miroslav Posted August 22, 2008 Posted August 22, 2008 Saw this on the EQ Magazine website...thought it might interest anyone recording guitars... <<<<<<<<<<<< Signal Bleed & Ballsy Blues By Will Romano | July, 2008 When I record, the first thing I think about is, How does the band sound live, says Nick Moss, a guitarist/producer who recently completed a bodacious double CD of retro-modern Chicago blues, Play It Til Tomorrow with his band The Flip Tops. I want the band to sound as if you were in a club listening to us playing live. Some records are way too separated. I dont want that on my recordings, so I dont close mic anything. The closest Ill get a microphone to an amp is about six to eight inches away. Does that mean Ill get some signal bleed? Sure. But who cares? The concept of allowing disparate signals to bleed into a bunch of different mics is probably considered daring in the age of multiple takes, swipe comping, and sonic isolation, but it makes plain sense when you are tracking the blues. After all, the blues has never been about exploiting technology, and, back in the days of live-in-the-studio tracking, bleed was inevitable. But artists and engineers found a way to make coagulating sounds work for them, and, in the process, turned out some of the greatest blues recordings ever. Here are two examples of how signal bleed can produce ferocious blues-guitar tracks. Buddy Guys Multiple Amp Attack Producer Tom Hambridge (Susan Tedeschi, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Winter) speaks fondly of his experience recording legendary Chicago blues guitarist Buddy Guy for the 72-year-olds Skin Deep. We would start playing, and, by minute four of the song, Id signal the engineer to start rolling, Hambridge says. That way, the band would already be in the groove before the first note was recorded. Buddys amps were louder than hell. We just dimed em [turned the volume on the amps all the way up to 10]. My philosophy for those sessions was, Go ahead and let Buddys guitar bleed into the overheads. To capture Guys signature ringing-and-stinging attack, a total of six amplifiers were run simultaneously. Starting with two Chicago Blues Box amps, engineer Vance Powell employed a dual-mic approach, positioning a Neumann U67 and a Shure SM57 side-by-side and up close to each grille. Those are Buddys first-choice amps, says Powell, but I wanted to give Hambridge some other sonic choices, so we added a Marshall Super Lead 100 and a matching 4x12 cabinet that was miked with an SM57. Then, there was a 59 Fender Bassman miked with an AEA R92 ribbon. Thats a versatile mic that clearly picks up high-end stuff, but its also great for documenting lower registers. An early 60s Fender Vibroverb was matched with a Royer R-121 ribbon to get a natural and balanced tone, and a 100-watt Mesa/Boogie 1x12 combo was miked with a Royer R-122 ribbonwhich is a little more focused when capturing low-end frequencies than the R-121. The mics were each positioned about an inch from the grille cloths. This approach picked up the sound of the amps, but not the room, so I placed a Neumann M50 about ten feet from the wall of amps, and about seven feet in the air. When Buddy played through all six ampswide open in the roomit created this great, huge sound that bled into everything. But with that kind of massive, organic sound to work with, who cares about separation? The Tinsley Ellis Meat Wall Guy isnt the only blues guitarist to crank up and use bleed to his advantage. Georgia-born Tinsley Ellis is known by recording engineers for what they affectionately call his meat wall of sound. [Producer] Eddie Offord was the first guy who allowed us to have all the amps, drums, and vocals in the same room with no separation, says Ellis. I still try to set up that way as much as possible. I love the sound of a screaming guitar bleeding into those expensive drum mics [laughs]. I only have one large recording room in my studio, says Jim Jimmy Z Zumpano, Ellis longtime engineer. Ive built guitar lockers into one wall for isolation purposes, but you have to close mic them when the isolation boxes are closed up, and that gives you a sound that can be too tight for blues. So for Ellis newest release, Moment of Truth, Zumpanos lockers went unused. Placing a Shure SM57 a half-inch off of the bottom right speaker on Ellis Fender Super Reverb, and a Royer R-121 approximately six inches behind the back of the cabinet resulted in a decent sound, but didnt produce the type of live sound the guitarist wanted. We ended up adding in a Neumann TLM 170 as a room mic, Zumpano says. The 170 has a very open and wide pickup pattern, and its a warm-sounding mic. I put the mic approximately three paces away from the amp, shoulder-high, and pointed it a bit off-axis to the cabinet. I adhere to the Jimmy Page theorem of distance equals depth. You have to move away from the amp to catch the vibe of the room. More often than not, away from the amp is where the magic happens. >>>>>>>>>>>> I just don't know about using 6 amps - all dimed!!! :grin: Besides the mic bleed they were going for...there musta been some serious ear bleeding too! But I bet it sounded great recorded! miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important."
Bluesape Posted August 22, 2008 Posted August 22, 2008 Does this mean you need 6 boutique amps in your studio? Never a DUH! moment! Well, almost never. OK, OK! Sometimes never!
Caevan O'Shite Posted August 22, 2008 Posted August 22, 2008 Well, if you hafta skimp, six might do... Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _
Rampdog Posted August 22, 2008 Posted August 22, 2008 "Lions and Tigers and Bears... Oh My!!!..... Interesting approach... Buddy Guy's setup is scary... If it ain't fun...why do it...? http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=778394&content=music
miroslav Posted August 22, 2008 Author Posted August 22, 2008 Does this mean you need 6 boutique amps in your studio? Well...it wouldn't hurt...but I would still only use one at a time. miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important."
Caevan O'Shite Posted August 23, 2008 Posted August 23, 2008 Does this mean you need 6 boutique amps in your studio? Well...it wouldn't hurt...but I would still only use one at a time. Seriously, why not mix some of 'em, played through simultaneously, or dubbed after the fact by "re-amping" a recorded direct/straight signal? Ask yourself- What Would Ren and Stimpy Do? ~ Caevan James-Michael Miller-O'Shite ~ _ ___ _ Leprechaun, Esquire _ ___ _
miroslav Posted August 23, 2008 Author Posted August 23, 2008 Oh I agree Cav, it's not uncommon to use 2-3 amps...maybe also run a DI line.all on a single guitar. I just thought that 6 amps --- all dimed! :grin: was a bit over the top...but sometimes engineers/producers want to have more choices later on...so I guess with 6 amps (some even double miked) they had plenty of choices for the final mix. Though I almost get the feeling they were going primarily for the bleed into the other room mics since they were running all the amps wide open. It's all good, if you like the end result! I mostly like to find a tone from a single amp...and then I just use a single mic. I am planning on some future recordings to employ a dual-amp setup and/or do some reamping...but that also compounds the editing/mixing process, as you end up having more to mess with. miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important."
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