Amping keyboards

[sedohr]

Hi mr Swedien

Thank you for so many amusing and entertaining articles here on Gearslutz.

Now, I seem to recall me reading an interview with you where you said that you always put keyboards through an amp and then mic them before they gets on tape. Mainly in order to get the early reflection. But what kind of speakers do you prefere for the job ? Studio monitors (wide frequency) or guitar amps (to narrow the spectrum) ?

Thanks,
Karl "Kalli" Olgeirsson

[Bruce Swedien]

Originally Posted by sedohr

Hi mr Swedien

Thank you for so many amusing and entertaining articles here on Gearslutz.

Now, I seem to recall me reading an interview with you where you said that you always put keyboards through an amp and then mic them before they gets on tape. Mainly in order to get the early reflection. But what kind of speakers do you prefere for the job ? Studio monitors (wide frequency) or guitar amps (to narrow the spectrum) ?

Thanks,
Karl "Kalli" Olgeirsson

"Kalli"....

Wow, great memory... I wrote a synopsis about that technique... Yes, I'll look for it. Nice that you remembered it....

I use room of about 40 feet by 25 feet with a 15 foot ceiling.....

I use wide range speakers capable of at least 100 spl....

The best microphone technique for this application is a Pure Blumlein set-up... Then during the mix I use a ratio of about 65% of the room added to the mix values... I make no attempt at discreet sound source values during the mix.... As you can imagine that's impossible anyway...

Bruce Swedien

[russrags]

OK Bruce,

Now were talking.

I'm curious if you place the mic's in the center of the room all the time in order to have equal distance to the walls from all sides .. or do you ever put the mics to one side to capture something different???

For me, I guess because of the way I work, out on the front line of battle paving my own way, I really don't know where I'm going sometimes until I look back to where I've been !!!!

I just came back from California and while I was in Los Angeles I stopped by Westlake Audio and managed to crank my new record in Studio "D". Naturally I went out into the tracking room as well and imagined this very topic.

At Westlake, did you stay on the parquet wooden floor for this type of technique or ever to one side trying to go for anything different??? I did make a note about the distance involved in that particular room. I'm placing my mic's about 6 feet off the floor ('cause I'm 6 feet tall and that's where my ears are).

Manipulating the mix values later is a blast ... I'm mixing in different ratios as the sounds change in the arrangement. What fun !!!!


Thanks Bruce ... I L O V E Ya !!!!

Russ Ragsdale
Nashville