Live Chamber recording tip

[DankStar]

I was asking on another board about how to generate some "ambience" with home recordings, and this guy had a hella cool idea for doing what he called a "live chamber." Here'goes:

"Do you know what a Live Chamber is?

What you can do is keep recording in the dead room, but if you have a live or ambient space somewhere in the house..an attic, a bathroom, a shower, a stairwell, and make a live-chamber out of that space. Tile and porcelain are dandy materials. Or hard wood, brick, stone, cider-block, even bare sheetrock.

Run some cables and put a mic and a powered speaker (like a wedge monitor) in there. Put the speaker where it will cause maximum ambience, like in a corner pointing up and in to the room, or on the floor pointing up. Point the mic OFF-AXIS from the speaker.

After you have recorded and edited the guitar part (or vocal or whatever), send the track out through that speaker, filling the live space with the sound, which will be picked up by the mic, and record the ambience from the mic back on to a track of your DAW. Then mix that with the "dry" signal.

And you might ask, if I can do that, why don't I just put my amp in there? The answer is you might be able to, or might not. But the key is to get a good, dry signal without the possible ill effects of bad-sounding ambience, which can't be removed from the sound, and then find a space, like the shower when your wife's not in it, to add some liveness in the mix.

I know. It's a lot of work, but people do it."

 

[vinterland]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

or... just get a reverb plugin or processor and save yourself the time.

Finding a good space to create a good room sound is going to be quite difficult if you're not in a room that was designed for that. If you've got hardwood floors and a big open living room you'll be doing good however, a bathroom or something like that is going to give you a pretty nasty reverb sound most of the time.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

or... just get a reverb plugin or processor and save yourself the time.

Finding a good space to create a good room sound is going to be quiet difficult if you're not in a room that was designed for that. If you've got hardwood floors and a big open living room you'll be doing good however, a bathroom or something like that is going to give you a pretty nasty reverb sound most of the time.

yeah, I've just never really experimented with real reverb, always fake. not that I don't like it; I just thought it be cool to add some real ambience. but yeah, might as well fake it if I don't have an echo chamber type room.

 

[vinterland]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

yeah, I've just never really experimented with real reverb, always fake. not that I don't like it; I just thought it be cool to add some real ambience. but yeah, might as well fake it if I don't have an echo chamber type room.

You can always experiment. You just might come up with some suprising results.

 

[Virtual Kevorkian]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

Honestly, with thinks like impulses and convolution reverb plugins, I've never even come close to wanting to mic up a real room for 'natural' reverb - other people have already done this for you.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

Honestly, with thinks like impulses and convolution reverb plugins, I've never even come close to wanting to mic up a real room for 'natural' reverb - other people have already done this for you.

I see your point. But my initial intention on the other board was sort of a different angle. I wasn't really wanting reverb so much as "the room" captured on a mic for ambience. I guess that could mean reverb, but what I want to achieve is more of a live feel rather than the listener's head pinned to my 4-12" cab, and a way to create depth. I will be experimenting with room mics and "far away" mics when I go to record my next song, but I wanted a place to start. But yeah, I'm not bagging on plugins. I dig that too.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

It's a good idea and sometimes it works - and it's a lot of work.

The thing about plugins and IR's is that they are not entirely convincing to create a physical space. I think the best recordings come from capturing the source as you want it to sound in the final track if at all possible.

 

[vinterland]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

Reverb, ambience, live feel is all one in the same that you're referring too. It really just depends on how you use the reverb in terms of room dimensions early/late reflections, decay time etc. to capture what you're looking for.

If you like the sound of the room you're in, by all means setup a room mic. A good sounding room just can't be beat. However, with todays reverb parameters you can literally build a room there's so many options.

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

Reverb, ambience, live feel is all one in the same that you're referring too.

One is synthetic and one is real, there is a difference that can be heard and felt.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

given my recording room blows, looks like my best best is a reverb effect. if I had a cool space, I'd go the other route though.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

I'm a newbie at recording, but I have a question: if we know that certain albums have a certain ambience based on where they were recorded, why not just put the amp in the middle of a room and crank it to max, and record outside the room, or maybe inside the room but pointed away?

 

[vinterland]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

I'm a newbie at recording, but I have a question: if we know that certain albums have a certain ambience based on where they were recorded, why not just put the amp in the middle of a room and crank it to max, and record outside the room, or maybe inside the room but pointed away?

People do that, but not at an extremely far distance typically with guitars. Plenty of people will put a mic right on the grill and one maybe 3-6 ft. away to pick up the whole amp sound and some of the room. They'll blend to taste.

Where you see the most room micing is with drums and symphonic stuff.

 

[Robert Delahunt]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

People do that, but not at an extremely far distance typically with guitars. Plenty of people will put a mic right on the grill and one maybe 3-6 ft. away to pick up the whole amp sound and some of the room. They'll blend to taste.

Where you see the most room micing is with drums and symphonic stuff.

So would it make things simpler for me to get my amp modded with a Line Out that takes the signal into a PA rather than to the speakers?

 

[vinterland]

Re: Live Chamber recording tip

So would it make things simpler for me to get my amp modded with a Line Out that takes the signal into a PA rather than to the speakers?

I don't understand, why do you think you'd need to do that? Just plug in mic'er up and play.