Time aligning Eric Welsh article

[nomansland]

Cool article. I was wondering how one would go about time aligning tracks with ambient mics for live recordings. In the Welsh article, he mentions using a digital console to do this, but I have an analog board and was wondering if a less expensive stereo delay unit would allow me to achieve this type of time shift function?

[TapeOpLarry]

Obviously with a delay unit the mic signal would only become later and later. I believe the trick some times is to actually get the room mics closer in time with the stage in order to reinforce the stage sound without adding a ton of later room ambience. Of course you could delay the stage mics (as a group) through the deal unit. Or you could add longer room mic delay to make a small venue sound bigger!

[PeterAuslan]

The other option is to have your room mics onstage pointed toward the back of the room. It seems counter intuitive but the reasoning is that you get a better picture of the room by capturing the slap coming back to the stage.

[chillhouse]

He tracked the Pixies and Dead Can Dance stuff onto Alesis HD24s. These things have a "Track Slip" function that allows you to move individual tracks forward (or backwards) in milliseconds. When mixing he (or I) moved the ambient mics around to line them up better with the other tracks. The snares and kicks were generally used as a gauge. Eric also made detailed notes placement and distances of his ambient mics. When he did the earlier Disclive stuff i think he had a Driverack (or something like this) because that stuff was done totally live.

Will

[TapeOpLarry]

Thanks for dropping in Will!

[chillhouse]

no problem. i love the TOMB and tape op and am more than honored to be mentioned in the pages of TO.