Who uses a room mic on top of close mic ups?

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thinfinn

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Just interested in what you guys think about adding a room mic while recording live. Is it worth it? (I've never used one so interested in what it might add to the mix)
Cheers.
 
Only if you have a decent room. In a smallish space? I wouldn't. Even in a great room it would be song specific IMHO.
 
thinfinn said:
Just interested in what you guys think about adding a room mic while recording live. Is it worth it? (I've never used one so interested in what it might add to the mix)
Cheers.
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Adding a room mic on... ???

But undoubtedly -- The absolute best way to have a sense of "space" and "depth" in a recording is actually to have space and depth in the recording.

Record every source 6" from the mic and you'll have a "2-D" sounding recording that sits 6" beyond the listening plane (perhaps with an unnatural and disjointed sounding reverb added after the fact to simulate a sense of space).
 
Massive Master said:
Record every source 6" from the mic and you'll have a "2-D" sounding recording that sits 6" beyond the listening plane (perhaps with an unnatural and disjointed sounding reverb added after the fact to simulate a sense of space).
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So it's good to record everything say 6" from the mic and put a room mic in to capture some depth... ?
But it is a rather small room....
 
Adding it on recordings with drums, guitar, keyboard and bass.. (mostly)
 
Well, live as in not overdubbing. Everyone plays together to record..
 
In that scenario...have each person/instrument fairly close miked, so you can have some separation on the tracks...and then put up your room mics where they will pick up the most balanced sound of all the players. That is the tricky part, but no reason not to put up room mics. You can always decide later if you want to use them in the mix or not.

You may want to assemble the players with that in mind, and then use maybe only a single or stereo pair of room mics, placed in the right spot...not a bunch of room mics all over.
 
thinfinn said:
So it's good to record everything say 6" from the mic and put a room mic in to capture some depth... ?
But it is a rather small room....
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Not even necessarily a 'room mics. My rooms aren't all that interesting as well. But just consider introducing some variation- Tracks close and up front, some just backed off a little. Slipping in a rather small amount of distance (or more) gets different size, weight', directness'. It doesn't have to mean one close/dry and the other a 'wet track.
Oooo.. Fig-8s with the back side aimed somewhere interesting.
 
miroslav said:
In that scenario...have each person/instrument fairly close miked, so you can have some separation on the tracks...and then put up your room mics where they will pick up the most balanced sound of all the players. That is the tricky part, but no reason not to put up room mics. You can always decide later if you want to use them in the mix or not.

You may want to assemble the players with that in mind, and then use maybe only a single or stereo pair of room mics, placed in the right spot...not a bunch of room mics all over.
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Just to add in that with the small room minimizing the room's imprint might be the higher one on the list of things to do, but yes track them if you can. You can treat them with the options you might with parallel comp tracks; wild filtered, compression, where a little dab in the mix does it.
 
Room microphones on every recording - keeping them is another story.

Is the band an acoustic type or all out electric and loud?
 
thinfinn said:
So it's good to record everything say 6" from the mic and put a room mic in to capture some depth... ?
But it is a rather small room....
Click to expand...

Appending mixsit -- No, it's a BAD idea to record "everything" from the same distance - That's the point.

A small room - well controlled - is better than no room at all.

Build the soundstage of the recording in your mind and mic things to replicate it.

Is the vocalist right in front of your face? Close mic. Are the guitars several feet back and off to the side? There you go. Drums behind all that an up on a stage? Add a lowered pair of XY or spaced-pair room mics (get it as far away as you can if the room is very small, or if there's a live wall, record the wall from several feet back if you need to).

In any case - After the choice of the source sound, how to pick up that sound is the next most important thing. Space and distance are your friends.
 
Thanks for the ideas, i'll be keeping that in mind.

In response to more sound, it's mostly electric, not loud loud but in the jazz funk sort of genre..
 
Dude, it's all about your room. If the room sucks and yall sound bad in it, a room mic is gonna be terrible. Do you wanna make a good recording, or just sound live? You're probably not gonna achieve both unless your room is very good and yall know how to work it. If this is just for fun or to capture ideas, knock yourself out. If you wanna actually make something worth listening to, get ready to spend some time on it. Tons of trial and error and moving stuff around. Just throwing up room mics isn't gonna get it done.
 
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