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Re: mic recommendations; champagne recording on a beer budget



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RICK WALKER" <looppool@cruzio.com>
To: "LOOPERS DELIGHT (posting)" <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2007 3:21 AM
Subject: mic recommendations; champagne recording on a beer budget


> I've always had to attempt champagne living on a beer budget
> throughout my musical career as a professional 
> producer/drummer/percussionist/band leader.
>
I might disagree with some of Rick's equipment choices, but I have to 
agree 
with his methodology. Take the time to listen to sources through different 
mics and preamps, and listen without believing the hype of the name on the 
grill. The right mic for a source is not necessarily the most expensive. 
I'm 
a big fan of the AT 4033/4050, and, unlike Rick, I do use the multiple 
pattterns on the 4050, I'll use it in figure-8 as the side mic in a 
mid-side 
setup. I recorded a solo piano session with a U67 as the center mic and 
the 
4050 as the side mic, sounded amazing.

*footnote* Mid-Side is a super cool technique that I've been using a bunch 
lately. Take a good cardiod mic, and aim it at the source of whatever 
you're 
recording. Take a figure-8 mic, place it so that the diaphragm is as close 
to the cardiod as you can get, but with the diaphragm facing 90 degrees 
away 
from the first mic. Split the output of the figure-8 mic and flip the 
phase 
on one side. Pan the cardiod mic to the center, and the 2 channels of the 
figure-8 to hard L&R, and you get a really nice stereo image that 
collapses 
to mono nicely.

My absolute favorite vocal mic is the Shure SM-7, about $325 new. It's a 
large diaphragm dynamic, kind of a big brother to the SM-57. It has a way 
of 
focusing the voice to the exclusion of everything else in the space. It's 
a 
great trumpet mic as well.

Rick mentions the cheap ART tube preamps, while they are a pretty OK 
sounding preamp, there's a new Electro-Harmonix mic pre for under $200 
that 
is a "true" tube mic pre, and I like it a lot better than the ART.