On our next Console Live Chat Live Stream we are actually going to do some recording!
If you’ve joined us for one of our Console Side Chat Live Streams then you know we cover a LOT of topics. The best part being that we get to hang out with all of you!
Since our topic of conversation always centers around recording music we decided to have a little fun and record a little ditty live during the stream! The setup will be drums (2 mics only!), bass, electric guitar and acoustic guitar.
But……
We need your help in selecting the mics we’re going to use for the recording. We’ve created a simple poll with a set of mics for each instrument and we need to you vote. Sunday before the live stream we’ll tally the votes, setup up the session and go live!
The pandemic has pushed us to find new ways to demonstrate gear. While Ultimate Studios, Inc is an official showroom for Roswell Pro Audio the pandemic has made it harder to do in-studio microphone demos.
Harnessing our live-streaming capabilities we helped Roswell Pro Audio develop a Virtual Showroom live stream that allows us to demonstrate how their microphones sound on a variety of sources. In real-time to engineers and producers anywhere in the world!
Iron Point recording EP1-3
To date we have some 4 episodes. In the first 3 episode, featuring LA Rock band Iron Point, we recorded a full song using just 3 Roswell mics and 1 from MicrParts (Matt McGlynn’s other mic business). The Mini K87, Mini K47, Mini K47 KD and the MicParts SDC84. We tracked acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, bass, drums and percussion. All live!
Gabby Gordon recording EP4
Episode 4 featured singer-songwriter Gabby Gordon on Piano and Vocals. We used 2 other Roswell mics for this Virtual Showroom live stream. The Colares and Delphos.
These Virtual Showrooms not only allow us to demonstrate the microphones in real-time all over the world but we can interact with viewers and answer questions. It’s a virtual studio hang!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, CA.Panorama City, CA 91402 www.UltimateStudiosInc.com We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
I get a lot of questions about how I get sound from the console to the computer. And while every console/mixer is a bit different it’s really a pretty simple setup that I’ll explain in this video (with some cool animations too!)
I will also answer a common question I get from some of you about using budget mixers not necessarily meant for recording. Some don’t have the necessary outputs to do a full multi-tracked session so what can you do? We’ll discuss that in this video too!
Studio wiring doesn’t have to be super complicated at first. As you start adding more outboard gear it can get messy but with a basic understanding of what you’re doing and a little planning it’s possible to get a smooth setup that makes all of your sessions run smooth.
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402 https://www.ultimatestudiosinc.com
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music! Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Contact us for more information about how we can help you achieve your musical goals!
For episode 2 of the new Microphone Monday series I decided to make 180? turn and pick one of my favorite dynamic mics. The Heil PR30.
If you have followed my videos you already know that I love the PR30. It’s quite possibly my favorite tom mic ever and also gets used on guitar cabinets a lot. The nice round low mid, tight low end and forward mid-range make it easy to work with in a mix.
Plus it has fantastic off-axis rejection. That comes in real handy when you are miking a tom and there are cymbals in close proximity.
Besides toms and guitar cabs I’ve had great luck with the Heil PR30 on overheads (especially in a live situation), hi-hat and bass cab. Wait till you hear the bass in this video! It’s tight and punchy.
Recording bass with the Heil PR30
Another place I’ve had great luck with the PR30 is vocals. The smooth but pronounced mid-range make it a no brainier on a vocal. Heil Sound also make a handheld version called the PR35.
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402 https://www.ultimatestudiosinc.com
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music! Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Contact us for more information about how we can help you achieve your musical goals!
I’m really excited about this new series on the Ultimate Studios, Inc YouTube channel. It’s called “Microphone Monday”. Ernesto and I will record a short little ditty using only 1 microphone at a time. We tracked drums (using only 2 mics!), bass, guitar and piano.
Every Monday for the next 6 weeks we’ll feature a different mic from the mic locker at Ultimate Studios.
This is something I’ve wanted to do for quite sometime now and we are finally doing it.
Why have I wanted to do this?
Audio-Technica AT4047 recording guitar
First off I love the challenge of recording something with only a few tools. It puts more emphasis on the player and makes the engineer focus on the best mic placement possible.
Second, I was really interested in hearing how each mic would contribute to the overall sound when being used on ALL of the instruments.
And thirdly, to hear each mic on every instrument at the same time was also a great reset for the ears. Like many engineers working on a daily basis we tend to fall into patterns that we know work. Using one mic on all of these sound sources and then another and another was a great way to really hear the difference in how they capture a source.
This really helps in knowing what tools to use for a particular color or vibe. After all microphones are basically paintbrushes for an engineer.
The approach
Audio-Technica AT4047 recording piano
We setup each mic in pretty much the same position for each take. There are a few differences but the setups are very similar. There are multiple ways we could have approached each mic but we felt it was best to setup them up as close as possible. It seems to have worked well and makes it possible to get an idea of how each mic works.
To kick off the new series I chose the Audio-Technica AT4047. It’s a fantastic microphone and one of my favorites. Check out the video below and please subscribe to the YouTube channel!
I LOVE experimenting with drum room miking. I also love finding techniques that can work in any room, provide some extra vibe and give me extra options during mix down. That to me is a win win!
In our last window we used an amp to create a vibey room sound but in this video we’ll use a wall!
One technique (or trick if you will) that I have used for a long, long time is miking the wall. Yes, miking the wall!
My mic of choice for this is the ubiquitous SM57 and by placing the mic as close to the wall as possible, so a business card can barely fit between the wall and the mic, the 57 is turned into a boundary mic. The 57 is already filtered on the top and bottom by nature and the wall tends to add to that.
I like this because that can help soften the cymbals a little as well as smearing the transient in a really cool way. This is what allowed me to get a “room sound” in my old studio that was pretty small and didn’t actually sound great. Add a little compression and you can get some real excitement out of this one microphone!
Now every room is different. As always I highly recommend experimenting in your room to find the best placement. And don’t forget the floor is a wall too!
Check out the video below and let me know how this works for you!
Happy recording!
Charlie
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, CA.
Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
Recording in a room that doesn’t allow for room mics? I have something for you to try!
Getting a drum room sound can be challenging without a good sounding room. Especially if your recording at home or in a rehearsal space or another space not designed for getting good acoustic drum sounds.
I like to find ways to not only get space from my room sounds but also a VIBE! You know, a sound that adds some cool sauce to your tracks and also puts a unique stamp on them.
One of the things I’ve done lately is run a microphone in front of the kit, in this case and SM57, into a guitar amp in my ISO booth and miking the amp. At that point you can do all sorts of fun stuff with mic placement, amp settings, distortions, EQ, mic types, etc..
When the sounds are used in moderation this technique can add a space around your kit without sounding too roomy but if used heavily it can really add some cool color to your tone. For this video I chose to use my Marshall JCM2000 but you can try this with any amp. My cheap little Fender 212 sounded pretty cool!
If you’re really interested in experimenting try putting some different guitar pedals in front of the amp. This is also a good way to bond with your guitar player! 🙂
Give it a shot and leave a comment how it worked for you and what amp(s) you tried!
Happy recording
Charlie
More about Ultimate Studios, Inc.
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, CA.
Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
At Ultimate Studios, Inc we understand that the recording process is just the beginning. That’s why we have a full team to help you create an online presence with full web development, SEO, advertising coaching and designing for Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
Recording Percussion with Ed Roscetti & Maria Martinez
Getting to work with people that helped shape you as a musician is always a special treat. I had an absolute blast recording percussion with Ed Roscetti and Maria Martinez. Many moons ago I studied with both of them at Musicians Institute. Ed taught me how to play a true shuffle (we spent 3 weeks doing 1 single exercise until I could make it feel right!) and Maria helped me understand that latin grooves weren’t mere patterns to better your independence, they were words of a language.
We spent an entire day recording percussion and shooting promo video for Ed and Maria’s World Beat Rhythms Workshops. These workshops are really cool and are totally interactive. Ed and Maria perform using drumset along with a variety of hand drums and percussion instruments, moving from one instrument to another in the ensemble (exactly how they did it while we recorded). Instruments include drumset, djembe, doumbek, shaker, surdo, d-jun-d-jun, conga, batas, clay tones, mambo bell, shekere, klong yaw, tumbadora. But the cool part is how they get the ENTIRE audience involved. Everyone there gets a chance at hands on learning. It’s cool.
For our day of recording I had the challenge of setting of a mic configuration that would allow Ed and Maria to go to any instrument at any time and still capture that sound well. Whether it was the drumset, djembe, shakers, congas, surdo or tambourine, they needed the freedom to create and I had to capture it. At the same time all the instruments had to be in frame since they were recording with only 1 camera.
After a pre-production call with Ed about how they wanted to stage the instruments in the room I came up with a plan that would hopefully give them freedom to move where they wanted and not miss a note. It worked out really well so I decided to shoot a little behind the scenes video of the setup.
Watch behind the scenes footage from the session below.
About Ultimate Studios, Inc
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a full service recording studio, mixing studio and band development resource located in Los Angeles, Van Nuys, North Hollywood, Panorama City, CA 91402
We believe EVERYONE deserves great sounding music!
Ultimate Studios, Inc is a boutique production facility for artists and bands to collaborate, create, and record.
Led by Producer/Engineer Charlie Waymire, our team assists artists through the entire creative process including recording, mixing, mastering, and video production.
At Ultimate Studios, Inc we understand that the recording process is just the beginning. That’s why we have a full team to help you create an online presence with full web development, SEO, advertising coaching and designing for Facebook, YouTube and Google.
Our ultimate goal is to help bands and artists build a strong brand for a lasting career!
The size of the price tag is not necessarily the way to judge how good a piece of gear will sound. Or if it will do what you actually need it to do.
I pick gear with only 1 thing in mind…..
‘Will this piece of gear do the job I need it to do’.
That’s it.
I have inexpensive gear right next to my expensive gear, and it all works. In PT1 of “Great Gear Under $400” I want to show you a few pieces of gear, that I use all the time, that are under $400. I’m starting with microphones and the drum set.
This is an excerpt from one of the live broadcasts that got a LOT of attention. I know a lot of you are on a budget. That’s why I did this broadcast, to give you some inexpensive options to add to your studio gear.
Enjoy the video and drop me a line to let me know what gear you dig that is under $400!
It’s time to talk about your bottom….bottom end that is!
The kick and snare sound you record can really define your overall drum sound and getting it right is super important. Not just recording the kick but actually getting a sound that works for the song.
To do that we need to have a good understanding of how a microphone reacts inside the drum. I’m talking about mic placement.
Does your sound need to have more click? Does it need more low end? Does it need to be tight and focused? These are questions you need to answer BEFORE you attempt to capture your perfect kick sound.
By the way when I’m talking about “click” and “low end” I’m not talking about using eq. I’m referring to mic placement and getting that as right as possible and then utilizing eq. If you take the time to get the mic placement to capture the most sound possible then using eq with make that even better.
If you rely on eq to make up for bad mic placement you will often end up with a less than optimal kick drum sound.
Bottom line is it’s best to take some time to experiment with the mics that you own to learn how they capture the kick. I promise you the more you know about your mics the better support your kick drum will be for your music.
Anyway enough of me blabbing! Let’s get to the video.
