recording piano

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?

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

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!

Happy Recording,
Charlie