Recording a parrot.

[F_cksia]

Today I had a pianorock/funk band in the studio, to record some songs live. The bassplayer had his girlfriend with him, who brought their parrot. After recording, we did a little experiment by placing him in the vocal booth and recording his sounds when he doesn't see us around.

Nothing happened.

But when I started to play the track back, I forgot there were some headphones on the floor of the booth playing too. right on that moment, the parrot started to scream. So quick I created a new vocal track for take 2. the parrot turned out to have a pretty solid musical feel. Listen for yourself!

BTW: The track is totally unmixed!!
http://www.recordingproject.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=30778

 

[F_cksia]

P.s. Watch Your Speakers/ears At 1:00!!

 

[faderbug]

which one is the parrot?

 

[F_cksia]

The drummer.

 

[drossfile]

that's a pretty interesting result. you could run the parrot track through some reverb and delay and give it the same sort of sound that the trumpet player for pat metheny group achieved on "the way up" for special effect...

 

[drossfile]

LOVE the snare sound, btw.

 

[F_cksia]

Well it's got a lot of reverb already..
I should've compressed it though, you can barely hear all the smaller 'words'.

 

[F_cksia]

LOVE the snare sound, btw.

Thanks! It's two snares actually, you mean the picollo or the regular? The first is just a SM57, second a 57beta./

 

[drossfile]

well, i'm a huge fan of piccolo snares and i know they're damn near impossible to record well. that's why
1) helmet's 'betty' has the ultimate snare sound for me,
2) i think you've done an incredible job capturing this one, and
3) my masters piccolo sounds wretched on my recordings...
can you give me details on the setup? drum, tuning, snare tightness, mic placement/signal chain, etc.

 

[F_cksia]

well, i'm a huge fan of piccolo snares and i know they're damn near impossible to record well. that's why
1) helmet's 'betty' has the ultimate snare sound for me,
2) i think you've done an incredible job capturing this one, and
3) my masters piccolo sounds wretched on my recordings...
can you give me details on the setup? drum, tuning, snare tightness, mic placement/signal chain, etc.

Oh I´m not really sure what drum it was, the drummer of this sessions brought it in. Probably a Sonor 10". Interesting to point are the tambourine-shells at the sides, and it was tuned pretty low actually. When I heard it in the room before recording I didn´t think it would turn out that good, it just didn´t really sound like a high-pitched piccolo. Anyway, really close miking turned out to be not the right way to go, so I ended up using a 57 at 10-15 centimeters, pointing a little at the side of the drum. From that --> Mackie pre --> Terratec EWS 88MT --> CEP 2.0, with a pretty drastic low end rollof and a boost around 3K, with a large Q.

 

[fraserhutch]

I'd have used a polly-directional mic.

 

[F_cksia]

very clever!

 

[drossfile]

Oh I´m not really sure what drum it was, the drummer of this sessions brought it in. Probably a Sonor 10". Interesting to point are the tambourine-shells at the sides, and it was tuned pretty low actually. When I heard it in the room before recording I didn´t think it would turn out that good, it just didn´t really sound like a high-pitched piccolo. Anyway, really close miking turned out to be not the right way to go, so I ended up using a 57 at 10-15 centimeters, pointing a little at the side of the drum. From that --> Mackie pre --> Terratec EWS 88MT --> CEP 2.0, with a pretty drastic low end rollof and a boost around 3K, with a large Q.

hmmm, i think my problem may have been primarily with the close mic. i did a lot of experimentation within the confines of a mic clip, but i've been planning to rework my entire setup once my new kit arrives. i'll be eliminating all clips and incorporating stands exclusively. i'm hoping that makes all the difference in the world. man, i can't believe you got that sound out of one sm57...incredible job.