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.

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.

Essential Free VST Dynamics Plugins for Powerful Processing

The key to a full mix is to control your program material. Tame your transients, add more punch in just the right doses and cut the bleed from unwanted audio leakage. Dynamics processing can be the hardest thing to get right, but if you harness the basic elements, go easy at first and follow your ears, you can do wonders to an otherwise uninspiring mix. The following is a list of essential free plugins for the VST host application of your choice. Enjoy, and remember to support the developers.

Compressors/Limiters/Gates:

GComp Compressor | Windows VST
Probably the best sounding and prettiest free compressor I've used so far. Controls are extensive for a simple compressor: input/output gain, RMS/Peak, Attack/Release, threshold for the compressor and a limiter with softener. Best of all, it provides a waveform view to preview how your audio is getting chopped when you set the controls. But don't forget to use your ears. The GMulti is basically the same as the GComp, but with multiband capabilities and stereo enhancers. Both plugins would be the go-to compressors in most cases if they included a gate/expander, but to compensate they can be used in conjunction with GGate or substituted with GComp2.

BuzzComp Free Series | Windows VST
Less refined than the GComp plugins, the BuzzComp series still finds its uses in many mixes. The GeneComp plugins in the Buzz pack don't seem in my opinion to be very useful due to a lack of any metering capabilities which allow you to see what the compressor is doing. The GranComp hard compressors however include both a single band and multiband compressor with meters which are far more mix-friendly. I've used the multiband compressor for general mix "fattening" and it includes several presets to get you started.

Fish Filets Channel Insert Package: | Windows, Mac 9 and OSX VSTs
Includes a compressor, de-esser, and a gate/expander. While the processors are not always as transparent as they could be, there are times when it's good to have a little "bite." When bite isn't what you're looking for, it's got a soft-knee switch to smooth things out. The gate/expander I've found to be especially useful on kick, snare and toms for getting rid of leaks from other instruments and pumping up the volume.

BuzzMaxi 3 Brickwall Limiter/Maximizer | Windows
For controlling those transient peaks that clip an otherwise consistent mix, I'll place BuzzMaxi last in the chain on the master channel, with its output ceiling set to a safe -0.3 dBs on "aggressive" mode. For a quick overall raise in loudness for scratch mixdowns (for preview purposes), I'll switch the mode to its softer setting, lower the ceiling to maybe -0.5 and crank up the "makeup" volume a couple of dBs for fairly transparent results. You don't really want to use just a limiter to raise the loudness of your material (that's a job better suited for a multiband compressor) but when in a pinch or a hurry, this plugin can help acheive greater stature in the loudness war. Apologies to Bob Katz.

And a final note on dynamics processing, a video examining the plight of the loudness war and why you should use care when messing with compressors: