Here's a concise guide to the essential gear for your home studio setup, designed to enhance your recording experience with JZ Microphones at its core.
A versatile, high-quality microphone is the cornerstone of any studio. JZ Microphones offers a range of options that cater to different needs, whether you're recording vocals, instruments, or both. The Black Hole Series, for example, is renowned for its clarity and versatility, making it an excellent starting point.
A reliable audio interface is crucial for converting microphone signals into a format your computer can use. Look for interfaces with low latency and high-quality preamps to maintain the integrity of your sound.
Accurate monitoring through studio speakers and headphones is vital for critical listening. Invest in a pair of studio monitors that offer a flat frequency response and a set of professional studio headphones for detailed listening and mixing.
The DAW is where all your recording, editing, mixing, and mastering takes place. Choose one that fits your workflow, with a user-friendly interface and robust features.
Good room acoustics are essential for accurate monitoring and recording. Bass traps, acoustic panels, and diffusers can help control reflections and absorb excess bass frequencies, ensuring your recordings sound great in any environment.
Don't skimp on quality cables to connect your gear, and ensure you have sturdy mic stands to position your microphones correctly, reducing the chance of noise and vibrations.
A pop filter will minimize plosives in vocal recordings, while a shock mount will isolate your microphone from vibrations. Both are small investments that can significantly improve recording quality.
Starting your home studio is an exciting process that blends creativity with technology. By focusing on these essential pieces of gear, you can build a functional, efficient space that complements your unique sound and style.
Remember, the goal is to create a setup that allows you to capture your best performances with clarity and detail, and JZ Microphones are here to ensure your recordings shine with professional quality.
]]>I personally adore these microphones, and they were the first microphones I wanted to try out when I first joined JZ Mics, however, I instead had to settle for the BT301 Pair (still just as incredible I might add!) as when I joined, the previous version of these mics, the BT201 pair, had been decommissioned just prior to me joining the team. But they’re back and better than ever, and today we’re going to talk about what makes them so great.
Let’s dive in!
There’s a common misconception that small diaphragm condensers are thin sounding and lack warmth and body; granted some are, but they’re the sort of microphone we strive to be as far away from as we can be! The thing that actually is the largest difference between small diaphragm condensers compared to their larger counterpart, is actually the phase accuracy of the capsule and more importantly, our interpretation of that fact.
SDC microphones are naturally more phase accurate in their design, but we’ve grown accustomed to the warmth that LDC microphones inherently have, so a lot of people steer more towards large capsule designs for that very reason - and naturally, we like warm full bodied sounds, mixes, instruments, etc. so it makes sense to pair them with that type of microphone. However, that can sometimes be a crux and oftentimes, I find that the main issues on someone else’s recordings and sometimes my own, are oftentimes in the lower spectrum of frequencies.
Possibly the main thing that most engineers consider to be the strong point of using SDC mics is that they have a very precise sound, and in the case of the BT202 pair, there’s no exception either. In fact, compared to the other SDC pairs I have used over the past few years, I appreciate that these microphones aren’t hyped up unlike many others on the market - there’s no brittle or harsh top end, or piercing presence frequencies even when you place the 202’s as a pair of overheads with bright cymbals, or use a acoustic guitar with brand new strings and it’s a super bright sound in the room; the BT202 softens without losing any detail, and articulates the sound in a pleasing manner.
I remember way back in 2015 when we recorded with another engineer who had used a pair of SDC microphones as overheads for my band, and the high-end was unbearable until we tamed the mix ourselves - if we had had the BT202 pair instead, we would’ve save so much time and hassle (and probably added some extra years back to my hearing abilities too). But speaking of having them as a pair of overheads, that’s one of the main benefits to the BT202 pair aside from the sound quality.
Their unique design allows for tight fitting spaces and an insane amount of ways to place them when doing any sort of stereo recording. Mixbus TV has a great video not just demonstrating the microphones, but also the many ways to set them up for stereo applications and why you might choose each one:
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When I say that this microphone is steeped in history, I mean it - and to take on that feat and bring it into the 21st century - it was a task that all of us at JZ Mics understood the gravity of. In today’s blog, I’m going to not just tell you how we did it, but why our innovations have created the new pathway for the same Iconic sound within a new, innovative design.
Let’s Dive in!
The V12 is based on the iconic sound of the C12 microphone, which both AKG and Telefunken created designs of, and built a small legacy from. The Beatles famously used this same microphone for all of the bass amp recordings on The White Album, which across the years has etched itself into the brains of many who consider it to be one of the most, if not the most defining albums of that time.
Not only they used it though; in fact if can be heard across the 60’s and 70’s on a plethora of albums and singles with many of the greats calling it the microphone that allowed them to create their sound within that period - and yet, there were 2 options available still, both with their own corresponding sounds and subtle differences all at the same time.
Yet, no one had taken both of those sounds and made them within one microphone - and for good reason in fact, and possibly the most limiting factor that hindered the innovation of one brilliant microphone with the complexities of both; the valve.
The main reason we wanted to build upon this microphone of course, was the iconic sound that built the fan bases across generations of bands, and for new present day producers to have access to without spending upwards of $10,000 for. But the other, more important reason, was that our engineers were confident of building a design that captured the essence of what the C12 was, and bring it into the modern world without the hassle.
You see, the original design required a small arsenal within a suitcase to not only power this microphone, but also to make sure it worked properly, inevitably becoming a time consuming, heavy artefact to bring along to a recording session, alongside the task of maintaining the valve within the microphone which could vary the sound from the original if it wasn't the same valve or worse, from the same era. Simply, the design wasn’t just cumbersome, but entirely outdated in today’s world of recording.
So, therein lies the problem; how do you maintain the classic sound of a tube microphone, the legacy on which it’s been built, and yet, still maintain any of its sound we’ve come to love over the decades? The simple answer is innovation and evolution of its design. It doesn't have to be a valve any more, and in fact, we maintained the same harmonic saturation and warmth known within the classic design without the use of a valve - our legacy and the new legacy of the C12 sound is within our capsule, using our Golden Drop Technology.
A patented design of our own making, strenuously tested to make sure it maintained the generations of microphones that came before it, and will continue to keep the same sound and design for years to come (without the need for valve maintenance or more). You can hear how close our design is to the vintage versions of this design below in a video from Warren Haurt and even his ears struggle to hear the changes between his own vintage collection:
]]>It’ll come as no surprise for a lot of you, the many ways I have to describe these 2 microphones, but I think the fact that that is the case gives me even more reason to break them and their sonic signature further for anyone who may not know how they sound quite yet.
Let’s dive in!
The V67 and Amethyst have one thing in common which the rest of our entire line don’t have - their capsules. They have identical capsules, meaning they have near identical sound profiles, however, there is a difference between them still despite that similarity. The difference in sound comes from the form factor of the microphones; their body design is starkly different from each other resulting in some interesting differences and even more interesting reasons for those differences.
The thing that makes the difference audible is something called acoustic shadow. In short, acoustic shadow is the time the sound you’re trying to record with the microphone to reach the rear of the capsule; this affects the polar pattern and in turn, affects the frequency response of the capsule. It’s not a major change when the capsules are identical, but it’s still an audible difference resulting in a slight shift of the lower frequencies and the presence of the upper frequencies moving up slightly higher for the Amethyst comparatively to the V67.
Regardless of this fact, they both sound incredibly rich and warm, with the top end sparkle commonly associated with typical vintage microphones throughout the years. For many Grammy winners who use these 2 microphones, most of them say it is their go-to microphone for vocals, drum overheads, acoustic guitars, and much more. Because both mics are able to record anything they’re put in front of with such grace and ease, with results the often don’t need any further processing more than minor touch ups in compression or filtering; over time, both the V67 and Amethyst have without a doubt, become just as well known as the microphones hey were inspired by.
For me personally, I have always leant in the preference of the Amethyst due to it having a slightly tighter low-end and the upper presence shift compared to the V67 is more appealing to my ears. However, 99% of the people I know use these 2 microphones just as much as I do always say they prefer the V67 - and for reference, those people include Thom Russo, Marc Uriselli, Dave Eringa, Adam Getgood, Dana Neilsen, and more… I think we can all agree that that bunch, each has a decent pair of ears. These microphones were inspired by the vintage U87 sound from the 60’s as many microphones have been, but unlike the newer models of that same microphone, we wanted ours to have the warmth associated with the originals and so that’s exactly what we aimed for when designing the capsule. Take a listen below and you’ll hear exactly what I mean:
The biggest thing for us, was to preserve the sound of the instrument or source being recorded, without coloring it too much or taking away from the organic feel of the instrument - something the original that inspired these microphones did very well. The main issue for many who love the originals like we did, however, is the fact that for one, they are incredibly rare and most are now broken or have owners too scared to use them due to the age of the microphone, and secondly, the ones that are in working order are insanely expensive and completely unattainable for most engineers to even think of purchasing. So, with designing the V67 and Amethyst, you now have a chance to have that incredible sound in your mic locker, for a fraction of the price and with far better build quality!
]]>There’s used to be a lot of confusion on what the V47 sounded like, and where in the line-up we have available it sat, in terms of sonic profile - for a long time, the most common question I’d come across would be something along the lines of ‘how bright or dark is the V47 compared to other JZ mics?’, or something to that effect. The simple answer; it sits between the V11 and V67, but as I’ll explain today, it’s not that simple either!
Let’s dive in!
As I mentioned, it’s not as simple as ‘brighter than the V11, darker than the V67’ as there’s a lot that the capsule design and electronics has to offer when considering the preamp type you use alongside the V47. This mic has something special about it that the V12 also has in it’s own way, which is that it imparts slightly more subtle harmonic distortion that all the others (bar the V12) and when it’s pushed, in terms of SPL and how loud the source is that it’s recording, it can become another level of microphone! Better yet, the V47 loves being coupled with a preamp that also likes being pushed to the brink, allowing for some amazingly interesting textures.
I personally love it on harsh vocals over any dynamic microphone, and loud rock vocals into a preamp such as the 1073 from Neve, or a classic API design preamp like the 312, pair perfectly well allowing the takes to just slip into place within the song without becoming lost or fighting against other instruments in the mix. On other loud sources such as drums, the V47 can bring a new layer of definition especially when used as either a room mic or on the outside of the kick. You can hear it in action below courtesy of Future Shock Videos on a number of other sources as well:
But the other side of the V47 is its brilliant ability to adapt to quieter sources. I've used it for a long time on acoustic guitar, especially on finger-picked style which the capsule of the V47 feels like it was almost designed to do specifically when you listen back to the tracks and hear the exquisite detail and texture that the microphone is able to impart on each individual note. On other more soft sources, such as piano, or tuned percussion such as xylophone or similar, the V47 can deliver the extra dimension to the instrument that, with other microphones, can go unnoticed or simply not be there which without fail, the V47 makes sure it captures.
Don't be fooled by the fact that the V47 sits in tonality between the V11 and V67 either, it still has all the pristine detail and presence you expect to have within a microphone of its calibre. I'm always stunned when I record vocals and I'm reminded of the delicate top-end frequencies the V47 brings to the forefront of the tracks in a subtle, yet accurate and beautiful way, giving it the ability to translate the emotion that the vocalist is trying to convey.
For me, it is that microphone I turn to when I need a mic that can do it all, while also adding a texture and timbre that, without it, the entire song would fall short. It's a microphone that can completely transform a take, ooze vibe and character without breaking a sweat, and quite literally works on any source while imparting a character no other microphone within our line-up can achieve in the same way. Simply put, the V47 is the microphone you should consider if you are looking for a new workhorse; you won't be disappointed!
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This week we start with the V11, and each week we’ll be exploring the entire range, starting from the darkest and warmest, through to the brightest and most silky.
Let’s dive in!
That title is no joke, it honestly was an epiphanous moment when I first came across the V11 and used it for the first time myself; however, that wasn’t the first exposure I had to it. The first time I heard the V11 was within a video by Ryan Bruce (Fluff), who highlighted how incredible it sounded, just by itself, on electric guitar cabinets. Until I watched that video, I had a very narrow view of how useful LDC (large diaphragm condensers) could be on guitar or bass cabs, let alone how much richness and body they added.
I’ll be honest, I genuinely thought that ribbon mics were the only option alongside a dynamic microphone such as the HH1, as they countered the inherent harshness that dynamic mic capsules have due to their design. I was so, so wrong about that. The V11 is probably the closest LDC I’ve used compared to what a ribbon microphone can do in regards to warmth, but what the V11 allows which ribbons don’t, it the integrity of that high end sparkle we love from condensers; think of the V11 as the perfect midpoint between both types of capsules, but retaining its own identity all at the same time. You can hear exactly what I’m talking about in the same video I mentioned above, below:
Upon first getting the V11 through, I knew immediately after the first use how much I wanted a second to pair with the first, in order to utilize them both within stereo recordings, such as on drums, acoustic guitar, etc. What I didn’t know for sure was just how impactful they would ultimately become with regards to the workflow I had, my commitment to choices within recording and engineering a session, or just how under-value they are (in my opinion) compared to the rest of the line we have available.
There’s 2 main places where the V11 really took my breath away upon hearing them for the first time on a source. I’ll start with a problem I had firstly; when I was setting up the prior night to the first day's recording, I noticed just how bright the cymbals were that the drummer wanted to use. Of course, preference is preference and as such, I’d already found several solutions to problems I knew I’d inevitably have had when mixing the record (let’s be honest, no one likes shrill cymbals!). My first solution was to place them on a slight axis to mitigate some of the high-end, but then I remembered how warm the V11 pair I brought alone was, so I hooked them up to an XLR cable each and immediately, the problem was solved. The perfect counterbalance to bright cymbals, and with very little time lost once I realized that they were.
The second (and main reason) that they can completely revolutionize drum recordings is when they’re put to use as a spaced A/B room mic pair. It’s so hard to articulate just how wonderful they sounded on that first take - I guess this is either one of those examples where you either had to be there or, better yet, you hear it for yourself! It was magical hearing how much depth and richness they brought to the overall recording; you might say it added a 3rd dimension I didn’t know existed until I heard them!
Let’s dive in!
I’m sure many of you have come across this idea before, but it’s helped me no end when I’ve been planning, or when I’ve been working with large groups to build towards a common goal (such as an album), where things can get a little overwhelming during sessions in the studio. There’s been days where the guitarist just isn’t playing well and we get stuck on a take, or the vocalist hasn’t warmed up or practiced, so it's inevitably going to be more work for you as you know there’ll be editing somewhere down the line. Compartmentalizing a bunch of problems can help you tackle them much easier than if you were to just charge in without much thought prior; but the real benefit is how it can help you in reflecting on the issues you faced and how to avoid them in the future.
When I was first starting out, all I was really focused on was learning the fundamentals of recording, however, later on down the line it occurred to mean that I wasn’t able to achieve the same sound as others within my recordings - and it bothered me no end. For a while, I kept complaining about the problem while at the same time, continuing to practice, but in the end I had to try and break the problem down into the components I thought were the cause of this issue. As you can probably guess, the microphone I was using at the time was not good at all so that was of course a major issue that sprung to mind first; but the main problem I saw was in the lack of equipment I had like all the other studios I longed to work within.
I got stuck in that mindset for literally years until it finally clicked that the issue was down to the most simple variables (aside from the microphone of course): room treatment, practice, and a lack of knowledge. When the lightbulb finally went off in my brain, and I started to breakdown the problems I had into smaller and larger issues, which could I tackle first, and which ones were going to take more time to either save for or similar, the progress I was seeing within my own abilities was leaps and bounds above where I had been previously in a far shorter time frame comparatively. But the best lesson I took from all of this was more that where I had been failing for a long time, I was now able to learn from those mistakes, which gave me a huge amount of self confidence.
If you already have some sound treatment up then the next step I'd recommend is to use Sonarworks while mixing - it's made a huge difference in the way I now hear what I'm working on.
That brings me nicely to the next point, which is setting goals after things have gone wrong so you can avoid more problems in the future. We’ve spoken a good few times already about the beauty of hindsight, but this is more on the idea of how to continue building your skills, or the studio. Sometimes, it may not even be massive failures that give you moments to pause and ask what needs to be done for you to progress. It could be as simple as not enjoying the kind of bands or artists that you’re working with, the quality of the recordings, the amount of mix notes you get given back - all of these are things that I’ve also wanted to change at some point in my career as well, and so I set my sights on how to change things.
Looking back, the biggest impact was without a doubt, joining or purchasing courses or classes for me to practice and hone my craft, and all of those courses had been broken down into individual lessons which I could revisit even to this day when I’m not sure on something. Recently we teamed up with mastering.com who had a new challenge for newcomers to try their hand at, in the form of Fix The Mix where they worked with some incredible producers such as Jake Kodweis, Caleb Loveless, Warren Haurt and more. Courses like this one and the ones from URM, creativelive and such, are the perfect gateway to improving quickly and avoiding issues that you may have been facing in the past that keep repeating themselves.
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We’ve already spoken about the use of planning and foresight, but there are many other ways to help to keep things from going wrong, especially when it comes to plug-ins and recording tools to set up the session for a great performance; that usually stops things from going ary later down the line in my experience.
Let’s dive in.
I think it’s pretty easily forgotten for many that when it comes to vocalists especially within the studio, it’s sometimes good practice to set up the environment they’re going to be recording in, in a way that perhaps you wouldn’t necessarily work within yourself day to day. By that, I mean a different type of lighting, or maybe adding an oil diffuser within the room with elements to help the breathing of the artist (eucalyptus works well for example), or even by having tea on hand, or a water station close by so they remain hydrated.
But the environment which they record within isn’t just the physical space, it's also the way you set up what they hear back from themselves of course too. There’s a few ways I like to break this down, and each stage is just as important as the other; and if this isn’t something you’re already doing with your artists, then I highly suggest trying it next time and seeing just how drastic the results can be!
I’ve spoken about my love affair for channel strips a few times now, but as they really can do everything, it’s important to note in this scenario why that works in your favour much more than often. When dialling in your settings on each part of the chain, I usually try to maintain as much of the microphone and the vocalist as possible when EQ’ing, but just embellishing some of the super top end frequencies and ducking where it may become slightly boxy, around 400 hz to 800hz. By not overdoing it on the EQ moves, you keep what the vocalist is used to hearing, but just touching up the vocal enough to impress themselves with their own performance.
On to compression and filters then, and I usually like to filter prior to compression to gain more accuracy. There’s never too much need at this stage to remove too much low end, but scope out from 200-150 hz down, and see when you land (this is microphone and vocalist dependent so it is important you do this every time with every vocalist). Once you and they are happy, get them to run through a set of their warm-ups to get a sense of how dynamic their vocal is going to be and work on compressing to control and tame, but not become too obvious at this stage - you can hit the compressor much harder later on when you’ve got the raw performance out of them, at this point we’re trying to allow them to hear themselves at an equal level as much as we can without the addition of distortion or artefacts that they may pickup and worry about more than the performance if they’re too noticeable.
The one place channel strips typically fall short is in the vein of de-essing, so it’s good practice to add this after the channel strip plugin you choose, and again, don’t over do it on the reduction - you’ll know if you’ve gone too far if they start to sound like they have a lisp!
I know you all know I love this plugin from UAD, but the de-esser I follow the API Vision Channel strip with is the Lindell Audio 902 based off the dbx 500 series unit - give it a try!
I call these plugins ‘setting the mood’ types of plugins because they can drastically change the feel of the space that the vocalist is in; some vocalists just want a little bit of slapback delay and no reverb, some vocalists want an entire echo chamber comparatively - it’s your job to find out what mood they’re in and how to embellish that feeling.
Usually, I’ll start this discovery process off by adding subtle amounts of each plugin type, tape delay first at around 10% mix, and next to no feedback (just so it adds some reflections to the sense of space), followed by a reverb plate as halls can get a little ‘cloudy’ in my opinion. It’s also important to note that I’ll have a send with these plugins on so I can dial in the volume separately from the main dry vocal mix. I’ll also almost always either choose a reverb plugin that allows me to taper off the low frequencies, or I’ll follow that up by adding a high-pass filter. Again, all of these plugin types or styles can be changed later down the line if needed, this is just to try and get the vocalist into a comfortable headspace so you can really get the best out of them.
I love this Seventh Heaven Plugin for vocals, it just has so many options an such a polished sound - like something straight out of a hardware unit!
It sounds obvious, but there’s more to that sentence than meets the eye. Of course, the quality of your tools should always be the highest you can get away with within reason, but don’t be fooled into thinking that one microphone will fit all voices - that’s why you should always have shootouts of different microphones when setting up, but more importantly, if you find the vocalist is still unsure about the vibe or the sound after all these steps, then don’t be afraid to go back to the microphone choice and see if something else fits better.
A great example of this is when I’ve instinctively gone for a neutral microphone, such as the Amethyst or the V67 with a vocalist who has a lower or higher vocal timbre, and I’ve wanted to have balance in both the upper and lower frequencies; after setting up, it just wasn’t feeling right, and so we tried a couple of more ‘extreme’ options, such as the BB29 which was both modern in tone and the brightest of he bunch, as well as the V12 which was the brightest vintage style mic, but not as bright as the BB29. Long story short, we ended up using the V12 for the main vocals, and the BB29 for the backing vocals!
I’ve always made a point of reminding myself of an old saying when recording vocalists: the song is only as good as its singer - but for that same reason I think, microphones are remembered in the way that they have been for generations as well. Getting the right microphone is always going to be the first step in getting the best out of the performance, but it could also be the key to what’s not feeling right before that performance has even started.
If this hasn’t happened to you yet, then hopefully that remains the case, however, I’ve had this happen more times than I can remember properly, so I have a few ideas for you all to refer to if and when the time comes.
Let’s dive in!
Thankfully, we live in a world which if ever advancing in almost every area of technology you can comprehend, and one of the session altering advancements that can save the band having to grind to a complete halt if a member leaves, are in the form of samples. I have maybe a dozen of so different drum libraries alone, along with many other instruments ranging from synths to orchestral, through to sampled acoustic guitar, bass and electric guitars, and every single one of them has come in handy when I’ve needed to rely upon them to help either myself, or a band in dire straights.
A great example of this occurring mid-session is with a band I finished up with earlier this year called Piston Dreams, and when recording the first EP with me a couple of years ago, they hadn’t been able to find a drummer prior to the recording dates starting, but where optimistic of finding someone while we worked away. As the sessions progressed, and shows where booked for the release of their music, they still were having no luck with finding a new member to work with and came to the conclusion that they either used their sampled drums live or didn’t play (which wasn’t an option for them).
Once the EP was finished, many who listened had no idea that the drums were sampled, and playing live, no one cared that there wasn’t a drummer - in fact, when I caught up with the band later in the year, they’d since found a drummer but hadn’t been searching nearly as furiously as they were when they were still recording as it just didn’t seem to bother any crowd they played in front of! This mirrored a similar scenario with a much larger band called Periphery, who at the time had been playing alongside Adam Getgood as their bassist, however he decided he needed to focus on his studio work and instead he played a live tracking of all of his bass parts which were played out the PA instead of played live; again, no one seemed to be phased on bit by the swap!
Superior Drummer 3 was a life saver during the sessions with Piston Dreams, allowing us much more realism and dynamics to build a near perfect 'fake performance' for use live.
In the studio, usually bass isn’t an issue if you’re working with guitarists as it does come second nature to be able to play both when you can play one - but it does help to have a couple of sample packs ready to one side in case you or the band are looking for a specific playing style such as slap and pop, or the more gentle finger played which can be tricky to play accurately if you’re not familiar with it.
I realized I hadn’t spoken on this point yet, but it is something worth thinking about when this sort of situation, or the ones I’ve written about within this month's focus do happen; keeping morale up is an integral part of coming out the otherside of these problems successfully. I know it almost goes without saying, but it’s worth reminding yourself and those around you working towards a solution that as long as the mindset stays positive, then the likelihood of finding a solution will manifest itself much faster, and with greater ease.
Sometimes, as the producer or engineer of the sessions, you’ll be looked to for your knowledge on how to fix the issues at hand, which can seem daunting if you’re also unfamiliar with the problems too - trust me when I say I have had to pretend like I know what I’m doing more times than I can count in order to try and maintain both my own morale and that of the others around me; but it does get a lot easier if you plan ahead for these sorts of issues.
A couple of other ways that you can prepare yourself for a bolt out the blue halting the sessions that isn’t a member leaving are more common sense items such as 9v batteries, spare strings in various gauges for various instruments, spare valves for preamps or amps, spare drum sticks and skins in various sizes - the list goes on. But when you’re next online looking for a new addition to the studio, think about what could save your sessions from disaster if you need it and do have it?
]]>Did you know you can order a bulk order for sets of your favorite strings? It seems like an expensive investment at the time of purchase, but in reality you will save a huge amount compared to single set purchases.
I know that it goes without saying that almost all of you will also have a story similar to mine today, and I’d love to hear them, so please remember to reach out to my email and share with me how you managed to overcome the obstacles in your way within a similar situation.
Let’s dive in!
I’m not sure that anything worse than what happened in this story has ever happened to me personally, but it’d have to be something close to having a car accident or similar for it to beat just how bad this situation became within minutes. In order to tell this story, I need to take you back to April of this year when I was due to record a band called Maystones who I’ve been working with for many years now, and we were on the last and final step of the 6th record we’d done together; recording live drums.
I’d been searching for a drum room that would be both affordable and sound great, when a friend of mine offered to let us use the auditorium within a town council building. This room was massive, and it had everything we needed and more, such as an actual stage and even more exciting, a balcony which I was looking to record the drum room mics from! When the first day of the sessions came around, Steve (the drummer from Maystones) and I, were going to meet at my studio and travel together with all our equipment aiming to start at sound 8:30am - that was until I received a phone call from the friend who had helped secure the room, letting me know that renovation on the car park directly outside the recording venue had started that morning and that not only was the noise unbearable, but that the builders had also severed the main power supply cable to that part of town.
Once Steve had arrived, we waited a little bit of course to see if anything would swing the odds back into our favor but unfortunately he’d made the trip down from London that day for no good reason and we had to call it a day and try again tomorrow. As you can probably guess, we had even worse luck that day too, and the builders had not only not solved this situation, but worst still, had disappeared after the first day's work with no way to contact them to try and see if the problem was mitigated enough for us to carry on.
This was quite literally the worst case scenario, and any more delays would effectively render the point of recording the drum completely void due to the time constraints of when the deadline for the record was due. We were both feeling pretty down on our luck and I could tell that Steve really wanted this to happen; and this is the lesson and why I wanted to share this story. As an engineer/producer, it’s important to remember that you have a very important task of motivating the people around you when they don’t have the ability to self-motivate themselves, especially during tough times. It’s extremely hard to find silver linings in situations like these ones, and even harder still to find a solution, however I like to think that there’s always something that you can do to try and make things work. So, that’s exactly what I went to work on planning to do!
Thankfully, in my house I have a spare room that is completely empty almost all the time, and it was our last and only option. It’s pretty small and totally untreated so it was clear that I’d be recreating the room mics after the fact, and also needed to borrow some treatment from within my actual studio in order to get a usable recording (luckily I have free standing bass traps so that helped a lot!). In the end, it turned out to be a great sounding record, and thanks to Steve’s determination and dedication, we both picked ourselves back up, took a deep breath, and tried to make it so all of the problems we had to face ended up being a bad 5 minutes, not a bad day.
As you can see, this room definitely wasn't ideal - but it did give us great results thanks to us wanting to make it work for us!
I know that I’m kind of stating the obvious here, but planning for all outcomes is an impossible feat - we just don’t have that level of control in the world around us. But planning for the things you could foresee becoming an issue in the worst case scenario will help you plan contingencies which you can put in place when the going gets tough, and that’s the main thing I’d like to impart on you today.
For me, I personally like to think about the end result, and keep that in my mind's eye at all times. In the situation I shared above, that helped me to visualize exactly how I was going to get the sound from the kit that I wanted without the use of a full mic’ing setup, and identify the major issues in my way that would stop us achieving the best of this poor situation. After we finished the sessions, I also had hindsight on my side which helped me to theorize better ways to plan for the worst case situation, such as always having a room on stand-by, or better yet, using a room in future which was closer to a traditional recording space as opposed to the one we intended to use which we hadn’t used before and had been swayed by the low cost of it.
]]>There’s millions of ways I could write about this focus, however, I’ve whittled it down to just a few of the most prudent examples so that I might be able to help a good few of you who may be dealing with something similar.
So, let’s dive in!
A great place to start with this all is most assuredly with one I’ve unfortunately found myself in time and time again; losing files or worse in some cases, an entire session. When first starting out, I remember all too vividly having a terrible computer with bad software which, at the time, felt like it loved to work against me at random, inconsistent, and incredibly frustrating moments, leading to a plethora of problems and issues I then had to overcome.
For context, I wasn’t in a great living situation at the time, but I was at college and I had at the time an enormous amount of motivation to get myself into a better place. Naturally, music and making it was a passion I’d long since had, so it made sense to take the financial plunge of getting a computer and learning how to properly engineer the ideas in my head out into a project of some sort. However, a key piece of information I’ve failed to mention so far is that I had next to no idea about computers so when I bought one secondhand, you can probably guess just how badly I got things wrong.
The main issue I found myself fighting against was not only how slow the PC was, but actually far worse. The interface I was using at the time was an ancient Tascam unit with only 2 ins and 2 outs, with extremely poor preamps, and even worse drivers to run that damn thing; that was the main issue. I’m not sure how many of you have had your computer do everything in its power to make you want to throw it out of a window, but between the common bluescreen appearances, corrupting data at random, and better still, just straight up corrupting its own harddrives or entire projects, it’s a wonder looking back why I used it for so long.
But, because this happened so often, I kept finding myself needing to pick myself back up and figure out what was salvageable, and what had just disappeared into the ether, which ultimately led me to a few epiphanous moments of clarity too (the main one being that i should without a doubt get into a better habit of saving my files). The biggest moment of clarity by far came a little later after finally learning some more about computers in the form of external harddrives and backing up my data so I wouldn’t have to repeat the same tasks over and over, and neither would the bands in with me. It’s incredibly frustrating having to start over completely, or even from half a song, so if you’re reading this and you don’t have a great storage solution, take this as a sign that you should rethink that immediately - I had to make the best of a bad situation, whereas you can avoid it all together!
I have 2 of these Integral Hard Drives for storage among maybe 4 other storage options within the studio now - Solid State Drives make a huge difference in terms of speed too, for any and all sessions stored on them!
We’ve all had them, and I know many of you have your own horror stories which you’ve kindly shared over the years with me, or asked for help or advice on the issues you’ve been facing. The part I loathe the most about having problematic clients most however, isn’t the actual sessions themselves, but the fact I can’t help but to learn new ways to work with them and get them to work with me rather than the opposite; which ultimately then makes me almost want the next challenge! A common occurrence I’ve personally experienced is that within a band, there’s usually one person that’ll kick up a stink and in my case, it’s all too often the drummer.
There’s been a good number of times where we’ve started off the sessions without having any demos due to the band unable to create them properly or having a demo that is at the lowest quality possible in the form of a phone recording for example. So, when starting with the drums it meant trusting that they had everything sussed out and were also well practiced and knew how to play the parts they wanted in the way that they wanted (I know, wishful thinking). Each and every time I worked in this way, even with well practiced bands, I’d find myself in locked horns by the end of the sessions usually with the drummer who hadn’t realized until the last moment that they’d played something wrong, hadn’t remembered the structure of the song correctly, or just wasn’t happy with their performance as a whole.
The solution sounds simple, but it took almost 6 years to stumble across it. A producer called Will Putney, who many of you may know from his work with bands such as Silent Planet, Northlane, Knocked Loose, and Stray From The Path to name a few, was discussing the way he recorded bands within his studio, and mentioned that he recorded drums last always. I couldn’t understand why at first, but it made sense when he basically described the same problem I’d been having for years and came to the conclusion that having MIDI drums written from the get go for the rest of the band to play to during the tracking sessions allowed the drummer to change things on the fly if they wished to, and left way more opportunity for the band to enter more of a flow state when tracking their parts, thus allowing the songs to still evolved within sessions.
As much as I love recording drums, they usually are at the crux of many issues I've found myself in over the years.
This technique alone helped me numerous times to avoid revolving within the loop I’d once been circling for years on end, and even though clients can of course still be extremely tricky to handle despite having failsafes at play, this technique at least mitigates some of the potential pitfalls and stress you may find yourself in during a session; and there’s a few other techniques that you can take from this one alone too. Another great example of allowing contingency plans to shape sessions in the best way possible would be to always record a DI signal of the guitar and bass for 2 main reasons:
As always, I’d love to hear any of your ways to avoid problems or stories of how you’ve made the best of a bad situation as well, so please feel free to write to me at Harri@jzmic.com or within our community for JZ Microphone owners on facebook. Until next week though, stay creative!
]]>It occurred to me that there were a lot of things I almost do now without thinking about when starting to set up a session, or if I’m midway through a session and it calls for a certain sound, then I almost always have something tucked up my sleeve in preparation. So, today, I want to break that down, from start to finish, and more importantly, show you why these particular hacks have become a subconscious thought process at this point.
Let’s dive in!
I know a lot of people don’t like presets, and they have in the past gotten a lot of bad press, but they are still to this day one of the best ways to get closer to the point in the mix you’re aiming for, quickly and seamlessly. It honestly took me a while to allow myself to start using presets again, but it dawned on me that each time I was using a channelstrip, or a reverb plugin for example; I’d always be tweaking the settings each time I sat down to mix because I just wasn’t ever getting close to what I actually thought I wanted.
So, in the end I started from the beginning (again) and worked from the ground upwards - I think I was working on guitars on this occasion if I remember correctly. I’d just installed the new Architype: Nolly plugin from Neural DSP, and I’ve always trusted his ears, so I thought ‘why not?’ and opened up to one of the presets they came ready with the plugin. It was perfect. It was so perfect, that I wasn’t sure I even needed anything else in the chain, but I soon realized that there was some high and low passing it could deal with, and a little multiband compression, and so on; but the fact remained that it was minimal adjustments that all started by just trusting in the plugin developers and the producers presets that allowed me to speed run my guitar tones that day!
I can't express enough just how many great starting points there are within this one plugin!
So, after doing those minor adjustments, I was a little worried that unless I wrote it down somewhere, or reminded myself what the preset was called, I might forget - and even worse, I was worried I may forget the other processing I’d done in the chain. However, the great thing about plugins is that they don’t just allow the people developing them to make and save presets; so, that’s exactly what I did. And then I started making more for other scenarios that had already been mixed in on other instruments using similar or the same plugins, like the multiband compression I mentioned earlier, or the gating and basic EQ on a channelstrip plugin for the Toms. Soon, after making the habit in each session to recognize I liked the changes I’d made to a basic starting preset from the developers, I’d make sure to save my own version of it so I had a new starting point to work from next time instead, based on my ears.
The SSL Channelstrip from Waves Plugins has been a staple for many producers over the years for many reasons, but their plethora of presets from Grammy winners is definitely one of them.
Expanding further from the concept of presets, you can take this idea into a totally different realm in a couple of different ways in the form of preset chains and preset templates. Let’s start with chains as they invariably will make up your templates for the most part. Above, I mentioned that I was worried about losing the presets or forgetting what I had done in the previous session, so to avoid that I made presets instead; well, having those presets as your ‘own’ starting point rather than stock presets is always going to help, however, what I sometimes find even more valuable is to have an entire chain of plugins with they’re processing or presets already selected, within one chain that I can load up instead.
This is especially helpful when you’re working from song to song, and maybe don’t know what to expect quite yet due to the artist not having great demos or preparation, and so instruments or the sounds of them are being given to you at a moments notice, and you need to work fast in order to keep the session flowing (we’ve all been there I’m sure); having these chains premade and ready to go at the most basic point allows you to not only vet the idea the artist has, or perhaps get closer to the sound in their head if they’re unsure how to describe it, but gather information about the bigger picture and scope of the overall song much faster, which in my case gets my brain in the best creative headspace!
Within my DAW of choice, Reaper, you can add FX Chains that you save from the Add FX menu used for looking up your plugins list - how easy is that?!
Once you’ve gotten used to chains, then you can start adding more and more of them at a time into templates. Now, remember, the process so far has been:
After you’ve done that for say, an entire bus of instruments such as all the drums, then you can start to save that entire group of tracks as a template from which to start the entire session from. I can not explain how insanely helpful this is when you’re in the first sessions with a new artist, and you’re discussing the sound the band wants for each group of instruments; better yet, how much more helpful it is once you’ve already worked on one record for that band in the past, and you can save the basic mix of each group of instruments as a starting point for the next record.
I’ve made sure to create various templates for all sorts of instruments and timbres for as many basic ways for that group of instruments to sound like. This could be all sorts of different variables as well, everything from clean to crunch, to high gain guitar tones with the usual suspects as tracks like hard panned left and right guitars, lead guitar tones in a basic setting, perhaps a mono overdub guitar track as well - all the way to template mixes premade for various drum sample packs or sample settings within those packs, so you’re ready to hit the ground running as soon as the band sets into the studio.
Hopefully, these tips will help you not just become more confident in trusting your own instincts on what sounds good and committing it to a preset for yourself, but in turn allow you to start speed mixing as you record so the band can always have a sense of the finished version while in the studio during the recording sessions. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts too, so don’t forget to email me at Harri@jzmic.com or reach out within the community!
]]>Today, I wanted to revisit some basic hacks that can all too often be overlooked or stashed away in the attic of our knowledge, when they're actually some of the most fundamental tactics you can employ to get the best out of your recordings each and every time. So, hopefully after today, if you've been overlooking these basic hacks then they might just help you solve an issue you've currently having, or avoid one in future.
Let's dive in!
Unless you're making or recording music directly from plugins or samples in the digital domain, then you will always be dealing with some level of analogue audio chain - and even you are making music complete within a computer, remember that a lot of those samples would've had to have been recorded at one point for you to be able to use them too. It's an incredibly overlooked solution to arguably the most frequent issue a lot of engineers come into contact with, in that more often than not, either your chain is sub-par, or your technique chosen to record that particular source needs refining. Invariably, and more commonly, it's the former.
When I was first starting out, I remember trying to find as much knowledge as possible so as to record better and better, each and every time I sat down to record my own ideas, or someone else's; unfortunately, when I was starting out, there were many forums that allowed those with misinformation and poor advice dilute the information I was looking for, and still to this day there are a lot of people online who are convinced that your microphone and your preamp don't matter. In actuality they're the most important part in making your recordings incredible from minute one!
And you can get great results from inexpensive options that sound like they're worth 10x the price too. Take our V11 for example; not only does it employ our Golden Drop Technology just like every other microphone we create that's higher in price, but it also has an incredible warmth alongside a detailed and crisp high-end to it's sonic footprint that it typically associated with ridiculously priced vintage microphones we've come to know and adore in recording.
The same applies for the preamp too, especially now that interfaces have some insane technology behind them which can for the most part eliminate the need for an external dedicated preamp until you're ready to take that plunge. Arturia, as many of you well know, are one of my favorites in terms of their preamp design; their AudioFuse preamps work so well with our mics, and at this point I'm sometimes not even using my external preamps because these sound just as good!
Moving on, it's time to talk about automation. This was, for me, one of the last techniques I learned due to not really understanding just how powerful it could be, and also for a while believing those forums I mentioned earlier, but I digress. Automation is such a simple way of bringing your music to life with some very simple moves, or drastic for that matter too, which can almost give the sense that the track is alive and somewhat 3D when listening. Possibly the best example of this is volume changes throughout the song, on various individual tracks to evoke impact, distance, excitement or a calmness as the song progresses.
Drums are usually the best example to demonstrate this as they already have both close and far microphones setup in order to record them; however, it's the balance between them that is where the magic happens. Take for example, the start of a chorus - you want it to make an impact from the first downbeat. A technique I learned early on from Chris Lord Alge, was to bring the overhead mics up for that first hit, only for the very first bar, by around 1-2db, and then return it to how it usually is set. By doing this, you make the first crash hits jump out and grab the attention of the listener because it sounds explosive and exciting; it makes you want to carry on listening!
Another way of using volume automation with drums that I love doing, is adding a sense of depth to a part of the song where it seems a little more ambient and calm. The best way I've found, is to lower the close mic's on the shells, and the overheads somewhat until they feel smooth and washy, while bringing up the volume of the room microphones to counterbalance the volume so as not to drop out the drums from the song entirely. This gives the sense that you're almost in the back of the room listening to the drums only through the reflections of the sound from surfaces in the room it's recorded in. This technique is great if you have a section of the song that is far more gentle than the rest of it, and really helps to add more of a release to the tension and build-up from the rest of the song.
Lastly, and one of my favorite hacks of bringing a track to life with very minimal effort, is by using the same tools that composers use within cinema. If you've ever seen a movie in the theater then you know that many of the sounds that are in the final piece aren't always exactly the same as what's being shown visually; especially if it's an action or horror movie. FX such as footsteps, wind, rain, thunder, explosions, and more are usually create in post-production by specialist engineers and then added to the composition after the fact, allowing the director and the cast to focus on story, the visual team to work on the edit and cinematography, and the composer to create the sound track.
There are a lot of sample packs that already feature many of these folly recordings, such as the one from JST in the video below, which you can add to your music to really add a new sense of depth and character to the music you're engineering, and help you create tension and impact far easier when you need to make that part of the song stand out on its own:
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So today, to get us started, I want to kick it all off, mainly with a few ways to get a more polished sounding mix, but also with a couple of mindset tips that can really help you and the artist to get the fullest potential out of the sessions when they record. As always as well, feel free to share your ideas with me as well - who knows, I may even share them here!
Let's dive in.
There's no better way to put this really, as it can feel like a lot of the time you're trying to crack the enigma code when trying to communicate with the artist you're working with. Really, this only happens when you have maybe a new artist in the studio and you're still building the chemistry with them; so it's pretty unavoidable unless everything just clicks into place (which can also sometimes happen as well). However, the problem still remains and I think the best way to explain what I mean is through a story of my own that may resonate with many of you.
A couple of weeks ago, I started work with a new artist - not only is he very talented but he also has a great baseline sense of understanding and knowledge regarding audio engineering and production in general (plus, he's keen to understand and learn more so it's a win win all around for me). As we're recording, we get through the entire process and listen back to the song, but despite all the vocal takes sounding great, having a great vocal chain in place, and the performance and energy being within the takes too, he still wasn't happy with the result yet as it didn't sound like the previous music he'd been doing.
We took a short break at this point as it was time for me to crack the code here and ideally quickly so we didn't lose momentum in the session so, after a little back and forth, it became clear that our understanding of a few key words like 'mix', 'EQ', and 'production' where pretty different and causing a bit of a problem. So, I started to work on the mix with him alongside me, and the first place we started was on the EQ of the vocals and I took time to carefully explain how I was trying to get the result I wanted from the EQ. As soon as we got through this, he mentioned that the autotune wasn't strong enough on the vocal, and low and behold as soon as we tweaked it a little and made it slightly more extreme - there was the sound he wanted in his head!
Just by adjusting the retune dial on the top left, we managed to work much more fluidly once we were on the same page as each other.
The trick here is to let the artist walk themselves to the answer; it can be difficult for anyone that's not as well versed in music production jargon to aptly explain their meaning towards something they're not happy with so the best thing to do is allow them to feel it out until they get to the answer - the key as the engineer or producer is having the patience to help them help themselves.
There's 3 plugins in particular I want to talk about here, one of which we're covered before so I'll just glance over it, but it is important nonetheless; those tools being Multi-band Compression, Soothe, and finally Spiff (both being from Oeksound Plugins). These all do very different jobs, but they can all be incredibly powerful tools to help you ascertain the goal you have in mind for the mix you're working on, and I find them particularly helpful at helping me to polish a mix before I send it back to an artist.
Starting with Multi-band Compression, my favorite plugin for this far and away is Fabbfilter's Pro-MB. It just works with far more range and versatility compared to other plugins that do similar things, but the UI is much more friendly for me as well. Pro-Mb is by far and away most useful within my mixing when I need to make space for other instruments to pop out more, or when there's too much overcrowding within one area of the frequency spectrum that's making my mix far more muddy or hard to listen to than I'd like.
A great example of where I like to use it would be on electric guitars, or acoustic guitars in general when there's a little too much low midrange build-up but only within certain parts of the playing (such as palm mutes or when lower strings are picked). By using the default attack and release and isolating the problem area, usually around 150hz through to 450-500hz, I simply need to adjust the threshold to where it sounds natural and move onto the next instrument with the same problem - it's that simple. Just be careful not to over process the instrument however, and if you're using this on a few instances of the same plugin, just have it working gently so that the effect is working with the other instances on the same instrument tracks.
This is typically the with of the band I use on any guitar tracks, only adjusting the threshold with the rest of the settings as default.
Moving on, let's talk about Soothe and Spiff. These really are parallels from the same coin, and they can be incredibly helpful towards finding a more polished and easier to listen to mix. Starting with Soothe, I love this plugin for doing exactly what it says on the tin! But the most frequent tracks I place this plugin on would be anything with a lot of potentially harsh brightness such as overheads on a drum kit, or sometimes a vocal bus, or even on groups of stringed instruments such as violins. In a nutshell, Soothe is best known for being able to smooth out that harshness in a very natural and musical way, and because it works in real time, it's not the same as having an EQ notching out various resonances (although it is similar, just not static like an EQ).
Spiff on the other hand is a much more additive plugin. For me it works in a similar manner of how I like to use transient enhancers, however, Spiff is unique in that it can isolate any area of the spectrum and allow you to make that part of the instrument strike out for a moment as opposed to the traditional transient enhancers either having preset bands to work to or the plugin affecting the entire frequency range. Below is a great video I found when I was first starting off using the plugin, and Reid Stefan does a great job of explaining all of the best features from Spiff along with several examples of which instruments you'd likely use it on:
]]>Because these are more of a collection of thoughts and generalizations, you may already be aware of one or two, or you might not have thought of any of them, who knows! But, as always, if you have any others that you'd like to share after reading today, please let me know of course - you can never have too much information after all.
Anyway, let's dive in!
We've spoken very briefly on this before, I think sometime last year, however, I've never really highlighted it too much before and now seems like an appropriate time! In short, acoustic shadow is the time it takes for the sound source to reach the rear of the capsule, which in turn also affects the polar pattern and some of the subtleties that can be apparent from maybe the same capsules being housed within the mic but the body shape changing slightly, or even drastically.
This became perhaps a bit more important for me to understand as, well… I think it's obvious that working for a mic company it's probably best to know a thing or two about how microphones work, right? But I do think it's good to have this knowledge on hand, especially if you have well trained ears and you're hoping to find out a bit more about why mic's you know have a similar make-up and design sound a bit different to each other. A great example in our case would be the V67 and the Amethyst; they both have the exact same capsule design, but there is a notable difference in the low-midrange frequencies with the V67 sounding a little more bloomed as opposed to the Amethyst having a slightly tighter bottom end. Another slight difference is the shift in where the presence is in the upper-midrange, with the V67 having a light bump from around 2Khz to roughly 5Khz, and the Amethyst slightly higher starting at around 3Khz and ending just above 7Khz.
Sometimes, mic designers can also reimagine the capsule housing, or change the model of the mic to make it a version, or generation 1, 2, 3, and so on, adding features which inevitably change the size and design of the mic (this happened a lot during the 80's and 90's). Obviously, the result is that a mic from 'X’ decade compared to a newer or older model can have a slightly different footprint, even if the capsule has remained Identical.
Have you ever wondered why there's sometimes a 'loudness’ button on certain hi-fi systems, or in the car maybe? Or why headphones are typically made to include an over-hyped low and high frequency lift? Or maybe just why anything between 2-5khz is just very uncomfortable to listen to for long periods of time? All of these questions and more can be answered by studying Fletcher-Munson curves, originally founded by Harvey Fletcher and Wilden A. Munson in the 1930's. Their study was to find a way to measure where our hearing was most sensitive, and since that study, their curves have been incorporated into the International Standard Organization (ISO) after these tests had been done in a variety of countries.
Because the ISO sets the standard based on science, that's one of the main reasons why these curves are used so often to design headphones, hi-fi systems, amplifiers, and more; basically anything that is an amplifier for sound. The Loudness button, and the over hyped headphone designs are basically the same thing reconstituted; when looking at the curve, and hearing it in real life, the quieter something sounds when played back, the more bass you hear, and as you increase the volume, the overall spectrum becomes a lot flatter in comparison to the lowest SPL volumes. So, by boosting the high-end content and the lower midrange frequencies, our hearing perceives this to be offsetting the loss of those frequencies at lower volumes.
As for why 2-5Khz sounds harsh to us as humans, it's due to those frequencies resonating in our ear canal and particular parts of the inner ear, which can also explain why we can get hearing fatigue when we listen back to music at loud volumes as well. All of these answers can be attributed to one study done in the 30's, and I think that's astonishing,personally! I implore you to do some research for yourselves as there's no end to a lot of answers because of this study.
It might sound obvious, but the number of new engineers that aren't aware of the impact some accessories have on the quality of your recordings is more than you'd imagine, this tip is for you guys that might be still new to the game. When I say accessories, I mean the extras you might use when recording such as mic stands, or isolation foam under your speakers to help stop floor noise. In the case of microphones however, there's 3 in particular that have a monumental impact on your recordings: shock mounts, pop filters, and storage.
Shock mounts can come in a few different designs, but in general it's always best to use the one the company has intended so you get the best sound out of your mic. In the case of out microphones, every single mic we make (aside from the HH1) has a screw mount directly on the microphone so you can attach it to the stand directly - however, this leaves you susceptible to floor noise and rumble, as well as no extra protection in the microphone or the mic stand gets knocked or worse, completely falls over. We have a shock mount for every single mic we make, and even a universal shock mount for the entire vintage series to make things even more streamline; if you're not using one yet, I highly suggest checking them out.
Our Vintage Series Universal Shock Mount
With our Pop Filter, it's a little kept secret that we wanted to go all out on our design to make sure it really was the very best design available. Most pop filters are made using some number of fabrics or very thin and easily damaged metal which can become damaged just from the simplest of knocks; and even worse, they don't really do their job in the first place! With our design, we took the tricks of the past, such as the pencil trick, and modernized the design to not just stop the largest plosives, but disperse all sudden bursts of air when a singer is at the microphone to eliminate sibilance and plosives at any and all levels of pressure. A few Grammy winning producers who live on Q&A's with me have even said that when they travel to record, that they make sure they pack this in their suitcase without fail because it helps them so much (Thom Russo is by far my favorite person to tell me that fact!).
The JZ Microphones Pop Filter
Lastly, storage is a massive factor to how your microphone will sound over time, and it's a shame how overlooked that can often be. Unless you keep your microphones well kept when you're not using them, you can end up with moisture damage, dust and debris sitting on the capsule, and even exposure to the salt and humidity in the air can corrode the capsule of any microphone. We've created a solution for that as well of course in the form of our wooden, custom cut boxes which eliminate all the damaging factors you can think of and more - plus they look beautiful as well. Definitely check them out soon if you haven't got the best storage for your microphone right now; it'll without a doubt enable your microphone to sound as good as it is right now for the longest possible time.
]]>Custom Cut Storage, with options to store 1 or 2 mics in each box
The history of the company has always been something I've enjoyed learning about since first starting work with JZ Mics, and it's always insightful to know the roots of why something even exists in the first place; however, the history of this company in particular is more important than many realize, so that's what we'll be exploring today.
Let's dive in!
Back in the 70's and throughout the years prior to the conception of JZ Mics, our founder Juris Zarins was a jeweler and repaired many detailed and refined items such as watches and typical trinkets like rings and such - but more interestingly, he repaired microphones. Microphones, of course, have a huge amount of fine connections, and careful placements of components which have to be as accurately placed as possible to make sure the microphone is in perfect working order. And on top of that, the capsule is incredibly delicate and also coated in a spluttering of gold; another great reason a jeweler would be a perfect candidate to work on such things.
Now remember, at the time that he was working on these microphones, Latvia was still part of the soviet union, so it was incredibly difficult to get microphones in general, so the popular thing was to repair them as they were far and few between. So being a jeweler, he thought ''if I could can repair microphones, why can't I create them instead?'' And so the start of his path to learning how to build microphones from scratch was underway.
The main issue at the time in question however, was that there were only 3 capsule manufacturers for condenser microphones in the world in the 80's, and like I mentioned before, it was hard to get microphones at that time in general due to the way the world was during that time too; but he knew if he could crack the code for making capsules then he could make his own.
Our first and flagship microphone, of course, is our Black Hole Series microphones.
Skipping ahead a little, inevitably of course, Juris did indeed crack the code to making capsules himself, and so his first company was born in the form of Blue Microphones circa 1998, and he starts to get to work on making his line of, what would eventually become some of the most recognised microphones on the planet! You may recognise one design that's actually still within our own line-up of microphones for JZ Mics, and that's the BB29; a reimagining of the original design which was known as the Blueberry microphone.
Eventually, he sold Blue Microphones back in 2007/8 to a party in the US, but he founded another company as a sister to Blue microphones, and that being Violet Microphones, which to this day still exists with the Amethyst of course being the main microphone that we all know and love, but now rebranded as JZ Microphones. JZ Microphones has now been around for just over 15 years officially, but the technology and innovation has been going on for a lot longer than that.
The BB29 was, in my opinion, the best choice to redesign and re-release after Blue Mics was sold. It's such a unique and beautiful sounding microphone.
As I mentioned earlier, there were only 3 capsule manufacturers in the world at the point when Juris first started, but many more came into existence during the 90's, and all of them were close to carbon copies of what had have existed already, just simply in the form of a new name and a new shaped microphone. There was literally no real movement on the technology of capsules until the end of Juris owning Blue Mics, and of course Violet and JZ Mics, when he invented our patented Golden Drop Technology.
You may be asking how I know for a fact why this is the only serious movement in capsule technology in the present day and that's because we know how many people have tried to reverse engineer our microphones to try and understand why our mics sound so different to the ones others are making - I'll quickly quell any desires to do so however, as even opening up the housing of the microphone is enough to completely ruin the sound of the microphones; think how if you crashed a car and it had to be written off and scrapped entirely, that is the impact it will have on the microphone if you try to open it yourself.
I think that it's important to highlight the company and its history to give you all a better sense of where we've come from, since microphones were first invented as we discussed a couple of weeks ago, to where we are now. It;s also incredibly interesting to me personally, and since joining the team I'm still learning and finding out more to this day! But, I think what truly matters is that you know that every innovation we've made, each design conceived and created, all of it has been in the hopes of helping you all at home and in the studio to have the best tools possible to help you do what you love to do. I actually asked Andris the other week what his own philosophy was about microphones and I think he summed it up quite nicely:
''there's always room for improvement, and there's no perfect mic - we value our customers feedback, and that directly impacts or vision to create and inspire both musicians, engineers, podcasters, and anyone else alike, to help them create and record in a higher quality than what was ever available until now, thanks to the innovation of JZ Mics''.
As always, feel free to reach out and let me know what you want me to write about, and if you've enjoyed the blog; you can write to me at Harri@jzmic.com or you can always reach me within the JZ Microphones Members Area if you're a part of that already. Until next week, stay creative!
]]>We've covered preamps quite a few times on this blog, specifically looking at the way they sound rather than what their job is and how they go about doing it. So, today we'll take a look at maining the inner workings, and hopefully by the end of the blog today, you'll understand your own preamps a little more than you did before you started reading.
Let's dive in!
The term preamp derives from the full word, preamplifier. Split that word in 2, and we have a pretty good idea of what it is already. See, the problem with microphones is that they have a very low output voltage, which means that by themselves, if you were to try and record a microphone without anything helping the signal get louder before you listened back to it, the best you'd get is a very quiet and very noisy recording.
That's where the job of the preamp comes into full effect. Its main purpose is to amplify the signal from the microphone without adding distortion, thus making it easier to listen back to and record. The preamp in the signal chain is vital to ensure you can get a great sound from your microphone, but they're not all built the same, and there are high quality designs, and very low quality designs.
Compared to the first preamps and their technologies, we have a much easier time recording in the manner we want today. The first microphones actually didn't have anything more than a cable running from their output, which would then go straight into the recording device; only around the 1920's did we start to see the introduction of preamps being used, but even they were primitive. The first preamps were designed based on the invention of the vacuum triode valve, discovered in 1906, but unlike today, they still had to overcome a massive issue - how to find the gain needed to amplify the microphones signal. So really, the first preamps would be pretty fixed in terms of the output they allowed you to achieve, and in the design below there wasn't even an output volume control, just a fixed output stage.
This is an early 1930's preamp design which was apparently the work of the BBC.
It was only in the late 1950's where the invention of firstly the germanium transistor, and then later and more importantly the Silicon transistor, were incorporated into preamp designs giving birth to a plethora of design options. This component brought many advantages by lowering the distortion (early designs would have 10% THD which is a lot!) and allowing for more gain staging options within the design. It was also around this time that 2 of the most important companies ever to exist were founded; Fairchild in 1955, and Neve in 1961. Fairchild was the company that brought in the next wave of discovery with the invention of the Integrated Circuit, which in turn, led to the invention of the Op Amp. With Op Amp designs, there was a much simpler design that was formed by:
Input Transformer > the Op Amp (which is now a single gain stage) > The amount of gain is set by the ratio of 2 resistors > lastly to the output transformer
This simple design is what really started the boom of preamps and companies being able to put their sound into the design. The signal chain above is a basic form of one of the most beloved mic preamps on the planet, the API 312.
A vintage API 312 Preamp - that black box with the arrow is the Op Amp Integrated Circuit.
So now you have the basic understanding of how they work, and the main technologies in valve and Op Amp designs, you may be wondering how you can use this knowledge to help you? Well, the designs mentioned above all have their own sonic imprint on the sound of the microphone, and so this is where the concept of matching a microphone and a preamp becomes so important.
For example, the Op Amp design is a much simpler, much cleaner sounding design with just one gainstage needed; even the transformers are really only there to help the the impedance load for the input and output but the transformers could be clean sounding too which will give you more of the sound of the microphone you're using as opposed to something such as a Valve mic preamp which inherently has both more noise (different types of valves can change this too), as well as more harmonic distortion which can be desirable and actually enhance the sound of your recordings. The same could be said for designs from Neve which leant into the sound of the transformers, giving you another type of harmonic distortion and is one of the most desirable sounds from a preamp you can get - but it does change the overall sound of the microphone by adding harmonics to the signal.
The simplest way I have found to test out my ears and figure out what I prefer with each microphone I've ever owned, is by using the cleanest way to record I can (i.e. my interface preamps which are designed to be as clean as possible), and then try out various plugins emulating each design of preamp to figure out what the best variant is for me. With plugins becoming much better at bringing the analogue sound into the digital domain, this has been the fastest route to learn what I like, and then save up to get the real thing!
Hopefully this will help you in choosing your next preamp, or upgrading your current preamps perhaps if you're only using your interface. Whatever the case, let me know if you enjoyed this installment, and what you'd like to read by writing to me at Harri@jzmic.com and until next week, stay creative!
]]>We’ll be exploring everything from what SPL is and why it matters, through to self noise ratings, output and impedance, and our starting point today - where this all even came from in general! There are, I’m sure, many of you who are very much interested in this topic of conversation, but remember I am not a historian or history teacher, so if I get a year wrong or something, feel free to reach out and correct my mistakes (I’m always happy to learn too!)
Let’s dive in!
This seems like a simple enough question to answer, but actually there’s a little more detail that should also be explained, otherwise some other factors later on won’t make as much sense. It starts with the invention of the telephone, invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876 who only a year later recognized the usefulness of the microphone invented by Emile Berliner and so, bought the patent awarded to Emile for around $50,000 (which in today's word is still a lot of money but in 1877 was an exorbitant amount of money!)
That design wasn't the only one made however; Thomas Eddison and Emile Bierliner engaged in an over decade long court battle, which was finally settled in 1892, and actually awarded to Thomas Eddison in a supreme court, later on declaring that he was the actual inventor of the first microphone. This debate was far from over though, and the shouting match had now been engaged, not just in the U.S., but all throughout Europe now as well.
Emile Berliner is also known for a few other inventions, the main attributed to him is the invention of the Gramophone and the Vinyl Disc design, still in use today for many audiophiles.
While Eddison and Berliner were engaged in their court case for as long as they were, another man came forward by the name of David Edward Hughes, also claiming to be the inventor of the first microphone as well. So, like every self-respecting gentleman of the 1900’s and distinguished inventor, there was only one recourse of action - publicly accuse and slander everyone but yourself, with claims of piracy and plagiarism vilifying the rivals you have; of course this was the only answer…
Long story short, the entire world was now watching this unfold in a way that sounded like todays sitcom TV styled writing, and eventually a distinguished physicist named Lord Kelvin was finally asked to interject, and publicly recognised that both inventors had worked off of yet, another design which hadn’t been mentioned up until this point; however, both Eddison and Berliner had created their designs from other man, a Frenchman called Clerac, which in turn had also been based off of another Frenchman.
So really, the designs seem like they were inevitable, and from the sounds of it, I can’t help but see the irony of designing and building a recording device, but without something to record to, there wasn’t any documented proof other than what someone may have dated and timed (which can also alway be changed resulting in a ‘their word against mine’ sort of tangle). But I think we should take a look at the next developments if we want to be able to trace the lineage of microphones we use today, but what exactly happened to spark the other designs for them as well, as that’s another part of the same question?
The answer is a simple one: The Great War. The amount of technological advancements attributed to the war are astonishing, but there are a few that tread the lines between both WW1 and WW2 just in time to help establish the next boom in technological advancements. The first boom started in 1915 when the development of the Vacuum Tube Amplifier was invented allowing for the increase of output from a microphone, and resulting in further advances in what we now consider to be known as a Preamp. From there, the first condenser microphone was designed and patented in 1916 by E.C. Wente while working at Bell Laboratories, after being tasked with improving the audio quality of the telephone.
Now, during the 1920’s after the Great War was at an end, the radio had become the main way for almost everyone in Europe and the US to find out the news, as well as being the most desired form of entertainment, and so the demand for microphones and the advancement in their technology had grown exponentially and RCA in response to this demand designs the first Ribbon Microphone for radio broadcasting, followed by Georg Neumann and Co. later designing the first ever commercial microphone in 1928, aptly nicknamed ‘The Bottle’ because of its shape. From here, shortly before the cause of the second boom in technological advancements the world over, World War II, the last main microphone advancement was made in 1931 with Western Electric creating and making available to purchase the 618 Electrodynamic Transmitter - the first Dynamic capsule created for commercialisation.
One of the many reasons I love the Amethyst is because if the design of it. To me, it's a close representation of the CMV-3 'The Bottle' microphone made in 1928.
Unfortunately, the need for the first preamp, the increase of the need for the telephone, and of course, the radio communications, were all attributed to the Great War where communication and warnings in particular were integral to saving lives. But, without it we wouldn’t have those advancements shape the world we live in today, and I probably wouldn’t be writing this explaining the butterfly effect of one huge event changing the world forever. Without the first world war, microphones probably would exist in the way they do, automotive engineering and aeronautics, advancements in medicine, physics and many more things that make our lives what they are for the better wouldn’t be in existence in the same way they are. I am thankful for that.
Next week and the weeks after, I’ll be diving into some more of the history of how we know the terms of what to test for such as SPL or impedance ratings and why they also helped shape the microphones we love today, including our own designs and innovation at JZ Microphones! I will happily touch on some of the recording advancements if you’d like me to as well, but reach out and let me know if that’s of interest and if enough interest is there I’ll make sure to document it for you all! Until next time, stay creative.
]]>There’s a million and one things to try out with a new microphone, everything from how they sound on different preamps, through to how much SPL can it handle. But, in this instance, there’s always been one great way to truly feel out the character of a microphone and that’s simply by hearing it on a few different instruments - so I’m going to share with you what I think are some great recommendations.
Let’s dive in!
If you bolstered your mic locker with a single new addition, I can guarantee that’s going to be enough to add much more to your recordings straight off the bat. But knowing how it can improve your recordings can be a little tricky, especially if you’re totally new to our brand, or it’s perhaps your first that you’ve invested in from us; and if that’s the case then this blog is most definitely for you today. Let’s start off with probably the best place to start when trying out a new microphone - Vocals.
Vocals are a solid way of getting to know a microphone, preamps, compression and more, as our ears have evolved to be much more sensitive to vocals, the types of vocals, pitch, distance, context, etc. so it’s logical to start there. However, this is a good time to point out the only caveat to listening for changes or differences in microphones, with that being our ears almost ‘forget’ a sound we’ve just heard within about a second, so make sure to record the vocal takes, and A/B between the takes on either good headphones or monitors to get the best out of your testing.
If you've just added either the Vintage or Black Hole Series to your mic locker, trust me you have a lot to be excited about in your next session!
Another great place to start if you’re not comfortable with singing, or can’t get a vocalist in to help you test the mic out, would be acoustic guitar. Oftentimes I prefer this test as well because it allows me to hear the transient response of the microphone a little clearer than what vocals can do by themselves; but it will also give you a wider area to mic up too so you can test a little deeper here with how the mic sounds in front of the body, aimed at the bridge of the neck, and distance from the guitar as well. The same applies to electric guitar cabinets as well, and the position over the speaker from the center most point, through to the edge of the cone.
Lastly, if you have access to it and can record drums in your studio without the neighbors complaining, I’d highly recommend hearing how your new microphone sounds on a drum kit. Because there’s so many pieces of the kit that have to be accounted for when recording them, and because a mono room mic and a mono overhead (along with a standard stereo pairing) is such commonplace now with how many people like to record, it seems worth trying to hear if you can. I know that when I’m testing my mics out, I’m trying to listen for if I can hear a good, overall capture of the entire kit at various distances and positions in the room or above the kit. I do this for two reasons;
Perhaps you were lucky enough to snag one of the last pairs of our brand new BT-202 small diaphragm condensers? Or maybe add a second mic to finally make that pair you’ve been saving to get? Well, if either are the case then don’t worry, I’ve got some ideas for you guys as well.
If you’ve read the most recent focus for the blog this month and last, then you may already be aware of the sound samples we have, kindly done by Alexandros from Voodoo Project Studio in Athens. Amongst the samples he made, there’s some great examples of where to start in testing your new pair, most notably on Piano recordings. There’s a bunch of different ways to mic up a piano, and depending on the size or type, then that can vary even further; however in the case of these samples, they were made using a beautiful upright piano in a variety of stereo recording techniques and distances - that’s the best place to start without a doubt! If you want to check out those samples before you get started, there’s both mono and stereo examples here.
The next logical place if you don’t have a piano, and the more likely reason you have your new pair is because you need them for drums - well, again, I’ve got a few ideas for you on that as well! Just to revisit stereo recording techniques again, yes of course they are a great way to test out your new mics, without a doubt; but you could go even further if you add either another pair in a different arrangement (such as a pair in A/B spaced, and another in X/Y between them) or a simple mono mic to fill in the center. This is a wonderful way to start to hear how your other mics may compliment each other in a full arrangement of mics and I’d highly recommend it even if just as a control variable when testing. Make sure to test various distances as well for both overheads and room mics, it’s incredible what a difference it can make by even just a few inches.
Before I wrap up as well, I wanted to quickly remind anyone that may be new to our mics to go and join our community on facebook so you’re always up-to-date with news and exclusive offers, early access and further discounts. And lastly, I want to share this new video from Justin over at Sonic Scoop as well for you all to hear, especially if you got a pair of the BT-202’s. It’s a very in depth look and comparison between our new mics and some others that many consider to be good SDC mics:
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Before that though, I’m sure many of you will already know about our summer sale, but this is also the last weekend for you to get involved and get the mic that you want with up to 50% off - and the sale includes our entire catalog too.
With all that said and done, let’s dive in!
Dynamic microphones are the result of some of the earliest innovations in microphone technology. Their conception was actually developed from the first ever microphone design developed back in 1877 just one year after the telephone was invented, with the innovation coming later in the 1930’s when they were first available commercially. They’ve been a mainstay in studios however, since around that time too, and for good reason. Dynamic microphones are a rather special design of microphones for a few different reasons, but arguably the most important one being that they can record extremely high SPL sources without breaking a sweat.
There’s many different designs of dynamic microphones on the market but none are quite like the HH1. The main problem I always found with many other options was that they would always sound too dull and too shrill all at the same time which was as confusing to me as it sounds! Usually, dynamic microphones don’t have the best extension to their high frequency response, many of which I’ve found to share a similar frequency response with them rolling off pretty quickly after about 15Khz, coupled with a very unwelcoming boost around 2-3Khz; both of these make for a very unwelcome sound if not positioned correctly on a source.
The HH1 on the other hand doesn’t share the same roll off that the other mics do thanks to it’s extended upper frequency response; in fact, it captures far more than the usual mic’s I had been used to for many years with it going up to 18Khz and it genuinely makes an immeasurable difference in the sound quality. Not only does the HH1 capture more detail in the high frequency content, but it also captures the upper midrange in a much less harsh manner, and shifts the presence into the 5-7hz making it a much more suitable microphone to use on pretty much all sources.
As I previously mentioned, one of the main benefits of dynamic microphones is that ability to record very loud sources, so understandably it shouldn’t come as a surprise to many that the HH1 excels on drum shells, snare and toms in particular, as well as electric guitar cabinets and bass, as well as the more obvious source, vocalists of all kinds. But thanks to the extended high frequency response, the HH1 is great on acoustic guitar as well - in fact I’ve used it several times on many records and below you can hear it for yourself:
All in all, we’ve gone through every microphone line and talked not just about the sound, but the quality and versatility of every single microphone. And I think that’s probably the best thing to say about the entire JZ line of microphones in general, they’re versatile tools for many different jobs, lending themselves to basically any source you want to capture. Within the focus this month, the main thing I set out to do is to give some recommendations as to where I like to use the microphones most, but thanks to the way these mics are made, they can and will in fact record everything to an outstanding quality every time; so the only thing that may be different is simply the way I hear compared to someone else, and so ultimately it’s down to the user to choose which mic for which source.
Since working with these mics, it’s also become very clear that the Golden Drop Technology plays a massive part in what separates all of the JZ Mics catalog from the rest of the herd. It’s odd to go back and try another microphone to me personally, simply because to me, my old microphones don’t come close to what I can achieve with a JZ Microphone - the biggest difference being the transient detail and clarity which is why I mention the Golden Drop Technology being a game changer.
If you take advantage of our Summer Sale before it ends this Tuesday, make sure to show me and the team on social media, and remember to check out all the posts from this months focus if you’re unsure which microphone is best for you; failing that, you can always reach out to me either in the community or via email: Harri@jzmic.com
Until next week, stay creative!
]]>The Vintage series is one of our most beloved lines of microphones for many reasons, but above all else I would argue that the versatility of all the mics in the series is what you all cherish the most, but I want to expand that and nail down the 3 best places for all of the mics today. The same goes for the BT series, just having been relaunched only last month is a perfect choice to discuss alongside the Vintage series, so I can hopefully give you some more insights into their best uses after using them quite a bit now.
Let’s dive in!
I think most notably, the biggest difference between the mics is an obvious one; the BT Series are Small Diaphragm Condensers (SDC) whereas the Vintage Series is composed of only Large Diaphragm Condensers (LDC). However, with that being said, it also means there are many other inherent differences because of the size of the capsule, such as shape and form factor, sound differences, polar pattern differences, and more that we’ll explore later on.
However, the main thing that ties all our mics together is the Golden Drop Technology that was pioneered by the founder of JZ Microphones just over 15 years ago now. This innovation genuinely has a huge impact on the way the microphone works; a great example being that it makes the capsule lighter, and more nimble, resulting in far better transient response, clarity and detail.
Lastly, I understand that just reading about the differences isn’t going to be enough for you all - so today, I’m glad to share with you some examples of the BT Series that I know you’ve all been looking forward to hearing (aside from the ones I made last month) which have been kindly recorded by one of our beloved community members, Alexandros, utilizing his array of talented artists he works with at his studio, Voodoo Project Studio. You can hear them all by clicking here!
The Vintage Series, for anyone that may be new to the blog, is by far and away the line with the most options within it; so much so we were asked to make a chart for new users to show the darkest sounding, to the brightest sounding mics in our entire line, to give some extra help to those unsure what was going to be best for their studio! That, to me anyway, should tell you a huge amount about the Vintage Series line, and the variety within the designs that are available. There’s a huge assortment of recording sources that the Vintage series can cover, but I think the main source that both Grammy winning users, and studio engineers alike around the world that use this line of microphones can agree on, is recording vocals (all types). Every single person I’ve ever spoken to that owns or has used the V67 or the Amethyst, has said time and time again how much to love to use it to record vocals, and it’s for good reason, it honestly sounds incredible - there’s no other way to put it!
But knowing that multiple Grammy winners and nominees have also described many of the microphones in the same way when used on vocals, or on other sources alike, as not needing to be worked into the mix, or not needing really any processing at all in some cases, says a lot about the rest of the range. Speaking of which, let’s draw focus to the darker side of the Vintage series in the form of the V11 and the V47.
The V47 is a slightly darker variant of the V67 and the Amethyst, whereas the V11 has by far the darkest timbre with a broad and full bottom end coupled with a lift in the highest frequencies to maintain some sparkle and air. Both of these mics, like the V67 and Amethyst, have been lauded over for the way they capture a drum kit in general, whether that be as an overhead pair or as a room pair in whatever technique you choose. For me personally, I adore the V11 on pretty much everything I put it on, and as an overhead pair no matter what cymbals are being used, they capture the sound perfectly. Justin from Sonic Scoop has a great video below showing off all the mics mentioned so far so you can really hear the differences:
Lastly, let’s talk about the V12, the newest addition to the LDC side of the Vintage Series. Designed to be as close to the original C12 from the 60’s (that same one the the Beatles had on almost every source they could), the V12 is a faithful recreation of what was originally a tube microphone. Forgive me for a slight tangent here but we need to discuss the design and what makes the V12 so special to me. Tubes sound wonderful, but the hassle of a tube microphone can honestly be a nightmare with basically having a suitcase to carry it around in, along with a separate power source for the microphone, and way more cables than a standard mic needs, just to set it up and use it!
So we took that hassle away, and created the V12 by using only solid state electronics in the signal path, and carefully tuning the capsule to bring that sound into the modern world finally. Honestly, I’m yet to find a source that the V12 doesn’t blow me away on yet, but where it shines best is on sources with a lot of low end material, such as a bass guitar, or as an outside kick drum microphone. The way it captures lower frequencies compared to any other microphone I’ve used is outstanding, and I can imagine on low tuned brass or woodwind instruments alike, the V12 would be stunning all the same.
As many of you will know, the BT series is our newest addition to the JZ Microphones line, and it was only just last month we spoke about the many different uses for the BT-202 pair, as last month was dedicated to Small Diaphragm Condensers. There’s many, many uses for SDC microphones, but none more so in my humble opinion than as drum overheads, and whats most surprising about the BT-202 pair is that they smash not just every other SDC microphone out of the par in comparison, but they beat a number of LDC microphones when in a shootout. Their ability to do what typically only larger diaphragms in the past have been able to do is what really separates it from any competition.
What I love about the BT Series most however, is how they fit perfectly into the Vintage Series lineup, with a classic sound profile and to my ears, what sounds like a cross between the Amethyst and V12, but with the added benefit of being a SDC microphone and therefore having a slightly tighter but more accurate polar pattern. As I mentioned above, there’s a link to all the sound samples for the BT-202 pair that both our community member and talented engineer Alexandros, and I have compiled over the last few weeks. As well as that though, our good friend Ed Thorne has made an amazing video demoing the BT-202’s which you can watch below:
Anyway, without further ado, let’s dive in!
First off, let's look at what makes each mic sound in the way that it does, and the thoughts behind the designs of each one, starting with the BB29. The BB29 has been designed to start out from not just the overall crowd, but also our own microphone line as well. Building upon the Blueberry design by the founder of both JZ and Blue, as well as Violet microphones. We wanted to expand further on what is already an extremely converted sound adored by so many studios and grammy winners - so the real challenge was bringing that design into the modern world with up to date and high quality components.
The biggest thing that makes the BB29 sound the way that it does, in particular and only available in the BB29’s design compared to the rest of our line, is the transformer coupled output which has the biggest effect on the sound profile and frequency response. It also means that the microphone is incredibly quiet and will age gracefully; and this matters in particular with how bright the BB29 is compared to the other JZ mics available, and in turn compared to other bright mics on the market. Oftentimes, mics similar in sound to the BB29 will end up losing fidelity and with age, their timbre will warp slightly.
The main 3 places I would personally see the BB29 performing incredibly would be on Acoustic guitar, Hip-Hop vocals, and classical instruments such as cello, double bass, piano, etc. But there's a number of other sources where the BB29 would be a better choice than others in your mic locker; for example, jazz drums can be rather dark and played with insanely varying dynamics where the BB29 would act as a counterbalance to the sound of the kit overall. Another place I’ve known the BB29 to excel is on room mics, especially in slightly duller rooms, which I’ve personally employed multiple times usually as a mono mic to extend the low end of the snare and kit within the overall drum sound. Below is a great video from Pro Audio Tools which demonstrates the effectiveness of using the BB29 on specifically female vocals and acoustic guitar:
The BH1S is honestly one of my favorite ever mics for a number of reasons, but I’ll do my best to whittle it down! In particular, there is one incredible feature that the BH1S in particular, compared to the rest of our line, is the ability to utilize 3 different polar patterns as well as a switchable pad, which I don’t think needs too much explanation as to how incredibly useful this microphone can make itself in a number of situations. We’ve spoken so many times about the usefulness of stereo recording techniques which can take your recording to an entirely new realm once you start to experiment with them; simply because they’re not just useful for drums, but almost any instrument and recording situation where there might be a large group of people or instruments that need recording at the same time for one overall performance (such as an orchestra or choir to give a more extreme circumstance).
This fact alone makes having the BH1S a necessity to have within your locker, but there are so many other reasons that makes the BH1S and overall series special. It’s our flagship mic for a reason and it looks to do one thing more than anything else: become a modern solution for every scenario, without compromise. This was the most important vision when conceptualizing the design and it needed to be a workhorse capable of becoming a classic in years to come similar to the revered designs we know and love from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.
It's a microphone for any situation, and thus excels on basically every source you can think of. That’s not to say it’ll always be the best choice, but it circles back to my original point regarding taste, personal opinion, and the situation you find yourself in. But overall, if you ever found yourself with indecision as I have time after time, the Black Hole Series always works. In the video below from Creative Sound Lab, you can hear the BH2 (the little brother of the BH1S, simply without polar pattern switch or pad, but the same sound) on acoustic guitar, drum overheads and vocals:
What ties all of our mics together however, and what they share regardless of series or age, is the technology pioneered by JZ Mics known as the Golden Drop Technology developed by our time who hand make every and all microphone we have available. These 2 factors are also what really sets all of our microphones in a totally different league, for a number of reasons - but we’ll talk about that a bit more next week when we’ve shared all the news I mentioned earlier! Until then, stay creative and look out for the blog next week.
Let’s dive in!
It’s important to establish a couple of things first regarding the mics and moreover, the way we hear and the nature of our hearing. When I was much younger, I always strived to try and record music and mix my music to try and simulate engineers and producers I aspired to sound like, and it was only after a lot of trial and error that I realized how futile that effort was; the simple fact of the matter is that no one hears in the same way, which leads us to forming our own opinions on literally everything - from whether or not we like a microphone on a source, through to not liking or liking a guitar tone or even an entire mix in general.
The way I like to think about microphones is that they are tools for a job. They can do many jobs, and some they do better than others, some mics can really only do one job well, and so on. Just like how there are many different types of screwdrivers, or hammers in a toolbox, it’s important to note that some tools can do many tasks and some are very specialized. Across the board however, there is one shared feature between every microphone we design, which is simply to be as neutral as possible but with its own sound. Making a microphone specifically for one job has always seemed rather counterproductive when you consider how many things there are in the world to record, and an infinite number of ways to record them.
Lastly, what I’m hoping to achieve with this focus this month, isn’t to sway the opinions you may already have, but rather inform where I think the intended purpose resides, and hopefully help anyone who may be wondering that same question asked above.
Just in this picture you can see many differences between the series' we have available, but the biggest differences are in the sound.
This has been the main way that many studios across the world for decades have determined what microphone to use for what source. It’s really the only tried and true method for figuring out what you like and why when it comes to mics or any tool for that matter when making or recording music. I’ll personally shoot out anything I can do if there is a variety of options available such as guitar, cymbals, various snares, microphones, stereo mic’ing techniques and the placement or distances; literally any variable that can be changed is an avenue to be explored.
It’s important to stay curious so you maintain your hunger for creativity, otherwise the process becomes monotonous and stale and much less fun to be involved in. Mic shoutouts in particular are one of the best ways I find to keep things fresh and I'm always discovering new ways to use my mics on almost any source I can think of. An interesting experiment for example, was the other week when comparing our new BT-202 microphones against the Amethyst and Black Hole series. I was stunned to hear back the audio and find that I genuinely loved the BT-202 on vocals just as much as I enjoyed the other two; so much so that I’ve taken to using it on live streams and Q&A sessions for the foreseeable future! But I never would’ve found that out unless I had taken the time to hear the mics in comparison to each other.
A great example of why mic shootouts are so important is demonstrated by Justin from SonicScoop in the video below where he shows the many ways to record piano. In the video, he compares both the Amethysts and the Black Hole series in various stereo recording setups and the changes between each technique are incredibly vast and a perfect example of just why these shootouts are so important:
Over the course of the month we’ll take each series individually and look at the 3 best places for them to shine on when recording and why that's the case. Thankfully the incredible JZ Members Area community has helped out massively with sharing their thoughts and opinions already, but I’m curious to know where you think each series works best in your own recordings and why - so please feel free to reach out to my email Harri@jzmic.com and let me know.
]]>There’s actually more in common than you might think, but it’s important to know the reasons why they both exist and have a home in studios literally across the world for a reason!
Let’s dive in.
Not to call a spade a spade, but we can all agree the biggest difference is going to be the size and form factor of the mics in comparison. Typically, a small diaphragm is considered to be anything under half an inch, and large diaphragm being of course the opposite; but there is some overlap between some SDC mics where they’re still considered to be SDC despite having a capsule larger than the typical cut off point for size. The actual build of the microphones is also a big difference with SDC mics usually referred to as pencil condensers due to the well known brands opting for a slimmer housing with the capsule at the top (although again, that's also not always the case).
What is the biggest difference then? Well, it actually resides in the polar patterns and the way they capture sound. SDC mics almost always have a much tighter polar pattern response than their LDC counterpart, but it goes even further than that. It’s in fact the way that the polar patterns affect the individual frequencies, in particular the lower end of the spectrum; as you get below around 500hz, the LDC mics become much less linier in the way they pick up frequencies comparatively to a SDC mic which then has further consequences.
Because we as humans have evolved to actually like those non-linearities (think for example tape distortion, or transformer harmonic distortion), this is what makes the biggest difference to us in the way we perceive the differences between LDC and SDC mics. The non-linearities make it seem as though the LDC mics are warmer, or thicker in their sound when in actuality the SDC is simply just more accurate with how it captures the entire spectrum of frequencies when referring to the polar pattern shift.
If you've been following the blog for the last few weeks you may recall my comparison of the BT-202 pair being a mix of both the Amethyst and the V12 for the same reasons as I've mentioned above.
That's the main question of course, and it’s a pretty subjective answer but I’ll do my best to stay bipartisan and neutral as best as possible. The main issue is that both perform admirably on almost the same sources and it’s more the source that will be the determining factor overall. If for example, you have some very bright cymbals and a drum kit that has a large amount of attack then I would likely pick the LDC mics so I can achieve some of that low-end and ‘warmer’ midrange, whereas if the kit and cymbals were much less bright and the overall picture could end up needing some more control then I’d likely pick the SDC mics with the LDC mics as room mics far away so I can rely on proximity effect for the rooms to keep the low frequencies from overcrowding the mix.
Piano is another good example of how the source is the determining factor, when you have say a large grand piano versus an upright jazz piano as the variants. It’d end up being a case of shooting out each pair against each other and seeing what worked best over the strings and main sound of the piano I was looking to mic up, but then, again, if I was looking for a more mellow recording then I might mic up the back of the piano to taper off the highend naturally from the way I’ve mic'd up the instrument which would then result in the same process of needing to shoot out the mics against each other.
In the coming weeks, we'll have many more samples of the BT202 pair such as this double bass and more recorded by our community member Alexandros. For now though, you'll have to take me on my word that this sounded incredible.
Where SDC mics do shine without the need for source to determine whether or not you shoot them out against a pair of LDC mics would be on say acoustic guitar, electric guitar cabinets (depending on the speaker), Saxophone, lower brass instruments, cello, violin, basically anything that calls for both a clear image of the instrument but also retain a tight image of the lower frequencies. Another place I think an SDC works is on vocals as well, but because of the form factor of an LDC mic, most vocalists assume that the shape and look of a mic is what is important to it sounding good; but they really do sound oftentimes better in my opinion than a LDC microphone, but again it's a preference!
Lastly, if you managed to jump on the BT-202 release, I sincerely hope you’ve been enjoying the microphones if they have arrived; I know I’ve been in love with them since they first arrived and can’t stop using them. Let me know what your favorite sources to use them on are and write to me at Harri@jzmic.com
]]>Understandably, you’ve all been asking for some stereo comparisons since last weeks mono examples were made available, and so I have done exactly that with the BT202 pair and a couple of other branded mics for you to hear the difference for yourselves, but there will be even more next week on even more sources; for now there's 3 pairs in overhead and room setups for a clearer picture for you all. On that point, however, I want to talk about my own considerations as to what separates the BT202’s from the crowd, and so that’s what we’re going to do.
Let’s dive in!
It’s really as simple as that. There are many SDC pairs I have used over the years which just haven’t lived up to the hype of expectations I’ve had when using them. I remember one pair in particular (a pair that are also in the examples I’ve done this week for you all) which were used on the drums as overheads when my old band went to record our first professional single. When we were recording, it wasn’t as noticeable, but upon hearing the track finished they were shrill and uninviting to listen to in general let alone at loud volume.
A few other examples which I only have as mono options unfortunately (as I would’ve liked to have shown off a few more examples for you all) also fall into a similar bracket where there are too many cons and not enough pros to warrant working against the grain and trying to make them fit into the mix later on. Instead, I’ve reached for a large diaphragm condenser, or a dynamic mic that's bright but in control which admittedly adds another problem of the space taken up compared to the slimline nature of a typical pencil condenser.
The BT202 really is in a league of its own and there's only one mic that is slightly comparable which we’ll be extending our stereo sample set against next week on some classical source so you can all listen to them against each other. But there is also a caveat to that microphone as well; it’s from a bygone era of recording where there’s not been any real innovation for years since it was first released. The BT202 not only has the handcrafted quality you would expect from JZ Mics but also utilizes the Golden Drop Technology we invented, as well as new components fashioned in a unique way to breathe a lot more life to recordings, rather than rely upon old technology to try and do a much more modern task.
Last week, as I mentioned I showed some mono applications for the BT202 for you all to listen to (you can also find them here should you want to have a listen), and this week I have some stereo setups for you to hear in your own environment yet again by clicking here.
Just in these two sets of examples, with many more on the way next week as well, it’s clear to see that the BT202 really is able to hold its own on several demanding sources such as overheads, room mics, on guitar cabinets, acoustic guitar, as a cymbal spot mic, ukulele, and more. Many other SDC mics, to me at least, seem to have been made with perhaps only a couple of tasks they are going to be useful on and that's about it, whereas the BT202 has been designed to fit into all applications.
Our community member, Alexandros from Voodoo Project Studio in Athens is kindly helping with some samples which you can look forward to next week!
A few of you emailed me recently (which I very much appreciate) and one such email asked if they’d be able to do Foley or ADR style recording for film and sound design - and the answer is simply that they’d be a perfect choice. I mentioned last week that the sound of this mic sits somewhere between the V67/Amethyst and the V12 to my ears and all of those mics would excel on that application too; but that's also why the BT202’s would shine on all the same applications you’d put those mics in front of in general, just in their own way with their own identity!
So, by now, some of you may be thinking to yourselves why would I need a pair of SDC mics when I have some LDC mics that already do a wonderful job? Well, the plain answer is that they give you more options and more tools to choose from when crafting your sound. The BT202's, albeit sounding incredibly close to the sound you’d likely expect to hear from a LDC mic, do also have their own sound and style which works in tandem with a LDC pair as well.
A good example of this would be the way the low end frequencies are shaped by the BT202’s compared to say using the Amethyst; the Amethyst still has a tight, controlled, but full picture of the low end frequency content recorded, whereas because it’s a smaller capsule, the BT202 has a slightly tighter roll off on the low end allowing it to focus the sound naturally rather than in post with a high pass filter. This is especially useful on overheads or as room mics in a slightly less than desirable room for drums where the low end from the kick or the floor tom can bounce around overshadowing some of the important low-midrange you’d likely want to hear from the snare or rack tom.
But having both options available also means that you can start to switch up what pairs are used on what application, such as having a pair of V67’s as room mics, and the BT202 pair as overheads, or having both the V67’s and BT202’s as overheads but slightly different spacing or heights so you can capture the shells a little more with the LDC pair, and the cymbals with the SDC pair; a technique commonly used today as it allows for some more separation within the recordings.
However you choose to use the BT202’s I’d love to hear what you create as always, so if you have any questions or want to share your projects, please feel free to reach out to Harri@jzmic.com - until next week though, stay creative!
]]>Today, as part of our focus for the months on Small Diaphragm Condensers, I want to help you all understand just why I’ve fallen in love with this microphone so quickly, as well as give some insight into how it sounds so you can make your own thoughts and feelings on these wonderful microphones.
If you’d like to hear the BT-202 in action while reading this blog, then you do so by clicking here, where I’ve compiled a folder for you to either download and listen to in a way that suits you, or listen directly from the cloud folder (but please also make sure to read today's blog so you can see the way in which we tested and why!)
Let’s dive in!
Over the course of the last week or so, I’ve been trying to get a few different ways to test out the new BT-202 pair I have, and came to the conclusion that in order to do a fair, and precise testing of them as stereo pairs, I’d need to take my time - however, it won’t be very long I promise! Instead, this week I’ve taken as much time as I could do to test and experiment with them in a mono situation, such as on a guitar cabinet, or as a spot mic. Mono comparisons are sometimes a way better way to properly hear the contrast from one microphone to another as well.
Before I share those comparisons, I should explain how we set up the tests in order to make them as fair as possible, as well as share the mics we compared together and why. We chose to first test against our own mics so that you can all hear where in timbre the BT-202 sits in regard to how bright or dark it is comparatively to the rest of our line. With that in mind, the obvious choices for me were the Amethyst and the BH2 due to them both being very neutral but also to give flavors from our vintage and modern lines respectfully. Later down the line, of course I will be doing tests compared to other companies' mics as well, so make sure you keep an eye out for that or subscribe to the email list so you’re kept up to date.
We tested again a few different instruments, mainly those you’d likely see a small diaphragm condenser at home in such as acoustic guitar, electric guitar, ukulele, spot mic’ing cymbals, and vocals. As you can see in the photo below, we also made sure to try and have all the capsules from all 3 mics in as much of the same space as each other as possible.
Well, this is the thing; that's what makes them so special… I genuinely can't believe how neutral they are. They don’t sound like your typical small diaphragm condenser microphone, and in fact they sound closer to a large diaphragm condenser! The biggest surprise for me personally was how at home it seemed to be on a guitar amp. If you are part of the JZ Mics Members Area on Facebook, then you may have seen the live Q&A I did about a week ago, explaining why this would be a big deal to me. The issue typically with SDC microphones on sources like electric guitar cabinets is that it’s very difficult to place them in a way you’d like to and they always end up sounding far too bright and thus, totally unusable in the end. There's only one microphone I personally can name off the top of my head that a number of audio engineers would reach for in this scenario, but I have to say this does an even better job if I’m totally honest.
On the ride cymbal we spot mic'd as well, I chose one of the brightest cymbals I have here in order to really try and test the capability of the BT-202 to try and see if it would end up being like all the other SDC microphones I’ve used in the past, and turn out too bright and harsh. But yet again, much to my surprise and also relief, that wasn’t the case with the BT-202 and instead it sounded detailed but controlled as well as having a very neutral overall capture of the sound in general.
I wouldn’t hesitate to say that these are possibly going to end up being the new 3rd very natural option for any of you to use in the future, the same as say the Black Hole series and the V67 and Amethyst also are for many people when they want to capture a source without coloring the sound too much with either the microphones built in sound or via the preamp used. All in all, these have to be heard for you to really understand just how astonished I truly am at the capabilities of the BT-202’s and the way they hold up against the other microphones in our line up. I said before that the closest comparison I could make to the new mics would be probably the V12, however I’m not sure that's the case any more; I think the BT-202 has all the best qualities of the V12 and the Black Hole Series in terms of the upper midrange and high end frequency character, coupled with the very natural lower midrange that the V67 or Amethyst has, just with a little less low end frequency response (which is completely reasonable given the capsule size difference).
If you want to hear them for yourself, I’ve compiled a folder online here for you to either download and listen to back to back in a way you’d prefer, or listen to them as they are without downloading them. As always, let me know if there are any other sources you’d like to hear the BT-202 on, and keep a sharp eye on the blog as we’ll have the next comparisons in the form of stereo pairs very soon!
]]>Let’s dive in!
So very quickly before I get into the main part of this, I need to tell you all a short story. Way back when I was still just starting to work for JZ Mics, I was of course very curious of trying out as many of the products as possible in order to get to know the product line further and then write about them. The first mics I ever asked about were unfortunately discontinued, and so I’ve never had a chance to use them, however I was able to use their slightly different version which again has now also been discontinued. Fast forward to last week when I found out that the mics I originally wanted to try have actually been added back into the products we currently have available, and finally, after 3 years or so, I was able to hold a pair of the brand new JZ BT-202 Microphones!
So, now you know why I’m so excited for this blog focus and this blog in particular today, let's talk about the BT-202’s in a little bit more detail, shall we?
Possibly the best part about these mics is that they are so lightweight and easy to set up. In the past when I’ve been working with SDC’s it’s been a rather laborious process to get the mics to sit where I’d like them to, and stay there. There are a few examples I have in my mic locker that for that one reason don’t really get used anymore at all! The second and arguably best perk about the BT-202 Pair is that they just sound beyond incredible. They’re smooth, natural, and surprisingly warm in their sound profile which lends them to more options in terms of what they can record.
Oftentimes, pencil condensers can be extremely harsh and unwelcoming in their sound which isn’t ideal when they’re commonly used on overheads or piano, electric guitar, and more. Thankfully the BT202’s are much more comfortable to listen to straight off the bat, with a very even profile with just a touch of a bump in the upper frequencies to add some subtle presence around the 5-7.5Khz region as you can see below in the graph.
Because there are so many uses for SDC mics, having a natural sound profile helps you utilize these mics in more than the traditional ways, without the risk of worrying about them becoming too shrill in the mix when you have multiple layers or tracks using pencil condensers. One of my favorite applications for this style of mic is to literally tape it to the main dynamic microphone I have set up for the Snare top microphone, with the capsules perfectly aligned next to each other. I do this because it allows me to not just use the dynamic capsule sound, such as the HH1, but have a couple of flavors to blend together and add more to the rasp of the snare.
However, in recent years, because the pencil condensers I’ve used in the past have been so brittle and shrill sounding, as well as highlighting some less than desirable sounds from the snare such as excessive ring or unwanted overtones, I’ve strayed away from using them as much as I would like. Thankfully, the BT-202 is nothing like the past pencil condensers I’ve used, and is by far and away the best performing SDC I’ve had the pleasure of using.
In the coming weeks, I’ll be putting together an assortment of various comparison videos, samples, and examples of the sorts of places you can expect to find the BT-202 feel right at home. For now though, I can share with you what I already know about where they fit right in, such as: on acoustic guitar, as I’ve already mentioned as overheads for drums or as a second snare microphone, piano or other percussive instruments, as well as violin or classical string and brass instruments. One interesting area I hope to experiment with as well, is how well they work on electric guitar cabinets as this is an area that doesn’t always fit the application of a small diaphragm condenser, but in some rare cases it can play incredibly well and sound sublime so I hope to try it out in the coming weeks on that application too. Until then, Andris was kind enough to share with me a selection of samples in a short comparison video he did back when the original iteration of these mics (the BT-201 Pair) was available, placed as an overhead pair with a great drummer called Jekabs Zemzaris, recorded at Sound Division Studios which you can watch below:
Until next week, make sure if you already own one of our JZ Mics that you are part of our ever growing community on facebook, where there will be tons of news shared and further examples and samples exclusively available to the members, as well as news and access benefits only available to members only.
]]>These tips are the last steps in the overarching process of engineering drums, so hopefully, if you’ve not employed these techniques before reading today's blog, then they will definitely have an impact for you going forwards.
Let’s dive in!
I’ve said a few times before how important your room mics are. The room and the sound of your room are arguably 50% of your overall sound when recording drums, and without the proper room, you’re always going to be left wanting when listening back to what you’ve recorded. Now, admittedly it is difficult to find the right room for you, and harder still to either build one yourself or rent one out every time you need to; which leaves most home studios in a rather difficult position.
Thankfully, we live in an age where technology already has several solutions for us! The main one being samples and reverb sends. Samples are a great way of not just enhancing the individual parts of the kit, but they can be used to also build a room sound totally out of the room samples that come readily available with most drum sample libraries. My personal favorite is the original Getgood Drums drum samples from the first Halpern kit, which were recorded at Middle Farm studios in the UK which I've used time and time again to build an entire room for drum shells I've recorded in a small room. All you need to get started is a software to trigger samples from, such as Slate Digital’s Trigger 2, and the drum library of your choice.
There’s another great way, however, to go about solving the same issue without using samples which is by using reverb sends to build a room sound. There’s a plethora of various reverb plugins out there so nailing down a great sounding room within one plugin is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, so instead I’d rather let you in on my preferred choices. Waves Audio has one of the best sounding drum rooms I’ve heard within their plugin Trueverb. Simply load it up on its own channel, select the preset ‘Drum Room’, and send the kick, snare, toms, and whatever else you like into it and dial in the volume appropriately for your mix. My second main reverb plugin of choice is Valhalla Vintage Verb, purely for the simple reason that it sounds great and there’s no end to the various ways to dial in the sound you’re looking for in basically no time at all.
Once you’ve got your room sound created, or if you were able to record room mics in the first place, once you’ve adjusted the level of them appropriately to balance them in the mix, if they’re still not bringing as much life to the party as you’d like, there’s another way you can make that happen. Smash the life out of them with parallel compression.
Compression has a remarkable way of adding movement into the sound you’re creating thanks to the way it ducks the audio down and releases it, almost making the sound breath in a way. The best way to get that movement is with a high ratio compression using VCA or FET styles, mixed with a medium attack (around 10ms attack is where I like to start), and fast release speed (usually as fast as I can get the compressor to work). Bring the threshold down so you start to really hear the compression working and usually the distortion that happens when you push these types of compressors.
Once you have the audio far too over processed, start to use the mix dial to add some of the dry unprocessed signal back into the sound. I often find that if I’m compressing anywhere around -10 to -20db, I roll the mix dial back to somewhere between 30 or 40%. By blending the compressed and unaffected signals together, you create enough movement in the sound without it feeling like it’s too much. One of my favorite compressors to employ with this technique is the Talkback Compressor from Korneff Audio which emulates the old limiting compressor built into the talkback circuit of SSL desks.
Engineers would purposely leave this on and record the signal going through it to get an outrageous sound back in the 80’s and you can hear it on many of the synthwave styles back in that time. Thankfully, because it's a talkback microphone circuit, there’s little to no controls to get too confused with if this technique is new to you, and the main 3 dials to create the sound you’re after are simply the Listen 1 dial which acts as the input gain, Blend which is your wet to dry mix, and finally Make-Up Gain which does what you’d expect. I use this all the time to help bring a larger than life sound to my room mics, but you can also use it in general as a parallel bus compressor to add more impact to the transients of the drums and enhance the drums that way.
Whatever compression you try, or the samples you use, or the reverb style you employ; remember that the main thing that will really give you the drum sound you’re after is the way you’ve recorded them in the first place. So, if you’re reading the blog for the first time, and you’ve not seen the previous posts in this month's focus, I highly recommend going and reading them after this one - until next week though, stay creative.
]]>However, there’s not one answer, and it’s very much reliant on the situation, as well as the band, drummer, context of genre, and more. So today, we’re going to explore the Pros and Cons of setups higher than 5 or 6 mics, as well as those much, much higher!
So, let's dive in!
The main downside when it comes to having more than 3 or 4 mics in a set up such as the Gyln Johns technique we discussed last week, is the inherent phase issues that are completely unavoidable. When using 2 microphones, it can be rather easy to align the phase relationship between both mics, however, 3 microphones is where the main issues arise, especially when it’s regarding overhead placement of mics.
But aside from phase, another major detraction from using many mics to capture a drum performance is having to balance those many mics in a way where they work together. One of the biggest problems when balancing those mics is that the more you have placed on the kit, the more chance of building up bleed from the rest of the kit in the recordings. When you’re panning your Tom mics, for example, unless you’ve gated the noise, there will be a huge amount of the cymbal bleed from those mics right in the center image of the drum sound as opposed to out wide where you would hope to listen to it from the overheads.
Another con would be the simple fact that it’s incredibly easy to overthink or overdo the setup of the kit and the mics placed simply for the sake of doing it. The simple truth is that you can get a really good sound from just one microphone placed in the right place on a well tuned kit, played by a great drummer. When you know that you’re going to only have 4 mics maximum within the overall setup it really gives you a sense of clarity when choosing which mics to use.
While I was writing this blog, I found a very interesting take from Justin,at SonicScoop, in a video I’m genuinely surprised has taken so long for me to find by accident! He has some very similar takes on why a simply setup is better than a over thought menagerie of cables and mics placed on the kit which I’m sure will reiterate the simple fact that you can get a great sound from the simplest of setups:
Now, to play devil's advocate, there are also a number of really good reasons to use various assortments of mic setups in a session. The main one for me is more control in the detailing of the kit. This is pretty genre specific, but if you are working with some genres you’re going to need spot mics for the parts of the kit that may get overshadowed by other parts; such as splash cymbals, a second hi-hat, some kits have 4 or 5 Toms, there maybe a bell cymbal or smaller china/stack cymbal that needs attention brought to it.
All of these on a kit along with the usual needs of the kit can start to bring your total of mics into the realm of maybe 14 to 18 mics in one sitting. And again, this is pretty genre specific so don’t feel that this has to be applied to absolutely every band, I’m thinking more in terms of the heavier end of the spectrum of music where this would be more appropriate. But this brings me to the main point that the more mics you have, the more chance you have at bringing out far more detail in the elements you’re looking to highlight perhaps a little more; and yes, that means there’s going to be the same issues as I mentioned earlier regarding phase and bleed, but if you can find ways to make it work, it really can be worth the extra effort.
For me, the biggest benefit of having more mics, is the potential of just what you can do in terms of depth of the sound. Personally, I prefer having 2 pairs of mics just at different distances within the room, each with a different technique being employed to achieve the sound I hear in my head. Not only does this give me more options later down the line when it comes to mixing, but it also means I’m always practicing my approach to drum recordings, and trying out new techniques every time or at least a slight variation.
In terms of adding more flavors to the pot, another good example of when 2 pairs of mics rather than one, such as for room mics, would be overheads. Many producers will use 2 sets of mics above the kit in a couple of intervals with different capsule types (typically large and small diaphragm condensers) to capture the sound of the shells and the cymbals separately This again, gives much more control when it comes to the mixing stage.
There’s really no right or wrong answer to how many mics you should use - it’s always session dependent and based on the situation placed before you when planning the session. Whatever amount of mics you choose to use within your sessions, make sure that the amount is always based on the needs of the overall song, the band, genre, etc. before you decide. Once those parameters have been established, then you can make a more informed choice regarding just how many mics you’re using or your own creative process.
]]>Now, before we get into the real meat of this post, I will concede that this solution doesn’t apply for every single drum recording, for example; I can’t imagine a Doom Metal band or blastbeat heavy band getting much use out of this style of recording. However, for the other 80% of recordings, and especially for those starting out who are yet to build their mic lockers up; this will work almost all the time.
So, Let’s dive in!
Back in the 60’s and 70’s there was a man called Gyln Johns who was an incredible audio engineer. In fact, he was so good at what he does, he was part of the reason why the many bands he recorded have influenced so many other musicians around the world to this date. Those bands include The Rolling Stones, The Who, Joe Satriani, and arguably the most popular reference specifically to his drum recordings, Led Zeppelin.
Now, Zeppelin did also have an incredible drummer, which is the other part of why their sound is so recognizable; but between both Glyn Johns and the drummer John Bonham, the sound that encapsulates the Led Zeppelin records is something to really admire. And what's even more impressive about their sound, is that on those records there are literally 4 mics on the kit.
I’ve definitely advocated in the past for multi-mic setups of 12 or more microphones in the past, and that's great for many reasons such as being able to have a more detailed image of the entire performance, as well as far more control over bringing up or down any specific microphones in general within the mix or automate certain ones to be higher or lower in the mix from song to song, part to part. However, this is very much derived from the same stance as what the Glyn Johns technique allows, and the simple fact is that if you want to add more microphones to this setup after you have it in place, then you can do - the main thing is that with just 4 mics you can get an incredible sound that has also won him a Grammy for Best Engineered Album.
Back when this was first introduced into the mainstream and interviews were done, Johns described much of the way he set up the mics in great detail. However, there are some parts that were described a little less desirably such as the overhead mic height being ‘just a little taller’ than he was. Now, I’ll be honest I’ve not personally gone out of my way to measure him or find someone who has - but that being said it’s quite easy to imagine that this wouldn’t be far from the typical way I have described setting up overheads in the past.
I went for exactly 4 ft above the kit, with the mic aimed down looking somewhere between the edge of the snare, and the kick drum, just slightly off center. This gathers a very natural overview (no pun intended) of the entire kit, as well as a broad perspective of the snare and bass drum before they’re even mic'd up.
I’ve taken a few photos of a quick setup I did the other day to better show the technique in detail so you to view as we go through all of the placements - note that there also isn’t a hi-hat stand in any of these, due to me being unable to find my one in a pinch so apologies for that:
Now that we have the single overhead in place, the second perspective of the kit is just as simple - place another microphone just behind the floor tom, looking across the kit towards the snare. Make sure that the microphone is again level; a good way to think about it is to try to imagine that between the microphones we’re aiming for an X and Y axis just like on a graph.
Note that I’ve also chosen a pair of V11’s for this first couple of microphones; this entire set up demonstrates how by just using our incredible microphones alone, you can capture a perfect drum recording every single time!
Now that they are both in place, there’s really only one other mic according to Johns that is required, however, in my past experience I have always felt that 2 more is ideal to get a better depth of the kit in general. The kick mic is the most basic requirement, and below you can see that I have once again gone for my trusty V12 on the outside of the kick to exploit the beautiful low end and silky top end that it can deliver; this for me is ideal, but many have chosen to use a dynamic kick mic in its place, so listen while you place in order to get the best sound for the situation. Another trick you could employ is to mic the other kick skin next to where the beater is hitting with our HH1 along with the V12 on the outside to gather some extra click.
And lastly, the HH1 placed on the snare, aiming away from the hi-hat or any other cymbals so as to get the best rejection. I’ve always preferred having the capsule guard off when placing my snare mics (as you can see in the photo below), but be wary that a drummer could hit the capsule if you don’t reattach the guard, which wouldn’t be ideal - so please be careful!
The simple fact of the matter, is that if you were to add another mic or 2 such as the BH1S in a figure of 8 polar pattern, alongside this already incredible sounding set up, you’d be very hard pressed to find a better sounding drum sound while only using 4 (or 5 with a room mic) microphones, which seems criminal to say but it's genuinely true! Again, if you don’t believe me, go and have a listen to your favorite Led Zeppelin or The Who records, and listen to the drums on their songs; and if that doesn’t convince you, I implore you to simply give it a try. I promise you won’t be disappointed!
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