Studio Tips - Guitar
& Bass, Microphones
By Tom of Blue Flux
String
Theory
My bread and butter instrument is the guitar.
I use both acoustic and electric instruments, although the bulk of the
work gets done on an acoustic 6 string. My pride and joy is my Ovation
Celebrity, which has a beautiful tone and a well balanced
resonance.
It also has a rather good sounding transducer with pre-amp built into
its
bridge, which makes recording it more straightforward. I still run the
signal through my Joe Meek VC3 pre-amp
(see next page),
for some subtle compression (between 2
to 4:1), and some enhancement in the 5-10 kHz area. The Q value (the
width
of the frequency band to be enhanced) shouldn't be too high (narrow),
otherwise
the tone becomes overtly edgy and unrealistic.
At times I double up the transducer signal
with a microphone, to add extra body. I place this at 45 degrees
downwards,
and approximately 20 cm away, from the 12th fret. A good quality
microphone
pre-amp is essential here to get a good signal to noise ratio - again,
the VC3 fits the bill. |
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It almost plays itself -
my Ovation Celebrity |
| A more recent addition to my collection is
a Takamine Jasmine 12 string acoustic guitar. I always fancied
a
12 string, but could never quite justify the expense for what I thought
would only be occasional use. Well, I was wrong. Once you've strummed a
12 string, you don't want to strum anything else. Picking is a
different
matter, but even here it holds its own, unless the parts are too
complex.
I'm very pleased with the (relatively!) light action of the Jasmine,
and
again the built in electronics help to make recording fairly painless. |
 |
12 strings are better
than 6 - mostly... |
On the very last day of the old Millennium
I happened to be in Glasgow (Scotland), and passed a Guitar Shop
(purely
coincidentally, you understand). Both of my above guitars were
purchased
there, so the sales manager must have been rubbing his hands in glee
when
I took a stroll through the E-Guitar section.
My old electric had never sounded completely
true, and although I do not use that much electric guitar in our music,
I felt a more playable instrument would ease the start into the new
Millennium
(any excuse will do!). After some tests I walked out with a Yamaha
Pacifica
under my arm. Although by no means a 'classic' guitar, I am very
impressed
with the quality of workmanship and playability a guitar in this price
range has to offer. The pick-ups (1 humbucker, 2 single coil) allow for
plenty different timbres, and, at least to me, the solid wood body
looks
very pleasing. |
 |
 |
Recording electric guitar used
to be quite tricky, and would have one spend a fortune on expensive
Christmas
presents to assuage ones neighbours, disgruntled with the noise
intrusion
of guitar amps wailing through the night. Amp simulators like the Line
6 Pod have put a stop to this, and not too soon.
Little needs said about the Pod - every
guitarist will have heard about it. I've had mine for many years, and
it's still my preferred choice for recording electric guitar. |
In case you intend to buy one 2nd hand,
make sure you get the v2 model, which features more amp models. The
only
drawback is its awkward shape, which makes it tricky to mount in a
studio
environment. One solution is shown on my Groundhog
Studio pages. It is also worth checking out the plethora of user
patches
on the Line 6 website
-
I've found some real gems there.
I have not tried the competition from
Behringer, Johnson, Digitech ... I'd like to think Line 6 got there
first,
hence will also be a step ahead. But of course it comes down to
personal
taste, too. |
 |
After all these years of attempting
to play smooth and convincing bass lines with a synth or sampler, I
eventually
made the ad hoc decision to go for the real thing. Some hours online
later,
plus half-an-hour's testing at the local music shop, and I walked out
with
the Johnson JB-2 bass guitar you see on the left.
Apart from the gorgeous looks, what really
impressed me about this fine 4 string specimen is its solid
construction
with a through-neck, and the built-in active electronics with bass and
treble
EQ. Another pot adjusts the balance between the two soapbox-style
pickups,
so that the tonal range available from this instrument is extremely
wide.
A surprisingly good package for a bass guitar in this price range.
What was even more surprising was the amount
of fun I've been having playing this chap from day one. I'd been hoping
that without any previous bass playing experience and only my guitar
skills to fall back on, I'd somehow manage. This turned out to be
mostly
true, although I was surprised by the physical strength required
to move up and down the giant (by guitar standards) fret board. At
least its fairly narrow neck helps my dainty guitar-player's fingers to
get to grips with it.
|
The punchiness and low frequency energy
that comes off these strings is very satisfying. No amount of sample
tweaking
could adequately simulate this. Twanging the low E string even without
amplification makes your whole body vibrate, and before you know it,
tentatively at first, you start working on those bass lines you've been
chasing all those MIDI-bound years.
Recording bass is not as straightforward
as I thought. Though the active on-board electronics help, a lot of
compression
is needed to tame the dynamics. This in turn robs the resulting sound
of
some of its punchiness. Tricky.
So out I went to buy the Behringer
Bass V-Amp (since my plastic had lost its flex at the time, and
the price of a Line 6 Bass Pod seemed excessive). First impressions
were positive. But once embedded in the mix, even the V-Amp's results
failed to inspire. Latterly I've found a very usable preset as part of
the EMU 1616 hardware effect programs. Two EQ slots plus one ravenous
compressor combine to at last get me close to where I wanted to be all
along. But since it's all about personal taste, I won't bother
reproducing the parameters here. I would, however, recommend anyone on
the quest for their perfect bass sound to A-B their mix against some of
their fave CDs. This really helps to pinpoint where your own mixes are
lacking, and saves a lot of fruitless blind trials and errors.

Mike
and
the Mechanics
Every reputable recording magazine keeps stressing
how important the choice of microphone is. I used to sneer at the
mega-expense
involved in buying a "good mike". My old AudioTechnica AT811
back-electret
mike (the poor relative of a condenser mike) had served me well in
recording
acoustic guitar and vocals for many years, and I seemed happy...
 |
Since the cost of quality studio condenser
microphones has plummeted in recent years, I decided to see what
all the fuss is about, and purchased a Rode NT1 large diaphragm
condenser mike. What a difference ! Although this is one of the cheaper
"professional" mikes, it exhibits tremendous warmth and detail, and has
an extremely low noise floor. Together with the Joe Meek VC3 (see next
page), the NT1 has provided me with an acoustic input chain that is
head
and shoulders above my previous standard. Thoroughly recommended! |
One thing to note when using a professional
mike with balanced (3 pin) connection, as opposed to a cheaper
unbalanced
stage microphone, is their increased dynamic range. When recording rock
vocals, I initially missed the more compressed sounding output I'd got
used to from my old and unbalanced Audio Technica mike. This can be
easily
remedied through some additional compression, and for those quieter
passages
the full dynamic range of the NT1 can be readily appreciated.
One should consider investing in a shock
mount at the same time as one decides to purchase a large diaphragm
mike (though these days, many already come with it). These microphones
pick
up even the ticking of the kitchen clock downstairs, so you can imagine
how faithfully they will reproduce foot-induced floor vibration that
would
otherwise travel unhindered through the mike stand into the mike body.
For the NT1, and probably for many other
models as well, there is no need to buy the outrageously priced
manufacturers
shock mounts. A generic model from most music shops fitted mine
perfectly,
costing a quarter of the Rode model.
Finally - get a pop shield. The
foam covers that come with some mikes will simply not do the job.
Either make one
yourself - stocking draped over a wire loop - and tape it to the mike
stand,
or buy a no-name model for £15, which has a clip, and looks more
professional. Both work fine, and should be at a distance of around 5
to
10 cm (2 to 4") from the mike.
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