Multi-micing processing question

ogy

Heres something i always get a bit lost with:
In loads of applications when recording its best to take a signal from several sources to capture a full picture of a sound e.g. mic at 12th fret and another at the body for acoustic guitar, mics inside and outside a kick drum, DI and mic for bass etc etc.

So when you do this, you balance the two/three channels to where you happy with the sound. But after this stage, when you process a sound with EQ/compression etc do you bus all the channels related to the same source and process them together, or do you process each one differently?

Neurojazz

If possible, treat each individually - but this means a good desk/outboard as the best results would come from everything being treated...

If gear is limited then buss channels across and maybe group sounds together to make use of the EQ available.... all depends on gear though and the scenario your'e dealing with.

ogy

im generally working inside a DAW.
id always bus these channels together anyway to make mixing easier (kinda stem mixing i guess)
but im wondering is the general practise to treat stuff differently inside these busses, or to just use stuff on the bus, or both?
i can see that you would have more precise control by processing everything separately but as EQ introduces phase coherency issues anyway, would you be making things worse by boosting a frequency in one channel and not the other?

Neurojazz

I would say try just having a limiter on the buss and see how it goes... depends on the music/style... most engineers would have different ways of working...

What EQ are you using?

teamdresch

Either, neither or both is fine.
Whatever you like the sound of best.

There's also a good argument for using less mics better placed where possible.
But that's dangerously off topic

PaulBrewer

ogy wrote: »

Heres something i always get a bit lost with:
In loads of applications when recording its best to take a signal from several sources to capture a full picture of a sound e.g. mic at 12th fret and another at the body for acoustic guitar, mics inside and outside a kick drum, DI and mic for bass etc etc.

So when you do this, you balance the two/three channels to where you happy with the sound. But after this stage, when you process a sound with EQ/compression etc do you bus all the channels related to the same source and process them together, or do you process each one differently?

Had a conversation with JJ today about this very subject.

I'm of the opinion that Multi Mic should be avoided if at all possible.

But if you have to -

Apply the 3X to X rule where X is the distance from 1st mic to instrument
and 3x is the distance from first mic to second one.

JJ's rule was mic an instrument 1.5 times its length away from it.

I'd not heard that one before but I like it.

I've always found that for acoustic instruments if your goal is naturalness treat it as a 'whole' , after all it's all the instrument that produces sound not just one bit of it.

If one must multi mic I guess compress separately as the individual parts of the sound may maintain a more predictable response than compressing a group ........

there again .........

they may not.



Nip over to http://www.myspace.com/glenbaker

and listen to "Rainbows" a pretty reasonable Acoustic sound I think.

It was recorded using an Akg C414 a bit less than a meter away flat, no eq or compression.
In the mix we slid up the hi pass filter probably up to about 100/120 hz so as to leave low end room for kick and snare..... and Bob's yer Uncle.

If I might be so bold to suggest .......... Multi Micing me Arse.

unclebill98

I've recorded an acoustic with two mics (414 stereo pair) placed either side of the players head to get the sound they here....

Interesting results tbh....

Worth a try if your board..

Neurojazz

unclebill98 wrote: »

I've recorded an acoustic with two mics (414 stereo pair) placed either side of the players head to get the sound they here....

Interesting results tbh....

Worth a try if your board..

This may cause phasing of the signal in some cases! or in techy terms 'Comb Filtering' - i used to think some strange 3d thing was going on when doing things like this and now i've been told that is *bad*

PaulBrewer

Neurojazz wrote: »

This may cause phasing of the signal in some cases! or in techy terms 'Comb Filtering' - i used to think some strange 3d thing was going on when doing things like this and now i've been told that is *bad*

Yea!

Ultimately it's down to what works - However that's usually the simple thing.

I blame Sound on Sound!

unclebill98

Well, thats true, but it sounded good.

Sometime your gotta forget the rules and just please the ear...

godfrey

PaulBrewer wrote: »

If I might be so bold to suggest .......... Multi Micing me Arse.

yup, I second that. the end!

g