help micing room ambiance with pre-recorded tracks?

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rubbermonster

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Hello all,

Recently I have been playing around with micing rooms using a set of small diaphragm condensers and playing my pre-recorded tracks through a set of monitors some distance from the mics. This all started due to limited long term access to interesting sounding environments (it’s just me playing, so tracking usually occupies a lot of time) and reverb units really weren’t cutting it for the type of ambiance I’m after (think tom waits or nick cave). So I record the original tracks in a relatively dead room and try to record and later mix in a room sound with the above method (you get the idea..) I guess my question is if this is a useable method. If so, does anyone have any pointers regarding mic placement, monitor placement, eq of the tracks as I’m recording the room, and phase problems I might hit (although my working knowledge of phase is pretty weak). Or is this a ridiculous idea all together? My results haven’t been all that great so far, so I thought I’d come here and see what you guys thought.

Thanks,
Richard
 
Let me make sure I have this right....You are re-recording pre recorded tracks and then listening to them inorder to determine what different mic placement in a room will do????? right????


If that's what you are doing I really don't understand it. I would just experiment and record the instruments that I wanted to record in that room with the different mic placing and formulate my ideas about mic placement and room ambiance that way. Every instrument you are tracking is going to be affected differently by different mic placement in the room and so you might as well just do it that way....especially since ultimately, tracking those instruments is what you are going to be doing anyway.........You're not going to be able to tell much by listening to pre-recorded tracks that were recorded again whilst being played back through you're monitors....



If I misunderstood you, then sorry :)
 
I think that Les Paul did something like that..If I get you right..He would play back his "tracks" thru a small speaker in a dried out old oil tanker{truck}..Speaker at one end then place a mic at the other end and varie the distance to change verbs..Sort of a cool way to get some natural 'verb..Also would work with hallways/bathrooms and wherever your imagination would take you I guess..sounds like fun:)


Don
 
Hey man....I was just thinking....



If you feel like it works for you then more power to you...keep doing it.....

Sometimes the creative way is a great way.........other times it isn't.....use you're own ears....they'll let you know
 
not exactly. I'm trying to record the "sound" of a room with my dry tracks, then introduce the room sound at mixdown with the dry tracks to give the illusion that the instruments were recorded in that environment. Ideally I would just record the instruments in the rooms I want to, but it's proving hard enough just to get use of these spaces long enough to do what I'm talking about. I know all this sounds a little stupid, but i was just wondering if anybody has ever done anything like this with any success.

richard
 
nave: as soon as i responded to your first post, your second one was already up. I'm a very slow typer. thanks for the responses.

devill: that's more along the lines of what i'm talking about. never thought about a tanker truck. very neat.
 
That is actually how a lot of the older albums were mixed. They had echo chambers of different sizes with moveable baffles, mics, and speakers.

I have never really tried it but I would use a very live room like a tiled bathroom or kitchen and mix in as little as possible. Cut the high's a little if it gets too hissy and cut the bass a little if it gets too boomy.

Put the mic a few feet away from the speaker. Keep the volume of the speaker at a low to moderate volume so it doesnt drown out the room ambience.

You can also try weird stuff like putting the mic in a large tube or box for added echo effect.
 
Of course the easiest way is to just use a room while tracking and mix that in as neccessary.
 
Tex's first post was on the mark. Before there was digital reverb, that along with plates/spring reverb was the main way ambience could be added - the chamber presets on today's reverbs are attempts to replicate that method. Tracks were pumped into some kind of reverberant space, be it an oil tanker, a stairwell, or a specifically designed room. Usually the mics were placed at the opposite end from the speakers, or perhaps in the middle of the space, depending on the reflective properties of the chamber.

You definitely don't want the mics near the speakers, because it is the "wet" sound you are after, not the dry.
 
oops, In my earlier post I meant to say use a room MIC while tracking and mix that in as neccessary.
 
thanks guys. i spent the afternoon trying out different things in an old vfw hall here in town. i found, as tex reccomended, that blasting the room full of sound was not the answer. just lowering the initial volume and cutting a little off the high end has helped tremendously. still needs a great deal of work, so i'll keep playing around with it until i get something i really like. i'm about to start digging around the web for articles on these older recordings using the reverb tanks. very fun stuff.

thanks again,
richard
 
Couple of ideas...Also move your "speakers" around...You will be able to "boost" the bass content by useing corners ect.{faceing in and faceing out} Perhaps there will be less of a need to EQ..Also if you lay the speakers on their backs a hardwood floor has a nice resonating quality{mic from above}{slower reflection}..Doing the same with tile floor will give you more edge{faster reflection}Ect.This really sound like a fun thing to do...Let us know how this works out for ya..Good luck

Don
 
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