Miking a B3

[vudoo]

Can someone give me some suggestions for recording a B3...prfered mics selection, mic placement.
Thanks

[e-cue]

AS boring as it sounds, U87 and a SM57 (sometimes an SM81) are my usual favs. I stopped using the 20/421 thing a while a go and I have more definition, which is more modern sounding to me (which may not be a good thing). 87 on the low drum, 57 on the top joint. Alloow yourself plenty of set up time. The B3 sound can be tricky depending on a lot of variables such as the player (most importantly), the room, the style you are going for,etc. If you are in a good room and want it to be spacious, try a U47 on the low drum and 2 U87's as room mics.

If you are doing B3 'stabs', try to have the BRIGHT HALL or THIN PLATE up on a 480L as a verb.

[Jay Kahrs]

Whudda got mic wise? In the studio I do a pair of mics on top, one on the low rotor. The top mics are usually some kind of condensor, 414TLII's or EB, U87, KM184, MC012 etc. and the low mic is almost always a 421 or RE-20. Though I have seen people use a U87 down there I could never get it to work for me. I put one mic on either side of the high rotor and move all of them around until it sounds "right" to me.

[Han]

I record the Leslie with an ORTF pair of SD condensers at some 2' or 3' distance.

A NOS pair of SD condensers can be nice too.

[Jim Roberts]

I use small condensers on the top rotors (AKG 460s). Used to use the U87s, but needed to really EQ them to get them where the AKGs are flat.

Large diaphragm on the bottom rotor though. U87 or TLM103 works nicely.

Also, a good friend taught me an added trick......place a large condenser in a shock mount in Omni mode and place it on TOP of the Leslie. Really gets some good room into the mix....add it into the other 3 mics as desired.

[Fletcher]

My two favorite methods... a Royer SF-12 about 3' off the front of the cabinet... golly, it actually sounds like a Leslie... go figure.

For the 'hyper round yer head' thing... two dynamic mics placed 180' on either side of the horn... I generally prefer Beyer 422's because they're small... but they're not all that common... so whatever ya gots should work.

With heavy "wind screening" position the mics to they are slightly above or slightly below the blast from the horn... an RE-20 placed off to the right side of the bottom rotating baffle works like a charm... get the 3 mics to work together in mono... and you're golden.

If you really want the damn Leslie spinning around the listeners head... I've found that a pair of MXR Phaser/Flangers with the VCO's locked [and somewhat in time with the slow speed of the Leslie] can really get shit wagging all over the place.

Best of luck with it.

[wurly]

Does that make it get all wet and ripped? Does it require large lips?

As you whir...

[Dave Martin]

I've been using a pair of Gefell UM-57's on the top and an RE-20 on the bottom; all are 3-4 feet from the cabinets, and the UM-57's are somewhere around 90 degrees from the front (makes it less 'hyper 3d' than miking at 180 degrees. Here's a picture (if attaching a picture works).

[Jay Kahrs]

Geez Dave, I know everything is bigger in Texas but can ya shrink it a bit? Maybe like 450 pixels wide?

[Dave Martin]

Originally posted by Jay Kahrs
Geez Dave, I know everything is bigger in Texas but can ya shrink it a bit? Maybe like 450 pixels wide?

THAT's what I needed to know! I was rying to use the 'file size' function, not the 'resize' function. Is that better?

[Jay Kahrs]

Totally!!!

[digitaledit]

After trying many different mics on my Leslie, including many already listed here, on a lark, I tried going totally Ribbon with a pair of Royer 121's on the top and an old RCA 77 on the bottom. To my surprise, at least out of my organ, it was one of the fatest, warmest, non-screechy sounds I've heard. Mic placement was similar to Dave's in the picture above. Just remember that the Leslie is an acoustic doppler device, so if you get the mics to close, you'll lose the effect.

[bobmix]

If you have them, a pair of U67's, on opposite sides of the top speaker sound great. Something about the upper-mids, especially when the organ needs to cut through a dense, aggressive track. You can fill in the bottom with any large diaphragm mic.

Also, a late, great engineer Bill Olszewski taught me a good trick for avoiding wind noise from the top speaker. Light a match, blow it out, and move the smoking match past the louvers on the top sides of the Leslie until you see where the air currents are not blowing, and place your upper mic(s) there.

[Drumsound]

Originally posted by bobmix
I

Also, a late, great engineer Bill Olszewski taught me a good trick

Is he from St.Louis? I just bought his JH110s if it is the same guy.

[Bob Olhsson]

I always liked RE-15s or 20s top and bottom or AKG D-19s if they were available.

[chewie]

I have used two (Royer) 121:s on the top with a 421 on the lows......it´s the sound I need.

Chewie

[bobmix]

Originally posted by Drumsound
Is he from St.Louis? I just bought his JH110s if it is the same guy.

Hey D'Sound -

Yes. He spent most of his life in St. Louis.
He recorded my record in the early '70's, the first really great engineer I'd ever been around. We stayed friends for the next 30 years (never easy).

Apparently, he started out by "sweeping the floors" at High Studios in Memphis for Willie Mitchell in the early '70's.

Most of all, he was an extremely kind and compassionate human being....

Oh yeah, JH 110. Close the electronics drawer VERY gently after alignment; it can knock out the alignment that you just tweaked.

Good luck. The machine should have a lot of soul from him.

[sonic dogg]

Its really really hard to get any sound at all from a B3......




Now from a leslie, thats whole nother story.......

D12 on the bottom and a couple of 57's on the top at various angles to the rotor depending on how swirly you want it. Beyer 500's also work on the top as do SM81's and U87's.....still love the D12 on the bottom though.....an MD409 works there too.

[7rojo7]

I tend to stay away from the bottom mic. deal, with 3 mic.s I find that there's too much movement, I like 180 as compared to some kind of front A/B. I point the the mics. (JV-74s,
Milab VP-69s) down, or I use omnis at mid cabinet (which I prefer, there's a huge physical obstruction between the 2 mic.s) which gives plenty of bass, and in coincidence with what's really happening (in headphone it's like being the leslie). Normal stereo (x/y) and these other techniques are good if the organ is a main element of the music, if it's an overdub or a double or something all that stereo might bother you later, when you don't know where to mix it. Make sure it fits into your arrangement before you commit to a beautiful sound that won't work for you.
Don't point the top mics. at the horn. It's also necessary to provide some kind of space for the instrument (GOBOS) to tailor the bass response and the reverberation coming back from the room. You can tighten or free up the sound with this after you've found a balanced mic.ing strategy. Rock organ works better in mono completely gobo'd in and mic.ed pretty tight 1 top with some reflective material (wall, panel) 180 from the mic and one bottom. 421 Btm - 441 Tp, RE20s, even 57s