Any tips on recording with monitor speakers ?

[giraffe]

I once recorded at a studio that had a vocal booth that was shaped wierd. It had a speaker above the door and was kind of 'L' shaped. The spot where the mic was positioned was the spot in the room where the sound from the speaker was completely canceled out. The singer, who is standing a few inches away, could hear the monitor perfectly. The mic picked up nothing of the monitor. It was brilliant, it worked great.

man, i love to have that!

 

[mykemazzei]

U2

Bono apparently records ALL his vocals in the control room with the monitors blaring... a very "live" feel indeed. Although I'm not sure of the techniques used to cancel out bleed, an industry friend says Bono swears by the SM58 vocal mic.

 

[bigtoe]

it's really just how ya look at it...i don't see it as much of a problem. I'll try to post some audio from a job last week where we did it and it worked out fine.

we use the bleed...about 20-30% of folks who have been graciously walking thru our door go without headphones... usually it's the guys who have been recording for years...one guy in particular had just recorded with don dixon and said he'll never use phones again as that's how he did it at don's...yer the boss, i says...amps, vocals, everything this guy won't use the phones...

try to take the incidental parts out of the mix...you know - solos, percussion, stampede of elephants, etc...just give em a good rhythm track, check the bleed, and let em wail...

look at that bleed as a really good chance to beef up your main rhythm track even further. we sometimes need this as our room is only 20X20 - think of the vocal mic as a room mic...

i've tried the speaker outta phase thing - never had it work. would love to hear tips as to how to get that happening with our wedges - though those may not be too clean...i think some sort of tone generator could help get em outta phase...

all that said - it can suck

peace-
Mike

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

Bono apparently records ALL his vocals in the control room with the monitors blaring... a very "live" feel indeed. Although I'm not sure of the techniques used to cancel out bleed, an industry friend says Bono swears by the SM58 vocal mic.

Although the "Unforgettable Fire" recording footage suggests that neither was true at that time.

 

[Farview]

Ambience is bleed that you like.
Bleed is ambience that you don't like.

 

[johnny5dm]

I once recorded at a studio that had a vocal booth that was shaped wierd. It had a speaker above the door and was kind of 'L' shaped. The spot where the mic was positioned was the spot in the room where the sound from the speaker was completely canceled out. The singer, who is standing a few inches away, could hear the monitor perfectly. The mic picked up nothing of the monitor. It was brilliant, it worked great.

Farview, could you maybe draw a diagram and post it here? I'm really really curious...

 

[Farview]

It was January of 1991. I don't really remember the details, it was just a small long goofy shaped room. Once the engineer explained how it worked, I looked at it and it made sense. It was something like this. The monitor was a Urei 12 inch with the horn in the middle of the woofer and it was above the door.

 

[thane1200]

Shotgun mic?????

 

[bigtoe]

Shotgun mic?????

that a kick ass idea. you gotta wonder about the lowend bump...i think they're pretty huge up close.

i bidirectional mic can be your friend in these things as well...

"Ambience is bleed that you like.
Bleed is ambience that you don't like."

amen...that's a really good way to put it.

Mike

 

[Lance135]

Phase...

I thought the idea was to set up the mike and the monitors, record the microphone without the vocalist, then record another track with the vocalist, and combine the two tracks out of phase. The background music (bleed) should be cancelled, leaving only the vocalist. I'm I wrong?

Edit: of course, it may be better to record the vocalist first, so that the mike is in the correct position and the moniter level and mix is the same as when the vocalist was doing his track.

 

[Farview]

I thought the idea was to set up the mike and the monitors, record the microphone without the vocalist, then record another track with the vocalist, and combine the two tracks out of phase. The background music (bleed) should be cancelled, leaving only the vocalist. I'm I wrong?

Edit: of course, it may be better to record the vocalist first, so that the mike is in the correct position and the moniter level and mix is the same as when the vocalist was doing his track.

That isn't what we were talking about, but it is an interesting idea.

 

[Lance135]

Okay, I was a little off the topic, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I believe this was a well-used technique at one time.