My New Studio Build (perhaps overly detailed)

[DirtDog]

It’s not a tutorial, but rather a demonstration of MY mix process. As a result it flows sequentially as I mix with a little back and forth to sort out overlapping areas. I think it will have to be cut up in terms of time rather than content:

I prefer shorter videos (say 15-20 minutes) but don’t mind watching a logical series in sequence. By far one of the best channels I’ve seen for the “behind the curtains” process oriented videos are by frank howarth (wood worker). He’s an excellent woodworker and has a knack for videos like these. Very easy, pleasing and informative to watch. He largely does voice over narration and uses creative edits to overcome some of the “real time” constraints in the processes he’s demonstrating. It appears that he’s a one man operation, no external assistance. He’s the gold standard as far as I’m concerned. What I like is that he’s not “surgical”
in his narrative, but just informative enough to be able to infer what’s going on. He talks more about his thinking/creative process than the techniques. Here’s one example....

 

[silky smoove]

When you’re not sure how you want to mic a cab for reamping your buddy’s guitar tracks, haha.

1. Two SM57s in a Fredman arrangement
2. Vintage Neuman U87 clone just at the edge of the dust cap.
3. Cascade X15 stereo ribbon mic set back a bit for a wider image
4. Two C02 SDCs in an ORTF arrangement as room mics above the door

 

[beans-on-toast]

When you’re not sure how you want to mic a cab for reamping your buddy’s guitar tracks, haha.

1. Two SM57s in a Fredman arrangement
2. Vintage Neuman U87 clone just at the edge of the dust cap.
3. Cascade X15 stereo ribbon mic set back a bit for a wider image
4. Two C02 SDCs in an ORTF arrangement as room mics above the door

View attachment 4060518 View attachment 4060521 View attachment 4060519 View attachment 4060520

A suggestion when you have an open back cab. Try one SM57 in-front, the other in the back. Reverse the phase of the back one. Position both mics the same distance from the cone, or as close as you can get them. The sound will be fuller than just mic’ing the front..

You’ll recognize the technique as what is done when mic’ing the top and bottom of a snare.

 

[silky smoove]

A suggestion when you have an open back cab. Try one SM57 in-front, the other in the back. Reverse the phase of the back one. Position both mics the same distance from the cone, or as close as you can get them. The sound will be fuller than just mic’ing the front..

You’ll recognize the technique as what is done when mic’ing the top and bottom of a snare.

I’ve tried that on this particular combo and don’t really like the results. The back is only partially open, which may contribute to the less than stellar result. I’m guessing with a more open back like on old school Fender amps it would work really well. The back of this combo only has about a 4” wide open slot.

I’ve been liking this Fredman setup with a pair of 57s when the gain gets cranked up. For cleans I’m a big fan of the U87 at the edge of the dust cap. The stereo ribbon and pair of room mics are just there for some added width and doing the Chris Lord Alge “only apply reverb to the indirect mics” thing.

 

[CryingBass]

Is that a warm 87? Thinking about it.

 

[silky smoove]

Is that a warm 87? Thinking about it.

Nope, it’s a clone built accurately to vintage specifications using a Vintage Microphone Kit PCB, a carefully selected capsule and transformer, period correct Styroflex caps, etc. A buddy of mine and I built a stereo matched pair using SYT-5 bodies. The only difference is that the headbasket is a little oversized compared to an original. The guy that helped me build them has a modern U87ai from the early 2000s, and a vintage U87 from the 80s. These clones sound nearly indistinguishable from the actual vintage ones. The Warm 87 is modeled after the more modern U87ai, which had a brighter top end and a gentle, wide dip centered around 500hz. Very different beasts. Vintage U87s sound more or less like the best SM57 you’ve ever heard. That same tonal ballpark, but with a wider and flatter frequency response, and smoother response to transients. Less headroom since it’s a transformer-equipped design, but my clones saturate pretty smoothly which can be a nice effect with really loud singers or cranked up guitar amps. Definitely not the thing for getting that modern LDC sound.

 

[callofcthulhu]

After several days of testing multiple overhead arrangements on drums for an upcoming tracking session on Saturday, I've decided that I hate Recorderman. Maybe in a bad sounding room it would be the way to go, but it's omitting all of the great room sound I've built into this space. Way too dry, way too boring and thoroughly unnatural sounding.

On top of that, almost every video of it on YouTube is doing it incorrectly. I've only seen one video where the person did the trigonometry correctly to locate the over-the-shoulder mic equidistant from the kick and snare when compared to the over-the-snare mic. Most end up with their string line (usually an XLR cable) drooping significantly from the leg that goes to the kick when measuring over the shoulder and they'll say things like "this side is a little off, but that's fine." No, it isn't. The whole point of Recorderman is to center the kick and snare in the overheads, and allowing the kick to be closer to the shoulder mic than the snare mic will skew the image. Here's a great site (not mine) that describes the trigonometry involved in finding the correct placement for the shoulder mic in a Recorderman setup: You're probably miking drums wrong, and how to fix it

Hey, Smoove McGroove, big fan. Long time listener, first time caller, here.

I've been sweating over this mix for a while now, recorded in my singer's barn, I opted for Recorderman since all we did for sound treatment was to drop a cheap roll of carpet remnants on the floor.

Curious what problems your more experienced ears would hear in the mix:



I.e. Rate My Mix, please?

 

[silky smoove]

Curious what problems your more experienced ears would hear in the mix:

I’ve already come in from the studio for the night, but it sounds nice on my phone. I’ll listen to it tomorrow and PM you my thoughts.

 

[TedH]

While looking for treatments, I saw that your studio is being proudly displayed on the splash page of GIK; very cool tip of the hat from them.

 

[silky smoove]

While looking for treatments, I saw that your studio is being proudly displayed on the splash page of GIK; very cool tip of the hat from them.

I didn’t know that! Too funny. Given the pains I had with the QA/QC with their Alpha panels, the back and forth battle and their eventual refund of 30%, I’m surprised they want anything to do with me

 

[silky smoove]

1. Two SM57s in a Fredman arrangement
2. Vintage Neuman U87 clone just at the edge of the dust cap.
3. Cascade X15 stereo ribbon mic set back a bit for a wider image
4. Two C02 SDCs in an ORTF arrangement as room mics above the door

The pair of 57s using a Fredman clip (a real one direct from Fredman in Sweden [or was it Norway?] with the correct 55-degree capsule alignment and not the off-brand versions which all appear to be 45-degree) proved to be the winner. I’m constantly amazed at how well this setup works. The phase relationship between the two mics in this arrangement fills out the bottom end typically missing from a single 57, and the inherent phase issues up top magically smooth out the rising midrange response of a 57 in a very pleasant way. On top of that the clip makes positioning breeze. Position the inline 57 on the center of the cone as close to the grill as you can get it without making contact, and then place the angled mic so that the edge of each mic’s headbasket is just about touching the other (leave approximately one hair’s width of space) and you’re done. All with just a single mic stand! I may stop bothering with any other mic technique unless I need something very specific. I’d still like to pick up an MD421 for the classic SM57/MD421 combination, but I can’t imagine lining the results more than two 57s and a Fredman clip.

 

[TedH]

I didn’t know that! Too funny. Given the pains I had with the QA/QC with their Alpha panels, the back and forth battle and their eventual refund of 30%, I’m surprised they want anything to do with me

I remembered there was a bit of a kerfuffle with shipping damage, but figured it all worked out. It is hard to deny that your studio looks great with their treatments on the paint job you did.

 

[silky smoove]

It is hard to deny that your studio looks great with their treatments on the paint job you did.

Thanks!

 

[Frank Tuesday]

...

I would never use AB/Spaced Pair unless I was doing a metal or hard rock recording that needed the big spread of toms across the kit where the overheads are more like cymbal spot mics. I also would need to not care about mono compatibility. It always blows me away when I see spaced pairs being so popular and so many recordings end up with out-of-center kick and snare. Not my taste at all. For some folks it seems like stereo spread is king, but I'd rather have a narrower drum sound if it gets all the important bits in the middle.

This concludes today's rant. Now please get off my lawn.

Unless the bulk of your kick and snare is coming from the overheads, a slightly off-center image from the overheads is often easy to fix. Just slightly pan the close mic to bring to total image back to center. Somewhere between 1 and 5% pan on the snare re-centers it without causing any other problems.

But I have a different problem with typical 4-6 piece drum kits. If you X-Y mic them so that the kick and snare are both centered in the overhead image, almost all of the rest of the drums are on the drummer's right side. The Left gets the hat and a crash, but the right gets the ride, a second crash, and all the toms. This makes a drum kit that is completely unbalanced in the stereo image. I'd rather have the snare be off center in the overheads so that the cymbals and toms have a more balanced stereo field.

 

[silky smoove]

Unless the bulk of your kick and snare is coming from the overheads, a slightly off-center image from the overheads is often easy to fix. Just slightly pan the close mic to bring to total image back to center. Somewhere between 1 and 5% pan on the snare re-centers it without causing any other problems.

This would depend on the height of both the overheads above the entire kit (i.e. are they meant to be a full spectrum image of the kit by placing them high, or more of a cymbals mic by placing them low), as well as the mix balance of overheads tone vs close mic tone. I’ve been liking overheads around 66-72” above the floor and I tend to mix drums like Andrew Scheps by adjusting the balance of all the close mics first and then blending in the overheads as needed for cymbals and ambience, unless I’m doing something that needs to sound intentionally vintage. This approach probably wouldn’t work well with your solution.

But I have a different problem with typical 4-6 piece drum kits. If you X-Y mic them so that the kick and snare are both centered in the overhead image, almost all of the rest of the drums are on the drummer's right side.

This problem goes away using the Massenburg “axis” approach to drum overheads placement. Combine that with my new favorite overhead arrangement (Blumlein) and the stereo image is nicely balanced with perfectly centered kick and snare. Not as wide as a spaced pair, but wider than XY.

 

[silky smoove]

I ended up reamping vocals through this setup for a telephone vocal kind of sound. I rolled off all the bass and treble, cranked the mids, put the amp in vintage British mode, and then dialed in the gain and master until it was just starting to break up on the loudest phrase. I used just the angled Fredman 57. Worked perfectly.

 

[silky smoove]

Reamping a bunch of bass tracks for a record today. Going for a very cranked up sound. Doing one pass with my Trickfish Bullhead 1K into a Trickfish TF112, and then another with the same cab being fed by the amp section of my Egnater all-tube guitar combo. One pass with an SM7B, and then a second with a U87. Both centered on the dust cap for a total of four reamp passes per song. I’ll pick the winner on a song by song basis. Some will get one or two amps, some a combination of amp and DI, some just the DI, others just the amp. I’ll only use what benefits the tune, even if it means throwing out all of the reamps and just using the DI throughout.

Unfortunately I learned that both of my cabs’ grills have an annoying resonance right at Eb. I’ll address the problem permanently later. In the meantime a couple of Fender bar stools pushed into the grill and everything sounds great

 

[Roland GR 88]

Sorry, but best use for a Fender bar stool yet...
How many did you have to buy before you found 2 that actually bolted together?
btw...fun thread and thx for the Fredman tip.

 

[silky smoove]

Sorry, but best use for a Fender bar stool yet...
How many did you have to buy before you found 2 that actually bolted together?
btw...fun thread and thx for the Fredman tip.

I’ve got four of them and they all bolted together just fine.

 

[silky smoove]

Musings...

Several days of reamping have lead me to one very distinct conclusion: The things that I suspect are going to work in terms of mic, amp and cab combinations are usually correct. This could either be because I know what to expect from the material and gear I have on-hand combined with my ability to place microphones some kind of way, or it could be confirmation bias and I'm just picking the combination the I had preconceived to be the winner. Regardless, I'm done auditioning tons of mics for a given application. There's a reason professional engineers (I only consider myself an aspiring pro) stick with what they known will work well.

• Guitar
• Dial in a good guitar tone, put up a Fredman 57 arrangement and it will work regardless if it's clean or dirty. (I still want to grab an MD421 and try the 57/421 combination that's so popular)
• Bass
• For "standard" tone; Dial in a good bass tone and throw a U87 in cardioid mode on the center of the dust cap just off the grill and it will work. (I still want to buy or build a U47 for use on bass cabs and as an external kick mic)
• For a driven tone; Run an all-tube guitar amp into a bass cab, dial in a tone that's sufficiently hairy with more midrange emphasis than bottom, and place an SM7B on the center of the dust cap as close to the grill as possible and it will work.

Just going with what will work is definitely going to be a time saver. George Massenburg says you should try at least one new thing on every session or else you'll never learn anything new. I'll try to keep that in mind, but these methods are REALLY working for the records I have in-progress at the moment.