eugeneryan.com

Gear Reviews

Harmonica and Piano using Several Microphones

On a visit to a small studio, I was lucky enough to try out some nice mics with my chromatic harmonica. Joe Dunne played piano on this session. The samples were recorded at 48kHz, 24bit and have been encoded to mp3 at 320bps using the LAME encoder. A couple of the full tracks are on myspace with a lower sound quality.

Studio Mics:

2 x Neumann U87

2 x 4007 Bruel & Kjaer / DPA

AKG 414

Shure 545

I also brought my own dynamic mics: Sennheiser e835 and Audix Fireball

Something was too hot for the dynamics - so we didn't use them. We ended up using the U87 or AKG 414 for the harp sound. The 4007, Shure 545 and other Neumann U87 were used on an acoustic piano and that ended up coming out well. In all cases, harmonica and piano were playing live together in the same room, so there was a lot of bleed into each others' mics.

Here are some samples comparing harmonica:

Harmonica through AKG 414

Harmonica through Neumann U87

And one harmonica segment through the AKG 414 including me breathing in the middle

Samples of the piano playing through several mics:

Piano through BK4007

Piano through Shure

Piano through Neuman U87

There you go - you can make your own mind up about which mic you like best :-)

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Digitech RPx400

I'm having great fun with the Digitech RPx400 floor modelling processor and USB audio interface. I mentioned on the harp players' recommendations page that I had used it on a gig, running straight into the PA. It sounds great when used like that. You can also hear some samples on the music page that have been recorded with the RPx400.

I had some initial problems, and I had really only been using the pedal as a live unit (at which it excels), but I had been missing out on some of the RPx400's best features when connected to a PC:

You can record 4 mono channels simultaneously. That's right, guitar in, mic preamp, and a stereo line in for which there are two TS 1/2 inch jacks. So, you could record bass, guitar, harmonica, and play along to prerecorded MIDI drums or MIDI triggered sampler.

The routing options are very flexible. Feel like recording or listening to mic dry, but having the line in and guitar going through the effects? Or the reverse? It can do all that, or tap off the signal at one of many points in the internal chain.

It has a mixer built in. I find that this is much more convenient than adjusting levels in your sequencer, and infinitely more usable than adjusting levels in the mixer in Windows Control Panel.

Built in monitoring.

You can "re-amp" a track - that is, record the track with no effects, then play it back with your sequencer and have the track passed through the RPx and recorded to another track. This feature is great, but it requires low latency drivers.

The first point above about having four simultaneous inputs shouldn't be underemphasised. Other USB cards that have this capability start at about 280 euro. The RPx400 cost me about 230 a year ago, and it can be used very effectively as a live unit too. I think that this unit really has been undermarketed.

Initial Problems

Getting the the bundled sequencer software Pro Tracks to work. I had a better sequencer, so I'm now using that, and the sequencer is seeing the Digitech as a USB audio device

Problems with latency (delay inherent in computer recording). I've gotten over the latency problem thanks to some advice from Richard Hunter - I'm now using the generic ASIO driver ASIO4All.