Recording Secrets For The Small Studio - Additional Resources
Chapter 12: Going Freestyle
Table of Contents
(This page is for the second edition of Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. To access an archive of the first-edition resource pages, click here.)
Links
Mic-mounting Hardware Tips: Here are links to the product pages of a couple of little K&M mic-mounting widgets I mentioned in this Chapter: the K&M 238 Microphone Holder, which can be used in conjunction with a cheap lighting stand to position multimic arrays several meters up in the air; and the K&M 21431 Mini Boom Arm, which can be fitted to any other stand as a drop-arm. Alternatively, Superlux do a ridiculously affordable and rugged mic stand called the MS200, which has a vertical reach of more than 5m, although this only seems to be available in Europe.
Line-checking Gadgets: There are now quite a few little pocket-sized gizmos on the market for speeding up the line-checking process. Superlux do a great little phantom-powered noise/tone generator rejoicing in the name The Pink Stick. (Titter Ye Not!) Sound Tools have their XLR Sniffer/Sender which is pair of barrel adaptors that can quickly test the wiring integrity of XLR cable runs in situ. But if you’re looking for a true Swiss Army Knife option, then check out Sonnect’s fully featured Sound Bullet.
Further Reading
Sound On Sound Magazine Articles: The magazine’s regular ‘Session Notes’ column provides lots of practical insights into real-world project-studio recording methods (with accompanying audio files), and frequently demonstrates handy monitoring and isolation workarounds which you can use when working with multi-room setups. In addition, here are a few other one-off articles which also shed useful light on this kind of recording from a small-studio perspective: ‘Guerilla Recording: How To Record Bands Outside The Studio’; ‘Recording A Jazz Band On Location’; ‘Recording Bands On Location’; and ‘Andrija Tokic: Recording Alabama Shakes’.
Recording Live Concerts: If you’re interested in recording live concerts or music videos, you’ll need a whole extra set of skills in addition to what’s covered in ‘Recording Secrets’. To dip a toe in the water, check out these articles: ‘Recording A Live Show’, ‘Recording A Live Video Performance’, ‘Preventing Acoustic Feedback On Stage’. For more in-depth coverage, Paul White’s The SOS Guide to Live Sound and Bartlett & Bartlett’s Recording Music On Location are good places to start.