OH placement+acoustic threatment

[wannabecomedeat]

hey everyone,

i just but my first condenser, a Studio project b1, i have à dmp3 preamp m-audio delta 1010lt and a 4 preamps 12 input behringer mixer.

have a couple of question:

1- the 1010lt buit in sliders seems to act more like a limiter than anything else, which gets you some pops and arsh me slided down, so i have to push on the lo gain on dmp3 and set the gain down. it feels like i'm not reaching the sweet spot of the dmp3. Can i plug the unbalanced output of the dmp3 to a non-preamped channel of the behringer, then to my sound card (behringer acting just as a volume controler)? Will it be less fuctionnal than my actual setup?

2- used as a overhead, what would be the tipical placement of the mic? (parallel to the ground i suppose?) how high?

3- Since i use a home made e-drum buit with mesh head, i have no cares about lows and snare sounds etc while recording, since there is no sound coming from them. i record in a garage, about 25x25 feets, but with a boat taking half the room. If i wanna get the echo and reverb out of the OH, and on a cheap budget, would some kind of styrofoam in front of the boat and some fiberglass wool on the walls with a sleeping bag rear the drummer be enough? And some carpet on the floor?

4- Where should i place the drum in the left 12x25 feets?

that's about it from now,
many thanks!

 

[4-Man Takedown]

You are just missing something I'm pretty sure, you shouldn't need to use the mixer except for monitoring the dmp3.

What sliders are you talking about on the 1010lt? there's the input sliders, the output sliders and then the mixer. I don't think any of them act as a limiter.

What input are you using on the 1010lt one of the RCA's, or the XLR? The XLR's have jumper settings on the card so you may have to deal with that at some point, but if you are using the RCA's just run one of the outs on the dmp3 into that then click into the M-audio mixer thing, look for the input sliders and see if they may need to be raised. I don't see why you would be getting such low signals though. read over the manual a bunch of times, the 1010lt is kind of a difficult beast when you very first start using it, but then makes more sense quickly.

As to the mic placement, it's a tough call, check out some pictures on the net make like them, and then take a good listen and if it sounds like shit then move it around and keep doing that untill you think it sounds the best you can.

question 4 makes no sense to me.

 

[wannabecomedeat]

hey 4-man,

sorry, i think i didn't made my statements clear.

i'm talking about the input sliders on the 1010lt. Suppose i reach the sweet spot on the dmp3 (something around 12 o'clock) and enter the unbalanced output of the dmp3 to the third rca input of the 1010lt. I then have to lower the input slider of the third input on the 1010lt, which i have to bring down to barely 0. When recording it, what i get is basicly a big black bar, not a wav at all. i tough maibe i could use the behringer between the dmp3 and the rca input, so i can lower the volume entering in the soundcard, with having still de same quality with the dmp3. Maibe i'm totally wrong and even with the low gain pressed and the gain control set to 1/4 volume, everything is allright, but i don't feel it so.

by the way, still haven't found how to use the mixer slider. i think it's to use as a plugin when working with a program, am i right?

as for question 3, all i wanna know is if i'm right to think that deadening the room will be easy since all i have to care is the highs, whish i easily absorbed. If this statement is right, then i can go with cheap material on the walls, and it will do the job.

and question 4, am i better off with the drum in the middle of the 12x25 room, right again the wall, in front of a wall, having more space in front of me or on the sides, that kind of thing...

hope i made it clear,

many thanx!

 

[4-Man Takedown]

hey 4-man,

sorry, i think i didn't made my statements clear.

i'm talking about the input sliders on the 1010lt. Suppose i reach the sweet spot on the dmp3 (something around 12 o'clock) and enter the unbalanced output of the dmp3 to the third rca input of the 1010lt. I then have to lower the input slider of the third input on the 1010lt, which i have to bring down to barely 0. When recording it, what i get is basicly a big black bar, not a wav at all. i tough maibe i could use the behringer between the dmp3 and the rca input, so i can lower the volume entering in the soundcard, with having still de same quality with the dmp3. Maibe i'm totally wrong and even with the low gain pressed and the gain control set to 1/4 volume, everything is allright, but i don't feel it so.

by the way, still haven't found how to use the mixer slider. i think it's to use as a plugin when working with a program, am i right?

as for question 3, all i wanna know is if i'm right to think that deadening the room will be easy since all i have to care is the highs, whish i easily absorbed. If this statement is right, then i can go with cheap material on the walls, and it will do the job.

and question 4, am i better off with the drum in the middle of the 12x25 room, right again the wall, in front of a wall, having more space in front of me or on the sides, that kind of thing...

hope i made it clear,

many thanx!

Hmm, that sucks. I don't have a dmp3, so I can't really help too much, but that's weird that the output is so hot. Maybe someone with one can chime in.

As far as the monitor mixer for the delta 1010lt, I usually switch the outputs 1/2 to "monitor mixer" then hook my monitors to those two outputs so I can control the volume on the computer screen. Also, if you do this you can monitor the inputs as well for doing overdubs and stuff.

Making a garage sound better isn't going to be easy, but you should just experiment with putting things around the drums to see if you can get better frequency response from the cymbals. Blankets and stuff could help, but it would be difficult to give someone a good placement idea. I would think that putting the mic above the cymbals a little more towards the drummers head angled at them might be a good place to start with mic placement. Put some blankets on the walls behing=d you to see if that helps. Placement of drums in the room can be difficult, I usually place mine to get the snare and kick sounding best and i usually like to be kinda near corners for some reason, but your results may vary.

 

[wannabecomedeat]

thanks again for the concern mate

It's just crazy i never realised i could select monitor mixer from the rooter tablet.

And just read back my posts, writing in english feels like i'm dislexic, that feels FREAK

anyway,

cheers

JIP

 

[FALKEN]

why not just go for the garage sound in all its glory? forget blankets... and make sure you throw up a far mic behind the boat... capture all of that nastiness... then you can listen back and always remember your garage and your boat and how it contributed to your awesome sound.

 

[wannabecomedeat]

ahaha that's some good idea and the easiest way to go, but it feels like... hum... a sh**load of reverb in the cymbals!

 

[4-Man Takedown]

ahaha that's some good idea and the easiest way to go, but it feels like... hum... a sh**load of reverb in the cymbals!

Is there a house connected to the garage? Maybe you could try doing the drums in a different room real quick.

 

[wannabecomedeat]

The problem is i'm a university student. I live in an apartment, and have 25 neighboors, so i gotta record at my parents house. If it was just up to me, i would convert the downstair lliving room in a studio, building some acoustic pannels and bass traps. But i'm really not sure my parents would like me to tell them "hey, i got a recording contract for this weekend, could you please get the f*** out of your own house for 3 days", and they would certainly not like to ear 110db out of a drum for 2 full days...

i dream of the day i won't be on a really tight budget, the day i'll have my own house...