Don't throw away your McDonald's Super Sized Fries Container...

[Remoteness]

...It may come in very handy on your next recording session!

Recently, we recorded Hank Jones' Birthday Bash at the Blue Note Jazz Club for a future CD release. Along with Hank's trio, various great jazz performers played through out the night. Close to 30 musicians made it on to the small stage that night. It was truly an historical event.

One of the two bass inputs was an MD409 hanging over the bass player's speaker cabinet. I was getting tons of leakage in that mic and didn't want to deal with it in the mix. I hate the term "Fix it in the Mix." I'm a believer in "fixing it while the band's still in the room!

Anyway, I was cleaning the CRM, which we set up in one of the club's dressing rooms and noticed Gus' McDonald's trash. When I went to throw the trash away, I noticed the Super Sized Fries container and thought it would fit perfectly around the hanging MD409. I processed to play around with the container and came up with an awesome little mic baffle. I made a small hole at the bottom of the container so you can pass the mic cable thru it when the container was upside down in operation. I also reinforced it with additional cardboard we found around the kitchen area. Kaz and I finally wraped black gaffer's tape all around it so it would be invisible on stage...

Man, it worked out great! We kept it for future use.

Anyone out there MacGyver something to make a session work for you?

[Steve F]

I remember a recording gig where we had to drop the crowd mics through a hole in the ceiling of an auditorium. The problem was they were a bit too close to the FOH stacks. We used some coat hangers from the changing rooms to get the mics to point forward but they still had too much PA in them. After a search we found some packing foam and fitted blocks of foam to the rear of the mics - this was the soft stuff, not polystyrene! Then to sort out the mic's direction we tied some string between the coat hangers to stop the mics rotating. It all looked rather wierd but worked suitably.
We heard later that we must have had a fairly tame crowd because at previous events the crowd mics usually had things thrown at them !
Since then Ive built a few little gadgets to do these jobs that look a bit more professional. I've also made some lighting rig hangers out of lighting clamps and broken mic stands. So far I haven't had any noise from the lights get into the mic lines - but I do run the leads as far away from the lighting as I can.


Cheers

Steve F

[Jay Kahrs]

Originally posted by Remoteness
Anyone out there MacGyver something to make a session work for you?

I just love how McGyver is both a noun and a 'verb.

[Remoteness]

Originally posted by Jay Kahrs
I just love how McGyver is both a noun and a 'verb.

Plus the word looks so much better when it's spelled correctly.


Hey Steve F,

Can you share any pictures of your gadgets?

[NYC Drew]

No McGyver remote stories here, but I can share what I went thru last weekend without power.

NYC Drew

[David R.]

Drew, those must have been dark times...

[Remoteness]

Yeah man, tell us about it!

[Remoteness]

Here's a few pictures of the McDonald's Super Sized Fries Container shield...

[jwh1192]

i love the look on the guys face on the left in the picture ... just like someone watching McGyver save the planet with a paperclip and a snickers bar ...

it may also double for a turtle raincover, or a shield for stray nuclear waste products that seep out of the ratholes on most club gigs ...

i am headed to Mickey D's right now with a hand full of coupons and a craving for spuds ...

peace john

[Remoteness]

That's very funny!

[Kev]

I love it.
Field teching at it's best.

[Inky Goddess]

Even though this isn't related to remote recording, it is a pretty slick little audio trick I'm kinda proud of...

In 1999 I acquired a little home karaoke machine from a girl that acquired it during one of her midnight "curb-fishing" expeditions. (Curb-fishing is a term I just made up to describe a more sanitary and lucrative version of dumpster-diving.) The power button had been replaced by an in-line switch that worked perfectly, and the sound quality of the mono unit was surprisingly excellent.

The problem I had was that this thing has a dual cassette deck, and by 1999 all the karaoke worth spending money on was on cd. Besides, I tried both decks and they were shot, not even worth cleaning.

I decided that since there were two mic inputs and I only really needed one, the second input would serve me as the input for my cd walkman. I trudged down to the local Radio Shack and purchased three items:

One five-foot cord with a sixteenth-inch stereo plug to insert into the headphone output of the walkman, terminating in two RCA jacks, left and right...

One seven-inch mono adapter cord, originating with two females and terminating in one RCA jack, and

One little adapter to go from RCA to quarter-inch and into the machine.

By Jove, it worked, and it still works today. My neighbors can heartily attest to that fact! And I apologize if at any point I used the wrong terminology; I threw away the packages these little doo-dads came in a long time ago, so I couldn't copy off of them.

[Midlandmorgan]

Cool trick....

I guess the worst McGyverism I've pulled was when I needed one more very short mic stand....took a spare three legged mic stand base, stuck a short stick from a paint roller in it, popped a clip on mic clip to the stick....voila. The whole thing cost me zero. I pulled the tripod out of the trash from a music store I worked at years ago; the clip on was left here by a drummer years ago, and the stick was a freebie thrown in when we painted the house some time back.

Works so well I made another one to use as a live guitar mic stand.

[Gerax]

OK

Last week sessions with a piano, double bass, tenor voice for an upcoming CD release, the thenor voice was leaking in all of the mics I had up !!! He was so loud I not only had to reposition the musicians and mics for the balance (I previously had two days of sessions with the piano/bass only) but needed something to cut out some of the leakage...nothing useful in sight so as I open up the tools case just to get a cutter...I notice the inside foam on the case inner cover...only it's glued in and as the trio rehearses some of the pieces I pull out the cutter and carve the foam out of the case (same with another one, that of the cables and power strips); you should have seen the faces of the musicians as I was building those little shields around the mics with that foam and gaffer tape...the leakage isn't completely cancelled, but at least it's controlled and will make for an easier and cleaner mix.
Too bad I didn't have the camera with me for some pix.

Now I have to find a way to put that foam back in the cases...

L.G.

[Remoteness]

I've used a similar system. I have a few popper stoppers that have foam and/or cardboard taped to them. We use them as mini gobos. It's a very simple way to deal with leakage. The popper stopper's goose neck helps position the mini baffle just about anywhere I need it to live.

They're great for keeping the side fills (or any other speaker or sound) out of your mics. Just position the modified device in the path of the offensive leakage and your golden.

I've used them on choir mics, acoustic piano mics, guitar cabinets, et ceterea, etc.

[jwh1192]

steve ... great to see this revived ... have to get a Mickey D endorsment ... but that diet thing scares me

gain 30 pounds in 30 days and throw in a litle kidney failure for good measure ...

did you hear any strange reflections, or did it change the mics pattern in any way having it that close to the back of the mike?

peace john

ps ...

still fighting with bad power and an Audient console (no transformers) that has a problem without transformers in front of it ... this is permanent install not remote deal too ...

we have perplexed the guru grounding guy of hollywood on this one ... i will let him remain nameless ...

[Remoteness]

I believe Gus should get the Mickey D endorsement... I've been keeping away from that place as much as possible for the obvious reasons.

With that said, if he didn't leave his trash around the CRM, I wouldn't have got the Super Sized Baffle idea...

Damn, Mickey D doesn't offer any Super Sized items anymore. I guess we got to try Wendy's Biggie Sized containers next time around.

I was so happy we got rid of the drum leakage, I didn't really notice much of a sonic difference. The removal of the leakage out weighed any strange reflection that might have been there. The track sounded much cleaner and we went with it.

On another note...

Sorry to hear about your bad power problem. Have you considered installing a transformer isolated split and feed the Audient the isolated output?

[jwh1192]

here's the bitch steve ...

this is a transformer iso split ...

whirlwind 3 way ...

FOH direct
monitors direct with ground lift
record split is transformer iso with ground lift

i have been on the phone many times with whirlwind and they say thatthere is no problem with the split ... all tested perfect before shipping ... (it was installed about 6 months ago) ...

i tracked a couple of sound checks 2 weeks ago and found that i had a couple of channels with buzz but thought it was some bad cables that keep getting thrown back into the cable box ... because it would move the next day ...

came in one day and found that i could not get one channel clean ...

we went through all the power to see if any odd balls things from the club were plugged into our tech power ... we found a couple things like ahouse video router but moved it to alternate power with no avail ...

the strange thing is that it was working ... did a show for Fox and had to rent some outboard transformers (my favorite from Hollywood sound, they have had them for 25 years and they sound phat) all is well as long as we transformer everything in and out of studio ...

easy for music but hard for TV as we use so many outputs (SAT feeds, in-house video returns from fiber lines ...)

we have had some of the best guys in town come in and they are perplexed ...

getting a rental split, same config. on tuesday ... hope to find out that transformer in our box are not working properly and can call whirlwind and have them fix this ... if not we are going to have to have our studio breakout box wired for another set of transformers ...

thing is is i take one of my personal little 1X3 whirlwind IMP mic level spllitters and use 1 sm58 to input, the direct out to FOH ch 1, 1 iso out to monitors ch 1, and the 2nd iso out to Audient ch 1, flip the ground switch and all is clean ... i no just get 47 more and i will have 48 clean channels ... point is, that is only using one tranformer and it works ... why does the transformered ISO split in the 3 way whirlwind stage box not work like this ...

thought it was the wiring scheme ... my little 1X3 is transformer ground to audio ground and the stage split is transformer grounds all tied together to a chassis ground screw ...

anyone that sees this and has an idea please do not hesitate to email or call me ... we have stumped all so far and need to get this up and running so i get a new pair of shoes ...

sorry to hijack your post steve ... pass this to anyone you think can help

peace john

john.hartmann@comcast.net

310.739.1688

[Remoteness]

John,

Why not try giving the FOH the isolated split just to see if it helps. Then let the MON get the direct and handle phantom power. If it does make a difference you should consider a splitter with one direct and two isos, giving the FOH & Audient the isolated feeds. OR for that matter, any combination that will work.

Furthermore, is the house power separate from tech power? I forgot if you said that you installed an isolation transformer for tech power.

We have isolation transformers on almost every input and output on our trucks. It's the only way to go in my book. Hey, if ten or twenty transformers is gonna make the difference -- go for it!

Can the problem be additive? Gigs with a fewer channels up may seem to be quieter then the bigger input dates. Does the buzz sound worst as more channels are added?

Again, I wonder if you will still have clean audio with 48 1X3 Whirlwind IMP splitters. I believe it may be an additive situation. The more channels you use the more noise you will get.

[Sofa King]

Originally posted by Remoteness

Anyone out there MacGyver something to make a session work for you?

I had a similar experience to yours years ago when I was young and pretty, and on the other side of the glass.

While we were getting drum sounds, I see producer Toby Wright walk up to me with a styrofoam cup in his hand, thinking he thought i needed a drink or something.
but walked behind me, leans over, and puts the cup over the 57 on the snare.
I guess it helped keep some of the hat bleed of the 57.
He did this on both of my records he produced.

best,
Sean

[Remoteness]

Sean,

Did he make a hole in the cup's bottom and stick the SM57 through it, or did he cut the cup in half and make a shed or shield to place over the mic?

I remember making a few mini "sound sheds" out of cardboard to place over the tom (MD409) mics. This particular drummer was very light on the toms but super heavy on the cymbals. There was nothing I can do electronically to keep the cymbals out of the tom mics, so I went into studio and started cutting up the cardboard from one of the cases of beer the band had around. I attached the sheds over each mic with Gaffer's tape. It worked well for me.

[Sofa King]

Originally posted by Remoteness
Sean,

Did he make a hole in the cup's bottom and stick the SM57 through it, or did he cut the cup in half and make a shed or shield to place over the mic?

Hey Steve,
Ya, he pushed the mic thru a slice in the bottom of the cup, so that cup surrounded the mic.
I think that the Auralex company is now marketing foam devices sort of like your french frie container.

take care
Sean


.

[jwh1192]

steve,

yes tried all those different configs ...

today we found that it may be the monitor rigs distro that is acting up ... getting a loaner tomorrow ...

100amp 3 phase ...

without the distro inline we are clean as a 35 guilder (or is that 35 dollars) hooker in the red light district ... no really clean ...

i will let you know ... thanks for the suggestions ...

peace john

[Remoteness]

Damn, I miss placed my modified Super Sized Fries Container and they're not available at McDonald's anymore...

I had to deal with some additional leakage so the world can save a few calories...

Dropping the size container isn't gonna stop the fokls from buying two portions...

All kidding a side, we ended up making a similar device with some cardboard.