How does diaphragm size/polar pattern relate to mic applications?

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What A Loss For Us..

Harvey Gerst said:
Try the SM57's spaced out wide (about 6 to 8 feet apart), with the 4040 in the center. Back at least 4 to 6 feet (maybe more, if the room acoustics allow it).

I've pretty much given up on posting in this forum, but maybe one of the regular "contributors" can help you further. In particular, listen to people like Richard Monroe, chessrock, Blue Bear, acorec, and a few others here that actually have some real experience in recording.
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I have followed your wonderful teachings here..Printed stuff out
and really appreciated your help here,,,U leaving is a great loss for the rest
of us,.,. Thank you Sir for all this wonderful help.

Your Student
Steve Mc
 
STEPLIN said:
I have followed your wonderful teachings here..Printed stuff out
and really appreciated your help here,,,U leaving is a great loss for the rest
of us,.,. Thank you Sir for all this wonderful help.

Your Student
Steve Mc
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Steve, as long as knowledgable people (like Richard Monroe, chessrock, Blue Bear, acorec, and a few others) stick around here, you'll still get a lot of great and useful advice. My leaving the mic forum is less of a loss than you think.
 
Harvey Gerst said:
Steve, as long as knowledgable people (like Richard Monroe, chessrock, Blue Bear, acorec, and a few others) stick around here, you'll still get a lot of great and useful advice. My leaving the mic forum is less of a loss than you think.
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Add my name to the public roster of folks that are amazed and very grateful for your extensive, authorative and genuinely friendly internet presence over the years. The information in this thread alone is a small goldmine.

Seriously, Harvey - you've earned my respect more than once and long before I ever found out that you've worked with Frank Zappa. (amongst hordes of others, but I'm a Zappa freak of 20 years and counting).

It's sad that you have to move on, but it's your choice and I can understand and respect that as well. (As much as I don't have to like it.)


sl
 
snow lizard said:
Add my name to the public roster of folks that are amazed and very grateful for your extensive, authorative and genuinely friendly internet presence over the years. The information in this thread alone is a small goldmine.

Seriously, Harvey - you've earned my respect more than once and long before I ever found out that you've worked with Frank Zappa. (amongst hordes of others, but I'm a Zappa freak of 20 years and counting).

It's sad that you have to move on, but it's your choice and I can understand and respect that as well. (As much as I don't have to like it.)


sl
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I'm glad that I've been able to help in some small way. It's a long learning curve (that never seems to end - I'm still learning).

Frank Zappa was an amazing individual and I still miss him a great deal. Had he lived longer, I'm sure we'd have heard some even greater things from his wonderfully inventive mind.
 
I'm too young to have known zappa in his time, but when i did discover him, his work moved me to have the motivation, integrity, and of course, humor that i do now. I even went to Berklee college of music mostly because of him. Your work here has also been instrumental in my directed search for knowledge on many many things. Thanks again harvery, i'll look out for you in other forums.
 
I'm not an engineer--I only play one on tv

I'm a musician. Okay, maybe I'm not really a musician, more accurately I'm a songwriter. Mostly I write my songs on the guitar, but I don't consider myself a guitarist. I can carry a tune and have a passing singing voice, but I'm not really a singer. Another thing I know I'm not and that is an engineer! Being creative comes to me a lot easier than being smart! But wanting a home studio requires me to try to be both, so I go grumbling down the path of science so I can create something that sounds good when I play it back.
I was about to plunk down $200 for a new condensor mic (I was this close to ordering the AT3035) to use for vocals in my modest little home studio, and thought I'd better check out the mic forum and see if I can learn anything useful about microphones before I spend the money. That was a huge mistake because I stumbled onto Harvey's mic tutorial! I now feel compelled to try and assimilate all of this cool knowledge for fear of buying the wrong one... it really goes against my natural tendencies; which is to buy first--regret later! Thanks a lot for screwing up my plans! :D --NvdP
 
WOW, what a Thread

Thanks to the folks at reso-nation I discovered this site today. Its going to take me a week to read it all but I'm looking forward to it. This info sure has answered a lot of questions about micing my Dobro. I'm currently using a Shure SM58 for my vocals and an AKG c1000s for my instrument. What little I've so far read has helped me understand the problems I've been having getting a pure sound out of my instrument. The AKG seems to be the preferred mic for that purpose and it does deliever. I've lots of reading ahead so thanks for all the great info and keep it coming.
 
I just bought a Trinity River resonator guitar (Chinese) for the studio, so I'm gonna be playing around with different mic techniques over the next month or so. Maybe I'll pull out some of the old Flatt and Scruggs or Kentucky Colonels stuff I recorded in the 60's and see how far this recording business has really come in 45 years.

I can see where an AKG C1000 "might" sound good on dobro, but also try the MXL 603 (at about 1/2 the price). Last bluegrass group I had in here ("Up The CreeK"), I used the MXL 603 on the guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, and Dobro. Used an MXL V77 on all the vocals, and a Behringer ECM8000 on upright bass. Ended up sounding pretty good.
 
I just bought a Trinity River resonator guitar (Chinese) for the studio, so I'm gonna be playing around with different mic techniques over the next month or so.
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Where do you place the mic(s)? How far away? Pointed toward the resonator, the grilles, the neck? Let us know your findings.
 
Recording Flatt and Scruggs or the Kentucky Colonels was easy; just put up some mics and let Josh (and Leroy) figure it out.

With this last band, I used the 603 a little closer to the resonator than normal; about 12" above - pointed kinda between the grilles and the pie plate.
 
Sleeping on the Couch

Harvey, Good to see you're still checking in. I have a quick question. The acoustic guitar that I own isn't the greatest, it's a Takamine that I've had for over 25 years. A large diaphragm condensor is supposed to help color and enhance the tone of my guitar in recordings, right? I have an sm-57 which has been doing the job for me on everything from vocals to guitar to percussion and harmonica in my recordings. I'd like to start adding to my mic collection but, the wife won't let me spend my paycheck on my hobby, so my question is: Will a low-end ($100 - $200) large diaphragm mic be worthwhile for me, or should I bite the bullet and spend some more and risk the couch for a few nights? Please don't tell me to buy a better guitar! Thanks for your advice!
 
With the right strings on it, a 25 year old Takamini should sound pretty nice. Yeah, a better mic would help, and no, it doesn't hafta cost a fortune these days. some guitar mic cadidates would be the Oktava MC012, the MXL 603, and the Studio Projects B1 - all sell for under $100.

For vocals, the MXL V67G is a warm mic for less than $100, and there are a ton of brighter, large diaphragm mics out there (at under $100) that might work fine on your voice.
 
Thanks, Harvey! Yeah, I guess I shouldn't put all the blame on my poor ol' guitar... it would help if I was a better guitarist!

I really appreciate the mic suggestions. I'm excited to run out today and find me a couple of new mics! Take care.
 
I'm still reading, trying to catch up, and wanted to say thanks for all the great info Harvey. I read the first ten pages twice, there were only 20 pages when I started, and now there are over 30. I skipped to the end to see if you were still around. I couldn't believe the nasty remarks. I haven't run into them yet, I expect I will.

I just wanted you to know there's one more learner out here who is grateful.
 
Oldwood, I'm glad you're finding some useful things in this thread.

As far as nasty remarks go, yeah, I'm getting a lot more of them these days. At this point, my "rep power" is actually reversing, going down.

It's kinda hard for me to believe that even though this thread has received almost 110,000 views, only 89 people thought it valuable enough to even rate it (and a few of those raters thought the thread was worthless).

It is discouraging to me at times.
 
I don't think too many people take thread ratings too seriously. I know I don't often rate threads, although I have made sure to rate this one just now :)

To be honest I haven't had the time to read through the whole of this thread, but I know it's been influential to some, and many of your posts have been invaluable to me and others. It's great to know that there's someone with the knowledge and effort that you have.

I hope it's possible to still find some encouragement!
 
Harvey Gerst said:
Oldwood, I'm glad you're finding some useful things in this thread.

As far as nasty remarks go, yeah, I'm getting a lot more of them these days. At this point, my "rep power" is actually reversing, going down.

It's kinda hard for me to believe that even though this thread has received almost 110,000 views, only 89 people thought it valuable enough to even rate it (and a few of those raters thought the thread was worthless).

It is discouraging to me at times.
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It's more than valuable enough, although it never occurred to me to rate it (until now). Worthless? Only to people who think they already know everything.
 
WHOHA, 32 pages ! finally done reading everything ! my god,
harvey and all the rest, this is thé most interesting information i've ever read on microphones !! and i've read a bunch of books already...

i made my own word doc with the most valuable comments here,
and believe me , it IS way better than the courses they give in the school of audio engineering !!! i am utterly impressed by your knowlegde, and i can understand that some people might insult you for giving away all this info, "all these secrets", but i think they're not jaleause, but scared, that "little people" like me might become real scary engineers one day, and thanks to you it can happen so much faster :D

now i'm on the lookout for a similar thread about FX and dynamics ;)

rockon !!
 
Thank you, I'm glad you found some of it useful.

Perhaps now, you can see why I find so much of the arguing and bickering here upsetting. It prevents us from having more threads like this.
 
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