Have you ever noticed how all the big studios you’ve ever been in (or seen in interviews) have racks of outboard preamps and massive mic lockers?
If Neve preamps are so amazing why do many engineers also own and use APIs? If Neumann mics are so great then why do they also own AKGs?
Believe it or not, the reason has a lot to do with painting.
Via Brett Weinstein Flickr
The Best Way To Paint A Picture
In my somewhat casual observation, the best paintings are done with color.
And what’s more, if you’ve ever enjoyed a beautiful painting in an art gallery somewhere, I can almost say with 100% certainty what you saw wasn’t painted with just one color.
In fact, I’m sure the artist used many different colors to create his or her masterpiece.
Each color or shade of a color was strategically chosen to bring out detail, depth, and emotion in the painting.
Recording Music Is Not Much Different Than Painting
This sounds obvious as I write it out, but don’t lose the profound lesson in the simplicity of the analogy: different colors help us create a more beautiful and engaging piece of art.
And recording music is an art – one that uses “colors” as well. The only difference is that our colors are sonic, not visual.
Another word for color in the audio world would be tone.
If you want to create a beautiful sounding recording, then you likely want to have a variety of tones to blend together and use on different parts and instruments so your final piece of art (recording) is sonically interesting and peppered with variety.
As Engineers We Can Use Mics And Preamps To Sculpt Tone
One of the big ways we as engineers can create the tones (or colors) we want in a track is by strategically matching a microphone and preamp to the given source.
Each microphone sounds different, with their own built in frequency response and character. The same is true with preamps.
So by simply swapping out a microphone and preamp on say a vocalist, you can instantly “paint” that vocal part with a different “color”.
It becomes an artistic decision. And that’s part of the fun of recording: not simply capturing a part accurately, but in an aesthetically pleasing and appropriate way.
Double Or Quadruple Your Sonic Colors
If you’ve followed me for even 5 minutes then you know I’m all about simplicity, minimalism, and limiting your options.
Why? Because it actually helps you stay focused, creative, and zeroed in on the things that truly make a big difference in the quality of your recording or mix.
The beauty of thinking this way is that the average home studio owner with one mic, a solid audio interface, and a DAW can make a great full band recording and spend hardly anything to make it happen.
The biggest challenge though (I believe) with having only one sonic option (one mic and one preamp) is that you’re in essence painting with one color.
This means you must be creative and intentional with your source, mic placement, and mix shaping to create different tones for each track so you get that separation and depth you want.
The simple idea of saving up some cash to buy a second (different sounding) microphone and outboard preamp (neither of which has to be crazy expensive) is easy way to instantly double or quadruple your sonic flavors, giving you multiple mic/preamp combinations.
What you’ll get is more “colors” with less work, and it will be done on recording day – making mixing a lot easier.
FYI – One of my favorite preamps is the PreSonus Eureka (pictured above) and can be found used online for around $200!
Remember That Gear Is A Means To An End
Going back to our painting analogy – no one looks at a beautiful painting and says “Gosh, I love this painting because that color red is just so awesome.”
Rather we love a painting because the painting is good. The image itself is beautiful and all the colors help that image jump off the canvas.
In painting, color is simply a means to an end. The same is true in recording and mixing.
The gear is either a tool or a color device. Whether a mic, a preamp, or a plugin, all gear is simply a means to a greater end – a great sounding and engaging piece of music.
So just as a painter wouldn’t obsess over “which color is the best” – blue vs red for example – we as music makers shouldn’t obsess over which microphone, preamp (or plugin) is the best.
That’s missing the point.
Rather we should use different mics, preamps, or plugins as “colors” to create a great sounding track. We’ll have more fun this way, and keep the main thing, the main thing.
What Colors Do You Like?
So my question for you today is simple: what sonic colors do YOU like? What are your go-to microphones and preamps in the studio and why? Please share below!
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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. 
Graham,
This is my favorite line from today’s post “It becomes an artistic decision”. I am married to an Artist/Yogini – she is a paper maker and it is always an Artistic Expression. You use what you have available to create that which is in your heart and you share it with the world. You may only have a pencil and paper but that doesn’t make the beauty of what can be created any less than if it was a huge canvas with tons of oils – if you know how to use the tools.
I have very simple gear.
I use the mic pre’s on my Mackie CR 1604 in the channel access section so it’s pre master fader. It is super clean – and direct to the computer via Edirol Audio Capture UA-1A. Everything goes through that.
I use 3 mics usually – AKG Perception 120 (vocals), Audio Technica AT2020 and AT2021 for percussion or classical guitar (I have a handmade concert classical).
I use the direct amp access on my Marshall JVM 410 head – so I don’t mic the cab at all and use my Parker Fly Deluxe circa 1997).
My Keyboard is direct MIDI using UM-1 and access all the synth sounds in Studio One 2 Pro (soon to be upgraded to 3).
With this basic palette I create and release solo music on a monthly basis (Extraneous Solutions) and with my band (Pure Kirtan) and solo classical (Joshua Hall), full albums every year to year and half.
I love your blog as do many others. Keep sharing.
Peace.
Hmm. I’m not sure I agree with this post. I don’t think that the use of various mics and preamps is necessary at all to achieve a recording with various “colors”. That phenomenon is mostly a modern luxury. Interesting recordings are 99 percent about instrument choice, arrangement and performance and the use some sort of quality mic. Look back at the 70’s and back which is regarded as the best era in recording. Many recordings were done completely with U87’s/47’s into a Neve board. I see what Graham is saying, but the “color” that preamps bring to the equation is subtle at best. Mixing and matching preamps isn’t necessary at all because that was never done during the era of when recordings where at their absolute best, IMHO>
I will add that I do think the Golden Age Pre73 paired with any quality U87 clone works pretty terrifically on nearly every source. Like I was saying, I think just one quality mic and one quality preamp is all that is needed to achieve a recording with many colors.
The Desert Island mic/ pre combo would be a AKG 414 with the Avalon 737sp. Each separately is capable of recording anything and together the color palette is pretty versatile. Add the AKG’s multiple patterns with the compression and EQ of the Avalon, and you’ve got a winner.
My set up is primarily virtual instruments. I mainly have mics and preamps to record vocals and bass. I’m a singer/songwriter so I’m purchasing gear that sounds good to me and for my recording purposes and secondly translate well to others. I have two mics, the Neumann M147 and recently the Manley Reference. As far as preamps, I have an Avalon 737 , Manley Core and the Presonus Eureka. Other preamps options are in the UAD Apollo Unison system. I used the Neumann mic and the Avalon on everything for the past 15 years. I recently purchased the Manley gear for a sonic difference. I started to sell the Eureka and your article has convinced me to listen to the color and apply it to the music canvas. Thank you as always for you multiple insights.
I’d suggest that the mic or preamp is actualy analogous to the brush; it may give a different grain or texture to the paint on the canvas, but you can’t see the brush in the painting – and it’s a level of detail that most observers won’t notice that they’re seeing at all!!
Respect
Andi
I love seeing my daily email from the Recording Revolution. It’s like a morning meditation, except a thought about how to make a better recording. I think about your email throughout the day sometimes, thinking through the scenarios – like today I’m going to think about the colors I can get from my Great River 500 Series pre, my Shadow Hills Mono Gama 500, and my Summit 2BA-221 pre. I have some great mic choices from Avantone – their C-12, the CK-1 (I have a pair and these are oustanding), and my CR-14 ribbon mic, which I’ve been employing a lot on guitar cab miking since I bought it. I have a Shure Beta 57 and an Audio Technica 2035 as well, and they don’t get as much use, but you’ve really got me thinking today. I also have some great inexpensive compressors from FMR in Austin – The RNC and the RNLA. The RNC really smooths things out and makes the source well defined, more precise. The RNLA puts goo on the source, and makes it sound slurry, or sometimes I get my levels wrong and it clips the source, which can be pretty interesting with the Great River because usually that coincides with distortion from the pre, and I’m hearing some Beatles-esque effects occurring on my tracks. I usually end up keeping the mistakes and they end up coloring the song with an emotional edge that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own – a happy accident.
I’m a gear freak, a gear junkie. That Great River 500 is amazing. If I only had one pre, that would be it. The same goes for the Avantone CK-1. For the price, that mic is amazing and if I only could afford one mic, this would be it. It works wonders on anything I put it up against.
I absolutely love what you’re doing for music, Graham. You have a place in my heart and prayers.
Recently, The brightest vocals I’ve had, pre plugins, were on a Neumann M149 through the pres if a Focusrite Rednet System.
Although, My home rig is WAY less expensive! I still am able to get great Vox out of my Apogee Duet (great for on the go) and AudioTechnica AT4040.
Another Mic that I want to add to the pallet is the Sm7b.
I really like Andi’s point about the gear being more like the ‘brush’ than the colour applied.
You want to see some great monochromatic art? Black and white photography and pencil or charcoal sketches. Pretty limited palates but wonderful ‘tones.’
My goto mic – especially for vocals – is a couple of AT 3035’s (no longer in production) that sound really good on my voice. I had an AT 2020 that sounded awful for me, but I think I’ll get one again because it was amazing on a female vocal I recorded. Of course I have lots of 57’s, 58’s, drum mics, etc.
My main ‘mic pre’s’ are the ones built into my Apogee One, my Tascam US-1800 or the band’s PreSonus Studio Live 16.4.2. I’m looking at building a really highly regarded and very simple mic pre that has out performed some very expensive ones in blind tests – look up the “$5 mic pream” – of course it’ll cost more than that to get all the required parts and make it usable in the studio, but the principle is there.
Sorry, that should have been “$5 mic preamp” – no ‘edit’ button.
Hi Graham,
Is it possible to create those colors with other tools? ex. I’m using a steinberg MR816 preamp interface, witch said they are very neutral in color (is this white? )
so I have bought Nebula (acoustic audio) and from Henry Olonga I have bought many different preamps and mic emulations for Nebula.
After a recording and before the mixing stage I put the tracks thru these emulations (different emulations for each instrument)
I found that this works and is pretty cheap in comparing to a bunch hi-end preamps, though I never had the pleasure to use many different preamps on a recording.
What are your thoughts about this approach?
Best regards!
Mario
Yep – plugins can help. Got a video on that coming soon.
For me I like the Rode NtK mic for a tube sound, Audio Technical AT 4060 for a condenser sound, and a Shure SM 57 for an all around cardioid sound. I think all three miscrophones cover a wide spectrum of sound. Then for the pre just a Apogee Duet 2 and I can color it with plugins. Very simple, don’t need much more.
Graham,
Great post, again on target and relevant to the community! I use the “Liquid” preamps on my Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 for emulation of some of the famous pres along with an AKG C214 for acoustic guitar, cello, etc. For vocals I typically start using my Eureka with an Avantone CV-12 for vocals, I like the tube warmth of the CV-12. I may go to a Rode NT-2A or an sE Electronics 2200 a II through the Eureka, but my starting point for vocals is usually the CV-12. For drums I have Cad mics on the toms, an Audix D6 on the kick, an SM57 on snare and a pair of M-Audio Pulsar overheads. The kick, snare and overheads go into my Focusrite Octopre Dynamic with a touch of compression (maybe 10-15% of the dial), 4 of the toms are going through Art Pro MAP II’s and the fifth through a Presonus TubePre. I recently rebuilt an MXL 990 using the kit from Microphone-Parts.com utilizing the full circuit board replacement and their “RK-47” capsule. The reborn 990 will compete with any mic up to $1000 and was about $300 in total materials – great DIY opportunity if you are handy with a soldering iron….I have been using this mic recently through the Eureka on acoustic guitar with great success!
I typically DI bass and electric guitar right into the interface or through the Eureka, a Presonus Studio Channel, or an Aphex Project channel. Keys are straight into my interface …
Thanks again Graham for the attention and thought you put into your site and your posts – it helps us all!
Randy
Very good article. To me, color is everything and that doesn´t mean that is has to break the bank..
I got very simple gear, which of course could be better, but to me it´s not about getting that insanely expensive vocal sound and then suck in the drum department because all the money went for that one single channel and the rest of the gear is meh.
Consistency wins the race.
This is what I mostly use:
SM7B, EV RE20, ADK Hamburg, some 57s
2 x Behringer ADA 8000 into RME Hammerfall (don´t laugh, it´s not bad, but don´t use the pres)
1 x GAP 73
1 x DBX 286 A
2 x DBX 163 X
TASCAM M35 Console (awesome colored pres for the money, direct out to interface, great for warming up synths, keys, sometimes acoustic guitars)
All kinds of pedals as auxes in Reaper.
My goto reverb is a Vermona VSR-3 (I´m planning to get a second one)
Inside the box it´s Nebula only or stock reaper plugins.
Reamp everything, send things out to cassette, experiment.
Overall sound is not world class hightech, but it´s consistent. Lot´s of great music was recorded with worse. (eg Sufjan Stevens “Michigan”, Roland VS880EX on 32 khz . . . )
For pres, I currently have API and Great Rivers, and the pres on the Saffire Pro 40. For mics, I have a Neumann KM184 stereo pair that I primarily use for acoustic guitar and a Shure SM7B and SM58 for vocals.
There is a difference in the pres. Overall, I think the APIs emphasize the upper mids (give things a forward sound), the Great Rivers emphasize low mids (make things sound a little fuller), and Saffire Pro 40 pres sound a bit lifeless, but are completely usable.
This said, taking recording acoustic guitar as an example, I find that the choice of guitar pick, where I pick the string (e.g. over the center of the sound hole, over the sound hole but an inch closer to the neck, etc.), or rotating the guitar 1-3 degrees towards or away from the KM184 makes a far, FAR greater impact on the tone than the choice of API, Great River or Saffire Pro 40 pre. So if you think you’re missing something by not having a $1-3K mic pre, I would highly encourage you to experiment with different guitar picks and strings first!! And if you’re not happy with say the guitar sound you’re getting, I’ll say with 99% certainly that it’s not the mic pre, unless you’re down to the last .5 – 1% of sound shaping. Better off trying a different guitar or amp, or again, a different guitar pick. At least that’s my experience.
My vocal colors are; AT 2035, Rupert Neve 511, Rupert Neve 542 Lindell PEX 500. Vocal and everything else UAD710.
I’m glad to see Graham talking about different mics and pre’s now. Although there are some expensive mics and pre’s out there, the 500 series allows us the chance to try those colors out at a much cheaper cost. Mics are also much more affordable. Companies are now putting out clones for way less too, be it mic or pre. Since the 90’s I’ve always been able to record with low cost gear, but now, there’s very high quality mid priced gear that’s on the door step of the more expensive gear. I think the recording revaluation is the affordable palettes of color we now have at our disposal. I started out with a Tascam 4-track, moving up to a Mackie 1220 with ONYX pre, to the present, I have a Neve 1073 clone, the Heritage Audio HA73jr. Mics, I use a SM 57, SM7b Studio project C1, E609, and this week I looking at getting a pair of the Miktech C5. a clone of the Neumann 84’s. Beside colors, I found I use less subtracting EQ during mixing when I have a choose of different gear while tracking.
I think the most important message here is to consider yet another way to apply a logical mindset when undergoing a recording/mix. By relating to a painter and their choices of colors/brushes, whether subtle or grand, it’s the mindset with which is important to implement into our recordings/mixes.
Now, a while back Graham posted something about familiarity. And I think this goes hand in hand with this post, in that it’s equally as important to familiarize yourself with the tools/brushes/colors that you have at your disposal, as it is implementing these various mindsets, before actually using these tools accordingly. So that when it comes to making decisions, you’re making the correct ones. Not just blindly using those tools. (i.e. compression, mic pre’s, etc)
I wrote, performed, recorded, and mixed this song using the following gear:
1 – AKG Perception 120
1 – 2in/2out M-Audio mobile pre interface
Logic Pro 9
http://www.soundcloud.com/ariel-lavi/miracle
No external pre’s or gear of any kind, all stock plugins, all stock guitar modeling/re-amping, guitars/bass is recorded directly in, and everything is programmed, and mixed in the box, in my one bedroom apartment.
Lastly, I want to thank Graham for providing such immeasurable insight and help towards our community, and I couldn’t have made this great mix without being a subscriber. Thank you endlessly, and big love!
Ariel Lavi
At the moment, my favorite color is my Focusrite Isa One with a Shure SM81. I use this for recording solo acoustic guitar parts. The Isa One really blends the mic’d and DI sound (from the LR Baggs iBeam) in a very musical way. With some gentle mixing I’m getting a real pro-sound! My next step would be integrating a nice compressor, like the TK Audio BC1S.
Graham this is Eddie what are some of the plugins or outbound gear you would use in the box (pro tools 11) tracking a lead guitar, tracking a keyboard and a bass guitar to help get a good sound? Thanks in Advance
Eddie
Hi Graham,
Great blog as always! I have upgraded my preamps and microphones over the past several years. I started with an ART tube MP and a MXL 990. I then purchased a Rode NT1A, two years later I purchased 2 Golden Age Project Pre73 DLX (yeah going for that Neve 1073 sound), then an Avalon M5, a Shure SM7B and a Neumann TLM 107. As you mentioned in an earlier blog about upgrading your studio one piece of gear at a time I have noticed what each piece offers.
The upside about quality and varying equipment is that I don’t have to emulate a particular sound, their is more headroom and a lower noise floor with better mic preamps. less sibilance with better microphones, the ability to capture the sound source with “color”. As a result, I find I use less plugins, instruments generally sit better in the mix before I have to start adding plugs.
One has to keep in mind that the most expensive gear is not always the best choice for a track, as I find myself grabbing my Shure Sm7B more often for vocal tracks than my Neumann.
Hi! thanks for all your work, Graham. I am still not a great mixer… 🙂 but since I work thinking about colors, too, I have a personal question for you. I have a rather expensive but only combination that I use for vocals: U87 plus Avalon M5; how could I enrich it with different gears, for ex. to achieve quite a tube sound, so that I could add a kind of quality “opposite color” to be mixed with the one that I have, without spending again a lot of money? What other not so expensive combinations could I use to maintain about the same quality but a very different color?
Than you so much, and God bless you,
Francesco.
hi Graham and fellow audio enthusiasts,
You hit the nail on the head my friend, to my mind I find that using different kinds of microphones and pre amps is similar to a painter using different brushes and color tones in order to draw from coarse to detailed lines so as to form a shape or image! And that is exactly what I am teaching to my students!
I primarily paint with a Rode NT-2A. I like the built-in pre-amps on my Focusrite scarlet interface but I also use a Presonus blue tube. I don’t have a nicer pre with EQ and compression so my hack is that I use the CLA artist plugins from Waves (which I got when they were like $10 each) as virtual pre’s. I put them on as the first plugin in my chain and use mild settings for some nice color variation and then pretend they’re not even there and eq/compress/whatever after that.
You’re already predicting my next video 🙂
Really interesting little article, Graham, relating color and tone (and my favorite colors are red and blue which when mixed together create purple). I was just thinking about this this morning, That’s why I thought I would chime in and re affirm this is what’s going on when recording and mixing: these combinations of colors and tones are blending together for our listening experience.
I once read in an article that recording to an analog tape machine is like recording on canvas, and recording digitally is like recording on glass. It stayed in my mind as a way to think about a mix and having some instruments being clear and other instruments being granular like they are on the canvas. It’s exciting to experiment with mic placement, mic pre amps, plugins, or outboard gear to put the sonics on the canvas. It’s true our goal is to create a sonic work of art.
In 2006 I released my first musical work of art and it’s called Painting a Picture (like the phrase in your article).
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/painting-a-picture/id155758559
I’m getting ready to release my second album “With Just Half a Chance” next month on July 25th when my website opens too.
I like the way you think, man!
Chuck
I’m actually a fan of the clean neutral sound of stock pres. I like the lack of character other than the sources. I feel this allows the music and composition through more than the production. The production is neutral and unbiased.
You make a good point – most of us like certain colors, be they visual or aural. However, one factor that often is important is cost. There are some who roll in $$$ and feel that a more expensive item must be and is, in their opinion, better-sounding than one considerably less expensive. (It’s amazing how our minds can influence our hearing!) Others believe that excellent and perfectly acceptable sound can be achieved with much less expensive items. I guess I fall into the latter group – I simply can’t afford a Neumann, for example, so I’d probably go with an AKG, and even some of those I can’t afford. Because of cost, I must use other techniques to achieve the “colors” I prefer.
For a few years now I’ve been producing songs for myself and for other artists using no more than 3 separate mics: Rode NT1A, Lewitt 540 and the tried and true Shure SM 57. I have a Presonus Audiobox interface with Pro Tools 10. Given the simplicity of my setup, I’m constantly challenged by changing around mic positions, putting them in different spaces in my studio, etc. I find that by keeping things simple, I don’t have that many choices, so I can get recordings done quicker. Then if I want to further color anything in the editing or mix stage, I just use plugins – mainly stock from Pro Tools. Thanks for the discussion Graham! Always engaging and thought provoking – I too look forward to your posts 😉 You’ve taught me so much and you keep the inspiration level high.
And you’ve done a great job with your gear my friend. Love your mixes.
It’s interesting, that in analog photography, one could get a different tonality for the image he/she captures by using different films. But have you noticed that as many a photographer as went completely digital never complain about having the same sensor for all of their images. We audio folks could follow their example.
Hello there Graham ive been following you for a couple years now and im now considering getting you dvds or signing up for your duel mixes I have a problem with getting my end results of a track to be loud and radio ready i do songs of my own but me and a friend of mine do production together we make beats record and mix for people and our selves the equipment i have and daw i have are behrienger xenyx 1204x mixer with builted in preamp eq and compressor dont really use the compression part because its just one button cant really ajust it as needed but i have and use an art pro vla 2 compressor and audio technica. 3035 mic which is a couple years old they discontinued that series going into my m audio fast track. I have pro tools m powered 7.4 i work out of i do everything in there with a couple of vsts my problem is i have a computer thats old that is only at 2gs of ram nd i cant really upgrade it its been a struggle for me mixing with out overloading or am i approach the mixing in a wrong way? It freezes when too much plugins or in or it runs really slow
Start with my 5 Minutes To A Better Mix series – it’s FREE – http://therecordingrevolution.com/5minutes/
If you want to see my whole process start to finish (including how to get loud finished mixes) check out REthink Mixing – http://www.rethinkmixing.com
Hi There,
My Preamps here are:
1 Neve 1073
8 Studer (from the 269 mixer, absolutelly fantastic)
4 Altecs
1 Signal Corps AM-864/U (it as vintage tube compressor but can also be used as a Preamp)
2 Vintage Tube Pre amps
and:
1 ART TubeOpto (this is a 8 channel piece on the budget side, while not in the same league as my other Preamps, it just does the job. I only used it as an ADAT 8 extension for my Audio board)
Mics: some mics, including a Vintage Neumann and a pair of Telefunken.
BUT… I’d like to line up with Graham and say I am a big fan of MXL mics, specially the V67. Super cheap and delievers the job wonderfully. I’ve got one for years and I did record basically everything with it. And it’s super cheap!
Mic pres are the core of tonality and I am always amazed how different they sound! I have quite a palette of choices here as you can see. Believe me, it makes a big difference!
Cheers
Alex
I like colors in recording as well. Use several go-to mics and pre-s. Most used are my Sterling ST69 tube mic. It has lots of patterns to choose from and performs exceptionally well on vocals and acoustic instruments. Also like the AKG 214 and 414. Both are sweet thru any pre. For Pre’s my 1st choice is my UA735 tube/solid state. This is immense at pre-coloring using various combinations or tube/FET mix, and also various drive settings from very subtle distortion to ultra clean or very warm. I also like the Pre’s in my RME Fireface front end. Extremely clean with tons of headroom. My go-to pre for recording electric guitar is a Presonus Studio Channel. With an SM57 of course.
For electric guitar, my current favourite combination is an early 1970s Hiwatt cab, SM57, and SSL Alpha channel. The square back Crescendos break up eaarly with a huge rock crunch, and the SSL makes everything sound HUGE. Sometimes I will also blend in a Cascade Fathead II ribbon and a Rode NTK about 4 feet back for some room sound.
I’m a writer, painter and musician. Composing is sonic painting, which after a while becomes obvious to any serious songwriter, engineer, or musician. It is why tone is always talked about when discussing guitars and amps.
I create my music in a vertical manner. My point is that today there are potentially hundreds of guys and gals like me who were young during the 60s, 70s or 80s now fulfilling their lifelong dreams of creating fully marketable songs. It comes easy to them now since most are proficient musicians, singers, and composers after years of learning the hard knocks on the road to creating great music, and the process has gotten easier and cheaper because where one had to purchase a $1k+ effects processor today the job can be done with a $69 plugin.
What I mean by vertical is being involved with the whole production of a song. The composition, performing of the parts, bass, lead, rhythm, keyboard, the drums are fine with BDF or other plugin, and mixing and mastering with Ozone if need be.
The advantage of a vertical process is that at any time one can go back and change a part. If a lead solo was not performed well or the sound of the guitar was not right and cannot be made to fit into the composition in a satisfying melodical way with EQ, compression, or a Sansamp plug in, then it can be performed again with a different guitar, amp, setting or yes even microphone, though I no longer use mics to record guitar or bass tracks. Mics are nice but only truly necessary for vocals and percussion instruments like tambourines, eggs, maracas, etc. Amps can now be plugged directly into the board using load boxes with equally impressive results or through amp simulators.
This points to what Graham was saying about using color to create a composition. The vertical method of arriving at a finished musical product will become the process of choice as has the move from paint and paper to a computer in the development of the Graphic Design Arts.
Rick
Hey everybody,
I’m using my rode nt1-a and fucusrite Scarlett 2i2 because that’s the only thing I own right now.
I might be crazy, but i once recorded a track with the built in mic from my MacBook Pro (before I bought my mic) and I really liked how it sounded. I don’t know why but at times I think it might have sounded better with the built in mic than with the rode. But maybe I’m just foolish, I don’t know. Don’t have that much experience either 😛
I liked your post and wanted to add, I own a lot of gear, and have a real nice project studio. When inspiration hits, it’s sometimes hard to fire everything up and keep the inspiration vivid. I therefore record through the MBP or my wife’s iMac, this is just rough demo, but a few times, more than you would believe, the vocals sound great. Twice I’ve kept them.
Maybe it’s the mic in the unit, a generic auto adjusting mic, I don’t know. I sometimes think people ( I ) “choke” when I step up to the big setup in the studio. So in the painting analogy, possibly the setup is the environment, which also effects the process an application. Is the canvas easier or harder on a humid or rainy day?
I love all the happy accidents, good vocals can come from a built in mic, if they are good they’re good, and that’s great.
It’s a little known fact that the MBP is so expensive because Neumann makes the built in mic.
i own same setup scarlett is good but suggest upgrading to a preamp i use eureka think Gram used to use it too until ofiocs he has not a legendary ISA.the scarlett Gain knob not friendly for serious sessions u will need a dead tight booth then crank it up that way it will sound beautiful.hope this helps
Forgive my spelling and grammar was in a rush when i typed that
Regards
i understand what graham’s point in painting with different tones, just like the beatles sgt peppers album, i read that it was done with different recording devices they even use a device that is obsolete at that time, personaly i do it also at my home studio,there were times for example that i want my guitar to sound like crap on a song because i intended to do it that way to give a style for the song, so i use a bad sounding amp and mic it, i cant achieve that sound on a nice clean sounding expensive amps, i think thats whats graham is talking about, just like bruce lee’s saying “using no limitation as a limitation” hehehhehe thanks teacher graham! More power!
Anything but SSL. The way SSL thins out a sound is great if your mix has too much kludge and you don’t know how to clear it up, but by itself SSL is nothing compared to Neve, API, etc.
Definitely have to say right now my go to chain is my Wa12 into my Bluebird, if the vocalist a really thin sounding voice then I’ll swap my bluebird out for an Sm7b. But if the vocalist has a nice full voice and is just very sibilant I’ll use my Mxl v63m (which also happens to be the first microphone I ever purchased. Still use it daily!)
I like CHEAP gear. My main external pre-amps are sub $40 ARTs and Behringers and the bulk of my mics are under $20 each. Some of the Behringer pre-amps are cool because they have modeling for specific instruments (gtr, drums, vocals, bass, keys, etc.). On occasion, I’ll throw a guitar pedal or two in my recording chain . . . it sounds neat when directly recording bass, keyboards, and vocals through pedals. Like phat kick? Try a distortion pedal on its mic.
I have 2 presonas eureka’s for sale. $250 each like new with boxes, manuals, power chords. Message me if interested 🙂
I only own two microphones (AT 2035 & Shure SM 58) and two Mic pres (stock preamps in my Scarlett 18i20 and a Presonus studio channel). I just put out my first self produced EP in March and got great results using those four options. The only thing I lacked was a enough microphones to record drums with so I just borrowed those from a couple friends. I am planning on experimenting with his Shure KSM32 on vocals for my current EP I’m working on though. Friends are a great resource to borrow, lend gear to, and share tips with.
I use a Motu Ultralite Mk3, a little Mackie 1202VLZ and a little ART Studio V3 cheapo valve pre,.They all do a good job, but my fav “mic pre” is an ancient Teac AN180 Dolby B noise reduction unit that I bought decades ago for my Revox A77 (also great preamps) and never used, except as a doorstop (Revox’s aren’t noisy anyway). One day I plugged in an old SM57 into one of the (unbalanced) mic inputs and it sounded like the best condenser mic in the world.
I actually did an album with half the vocals using the 57 with the Teac and the other half using a Rode NT1 into an MAudio Delta 1010LT card and I can’t tell the difference.
I still have no idea which mic/preamp combination I used on which tracks to this day and the Teac isn’t even classed as a mic preamp.
I think the reason for the magic is correct impedance matching with dynamic (and passive ribbon) mics. Quality old school transistor circuitry doesn’t hurt either.
Hi Graham! I really enjoy your blogs and videos. I can identify with your reasoning. I have never had the opportunity to focus on gear. If I did, I’d be so depressed I’d never record anything. I started out with a Tascam 4 track. It did give me the itch to record and I’ve been playing at it ever since. I assisted in a real studio for a while, which really did propel my knowledge forward.
With my limited budget, I have focused more on instruments. I hardly use midi, so playing instruments and recording audio is my preferred way to record. Midi seems really tedious to me, and I’m not very good at it.
Anyway, I have a 7 or 8 year old Presonus RP10 I use for everything. It sounds just fine to me, as you’ve expressed. To gain some “color”, I have added over the years a few inexpensive means for that. I have a small Behringer mixer with built in FX, an ART tube MP express (which I have really enjoyed) just running into FP10, and a Behringer Tube Mic. As a gift, I received a 12 space deep rack, a Furman power conditioner, DOD inexpensive EQ used from Ebay, and a used Alesis 3630 comp. I used these with my 4 track and felt they were successful in getting a nice gated and somewhat usable tracking session. Just recently I’ve began using these again to give my tracking a bit of help going in.
I’ve just learned as I go, but to me I think these newer interfaces really do produce a much cleaner and more realistic tone than anything I used before trying out computer recording. It is amazing how far audio has come in the last 20 years!
Keep up the great work, and encouraging us all to just go with what we have and it will be good enough to do just about anything our dreams push us to accomplish.
Another great analogy, Graham. I generally use an MXL 690T for vocals, but sometimes a Beyerdynamics M201 through a StudioProjects VTB-1 cuts crisper, depending on the bed. Sometimes the acoustic takes an Audix F-15, but other times the old Beyer M212 can’t be beat.
The ears have it!
Graham,
Thanks a lot to all those tips…
i would like to ask if my gear (Tascam US-1641) is competitive enough to make great tone? I mean does this audio interface much more inferior than lets say presonus or Avid? (speaking in terms of sonic quality…)
The tascams have nice, clean, neutral pres. They work just fine. I’ve been running a business off the us1800 for over a year now and my clients have all been really happy. It just doesn’t have any color to it so if you want that you need an external pre or to creative with plugins and mic placement. But your interface isn’t inferior at all. Hope that helps.
http://therecordingrevolution.com/2015/06/15/your-audio-interface-has-clean-mic-preamps-which-is-neither-good-nor-bad/
Graham’s recent article (linked above) definitely applies to your interface.
Thanks for that encouraging words Aaron…
i was almost to give up…
but then … thanks for lifting me up…
We will assist you to expand your range, smooth out all your breaks, free your voice from strain…and much much more! Learn to sing easily with flexibility and strength and discover and empower whats unique to you!
Hi Gram got a quick one great topic too Preamps the ‘world of color’
I OWN typically same setup as yours Rode Nt1A-Eureka-Focusrite Scarlett-Mac/Pro tools/Ableton depending on what i want to achieve,
What typical Mic impedance setting will be best to use with Rode on the Eureka yes i know Rode usually is a Low impedance which is said low to be best but between 2500,1500,600,150 ,50 for those who are wondering values are in [ohms].what has been your Fav setting,i also have to say i have opened the unit changed the fuse when it blew haha i also saw a nice Toroidal transformer in there in my opinion maybe 2nd best to the Lundahl transformer used in the Focusrite ISA,Am a Engineer and technician that repairs these things when they fail also an Artist,Will appreciate your response as i have learnt a lot from you particularly that Multiband comp video with Ozone 5,if anybody in this blog hasn’t checked it out its a must if u want great mastered tracks.Sorry Long msg i know it was,Thanx Gram
Regards Kev
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