't even know if we're dead on like I said it's really hard to see in this cabinet because the grill is so thick but this is should be about center I'm just eyeballing it at this point um go ahead get that super we're still interesting ok so wait we're going through the eleven, seventy six at this point but I'm not trying to do anything I have it on bypass so we're just we're just for our sake was in all of the benefit of a patch bay to quickly change patches would have to be in the back doing things so it's going through the chain of the mike preempt the mackey and eleven seventy six but this is the mackey is just basically unity eleven seventy six is pretty much also unity with the compression circuit inactive just lick it off like that um so I'm just really quick go ahead ok that's one where are we here really for fourteen all right and then we're gonna flip it over we're gonna jump tio what's next fifty seven that's the quickest way to do this I'm going to keep the one line here I'm only doing this for the sake of trying to keep the control the same so this is too but right now we're just going to go to the same exact thing s o I noticed you're you're putting the ah microphone right in the center of the cone um and that's typically where ah you're high end or high frequency they're going to come out is that correct? That is correct, I actually will pardon me, I have a diagram that I'm going to show people about my positioning would that specific thing in mind? Yes, but generally the center or right off the edge of the center of the cone like walt collected the center of the dust cover is, you know, for me it's a basic starting point thiss one is not behaving either this work sorry for the delay, folks, but here we go again I'm getting is close to the same point as I did before again just for the sake of having the control and just trying to judge what we have just trying to get roughly the same level to sometimes volume sometimes volume will trick you ones louder, you will automatically pick the latter one so we want to try and get the same playing close enough