Post Your Coolest Recording Gimic or Trick

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akg414
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Post Your Coolest Recording Gimic or Trick

Post by akg414 » Mon May 07, 2007 11:37 am

Like this past month's EQ issue had some cool tricks on miking and creative sound fx and all, how about we all post our favorite. I'll start:

Making a funnel out of a blanket. Place the large opening around (sealing it up) a 4x12 cabinet and insert a wrapping-paper tube in the other end of the balnket-funnel. Then, just stick an SM57 inside and record. You get some cool "tubular" sounds.

Run other instruments (than guitar) through a talk-box.


Golf-swing pitched down and even slowed down a little. Then reverse it. Add reverb to taste...
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Post by centurymantra » Mon May 07, 2007 11:59 am

A very important part of any artistry is the ability to recognize 'happy accidents' and this certainly applies to the recording process. I was just recently toying around with mic placement of a stereo pair of AT4047 mics that I was setting up for use as drum overheads. I was using a 'sort of' ORTF setup with the mics as close as the shock mount basket would allow placed in such a way that they were facing away from each other to form a V shape if looked at straight on. At first I though they were a little too close so I bumped them up and upon listening had a VERY cool roomy tone, but I realized ther is NO way that a distance of 10-12" would make that drastic of a sonic change. Well it turns out that the mic that pointed to the snare/hi-hat side of the kit was flipped around backwards and aiming over the top of the other mic, pointing up across the room and at the ceiling. It was a seriously cool drum sound. The hi-hat sound was trashed, but I think that this OH setup with a spot mic on the hi-hat would actually be quite nice. I will be trying this soon. Someone else should too.

Of course, given that there are very few original ideas out there, I'm sure someone's done this and there's even a name for it... :roll:
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Post by JGriffin » Mon May 07, 2007 12:49 pm

PVC pipes. Lots of PVC pipes. pointed at things with the mic in the other end, dragging the mic down the length of the pipe, then back again and combining the two passes...

But I've said all that before on other "nifty recording tricks" threads. Of which there are several.
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Post by drumsound » Mon May 07, 2007 4:59 pm

Today I had an M88 inside of a flexible myular duct as a second bass mic. Over in drumland I had a TOMB ribbon lying on a pillow usnder the curve of the BD, a 408 over the BD pointing at the snare and distorted to hell with an Art pro MPA and an ATM25 in ametal tube sitting next to the floor tome but not pointing at the drums, but pointing in the same direction the drummer was looking. And I took the outputs for the plate reverb and recorded those too.

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Post by qball » Mon May 07, 2007 5:03 pm

One time I was pondering the technique of placing a speaker in front of a kick drum to capture the kick and came up with an idea of my own. I stretched a spare set of headphones over the upper bout of my upright bass to see if a similar result would happen. It worked! I haven't actually recorded this way yet, but I may get up the nerve to try it mixed in with a mic or pickup.
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Post by Rigsby » Tue May 08, 2007 9:22 am

Ovens can make good reverb chambers, washing machines too.
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Post by madtho » Tue May 08, 2007 9:30 am

qball wrote:One time I was pondering the technique of placing a speaker in front of a kick drum to capture the kick and came up with an idea of my own. I stretched a spare set of headphones over the upper bout of my upright bass to see if a similar result would happen. It worked! I haven't actually recorded this way yet, but I may get up the nerve to try it mixed in with a mic or pickup.
similarly-
earbuds and funtack on a guitar-great sound

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Post by mjau » Tue May 08, 2007 9:38 am

drumsound wrote: And I took the outputs for the plate reverb and recorded those too.
So the plate was not being fed anything - just vibrating from being near the kit? Awesome!

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue May 08, 2007 9:54 am

i haven't done anything interesting in years, strictly dullsville these days....but one good one we did on my bands first record was

1. track about a dozen takes of vocals. combine.

2. play vocals through speaker, with 'reverb tube' in front of speaker. record back in.

3. play reverb tube vox through speaker, record with the dreaded sm57, while spinning the mic around by the cable.

4. repeat step 3, spinning the mic at a different speed from the previous take. do this a half dozen times or so.

5. listen to your new insane vocal. it should sound something like a fleet of intergalactic angels on acid.

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Post by JGriffin » Tue May 08, 2007 10:04 am

Scott, there's a fleet of intergalactic angels on the phone asking for their royalty check. They sound kinda out of it.
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Post by Rigsby » Tue May 08, 2007 10:07 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:i haven't done anything interesting in years, strictly dullsville these days....but one good one we did on my bands first record was

1. track about a dozen takes of vocals. combine.

2. play vocals through speaker, with 'reverb tube' in front of speaker. record back in.

3. play reverb tube vox through speaker, record with the dreaded sm57, while spinning the mic around by the cable.

4. repeat step 3, spinning the mic at a different speed from the previous take. do this a half dozen times or so.

5. listen to your new insane vocal. it should sound something like a fleet of intergalactic angels on acid.
Pics pls. Or at least a link.
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Post by Ryan Silva » Tue May 08, 2007 10:09 am

drumsound wrote:Today I had an M88 inside of a flexible myular duct as a second bass mic. Over in drumland I had a TOMB ribbon lying on a pillow usnder the curve of the BD, a 408 over the BD pointing at the snare and distorted to hell with an Art pro MPA and an ATM25 in ametal tube sitting next to the floor tome but not pointing at the drums, but pointing in the same direction the drummer was looking. And I took the outputs for the plate reverb and recorded those too.

Man I gotta quit my day job, I never have time for fun stuff like that. :?
"Writing good songs is hard. recording is easy. "

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Post by drumsound » Tue May 08, 2007 10:12 am

Ryan Silva wrote:
drumsound wrote:Today I had an M88 inside of a flexible myular duct as a second bass mic. Over in drumland I had a TOMB ribbon lying on a pillow usnder the curve of the BD, a 408 over the BD pointing at the snare and distorted to hell with an Art pro MPA and an ATM25 in ametal tube sitting next to the floor tome but not pointing at the drums, but pointing in the same direction the drummer was looking. And I took the outputs for the plate reverb and recorded those too.

Man I gotta quit my day job, I never have time for fun stuff like that. :?
I actually let the session run long with charging extra because I though this band would benefit from some experiments.


And Scott, the drums themselves were vibrating the plate. Stop by today and hear it!

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Post by MoreSpaceEcho » Tue May 08, 2007 10:19 am

those angels get nothing. NOTHING!

rigs, no pix, but http://www.rohdelikat.com/deafanddear.htm

first song, the 'chorus'. it probably doesn't sound that amazing in context with the 400 million other things i stupidly thought needed to be in this song, but solo'd it was pretty great.

a variation on this trick:

i have an electronic tambura, yunno just a drone box basically, runs on batteries, i put that on my chair, mic'd it from about a foot away, stood off to the side and spun the chair around. that's on the song 'laudanum', which is also up on our site somewhere. dunno how apparent it is....i think you can hear it on the break between the first and second verses...

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Post by Jeff White » Tue May 08, 2007 11:07 am

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:those angels get nothing. NOTHING!

rigs, no pix, but http://www.rohdelikat.com/deafanddear.htm

first song, the 'chorus'. it probably doesn't sound that amazing in context with the 400 million other things i stupidly thought needed to be in this song, but solo'd it was pretty great.
You are my hero. Awesome. I want to hear this solo'd, too!

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