This is the 2nd Annual Roundtable Discussion of the Audio Recording Podcast Community. This show includes Ryan Canestro, Jon Tidey, Matt McGlynn, Ronan Chris Murphy, Dave Chick, Slau, and Big Al Wagner. This show is just over an hour long, but certainly worth the listen. Where else are you going to hear all of your favorite podcasters together in one place?! Let us know who should join us next year.
Links:
http://ronansrecordingshow.com/
http://www.insidehomerecording.com/
I meant to ask everyone during the show to describe their mic and signal chain. Maybe we can all post details here.
I cobbled together something that felt like a typical broadcast signal chain out of the oddball pieces of gear I had available. First I shot out all my dynamics and picked the Electro-Voice N/D 468 as the cleanest. I routed it through a transformer-coupled pre, the TnC ACMP-84 (infamous “Neve clone” pre), then an RNC, then into my BLA-modded 002-Rack. But just for safety I also hung a condenser mic a foot away, plugged straight into the 002’s mic pre.
The results were surprising. The dynamic mic sounded thin and harsh compared to the condenser, very AM radio. So I used the condenser track instead, dry and entirely unprocessed.
It’s a totally unknown mic: the Aseyer L36B, with an edge-term 36mm nickel-diaphragm capsule and a refreshingly minimal circuit comprised of discrete components. They’re not available in the US yet, but based on this initial test I’m impressed with the mic’s performance.
I used the standard setup that I use for the podcast. It is the Shure SM7b into a Golden Age Pre-73 then to a dbx 1066. I do not usually use gating, but I knew it would be busy with everyone in there so I applied it gently this time. From there into my 002 and off to Pro Tools.
I get comments on my “sound” ranging from NPR to too hot. Funny how so many people hear things so differently. My controls are almost always within a few percent of the previous show every time.
It was interesting to hear how different all the particapant’s audio was. I used light eq on some, light compression on others, and nothing at all on the rest except for the limiter on the two bus.
I used EV RE-410 (performance condenser) with P-Solo preamp into Profire 2626. I had the gain almost all the way up and was about 10″ away from the mic either sitting or laying on my couch.
Ryan said you had the most background noise after me.
I know Ryan and Big Al use SM7B. Slau always sounds great even on my cellphone.
LOL – I saw three comments here and thought it’d be listeners. It’s just the “talent” flappin’ their gums about their signal chain! 😀
I pulled out my Apex460 tube mic – straight into my Focusrite Saffire Pro DSP24 then into Logic. I applied some compression going in on the DSP24 – (threshold at -2 and ratio of 10:1) just catch any peaks for guffahs that I knew would inevitably happen.
I gated the track slightly to try and suppress any room noise or chair squeeks on my track.
Yeah – Slau DOES sound nice pretty well on anything I have to say. He must have a premium Skype plan or something as his voice was silky smooth even over that!
Dave, is your Apex 460 stock?
Little-known fact that there are only two kinds of Apex 460’s in this world — those that have been modded, and those that have not been modded YET. 🙂
While preparing for the show, I thought I’d use the SM7B (which I virtually never use). I brought it into a UA 2-610 and, not surprisingly, I wasn’t happy with it—haven’t been happy with the SM7 on anything yet really. It was a bit too noisy and I’m not sure that the 610 is necessarily the best pre for the SM7.
I then decided to go a different route and put up a Neumann U 47 FET through the Millennia HV3D. I just took it into Pro Tools with no compression as I usually don’t compress voiceover unless I’m going to mix it myself. In this case, since it was being sent out, I left it completely unaffected so Ryan would have complete control.
So as not to get hate mail from SM7 fans, I subsequently realized that I have 4 Grace 101 pres sitting in a closet and they all have the dynamic mic mod to add 15 or 20 dB of gain and the 101s are quite clean to begin with. So next time I do a voice-over, I’ll give the SM7B another try but through the Grace pre.
I was indeed using a Shure SM7 into a True Systems P-Solo and straight into Pro Tools. I brought the signal in on an aux and applied an expander/gate in real time before sending it to the recording track.
And I wasn’t wearing pants.
@ Matt – ’tis indeed modded – after listening to Slau talkin’ about the mods back a couple years ago on his show. Did it myself – a great site takes you through it step by step: http://www.morphproductions.com/apex460transformermod.htm
Recording chain for me was a Shure SM7B into an A Designs Pacifica mic pre into an Apogee AD16x into Pro Tools.
Interesting…thanks for the input you guys. Will go back and evaluate the how each sounds now I know what you used.
Hey, I think you are all great…please keep ’em coming!.
I always love when people talk about their signal chains. It’s fun to guess what people are using and see how close my ears can estimate reality. On a slightly different note, I’d love to hear what people are using to run their DAWs. For this type of post production editing, what kind of control surface, if any, aids in workflow?
Cheers,
-James