This Week's Experiments

[GAD]

I'm building a portable yet precise recording rig for my upcoming acoustic guitar reviews. This is the phase one rig of my testing.

That's two AKG C414 XLS mics on a Grace Design Stereo Spacebar. They are connected to a Sound Design MixPre-6 II. Over the next few days I'll post some updates as my experiments continue. BTE the gain is cranked to make the display pretty, and the right mic has higher signal because the strobe was on that side.

The MixPre is freaking amazing. It can record at 192kHz with 32-bit floating point depth. It supports six inputs (four preamps) natively to eight tracks with killer preamps and runs entirely on 4 AA batteries. It will also run on 8 AAs, multiple Sony camcorder batteries, or via USB-C. It also works as a computer interface and will record and mix in parallel while doing so. With the musician plugin it will support 12 tracks, and a whole bunch of other stuff to make it behave more like a studio mixer, though at this point I don't need that functionality.

All of this is to replace my aged Olympus LS10 that I love but just kept getting in my way for various reasons.

Additionally, I wanted to build a rig that I could use to record some of these stellar acoustics that I have in such a way that might actually portray the glorious sound they can produce. I also wanted to record each guitar in as close to the same setup as possible which this rig allows me to do.

I've also been toying with the idea of having a YouTube channel and this little mixer would be perfect for that - it even supports timecode from the camera since that's actually what it's made for.

 

[GGJaguar]

Does your mind ever rest? You never cease to amaze us with your pursuit of knowledge, accurate recording techniques and perfectly brewed coffee.

 

[GAD]

Does your mind ever rest? You never cease to amaze us with your pursuit of knowledge, accurate recording techniques and perfectly brewed coffee.

I love that pic! Moka pots rock.

My brain never stops. Sometimes that's good, sometimes it's not. I slept for three hours last night; hence the coffee.

Also I was ready to go in a completely different direction but had a talk with @Nuuska who led me to rethink some things. Knowing a real recording expert doesn't hurt when you're trying to do something like this.

 

[markus]

That’s a set of very nice toys.
I can’t wait for Nuuska‘s comments on this as well as your further progress.
why are both mics set to 8? Does that make sense?

markus

 

[GAD]

That’s a set of very nice toys.
I can’t wait for Nuuska‘s comments on this as well as your further progress.
why are both mics set to 8? Does that make sense?

markus

It makes sense when your goal is to pick up as much noise as possible to make the meters register for the camera.

 

[GAD]

Another option. Since I can't really follow the 3:1 rule with the first pic unless I put the mics four inches from the guitar, I'll likely do this if I end up using two large condensers. This is another reasons I got the nice bar - so I could have this kind of flexibility. Note that this is just set up to prove that the bar works - I haven't recorded with it this way yet. The short cables seemed like a good idea since I envisioned being able to mount the recorder to the bar (requires another piece) but so far it's just been cumbersome so we'll see how that goes.

 

[shihan]

Once again, you boggle my mind. You are a wonder.

 

[jp]

Pretty cool project, GAD! Maybe you can use your LS10 on separate tracks distanced away as ambient mics. Then you can mix in natural reverb of the room or outdoors.

 

[Nuuska]

Eagerly waiting for recordings

AB - Coincidence Pair - Blumlein - MS - there will be even less sleep in future - be warned

 

[GAD]

Pretty cool project, GAD! Maybe you can use your LS10 on separate tracks distanced away as ambient mics. Then you can mix in natural reverb of the room or outdoors.

My goal is to not mix or augment in any way. There all kinds of things I can do to “sweeten” the sound but I’m purposefully staying away from all of it. As soon as I try to make it sound like how I think it should sound then the results are useless. Remember, my goal is for people to be able to A/B the difference between something like a D55 from Westerly and a D55 from New Hartford. These recordings need to be somewhat clinical.

The challenge is that These guitars sound amazing in the room so a “clinical” recording should portray that.

Eagerly waiting for recordings

AB - Coincidence Pair - Blumlein - MS - there will be even less sleep in future - be warned

Yes! I’m very interested especially in the Blumlein setup because I feel it will deliver a bit of the room reflections that jp was talking about while keeping the rig simple and repeatable. It will involve a bit of post, but that’s an easily repeatable bit of post at least.

 

[GAD]

Once again, you boggle my mind. You are a wonder.

Thanks, but I'm just a guy with a modicum of brains and a bit of cash who can't sleep like a normal person and who never goes outside. Honestly, it's a miracle I ever kissed a girl. LOL

 

[jp]

My goal is to not mix or augment in any way. There all kinds of things I can do to “sweeten” the sound but I’m purposefully staying away from all of it. As soon as I try to make it sound like how I think it should sound then the results are useless. Remember, my goal is for people to be able to A/B the difference between something like a D55 from Westerly and a D55 from New Hartford. These recordings need to be somewhat clinical.

The challenge is that These guitars sound amazing in the room so a “clinical” recording should portray that.

Yes! I’m very interested especially in the Blumlein setup because I feel it will deliver a bit of the room reflections that jp was talking about while keeping the rig simple and repeatable. It will involve a bit of post, but that’s an easily repeatable bit of post at least.

Ah. That makes perfect sense.

 

[Stuball48]

GAD:
You are sooooo far over my head.
I feel like a squirrel trying to cross a road.

 

[fronobulax]

GAD:
You are sooooo far over my head.
I feel like a squirrel trying to cross a road.

Does that mean you are looking for cars or looking up for hawks or just paralyzed with indecision?

 

[Stuball48]

Does that mean you are looking for cars or looking up for hawks or just paralyzed with indecision?

Paralyzed if I tried to make a decision on musical electronics.

 

[GAD]

I'm in the process of reshooting all the pics because the sloppy cables are killing me.

Also, I may be in too deep, but dammit I wanted the mics on one stand. I felt like I needed to polar align it with the north star so it could track the sky.

 

[GAD]

Boy, you don't realize how much noise there is in your house until you try to do a critical recording of something.

 

[fronobulax]

Boy, you don't realize how much noise there is in your house until you try to do a critical recording of something.

I'm just doing a vocal into a cell phone and getting it done on time is more important than getting it perfect. But my house had audible clock chimes, a whistle when the AC is on, a cat that will vocalize when they come in to see what's happening, a cat tree that makes a lot of noise when scratched, family members who start a conversation when they don't know a recording is in progress, computers and phones that beep when something happens, delivery trucks backing down the cul-de-sac, music pages being turned, etc...

 

[GAD]

"Recording is God's way of telling you that you suck." ~ Bob Brozman

Today, though careful application of science and logic, I have proven this to be true.

 

[Nuuska]

Tell me about it . . .