Small project question

R

Rhino_Rick

New member
Hello folks.

I'm running an Aardvark Q-10 into a fast PC with Cubase SX and I want to record some of my material using only a Fender Rhodes through a Fender Twin and my voice.

How would you suggest I set this up for the fullest possible sound with such an empty instrumentation? Two mics on the guitar amp, one left, one right, vocals down the middle? Or..?

Thanks!
-Rick, Detroit
 
I would double mic the guitar amp and pan hard left and hard right respectively after recording. I use an SM57 and a Beta 52 kick mic for guitar tracking and I am happy with the resulting tone and fatness of the tracks. You can add a little chorus effect to the guitar tracks to fatten them up even more if desired. Some light compression say 2:1 with an attack of about 20 msec and release of about 100 msec and a threshold of about -20dB. This depends upon how much in the way of transients you want in the mix and the style you are going for. If you want more dynamics then use a slower attack and release and conversely if you want less dynamics. Add a little eq to the guitar tracks to give them some warmth. You shouldn't have a problem getting them to cut given the limited tracking of the mix.

I just recorded some guitar tracks the other night and placed the SM57 about 2 inches from the cloth at about a 20 degree angle to the center of one of the speakers and placed the Beta 52 about one foot from the amp slightly above the SM57 but in the middle of the amp and the tone was very good. I record mostly Pop Punk stuff so there is usually alot of distortion, palm muting, and some clean guitar in the mix. Seems to work well.

Be sure to turn the amp down so as not to distort at the mic. add some make up gain at the mixer to get the strongest signal possible without clipping coming out of the mixer to the A/D and to your HD. You can also add some eq at the mixer. I usually add about 2 db @ 60Hz, 5 dB @ 250 to 350Hz, about 5 dB @ 2500 to 3500 Hz, and about 3 dB @ 12,000Hz. when recording through my Allen&Heath 16:2 Mixwizard.

I would put the Vox down the middle and some very light reverb if desired. Really depends upon the style and your personal preferences. Again add eq as needed for the Vox. This is really singer dependent.

Good luck
 
You could also try one mic up close and one mic back in the room. A really cool sounding trick is to use two cabs and run a stereo chorus or tremelo to them. Then close mic each cab.
 
Good ideas, but the Fender Rhodes is an electric piano! It has a huge tonal range. :) I'll definitely try the double micing with the hard left/hard right pan. A little chorus probably couldn't hurt to fatten it up a bit.

The Twin has a beautiful reverb. Should I use that or use something from Cubase?
 
Silly me. Obviously a paradigm problem on my part. When I read Fender I automatically assumed guitar. Sorry for the misinterpretation.

So far as the reverb is concerned you should probably experiment a bit. If you are going to be compressing after recording and you use the reverb on the amp the compression might bring out too much reverb. I usually will add reverb after compression because of this. There are no set rules here. It's all about what sounds good to you. If you can, record the tracks twice, once without reverb and once with and then compare when mixing.

Good luck!
 
might be a little late here, but this is what i'd do:

disclaimer: i don't know if the rhodes has a stereo or mono output, but that's easily worked around. ;-P

if mono, get yourself a DI or XY box and run one into the recorder DI'd. then run the other side of the DI to the Twin. i'd at least double-mic the cab, prolly a mic on each speaker and one LDC farther back in the room. for the close mics, maybe try a dynamic on one speaker and an LDC on the other, or something like that, in conjunction with the room/far mic. shake to taste. adapt the DI as needed if the rhodes is stereo.

experiment with the twin's reverb compared to an outboard unit or plugin's reverb. use whichever sounds best.

mixing, i'd prolly put one speaker mic to the left, the other to the right and the room mic in the middle, and then the DI sound as needed (panned hard left and right if stereo, or maybe duplicated/panned if mono?) at least for starters and work from there. move things around and just use your judgement. stick the vocal right smack in the middle. the two different close mics will give a stereoish effect and will sound "larger" than one close mic software-doubled. a touch of delay or reverb at mixdown might help fatten it up a little too, if needed.

one of the guitarists in my band has a twin reverb and i like recording it with 3 mics. in a busy mix i might not use all of them, but if it needs to stand on its own, it's much nicer. i suspect the same will apply to your rhodes. having the DI in there is just icing on the cake.


wade
 
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