what is the strangest way you have mic'd something?/strangest thing you have mic'd?

M

maskedman72

Member
i have read some crazy stuff on people using mics in strange ways and it gave me great ideas so i am looking for more.
i have heard of someone doing the vocals for an entire album in the back seat of a car. that kind of stuff, putting mics in washers and dryers etc............
 
I sometimes put a mic in another room with the doors open as an ambience mic. I've also laid a guitar amp on its back with a mic hanging from the ceiling by its cable centered over the speaker, then swung the mic like a pendulum during recording. I've also sent a prerecorded vocal back out through a headphone amp to drive the ear speaker out of a telephone handset and miked and recorded the result for that slightly distorted, telephone effect.
 
Strangest thing mic'd #1: A hard plastic vibrator making sound by "playing" strings inside a concert grand

Strangest thing mic'd #2: A Leslie cabinet in the center of a 10.000 seat (empty) sports arena. Leslie driven by a pair of Neve pre's into a Crown DC600 amp. Leslie's little plastic top horn driven by 2 x 75 watt JBL midrange drivers through a twin throat, Leslie's low end through a 600 watt 18" Gausch driver.

Stangest thing mic'd #3: An all to fresh inflated goat bladder, in a village in North East Africa.

Strangest thing Mic'd #4: Keith Moon

Strangest thing Mic'd #5: Someone gargling a song (which actually made it on to a CD)

Strangest thing mic'd #6: Accellerating a Porche fast, with a mic on a boom out of the window (makes for the perfect alternative to rocket launch sound)
 
I recently mic'ed a big glass pickle jar to make a tabla sound with a Sennhieser 441U. It turned out pretty good.



Beezoboy

I got it to sound like that by pitch shifting it down a major second and there is some reverb on it. Then I did the delay trick where I put the delay in tempo with the song.

I tapped the back of it with my hand cupped inside and moved it to where it closed off the hole and made the pitch change. Kind of like the way a trumpet uses a plunger on his trumpet. And that combined with the amazing proximity a 441 has on the M setting produced this sound. It was recorded at 24bit/44.1 into a q10.

(edited to answer the question below)
 
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Beezoboy said:
I recently mic'ed a big glass pickle jar to make a tabla sound with a Sennhieser 441U. It turned out pretty good.



Beezoboy
Click to expand...

man, thats really slick. How did you get a pickle jar to sound like that??
 
once miced up a radiator, the percussionist dragged a mallet back and forth on it to create a sound like a gwiro.
(in the same seesion we accidentally taped over half a guitar track with a keyboard, but for some reason decided it sounded better that way.
 
sjoko2 said:

Strangest thing mic'd #6: Accellerating a Porche fast, with a mic on a boom out of the window (makes for the perfect alternative to rocket launch sound)
Click to expand...


and the "crash and burn" when the xlr gets yanked outta the socket!!:eek:
 
Beezoboy said:
I recently mic'ed a big glass pickle jar to make a tabla sound with a Sennhieser 441U. It turned out pretty good.



Beezoboy
Click to expand...


Hah! ..... Yws .... I did the same with a terra cotta utensils jar when I needed to do that other eastern instrument .. you know ... the big pot that's used. Sounded very good.

Tinging the side and alternating cupped-hand taps on the open top .... varying the degrees of open-mess and closedness so's to adjust the tone.


on the same track, used standard violin to emulate Mongolian 'horse' violin, and and ancient rosetti acoustic steel-strung guitar played with much string snap so's to emulate a Moroccan ud.
 
mixmkr said:
and the "crash and burn" when the xlr gets yanked outta the socket!!:eek:
Click to expand...
:D
I think I managed to remember to bring a nakamichi in order to avoid a re-make of american grafitty
 
You gotta hear that tune by Beezoboy. It's great. Good job "Pickles".

In my earlier days I once stuffed an SM-57 into an acoustic guitar. Didn't turn out too well.
 
Track Rat said:
I sometimes put a mic in another room with the doors open as an ambience mic. I've also laid a guitar amp on its back with a mic hanging from the ceiling by its cable centered over the speaker, then swung the mic like a pendulum during recording.
Click to expand...


Great...now try setting two MC012's on the floor facing up and swing the guitar cabinet from the ceiling...back and forth, to and fro...
 
I mic'd a vibrator on assorted drums and was able to get that godzilla waking up sound. Found miking at a medium distance to be best. (1 to 2 feet)

I also have mic'd some large peices of iron being hit. I like that hammer & anvil sound....
 
A chimney for measurement of noise pollution levels and spectrum. Use a B&K 40xx (4006 or 4011, not sure, we had a lot of them) for that. Capsule defect after 30' hanging in it with the factory working.
 
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