Ken

Q&A About The Rode NT2-A Microphone

December 3, 2012 by Ken 4 Comments

LDC to record electric guitar Someone sent me a question this morning after listening to the audio samples (of both acoustic guitar and voice-over vocal) in my review of the Audio-Technica AT2035 large diaphragm condenser microphone here: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/review-of-the-audio-technica-at2035-microphone/. In that review, I compare the AT2035 with the Rode NT2-A.
I thought I’d share his question and my answer.

Here is his question:

I was looking at your review of the AT2035 and i noticed an emphasis on the mid range. The Rode NT2-A mic sounds better to me.
Now, I’m looking for a microphone that i can record my electric guitar ( loud volumes but not blistering loud) my voice, and my acoustic guitar. So I was wondering – can I record my electric guitar with the Rode mic that you demoed in the video?
Thanks!

Here is my answer:

Yes the Rode NT2a is definitely the better mic no question. And you can also get great results using it to record voice, acoustic and electric guitar. However, it is VERY important that you understand something about using a large diaphragm condenser to record an electric guitar amp. These mics are VERY sensitive so you’d need to make sure your amp’s volume is low enough when you record. You can still get great “big” sound with the amp volume turned down. Once it’s recorded, then crank it up in the mix. But if it’s too loud when recording you could damage the mic and/or clip your recording levels. Since the NT2-A has a pad switch, I recommend setting it to -10 dB.
Hope that helps!
Ken

Microphone, Preamp And Converter If Money Were Not A Factor?

December 3, 2012 by Ken Leave a Comment

One of my readers sent me an e-mail that asked the following:
Ken,
Out of sheer curiosity, if you were shopping for a voiceover microphone and preamp and money weren’t a factor, what would you pick?
Same question with a 2,000 budget.
Thank you, and have a fantastic night!

Grace Design m101 Mic Preamp

It was really a fun exercise, kinda like when someone asks you what you would do if you won the lottery. I looked into a lot of high-end audio gear for this. Since this particular person was interested in a voice-over set-up, it helped me focus my research. I wouldn’t need the capability to record multiple microphone inputs at once like I would for music recording, where I’d want enough microphone inputs and simultaneous recording capability to handle at least 8, but more likely 16 sources. Also, my choices would have to work with Windows, since I don’t own a Mac. Anyway, below is the result of my trip to fantasy land of unlimited budgets:

Sorry for the delay. If money were no factor I would probably not have a single “interface” unit, but a 3-part preamp, A/D converter, and I/O interface. I think an excellent set-up would be a Neumann U87 mic (~$3,600) going through a Grace Design m101 Preamp (~$700) going through a Forssell MADC-2 ($2,950) going into a Digigram LoLa881 PCIe Multi-Channel Digital Audio Card ($969). So I guess that would come to about $8,219. Fun exercise;).

RME Fireface UCX

For a budget of $2,000 I’d do a Sennheiser MKH 416 shotgun mic (~$1,000) into an MOTU UltraLIte-mk3 Hybrid FireWire/USB Audio & MIDI Interface (~$539) for a total of $1,539. I couldn’t find any other combo that fit under $2,000. The next closest exceeds it by $549, and that combo would be the MKH 416 into an RME Fireface UCX – USB and FireWire Audio Interface ($1,549).
This was a really fun exercise. Now I know better what kinds of high-end audio gear is available if I’m ever so rich that money becomes “no object.” For those of your who are already there, well here is a good list to get you going;).

Making The Vocal Track Sit Well In The Mix

December 2, 2012 by Ken Leave a Comment

I am always saying that knowledge trumps gear. It’s actually our motto at HBA. One of the many reasons for that is how easy it is to make a recording that sounds bad even with the most expensive gear. And one of the things I hear done incorrectly most often is mixing the lead vocal with the rest of the instruments in a song. It is very easy to make the vocal stand out too much or allow it to be overpowered by those instruments. Creating space for the lead vocal so that it can be properly heard and understood while simultaneously allowing the drums, guitars, bass, piano, etc. to be head as well can be quite a trick.
There are several methods we use to make this happen, including compression to create a more even vocal level, and ducking (see our article – What is Ducking In Audio Recording? for a review of that technique) to sort of push everything else to the background ONLY when the singer is singing.
There are automated effects (FX) that do these things for us, but very often you can get a more natural and cleaner result by using volume envelopes to manually increase or decrease the level of certain phrases and words on a vocal track. It can take a lot (and I do mean a lot – like an hour or more sometimes for one track) of extra time to do it this way. But the result is usually worth it, especially for control junkies like me:).
In the video below, by Russ at AIR Users Blog, he shows us a technique that is a version of ducking, except that it’s done manually by riding the fader to create editable changes in the volume envelope of the instrument submix track. Riding the fader is a time-honored technique that we used a lot in the days before computer audio recording. IT basically means keeping your fingers on the fader of a track and moving it up and down over the duration of the song. It will make more sense in the video below:

Compression Basics

December 1, 2012 by Ken Leave a Comment

I talk a lot about compression because it is such an excellent audio editing tool. But it’s very powerful and so capable of big changes in your audio, including making it (the audio) sound really bad. So it’s important to understand what compression does and at least the basics of how it works. Here are a few of my articles on compression – Improve Or Ruin Your Audio With an Effect Called Compression and Vocal Compression Using Reaper’s ReaComp Effect Plugin.
I just ran across a pretty comprehensive, if a tad technical, article that covers all of those compression basics:
http://www.tenthegg.co.uk/tips/t018/

What is MIDI? A Big Help in Home Music Recording, That's What

December 1, 2012 by Ken Leave a Comment

If you’re a musician doing home music recording, then you probably want to know about something called “MIDI” (pronounced middee) if you don’t already. So this article ought to be useful. But I have discovered that it is well-nigh impossible to know everything about anything. This was a great stress-relieving discovery! I always felt a little like I was somehow just toying around with something if I didn’t understand everything about it, including the origin, underlying code, every possible use, etc. But not knowing how an engine works never stopped me driving a car. Not knowing how to build a television from scratch does not make me feel unworthy to use a TV. So it is with MIDI, and most things in the music and audio recording world. You only need to know what you need to know to get the things done you need to get done. That last sentence is both profound and confusing at the same time, but it is truth! Once you accept it, your stress levels may well drop. Mine did.
So here is what I consider to be the most useful and basic information about midi. First, let’s try an unconventional definition. MIDI is modern “player-piano” music. Surely you’ve seen, on TV at least, those pianos from decades ago that could play by themselves, right? Well, in order for it to play a particular song, it needs someone to feed it a roll of paper with a bunch of holes in it…player-piano music. MIDI is the same thing, except for computers.
There. Done. See how easy it really is? You truly don’t need to know that MIDI is an acronym for musical instrument digital interface (or something like that….SEE? even I don’t care what it stands for!). All you really need to know is that if you have a MIDI file (*.mid), it will tell your computer to play music, usually through the MIDI instruments that exist on just about every sound card known to man in the last 10 years.
MIDI is not an audio file, like an mp3, or wav, so the file sizes are REALLY small, like the size of a text file. That’s because, like player-piano music, it’s mostly just a bunch of “on” and “off” messages. That’s one reason they are so great for the internet. Let’s say you’re on a website that has MIDI files of songs. Those files will tell YOUR computer to play the notes. It will sound different on every computer because the sound cards are different.

You can have your MIDI file play any instrument on your sound card. For example, if you have a MIDI file of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” it might be set to play the piano instrument on your computer. You can then switch and hear the song playing on, say, and accordion, or a fiddle. Now these sound card instruments are frequently pretty cheesy sounding. Things really start to get interesting when you procure “virtual instruments” for your computer. There are many free ones on the internet to experiment with. What’s great about those is that they sound REALLY good. Some of them are actual recordings of the real instrument! So when your MIDI file plays that instrument, it can sound astonishingly real. Just get yourself some MIDI software (a program capable of using MIDI, such as Reaper, Pro Tools and the like.
If you want to create your own MIDI files, there is lots of software out there for you to use; again, some of it free of charge. You can usually use your computer keyboards to write the notes, but most folks use a little piano-type keyboard, called midi keyboards (surprising, no?) connected via USB these days. That way, you can “record” MIDI by playing it like a piano. Then you can edit the midi file with your mouse, correcting timing and note flubs, etc. by dragging them around!
Bottom line…MIDI is awesome. Most of what you REALLY need to know is in this article, unless you are going to become a MIDI ninja. And a great place to get started becoming one of those is with our newest tutorial course – The Newbies Guide To Audio Recording Awesomeness 2 – Pro Recording With Reaper. Lesson 11 is a 3-parter showing you how to do all the stuff I talked about above using free virtual instruments.
We like to teach audio recording in plain language…like, for regular people (as opposed to engineers). If you’re not ready to buy a course yet, there are tons (over 400 at last count) of free articles right here on the site. Just click here and find out how to record good quality audio on a home studio costing $5.00 or less. Home recording is easier and less expensive than you can imagine.
See you around campus!