By powered do you mean condenser microphones, as in, they require 48V?
It sounds like your levels are just too high,
either at your audio interface, or input levels in ProTools.
Once you get your gain staging sorted out, mic
placement may clean up some of your bleed between
different parts of the kit. Or, use noise gating
to take care of a lot of that spill.
No comment on CMG's post really. You certainly
didn't ask how to set an EQ or anything about
mixing in mono. Yes mixing in mono is a good
idea, and I'm guessing CMG got this from Graham
Cochrane, a popular recording and mixing educator
online. Believe me, starting a mix in mono is not
a rare or unusual idea. LOL Chris, shouldn't we
try to get his gain staging and mic placement
sorted out, maybe some help with setting up noise gates?
Vaughan, I apologize if in fact, you were looking for general mixing tips.
At 09:29 PM 2/10/2016, you wrote:
Vaun,
OK, so, here's the deal. I don't know much
about these mikes, I'm not going to sit here and
act like a know-it-all. Truth is, I don't
hardly know anything. However, that said, I do have a suggestion for you.
I understand that this may be a little work, but
trust me. In the long run, you will thank
yourself e-freaking-mensely! for this! Try to
learn about E Q. Especially, I'd like you to
focus on learning about the queue control within
an EQ. Learn about what it means when we speak
of a symetrical, vs. an A-symetrical curve.
Without going into much detail, what is probably
happenning is, you're probably getting what is
called bleedover. This is where one of two
things are probably occuring, and there's even a
possibility that both may be in the works.
Firstly, you may be getting some noise from the
electrical power of the mike itself. This
shouldn't be very much, if any, but it's
possible. I mean, it is electrically ran. Be
it by a battery or not, digital or not, the
point is, there will be a slight bit of
noise. Generally, it's not enough to notice,
but sometimes it can creep through. With some
editting, and audio track clean up on your part,
and maybe with a little bit of confing, this can
be somewhat, though probably not entirely
avoided. It's just the nature of the beast.
Also, a compressor might help a bit, though you
want to be very careful with that front, as too
little compression, it'll not fix the
problem. Too much, and you'll squash it to the point that it sounds terrible.
Here is a workflow I like using for getting rid of noise.
I start with everything totally raw. Just
record your drums, your vocal, whatever you need
miked. If you have a hardware EQ, or pre, etc.
just set everything straight dead up the
center. Just put everything neutral at
12:00. Make sure you're coming in on your input
at around no more than say, -10DB. I've gone as
high as -8, but I try to stay away from minus
single digits as much as I can. It's not to the
point of clipping, but remember. When you get
to your final masterring phase, all your tracks
put together will add up for the final level,
which you do not want going over 0, regardless.
The next thing I'll do is to do one thing that a
lot of people don't. I! personally say, mix?
in, mono! I know, that sounds maybe a little
weird, but I'm telling you. Try it! There're
plugins out there that'll do it. Route
everything through an AUX track, and make a
submix. On that track, flip everything to
mono. You'll get rid of this plug in the longrun, but just for mixing sake...
I then go back and this is where I think your
mike noise can be fixed. I'd go on to the
offending tracks. Not the AUX track, but the
actual audio track itself. On insert B, not
A. B. I have my reasons. Pop a compressor,
but only? do so, if you feel it's needed.
Once you have your compressor tweaked and
sounding good, then it's time to get rid of that noise. pop an EQ on insert A.
The reason I told you to flip everything to mono
is because naturally, though totally boring,
hearing it this way will help you identify where
the problem lies. The truth is, I can't tell
you how many times, I thought something was
noise related, only to find that I started
reaching for EQ's, or maybe for compression,
etc. I got it sounding fine, but then when I
brought in the rest of the mix, the whole session totally fell apart.
You have to think backwards. This isn't always
easy to do, but using mono will help you to hear
if something may just simply be out of
phase. You'd be shocked at how a very teeny
phase issue can be all it takes to give your mix stuff you don't need.
Now, on insert A, remember, we've used B. On A,
pop an EQ. I'm not going to bore everyone on
list with how I EQ things, but let me give you a
little tip. Don't? add! You heard me right. Don't? add!
A lot of people think, oh, this sounds too
boomy, or there's a hum, there is background
noise, be it electrical, be it phasing, be it
unneeded reflections, whatever. So they reach
for the EQ, and they start cranking up the mids,
or even more, the highs. They think if they can
just turn those way up, it'll compensate. The
truth is, and trust me. I had to learn this the
hard way. It actually makes it way worse! I
look at it from the angle of, there's
noise. Where is it? Let's killit. So, what
I'll do is, I'll find that frequency, by means
of setting a fairly narrow queue. This way, I'm
homing in more accurately on a low range of
frequencies. Then, I will turn the gain of that
band way way down. And I do mean, way!
wayyyyyyy! down. It sounds God aweful, trust
me, but I'm not done. I over-exagerate it
bigtime for a reason. Then, I start moving the
frequency control. I can't tell you move it
higher, or lower. You're just going to have to
use your ears. It's tedious work, but the more
you do it, the better and quicker you'll get at
it, trust me. Eventually, you'll hear the hum
or whatever you don't want get real real real
overly exagerated quiet. Once this happens, you
know you've hit the frequency. Now, go back to
your gain on that band, and start very very
slowly bringing it back up to an acceptable
level. If you feel it's killing part of it, but
not all of it, then widen your queue a bit, but go? easy! Don't overdo it.
Think of E Q as a chizzle. Not a bucket. You
don't want to add things. The goal should be to
get rid of what you don't need. Our ears hear
things more when we add, not when we
subtract. And, you definitely when mixing don't
want your listeners to be able to hear your E
Q. You want to give them a very natural feel in the spectrom.
So, yeah, I'd start with E Q, and work your way
out. Remember though. Take away! Don't
add! Kill the offending noise, don't try compensating for it.
The other thing is, check your mike cable. Is
it possible you may have a short in it?
Chris.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Vaughn Brown" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2016 7:48 PM
Subject: Powered Microphones
Hello folks,
As I am preparing my studio for professional
recording I’ve noticed that the powered
microphones are giving me trouble. Even when the
input knobs are all the way off the microphones
still is picking up sound during the recording.
When I have them at the lowest setting it seems
to be clipping on the hi-hat and crash.
The other microphones, none-powered, are working
as they should. I understand the bleeding is
typical but these powered microphones are
picking up way too much information. I do not
want them to pick up the entire drum kit but
rather focus on the hi-hat and crash. Should I
switch over and purchase none-powered
microphones for maximum control? Or is there a
way I can address these powered microphones.
I am not sure what kind they are. They are
shaped long and narrow and are meant for drums and percussion.
Thank you for your insight.
Vaughn
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