Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

[Vetteboy]

This is a spinoff from a post I made in one of my song threads, but I figured this would be a neat resource.

Who out there has gotten some cool sounds using non-conventional methods? Maybe a cheap piece of gear that works really well, or an odd way of mic'ing something, etc.

Here's one of mine. About 10 years ago, Radio Shack made this weird-looking mic.

There are some older versions of it referred to as their PZM model, which is sort of a cult classic...it was licensed to Radio Shack from Crown. However it was discontinued and replaced by the one in the picture, which was generally regarded as "not as good".

I picked up two of this "not as good" model on clearance at my local Radio Shack for 10 bucks each. I figured they'd be cool for recording live shows and stuff. Curiosity got the best of me and I opened up the little housings to see how they worked, and it turns out the mic element was a small condenser about the size of a watch battery and made by Shure.

At some point in this experiment I lost some pieces to put the mic back together, so I had basically an open mic element attached to a long cable with tiny little wires. I got a piece of heat shrink tubing and put it around the end to protect it. Then I started using the mic this way, and promptly made the same modification to the other one.

10 years later, every single drum track (which is dozens more than what I've got posted on Soundclick), and nearly every acoustic track, piano track, and percussion track I've done has used this pair of microphones. I usually end up hanging them from the ceiling; you can see one over the drums in this pic:

The nylon acoustic on this track was recorded sitting on my drum stool, actually behind the drum set, with the overhead mics lowered down somewhat, panned hard left & right. Bongos were recorded the same way. That was in 2003 and it's not really anything more than a scratch track...but it's a small example of the versatility and response of those little mics.

If those mics ever stop working, I'll probably cry.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I think I've used the older one of which you speak. Was it basically a flat black plate with a tiny rectangular-shaped "box" in the center of the plate? I used that on a bass drum on my very first recording. I recorded the guitars first (not to a click of course), then tried to play drums in time to the off-time guitars. It was a little loose to say the least, but I recall the mic being pretty good for drum work.

 

[Vetteboy]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I think I've used the older one of which you speak. Was it basically a flat black plate with a tiny rectangular-shaped "box" in the center of the plate? I used that on a bass drum on my very first recording. I recorded the guitars first (not to a click of course), then tried to play drums in time to the off-time guitars. It was a little loose to say the least, but I recall the mic being pretty good for drum work.

Yep, that's the one.

With a well-tuned kit, you can actually get a very decent (mono) drum sound with one of those. Mount it to a sheet of plywood, put it about 8 feet in front of the kit, and angle the board slightly towards the floor. The plywood basically acts as a giant mic so it picks up a much more broad sound.

The out-of-the-box configuration on those mics uses a little AA-battery powered transformer to a 1/4" plug. Right in the manual it talks about upping the voltage supply to get better response from the mic (I miss those old-school Radio Shack days where people actually tinkered with stuff). You can also cut the plug off, re-wire the leads to an XLR connector, and phantom-power the thing.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

Trey from morbid angel claims to use weird mics but I have found absolutely nothing on them in the internet besides his whatever favor of ADD he is going through lately in interviews.

Hey, everyone needs a hobby!

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I used to try weird mic placements all the time --- inside a beer glass in the back of the amp, etc.

I never got anything that was awesome, only weird.

 

[Vetteboy]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

Here's another strange mic experiment.

I had a small 12" subwoofer & speaker box laying around the studio a few years ago. I chopped the end off a 1/4" cable and plugged the bare wires into the speaker terminals on the sub box. Then I put the subwoofer in front of my amp, and plugged the 1/4" cable into my recorder...effectively making the subwoofer a microphone, with a 12" diaphragm. I figured the result would be similar to the sound you'd get playing a guitar through the subwoofer, and it kind of was.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7239718

Bass guitar is downtuned to C, guitar is standard 6-string tuning. I like the solo at 2:50.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

This is a spinoff from a post I made in one of my song threads, but I figured this would be a neat resource.

Who out there has gotten some cool sounds using non-conventional methods? Maybe a cheap piece of gear that works really well, or an odd way of mic'ing something, etc.

Here's one of mine. About 10 years ago, Radio Shack made this weird-looking mic.

There are some older versions of it referred to as their PZM model, which is sort of a cult classic...it was licensed to Radio Shack from Crown. However it was discontinued and replaced by the one in the picture, which was generally regarded as "not as good".

I picked up two of this "not as good" model on clearance at my local Radio Shack for 10 bucks each. I figured they'd be cool for recording live shows and stuff. Curiosity got the best of me and I opened up the little housings to see how they worked, and it turns out the mic element was a small condenser about the size of a watch battery and made by Shure.

At some point in this experiment I lost some pieces to put the mic back together, so I had basically an open mic element attached to a long cable with tiny little wires. I got a piece of heat shrink tubing and put it around the end to protect it. Then I started using the mic this way, and promptly made the same modification to the other one.

10 years later, every single drum track (which is dozens more than what I've got posted on Soundclick), and nearly every acoustic track, piano track, and percussion track I've done has used this pair of microphones. I usually end up hanging them from the ceiling; you can see one over the drums in this pic:

The nylon acoustic on this track was recorded sitting on my drum stool, actually behind the drum set, with the overhead mics lowered down somewhat, panned hard left & right. Bongos were recorded the same way. That was in 2003 and it's not really anything more than a scratch track...but it's a small example of the versatility and response of those little mics.

If those mics ever stop working, I'll probably cry.

Something like this is it.

This is an Electret Condensor Element that you can buy for a couple of dollars usually,at places like Radio Shack i presume. I get mine from places like this in OZ.
- http://www.jaycar.com.au/productVie...d2=&pageNumber=&priceMin=&priceMax=&SUBCATID= -
There's an attached PDF link That gives you the Specs. and Wiring Diagram
and i think the Polar Pattern .

I've been using these for years. They have a great response for the price.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

One of the things I've done before with a little bit of success is to put a piezo pickup on top of a guitar amp and record that signal. It's a very noisy signal but it also flies some VERY realistic low end rumble into the tone. You can't use it as anything but an additive, so don't try, but it's helped punctuate a couple of our tunes at one time or another.

 

[Hellion]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

Here's another strange mic experiment.

I had a small 12" subwoofer & speaker box laying around the studio a few years ago. I chopped the end off a 1/4" cable and plugged the bare wires into the speaker terminals on the sub box. Then I put the subwoofer in front of my amp, and plugged the 1/4" cable into my recorder...effectively making the subwoofer a microphone, with a 12" diaphragm. I figured the result would be similar to the sound you'd get playing a guitar through the subwoofer, and it kind of was.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7239718

Bass guitar is downtuned to C, guitar is standard 6-string tuning. I like the solo at 2:50.

McCartney did that at some point in time, too. He was looking for a James Jameson type of tone on his bass and that was what they used to record it. I'm not sure of the song, but it might have been "Paperback Writer".

 

[DankStar]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

not just for recording, but it's fun to point remotes at your pickups (volume up through an amp, but damp the strings with your hands). each remote makes a different type of noise.

it's fun to sing through headphones for a low fi effect (the speakers in them act like cheap mics too).

 

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

Here's another strange mic experiment.

I had a small 12" subwoofer & speaker box laying around the studio a few years ago. I chopped the end off a 1/4" cable and plugged the bare wires into the speaker terminals on the sub box. Then I put the subwoofer in front of my amp, and plugged the 1/4" cable into my recorder...effectively making the subwoofer a microphone, with a 12" diaphragm. I figured the result would be similar to the sound you'd get playing a guitar through the subwoofer, and it kind of was.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7239718

Bass guitar is downtuned to C, guitar is standard 6-string tuning. I like the solo at 2:50.

I really like this song --- not so much the doom-y intro, but the "chorus" is right up my alley.

:thanks:

 

[Vetteboy]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I really like this song --- not so much the doom-y intro, but the "chorus" is right up my alley.

:thanks:

:approve:

I guess it's worth mentioning for comparison that the only thing that changed on the guitar sound from the intro to the chorus is a subwoofer vs. SM57 - no external effects, no bandpass filters, no EQ.

 

[KingMixer]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I had read the beatles engineers did the subwoofer trick for McCartney's bass on "Rain" but "Paperback Writer" was around the same time, So I suppose I'd believe that.

 

[karpathion]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

listening to your recordings is makeing me like that vs 880 even better.

 

[B2D]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I'm not experienced enough in recording yet to really get into unorthodox stuff, but I've tried a few tricks getting weird tones.

I got a WEIRD lo-fi tone once by plugging an SM58 into the headphone jack of a Crate GX15R via a 1/4-XLR cable. The headphone sound came out through the mic but it sounded all buzzy and grainy. It was kinda quiet but I think it could be used for a cool/weird lo-fi effect if I ever needed it.

Also... ever tried plugging a non-true bypass Crybaby in backwards? Feeding the guitar into the output and going from the input to the amp? Do that, turn the pedal on and see what happens. Play with your volume and tone knobs to manipulate the effect.

 

[SlayerSlaughter]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

www.myspace.com/dayofdoom

All recorded in a basement, Drums are Tiggered/Live Miced (Alesis) Guitar ran through processor, same with bass, straight into a Mixing board, lined out into a computer. We have a full length CD (With Doug Cerrito on Lead) and it sounds amazing.

 

[supernosher]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I love the sound of omni's.

I used to have an omni lavalier mic from RadioSmack that I used for ambiance on a drum track, that I recorded in like 1999...

 

[innerdreamrecords.co]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

There is a Depeche Mode video on Youtube where they're singing backup vocals through a hollow tube. I haven't tried much myself, cheap gear is enough of a challenge.

 

[GoldenVulture]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

[Also... ever tried plugging a non-true bypass Crybaby in backwards? Feeding the guitar into the output and going from the input to the amp? Do that, turn the pedal on and see what happens. Play with your volume and tone knobs to manipulate the effect. /QUOTE]
:newbie:
I fooled around with that in the early 70's.It makes it work as a basic tone oscillator. I used to layer tones from it on tape and then use that as a drone tone array behind a piece of music[Song].
I also used to plug an external Dolby Tape encoder/decoder in a way that it did a similar thing.Beefier tones though.Once again i used them as drone arranged to a key, and would snip them onto a tape loop and use them like that too.

A microphone through a distortion box gives a weird sort of overdriven megaphone effect to a vocal through it.:soapbox:

 

[J Moose]

Re: Non-conventional recording tricks...what has worked for you?

I've got an endless bag...



How about reverb tuned to the song?

Get an acoustic guitar, dobro... even a harp (classical) or piano... though thats a bit more involved since you gotta set up the dampers & whatnot John Cage style...

But get 'yer acoustic and tune it to the key of the song. Open D, E minor, whatever and place a speaker near the instrument... usually loud & at least a few feet away. Feed the speaker with an aux send... doesn't matter much what the speaker is. Usually smaller is better... I find 4-6" drivers work best.

Aim the speaker at the guitar/piano & blast away... usually I take the DI off the guitar or piano pickup, feed that back to the console on a fader.

You'll need to experiment to get the best resonation in a given room with the instruments & gear at 'yer disposal, but usually I find that aiming for the back of the guitar or bottom of the piano yeilds the best results. I've also taped really small speakers/drivers to the soundboard...

Works really well with vocals... strings & pads... anything!