Skip to main content

Guitar Mic Shootout Round Robin

Lesson 32 from: Recording Metal with Eyal Levi: A Bootcamp

Eyal Levi

Guitar Mic Shootout Round Robin

Lesson 32 from: Recording Metal with Eyal Levi: A Bootcamp

Eyal Levi

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

32. Guitar Mic Shootout Round Robin

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Intro to Bootcamp

13:44
2

Purpose of Pre-Production

15:54
3

Technical Side of Preproduction

11:32
4

Pre-Production: Setting Up the Tempo Map

12:05
5

Pre-Production: Importing Stems

10:10
6

Pre-Production: Click Track

15:26
7

Creating Tracking Templates

17:03
8

Intro and the Tone Pie

04:51
9

Drums - Lay of the Land

10:44
10

Bearing Edges

03:09
11

Wood Types

10:36
12

Depths and Sizes

04:00
13

Hoops

02:38
14

Sticks and Beaters

07:38
15

Drum Heads

07:30
16

Drum Tuning

1:03:54
17

Drum Mic Placement Intro

10:37
18

Basic Drum Mic Setup

53:36
19

Cymbal Mic Setup

35:24
20

Touch Up Tuning

46:55
21

Microphone Choice and Placement

40:34
22

Drum Tracking Intro

01:01
23

Getting Tones and Final Placement

34:51
24

Primary Tracking

31:54
25

Punching In and Comping Takes

20:11
26

Guitar Setup and Rhythm Tone Tracking

01:59
27

Amplifiers - Lay of the Land

10:00
28

Amplifiers & Cab Shoot Out

27:12
29

Guitar Cab Mic Choice and Placement

03:56
30

Guitar Tracking and Signal Chain

29:07
31

Finalizing Amplifier Tone

51:24
32

Guitar Mic Shootout Round Robin

05:21
33

Intro to Rhythm Tracking

07:46
34

Setting Up Guitars

15:02
35

Working with a Guitarist

05:04
36

Final Guitar Tone and Recap

04:10
37

Guitar Tracking with John

15:19
38

Guitar Tracking with Ollie

32:03
39

Final Tracking

22:08
40

Tracking Quads

33:44
41

Intro to Bass Tone

01:26
42

Bass Tone Setup

07:35
43

Bass Tone Mic Placement

16:42
44

Bass Tracking

45:08
45

Intro to Clean and Lead Tones

02:15
46

Clean Guitar Tones

34:04
47

Lead Tones

10:58
48

Vocal Setup for Tracking

11:26
49

Vocal Mic Selection and Setup

02:38
50

Vocal Mic Shootout

09:13
51

Lead Vocal Tracking

38:09
52

Writing Harmonies

07:44
53

Harmony Vocal Tracking

23:25
54

Vocal Warm Ups

11:39
55

Scream Vocal Tracking

18:56
56

Vocal Tuning and Editing Introduction

01:35
57

Vocal Tuning and Editing

29:26
58

Routing and Bussing

25:16
59

Color Coding, Labeling and Arranging Channels

17:54
60

Setting Up Parallel Compression

30:50
61

Setting Up Drum Triggers

10:41
62

Gain Staging and Trim

1:00:54
63

Drum Mixing - Subtractive EQ

25:38
64

Drum Mixing - Snare

23:00
65

Drum Mixing - Kick

11:39
66

Drum Mixing - Toms

24:47
67

Drum Mixing - Cymbals and Rooms

17:23
68

Drum Mixing Recap

08:57
69

Mixing Bass Guitar

16:26
70

Mixing Rhythm Guitars

1:16:07
71

Basic Vocal Mix

1:08:59
72

Mixing Clean and Lead Guitars

58:55
73

Mixing - Automation

43:35
74

Mastering - Interview with Joel Wanasek

31:01

Lesson Info

Guitar Mic Shootout Round Robin

As you guys have heard, John Brown and I have been tweaking new tones with a new set of mics and just to kind of recap how we got to this point, first we decided on which cabinet heads we liked, just from listening in the room. Then Brown put his ear to the speakers and decided which one he liked, then we tested that just to make sure that he wasn't crazy, or deaf, which I knew he wasn't gonna be, but you know, still gotta test it. So we put a 57 on each speaker, got them going through the same exact preamps with the same, at the same exact levels, and not only that but we checked with the studio to make sure that SM57s were all of the same build and very similar serial numbers. The reason I say that is because, there is a batch of SM57s out there in the world, that are... bootleg 57s and they are everywhere and they sound completely different and it's very, very hard to know except for by looking at the serial number. So you always want to check your 57s, for the serial number and mak...

e sure that you have a real one and not a Chinese knockoff. So anyways, as you could hear in there, he was actually right, he heard that the top right speaker was the best and through testing in there, we agreed. But, we didn't like the tone that we were just getting off the 57, straight on, it just wasn't good enough. So we came in here and changed some stuff up, now this mic right here, the SN7B is pointed up at the ceiling, we're not using this. The reason it's still here is because, I am very scared to remove it completely, because this is a game of centimeters. I'm afraid that if I move this I might knock a cable which will move a mic and I really like where we're at. So just know that this is a game of centimeters and if have a tone that you like and a mic placement that's good, you need to cordon off that area like it's Fort Knox or someone will bump into it and mess you up. So let me show you what we've got. We've got one 57 that's straight on, now that's in different position than it was before, before it was on the edge, where the speaker met the dust cap but this is actually straight on at the center of the speaker. That captures a lot of high end, as you probably noticed, and we have the angled 57 which is at a 45 degree angle and that shaves off a lot of the high end. That's our favorite mic, and that's called the Fredman Technique, made famous by Fredrik Nordstrom of Fredman Studios. Great, great metal producer-mixer, did lots of wonderful things, big influence to all of us. Than we put a 421 in the opposite 45 degree angle, now it's gotta lot of top end bite and in all honesty I don't typically like them on guitars and neither has John Brown but, people seem to use them so much as a secondary mic, that we just figured why not, let's try it. As you saw in there though, it does have a lot of harshness, it gives a lot of bite but, maybe a little too much. So we did have to filter out some of the upper mids, pretty, pretty intensely. And then I don't know if you can see this on the camera but, right below the 57 that's straight on is a D6, and the D is just there to add just a little bit more bottom, a little more roundness and maybe just a little more fullness to the low mids. It's something that you know, like anything else in recording, doesn't always work, but when it does it's really really cool and as you heard in there, it just added a little bit more body to the tone. We made sure that all of these mics are the exact same distance from the speaker, so we won't get any phasing issues and we did check in the other room, and they were perfectly in phase. Now one thing you should know, is when your mic, different speakers on a cabinet, they will move at different rates and will cause phase anomalies. Not always, but definitely more often. So yeah, once you find the speaker you like, focus on that, try to get the mics the same distance and yeah go for it, have fun. So, we feel like we are almost there. We're much happier with this mic choice and placement and now were gonna just make a few final tweaks, maybe on the amp, maybe it's the guitar choice just to get a little bit more hate in the tone.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Eyal Levi Bootcamp Bonuses
Drum Editing - HD

Ratings and Reviews

Ron
 

I'm on lesson 19! Already worth every dollar!!! Priceless insight! I have already incorporated some of the ideas (preproduction common sense stuff that I never thought of, but damn). VERY HAPPY with this course! ALWAYS LEARNING and looking forward to the next 50 (or whatever) lessons!!! Excellent course! GREAT PRODUCER/ENGINEER, GREAT DRUM TECH, and GREAT BAND!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

ceeleeme
 

I'm just part way though and I'm blown away by the quality approach Eyal takes to getting the best out of the sessions. I love how well everything is explained and Eyals calm manner is just awesome it really makes you want to listen to the gems of wisdom he offers.

Will
 

Wow is all I can say. This bootcamp goes in so much depth from tuning drums, setting up guitars, to recording and mixing. I have learned so much by participating in this bootcamp. It has taught me some new recording techniques and signal routing for my mixes. I just want to thank Eyal, Monuments, and Creative Live for taking the time to do this. It has been amazing and I will keep going back to these videos.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES