Recording organ sans Leslie

[Morizzle]

Hey guys, I need some advice about recording a Nord C1.

I've got a recording session scheduled in the school's recording studio next year in April. Because of logistics and space/gear there's no way I'm going to be able to play through a leslie. I'm fine with the sound of the Nord's internal sim though.

What bothers is me is the bass sound. If I'm not mistaken, usually there's a mic at the bottom of the leslie just for the bass sound, right? If recorded straight from the stereo outputs, it could be hard to separate the bass track from the rest. Could this be an issue for mixing the tracks later on? The band is tenor sax, guitar, drums and moi.

I'm playing left-hand bass, so recording MIDI from the pedals is not an option.

Probably it's a non-issue, I just want to make sure that there's not a solution that I'm not seeing. I hear you gotta be picky about your 'tone'

[Bobadohshe]

The mic on the bottom of the leslie isn't just for the bass SOUND. It is for the lower rotor of the leslie through which the bass FREQUENCIES pass. What you seem to be implying is that if you are walking bass with your left hand, this mic would be picking it up exclusively, and that's not the case. This mic just picks up more of the low end of the signal, which includes a lot of the bass being played by your left hand, but also low frequencies of ALL the notes you play. By the same token the treble mics would pick up some of your bass left hand as well.

[David Loving]

Just record your lefthand-bass to a separate bass track.

[Tomkeen]

Just record your lefthand-bass to a separate bass track.

 

You'd have to change leslie speeds at the exact same time to make it sound "authentic" though...

[Mr. B.]

You really need, and I mean NEED to play through a Leslie with it miced with two mics and listen to it through the fronts or house pa, you will hear a difference using only a top mic and then using a lower rotor mic. Many even use four mics though in a club either none or two.

In fact you could just play mid and high keys and still have enough lower rotor bleed to just hear it but that can be taken out with a good mixer.

[CEB]

Yeah, probably over 85% of your tone comes out the bottom rotar. A lot of noobies blow horn drivers cause they turn the upper rotars up too loud. The lower rotar does most the work.

[dazzjazz]

I think you should take 3 lines out of the C1.

Use the LR out for the Leslie sim, and use the high level jack to get the DI signal. From there, you will have more definition to the sound, and potentially copy the DI track and place a High-Pass filter over it, so it's all bass - mix and match to taste.

 

Can you borrow a small leslie, like a Motion Sound 145 perhaps?

[kanker.]

I think you should take 3 lines out of the C1.

Use the LR out for the Leslie sim, and use the high level jack to get the DI signal. From there, you will have more definition to the sound, and potentially copy the DI track and place a High-Pass filter over it, so it's all bass - mix and match to taste.

This sounds like the best way to do it without a Leslie.

[Morizzle]

Hi, thanks for all the responses.

I was probably a little unclear in my initial post. Of course I know that you cannot seperate single bass notes from the rest just by micing different parts of the Leslie. I was just wondering how important the lower mic (which surely is EQ-ed differently than the treble mics) is for the overall sound.

Daviel, recording seperately isn't going to cut it. I want everyone to play simultaneously for the tightest and most communicative result.

Dazzjazz, that seems to be the way to go. I'll try it out at home.

Thanks everyone for chiming in.

[kanker.]

The crossover point for a 122/147 is 800hz - a lot higher than you'd expect. Most of the organ sound comes out of the lower rotor, not just the lower end.

[Morizzle]

The crossover point for a 122/147 is 800hz - a lot higher than you'd expect.

 

Indeed. So the idea of seperating the frequency ranges of a Hammond organ doesn't make that much sense because in the real deal you have a lot of overlap between low & midrange in the lower, louder rotor?

[kanker.]

Most definitely. Think about a piano - the G an octave and a half above middle C isn't quite 800Hz.

[NewImprov]

I have no experience with the Nord, but here's what I ended up doing on a recent session with my XK-1, where I play LH bass. I recorded the audio, using the internal sim, to a stereo track, and also recorded MIDI off the XK. It transmits on 3 channels, upper/lower manual and pedals, and I had pedal drawbars assigned to the MIDI controller I was using as the lower manual. I'm able to split out the MIDI bass notes, and send them back to the XK, and record the audio of that, and then do another pass with just the upper/lower manual. Seems to work fine, and this way, I get a separate bass track I can mix to taste. I'd be surprised if you couldn't do something similar with the Nord.

[JeffLearman]

I wouldn't worry about it. If you play it well, with the bass at the right level relative to the rest, you'll be fine. If necessary, EQ to taste during mixdown.

[888000000]

If you are going to use the high level output remember it is a LOT hotter than the L/R out.

 

From the manual:

"High level output

The HIGH LEVEL OUTPUT consist of a quarter inch and 11-pin Leslie standard connector. The HIGH LEVEL OUT are 14V RMS high level and unbalanced, and are only intended to be used directly connected to a rotary speaker cabinet with built in amplifier. Any other form of use might result in damaged equipment."

[Jim Alfredson]

They make this amazing thing called EQ.