How to Fix a Broken Dynamic Microphone

Buying microphones used is a great way to add gear to your inventory without putting a big dent in your budget. Most of the time, used gear will show cosmetic damage on the housing but will still retain much of its sonic clarity. As long as the microphone capsule and diaphragm aren't damaged, the microphone will still perform as expected. In the end, it's not how the microphone looks, but rather how it sounds that matters.

An even better way to save money buying used gear is to search for deals on "broken" or non-functioning gear. Sometimes you can discern from the product description what might have gone wrong with the microphone, but other times you just have to take a leap of faith and hope that the damage is something that can be fixed. This assumes you have a basic working knowledge of how to use a soldering iron-- if not check on the web for some tutorials about soldering, and practice first on a non-critical piece of gear to hone your skills before moving on to a mic.

This how-to specifically applies to a Shure SM58 or SM57 which I have found to be one of the more difficult dynamic microphones to fix because of the delicate construction of the mic. The same repair concepts apply to pretty much any dynamic mic, and may be actually easier to implement with other models and brands, depending on the housing, wiring and microphone capsule. (Condenser microphones are infinitely more difficult to repair. Since a condenser mic element is especially fragile and more susceptible to vibrations and shocks, any damage might be beyond repair; purchase broken condensers with caution.)

First off, with a non-functioning microphone you have to determine the most likely area of malfunction. Carefully unscrew all the pieces and inspect them for wires that are not connected or loose. Most frequently, the cause of a non-working microphone happens when a wire disconnects and breaks the signal flow-- in this case a quick re-soldering job will get you up and running in no time. If the wires are still connected toward the front of the microphone, find a small flathead screwdriver and unscrew the XLR connection from the base of the mic and remove with pliers.

The photo left shows the most typical problem with mics. One of the connecting wires to the XLR has been disconnected, which can be easily reattached with a touch from a hot soldering tip. If more than one wire is disconnected and you're not sure which wire goes where, try to find some documentation from the manufacturer to give you more information on the original wiring setup. (Note: the XLR ends on the SM58 at left don't match Shure's wiring diagram. Shure microphones have gone through several wiring permutations over the years, and this particular mic is over 20 years old, so for whatever reason has 4 wires instead of 2 or 3.) If it is in fact a wire that's come loose, you're lucky; this is the easiest fix and makes you feel like a bandit from all the money you saved on a "broken" mic.

The more tricky fix comes into play if there's no visible signs of disconnected wires at the XLR end or in the middle of the mic. If not, there's probably been some kind of damage to the wiring of the microphone capsule-- the type of damage will determine if you can fix the mic or not. You'll have to carefully disassemble the microphone capsule end from the wires on the base of the 58, first by de-soldering the base wires from the metal terminals at the end of the capsule and unscrewing the center nut and any ground wire (if present). Then you'll have to slide the entire capsule element out of the microphone housing, making sure not to cause any further damage to the capsule from the force of the disassembly. Removing the capsule from the housing will take some nudging and wiggling to get it out, and once removed you might not be able to get it back into the housing as snug as it was before.

When de-soldering and taking apart the capsule element, it would probably be best to take pictures of how the mic was assembled for reference, and clearly mark exactly how the wires connect to the capsule and the diaphragm. When reassembling the microphone, you want to make sure the correct wires are connected back to their origins, otherwise you will reverse the polarity of the mic, and it won't function the way it should (although you'll still get a signal).

Once taken apart, you'll be able to see where the damage has occurred to the microphone capsule. The most frustrating part of a 58 or 57's construction is the delicate wire that leads from the coil under the diaphragm, between strips of yellow tape, down the magnet of the capsule, and finally connects to metal terminals secured on a wafer on the center post of the capsule. Dynamic Shure microphones are extremely durable, but if anything is really going to "break" on these mics, it's going to happen in the few exposed centimeters where the delicate red wire connects to the metal terminals. Fixing this requires near-surgical precision and a steady hand.

If indeed the little red wire has become detached from the metal terminal, you'll have a hard time soldering it back on. The red coloring is actually a type of plastic shielding, so solder won't readily adhere to the wire without some prep work. First, carefully peel back the top layer of the yellow tape with an Xacto knife, being careful not to rip the red wire in the process. With some electrical tape, secure the top layer of yellow tape out of the way, and separate the red wire from the bottom piece of yellow tape. With a lighter, move the flame close to the wire, making sure to never touch the wire directly, and only exposing the wire to heat for a very brief instant. This will burn the shielding off of the wire and leave the wire exposed, but if the flame is too close, the wire will burn, and then it's probably game over.

Now the tiny wire is probably too brittle to reattach to the original terminals, so the next step is to manufacture an alternative method that will leave the tiny wire securely in place while allowing you to make a connection with the colored wires from the base of the microphone. You'll need some copper desoldering braid, some soldering flux and the rest of your soldering tools.

With the desoldering braid, cut a piece the length of the capsule magnet and poke a hole with a pushpin through the braid. Thread the tiny wire through the piece of braid and tape the braid on top of the yellow tape to hold it temporarily in place. Put a little bit of soldering flux over the hole where the tiny wire is threaded-- this will help ensure a good bond between the braid, the wire and the solder.

Next, solder over the hole, filling it in and letting the solder run down a portion of the braid. Don't use too much solder, but make sure that you've used enough solder to make a solid connection with the tiny wire. It's OK if not all portions of the wire adhere to the braid-- as long as you've made a connection somewhere along the braid, it's probably sufficient to pass signal from one element to the other.

Once the wire and the braid are soldered, lay the top piece of yellow tape back over the braid and secure the whole thing in place with a couple of wraps of electrical tape. At the bottom of the mic capsule, solder a spare piece of wire to the braid-- this new wire will jump the gap between the mic capsule and the base of the microphone. Once again, be sure to note which side of the microphone corresponds to which color of wire, otherwise you run the risk of reversing your polarity.

Inserting the capsule back into the housing is a difficult squeeze since there are several new layers of tape, but with enough care, the capsule should eventually fit into place. Twist the extension wires with the original wires from the base and solder the connections, then shield off the wire with a strip of tape. Screw the top portion of the mic back into the base and test the connection-- if done correctly, you should have a functioning microphone once again.

Adrian H. Molina & CHiTT Productions release "Beyond Sundown"

CHiTT Productions is proud to announce the preliminary release of Adrian H. Molina's newest track "Beyond Sundown." Adrian's first CHiTT produced E.P. release Representin' 4 Life was a more traditional hip hop album, but this newest release signals a fresh artistic direction. Featuring music by Mannequin Rituals and vocal appearances from Helen Chanthongthip and the vastly talented Day Acoli, "Beyond Sundown" is a politically charged dystopian middle finger to Big Brother. Check out his MySpace page for a free download, or click the play bar below for a streaming preview.



Update: New Video for Beyond Sundown Released

Free Guerrilla Recording: Three bands at the Buckhorn

From the vault CHiTT Productions presents a live recording from the Buckhorn Bar: the Ghosts of Predators Past, the Neo-nostalgics, and Driftwood. Recorded on location December 14, 2007 at the Buckhorn Bar in Laramie, Wyoming.




Free download:
CHiTT Productions Presents the Buckhorn Bar
December 14, 2007
Ghosts of Predators Past, Neo-nostalgics & Driftwood
192 kbps 65 Megs




All parties involved in the recordings retain their original rights to their creations. You are free to download and distribute this album for non-commercial purposes only.

Sample songs from the full album:
Ghosts of Predators Past:

Neo-Nostalgics

Driftwood

Gear used in the recording of this show: Shure SM58 (vocals), Sennheiser e609 (guitars), Shure Beta 52 (kick and bass), Shure SM57 (snare), Sennheiser e604 (toms), AT2020 (overheads). Multitracked to hard disk.

If you would like to contribute some spare change to CHiTT Productions, click on the PayPal button in the side bar. Every little bit helps.

Where have all the cowboys gone?

Get your gun, and meet us at the hillside...

On Piracy: Steal This Film II

Before I have to get in another bar conversation that follows the lines of "you wouldn't go into a 7-Eleven and steal a candy bar would you?" I wish we could all at least get on the same page:



If it floats your boat, you can donate to the project at their website.

Guerrilla Recording: El Cheapo Mic Review

In our last installment, we resurrected some live guerrilla recordings from the vault and released the results for free download.

Download: Follow the link, click "continue," and click "download file" for free download.


Dies Irae, Live at the Ranger, 3/24/07
3 Songs, 192 kbps, 21 MB


As I mentioned before, we didn't have our usual trusty supply of gear that night, but we came up with enough gear to record a minimalist setup. We ended up with 7 inputs separately tracked to our DAW, recorded with a flat EQ and no real-time processing so we could tweak the tracks during mixdown. As for our microphones, we were forced to go with what we could find or borrow in true guerrilla fashion. For the drum mics we acquired from a local band the surviving pieces of a CAD Pro-7 Mic Kit: a kick & snare mic and two tiny overhead condensers. For the guitar we found an Audix I-5 dynamic mic, and the bass was recorded through a DI box because the bass cabinet had a rattle and we were short a decent bass mic. The vocalist had his own SM58 which topped out our minimalist track list at number 7.

We weren't expecting spectacular results from this borrowed equipment, and well, the raw tracks at the end of the night confirmed our expectations.

First off, lest anyone be misled by the model name of the drum mics, rest assured there's nothing "pro" about those CAD microphones. Tracking drums for Dies Irae should have been a cakewalk-- the drum set was beautifully tuned and the drummer's a solid player, but these microphones couldn't keep up. The CAD kick and snare mics had no usable definition regardless of placement. There was so much excessive bleed between the CAD mics that EQing each to sound reasonable was a real chore, because for example, boosting the snare mic to get that "crack" meant that some other part of the drums would emerge with unnatural emphasis and mess everything up. No amount of EQ to the kick mic could make the "thwack" come out (although the bleeding snare became more apparent and even more awful sounding). Judging from the raw tracks, I'd suspect that both microphones have a frequency response similar to string & can telephone acoustics.

To make matters worse, the CAD CM217 overhead microphones proved completely worthless and crumbled under the decibels the drummer delivered that night. Even though the pad switch on the mic was engaged and the mic preamps were purring with plenty of headroom, the CAD overheads delivered audio that sounded like a truck dragging sheet metal down a gravel road. Check it out:



The final word is that this line of CAD mics officially suck and should be avoided for all recording purposes, unless you're absolutely desperate for drum coverage and flat broke (in which case check garage sales and pawn shop dumpsters). If you're at all interested in fidelity in your recording, you won't find it with these cheapie drum mics. (Studio gear elitists can emit a big "duh" here-- hey, we're just clarifyin') There are better alternatives for mic'ing drums on a budget, and these ain't it.

For the guitar, we ended up using an Audix I-5 dynamic microphone, even though we had access to a trusty SM57. At this point, the whole recording was turning out to be a microphone experiment any way, so we decided to check out the Audix mic first-hand. The I-5 has a reputation for having a brighter sound than a 57, and sure enough, the guitar tracks we got were lightbulb bright, and Brillo-Pad harsh. To be fair to the Audix, the guitarist was using a Mesa Boogey dual 12" combo with its settings unchanged from a recent jazz gig, so the rig was already a bit bright, but the I-5 seemed unable to translate any of the beefy end regardless of mic placement, even though the I-5 also has a reputation for a warmer low end. While this microphone might be suitable for other guitar tones, amp/speaker characteristics, or genres of music, using the I-5 on this occasion left our guitar without any warmth in the low-mid end of the spectrum. We wanted Dimebag, and all we got was a nickel.

Recording the bass was about a simple as it could get. The bass patched directly into a DI Box and fed parallel signals to his amplifier and our mixing board. Even though the bass was thick and full for the live audience, the signal we received was nothing more than what the instrument pickups delivered. Without the amp and speakers to shape the instrument's sound, the bass was expectedly naked and thin. We knew going into the live recording that in order to get a good bass sound we would either have to re-amp the bass track afterwards, or emulate a bass cabinet with an appropriate emulation plugin.

Here's a snippet of all the raw audio; first the bass, then guitar, drums and vocals:


After inspecting the raw audio, it would be totally forgivable for an audio purist to write off any hope for salvaging this experimental recording; after all, the overheads are massively clipping and the instruments don't sound as good as they did live.

Still, since guerrilla recording is all about doing the best with what you have, CHiTT set out to show that the darkest hour is just before post-processing. In the world of digital audio, nothing is completely lost, and with enough knowledge, the right tools, and a little hocus pocus, you can clean up anything. Here's the same audio snippet after a couple of hours of tweaking in the studio (with all tracks up at once):


In our final installment in this series, we'll cover exactly what we did to fix the tracks to the best of our ability and arrive at a fan-worthy bootleg despite using cheapo microphones.

Free Guerrilla Recording From the Vault: Dies Irae at the Ranger

It's not quite spring yet, but the time has come to clear some space off our hard drives to make room for upcoming recording projects. As I was backing up sessions to DVD I came across a CHiTT guerrilla recording of Laramie metal band Dies Irae captured live at the Ranger Bar last year.

We rolled in to record that night as kind of a last minute decision. We were short our usual selection of microphones and hardware (which were probably snowed in somewhere across the state) but we cobbled together what spare microphones, cables and hardware we could find and decided to let the tape roll anyway. Dies Irae always draws a rowdy crowd, and at the very least we just wanted to capture the energy of the evening, even if nothing usable turned out from the recordings. In the end, as we expected, neither the band nor CHiTT Productions thought the material stood up to our expectations for an official release, so we decided to scrap the tracks and go with stronger material.

Still, we find it a shame to let good efforts go to waste, so before I made the final purge from my hard drive we selected three tracks to release for free download. Even though we felt the recording and performance weren't top tier that night, it was an intense evening and we thought we'd offer this brief snapshot of the energy released that night (read: heavy metal umlaut). Even more, it's an argument for the hypothesis that you don't have to own elite gear or have bourgeois audio attitudes to produce decent recordings, and this is a good example of how even the worst recording conditions can produce solid, fan-worthy tracks in the end. Remember would be naysayers: the digital age is also a revolution.

Download: Follow the link, click "continue," and click "download file" for free download.


Dies Irae, Live at the Ranger, 3/24/07
3 Songs, 192 kbps, 21 MB


In the next post, we'll give a complete rundown of the recording setup we used that night including scathing reviews of the sub-par gear we used, and what we did later to clean things up.

Here's to independent artists and other malcontents...

Change is in the air. 2008 is upon us and we look forward to the future and all the new opportunities it will bring. Raise your glasses high and let's toast to 2008 being a productive, creative, and inspiring new year. Get your battle plans ready and meet us at the rendezvous point.

Special thanks to all the cool cats we work with. We look forward to doing more with you in the future.

CHiTT Productions

Neo-Nostalgics live at the Buckhorn

Here's some video of the Neo-Nostalgics show at the historic (and uniquely aromatic) Buckhorn Bar on December 14th, 2007. CHiTT productions was there providing sound reinforcement and recording all the bands on the bill that night. Thanks in part to a rotating radio promo the bar was packed late into the night-- the best turn out in Laramie in a while, especially considering that finals were over and a lot of students were gone. Also on the bill that night were the Ghosts of Predators Past and Driftwood. Check back soon for a compilation album of the bands on the bill that night and more videos as they surface.

Using Digital Reverb Plugins to Spice Up Dry Audio

Reverb is the spice of your audio. Without some sense of reverberation, whether natural or digital, your mixes will inevitably seem lifeless and boring. Too much reverb or the wrong type can unnaturally spoil your audio endeavors, like adding the wrong flavor to an otherwise good recipe. The key is using the right ingredients, knowing how much too add, and knowing when to stop when the mix is just right.

Here's a short clip from the Neo-Nostalgics upcoming album, a tune called John Barber. As with most guerrilla recording environments, the space in which we were recording didn't afford the best acoustics (no high ceilings, no wood floors, etc.-- a basement, basically), so we close-mic'ed every instrument to reduce the amount of room ambiance, since setting up a room mic to collect some natural reverb wasn't an option. As we expected, our final tracks were pretty clean and didn't have much of the unwanted room sound in the mix, but the tracks sound bare-bones dry and don't have that "sparkle" a nice room would provide:



In close quarter recording spaces, the trick is to fake ambiance with digital reverb while not letting on that it's an artificial addition. I start by searching for a nice effect that emulates the sense of real space, but I pay close attention to how the reverb colors my audio, especially if it adds unwanted mud that detracts from the fidelity of the dry source audio. On the other hand, some reverb parameters might react a little too brightly and actively on some transient peaks (like snare cracks or sibilant vocals) which will unnaturally emerge from the mix in ways that real acoustic reflections would never behave. This is a dead giveaway that you're using canned ambiance. To avoid this, I look for a reverb that provides "cutoff" parameters which allows control over what frequencies are included in the effect. For reverbs that don't include this option, you can always bounce a 100% wet signal to its own track and manually apply equalization to get the response you're seeking.

To fake the natural ambiance we're missing from the mix, I add the same base reverb effect to most of the instruments in small amounts. For starters, I'll often choose a small room or hall setting without a lot of bright coloration and a shorter decay time; we're shooting to make the audio sound like it's sitting in a unified space, but again, we don't want the reverb to sound distracting or unnatural. I'll add it to the drums first-- if the reverb blends well and sounds natural with the drums, it will probably sound alright with the rest of the instruments in the mix. I generally don't add any (or much) reverb to the kick or the overheads because reverb on these tracks often ruins the clarity of what we've recorded. For the snare and the toms, I'll add just enough reverb until I notice the effect, and then I'll back it off until I can't notice it anymore. I find the ideal amount of reverb occurs in the area between noticing it and not noticing it, but ultimately it's a matter left up to taste and the style of music you're working with.

After the drums are sounding good, I'll add a small amount to the rest of the instruments to bring them into the same "space," trying to find the right amount that sounds natural for each instrument and always auditioning the wet/dry ratio with the rest of the mix. Keep in mind that the more reverb you add, the more "removed" the original audio will sound from the mix, and the more predominant and possibly distracting the fake ambiance becomes. As a general rule of thumb, you don't want the effect to overtake the natural balance of your mix, so in most cases, a little bit of reverb goes a long way. For my tastes, I find that the snare and the toms will receive the most amount of reverb (e.g. 5% to 15% wet), and every other instrument gets the same effect in less amounts (anywhere from 1% to 12% wet). If I choose to apply different reverb effect to other instruments, I have to be careful that the different settings don't create a conflicting sense of space (unless of course that's the effect I'm going for) and aren't adding subtle tonal and EQ imbalances. Simply put, you don't want different reverb settings to conflict with one another. If I do use different reverb settings for different instruments, a tiny amount of small room reverb added to all tracks will hep smooth over the overall finish and bring all the tracks into a sense of unified space.

After auditioning several reverb settings for the Neo-Nostalgics track, I decided on a lively, bright, medium sized room, to give the overall mix a live jazz club feeling. The reverb turned out brighter and more active than I usually choose for a mix, but in this case, such a decision seemed appropriate for the feel and style of the music. The vocals have a different reverb plugin with a slight stereo delay effect, but I added a tiny amount of the original room reverb to to the vocal to soften the edges and place the vox in the same "room" as everything else. Overall, the room reverb is most apparent on the snare and the guitar, and the vocals now have a shimmer they didn't before, but the cumulative effect is still subtle:



Check back soon for a compilation of links to the most useful free VST reverb plugins available on the web. While you'll get better, more natural sounding results from the higher-end and more pricey plugins, there's still a lot of quality reverb plugins for free that will still do your recordings justice.

CHiTT Productions Presents a Live Recording in Progress

CHiTT Productions back at it. 3 bands, one night, live recording. Check back for more details and downloads soon.

Screenprinting step-by-step with CHiTT Productions

Kilgore Smudge Lives... in Casper Wyoming

Back in the day before MP3s and CD burners, coming across new good music was a hard thing to accomplish. Radio spoiled early our ability to mindlessly enjoy depthless pop music, and then we grew up to spend countless summers watching the same numbing rotation of mass-produced musi-tainment on MTV. We watched as the independent rock stations in our city got swallowed by Clear Channel hell bent on making all music mediocre and safe for the masses. We just begged for something listenable to make its way to the airwaves, which it never did, so instead we spent our time in the wrong parts of town at the best CD stores rifling through the collections in search of buried treasure. Sometimes we might have heard snippets of an album, or seen a stellar performance on second stage somewhere, and we'd search the racks hoping we might find the CD of that band that nobody's ever heard of. But even if we fount it, making that purchase was always a gamble. We risked forking over our last 15 bucks for a CD that might be half rotten.

Those were the days when kids still ripped tapes for one another to pass along music that hadn't made the mainstream. Here was music on the cutting edge: dynamic, creative, interpretive, raw, and without the glitz image, just a sound. Music that took the last 30 years of innovation as its roots and transformed their sounds into true examples of musical evolution. Not flat, postmodern disruptions of old paradigms, but instead articulate responses to the past presented in new, edgier formats. "Undiscovered" bands really lived the music because the money hadn't had a chance to corrupt their aesthetic standards yet. The underground, liminal areas are always the staging points of innovation, but a place where the profit motive of the culture industries have not yet penetrated, so good music without a mass distribution deal spread by second and third generation tapes.

My high school buddy lived in Florida and came across a tape of band called Kilgore Smudge and passed it along to me. I listened to that tape until it broke. I searched high and low for the CD version but even the stores that catered to more independent tastes didn't have it and couldn't manage to special order it. It wasn't until years later when the band got picked up by Warner Brothers and released a second album under the name Kilgore that I finally found a used copy of their first CD. Their second album, naturally to an old fan, didn't have the same feel that I heard off of that second-generation tape; maybe it was a combination of the hiss and odd pitch warbling from the tape medium mixed with the sounds of a smaller productions budget that made the first release seem authentically untouched by mass culture. Still, their second album was leagues ahead of what got airplay at the time, but as most bands capable of becoming legends do, they faded into obscurity for reasons of their own.

Flash forward to today-- in a bout of nostalgia I went out on the internet looking for Kilgore's second album, because after loaning my original CD to several friends it finally disappeared before I had a chance to rip it to MP3. I'm not feeling very warm to paying $15 bucks for a used CD, because I don't even own a conventional CD player any more. Furthermore, I already went through two hard copies of the CD and I'm not buying the third on principle, especially because the original members of the band will never see any of that cash. In any case, I feel like I already own stock in this band I never even got a chance to see live, just because I tried to keep their music going by passing it on to others who had never had the luck to hear them. Hell, I would pay for some DRM-free MP3s, but after a quick search on the net, I find not a lot, and even the *cough* less legal avenues turn up nothing. R.I.P. ONIK: I would have liked to known ya, but I was just a kid...

Although I didn't find the album I was looking for I did find a lovely time capsule of obscure band trivia (thanks to our cultural pillars of information, Myspace and YouTube). Heres an eye-rolling, forehead slapping example of the worst reporting that the mainstream media has to offer. Straight from the unforgiving desert, Wyoming's very own sorry excuse for a news channel K2 interviews Kilgore and tries to paint them as the shocking, bad influences they never were:



And since I can't currently find their album, here's a live song off of their first album, with a grit and intensity I haven't seen for a while. How I'd love to get my hands on a couple of bootlegs, but the internet isn't quite yet the library I'd like it to be...

Guitar Mic Techniques for Guerrilla Recording

As another addition for your guerrilla field manual, several short video tutorials on the basics of recording guitars. CHiTT Productions weighs in with other insights after the jump.







Recording guitars on fly? The slightest microphone adjustments, not to mention the microphone you pick for the job, can be the difference between a full bodied sound or weak tracks. Remember, isolation is key in guerrilla recording, because your room might not be ideal. The best and clearest recordings most often come by capturing a faithful representation of the source material without a lot of unnecessary coloration or haphazard experimentation. You want your tools to be as transparent as possible, only adding that coveted "character" (whether from a mic or an effect) only when it's necessary.

Often we choose to record with one mic as the "transparent" mic in a close-mic position (with as little room sound as possible, positioned at the "sweet spot" of the instrument/speaker). If we've got extra tracks to play with, then we'll add another mic for experimentation, maybe off axis or placed further back in the recording space. Once the mix is sounding pretty balanced in its later stages with just the dry mics laying the foundation of the mix, then we add the tracks with more daring mic positions to spice the overall flavor or character. We might even choose later on to swap out the experimental track for the conventionally mic'ed one if it sounds good, but we'd hate to be trapped down the road with a mix full of experimental mic positions that can't be used because we weren't hearing something right at the time. While and entirely close-mic'ed mix will sound, well, like a closely mic'ed mix, unless you're recording in the Taj Mahal of locations, you're probably better off letting digital reverb liven up a mix while guerrilla recording.

The quickest and truest way to get awesome tracks while guerrilla recording (since in the field we don't have the luxury of a sonically balanced mix station/control room) is to get a pair of Extreme Isolation headphones and a 30-50 ft. headphone extension cable. Get right up in the thick of it with your isolation headphones on and solo the channel of instrument in question and move the mic around until you get that sound. What's that sound? Shoot for what you imagine it would sound like if you took your headphones off and stuck your ear right close to the speaker or instrument (pain threshold notwithstanding). Let the music be as dirty as it wants to be, but good guerrilla recordings come from being as clean as possible right up front (i.e. good gain structure, isolation, conservative mic placements, etc.). We experiment in the field when time and tracks permit, but save most of the fun for the non-destructive mixdown stage.

Since guerrilla recording is often without a budget, chances are you're not going to have golden mics at your disposal. Never fear, budget mics still can kick some serious burgeios butt, and you'll never end up missing the cash you would've spent.

For electric guitar speaker cabinets, the Shure SM57 obviously ranks as the most accessible and time-tested solution for close mic'ing speakers. The best part of this mic is that it still turns up in yard sales, 18 years old, dented and still working; still a perfect addition to the mic stash, and it can mic just about anything else in a pinch. But for ~about~ the same store price as the 57 the Sennheiser e609 wins the day for guerrilla recording, even if it is just a little too pretty. It makes close-mic'ing a breeze because it hugs the grill and its supercardioid pattern rejects bleed from other instruments in your small recording space or live situation (works great for toms too!).

For acoustic guitars you've got to go condenser. The SM57 sounds too "rugged" and unintentionally lo-fi in most applications (although there are times it can actually clean up some really bad sounding instruments). Ideally we'd love to use condensers with crystalline rapport-- of course, everyone would, but they're hard to come by on a beer budget. Rode mics, such as the NT-5, seem to be the mid-pro level choice for honest and accurate mic'ing, but for the price, we've never laid our hands on a pair so we can't vouch for its authority (any donations?). More modestly priced are the awkwardly vessel-like AKG C-1000s. Nice presence with clarity, but enough bottom end to feel the wood of the guitar. If you're recording in a suitably vibrant room with little extraneous noise, the standard cardioid pickup pattern will pick up a nice amount of room sound. If not, the hypercardioid capsule will tighten the pickup pattern without sacrificing too much range.

On even more of a budget? The AT2021 is a versitile small diaphragm condenser that just works. Although it's a little active and bright in the high end while still managing to be less articulate with the high-mids, its still a reasonably impressive and budget-minded choice for recording detailed instruments. The selling point is that the AT2021 comes only with the AT2020, its side-adress bigger brother, sold as the AT2041 package. With a little searching you might find both for lower than its minimum advertised price, costing only about as much as a new SM57 in a store. Both mics share the same capsule design, take high SPLs and are very versitile, whether overheads, vocals or instruments, without adding too much flamboyant color.

Adrian H. Molina Live

Mannequin Rituals New Album Coming

Audio Recording Services, Guerrilla Style

In times such as these, artists and thinking people must fully embrace the tactics of the guerrilla in order to survive. Organize in small bands, know your master plan and create backups, always stay on the move, strike quickly and with vision in order to take advantage of the adversary's inefficiency and immobility.

Guerrillas thrive on the unknown and use it to their advantage, turning the flaws of the system into opportunities for upheaval. While bureaucrats spend time trying to maintain control of territory and capital with tired old traditions, guerrillas know that the true prize is in the heart of the people, and only through unconventional exploration can this gem be revealed.

In keeping with this rich and empowering tradition, CHiTT Productions practices the art of guerrilla recording. The adversary is the big-business culture industry, with its spit-shined factory lineup featuring uninspiring permutations of the same product asking extortion prices. The revolutionary goal, therefore, is to produce an entirely different form of culture which rivals the methods and productions standards of the mainstream without compromising our underground ethics or driving us into serfdom. In this mission we understand we are the underdogs and our tools aren't nearly as pretty as the bourgeois elite, but underneath the grit in our work there's an authenticity all the money and studio "magic" in the world couldn't buy.

The tactic of guerrilla recording is to travel lightly and with purpose; bring only the things you need to get the job done right, know your tools, move into the new environment quickly, take stock of your resources, setup operations, and roll the tape to capture the vibrancy and spirit of the creative process as faithfully as possible.



CHiTT Productions specializes in multitracking live band setups-- this means that each element of the band is individually recorded on its own track, up to 12 tracks at a time and up to 48 tracks total, so each instrument can be fine-tuned afterwards for the perfect mix. The recording process is simple-- we come into your home territory with our laptop and DAW and size up the acoustical situation. You jam in a small basement? An aluminum storage shed? A cardboard box? Not a problem. We can make the trickiest recording environments produce quality recordings. We'll arrange our instruments and mics for optimal acoustic isolation and setup shop in a flash. After a quick but organized line & monitor check, and a quick playback test to see how the situation sounds, the band is ready to record.

In order to get the best out of your guerrilla recording, your group should be aware of the following suggestions and tips:

• Practice, practice, practice. Often bands don't realize that their material is a bit rusty or "unsure" until they hear their recordings played back to them. Spend the time to really listen to your music (turn the volume down for starters, or play acoustically if you have to). Sit down with your band mates to hash out the dirty details of each song's arrangement, dynamics, tempo, notes, etc. Unsure of what your mates are doing during a particular part of a song? Figure it out before your scheduled day to record, because all the inconsistencies will appear later on the tape for everyone to hear in high fidelity. You don't really want to waste your time (or ours) fixing problems with overdubs later, do you?
  
• Toubleshoot sonic problems before your day to record. What's that ringing when the drummer hits the toms? Why doesn't the kick drum have any "oomph?" What's that noise coming out of the guitar players speakers? Buzzing frets? Loud ventilation system/roommates, etc.? The list of potential problems is endless. It's always best to give us your sweetest sounds from the beginning, and weed out the bugs beforehand, because if it sounds bad going in, it's going to sound bad coming out. Be eternally picky; this is your art.
  
• Tune, tune, tune. The dustbins of audio history are filled with otherwise great performances ruined by out-of-tune instruments. Tune often and with great care, as if the lives of your loved ones depended on it. Every time the recording stops or a song ends, every tunable instrument should resynchronize to its glorious tonic calibration. Unless you are certifiably blessed with perfect pitch, you should own an electronic tuner and make sure that it is perfectly matched to every other tuner in use during recording. If your instrument cannot stay in tune, borrow one that can. Your listeners will thank you later.
• Know what you want to accomplish with your recording session beforehand. What songs are you going to record? Do you want to play the songs straight through like a live show, or do you want to work on one song at a time until every element is layered and nuanced? Do you want to experiment with your sounds, or do know exactly what sound you're after? Keeping a clear aim of what you want to accomplish keeps the process running efficiently, since both time and money are limited resources.
• Communicate effectively with the recording engineer. Need some more of an instrument in your headphones? Not pleased with the sound of that reverb? Too much guitars in the mix? Just say so, because we're not clairvoyant and it's not going to hurt our feelings. We'll work with you to make sure you get the sound you're after.
• Be patient. Audio recording is a laborious process to get right. While we've got the process down to a quasi-science and move pretty quickly, setup and tweaks take a little time. The more everyone can stay focused on the process and not get sidetracked, the more time can be spent recording.

Check out our featured artists for examples of our work. If you're interested in recording all or part of an album, whether a live show or in your jam space, contact us to discuss your options and check our availability.

CHiTT Goes Guerrilla with Neo-Nostalgics

CHiTT rolled in to the Neo-Nostalgics' practice space to do some on-site guerrilla recording Tuesday.


Gear setup went quickly and seamlessly until we ran into a nasty electrical buzz, which is a common malady in many home-based electrical situations. After tracking down the buzz and eliminating it with a trusty $0.69 ground lift adapter, the Neo-Nostalgics rolled through their songs in two easy sets. Drums were multitracked with a mic and a track for each piece in the drum set, a Shure Beta 52 on kick, Sennheisers on the snare and toms, and AT2020s for stereo overheads. Keys and bass were recorded direct, and the guitar cab was recorded using a Sennheiser e609, isolated in a separate room in the basement.

All in all, we've got 8 tracks spanning 9 or so songs, with vocal tracks anticipated to be completed in an upcoming session. Mixdowns will come soon afterwards, so we'll keep you posted on the developments.

Yellow Ribbons, Postmodern Times 2012, and the Media

Posmodern Times, 2012



How the News Works

Where has D. Neal Gone???

We just got an update as to where Dustin Neal has been for the last 5 days. Stricken ill with salmonella poisoning, that's where. But that's not all. He was later seen wandering the tracks north of Casper with a jar of moonshine accompanied by an unidentified individual. It is speculation that it was a member from The Last Coyote. This part is not confirmed as of now, however, the Carpet Tunnel Studio doors have been closed for 5 days and there have been reports of The Last Coyote seen stumbling around down there. A note was found in a whiskey bottle reading delusional ramblings of a man with salmonella poisoning, new tracks coming out, and a possible, Last Coyote/John Posten Project split.