SM57 Trick

[Moonbaby]

That reminds me of the time I "accidentally" left a Trojan Magnum XL on my RE-20
and didn't discover that until I'd tracked a whole day's worth of VO's... I wondered what
that was that was tickling my chin...

[DanGo]

Hah! Ok, I know mine was a ridiculous post, but well, it happened and I figured somebody here would get it... Or have had something similar happen.

[ktf]

I love it when mistakes take on life.

[Jorock]

This is hilarious! The EXACT same thing happened to me a week ago except with a Shure SM7b. No major difference in the sound on my guitar cab when recording fairly heavy guitars. I tracked L & R parts for one song and a couple parts on another song. At first I thought "ah crap now I gotta go back and re-do it all" but upon further listening I couldnt really find anything wrong with the sound. So I have kept the tracks.

[Cookie]

As long as they were name brand zip loks. Everyone knows they are the Neve of plastic containers.

[jrod9900]

Wow. I don't even know how to respond to this. Too funny.

JROD

[Rascal Audio]

Something similar happened to me. I was a couple of songs in on a second day of tracking drums for a project when I realized I hadn't removed the felt bags from my Coles 4038's (room mics). When I listened back to those tracks they were a tad darker, but not bad at all, and nothing I couldn't address with a little EQ in the mix.

The trick was finding a non-nonchalant way to remove the bags while the band was sitting there...

Joel

[jrod9900]

Originally Posted by Rascal Audio

Something similar happened to me. I was a couple of songs in on a second day of tracking drums for a project when I realized I hadn't removed the felt bags from my Coles 4038's (room mics). When I listened back to those tracks they were a tad darker, but not bad at all, and nothing I couldn't address with a little EQ in the mix.

The trick was finding a non-nonchalant way to remove the bags while the band was sitting there...

Joel

That's when you say "I had to throw the bags on these mics to help tame the harsh high end from these cheap cymbals.". Lol

JROD

[DanGo]

Ha! Awesome. The felt bags could be marketed as filters and sold for extra, no doubt! And yes, Ziploc, the Neve of bags. But then, sometimes you want something trashy-sounding and then Hefty or Glad work well! ;-)

But, seriously, now I'm gonna have to see if I can use bags on purpose... Paper, wax paper... Could be cool for fx...

[paulreed]

I use crown royal bags as dust covers.....had a rapper ask me if the bag was supposed to still be on the U87 after about 30 minutes...oooppssss

we did hear a big difference when the bag was removed, I didn't bill him for the time

[Webjammer]

For metal bands I like the sound of tin foil, plus it creates a Faraday Cage to shield against those pesky cosmic rays.

[Jonathan@FPA]

Originally Posted by Rascal Audio

Something similar happened to me. I was a couple of songs in on a second day of tracking drums for a project when I realized I hadn't removed the felt bags from my Coles 4038's (room mics). When I listened back to those tracks they were a tad darker, but not bad at all, and nothing I couldn't address with a little EQ in the mix.

The trick was finding a non-nonchalant way to remove the bags while the band was sitting there...

Joel

I am so glad this has happened to other people... I always cover my ribbons and condensors when I leave the studio and have [more than once I'm afraid] left one on a room mic in a out of sight [to the CR] location, and gone- 'Why is my drum sound sooooo different today" only to walk out into the tracking spaces and go WTF I'm an idiot. Luckily it's usually before I start tracking again...but not everytime I confess! "Say that was a pretty good take, but I think you can probably do a better one, let's try it..." or "Was your g string a little out on that take" or "Isn't the floor tom slipping a bit? We should do another take with it tuned just to be sure"

Originally Posted by Webjammer

For metal bands I like the sound of tin foil, plus it creates a Faraday Cage to shield against those pesky cosmic rays.

Nicolai Tesla would approve...and if you are getting EMI, try Mu Metal. For a Harder Rock sound granite is awesome...and for Alt Country nothing beats hickory...and for boy bands there's always compost.


Best-
Jonathan

[joeq]

I have seen some live sound guys cover their speakers with trash bags when rain was threatening. Did not seem to affect the sound at all. Or maybe they have a preset on the master EQ for "hefty bags"

[x_25]

I always toss up flower cloth over any delicate mics, at least the ones I care about, since they have been living in the practice space, a dark, dank, unairconditioned, unheated drafty garage that the dryer vents into. Good rack cases for most of the gear and the flower cloth for the mics and I haven't had a single issue with any of them. But I am constantly forgetting to take the cloth off before starting practice....

[DanGo]

Flower cloth?! What's wrong with plain old flour cloth? ;-). Needs to look pretty, huh? :-D

Seriously, it's interesting that a few of us have noticed it doesn't make as much of a difference as you would expect when you forget to take off the cover...

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by paulreed

I use crown royal bags as dust covers.....had a rapper ask me if the bag was supposed to still be on the U87 after about 30 minutes...oooppssss
[...]

It took him 30 minutes to figure out that singing into a Crown Royal bag might not be right?

[joeq]

Originally Posted by travisbrown

It took him 30 minutes to figure out that singing into a Crown Royal bag might not be right?

Maybe he's a Big Boi fan

Yesterday (Jan. 19), the Atlanta rapper and one-half of the multi-platinum rap outfit OutKast celebrated "The Crown Life" at private event at Anchor Bar in New York City. "I chose it for the simple fact [that] my grandfather used to drink it," said Big Boi when asked why he aligned with Crown Royal. "One of my earliest memories of Crown Royal is the purple bag with the gold writing on it. My granddaddy used to have about $100 worth of change in there...me and my brothers and my cousins used to go and get the change and take it to the candy lady. Once I got a little older and got the history of the drink and that it was tailor made to royalty, that was right up my alley. It's a cool playa type drink. I like to endorse products that I actually use.