can anyone give thier experiences and suggestions on recording an ambient vocal track? [second mic recorded to be blended with close mic on the same take]

i recently tried putting a LD condenser back in the room in omni about 10 ft from the singer, and it didn't seem to work well in that instance. how about use of compression? do you compress this to tape at all? i know there are the obvious phase issues to beware of, and have seen the mics go on the floor a la drum ambient mics. what techniques have you used successfully?

i had a lot of negative ambient noise coming in that wasn't at all flattering, especially when i compressed it - which is why i ditched it. i'm sure being in omni didn't help either since my room isn't the greatest - but i was definitely looking for that bigger natural ambience you guys get at electrical. any other suggestions {get a better room}? perhaps i should send the close signal to an amp and re-mic on mixdown.

try the opposite of compression: expansion

it's a 'steve albini' (tm) (r) trick that i like a lot

you can set the threshold so that it doesn't pick up bullshitty noises you don't want expanded--a/c, rustling, singer farts, etc.

one of my favorite things is having it set so the singer can choke up on the mic for the quiet parts and back up for the loud parts w/o having the overall level go up or down too much

the quiet pts end up being intimate and the loud parts end up being more chaotic

it's nice

I've been having a fair amount of luck here at work, though I could never get it right at home. The problem for me is the room. The ambient mic will completely reveal he weaknesses in your room, and my room at home is a 8 by 15 shoebox.

Here's what I've been doing lately. Close mic and a room mic about 20-30 feet back on a wood floored area.

The close mic has been everything from A 58, and AKG C900, and RE-20, or a Neumann 149. Depending on the agreaggressivenessthe singer I'll compress this to taste. Really agreaggressivegers get almost limiting. As an aside, I love the Cranesong STC-2 compressor. Such an amazing device.

The distant mic is usually a 414 on omni on a floor stand about a foot above the floor. Use a quiet preamp. I don't compress this mic at all.

Track to two seperateseparate if you can. Blend to taste. the louder the singer sings, the more the direct mic compresses, and the more you hear the room mic. If you want more diffused ambience in the room mic, try putting a baffle between the singer and the ambient mic.

Have fun.

ben adrian
oakland, ca

nick92675 wrote: what techniques have you used successfully?

for ambience i like to set up two or three different types of mics around the room and find a blend that sounds complimentary to the source. i rarely use all three mics simultaneously, but if there are several overdubs to do it can make getting good sounds fast work. predelay on the ambience can also be useful.

I have to second tmidg on that "expansion" technique. it sounds beautiful. when the singer goes from singing quietly to suddenly belting it out it adds a cool kind of "opening up" effect that's kind of natural and shocking at the same time. All of the sudden it gets huge. I think a similar technique was used on "Heroes" by Bowie but they used a couple of ambient mics one closer, one further back and maybe ducked the close mic so when the others were engaged that's all you got. I saw something about it on an otherwise lame "history of rock" documentary on PBS.

Another fun trick is to use your second mic to mic up the very edge of a larger cymbal from under it and sing very near the cymbal on top of it. Micing the reverberation as picked up by the cymbal can have crazy effects. I guess this would be a cheap plate reverb kinda. I have also heard this done with a piano with the damper pedal depressed as to undampen the strings. If the signal is loud enough in the room (more for guitar, amplified sounds, etc) it will start sympathetic strings to vibrate giving a sort of reverb but much more musical and 'spooky' sounding.