Hello. My name is David Anderson, most people call me Dave.

Through the years, I have been involved in a wide range of musical endeavors including performing from orchestral to Country, Variety, Rock and Bluegrass music, FOH Engineering, Studio Engineering and also as a Luthier for O'Hagan Guitars and Basses (I still dabble).

In 1995 I bought a 16 track (reel to reel) studio with my brother-in-law. As we started to bring a few projects in to work on, we got into some interesting situations with the equipment. One incident that sticks out in my mind was when I accidentally recorded over a part of an acoustic guitar introduction to a song, because that track was still armed to record. Well you can imagine my horror at the realization of what I had just done, but I came up with a solution. I flipped the reels over and recorded a manual click track with a drum machine onto an empty track, well past the point of the start of the guitar intro. Then I flipped the reels over again, listened for the backward rim-shot hits I had just recorded, taking note of how many hits extended past the actual starting point and I recorded my guitar on a separate track, so I could cross fade them in the mix. It worked! They never knew. Oh the joys of analog recording.

We still have that system in case any one would like to wax nostalgic on a project, but it doesn't get much use these days. Maybe that will change in the future. I am now using a Presonus Firestudio Tube and a Toshiba X205-SLi5 laptop loaded with Windows and Ubuntu both running Harrison Mixbus. This set-up is mainly used for recording on site for those who have found a room that they sound good in. I am also working on a room to mix in that will accommodate smaller acoustic bands for recording in house.

I have recently started a free on-line class at Berklee College of Music – Boston called “Introduction to Music Production”. This blog was started as a part of an assignment for week 1 of the class. For more information, go to Facebook, and search for "impmooc" for the ebb and flow of activities surrounding this class.

Now to the 1st Assignment!

In the first week of class we have covered: Propagation, Amplitude, Frequency, Visualizing Sound, Connections Overview, Microphone as a Transducer, Microphone Types, Microphone Frequency Response, Microphone Polar Patterns, Microphone Placement, Line level and Gain Staging, Cables, Interfaces, Microphone Connection and Gain, Analog to Digital Converter, Pickup Connections (electric guitars and basses), and finally.... take a deep breath.... The Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).

It really wasn't as bad as this long list might look, and the presentation of the material was done in such a way, as to make these topics in video form, easy to understand for any one not used to working with studio equipment, but would like to learn.

I have a Slingerland 5 piece single head drum kit (70's vintage). They sound terrible in a room, although they are tuned correctly. I know this because when I mic them up, they have a warmth that is really hard to beat.

I also have a Fender Pro Reverb guitar amplifier (also 70's vintage) that is slightly hot-rodded, so the "dirty" channel can sound like a Mesa Boogie Amplifier!

Why do I bring these two up? Well I would like to discuss a point regarding microphone placement, which I believe can make a mixdown session easier and more fun! I would like to write about capturing the kick drum and the guitar amplifier specifically. Both are loud if you want them to be, so the microphone placement is very important in this type of recording situation. Believe it or not, I have the best recording experiences if I approach them exactly the same way. The difference between the two is that the frequency of the kick drum range is between 120Hz (with a fundamental of around 30-35hz), to 200Hz, depending on how your drum is tuned, as shown on the spectrum analyzer and sonogram below.

While using this handy dandy frequency to wavelength calculator:

http://www.mcsquared.com/wavelength.htm 

I find that a 120Hz sign wave cycle which is at sea level, at 72 degrees, the wavelength is about 9.5 feet long. So if you put your microphone right up to the inside of the beater head, you are basically recording a near flat line which translates to very little movement on your input meter of your DAW. In other words, no level! By the way, I use a large diaphragm condenser microphone which I lay down in the bottom of the drum on a blanket. Don't turn up the trim on your channel yet if you are trying this out, because the next step is to move your microphone away from the beater head. As you move it back, you will undoubtedly notice that your levels will increase... a lot.... enough so you might have to turn down the input of your channel. The note needs to travel some distance away from the sound source or achieve “propagation” to, in this case, develop into a sign wave that you can record.

The guitar amplifier difference is that the frequency range is high enough to put your microphone closer to the source, because the wavelengths are much shorter. I like to turn the amplifier up a little, and instead of trying to capture the speaker its self, I tend to back up away from the amplifier about 2 feet or more with the microphone, depending on the amplitude or sound pressure level being generated by the amplifier. In my mind, I approach this recording application from this stand point. Capture the box and not the speaker. Then I try to find the sweet spot that is provided by the amplifier interacting with the room and then capturing that sound, taking note of how propagation is at work in that space in this recording situation. I use an AT4033 Condenser Microphone, or an AKG 1000E Cardioid Microphone for this application. I can't wait to try an Austin Kit Ribbon Microphone on this. 

Experiencing these methods of recording is what I believe makes recording fun and sometimes addictive, not just for me, but many other people around the globe.

Thank you for stopping by, and visit again.

P.S. The eye candy and window dressing will arrive shortly!