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Post by rowmat on Dec 17, 2020 20:07:43 GMT -6
A technique I used to capture a live vocal and piano performance using a pair of modded AEA N22’s and a Coles 4038. This is an alternative to using a cardioid vocal mic which can often cause issues with the piano due to off axis coloration especially with many LDC’s. The Coles picks up vocals from its front and center piano from the rear. It’s critical to find the correct vocal/piano balance just on the Coles before worrying about the pair of N22’s. Once a good balance is found on the Coles the N22’s are positioned L/R so they cover the piano where the Coles begins to fall off while ensuring the vocal is in the null of the N22’s. The result is a good coverage across the entire piano with minimal bleed of the vocal in the N22’s and no off axis coloration or phase issues.  |
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Post by EmRR on Dec 17, 2020 20:26:23 GMT -6
Good one, I like it!
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Post by Ward on Dec 18, 2020 7:57:02 GMT -6
Of course the back-end pickup of the Coles will be out of phase with the vocal. Have you phase flipped the N22s?
Thats a rule of thumb, but not a hard rule. what matters is the results!
Did you capture any of the live performance and would you be able to share it please? I'm very intrigued!!
(I only ask questions like this when I am acutely interested and going all fan boy)
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Post by spindrift on Dec 18, 2020 9:39:49 GMT -6
Looks like an interesting solution. I see they piano is felted...that seems to be the rage these days? You just slip some felt down in between the strings and the hammers? It does give a nice tone to the piano for certain songs.
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Post by rowmat on Dec 18, 2020 10:53:16 GMT -6
Of course the back-end pickup of the Coles will be out of phase with the vocal. Have you phase flipped the N22s? Thats a rule of thumb, but not a hard rule. what matters is the results! Did you capture any of the live performance and would you be able to share it please? I'm very intrigued!! (I only ask questions like this when I am acutely interested and going all fan boy) I would have either flipped the phase in Reaper or would have used Auto Align. It was recorded about 18 months ago here in Melbourne so I can't remember which but I always check phase alignment when multi-miking
Unfortunately I can't share anything from the album yet as while it was due out at the start of 2020 to coincide with the artist's touring schedule (Canada/US etc) all of that went 'tits up' due to COVID along with the official launch.
2021 isn't looking much better for touring artists either at this stage. |
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Post by rowmat on Dec 18, 2020 11:04:22 GMT -6
Looks like an interesting solution. I see they piano is felted...that seems to be the rage these days? You just slip some felt down in between the strings and the hammers? It does give a nice tone to the piano for certain songs. The piano was on loan for a couple of years while the owner was overseas and was not altered by us apart from being tuned after it arrived. Acoustically it sounded rather bright and percussive even with the felt.
Come to think of it the tuner teased out the felt pads on the hammers as they had become quite hard where they contacted the strings.
However it recorded quite nicely with ribbons which smoothed things out and really helped to give the low register some more weight especially after I modified the N22's and essentially turned them into N8's which greatly increased their low end.
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Post by chessparov on Dec 18, 2020 15:00:13 GMT -6
I wonder how similar/different your modded N22's, sound to the KU5a?
Thanks, Chris
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