Today I met up with my recording 2 group for the first time try out a few different room mics and overheads, see what we like the most for different things.
We used:
A stereo matched pair of C414s, set to cardioid, with a HPF at 80Hz as over heads
A pair of KM184s as overheads (the capsules immediately next to those of the 414s)
A pair of U87s as a Blumlein pair about 3 meters away from the kit low down (room)
A single coles back from the center of the kit (room)
A single coles behind some baffles (room)
Processing:
Apart from the filters on the microphones themselves we didn’t process the overheads or the U87s at all. We did however compress both the coles on input. The central one we put through the distressor fairly gently with a slow attack and fast release. The one from behind the baffle we absolutely destroyed putting it through an 1176 with all buttons in.
Interesting side note, I’m told by my tutor that pressing just the outside buttons in (4 and 20) has the same as pressing them all in.
Listening Notes:
The C414’s and the KM184’s do sound remarkably similar but there are some clear differences too. The 414’s seemed to give a broader picture with more low end in the kick, the 184’s by comparison had less low end but felt more focused. Another observation is that the 184’s seem to have a slightly clearer representation of the high hats. All of these differences are very small and require intense listening to identify.
While recording earlier I showed Austin, my tutor, and asked him to tell me which was which while I swapped between the overheads. He has a very good ear and we were listening to the analogue signal, unprocessed on input. With out looking at which I was putting through the speakers he was able to tell within 30 seconds of asking me to swap from one to the other. When I took the protools session home and listened I mixed them up and did the same thing listening to them in turn and was also able to tell which was which. I’ve put made a copy of the files (overheads) available so if you want to test your own ears then you can have a go.
The u87s add a lot of character to the mix, Green rooms 1 although not massive has a nice high ceiling and a wooden floor so it has a healthy feel. The center balance is slightly off in the track and I think the microphones may have been moved by someone. It sounds to me as if someone has pointed one of the microphones directly at the kit and the other at 90 degrees to that where I set it up so they were 45 degrees off from that.
The Coles the was close to the kit caught a great overview of the kit in general. Emphasizing the kick and snare very nicely, the softness of the coles with the warmth in the low end worked particularly well with the distressor. We pushed it enough to colour the sound further but not to the point of outright distortion. The other coles was distorting, as we put it through the 1176 with all buttons in the kick began flab slightly but when it was mixed in with the overheads at a low level it sounded fantastic adding another dimension. Because the microphone was behind a baffle there was no direct sound so it just captured room noise; the reflections at various times give this track a fairly large time difference. The first reflections came in 6ms after the overheads and more came after.
In the past I have always used LDC over SDC for overheads but I think for this next project I am going to use KM184s, and I will definitly use a Coles hidden behind a baffle, great sound.
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