heylow
New member
I've been meaning to post this as some may get a kick out of it.
About two weeks ago I helped a friend do a session at a real studio like I often do. He's a freelance guy and lets me be his assistant...sometimes I do a little production...you know the drill...do the dirty work and get paid in experience. It's nice actually.
Anyway in this case I was doing a little of both. This guy he had been doing a record for had a song that was more my speciality and needed a drum loop and a little bit of an out there Bowie kind of feel.
The deal is, this guy has a good strong voice and had previously been recorded on one of those tube Bell mics and it sounded good but not awesome so this engeneer tried a few different things before putting in front of him and his guitar an old 414, a broken EV that sounded cool like an am radio and an old Altec 681 he found buried in the mic closet and wondered what it was.
He commences to setting up and getting levels and with all mics on we are getting the coolest vocal I've heard in there. Assuming it's the 414 doing the magic, he shuts off the other two and the magic goes away. He narrows it down to find it's the Altec all by it's little self!!
This Altec 681 is a wierd old green dynamic omni with it's own cord attached costing about $100 nowadays. None of us could believe it sounded so incredibly right....rich and full....not hyped but certainly not lo fi.
I'm not saying this mic is beats the other mentioned mics everytime but it sure goes to show you don't always need that $1000 or $2000 mic to get the job done and done right!
Just a cool experience...gotta vent somewhere...trying telling that story to a non recording buddy and watch him try to look interested
heylow
Rock Jedi/Indie Snob
www.heylowsoundsystem.net
About two weeks ago I helped a friend do a session at a real studio like I often do. He's a freelance guy and lets me be his assistant...sometimes I do a little production...you know the drill...do the dirty work and get paid in experience. It's nice actually.
Anyway in this case I was doing a little of both. This guy he had been doing a record for had a song that was more my speciality and needed a drum loop and a little bit of an out there Bowie kind of feel.
The deal is, this guy has a good strong voice and had previously been recorded on one of those tube Bell mics and it sounded good but not awesome so this engeneer tried a few different things before putting in front of him and his guitar an old 414, a broken EV that sounded cool like an am radio and an old Altec 681 he found buried in the mic closet and wondered what it was.
He commences to setting up and getting levels and with all mics on we are getting the coolest vocal I've heard in there. Assuming it's the 414 doing the magic, he shuts off the other two and the magic goes away. He narrows it down to find it's the Altec all by it's little self!!
This Altec 681 is a wierd old green dynamic omni with it's own cord attached costing about $100 nowadays. None of us could believe it sounded so incredibly right....rich and full....not hyped but certainly not lo fi.
I'm not saying this mic is beats the other mentioned mics everytime but it sure goes to show you don't always need that $1000 or $2000 mic to get the job done and done right!
Just a cool experience...gotta vent somewhere...trying telling that story to a non recording buddy and watch him try to look interested
heylow
Rock Jedi/Indie Snob
www.heylowsoundsystem.net
