Interesting mic setup for recording Aretha Franklin

miroslav

Cosmic Cowboy
Happened to see this pic in the story today about Aretha's passing....and couldn't help notice the tissue or handkerchief that is strategically placed on the mic...I assume to cut out reflections (?)...or...?

Wonder if anyone has ever seen this before or knows of the specific reason why, and what they were doing here?
I mean...it's not really blocking the entire back of the mic so it makes me wonder if there was a different reason for putting that (whatever it is) there on the mic?

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I'll bet the springs in the shockmount were shot and that's just wedged in there to get better purchase on the mic body... y'know, like jamming a wadded up napkin under one leg of your off-kilter table in a restaurant?
 
I'll bet the springs in the shockmount were shot and that's just wedged in there to get better purchase on the mic body... y'know, like jamming a wadded up napkin under one leg of your off-kilter table in a restaurant?

So...you think they hung a top-shelf Neumann mic in front of one of the greatest soul singers...and they saw that the basket was loose so they just wedged some napkin in there...??? :D

That would be pretty funny to me if it were the reason...and I would think they would have done a better job of it, rather than having the napkin hanging there covering have the basket in some skewed fashion. Also, the elastic bands ("springs") don't have anything to do with where the napkin (at least I think it's a napkin) is placed, which is underneath the actual collar that goes around the mic.
I would think if I was the tech or assistant at that session, and the engineer said to go and make sure the mic collar was tight around the mic on that basket...and I just stuck a napkin in there like that...mmm...I would be feeling the door hit my ass after being told I could go home. :)

Not saying you are wrong, I've seen all kinds of jury-rigged stuff, and I've done my share in my personal studio world...just not seeing that as the reason at that session in a real pro studio. To me it's more some kind of reflection thingy.
To tighten the collar...a small piece of napkin just between the collar and the mic would have done the job, rather than a big junk of napkin all hanging down like that.

From what I've heard...Aretha Franklin was a very picky and particular lady...and certainly the original R&B "diva".
I bet if that was just a half-assed clamp fix, she would have said something like...
"You want ME to sing into that rickety thing? Now go get me a good mic....I don't want that damn thing to fall down and hit my foot!" :p ;)

(I'm just guessing...no idea what she would have really said...but she certainly was no push-over).

Probably not too many people still around who were at the actual sessions...but I thought maybe someone else has seen similar at other pro studio sessions...if indeed it is some kind of reflection thingy.
 
A lot of early vocals were recorded with a live band in the room, maybe it was to cut some spill?

Alan.
 
I'll bet the springs in the shockmount were shot and that's just wedged in there to get better purchase on the mic body... y'know, like jamming a wadded up napkin under one leg of your off-kilter table in a restaurant?

that was my first guess too.
 
I'm wondering if this is a one time thing, or did she do this more regular?

I was thinking about an alternative to kill an irritating resonance too.
You wouldn't expect it, but you either wouldn't expect a handkerchief to seriously kill background noises. But i think it would quicker kill a resonance than background noises.

Well that's my question...has anyone ever seen or heard of this in a studio session?
I just don't buy the idea it was for tightening the clamp on the mic...'cuz you can solve that problem much easier and neater than just shoving a napkin in there in that messy way...with half of it still hanging down over the back of the capsule basket.

It could be a resonance thing...I've not ever seen any other pictures of Aretha Franklin in front of a mic with a napkin like that...or any other singer for that matter. Though yeah...sometimes the metal around the mic (the shockmount) may reflect back to cause a resonance...or even the capsule basket itself, but considering that's probably a high-end Neumann in the picture, not sure how readily one would pick it if it was prone to that.

I would love to hear from some pro old-timers who might have been in sessions like that....though I doubt many cross paths here on HR, since this is mostly a home-rec sight.

I bet if this question was posted over on GS...there would 30 pages of debate about it! :p
 
I'd bet the picture was a staged photo op - and probably, she was originally singing into the other side, with the tissue hanging in the right place to maybe cut down nose noise or something, but then the camera appeared and she got moved to a position where it looked better. We can only speculate.
 
maybe this is the secret leaking out to fame and stardom and huge careers...

some put toilet paper on their NS10's because the tweeters suck but they mixed Gold Records!!on them!

so this paper thing is starting to come to light?
 
I got no theory. Could have been for a million and one reasons. Sometimes wierd unusual solutions do the trick.

I worked with a drummer and his floor tom had a weird ring we could never get rid of.
Finally he just took his wallet out and set it on the tom head . But not for the purpose of the ring, just because it was annoying him in his pocket. :)

He went back to playing, and like magic the ring was gone.

Now if he would have become famous, for years afterwards, people would be trying to figure out what his wallet was doing on the tom.
:D
 
I got no theory. Could have been for a million and one reasons. Sometimes wierd unusual solutions do the trick.

I worked with a drummer and his floor tom had a weird ring we could never get rid of.
Finally he just took his wallet out and set it on the tom head . But not for the purpose of the ring, just because it was annoying him in his pocket. :)

He went back to playing, and like magic the ring was gone.

Now if he would have become famous, for years afterwards, people would be trying to figure out what his wallet was doing on the tom.
:D

I'm still to find a drummer with a wallet.

Alan.
 
I'll wager there was a noise problem - probably some harmonic vibration when she hit a certain note. It appears to be thicker than a napkin or paper towel.. probably a thin sheet of foam or bubble wrap. It goes through both rings to the base of the mic.

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