Who still uses mics to record instruments?

[Dave Bryce]

How many of y’all with acoustic (and/or electro-mechanical) instruments still mic them for recording or live as opposed to using digital/electronic solutions?

 

Curious how many folks still take the time mic a piano, or a Hammond through a Leslie….

if any of y’all record drums, I’m also interested to know how many still mic a kit.

 

dB

[Jim Alfredson]

I do all the time. I finally got to a point of stasis in my mic collection. I have just what I need to do what I want to do and capture the tones the way I want.

[ProfD]

58 minutes ago, David Bryce said:

if any of y’all record drums, I’m also interested to know how many still mic a kit.

I still mic a drumkit.  Shure Beta 52A on the kick.  Sennheiser e604s on the snare, hi-hat and toms. Cymbals are noisy enough.😁😎

[ElmerJFudd]

Vocals, live performances, solo woodwinds, brass, strings, etc.  Occasionally something percussive.  etc.  

 

Not so much APs, EPs, Guitars, drums, bass on little solo projects when working alone at home. 
 

Have you tried neural dsp’s stuff?  Very impressed. 
 

https://neuraldsp.com/plugins/tone-king-imperial-mkii

[ABECK]

In the studio, always (piano, Hammond)  At home, never.

[CEB]

No, not at home on my personal setup.  Guitar plugs direct and my amps and effects are mostly amplitude.  
 

But this is home where nothing I do matters much except my project to record The Complete Works of Joplin … which I’m doubting I’ll ever complete.  But it’s a dream and it keeps me at home and out of jail.  

[analogika]

Of course. 

[Stokely]

Vocals and acoustic guitar are the only things I really have access to.  I haven't miked a drum set in decades, but of course I'm not a pro engineer   I do miss mixing drums, I found some online multitrack sessions that let you download and mix, it's fun.

Electric guitar, if it's me, would just be direct and use a software amp.  With my buddy, we'd probably use his Helix and/or direct (I'd prefer getting his "amp" tone as well as direct if possible).  That said he has some nice tube amps that would be fun to mic up.

[MAJUSCULE]

Ohhh yeah.

[S_Gould]

The only thing I don't always mic is bass guitar (or electric/acoustic 6 string in a live situation). Of course, I have an absolutely absurd collection of mics, so that helps.

[Dave Bryce]

Excellent feedback so far…greatly appreciated.

 

dB

[Justin Havu]

Yep.  Acoustic drums mic'd up.  One mic per drum, left and right overheads, left and right ambient.  Kit is a Pearl Export from the early-to-mid 80s with Evans coated heads, with zero muffling, apart from a DrumDot on the snare.

 

Shure PG52 for bass drum, soon to be replaced by a Behringer C112, as I'm curious, and I've had extremely good luck with some of their condenser mics, plus I've never been a fan of Shure mics.  The PG52 was a freebie, but it doesn't pick up anything above 5KHz, which sucks.

Sennheiser e835's for snare/toms.

MXL-990 for 18" floor tom (about 6-8 inches away gives me great results)

Behringer C-1's for overheads

Behringer C-3's for ambient mics.

 

I never mic the snare bottom or hi-hat.  Don't need to.

[Iconoclast]

Drums, vox and acoustic guitars, but direct for pretty much anything else.

You could write a book about how to mike a drumset, and then someone else will write a book about how much your book sucks.

[mcgoo]

Vocals, Voiceovers, ac gtrs, occasional horns or strings. I don't really have room to do drums. Interesting realization though. I've done some drum tracks in a handful of other studios. I've come to the conclusion that unless I can go into the nicest studio in town, with the best engineer and best drummer, I'm not going to get results as good as what I can do with my trapkat, Superior Drummer 3 and some decent editing chops. 

[mynameisdanno]

The things that get mic'd most often in my project studio are the Leslie cabinet, accordion, and pump organ (I have a nice one, lovingly refurbished by a local hobbyist who rescues them from the landfill, restores them and sells them cheap).  Clavinet, when it's called for (rare), always gets a mic'd Fender amp.  

 

About half the time I'll mic up an upright piano, the other half of the time I use samples (Nord Stage 3 about as often as computer libraries).  

 

I have a real Wurly, but it's recorded direct or through a Styrmon Iridium 99% of the time lately. 

 

I am looking into a future where I might need to find another studio space, and wondering if the latest Leslie sim plug-ins are "good enough," as that's the only thing loud enough to disturb neighbors that I regularly record.  It's also probably 70% of the recording I do.  I kinda don't want to know...

[KuruPrionz]

I am ready, willing and able to mic anything that crosses my path. I've done live sound many times and learned some good stuff there. 

 

I have and would reommend everybody have - a small stereo digital recorder. Mine happens to be a Tascam DR40, I'd get the DR40x now or a Zoom or something that works, it doesn't really matter. 

Using that I learned how good distance mic'ing can sound if you are in the right place and get things dialed in. 

Pre Covid, I used to mic the band I was in with that Tascam on the back of the dancefloor and down about a foot off the floor. Our BL was an excellent soundman and one club we played regularly has a good PA and a decent sized room so I just put the recorder there and let it run all night. Sounded way better than I expected, I gave bandmembers a copy of the performance and said nothing. Remarkable how much people will improve when they hear what they actually sound like!!!! Myself included, it made us a much better sounding band without any ego bullshit - a recording just tells the truth. 

 

Next up, I started taking that same Tascam to an open mic we were hosting. The room used to be a firehouse and has been specifically fitted to be a great performance venue with a good PA and a Steinway baby grand. 

Mic'ing the Steinway from 15' away sounded better than any attempts I've made to close mic a piano, way better. It evens out the response and added a sense of space to the sound. 

 

Close mic, distance mic, it depends on the performance, the room and the population. Also sometimes on the Harley Davidson that stops at the stop sign, revs their motor and goes away. 

I can't afford a sound proof treated room, so it goes. 

[Analogaddict]

I do it all the time. Leslie, piano, drum kit, strings, brass, percussion, you name it. I love it!

[Mighty Motif Max]

Yes, for wind instruments, vocals, accordion, hand percussion, and anything I can't get a direct line output from that sounds good (i.e. an organ with a built-in leslie that's bypassed with the direct out). With accordion specifically, I have zero choice given that there is no such thing as a good digital solution (well, a V-Accordion is decent but still not there and that's hardware). I did buy an acoustic guitar recently, so maybe I'll experiment with mic'ing that as I'm not crazy about the piezo pickup sound in recordings (it's fine live).

 

Otherwise, electric guitar, keys, bass, other stuff is generally direct, from synths, or in-the-box.

[KenElevenShadows]

I use microphones for almost everything, although I am not doing very many drum sessions nowadays. I used to record my keyboards through an amp and then stick a microphone in front of it. I don't really do that any more, and some of it is out of laziness, but a lot of it has to do with some of the stereo effects that I am using now seem to sound better direct.

[Theo Verelst]

Some live stuff with various portable video solutions, vocals and occasional acoustic guitar (usually AT2020 + Lexicon/Yamaha preamp/digitizer).

 

T

[marczellm]

I don't do (or know much about) recording, but when I do record something it depends. We've just recorded some instrumental worship music covers with members of the church band where the melody is played by violin. This is the violinist's project and his vehicle, drum sound is not that crucial so we've gone with electronic drums, but miking the acoustic guitar because everybody here agrees on the line out on an acoustic sounding way inferior.

 

My solo project that is coming out this fall, I was purist about several things, so we miked the drums, we went to a studio that has a real acoustic piano and Rhodes. But the electric guitars were recorded direct so that we could experiment with software amp simulators later to get the sounds.

[skipeb3]

These days the only things I mic - at home - are a Leslie or an accordion.

[Jim Alfredson]

In terms of miking a drum kit, I have done pretty much every set-up in the book. It completely depends on the vibe you're going for, the music itself, the skills of the player, and most importantly the room.

 

 

[Dave Bryce]

26 minutes ago, Jim Alfredson said:

In terms of miking a drum kit (snip) It completely depends on the vibe you're going for, the music itself, the skills of the player, and most importantly the room.

 

 No doubt...

 

I make a similar argument for the piano.  All these factors, - along with its extended frequency range and dynamic capabilities - make it my go-to test for many mics.

 

dB

[Pigmeat]

I plug my rhodes, wurli, and clav into a Roland JC-40 and record the amp in stereo with 2 SM57s using Triton Audio FetHead In-Line mic preamps.  I'm happy with it.

[NewImprov]

I run a small professional studio, I am continually micing drum kits, one of the things that brings bands to my space is the ability to track a full band and drum kit with reasonable isolation (I have 2 iso rooms). My usual drum kit setup is: Shure 91 inside the kick, Shure Beta 52 in the hole of the kick, Telefunken M80(great mic, btw) on top of snare, 57 under snare, Audio Technica ATM230's on toms. For overheads, if I'm doing stereo, it's generally a pair of 414's, if mono, either a Warm Audio WA47 or WA87mark2. Maybe I'll add spot mics for hihat and ride. My room is pretty tall and has a balcony, I'll run 3 room mics there (AKG C3000's), left, center and right. 

 

Guitar cabs usually get Sennheiser E609's, unless they are too thin and spiky, then I'll use a ribbon. I have several Radial Re-Amp boxes, often, I'll track guitars direct through one of Logic's amp sims while recording with the drum kit, then re-amp through one or more amps. Have done this with Rhodes and bass as well.

 

I have a 7' Grand in one of the iso rooms, again, if I'm tracking stereo, it gets the 414's, mono gets one of the Warms.

 

I have an A100 with a Leslie 21, but, I'll share a dirty secret, thus far I haven't actually mic'd it, I've used my Mojo/Ventilator, just because of simplicity and sounding "good enough". For the next ep by my band, though, I have made a vow to only use "real" (non-virtual) keyboards. Rhodes, Clavinet, A100, grand piano, and all the synths are either Minimoog or Sequential Take 5, played live, no MIDI.

 

I lucked into getting a studio that had already been built-out, and it's a great-sounding room with good isolation. Here's a photo of some of my mics and my space:

[harmonizer]

I record our 7-person covers band live on a Zoom L20. Five of our band members sing at various times so that is 5 vocal mics up front. There are 5 mics on the kit (2 overhead, a condenser close on the hat, a dynamic close on the snare, and one for the kick). Our rhythm guitarist insists that we mic his cab, and I use a wireless Samson for my sax. We currently have 17 separate inputs going into the Zoom L20. The only inputs that are NOT from a mic are from my keyboard amp, a line out from our solo guitarist, a DI-like XLR out from our bass player's bass amp, and a DI for when our rhythm guitarist uses his acoustic guitar which has an electric pickup. So currently we are using 13 inputs from mics.

 

Both our guitar players want me to switch the capture of our solo guitarist to mic his cab instead of using the line out. After I make that change we will be taking 14 out of our 17 inputs from mics, with two of those 14 being a mic capture on a guitar cab.

 

I am not going to change to a mic capture for our bass player, since I am very happy with the capture I get from the XLR out on his amp. 

[The Real MC]

On 7/5/2022 at 2:47 PM, David Bryce said:

How many of y’all with acoustic (and/or electro-mechanical) instruments still mic them for recording or live as opposed to using digital/electronic solutions?

 

Curious how many folks still take the time mic a piano, or a Hammond through a Leslie….

if any of y’all record drums, I’m also interested to know how many still mic a kit.

 

dB

Still mic my Leslie in studio.  My best Rhodes sound is my '67 sparkletop going through my '63 Selmer Truvoice Twin Thirty, a vintage British amp similar to a Twin Reverb.

Our work jazz band recorded some standards in my studio - trumpet and drums were mic'd.  Keys and bass were DI'd.

While guitar amp modelers are convenient for stage, for recording I still prefer real tubes and the sound of speakers moving air.  Sometimes I'll use speaker emulators either Red Box or original Groove Tubes emulator.

I prefer DI'd bass guitar.  Then I reamp it to my Amp SVP-Pro, which is a stellar bass preamp.

Recording drums is far more about how the drums are tuned than what mics are used.  No amount of processing will fix a poorly tuned kit.

My mic locker isn't huge, but the ones I have work quite well.

I have a couple of Martin acoustic guitars that sound really good, but haven't experimented with recording them yet.
 

[jeffincltnc]

No.  I used to get mic'd to record a Rhodes or Hammond/Leslie when I have played on some other people's albums.  Now I would just go the all-software route because I think it's a better use of everybody's time, money and satisfaction with the end result.

[Mark Schmieder]

Moving WAY back to real instruments and mics, since the pandemic started. I was already burnt out on doing too much on my own and "in the box", but the timing of the pandemic sucked because I was on the edge of finalizing a studio setup and going back big-time to Beatles-style production with more live interaction of musicians, after too many years since that had been my norm (and many other people's as well).

 

Even when I'm doing overdubs, it's so much faster, and more satisfactory, than programming and manipulating computer-based sounds and tools. And ultimately I get more organic results that win way more accolades from listeners. It's a shame that most modern professional-level top star recordings are now mostly 100% in the box.