I just finished a record without condenser mics.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:01 pm

lanois uses 57s on everything! how does he do it?

wasn't flood using a 58 for a freakin OVERHEAD on achtung baby? i do believe he was. and those drums sound cool.

other people get great sounds with 57s....i frequently ask mastering clients about some cool sound on their records and they'll say it was a 57...must be me cause whenever i put one in front of something, it sounds like buzzy, bandpassed crap. so i just stopped putting them in front of things.

i did think of an instrument i hate enough to use a 57 on though:

the bagpipes.

an evil, misanthropic creation.

mjau · Post by **mjau** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 7:13 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:wasn't flood using a 58 for a freakin OVERHEAD on achtung baby? i do believe he was. and those drums sound cool.

No shit? Wow. Why can't I make it sound like that?

I dunno, I think a 57 is a good mic. I also know that drumsound wouldn't be caught dead with one. In fact, every time I visited his studio for three straight years, he had the same broken 57 sitting on top of is Hammond. It was like an omen for other 57's not to enter those premises.

Jitters · Post by **Jitters** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:19 pm

I'm kind of baffled too. As revered as the 57 is by a lot of folks, there is always something that sounds better, and It's not like I have a ton of choices.

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:52 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:lanois uses 57s on everything! how does he do it?

wasn't flood using a 58 for a freakin OVERHEAD on achtung baby? i do believe he was. and those drums sound cool.

other people get great sounds with 57s....i frequently ask mastering clients about some cool sound on their records and they'll say it was a 57...must be me cause whenever i put one in front of something, it sounds like buzzy, bandpassed crap. so i just stopped putting them in front of things.

i did think of an instrument i hate enough to use a 57 on though:

the bagpipes.

an evil, misanthropic creation.

*shudder* 57+bagpipes is the 7th level of hell!

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:55 pm

mjau wrote:
MoreSpaceEcho wrote:wasn't flood using a 58 for a freakin OVERHEAD on achtung baby? i do believe he was. and those drums sound cool.
No shit? Wow. Why can't I make it sound like that?

I dunno, I think a 57 is a good mic. I also know that drumsound wouldn't be caught dead with one. In fact, every time I visited his studio for three straight years, he had the same broken 57 sitting on top of is Hammond. It was like an omen for other 57's not to enter those premises.

It's been moved over to the Wurly.

And I'm trading the working one off!

dsw · Post by **dsw** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 1:58 pm

My buddy Rob Barrick does wonderful things with pipes. It's not the intsrument, its the player. And oh my yes, the ratio of good bagpipe players to the other kind is so lopsided it aint funny. I run and cover my ears whenever a gang of them fades in from around the block. (weren't they invented to scare off the enemy?)

If you go to my friend Rob's myspace http://www.myspace.com/robbarrick and listen to Wlatz Sandwich you'll hear a fine example of pipes that are quite lovely.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 5:26 pm

HA. i KNEW someone would defend the pipes! listening now. i have to admit this is nice.

dsw wrote:weren't they invented to scare off the enemy?

this makes perfect sense. if true it may be one of the more brilliant ideas in the entire history of warfare.

a few years ago i attended a funeral, there was a guy playing the pipes right outside the door to the church. once inside there was someone playing the pipe organ, naturally. as the door was left open while people were arriving, the pipes were still easy to hear from inside. the organ player and the pipes guy apparently hadn't agreed on a key beforehand. try and imagine this.

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:27 pm

I should try to do basic tracking not hung over or without drinking any beer. That would be a challenge.

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:29 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:lanois uses 57s on everything! how does he do it?

wasn't flood using a 58 for a freakin OVERHEAD on achtung baby? i do believe he was. and those drums sound cool.

other people get great sounds with 57s....i frequently ask mastering clients about some cool sound on their records and they'll say it was a 57...must be me cause whenever i put one in front of something, it sounds like buzzy, bandpassed crap. so i just stopped putting them in front of things.

i did think of an instrument i hate enough to use a 57 on though:

the bagpipes.

an evil, misanthropic creation.

there you go with your misunderstanding or the pipes again.. come on scoot...

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:40 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:
InvalidInk wrote:What about doing a whole record with your favorite dynamic, the sm57
eek! no! the horror!

but, you could easily do a whole record with an SM7. is there anything that mic sounds bad on?

The guy that got me into recording said if you could make a decent sounding recording with a SM57 and a 4 track cassette recorder, you're pretty much on your way.... it's like the Super 8 equivalent of audio recording. Not because it's easy- it's because you have to think, especially about mic placement and angles. And dealing with that annoying mid high boost/spike.

SM7, or practically any large diaphragm dynamic for that matter, are extremely versatile, and doesn't sound fake like a lot of cheap condensors these days. Maybe I'm just reclaiming my middle age....

AlexHerd · Post by **AlexHerd** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:11 pm

Not to devolve this into another thread about 57s, but If I remember correctly TJ Doherty did a lot of Wilco's Sky Blue Sky with 57s and lots of other dynamics. I don't have the TapeOp article in front of me so I'm not sure of the details, but I remember being surprised with the amount of dynamics on that record. I really like how it sounds.

dsw · Post by **dsw** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 3:37 pm

the organ player and the pipes guy apparently hadn't agreed on a key beforehand. try and imagine this.

I can imagine it.

i yi yi

there's only about one bag piper in 10,000 that can keep from giving me a headache.

now my friend Rob....he's a genius, and a hell of a nice guy as well as a top notch bass player and a top notch recording engineer. thumbs up all around.[/quote]

junomat · Post by **junomat** » Thu Sep 03, 2009 1:17 pm

Wow. This sounds awesome. I can't wait to hear how it sounds! Please post after it gets mastered. Or at least a link to buy it.

Cool concept!

firby · Post by **firby** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 7:12 am

The only time I use a condensor microphone is when I am recording weather or something like that with a storm approaching. I'll use those one dollar electret condensor mics that some comany was shilling to get business in the last year or two. I also have MXK V67s. They sound pretty nice through the API but I was so burnt out off of them That I did not put them up for a couple of years until i recorded a piano on location.

Here I do it with a SM7, m160s, m500s and that sort of thing and I love the technicolor sound that I get.

mojobone · Post by **mojobone** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 2:10 pm

Yeah, the Sufjan Stevens TO article mentioned that one of his records was all SM57, but seriously, that mic can surprise you when connected to a really good preamp, like you'd use for a ribbon. I expect I could make a pretty decent record using nothing else; might try it one day, but I'd sure miss having a D6 for kick.

Message Board

I just finished a record without condenser mics.

Who is online