| Recording
Bobby Shew once told me that he highly recommended recording one self. I would agree with him whole heartedly.
I use an AKG C414 condensor mic. It requres 48 volts phantom power, but it gives a farily clean sound (or at least it seems to to ME). These mics are said to have a "bright" sound, but you can eq that to taste in the mix. I like to record flat. That may all change as I am retiring (retired, actually) my 16 track tape deck. All of my recordings done since the start of the year have been direct to PC, multitracking using ACID Pro. So, on these, I do my eq on the fly.
Now, my buddies who are full time studio engineers all tell me that ribbon mics are the best for trumpet. They say they produce a "warmer" sound. Now, from an acoustics point of view "bright" and "warmer" are all implying the same thing: they don't have a flat response, or at least perfectly flat response. The only way you can change timbre or tone quality is by tweaking overtones, and that simply means some sort of EQ is going on somewhere. Oh well... Again the studio dudes like those ribbon mics. The old RCAs seem to be the best, but they go for a kings ransom. Neuman ribbon mics are the ones that have ended up in front of me when I have played sessions here in Chicago. I can't afford those either.
There are less expensive ribbon mics out there, I'm sure, but some research is in order.
Frank Zappa used to like PZM mics ( I think that's an abbreviation for pressure zone mics). I've only encountered those back in the days when I would take gigs with the circius when it came to town (Ringling Brothers - the Shriners were more old school about the tech thing). We had these big pieces of plexiglass in front of us with a little transducer fastened in the middle of it. I have NO idea how it sounded, and I'd be skittish about recording with it.
I'm bettin' mic technology has progressed quite a bit. Any new stuff out there? some neat new electret developments? Now, I'm curious.
FWIIW coming from me.
Peace.
Nick Drozdoff |