In an effort to get you few, you proud, you brave in on the action, we're accepting submission via the forums for our upcoming issue.

What we need from you (if you can find the will and the way):

Briefly (yet thoroughly) describe an instance (or instances) where you have employed a particularly off-the-wall miking technique. What mic did you use, in what placement, on what instrument, for what purpose, to what end?

200 words or less per individual case described. If we pick your submission we will pay you at a .25 per word rate of what get's printed. Sure, that's not big bucks, but it's standard fare in publishing... and it will give you some great exposure in the pages of the magazine.

We want more action here, and so do you guys/gals. So let's draw the magazine and these forums together. Let's make this a fully integarated editorial process.

Trust me, this will be fun. And if it goes well, maybe we'll just have to keep doing it.

Deadline is Tues. March 6th.

I have a good one... coming soon.

So - we post here, or send in via email? I like the forum idea best.... draws people here and TO the forums later when they read it...

Brian,

That's precisely the effect we are hoping to generate in doing this "feed to the pages" so, yes, please post here.

Then again, if anyone is lurking and is morally opposed to posting on a forum and would prefer to be more "private" about this, you can always email me at mharper@nbmedia.com

We were trying something different on drum overheads:

We taped two small Neumann cardiod mics (KM84) to the rim of a baseball cap which the drummer wore - each mic was "hearing" the Left or Right side of the kit. It sounded great - as it was close-in and also shifted to pick up whatever he was focusing his playing on, snare, tom fills, etc.

However, as he moved his head - the stereo image of the drums moved too - so all the drums panned around wildly at times - a truly weird psychedelic effect! It was good for a section of a song, or something crazy, but not for typical music...

One time, we tried to get a sort of reverb happening by having the singer wear a large cardboard box on her head while she sang. The results were not particularly impressive, so we didn't try it again.

I HAVE heard though, of some studio guy that had the "harp" out of a piano, if that's the name for the bit with all the strings.

Anyway, he used to put this "harp" between guitar amps and mikes while he was recording and, apparently, the very slight vibration of the piano strings gave everything a really nice, golden shimmer.

I don't know if it really works, but it really sounds like an interesting effect to try.

YOu can also do this kinda thing by putting a brick on the sustain pedal of a piano. The soundboard adds more sustain and volume, on top of the harp and strings. Interesting effect - unlike reverb, but similar idea...

I'm not really visualizing this... are you saying that you put the brick on the sustain pedal and then the piano picks up the sound from the amps?

Yep - just sympathetic resonance. It is very low level, of course, but it does ring out (compression helps keep the loud and quiet closer together)...

One of my favorites is to add a "rumble" mic to a drumset:

I take a mic with good DEEP low end (RE20, Sennheiser 421, D20) and wrap it thickly in a blanket. This way, it "hears" no mids or treble, just subsonic rumble. Then put the blanket anywhere near the kit. The mic picks up low impact from everything; kick, snare, toms, the room. You can record this as a special "sub/rumble" channel of its own and get some great fatness from your drums - without having to EQ anything at all!

We call it "The Masonic Boom"! I think people like the name as much as the sound...

Yes.
EVERYONE who reads the magazines now knows how to record impeccably using 'standard' methods, so they really NEED more articles on "weird" ways to record.

Yawn.

It actually speaks volumes about the readership, in my opinion.

I didn't want to go there...but I must say that when I originally saw the topic of this thread/request...I kinda' wondered to what real purpose the subsequent article was going to be...? That’s why I asked Matt in one of the other threads where this topic was posted…if ONLY weird mic rigs were of interest...?

Sure...it may be a bit entertaining to read about some guy using a mic inside a Styrofoam cup, covered with plastic and submerged in water (or something along those lines )...but really...how many people would ever use that to record seriously?

With all the gear and gadgets and unusual approaches that I've seen...99.99% of the time it's the basics that work the best...
...unless you are doing something JUST for the novelty of it.

Anyway...yeah, I think most of the EQ readership probably needs to work on basics before trying the Styrofoam cup thingy...

I excitedly anticipate the finished piece….

I don't know - things that are SO common now (parallel bus compression, or using a large diaphragm speaker as a kick mic) are now common, but were once experimental.

The idea I propose above is WAY more useful than a room mic, I find. It's not gimmicky in sound at all, and adds in more 'natural' sounds, rather than effected ones.

True...recording today is not the same as it was 40-50 years ago...and there maybe some new ground broken every once in awhile for useable mic techniques, etc.
But in most cases...hanging that mic up in the rafters...or dropping it inside a large metal garbage can...etc...etc…
...is never going to evolve into some groundbreaking technique as long as mics work the same way they've worked for the past several decades.

Hey…I’m no expert on all the possible mic techniques that actually work well…but in my own “small recording world” I found that basics are what work most of the time for me…
…and even though I’ve tried doing the odd thing once in awhile, most times it’s just an amusing novelty.

The other day I set up vocal mic near the drum kit…and I notice a real neat wash coming back off the cymbals and off the drum heads as I sang into the mic.
I considered recording that on a separate track…but then I decided it was not going to be real useable other than as a special effect...so I covered up the drums with blankets and killed it.

I’m not at all against experimentation…but all that odd stuff only works well after you have the basics down well…and I think that is what the previous poster’s comments were about…and I agree.
Most of the EQ readership is probably still trying to figure out how to do basics well…

Yes, but I think that perhaps one should already have a good solid handle on making good sounding recordings, and the techniques involved in that, BEFORE thinking about even parallel compression or any of those other things.

My experience tells me that a large proportion of the readership thinks they'll learn a "secret" that will eliminate the NEED to actually learn how to just RECORD something well.

If you can;t just put a mic on a bass drum and make it sound GOOD, then we have nothing to talk about regarding adding sub-speaker mics, or room mics or any other "tricks".
all of those things may be valid for someone somewhere, but they require that the engineer already KNOW how to get a good sound, what a good sound is, and how to blend the sounds together with the rest of the record.

It's like someone who's never had sex reading 20 Unusual Tips To Drive Her Crazy In Bed.

Magazines love this crap.
but it's utterly pointless

Yes...I think there are quite a lot of "newbies" thinking that it's ALL going to happen with just a few mouse clicks or some simple 1-2-3 step process...or some neat "trick".

It's like very newbies really want to take the time to learn/practice a craft.
"Just give me a gadget or two that can do it all at the push of a button"...that's what they want and that's what a lot of the magazines are promoting (though it doesn’t really ever happen that way).

Tape a PZM mic to the drummer's chest and use it as your room or overhead mic. You'll have great MONO compatibility.

I know this is late, but it's a fun one and i wanted to share.

You might need to make a sort of necklace with the PZM because tape isn't the best to stick to a sweaty drummer.

GH

Disagreed...

I'd rather hear records made by people trying new things than redoing the old things the same way over and over. I DREAM of those sessions where people will LET ME do something other than "what everybody else does". I'd enjoy a record made with NO standard, classic mic techniques.

Why teach people to FOLLOW? Instead, teach them to create, to be new, to be different. Ideas of creativity inspire creativity. It was once ODD to use more than one mic per drummer. Before that odd to use more than one mic per group.

I think the real thrust of the comments above was that people should first learn the basics...the stuff that's tried and true and been used on a million recording sessions over the last 50 years...
...and THEN venture out into the oddball stuff.

Also...I would say that 90% of what makes a record really interesting is the actual songs, their arrangements and the performances...
...and the other 10% is the mic placement, etc.

But that's just my very personal, "small world" opinion...I may be wrong.

Besides...when you are just listening to a song...can you really tell which mic was used...where it was placed...and what pre it went into...?