Someone recently started a "trick" topic in the mic forum at homerec.com. I thought it was a good idea, and posted a few of my own. I thought I'd stick some tricks here and see what folks could add to the pool.

Widening a stereo image

This is not really for a whole mix, but more for a few tracks like bkg vocals or guitars that you want to give a really wide stereo image.

In this case it's for bkg vocals [ but will work for two tracks of guitars ].

1. Mix your chorus bkg vocals to a pair of L R stereo tracks
2. Copy that stereo pair to a second pair of L R stereo tracks.
3. Take the second pair and reverse the phase on them.
4. Then on the second pair reverse the panning. Make L to R, and R to L.

Set the first stereo pair up in your mix. And then start bringing up the second pair - which has been phase reversed and pan reversed. As you turn up the volume of the second pair you'll hear the image go very wide. You'll get to a point as you increase volume that it will start to be less wide as you begin to introduce too much phase cancellation from the second track. At that point, just back off on the volume of the second track until you hear that it's at its widest.

Try it. You'll be surprised. It's an old trick. : )

Vocal with acoustic guitar

This is a technique for someone who wants to sing and play acoustic guitar at the same time.

Set up the vocal cardioid mic at the height of the singer's mouth about 9" away – give or take a few ".

Put a second cardioid mic down past the bridge - out about 1' or so away from the guitar. And angle the mic at 45 degrees so it's facing the bridge of the guitar.

Set levels and make you're recording.

Then, at mixdown, take the track that used the mic to record the guitar at the bridge, and pan it hard right and reverse the phase. And the track with the vocal should be panned dead center. What will happen is that the guitar track [ while being played with the vocal track on ] will suddenly spread to both speakers and "back up" a bit in the mix – and any of the "boominess" will be gone due to the phase cancellation with the vocal mic. And the track with the vocal will have more room and sit in this nice hole created in the center.

Very effective, and can give a nice, polished sound.

Metal kick drum sound

For a metal kick drum where you want to get that "click" sound... use a wooden beater, and duct tape a big metal washer to the kick drum batter head right at the contact point. I'd suggest putting a few pieces of duct tape on the kick batter head before applying the washer, just to give it a little extra padding so that the washer doesn't tear through the batter head.

Using a Shure Beta 52 is a good large dynamic kick drum mic for getting that metal "click" sound.

Coool Dot! I'm gonna copy all this stuff.

Something I've been playing with lately is when running close and ambient mics on a heavy guitar running the close mic through a delay with no direct volume back a few milliseconds. The tone changes as different freq's go in and out of phase. Saved my ass on a few phase problems. Works with bass direct and mic'd too.

Cos.

quote:

Originally posted by Dot:
Widening a stereo image

This is not really for a whole mix, but more for a few tracks like bkg vocals or guitars that you want to give a really wide stereo image.

In this case it's for bkg vocals [ but will work for two tracks of guitars ].

1. Mix your chorus bkg vocals to a pair of L R stereo tracks
2. Copy that stereo pair to a second pair of L R stereo tracks.
3. Take the second pair and reverse the phase on them.
4. Then on the second pair reverse the panning. Make L to R, and R to L.


Try it. You'll be surprised. It's an old trick. : )

Dot,

This sounds good, I'll give it a go..I usually use the "stereo widener" SX plug on bgv's, and delay one slightly.

...guess I'm just lazy.

-Stixxs

Cool tips. Will the two phase-related tips do any major damage to a mix's mono compatibility?

My tip:

Keep a minimum of 1 roll console (or "art") tape and 2 rolls duct tape (I prefer Duck brand to 3m) on hand and within reach at all times.



Trust me.

I have a trick for acoustic guitar that works pretty well in the mix.

When recording a rock group with the lead vocalist also playing rythmn acoustic guitar, I had a mic on the guitar and another track DI from the built-in pickup. Mainly this was with a decent Taylor, but I have done it a little with other guitars. I just pan the DI and mic channels hard to opposite sides and then EQ then just a little different. It makes a nice wide sound that sits well with the rest of the band.

Couple of things come to mind:

- EVERYONE tunes with one tuner...if it is a bit off somewhere, its off for everyone, not just the second guitarist...

- Parallel compression for drum submixes, one squished half to death the other totally as is...keep things pretty even without eliminating dynamics

- Everyone can have good ideas - even drummers...listen to what they are saying...

- The more you can get done without headphones (artists interacting) the easier and better your mix will be.

- Turn the distortion level DOWN so it still sounds like a guitar...if you need more, re-amp or add it via software, but remember you can't UNdistort a part.

Ken

I've been using the blue painters masking tape(Home Depot) to modify drum head ringing. When the session's over the tape comes off clean and easy.

Not as cheap as blue tape, but Ronan turned me onto the Remo drum tone rings at HRBC. When I got back to my studio I picked up a set of the RemOs ane a set of ZerOring "drum mufflers" and have used parts of one or the other in pretty much every drum session I've had since (ok so that's only like 3 or 4 sessions but hey, we got alot of work done).

Well worth the $20 especially if you end up working with drummers who aren't anal enough with their kits.

quote:

Originally posted by TAPKAE:

quote:

I've been using the blue painters masking tape(Home Depot) to modify drum head ringing. When the session's over the tape comes off clean and easy.

I try to use a tuning key, my fingers, and my ears.

So, which one works then? Is the inside of your ear hard enough to turn a lug nut??


I would pay to watch you run around a snare drum with the side of your head laying on the drum head, man, tickets would sell!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Darius:
I've been using the blue painters masking tape(Home Depot) to modify drum head ringing. When the session's over the tape comes off clean and easy.

I keep a box of the thin kotex panty liners around. I'll just take a pair of scissors and cut a piece, peel of the adhesive strip and stick 'em to the drum head. The less the ring, the smaller the piece I'll cut and vice versa.

I'll also start handing them out when people start whining too much

I was playing around with some guitar sounds the other night. I had an old pair of headphones plugged into my VOX practice amp with the ball of a SM 58 shoved into one of the earcups, held in place with a little duct tape. I got some unique and wicked tones with that setup.

When mixing...

Never pan anything to exactly the same spot. Put your kick at one tic to the left, and your bass at one tic to the right.

Stereo keyboards don't all need to be wide panned. If you have more than one, try the first at 8 o clock and 2 o clock, and the second at 10 and 4.

Or...
Do the exact opposite.
Pan things either hard left right or mono, the main elemets of the mix being mono. A good mostly mono mix tends to have more punch and clarity in my humble opinion.

Kind regards

Sosa

I'm just giving this thread a bump.

Some really great tips that I want to try.

Peace,

Fox

Alright, here's my tip. To avoid a harsh hi-hat recording, place the tip of your microphone about an inch outside of the outer edge of the hat and then move it about two inches above the edge of the hat. Finaly, instead of pointing the mic at the hat, point it straight down at the floor. I've found that this mic placement gives me a little more wispy sound that seems to set in with the mix a little better.

Thanks for the Metal kik tip. Have a big metal drum session in a couple of months that I'd like to try that on.