skippy
New member
The comment about miking up a stairwell to create an impromptu reverb chamber got me thinking: fun, but kind of tame. Anybody have any favorite you-gotta-be-kidding, don't-try-this-at-home mic techiques they'd like to share? Here's my personal favorite.
1982. Was recording a band with a kind of rude vibe, and the guitarist wanted a really angular, distant, clangy, cat-in-the-Osterizer sorta sound for a certain track. Tried several amps, every mic in the locker, tore out a lot of hair, couldn't satisfy the rather jaded guitarist. Finally in desperation set up a scam: hooked up the old Fender Princeton practice amp to an old whizzer-cone table radio speaker/box with a 75' speaker cable. Ran said cable to the laundry room. Put the speaker in the clothes dryer (no, we didn't turn it on!) and closed the door. Mic'd the dryer from outside by simply laying my most beatup ex-live-snare drum ATM63 directly on the sheetmetal top surface of the dryer, and retrieved the resulting "signal" with a 75' mic cable. Had the guitarist play in the control room listening to this rig in the monitors with the levels cranked to "stun". The laundry room had cinderblock walls, no damping at all, and the result was in every respect completely and utterly apalling: the single least musical sound I have ever recorded. The guitarist *loved* it, and we got the track before the poor table radio's voice coil siezed on the magnet.
I highly doubt that I'm the only one ever to try this one, but it did the trick that day. Anybody else have anything gnarly like this?
1982. Was recording a band with a kind of rude vibe, and the guitarist wanted a really angular, distant, clangy, cat-in-the-Osterizer sorta sound for a certain track. Tried several amps, every mic in the locker, tore out a lot of hair, couldn't satisfy the rather jaded guitarist. Finally in desperation set up a scam: hooked up the old Fender Princeton practice amp to an old whizzer-cone table radio speaker/box with a 75' speaker cable. Ran said cable to the laundry room. Put the speaker in the clothes dryer (no, we didn't turn it on!) and closed the door. Mic'd the dryer from outside by simply laying my most beatup ex-live-snare drum ATM63 directly on the sheetmetal top surface of the dryer, and retrieved the resulting "signal" with a 75' mic cable. Had the guitarist play in the control room listening to this rig in the monitors with the levels cranked to "stun". The laundry room had cinderblock walls, no damping at all, and the result was in every respect completely and utterly apalling: the single least musical sound I have ever recorded. The guitarist *loved* it, and we got the track before the poor table radio's voice coil siezed on the magnet.
I highly doubt that I'm the only one ever to try this one, but it did the trick that day. Anybody else have anything gnarly like this?