Welcome to Recording Month! All of last month we talked about nothing but songwriting, and hopefully it was helpful for you. Starting today (and for the next 4 weeks or so) I’ll be covering recording specific tips, tricks, and mindsets to help you capture the best sounds possible in your studio. And the best place to start when it comes to getting a great recording is with your microphones. Here are four ways to get more out of your current lineup of mics that will really help.
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
Hey Graham. Love the videom I do have a question though. I know you have the 100 dollar Mic rule I saw in previous posts, and I’m wondering, do you know if MXL mica are any good or not? I’ve seen good review on them and I wanna get a large condenser for guitar/vocals.
Alex,
I own several different ones because the cost was so appealing. The one I keep going back to is the V63M. I think I paid around $70 for it. I’ve been able to get good acoustic guitar sound from it and I’ll also throw a wind screen in front of it and use it for vocals. I’m sure there are several other good options for decent inexpensive condenser mics and infinite opinions about one versus the other. I will say that from my experience with it, it was worth the money. I hope that was helpful.
I always recommend the MXL V67G over the berry if the cot’s are the same. Better low mids & cleaner highs IMHO.
This mic & the Behringer MIC200 macs for a great 1st setup for folks, even if they do not have a “pro” sound card. I have set up 6 folks with this combo and they are all happy with it.
For what it’s worth, I have several MXL mics, and they have all been very good mics to me. I have a pair of entry level ribbons which lets me do fun stuff like making a Blumlien pair (a pretty easy and very natural sounding stereo miking technique) and a pair of pencil condensors I’ve used for acoustic instruments and even bottom miking snare, and just recently got their guitar cube mic, which sounds great (to me), especially on clean electric amps. All of them were less than $100, much less usually. I’ve enjoyed their mics, and based on my experience, wouldn’t hesitate to trust them for a future purchase.
Now, like Graham and Joe say, it’s not the gear, it’s how you use it. So, I got great sound from that MXL guitar cube, but I studied Graham’s REThink guitar series, and I always place each mic by ear, being intentional about the tonal characteristics of it. That is really the only way you can get the best sound available to you, but it’s super easy, and it’s not magic.
I actually used my first pair of MXL mics yesterday on drum overheads and they were amazing. Used the Drum Cubes.
Hi man haknitosh good for home project studio.make a video on haknitosh plz.u r great i love u
Hey Graham,
Where can I get a mic with a brain??!!?? Now THAT would be cool!!! lol
Love the video!
Thanks!!
Joel
Graham, I applaud you and thank you as well. I have been a songwriter/musician and working in recording off and on most of my life. I have no official training and have always wished to know more. I have applied years of effort and guessing a lot of the time to making better music. I have so enjoyed your videos and feel like I grow and or confirm things that I have learned in the past. I truly appreciate what you are doing. Thank you again. Brad Surovec
I love this advice! I remember when I discovered how moving a mic around was like an EQ. I had a 57 in my hand, and I was miking up a buddy playing my fender twin. I went to move the mic around and it was like a filter sweep! I guess that’s exactly what it was, and acoustical filter sweep. I was shocked at the variety of tonal change. Since that moment I take nothing for granted and place every mic by ear.
And tip 3 is terrific! What a great way for people to deal with the imperfect acoustic circumstances they find themselves in, and still get good sound recorded.
Graham, this is one of the best vidicles you’ve made. Clear, concise, basic but comprehensive, and your passion about it helps make everyone a believer, maybe even before they hear results with their own ears. I hope it makes lots of people get geeky and walk around with headphones on pointing their mics in every direction to see what can happen with your advice.
With reference to how the mic hears the room ambiance, you might make a good demonstration out of showing us your own room and mic placement for your voice on your vids. You capture a natural room tone that makes a great bed for your voice. It drives me crazy to go look at some of the product demo vids by some of my most respected experts on room acoustics (I won’t mention names…) and hear them trying to demonstrate how acoustic treatment improves a room. They attempt to show us what the room sounds like before and after treatment. We get to hear how the reflections are dampened, but all the while, their voices still sound like they’re being recorded in a box.
I ‘get’ that they have improved the room acoustics, but they don’t seem to ‘get’ the importance of mic placement in that well treated room.
Thank you bro! Very competent and helpful thoughts about recording!
Hi Graham. Good stuff. Thanks.
I also read somewhere that one should not have the mic cables crossing or near to power cables or fluorescent lighting. (Interference)
Sometimes even certain wall sockets will cause strange noise depending on what else is on the circuit. Keep your eye on everything.
Hearing this is like breaking down the walls in your mind that tell u that there’s only one way of doing things. Also it make me want to understand all my gear a bit more so I can see its true potential while letting my mind stay in a creative mode.
Tip 3. Why have I never thought of this before? I have a bit of traffic noise and my mic is in totally the wrong place. Looking forward to testing this! Thanks.
Hey Graham!
(Sorry this is off topic >_<, great video btw (as always!), but I was planning on buying some studio monitors really soon, and i am on a real strict budget :/!
I was looking around on sweet water for some affordable monitors and found the Presonus Eris E4.5's http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ErisE4.5/ . Do you think these will do? Or would you suggest that I wait it out, mix with headphones (for now) and save some money for better monitors?
Just responded to this comment on the other post!
I use the Eris 4.5’s and they’re fantastic! Especially for the price point.
Hey Graham, what are thoughts about using reflexion filters on microphones. I usually use them when I record my vocals and get a real clear sound out of my AKG Perception 420. I even use it to record my drums and my friend’s acoustic guitar. Have you ever use reflexion filters to record other instruments and got a good sound out of them?
I’ve only used them for vocals and violin one time in a loud house.
Hey Graham,
It’s excellent. Please keep it up which will be immense helpful for those who are sincerely trying to get good vocal at their home recording.
Regards
Hi Graham, nice to meet you again. I think if you know just something about mic, mic technique and mic choice you can really close to high budget productions but the issues are ever the same: the best acoustic response (and the more silence) in your room, the best result you’ll actually achieve. In my opinion this aspect could be be misleading if not properly mentioned. Have a nice day!
Dude you are a great communicator. Thanks a lot for the time to put into sharing this stuff. So appreciate it!!!
great video, but you look really high dude, or its’s just me? lol.
High on life! So yes, I think it’s just you 🙂
Graham, I love your terms ‘looking at’, ‘see’, and ‘shining on’. Those ideas really have helped me change the way I think of and perforce mic placement. Really great video, thanks for helping us out in the community!
Glad to help David!
Great advice. I’ve made a really long headphone lead so that I can walk around my recording area with closed back cans on whilst listening to what’s coming out of the microphone live. That way I can hold the mic in lots of different positions and ‘tune’ what it’s hearing. Once I’ve got it just where it sounds best I then put it on a stand and get it back to that exact place and angle.
This method has made a HUGE difference to the raw sound I’m getting before any mixing or EQ begins. Well worth it!
Mics are awesome and ALL mics will make good use for something. For me, it’s all about experimentation. I’m lucky to have great pre-amps and a collection of both great and not-so-great microphones of all grades. I find the best tool to use, alongside your mic locker, is mic placement and knowledge of each mic’s frequency response. Use the mic’s apparent shortcomings to your advantage.
The last album I recorded came out sounding great and we only used 7 mics and and a DI’d bass coming straight from an Ashdown amp. It all sounded a little retro like the second album by the Police but to be honest it fit the style and character of the band. A few of the songs from that album also are gaining radio play over here in the UK and as far as I know in the US. So it’s true that not the greatest mics in the world can still make a great record.
That’s absolutely sound advice (no pun intended). I’ve got a small (literally) bedroom setup with an M-Audio cardioid mic and I’m aware of its proximity to the bare wall, while recording vocals. So, armed with this information, I’m gonna do some makeshift treatment.
I honestly didn’t know the importance the back of the mic plays, so thanks, for that tip, too!
Don
Your insight on mike placement is helpful. I wish I had read your info three years ago; I use a zoom h4next as an interface, and external or the built in cross pattern condensors, and sd card to a mac pro and garage band for editing. Sounds ok, and I have learned to use the newest version of garage band, plus I have a boss m70 for additional effects and tone control. Couple hundred hours invested. Not radio ready but works for my one man gigs as backup.
Great information about something we think simple (Microphone) but with the knowledge you have shared, will make a big difference. Thank yoo Graham. Appreciate it.
Is there a drawback to recording guitar up close for a beefier bass response and then eq’ing it on the back end to filter out the lower frequencies you dont want?
Not at all. Just as long as you’re aware of what you want to do.
You are absolutely fantastic. If you can’t afford a n eq you have one. Turn the microphone.So simple and true. Common sense, that’s what we love. Keep it up and thank you.
Good clear info. thanks.
My question is how does it work in practice.
For example micing 3 instruments, 2 singers and 3 drums. That’s 8 experiments that need to be conducted just with each of 3 set-ups – angle, distance, location (not to mention trying different mics) If we say, for example, let’s just try 3 different configurations for each of these, that would be 8 sound sources, times 3 set-ups, times 3 configurations for each. Therefore, we would need to set-up, record, listen, evaluate, and repeat a total of 72 times, just with 8 sound sources and one mic!
I guess if you are really fast you could set-up, record and evaluate each configuration in less than 5 min each. Most of us might be slower, so we can potentially spend 6 hours or more just getting the mics set up if you are starting from scratch. I guess the pros just know so they don’t have to go through this process.
But for the rest of us how can we accomplish this and still get anything done, much less keep the band from going crazy?