MICING A TELEVISION (Not the speaker)

CabreeToe · Post by **CabreeToe** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:43 pm

thanks for the replies,

Lots 'o good/cool ideas. So far what I have done is..

First made several stereo/mono recordings (one mic behind and above the set the other infront of and below) and another "stereo" (really these are just dual mono) on either side left right about 10 inches from the edges. Then a couple various random positions where it sounded good to me from my own head position.
All of these (about 5 in total) took about 3-1/2 hours to record as to avoid damage from the on/off on/off.

Then I've gone through and layered up a a few of them and compt'd (sp?) a fuller sound.

I was afraid to take the top off cause as drumsuond pointed out there is a lot of juice in that thing.

I also found that it changes depending on which channel its on. Or rather if there is a source / no source / or "empty" active source. The latter is the worst as it has this horrible screaming up in the 6-9kHz region. Also the powering off sound has another unique sound to it as well. A nive "ZAP-plunk eearhg" Reversing this sounds cool.

And some happy accidents made for some creative editng.

Now I want to record every appliance in the house.
If I get brave maybe then I'll open up the back off the set.

One more thing... I don't have a "contact mic" what can I use to rigg up something like one? What would I need? And more specificly what are some reputalbe contanct mics?

Again thanks for the help.
I'm really enjoying this sound design thing.

jmoose · Post by **jmoose** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 4:04 pm

Sounds like your having a whole lotta fun with this butI dunno about the contact mic idea...

It's either gonna work great or blow something up! Just make sure you're wearing rubber soled shoes and keep one hand in your pocket while you're probing around the back of the set!

The air conditioner might work great but I'd get a 10 or 12 guage extension cord or a bunch of XLR's and run it off some other power source so it doesn't spew hash back into the audio gear.

CabreeToe · Post by **CabreeToe** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:13 pm

jmoose wrote: The air conditioner might work great but I'd get a 10 or 12 guage extension cord or a bunch of XLR's and run it off some other power source so it doesn't spew hash back into the audio gear.

Does that mean noise from the condenser or damage to the equipment?

jmoose · Post by **jmoose** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 5:06 pm

CabreeToe wrote:
jmoose wrote: The air conditioner might work great but I'd get a 10 or 12 guage extension cord or a bunch of XLR's and run it off some other power source so it doesn't spew hash back into the audio gear.
Does that mean noise from the condenser or damage to the equipment?

Umm...I guess either is a possibility.

What I was really trying to get at was that AC motors and audio gear just don't get along. If you plug an air condtioner into the same power circuit as your recording gear, the noise floor is going to shoot up and you'll get into all kinds of strange problems...snaps, crackles & pops.

I like my Rice Crispies in a bowl, not in my audio!

It's best to seperate that stuff as much as possible so weird voodoo power related problems can be avoided or at the very least, minimized.

premiumdan · Post by **premiumdan** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:41 am

I realize this is an old topic, but...:

Putting an electric-guitar near a C.R.T-T.V. causes some interesting "synth" sounds to come through, especially during abrupt color changes. Leave the guitar's volume up, and rest your hands on the strings to keep 'em from vibrating.

Cell phones will cause chirps and blips also...

-Dan

blackdiscoball · Post by **blackdiscoball** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:54 am

Just instruct anyone listening to the music when to turn on and off there own tv. Then it becomes a performance piece.

rwc · Post by **rwc** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:03 am

jmoose wrote:Why mic a TV at all?

What do you think that sound should sound like?

I'd record a few other elements & layer 'em together so I had my own version of a TV powering up. Maybe get some metal or bricks dropping for the "clunk" and put some kind of static or electrical noise on top of it.

Why record the sound you want when you can just fuck around and layer a bunch of totally unrelated sounds all day in the hopes of getting what you're looking for?

Professor T · Post by **Professor T** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:07 am

I bet hitting the "degauss" button on a CRT monitor sounds pretty cool.

fatcatholic · Post by **fatcatholic** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:07 am

If the sound you're looking for is what YOU hear when you turn on the TV, then close micing it isn't going to give you what you want. I'd suggest waiting until a quiet time of day, then setting up a condenser (or pair of condensers) in whatever spot you generally hear the tv from. Turn off all your lights and unplug your other electrical appliances first to assure as little extra noise as possible. It just seems to me that this will give you the most accurate depiction of the sound you're looking for. Set up the mics, hit record, and turn the TV on a whole bunch of times, you're bound to get at least one good one in there.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:02 pm

fatcatholic wrote:If the sound you're looking for is what YOU hear when you turn on the TV, then close micing it isn't going to give you what you want. I'd suggest waiting until a quiet time of day, then setting up a condenser (or pair of condensers) in whatever spot you generally hear the tv from. Turn off all your lights and unplug your other electrical appliances first to assure as little extra noise as possible. It just seems to me that this will give you the most accurate depiction of the sound you're looking for. Set up the mics, hit record, and turn the TV on a whole bunch of times, you're bound to get at least one good one in there.

Except that microphones don't "hear" sound the same way that ears and brains do. He'd need to put the mics a bunch loser to get what he thinks he's hearing from across the room.

Had I seen the thread two years ago, I'd have suggested what it seems he did: close-miking, several attempts at several mike positions. I'd further suggest that he build the TV-on sequence from several parts, a close-miked recording of the switch from one angle (right by the switch maybe), the pop of the speaker from another angle (maybe right in front of the speaker), the tube warming up from another angle (perhaps in back of the set). Lots of sound-design stuff is not one single documentary-style recording of an event, but is rather an assembly of parts of the event, each recorded as it needed.

casey campbell · Post by **casey campbell** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 7:27 pm

bring on the 15,000 hz. !!!

floid · Post by **floid** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 7:43 pm

jmoose wrote:What I was really trying to get at was that AC motors and audio gear just don't get along. If you plug an air condtioner into the same power circuit as your recording gear, the noise floor is going to shoot up and you'll get into all kinds of strange problems...snaps, crackles & pops.

skilsaws sound exactly the same through an AC circuit as they do in real life... could it be possible that putting your t.v. on the same circuit your gear is on would provide at least portions of the sound you're after? it'd be kinda like a direct out

CraigS63 · Post by **CraigS63** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 6:22 pm

casey campbell wrote:bring on the 15,000 hz. !!!

They probably already did, and I can't hear it. Damn kids.

I have an old Montgomery Wards "Coronado" B&W tv upstairs, I could record that being switched off and on if you really want. I'm not very concerned about breaking it (I think it runs on tubes or whatever came before that).

casey campbell · Post by **casey campbell** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 9:09 pm

i can always tell when someone had a t.v. going in the same room they were tracking when i do mastering work, cause you can see a sharp spike of around 15k when you view the spectrum. it's constant, and it's there....

themagicmanmdt · Post by **themagicmanmdt** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 11:20 pm

i would think this is the one scenario in which your crap chinese hyped-up condensor mic would work perfectly.

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MICING A TELEVISION (Not the speaker)

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