Conclusion Mic-ing

OVERALL CONCLUSION 

Drums (10 mic Set Up)

For our drums we wanted to minimise bleed also obtain clarity by figuring out the proximity and placement of the drums.

MICROPHONES USAGE AND PLACEMENT (Final)

• Overheads - Two sets of AKG C414 XLII - AB technique - Input 13 & 19 (Phantom Power)
• Bass Drum In - One dynamic AKG D110 - Off Axis - Input 17
• Tom 1 - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 16
• Floor Tom - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 20 
• Snare Top - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 15
• Snare Bottom -  One dynamic SM57 - Pointing towards the snare wires - Input 14
• Hi-Hat - One MXL 993 pencil condenser - Pointing away from the drum set towards the edge of the hi -hat - Input 12 
• Room Mic - One Ribbon Mic - Facing the middle of the drum set - Input 21 (Phantom Power) 

- All toms and snare microphones are pointed towards its focused areas, especially tom 1 with its deflected part facing towards the ride cymbal to minimise bleed.
- The bass roll off from the toms mics are set to the first position next to M (Music) giving it a little bass roll off, the snare mic is kept to M. 
- The overheads are lowered to capture more of the cymbals and the settings are changed to hyper-cardioid. 

WHAT WENT WRONG

For starters we didn't check the bass roll off, the mics weren't pointed towards the focus area and we took the wrong polar pattern mic for the snare.

RECORDINGS

(Panned)

CONCLUSION

After listening to other team's recordings, we concluded that we liked our 10 mic set up with the AB hyper cardioid setting on the cymbals (overhead), the kit overall sounds full, clear and more focused. We also liked the 3 mic set up form Litong's group with the (AKG P2) on the kick drum and the XY wide cardioid placement and polar pattern as it is non-spiky and sounded balanced.

Acoustic Guitar (XY Vertical & One mic Technique)

We wanted to get a full clean sounding acoustic guitar sound.

MICROPHONES USAGE AND PLACEMENT

XY Vertical

1. Two condenser microphone, one facing the bottom half strings and the top microphone facing the top half of the strings. 
2. Bass roll off at 0
3. Cardioid setting 

(Panned)

One Microphone

1. One SM57 pointing to the guitar's body below the sound hole near the guitar's neck. 

*Too boomy but warmer sounding

CONCLUSION

We preferred the XY vertical from our set up because it suited the sound we wanted which was getting a full clean sounding acoustic guitar. Besides that, I also prefer the over the shoulder micing (a pair of AKG C451B) technique from Hans's group because it is clear sounding but it gives out a warmer and mellow sound as well. also mellow and warm.

Gain: Mic at 12th fret +6dB, Over the shoulder mic +8dB

Guitar Amp (One microphone & One microphone + Room Mic) On and Off axis

We wanted to get the best sounding clean tone and test out how it sounds like for each placements and setup.

MICROPHONES USAGE AND PLACEMENT

One microphone 

1. We will use one mic (SM57)
2. We will try on and off axis and also tilted. 

One Microphone + Room Microphone

1. Using one dynamic mic (SM57) and a ribbon mic 
2. We will place the ribbon a few feet away(behind) from the SM57, both mics will be off axis. 

CONCLUSION

We concluded that we liked our set up best for electric guitars (One microphone technique) because we managed to get a clean tone and found a balanced by placing the mic off axis to get smoother sounding guitar sound without having to much attack. 

Bass Guitar Amp

We wanted to know how to get a clear low bass tone without it sounding muddy in the mix and also being able to reduce room reflections. 

MICROPHONES USAGE AND PLACEMENT

Two Microphones

1. Placing the sennheiser MD421 and the Shure SM57 off-axis

* Watch out for reflections

Repeat the step with different placement (Centre of amp, Side of amp, One and two feet away)

Using a DI

1. We will use a standard instrument cable to plug the output of the bass to the input of the DI box.
2. Use another cable to connect to the output on the DI box to the input of the bass amp.
3. Connect female end of XLR to the output of DI box, and male end to the link to mixer. 

CONCLUSION

We tried the two microphone with the DI, changing the bass roll off while moving the mic's proximity. I took a listen to the other groups' recordings and I liked what Hans's group did by using only the DI. It lessens the natural sounding feel because it is a direct input but I like how clear it sounded than the recordings we did with the added two microphones.

Piano

We wanted to know how to get a full clear sounding piano with a great balance of sound from the bottom and top end. 

One microphone (mono)

1. We will use a AKG C414 XLII
2. The mic will be pointing directly at the strings beside the player

Spaced Pair

1. We will use a pair of AKG C414 XLII 
2. One mic will face the bottom end and the other will face the top end of the piano
3. The mic will be set to cardioid
4. Pan them hard left and right 

Spaced Pair + SM57

1. We will use a pair of AKG C414 XLII (Spaced pair) and a SM57 in the hole
2. One mic will face the bottom end and the other will face the top end of the piano
3. The mic will be set to cardioid
4. Pan them hard left and right 

CONCLUSION

In my opinion I liked what our group did with the spaced pair + SM57 because it is clear yet full sounding and warm. The SM57 gives the mix a little more bottom. Besides that, I really like Hans's group with the ORTF stereo setting (AKG C451B) and a condenser microphone (AT2050) at the bottom of the piano. It has a clear sounding yet rich with the added mic under the piano. Would definitely try this in future recordings.

Gain: ORTF left mic +3dB, ORTF right mic +0dB, Bottom condenser mic +0dB

High-pass filter: 100Hz

The Vocals

We wanted to know how capture the tone of the singer's voice based on their singing style and genre by experimenting with different mics. 

MICROPHONES USAGE AND PLACEMENT

One Microphone (On axis)

1. Placing One microphone on axis facing the singer's mouth (Slate, Ribbon and Akg c414)

One Microphone (Off Axis)

1. Placing One microphone on axis facing the singer's mouth (Ribbon and Akg c414)

CONCLUSION

In my opinion I really liked how the akg c414 (On axis) sound on brighter tones and the ribbon on warmer voices. Would definitely use both of these set up however from Li Tong's group I'm surprised how the Neumann TLM103  (On Axis) works well with bright vocals as well. The Slate Digital mic works well for both warm and bright so I would use this mic and set up for future recordings. 

 Neumann TLM103:

Woodwinds

We would want to get a fuller and warmer sound but with clarity. 

MICROPHONES USAGE AND PLACEMENT

One Microphone

1. One condenser mic (Neumann TLM 103), (Ribbon) and (Slate) turned sideways (so it does not get in the way of the slide) pointing towards the bell. 
2. We will experiment with the proximity effect. 

CONCLUSION

We concluded that we liked our set up best for brass, where we used the Ribbon and place it 6 feet away from the bell. It has a clean and warm sound. For the other group's recording, I like Hans's group set up where they mic up the violin with a ribbon mic as well. They placed the mic over the shoulder of the violinist. I prefer their ribbon set up because it gave the violin more warmth than the condenser.