Hey, if you run across a metal band with two kick drums... Seriously, you have a nice little collection there, and having pairs of stuff does not hurt. A PR40 vs. D112 shootout on bass cab and kick drum wouldn't be the worst thing ever, y'know, if yer bored. Hell, try the PR40 as a vocal mic. SM7 and RE20 get used as vocal mics all the time; SM7 is all over the first Garda record and a whooole lot else. Those are/were broadcast mics.

Pads on condensers up close on cabs are almost essential. I always engaged the pad on the KSM27 micing a cab with it. (Or a snare drum, or a similarly loud thing.) Hell, we chose the above-mentioned SM7 over a Neumann M149 for want of an in-line pad (and no internal pad) 'cause we were distorting the mic pres on the board in the B room using it as a vocal mic, and there were no outboard pres available with one.

I like my ART DMPA* for that- there's separate input gain and output level controls. This is really useful; 's like the input trim and fader on a board. I can smash the mic pre (or DI) and still feed a conservative level "to tape", as it were. No pad on input, but thankfully a wide sweep on the gain; I can stick the NTK on the cab or the NT5s on overheads with a loud drummer and not kill everything. Some condensers have really, really hot output and something like a 57 or 58- or even a Beta 58 or similar "modern" dynamic- will have anemic output comparatively. The SM7 is known for its really low output. Ribbons tend to have very low output.

I could have sworn I had a somewhat-detailed commentary on the mixes written when you first posted them? I probably fell asleep in front of the computer or wandered off without actually posting them and then closed the window upon returning. I liked the guitars and bass better on one and the drums better on the other; I think it was one and two respectively, but I'll have to listen again. I echo Geoff's sentiments, but I think the bass, especially on the one, made it through the best. Bass, like I've mentioned, you can really get away with micing from a distance and having it sound like it's right there. 'S its nature, with the long waves and all. Guitars are a little more of a bitch, and herein lies the curse of "documentarian"-style recording- you probably need more mics than you think you do at first, 'cause mics damn sure don't hear like the human ear does. Mic a hi-hat and get back to me on that one. For your flavor of noise, the close mics aren't there because the close mics actually sound good soloed, or to be predominant in the mix. The close mics are there to take the hits, to capture the physical impact of things, to be part of the blend that says "you are here". And while most rock recording is hyper-real or non-real, nothing says you have to follow that route. A lot of stuff that's outside of rock entirely would probably be up your alley sonically if you can stand the music.

*- It has a sort of reverse pad; there's a 20dB boost switch on both channels.

Now that I got a laptop recordings will be a lot more common, 'specially tests. Dragging the big fucking desktop downstairs was difficult/sketch. I will do something up for a bass/vocals test, for sure.

That sounds ambitious with the adding things but this take is also cool, in like a tripping balls meltdown sort of way.

I will definitely keep the psychedelic meltdown vibe emphasized (hopefully becoming even more multi-dimensional in that respect) as it grows, which is the type of sound I am going for definitely. I mean, it sort of unavoidable. All of this music is written and performed/recorded on drugs. I am in fact, typing this under the influence of drugs.

It is really a sort of wearing, grating sound though, so it only pops up the one time in a sort of weird mood swing manner in the context of the song.

I really need to get a different sound on the modulated vocal though.. It sounds cheesy to me and was a real quick attempt at getting what I want. I think something like this would be appropriate:



I am not sure, but I think he might be doing that by waving his fingers in front of his mouth real quick-like.. It is hard to tell, it might also be some audio tinkering, I really can't tell. I can kiiind of approximate something similar (like when you talk into a fan), but it does not work well.

Just found this, didn't think I saved it. I was sort of discouraged by it at the time, but I like bits of it now. Keyboard sure are fucking loud in spots though.

http://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/doyo ... ynthesizer

Will probably record vocals and other things over this and the other song bit today.. Though, the day's kinda been fucked in half by computer troubleshooting and the fact that there are other people living in this house.

Cameron Jams With Drug Dealer!

https://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/will-jam-for-dabs

My homeboy, Blaine, is on guitar. Playing an LTD Viper 400 series into a Peavey Triple XXX. Mics are pretty far back on both sources, about 9 inches off of Blaine's cab and 2 feet in front of my kit aimed about just below the rack tom. Both PR40s.

It is long, sloppy and boring but just to show the sound of the PR40s I figured I'd throw it up since this has basically become my sound journal.

So your feet are already faster than mine.

Ha! Maybe when I am like, trying to play some shit that I can't play fer nuffin' and it's wild. My feet though I will say, are probably my most natural talent.

I have kinda considered taking drumming seriously-ish and finding a band I could play simple metal-ish drums for, just for fun.

Yeah I can see you being one of those diminutively framed guys who beats the living fuck out of a small kit Keep at it, you are improving quickly

I would have to really crack down to get there, 'specially with the hands.. Man, drumming is a seriously demanding instrument! I can't blast very hard or very long, unfortunately. I feel like putting the time into rudiments and all that makes a serious difference and I am probably too lazy for that. Though, I am beginning to be able to get the super quick 16th note snare roll thing down, to where I can do ya know.. 8 consecutive hits that sound good and steady.

I played in a couple bands with a guy who fits that description. Apparently he's a session guy in LA now. Skinny little pretty goth boi, about 5'9" and makes me look like a fat bitch.

Loudest fucking drummer I've ever heard in my life. Had this insane custom brass snare that made me sound like I hit like John Bonham. One of his bands played the last night one of our old haunts was open; 550 seat club downstairs, his snare wasn't running through the PA and it was loud and clear at the door over the band. Cracked a pair of Zildjian Mastersound hats once. I made the mistake once of taking off my 'phones for a moment micing up the kit in his basement the one time, and of course he chose that moment to lay into the snare. Like a firearm.

"Follow Cameron Heck, Skrillix, Al-Jazeera and more on Soundcloud." WTF?

PR40 sounds nice on that guitar cab. It really makes me wonder even more what a close + distant mic combination would sound like in that room though. Probably pretty epic.

It sounds like your dynamics are pretty solid behind the kit, which is good. Your double kick stuff is consistent and strong, which is a plus. Honestly, I hear a lot worse pretty regularly from the folks in the Snaxodrome's building. Do you practice to a click/metro-gnome at all?

For rudiments I feel like the best place to start is the good ol' paradiddle. It's a catchy mix of singles and doubles, and one of the left hand singles is placed where your left hand backbeat would be already. Capital L where the backbeat is:

RlrrLrll RlrrLrll

For straight up blasting endurance it's all about just getting single stroke rolls down.

Yeah, I was very pleased with the guitar tone, I was telling Blaine that I thought his amp sounded really good in this clip. I think a bit closer (though not too close) would serve me well for capturing "heavy" guitar sounds, it seems to catch a lot of the frequencies I would wanna hear.. It is not like some kinda nasally caricature of the sound source, if that makes sense. Was suprisingly nice as an OH/room mic as well, I must say.

And nah, I ain't never practiced to a metronome with any semblance of regularity with much of any instrument. Sometimes I am like, "DUDE, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO THIS SO YOU SHOULD" for 20 minutes every once in awhile but not with any discipline.

Ah yeah, that is the only one I know! Never practice it much, but I do tend to beat the rhythm out on snare randomly out of habit.

Recording electrics with the mic a bit closer than normal. Half a foot out, so not too close not too far.

https://soundcloud.com/cameron-heck/ech ... -tone-test

That is a good sound. Different guitars/pickups/settings? The right-hand guitar is a lot dirtier than the left.

That seems a good "compromise" placement for a one-mic deal. More present, but there's still a bit of space happening. I like the top end on this, too. That is a solid recording of good tones.

It still leaves me wondering what a multi-mic close + distant setup would sound like in yer place though.

Right guitar is volume rolled down a good bit to clean up the tone as that track is mostly cowboy chords. All middle position on the Tele.

I shall get some clips together of such a setup soon! Probably the KSM27+RSM-5 or M179 with some omni going. Ah, and bass and kick drum comparisons for the D112 and PR40 for that matter.

I should mention as well, the more severe of the two highpass settings was engaged on the KSM27.

I had my headphones on backwards, apparently.

The cleaner sound doesn't sound dull at all with the volume rolled back- is the Tele stock? I forget what flavour of Tele you have.

The highpass settings on the KSM are really useful. It helps a ton on vocals eliminating plosives. I've been highpassing guitars more severely recently than I have in the past; I'll dump everything below at least 80hz (fundamental of the low E) if they're tuned standard, higher if nothing lower is hit. Sometimes I'll boost the lows with an EQ- even below the filter's cutoff point, like the 75hz band on the API 550B- if I feel the guitars are actually losing something. (See: Slipperman's "sometimes bandwidth matters" quote.) Mostly, I find it cleans things up for the bass. Also ties in to why I like SDCs as room mics. Whatever I'm gaining in low-end information from the bigger mic I'm just gonna throw away at mix time anyhow. Sometimes you can really tell, too- hence the low-end boosts- but mostly what the mics are saying on their lonesome is just stepping on the clarity of the bass. You can bring that weight back in a more acceptable place if you need to.

I figured those would be your choices for room given the patterns. You could get a mid/side thing going there too. I don't know if you caught the Bruce Swedien interview in the last TapeOp, but he mics pretty much everything in stereo- he explains this a bit on Gearslutz when he was a guest mod there- and mixes with very minimal compression. Highly unusual considering all the pop records- All the Michael Jackson stuff, for one- he's done. But he's an old jazz guy, too. Might be worth looking into as his approach seems to be up your alley.

One thing I don't really get is severe highpassing of downtuned metal guitars. Especially in mixes where the bass is barely audible, as is often typical. I assume it's to push the overall level for Maxxx Volumes- bass needs a lot of power to reproduce- but the result is an anemic sounding mix. But those mixes are their own can of sonic worms; the trend in the past decade or so for midrange-heavy guitars is cool- discovering the mid knob was a revelation to me as a n00b metalguitarist- but you wind up with a lot of fucked-up sounding mixes with cymbals and hats that are just a smear of uber-highs washing over the whole thing, weak snares that sound like TR-909 hits, and no real low end. There's also been a reaction against those kind of mixes, though, and as a whole that genre has seen its production values increase immensely, for better or worse. Digressing as usual.