This past weekend I spent a lot of time in the car, so I pulled out the iPod and listened to the entire “Joe Gilder catalog,” almost every song that I’ve written and recorded over the years.
As I listened back to some of those very first recordings, it reminded me of all the stupid mistakes I’ve made along the way, particularly with microphones.
Here’s a list of eight microphone mistakes, and yes, I’ve done all of them.
1. Not using a pop filter
This may seem silly, but it took me several years to finally buy a pop filter. Perhaps you can relate. You spend $80 on your first cheap condenser microphone. It looks amazing in your studio, so you start using it, and the thought of buying a $20 pop filter never enters your mind.
After all, all the singers in those microphone advertisements are singing directly into the mic without a pop filter…and those ads are always super-accurate, right?
On Day 12 we talked about keeping it simple, and only using one microphone for each instrument. These limitations can force you to be more efficient and creative.
There are certainly situations, though, where it’s a good idea to use multiple microphones on a single source. I almost always use two microphones when I record acoustic guitar, for example.
Flashlight Mics
Some instruments are large (acoustic guitar, piano, drum kit); others are small (human voice, harmonica, kazoo). It can be helpful to imagine that your microphones are flashlights. Wherever the light shines, that’s where the microphone is picking up sound. For larger instruments, you may need more “light,” so multiple microphones might be necessary.
If you place a flashlight 2 inches from the 12th fret on an acoustic guitar, it will illuminate a tiny little area…it will hardly light up the entire guitar. When your microphone is that close, the recorded signal will sound a lot like that little section of the guitar rather than the entire instrument.
One of the biggest challenges we face as home recording engineers — or is it recordists? Heck, I don’t know — is low-mids.
Initially, when you’re recording everything, you want a really rich, full sound. You want everything to sound…wait for it…warm.
Once everything is recorded, you start mixing, you want to blend everything together and have it sound amazing, but you find that no matter what you do, everything sounds muddy.
When you solo the guitar, it sounds great. When you solo the drums, they sound great. When you solo the vocal, it sounds great. But for some reason when you play everything together it’s a big mush-ball of low-mids.
Setting up for a recording session takes time. You’ve got to deal with mics, stands, cables, etc. It’s normal to want to jump in as soon as possible and start recording.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this. Three hours later…I’ve recorded a lot of material, THEN I listen. If it sounds bad, then I’ve wasted three hours of my life.
Front-Load Your Sessions
It’s understandable to want to rush through the setup process to get to the “good stuff.” If that sounds like you, I want you to try something.
Next time you have a session, make a conscious effort to to spend twice as much time setting up the microphones as you normally would.
In the 12 Home Studio Necessities series, I talked about microphones. Regardless of the style of music you’re recording/producing, you’ll need to use a microphone from time to time.
If you’re like me, you use a mic for almost everything you record.
There are hundreds of mics to choose from. It can easily become overwhelming. You could buy microphone after microphone, in search of the perfect combination.
Just One Microphone
Ever heard the phrase “less is more”? It really applies to home studios, especially if you’re starting out.
It’s easy to hop on some of the popular forums and hear a hundred different engineers recommend a hundred different microphones. Before you know it, you’re starting to think you need a whole closet full of microphones to have any hope of making good recordings.
That’s not necessarily true. Having all of those microphones doesn’t guarantee you’ll make better recordings.
Last week I posted a video called Intro to Microphones. This week, let’s follow the signal past the microphone and into the microphone preamp.
A preamp is one of those necessary items for your studio. Either your audio interface will have built-in preamps, or you’ll use external preamps. Enjoy!
Ah, microphones. They can be so much fun to use and collect, but if you’re just starting out, you may not really know what different types of microphones exist out there. Hope this helps!
…when using two microphones to record a source, normally you will get the best results by placing the second mic three times the distance from the first mic that the first mic is from the source. Confusing? An example: If the first mic is 1 foot from a source, the second mic should be placed 3 feet from the second mic. Using the 3:1 Rule will minimize phase problems created by the time delay between mics.
This rule originated when engineers were micing multiple sources in the same vicinity. The same principle applies. If you are recording two different sources of sound, their respective microphones should be at least three times further apart than they are close to their respective sources. Keep in mind that rules are meant to be broken; you may prefer the sound created by ignoring the 3:1 Rule – experiment and let your ears be your guide!
This past weekend I spent a lot of time in the car, so I pulled out the iPod and listened to the entire “Joe Gilder catalog,” almost every song that I’ve written and recorded over the years.
After writing 
