2 603's a cheap-ass sigma and a couple'a foam baffles

[Kelly Dueck]

This possibly belongs in the recording techniques area, but it has a microphone theme, too. So here goes . . .

Here's a clip of two MXL603's on a Sigma acoustic guitar into an Aardvark 2496 soundcard showing the effects of foam baffleing.

The first 14 seconds use no acoustic foam baffling and the "sound of the room" is noticeable. The next 14 seconds, or so, feature 2.5' x 8' x 1.5" open-cell foam baffles (homemade) surrounding me and my guitar. Two about two feet directly behind me in a v-pattern and one each about 2 feet behind the mics in the 603's "null area". Mics were about 6" away from the guitar, one pointed at where the neck joins the body, the other above my right elbow pointed straight down toward the bridge, even with the front of the guitar body.

Thought this might interest folks, given the excitement around small diaphragm omni's right now. Room effects will be more important to think about with these mics.

Notice how the foam soaked up the room sound but mostly in terms of the high frequencies. The low mids and lows were basically unaffected and so the tone quality is different.

Comment away folks . . .

 

[kristian]

i find that the second part of the clip sounds more like real guitar to tell you the truth. I find that acoustics nowadays have this exagerated high end sound. I prefer your sound over A LOT of commercial recordings of late.

Which pre amp are you using?

I find that microphones are really in no way a limiting factor to recordings. Its your preamp and A/D. I think pros would take 4 57s, 2 603s, and 2 414s with ANY pre they want opposed to a mackie 8 bus with a couple U47s, U87s, and a sennheiser 441. maybe im wrong.. hmm actually i don't knwo what i would rather have ... probably the first choice.

 

[Prism]

Sweet!

Night & day... I really liked the 2nd one. How did you build your baffles? What did you use for framing? I'd like some details.

Isaiah

 

[CyanJaguar]

Very nice micing. The 603s sound very good indeed.
I like both the tones and I think that either one would work in a mix, but I have a slight preference for the baffled tone. It has all the goodness, I think, of the first one, but sounds more controlled.

How did you build the baffles? and how much is the cost involved?

 

[Gargamel]

Do you have a picture? thx

 

[Reqs]

Both sound great to me. I think I need a new sound card....

 

[Kelly Dueck]

Baffle instructions

The 603's went into the aardvark's pre-amps. No EQ was used. That's the nice thing about this card, it actually has better than half-assed pre's. Not cream your jeans pre's -- but not bad. All discrete and as you can hear, quite natural sounding. And the converters are excellent. Four balanced XLR inputs in the breakout box. No mixer required, all done via software. (Cakewalk pro audio 9.0 in this case.)

The baffles cost me about $60 Canadian each to make ($40 U.S.) prices may vary in your area. Check out the .pdf for a complete instruction sheet, plus a micing diagram.

Hope it helps.

www.escape.ca/~kellyd/baffleinstructions.pdf

 

[Gidge]

Kelly,

cool idea, dude...I definitely prefer the "controlled" sound of the 2nd clip.....

 

[jitteringjim]

I gotta go against the grain on this one. I liked the first clip best. Both sound good & would work well in a mix, but I think the first clip just sounds more "real."

That Ardvark sounds pretty darn good.

 

[Tekker]

Yep the second one. Tried it with headphones also, totally night and day.

Great job.

-tkr

 

[Prism]

I think it is a matter of preference. I do indeed like the "live sound" on occassion, but I would far rather use the baffles for recording a guitar part in a mix.

Isaiah

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Kelly,

Thanks for those instructions, VERY nicely done. I'm considering giving this a try!

Slackmaster 2000

 

[Henrik]

I think the first take is the best one, if it's to be used in a track with very few other instruments. So if the intention is to only add some vocals I'd prefer the first one. But if the recording was intended for a track with drums, bass, electric guitars and what have you, then I'd by far prefer the baffled version. The more controlled and focused sound would be a lot easier to handle in a mix like that.

The 603's sound great - too bad there is no distribution for Marshall Electronics over here

Anyway, thanks for the post Kelly, I love these A/B comparisons!

Cheers
/Henrik

 

[tdukex]

Nice job all around, Kelly.

 

[Kelly Dueck]

Aw shucks. My pleasure, guys.

 

[Mark H.]

Kelly,

It all sounds great! Many thanks for posting it.

I have a generic question: here I am, late at night taking a break at work (where I have a DSL line), but I have to listen to Kelly's clip on these crappy little computer speakers. The music sounds fine given my office system's limitations, but how do you guys discern the subtle differences that Kelly is talking about? Do you have your computer hooked up to your stereo? To an amp and monitors? Sorry for asking such a basic question -- the computer side of music is completely new to me.

Thanks,

Mark H.

 

[kristian]

I have a PC i buily with a delta soundcard attached. I listen through Event 20/20bas powered monitors with home made mogami cable.

 

[Prism]

I monitored it on my 30+ year old Sony hi-fi speakers with no EQ. They are surprisingly flat with lots of range...but I want to get some actual monitors some day...probably Reveals or 20/20s. As far as speakers go, though, I love these old ones because they're so flat.

Isaiah

 

[CyanJaguar]

for work, a pair of accurate headphones will do the job.
If you have a line out on your pc, then a headphone amp powering the headphones will be even better.

Grado sr60 for $60 are highly accurate, I heard.

 

[nezpierce]

Re: Baffle instructions

...The baffles cost me about $60 Canadian each to make ($40 U.S.) prices may vary in your area. Check out the .pdf for a complete instruction sheet, plus a micing diagram.

Hope it helps.

www.escape.ca/~kellyd/baffleinstructions.pdf

Very cool. I had a smiliar idea in which I was going to make baffles with one side thick foam and the other side with carpet remnants as a way to have two levels of sound deadening to choose from but I haven't got a round to it just yet. I also thought I might have to put wheels on them considering the weight once they are completed. Perhaps using a thin foam (like your first layer) may get similar results to the remnants but without the added weight.

hmmmmmmmmmm.

Love the PDF though, I can just point to it when my lovely wife askes what the hell am I building... hehe

nP