Can a mic do all that?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fairmont
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Fairmont

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The other day I went to hear Ralph Nader speak in a small theater. Cool speech. But, before he came on there was a bluegrass trio (well, I think it was bluegrass). One singer (who played rhythm guitar), a sitdown slide guitar, and an upright basists. The bass, I could tell, had a wireless, but the other two guitars did not. There was one mic, rectangular in shape, that the singer sang into. The guy sitting next to me told me that the mic was also picking up his guitar and the slide guitarist sitting next to him.

Can one mic do all that? The sound was incredible, even in the back of the theater. Perfect mixing.

When they finished, both guitarists walked to the side of the stage and placed their guitars immediately into cases. Didnt look like they had any wires.

So, again, can a mic do all that?
 
yep, that's real common in bluegrass circles. It's sort of a tradition that goes back to the old live radio days
 
Very common in Bluegrass. Back in the day it was an RCA ribbon. A lot of bands now use AT4033's.
 
Del McCourey Band uses a single LD condensor. It's a lot of footwork for those guys playing 200mph to get in the sweet-spot for their solos.

Doyle Lawson had a pair of KSM44's spaced about 5-6 feet apart. When lawson did his solo, he completed the triangle. His band did some shuffling too for various solos and harmonies.

A lotta folks may not dig bluegrass, but the top-flite guys in the field really know how to use the mic. Rowan, Jerry Douglas, any of the fiddlers.......... it seems like when you see the really world-class acts they use the mic for a huge part of their dynamic performance.

Seems kinda different from the way we might tend to look at pointing a mic at a certain place on a guitar and leaving it there. Guess it depends a lot on the room and the player........
 
So, given that they really were using just one mic (with the exception of the upright bass player), I guess I'm wondering what a good mic would be if I just wanted to sit down, play guitar, sing, and record. I'd like it to come back sounding exactly how it went in.

Is that asking too much?

I mean, obviously, when I play and sing into an older analog 4-track it sounds like total crap. I'd love to just push record (digital recorder?), play, sing, and then when I play it back through stereo speakers, have it sound exactly like I was playing it.

What kind of setup can do that?
 
It's not just the mic. A lot has to do with the room it's in. The further you get from the mic, the more the room it's in comes into play. In a small room (like the average room in a home) it can be a real issue.
 
Fairmont said:
So, given that they really were using just one mic (with the exception of the upright bass player), I guess I'm wondering what a good mic would be if I just wanted to sit down, play guitar, sing, and record. I'd like it to come back sounding exactly how it went in.

Is that asking too much?

I mean, obviously, when I play and sing into an older analog 4-track it sounds like total crap. I'd love to just push record (digital recorder?), play, sing, and then when I play it back through stereo speakers, have it sound exactly like I was playing it.

What kind of setup can do that?
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Well, a decent pair of SD condensors in X/Y configuration would probably do just fine, with you 3-5 feet away from them.

For a single mic for that purpose, I can't beat my AEA R44.
 
Fairmont said:
I'd love to just push record (digital recorder?), play, sing, and then when I play it back through stereo speakers, have it sound exactly like I was playing it.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much what any recording setup will do.

If you know what you're doing, and if it's in the right environment. Problem is that a lot of people don't fully realize just how bad they really sound in certain environments, and a recording chain isn't going to cover up for that.
 
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chessrock said:
That's pretty much what any recording setup will do.

If you know what you're doing, and if it's in the right environment. Problem is that a lot of people don't fully realize just how bad they really sound in certain environments, and a recording chain isn't going to cover up for that.
Click to expand...

And the further up the food chain you go the more you hear the shortcomings of the room and the performance. :)
 
For years now, I've been using a couple of cheap pensil style Radio shack condenser mics, not only for recording my drums, but to record all my vocal tracks. Just recently, I decided to invest a bunch of money into a decent condenser vocal mic, (an Audio Technica AT3035,) and I also bought a Behringer UB802 mixer and a DBX 266XL Dual compressor gate. The reason I bought the Behringer mixer is because the old Peavey PA head I was using does not have phantom power. I'm still getting used to using it and still tweaking it out, but so far, I'm realizing the advantages and the superior sound I'm getting on my recordings compared to the old Radio Shack mics. One main thing I noticed is the fact that I do not have to my new AT3035 mic right up to my mouth. I can be almost a foot away from it while I'm singing and it picks up beautifully. The DBX compressor makes sure that any of my ups and downs in the volume of my singing are nicely evened out, so I don't have to worry about holding the mic too close or too far from my mouth.
So yes, a good mic, if you've got some money to spend, can do a lot more than you think.

Tunes68.
 
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