Room mics

  • Thread starter Thread starter leavings
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leavings

leavings

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I'm not sure why, but I had never tried using room mics before. Usually I set up a coincident pair next to my guitar or voice and always have to battle for a good stereo image. I tried setting up some room mics today to pick up the ambient sound and the improvement seemed laughably easy. A few questions for everyone:

1) I have some condensers and some dynamics. Today I put the condensers (Rode NT-1 and NT-1a) on my vocal and guitar, and set up a few cheap dynamics on the periphery for the spread. Do you think it would be better to have the dynamics close up and the condensers out wide? Or, should I use condensers/dynamics for everything?

2) Is there any potential downfall to room mics that I might not know about? Can it muddle a stereo signal if it gets broadcast in mono, for example? Anything else you can think of?

3) Why didn't I try this before? Seriously...wtf?

Peter
 
Room mics rule. But beware of phase issues. Set up in mono and then pan. If you do have a mic or two causing a phase problem it'll be easier to hear.
 
Room mics can be very interesting if you use a single omni and compress the snot out of it.
 
You're on to something here...room mics do add significantly to your dynamic possibilities...all the afore mentioned suggestions are spot on. The only thing I could add would be the improved possibility of making things sound worse if the room isn't up to snuff (bad sounding, reflections/phase problems and ambient noise). If you've got a good room for it....do it!
 
my fav. is a figure eight and a cardoid in a wide stereo situation. It's a three leaf clover room mic effect, just better.
 
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