Studio time

I had the best day in the studio last week. After 6 years at the ABC I was given the chance to have an experimental day in the studio. As in, no pressure, deadlines or anything, just take my time trying things out and getting it right. Usually we are in such a rush to get things done we just go with what we already know. We have a new mixing desk – SSL Duality. It’s the only one in the country as far as we know. It’s an analogue console which flips modes from being an analogue desk into a Pro tools controller. It’s a little bit difficult to use as they have redesigned the signal paths, by doing away with the small fader and taking your multi track sends from the input gain. There are a lot of options for routing signal and it all gets a little complicated sometimes. Trying to get a pre fade headphone send is not as easy as one would think. But that’s why Dave and I had the day on Thursday – to sort all that stuff out, and also play with different mics.

We had A jazz band called “The World According to James” come in. They were hoping to track a couple of tunes. A free recording for them in return for them giving us their time for us to play in the sandpit. They are a really awesome band.

I had a great time experimenting with different mics. On drums I tried 2 sets of overheads. The Royer SF -24 stereo ribbon mic was a much better option than a pair of Sennheiser MKH40’s, which were much brighter, but also really in your face. For jazz, the openness of the royer was much more suitable.
On sax we tried a U87, C12, and Microtech Gefell M930. The U87 won hands down. I was a bit surprised the C12 sounded awful. Then I found out today we were using the one that was supposed to be sent for fixing. No wonder it sounded awful.
On trombone we tried a 414 and a beyer M160 ribbon mic. The 414 sounded much fuller. But I’m not convinced we were using the 160 correctly… And the update on that is I’ve just found out we definitely used it incorrectly. Yes we are professionals, but we don’t know everything. We thought the 160 is a Fig 8 but no, it’s a hypercardiod, which really affects the way you point the thing. So that’s why it sounded awful. All the forums rave about this mic. Can’t wait to try it properly.
Double bass was interesting. Now I’m really giving away the secrets.
MG M930 on the sound hole, plus an MKH40 up on the fingerboard. Solves that problem of not getting the string sound and clarity.