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Introduction to Microphone PlacementBy: Alex ScheibeAlex is an electronica reviewer and the audio tech article guy at raw42 music. He has a degree in Audio Engineering and plays around making his own music on his spare tire. |
| ideally, you should record in a studio with a sound engineer. many people say you need to 'have an ear' for recording and this is true to a degree but a sound engineer has been schooled and trained to detect varying frequencies of sound. if you can afford it, go to a studio with an experienced and knowledgeable sound engineer. one of the first things people say when hearing a song is 'hey! that sounds cool/like shit.' most of this first impression can be accredited to the recording technique. you can have the best band in the whole music world, but if the recording is poor, no-one is going to notice. this article focuses on microphone recording. when recording an instrument (including voice) acoustically, the sound is most influenced by the type and placement of the microphone. as with all things recording related, the first major choice will be the type of sound you are going for. the setup for a transparent recording with lots of clarity and air differs from the setup required to create a dark and heavy ambiance. keeping this in mind, the tips below are for general recording... adjust them as you see fit. microphones come in all shapes and sizes, but the basic distinctions are transducer type (condenser and dynamic) and polar pattern (omnidirectional and cardioid). a short explanation of some variations here will help you pick the right mic for the source you are recording. condenser microphones use electrically charged plates inside a diaphragm. the varying pressure from sound waves hitting the diaphragm cause one of the plates to move towards and away from the other, resulting in tiny fluctuations of the electrical charge. these fluctuations form the electrical representation of the sound being recorded. dynamic microphones use a coil which moves relative to a magnet, for the same fluctuation in electrical charge. the difference between the two is the amount of pressure required to create movement inside the microphone; more pressure is required for the dynamic type. what this amounts to for the listener is that high frequency sounds, having smaller pressure cycles, are harder to pick up with a dynamic than with a condenser type microphone. because the space between the two charged plates in condenser types is small, very loud sounds can make them touch, causing overload and physical damage to the microphone. dynamics can take a lot more pressure, so they are a safer choice for instruments which create loud peaks, like snare drums. many condensers need a small constant power supply to keep the plates charged. this can be supplied by the connected mixer as phantom power. a microphone's polar pattern describes the 3D space field in which the microphone is most responsive for sound pressure pickup. in other words, it describes the direction in which the microphone will pick up sound. omnidirectional means the microphone will pick up sounds from all directions, from everywhere around it. the cardioid microphone picks up sound from directly in front of it. there are various types of cardioid pattern microphones, the variations being in the wideness of the area in the front of the mic where it is most responsive. voice one of the most difficult instruments to pinpoint is the human voice. it has a wide dynamic (loudness) range and a great variation in pitch. depending on the type of singer, you can use a condenser (full range pick up, warm and clear sound), or a dynamic (slightly duller but useful with dynamic peaks and proximity effects - see below). a really expensive condenser microphone gives the best results. a great number of dynamic microphones have what is known as a presence peak. they slightly boost sounds in the mid-frequency range, which most human vocal sounds fall under. this can make it easier to make the voice stand out in a mix. when a dynamic mic is used up close, the structure of the microphone housing creates the proximity effect, a boosting of low frequencies. this can be used to give the sound more bass power. If using a condenser type mic, the microphone should be hanging just above the mouth, slightly away from it, to give the voice room to breathe. experiment with a pop shield (or a nylon stocking over a coat hanger) to reduce the popping and clicking that some vocal sounds make. if using a dynamic mic, up close usually gets the best result. guitars guitar sounds have a relatively small frequency range. they very rarely extend above the frequency cut off of dynamic microphones. before placing a microphone in front your amplifier cabinet, listen to the amp closely with your ears at varying distances. listen for the difference that room reverberation makes when standing further away. if the room sounds good to you, then use it by placing the microphone further from the cabinet. when placing the microphone up close to the amp, take note that more of the high frequency sounds originate from the center of the speaker driver and the low frequencies from the side. place the mic according to whichever side of the frequency spectrum you wish to emphasize. for example, if you're going for a heavy sound, point the front of the microphone toward the side of the driver. sometimes a better sound is accomplished by using two microphones (one up close and one further away) or by plugging the amplifier directly into the mixer. i like to have one mic up close to pick up the bass sounds and one further away to pick up the entire speaker sound and then pan one left and pan one right in the mix. generally speaking, record the guitar with no effects except amplifier (or pedal) distortion and apply any additional effects to the recorded track. you'll have the basic sound and can experiment with effects inside the whole mix instead of being stuck with the effects you chose when recording the guitar only. drums recording of drums will depend very much on which microphones you have available. a sweeping generalization is somewhat unfair because most of you will not have unlimited choice of mic. the simplest way to record a drum kit is to take just one or two mics and record the whole kit at once. choose this alternative only when recording in the vienna orchestral hall or carnegie hall or, of course, when your options are extremely limited. i believe that a kick drum requires a powerful sound. this can be achieved with a condenser mic but this is not recommended because the loudness of the kick is very likely to overload a condenser. use a dynamic mic up close to make full use of the proximity effect. place the mic inside the kick drum, close to the beater if you want a snappy kick (as reference, the band korn has a snappy kick drum sound), further away for a fuller sound. outside the kick drum gives a full bass sound with a longer decay if that's the kind of sound you prefer (big band sound). inside or outside is a very personal choice. you know what sound you're going for so you'll have to experiment to achieve it. snare drums create sounds which are short and loud. with few exceptions, snare drums are recorded with dynamic microphones, preferably ones with presence peaks like the ones used for voice. recording a snare from above registers the punch of the drum stick hitting the skin and recording from below registers the decay of the vibration. most snares are recorded from above as close as possible to the point of the skin being hit (don't hit the mic). but, as always, if you have lots of mics available, put one above and one below for the fullest spectrum of sound. much of the tips for recording snares also apply to toms. i would mic the floor tom separately and two rack toms with one mic. separate miking of rack toms is not necessarily better because you can run into a lot of problems with two microphones picking up the same sound from different distances causing unexpected dips and rises in sound level. cymbal and hihat sounds reside in the higher end of the frequency spectrum. they are best picked up with a good quality condenser microphone hanging above. the further out to the side you point the microphone, the more decay you will record. try to point these mics away from the other parts of the drum kit to avoid picking up those sounds too for condensers are more responsive than dynamic mics. the ringing sound of ride cymbal is best picked up towards the center of the cymbal. in addition to recording the parts of the drum kit separately, overhead microphones are often used to create a more spaced sound. for best results hang two of the best quality condenser microphones you have on both the right and left hand sides of the drum kit and pan them accordingly. panning all microphones used can be put to good use for enhancing the stereo image of the entire kit. recording drums is actually a very technical procedure. i've covered the basics here but if you have a more specific question or concern, please feel free to ask. all of the techniques described refer to cardioid pattern mics. but if the room you are recording in sounds particularly good, you can experiment with an omnidirectional mic to capture the room's acoustics. in spite of all the technical details, what it boils down to is which combination of microphone type and placement you feel gives you the sound you are looking for. the most important tip of all, and the one for which you can disregard all the ones above, is try out all different kinds of microphone for the instrument you are recording, place it in about ten different positions and listen to each recording separately. then pick the one that sounds best to you. above all, only start recording when you are satisfied with the microphone sound. this is the base from which you will be working when making the final mix of the track. no amount of effects applied after recording can disguise a poor base sound. famous last words: there is no such thing as the perfect sound... your job is to find the closest possible approximation. |