recordinghacks

Just before Christmas I received a package of microphone accessories to review from Shure, the A27M stereo mic bar and two A75M Universal Microphone Mounts. Yes, I was ridiculously excited! Within minutes of playing with them I found myself tweeting:

OK, so I was exaggerating a little bit. They might not change your life, but they may reduce studio related hair loss.
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Here we are again with some more ribbon microphones to test with voiceover. My previous article addressed the suitability of ribbon microphones for voiceover: Royer R-101 and DIYAC RM-5 Ribbons for Voiceover. This article will lean more towards a shootout and overview of how well these microphones perform on my voice.

The microphones we get to shootout today are both from Shure: the KSM313 and the KSM353/ED.

These microphones have their own very unique look. They feel extremely solid and well built. And I have officially given the KSM353 shock mount the “sexiest shock mount ever” award. Seriously, how cool is that shock mount? Both microphones are extremely easy to mount and angle with their corresponding hardware. This isn’t always the case with some microphones. (more…)

We recently surveyed seven entry-level condenser mics on vocals, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar cab, in part I of The Best $200 Condenser. Here in Part II, we’ll hear these mics — and a couple more — in a podcasting test. (more…)

I have been progressively “deadening” my project studio. This article provides an easy solution to a recent challenge: mounting acoustic panels to the wall with a variable air gap behind each panel. A secondary goal is to minimally destroy the walls in the process.

Why would I want a variable air gap? I will answer that in two parts: why have any air gap, and why make it variable.
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It was 2010. Blue released a new USB microphone that because of its ease of use, pattern versatility (3 mono patterns, plus stereo), price (I paid $99 for mine), and quality of sound, quickly became a bestseller. With its distinctive retro look, built-in zero-latency headphone amp, easy access, adjustable controls, and plug-and-play ability, the Blue Yeti was a mic that could live comfortably on your desk, like a friendly little R2D2 robot, at your service for a podcast or Skype call.

People that do voiceovers, like myself, found it easy to use the Yeti in a pinch: plug it into a USB port, and get a decent quality recording at 16 bit, 48 kHz with no muss or fuss.

Earlier in 2011, Blue introduced an upgraded version of the microphone, the Yeti Pro. The specs were identical to the Standard Yeti. I really wasn’t that intrigued by it, except the fact that that it had the ability to record sound at four times the rate of the Standard, and had an XLR (analog) output in addition to the USB output.

I searched for sound samples, but found none comparing the Standard Yeti to the Yeti Pro. So, I have made some for this review.
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matthew mcglynn

Without question, the quality of inexpensive microphones has skyrocketed in the past 10 years. Most every mic company has a handful of entry-level choices now, and most of them sound pretty damn good. At least some of the time.

But which ones sound the best for the sources you most need to record? We decided to find out.

Aaron Lyon, a multi-instrumentalist, engineer, and producer based in Chico, CA, tested seven sub-$200 condensers on guitar and voice. If you’re shopping for your first condenser mic, or an inexpensive workhorse that won’t be embarrassed out of your mic locker, read on for Aaron’s review.

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With all the hundreds of TV channels and websites available, you would think that every taste was catered for when it came to visual entertainment. There have been some great ‘making of’ documentaries about album recording experiences, but necessarily these are geared towards music consumers rather than music professionals. There are pockets of info to be found by digging on the internet, but even when I am pestering my interview subjects on recordproduction.com there is not always time to get into the real nitty-gritty of exactly how things were created. So a DVD like this is potentially a real treat, where something I’m particularly interested in is explored in just about as much depth as anyone could want for.

The AnaMod concept is a unique one, and not something that people necessarily understand immediately. This film tells the story of the meeting of minds, when Gualtieri understood Amels’ idea and gave it legs. I was personally blown away when I tested the ATS-1 tape simulator for Resolution Magazine, and similarly the AM670 Fairchild, so much so that I recently bought one. So accurate is the modelling that we learn in the film that reversing the phase of the reference unit to the AnaMod cancels the audio to 65dB. But I’m getting ahead of myself… (more…)

The final session of the $60,000 Ribbon Mic Shootout took place at my home in Sonoma County. The artist is local songwriter and friend Michael Capella, who you might recognize from previous features in this space, such as the recent Oktava MK-012 Figure-8 capsule review or the infamous Black Lion Audio Signature Series Mod for Digi 002 (59 comments and still raging!).

Michael was feeling under the weather on the day of the session, but he came out nonetheless and played like a champion for the two hours it took us to cycle through 18 ribbon microphones. You can hear them all blind, below, including the rear side of the R84, R121, and KSM313.
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Stellar Sounds is a small company dedicated to providing affordable alternatives to the costly boutique brands that many recording enthusiasts find to be outside their financial reach.

There has been a lot of buzz in the online pro-audio community about Stellar’s microphones, in particular the CM-6, which has an EF86 tube amplifier circuit designed by company founder Peter Bloch. Following is a review of two multipattern tube condensers: the CM-6 and an older, discontinued model called the CM-4.
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Dave Hill is a mad scientist, the kind of mad scientist who probably as a child built backwoods stills that ran on solar power and synthesized corn mash out of atmospheric carbon–with a geothermal beer cooler in the carpeted shed in the backyard. Nowadays he kind of looks like the elderly, haggard Neil Young, with a disarming, broken grin and slight lisp… but I tell you, there are serial killers that are his psychic first cousins.

If you want to spend an afternoon with the guy, who turns out to be at the core of it all totally bashful and charming, occupy yourself with this DVD. You’ll get some real insight into how emotions and electronics intertwine from the creator of some of the world’s most prized and esoteric and yet remarkably soft and cuddly gear, the whole line of Crane Song products that blossomed from the unlikely story of this vagabondish ragamuffin born and bred and still trapped in Superior, Wisconsin.

The tutorials from real life studio mix engineers micro-manage you through speedy and yet comprehensive demonstrations of processing controls on the flagship units, and Dave’s frequent asides keep the perspective channel wide open: (more…)