Reluctant to drop cash on a ?Flashy? LDC

[Ryan Silva]

...I?ve used the standard d112, b52, 57 on inside kick quite a lot, all acceptable, but when I want to open up the kick and add deep lows I have turned to the aforementioned mics...

Have you ever tried using a speaker as a mic on the kick?

I always forget about that option, I really should look into it; I think Yamaha has a manufactured mic like this. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SubKick

I heard good things from homemade sub mics, a club I played at in Oakland last week (The Stork Club) used one of those on stage, was pretty shocked at what it reproduced.

Yes must look into one of those.

Thanks

[snoopy23]

If you can't tell the difference a lava lamp makes in the studio you must not be plugging it in right. I have heard the improvement on my vocal tracks after running them through this vintage lava lamp I got at Spencer's ten years ago. The aging of this vintage and essential piece of outboard gear has added warmth and color to all my tracks. Seriously, with a little slapback and proper phase alignment, a lava lamp can be the most useful tool in the studio. Of course I prefer the analog lava lamps over the digital ones, but you must consider reliability as well as sonic quality.

[calaverasgrandes]

I heard good things from homemade sub mics, a club I played at in Oakland last week (The Stork Club) used one of those on stage, was pretty shocked at what it reproduced.

i am shocked to hear someone is using one of those in a live setting, they tend to be pretty omni. I am also shocked to hear it's being used at the stork. The PA has grown quite a bit in the last few years. But stellar sound quality has never been a hallmark of the Stork.

Yup, nothing like nailing a song to the stage...to an empty stork...

[Ryan Silva]

I heard good things from homemade sub mics, a club I played at in Oakland last week (The Stork Club) used one of those on stage, was pretty shocked at what it reproduced.

i am shocked to hear someone is using one of those in a live setting, they tend to be pretty omni. I am also shocked to hear it's being used at the stork. The PA has grown quite a bit in the last few years. But stellar sound quality has never been a hallmark of the Stork.

Yup, nothing like nailing a song to the stage...to an empty stork...

You know I hadn?t played there since the first weekend after they moved (ten years ago ), and yes it has improved. They still have a tiled wall behind the stage, I thought there was know way it would last, but lo and behold it's still there.

[Brian]

You make a good point there. If I use someone else's pad there better be a real fun reason for showing up. Not girls or weed either, I mean working gear I don't have.

Or a huge space that sounds excellent!

Haha! Exactly! I've got some mid-range gear at my house...and I can record most anything. I don't have a stellar room, or any $1000 dollar mics, but I can make a nice sounding record. And if I have someone who wants me to engineer in a "real" studio...it better be worth me renting it.

...I?ve used the standard d112, b52, 57 on inside kick quite a lot, all acceptable, but when I want to open up the kick and add deep lows I have turned to the aforementioned mics...

Have you ever tried using a speaker as a mic on the kick?

I've seen this done but never tried it. What kind of speaker do you recomend? And what cables/signal routing seems to work best?

I've done it a few times at the client's (who owned the "speaker mic") request.
Marginally useful at best. It made it to the mix, but, it wasn't necessary at all, just "there".

[calaverasgrandes]

You know I hadn?t played there since the first weekend after they moved (ten years ago ), and yes it has improved. They still have a tiled wall behind the stage, I thought there was know way it would last, but lo and behold it's still there.

Yeah well they used to have that godawful PA from Merchants at the old Stork, and then the new Stork. Piezo tweets and 18" subs, so uh, no midrange?
Sad to say, but the place has gotten much friendlier now that Micki and Wes arent in everybodies hair all the time. I quit going there for a while when one of them used the N word on a pal of mine. But then without them we wouldn't have all the dolls!
Anyone else see John Zorn play unbilled at the old stork? Awesome, awesome show.

[premiumdan]

whenever i can, i remove the logos and/or position mic stands to hide
any name brands of mics i use

Could just find a "yardsale" mic (that works, of course), dismantle it,
spray-bomb it with a flat-color paint, grease-pen a serial number on the body,
re-assemble it, and explain to the gear-curious clients that it's a
mod-prototype.

Then:
1. You can work as you normally do.
2. Your price will seem more reasonable.
3. It'll be worth the psychological entertainment for you and the employees.

Or not.

-Dan

[mscottweber]

whenever i can, i remove the logos and/or position mic stands to hide
any name brands of mics i use

Could just find a "yardsale" mic (that works, of course), dismantle it,
spray-bomb it with a flat-color paint, grease-pen a serial number on the body,
re-assemble it, and explain to the gear-curious clients that it's a
mod-prototype.

Then:
1. You can work as you normally do.
2. Your price will seem more reasonable.
3. It'll be worth the psychological entertainment for you and the employees.

Or not.

-Dan

That is great! I heard a similar idea to that once...

There was an article in Recording Magazine a couple years ago where engineers listed 50 of their "secrets of the trade". One person said that he likes to keep some really old piece of outboard gear with the label rubbed off in his rack, not hooked up to anything. When he has clients in the control room, he would every once in a while twiddle the knobs. Apparently people are impressed by the old vintage gear that they have never seen before, and they always go back to him.

The scary thing is, I'm really not sure if it was a joke or not...

[calaverasgrandes]

havent you ever done the "producer" trick? When that "Producer" or rather the guitarists girlfriends cousin wants to put their finger in the pie. Just hook up a graphic eq or comp on a mult of the 2bus.
But dont patch the returns!
Then they can twiddle knobs and psychoacoustics does the rest.

[premiumdan]

There was an article in Recording Magazine a couple
years ago where engineers listed 50 of their "secrets of the trade". One
person said that he likes to keep some really old piece of outboard gear
with the label rubbed off in his rack, not hooked up to anything. When he
has clients in the control room, he would every once in a while twiddle the
knobs. Apparently people are impressed by the old vintage gear that they
have never seen before, and they always go back to him. The scary thing
is, I'm really not sure if it was a joke or not...

'weber:

I have that magazine, coincidently! I was going to cite the example, but
didn't remember the mag's name. The article was from a David Z., I think.
If memory serves, he suggested getting some old gear that used to tune in
satellites (audio? video?), wipe the graphics off, every once in a while play
with the knobs, and you'll get the gig because you're the only person with
that gear. Something like that... Glad to see someone else read this too
(figured that I was just making it up!)

Cheers!

-Dan

[Brian]

I have a friend that has a big steel faceplate with one big meter mounted in it with a light in a rack. Looks so cool, doesn't do a damn thing. People book him. He ain't the only one with one of those.

[darjama]

I guiltily have to admit that I picked up a banged up U89 for relatively cheap partially to serve the purpose of having a "vintage" Neumann mic for those that cared about that sort of thing, but didn't know what they were talking about. Still not a bad mic though.

"What model of Neumann is that?"
"It's the U89"
"Is it like a U87?"
"Well, it's two points better."
"Oh!"

[mscottweber]

To stray even further off topic, the interwebs brought me to this a while back...

http://createdigitalmusic.com/2005/04/0 ... g-silence/

[Ryan Silva]

So I found a Red Type A (b-stock) w/ an R7 cap. for $1600 on Front End Audio, and pulled the trigger. Should here tomorrow. Well I think with the versatility and "good looks " of the Red I should be good on bling for awhile.

I'll report back

Thanks

[kingmetal]

havent you ever done the "producer" trick? When that "Producer" or rather the guitarists girlfriends cousin wants to put their finger in the pie. Just hook up a graphic eq or comp on a mult of the 2bus.
But dont patch the returns!
Then they can twiddle knobs and psychoacoustics does the rest.

One of my early "instructors" told me to use my monitor channels while tracking to do this. He was convinced that was all the monitor channels were good for. He said it was particularly good for bassplayers who wander in to the control room.