TSRB Podcast 117 - Automatic Episode Transcript — Please excuse any errors, not reviewed for accuracy 

[00:00:00] Benedikt: create and capture great art. And you can always refine later. These starting points will be good enough to at least capture a great demo of pre-production maybe even the final recording and you can always take it from there. Hello, and welcome to the self recording band podcast. I am your host Ben at the time, and I am not here with my friend and cohost come own flat today. Malcolm is still away on a work trip. We ran out of episodes that we prepared in advance. And also, you know, you might notice if you were watching on YouTube, um, that I'm at home here in my office cave sort of thing with this weird angle talking directly into. Laptop camera here because, uh, I can't be at the studio because I have COVID. So everything's 

[00:01:00] different. I feel fine though. It wasn't too bad. Fortunately, I guess I got lucky, took a quick break from work, but it wasn't too bad, so I'm back, but everything's different. No cohost, uh, not at my typical studio, but I thought about how I could make this episode as valuable as possible for you of course. And not just make some. Filler episode. And I think I came up with something pretty amazing. So usually when Malcolm is here, we do a lot of back and forth. We share stories. We have a banter, you know, it's this more of a, it's not just the hard facts, but everything around it and sort of the thing that we to have have going together here. Um, this is not the case obviously today. So I'm just going to give you some hard facts. I'm going to just going to give you some hard. Like actionable things that you can take and run with and implement right away. So this is going to be a very actionable, very practical episode, which I think is actually a good thing to have because we have a lot of these big picture, deeper, Episodes anyway. So long story short it's 

[00:02:00] about how to position your microphones in front of any source. Basically that could be part of a band and how to do that quickly and with confidence and how to get like. Great starting points basically. So. You should experiment. We always preach that. We always say that that you should find unique tones, unique mic positions, unique mic choices, placements in the room and all of that to make it yours. But also, I really believe in having a good process to be fast, to be, to be able to work intuitively. And that requires you to have starting points or templates or presets or whatever you want to call it for basically everything not so that you always use those. But so that you can quickly get something that is sounding great and usable, and then you can always tweak and refine if you have the time, but you shouldn't spend too much time worrying about those things before you even record the first note or first idea, right? When inspiration strikes, when you have an idea, you should be able to 

[00:03:00] immediately capture that when you are in the actual session, you'll be, she should be able to focus on your performance. And if you want to record something, addition that wasn't planned or whatever, you have to be able to quickly set something up and be able to capture that and not spend another day trying to figure out how to actually do that. So for you, to, to be able to do that, I thought it would be great to have. Sort of a cheat sheet, sort of a starting point that you can look at and easily like, be like, yeah, that's what I'm going to try today. That's what I'm going with. And I'd take it from there and I can always refine. So I prepared a mic placement, cheat sheet that is completely free. I prepared that for you a while ago, actually, but I haven't talked about it. Um, it's one of those things that I haven't mentioned too much on the podcast, although it's there. And although I think it's really valuable and you'll find that if you go to the self recording, bent.com just to the homepage, the main website, and you just scroll down and then you find two free downloads there in one of those is the mic placement, teach 

[00:04:00] each. So go to the self recording band.com, scroll down a bit and you'll find it. And in this episode today, I'm going to walk you through. What's actually on. Mike placement, cheat sheet, and I help you implement that and get the most of it. So it's just one simple PDF. It's one page. It literally has a very short, quick starting point for kick Trump's net rom Tom's overheads, Ru Mike's guitars, bass, and vocals. And you can start with those Mike position. And refine from there, but like really this one PDF, this one page has all you need and it's to be able to capture a whole band, basically, without thinking about it too much, it just works. Is it the, the ideal position for every song? Definitely not. Is it something I do every time? Definitely not. Is it a great starting point and will it work? Yes. And 95% of all cases. Let's start. I'm going to walk you through this and I'm going to explain those starting points, why they work. What's the 

[00:05:00] thought process behind them, the principles behind it. And then you can download the cheat sheet, follow along and implement this on your next demo recording or your next actual production, uh, whatever you're working on. So let's go, let's start with the kick drum or like the drums in general, but let's start with the kick drum. So. If you have a mic inside the kick drum, the closer you get to the better head, the more attack or click you get, right? So you put a mic inside the cake and get close to the batter head. If you want a lot of click, the closer to the resonant head, you get the, you get less attack and more body. So pull it away from the bedroom, have closer to the residence. And you get less attack, less click and more body of the kick drum. So a sweet-spot would be like halfway inside the cake. And then if you decide that it needs more, click, move it closer towards the inside towards the better head. If you think it needs more body and it's too cliquey, pull it out a little bit more towards the resident head and find 

[00:06:00] your balance there. That's what I would do. If I had only one kick mic. If you decide to use an outside cake, either as a standalone cake from Mike or as a second kick drum mic, then this will give you a more full round and natural sound. So it's a good, it's going to be less clicky or you almost get no click from the beater, but you get a full sound of what the kick drum sounds like if you stand like in front of it, right. You get more of the wood, you get more of. Um, the ambient surrounded the air around it, it sounds more natural, but it's also less direct and less clicky, less like present. So try combining the two, if you can, one for the definition and the, the, the beater attack, the other one for the fullness and the natural sound of the cake on the outside. All right. Snare drum. and like, sorry, want to end this with a real starting point? As I said, I would say one kick mic in the center of the kick inside, and then. Find the balance by pushing it further. That's what's the resonant 

[00:07:00] towards the better head or pulling it out towards the resident head. If you have one mic, if you have two mikes, I would put the insight mic as close as I can to the resident, to the beater, to the better hat, leave a little gap there. Of course like you want them when to have it all the way up of the better hat, but like leave a little bit of a distance there, but. Mary, very close to the better head and then put the other mic right on the, the resident head on the outside. Also with just a little gap in between, this is a great starting point. You can balance out the two, you can align the phase and it will work great in most cases. So these were my, uh, are my starting points. for some genres, the outside only can work too. If you're doing jazz or some acoustic stuff, something that's not too. Too loud and present and, and like heavy or modern than, uh, an outside make Mike, uh, alone can work too. Alright. Snare drum. Number one here is pointed away from the high hats. 

[00:08:00] Get close to, to the head. If you want more body further away, if you want a more balanced and open center. Which will also give you a little bit of more symbol bleeds. So there's this trade-off. If you get closer to the center, you get more stick attack. If you're pointed closer to the center, you get more stick attack. If it get closer to the rim or shell, you get more of the overtones, the ring and the sound of the, of the actual shell. Right? So great starting point to me is like a pretty flat angle, right above the rim, pointing straight at the center of the snare drum. So pretty flat. Right above the rim, pointing straight at the snare drum and the back of the mic pointing towards, below the high hat. So towards the high head or towards the high head stands basically below the high hats. So you want to make sure that if you have a cardiac mic that the back of the mic with the most rejection is facing 

[00:09:00] the high hats. So you get the least amount of high head bleed in the yours. Now. So that's a starting point for me, pointing away from the Hyatt's position, the capsule, right above the rim at a flat angle, pointing like a pretty flat, not completely flat, but pretty flat angle pointing straight at the center of the snare. And then again, listen to what that sounds like. Move it closer to the head. If you want more body move it further away for a more balanced and open sound, which will also give you more symbols though. Move it closer to the central for even more sticky. Move it closer to the rim or shell to get more overtones. You can also play with the angle, not just the moving the mic, but like the angle, angle it more towards the. More overtones, more ring, more sound of the overall snare, flat angled, aiming towards the inside towards the center gives you more attack and less of the ring. So yeah, try that. But also I think the flat angle pointing straight at the center gives it's like a, 

[00:10:00] a great balance in many cases for me, because it's sort of shooting, it's aiming like across the whole snare and he gets me some of the shells, some of the rings, some of the attacks. Um, it's pointing straight at where's the stick kids. So it's pretty defined. Um, I just find that to be a great starting point. So yeah, experiment with that. But as I said, experiment, but like use it as a starting point because that's the point of this, of this episode. It will get you a pretty decent snare drum sound. If the scenario is tuned and everything correctly, we'll give you a pretty decent snare drum sound right away. So we don't have to do anything crazy. Just grab a 57 and do that. And it will sound at least usable. So Tom's point away from symbol, same thing. Make sure you don't aim it at the crash symbols or the, of. The right symbol or a high heads or anything, but like crashing right. More than anything with Tom. basically the same principles apply as with the snare drum. The thing with the Toms is try to point the mic straight down with, at a very steep angle. So with a snare, I said, use 

[00:11:00] a flat angle because the snare typically has, is CA can be pretty pokey anyways, and can have a lot of attack anyways. So you can get away with the flat angle and get sort of a big picture thing of the whole drum with Tom's try to point the mic straight down at a very steep angle, right at the head. Uh, for maximum attack and clarity. And if you use a flat angle, it softens the attack and you get more of the whole drum with a snare. That's cool because you don't want it to be too pokey. But with Tom, sometimes the extra definition and attack is really, really good because a lot of people don't hit. Tom's really hard and with fast fills and all and all that, you lose sort of the definition and you want. As much of the attack as possible. And you get that by pointing the mic straight down at a 90 degrees angle directly at the, the head, the better head doesn't have to be in the central. Obviously you can't hit the Toms anymore, but like, uh, like slightly inside the rim, straight down at the Tom for maximum attack and clarity, angle it a little more, 

[00:12:00] this will soften in this will soften the attack. Point it more towards the center and you get some of the attack back, but like, um, An angle will always have a software text and like pointing it straight down at the drum head. So starting point I'd say maybe four to five to let's say 45 degrees aiming away at, uh, from the symbols. Yeah. 45 degrees at like the spot right between the rim and the center of the Tom. That will be my starting. And if I want more attack, I make the angle even steeper. If I want less attack or like I want a software attack, a more big picture, full side of the time I would make, I would go for the flatter angle. Um, that's what I would do. All right. Oh, rats. Imagine a line through the kick and snare and think of it as the middle axis of the kit. Place. The mic. Equidistant from that line to keep kicking snare centered. So that means if you look at the drum kit from above, and you imagine the 

[00:13:00] lines through the kick and the snare, and you think of that as the middle axis of the kit, then that means that the two overheads are not like left and right from the drummer's perspective, they are. To the, like, um, to the left, but also in front of you almost between like where the high head and the crash would be on the left side. And then the other one would be slightly more to the right and the little for the back, like somewhere between the floor, Tom and the ride. Maybe you understand that ideas. There's this line through the snare and the kick and that's the center. And then you have the two overheads, one slightly in front of you to the left and one like right next to your right shoulder or somewhere there. And what that does is, it keeps the kick and the snare in the center of the image if you pan those left and right. Whereas what a lot of people do is they put the mics directly over the cymbals, over the crash cymbals, or they put them like left and right directly in front of them from the 

[00:14:00] drummers perspective. And what that does is that is that the snare drum will often be slightly to the left and the kick will be slightly to the right. And you don't want that in your image. so try to make sure that the kick and snare are centered in and then use this line as the middle Xs of the kit. The same is true. If you use an X, Y combination, no matter the technique, like you can use the space pair and AB and X, Y, or an RTF, you can Google all those. If you want. These are stereo miking techniques, no matter the technique you always want to, you always need, um, th the center like middle axis with any of these, and this should be this, the slide. That you, you mentioned through the kick and the snare. All right. Now, listen, and turn or move the mix more towards the symbols or towards the shells until it sounds balanced. So rule of thumb in a room, in a problematic room, I would start. With an X, Y I think in an untreated 

[00:15:00] home studio sort of room or, or jam space and X, Y is a good idea to start with because it eliminates some of the phase problems that you probably get. It like makes for a stable center image. the capsules are aligned like X, Y means a 90 degree angle of the two capsules. As close as possible together. And you, they are aiming straight down at this line. One is pointing left of the line. The other one is pointing right of the line. So you have them in the center of the kit, in this X, Y setup. And then you just turn them around. They stay at the spot in the, like you have this middle access, but then you can turn them slightly to make sure that you capture the stuff that you want to capture. The kick and snare was still remained center, but you can choose. How much of which symbol you want to capture, how much of which shell you want to capture in the overheads? Um, so that's, that's what I would start with. If you want a wider image, I would start with the space pairs as those are the only two options that are recommended, starting points X, 

[00:16:00] Y, or a space pair space pair is what you see on most pictures. I think of Mike's drum kits, this one, Mike, on the left one mic on the right. And again, Equal distance from this imaginary line through kick and snare, but then you can turn them around a little bit and change the angle and choose what the mikes are facing. Um, and you, so you can get a good balance of the symbols and the shells, depending on what you want to hear in the image. So just put them there as a starting point, and then. Move them around slightly turn them around slightly and listen to the recording to the result until you feel like, okay, every symbol and every shell is represented and that in, in a good way. And the balance is great and there's nothing too loud or too quiet on those overheads. This might result in like weird angles. Sometimes the mic or max are pointing at the drummers. Sometimes they are pointing away from the drummer. Sometimes they're pointing straight down. That oftentimes works. Um, no rules here. Just make sure that the kick and snare are centered and that the internal balance of the whole kit 

[00:17:00] makes sense. And the more problematic the broom is, and the more stable you need your, um, center image to be, I would go for the, uh, the X Y. And if you, if you have a pretty controlled room or you want a super wide overhead image, then try the space pair or like AB thing where one mic is on the left and one is on. Either way, pan them hard left and right. And see what that sounds like. All right. Room mikes, walk around the room, listen, and find the spots with the most energy and vibe place. The mix there. Simple as that, like just walk around while the drummer's playing and find the spots that you think sound cool because there's no rules and room mikes are supposed to give you energy vibe. ambience of course, explosive. Whatever the close mic set up is lacking. And you'll just figure that out by walking around the room and listening, and then you put the mic there. You can do that in 

[00:18:00] Moto or in stereo, depending on the amounts of inputs that you have. yeah, it's more about the vibe than it is about technical perfection. So pointing the mics away from. Can make the room sound bigger. For example, if you have a small room and you point the room X away from the kid, it makes the room sound bigger, pointing it straight at the drum kit is a little more directive. Um, a monitor room can glue the kit together. If you have like wide overheads and the monitor room that has pants center, um, it can add, like it can fill in this gap in the middle stereo rooms can give you a great wide image. Of course, like there's literally no rules. So my starting point for room mikes is walk around quickly. Um, have the drummer play for like a minute or so, walk around the room and whenever you find a spot where you feel like, wow, the low end here sounds really big or wow. Here, it sounds really explosive and here's a nice decay or whatever. Just put a mic there to see what it sounds like. And if you like it, go with that, like follow your intuition, follow your gut feeling. Um, do it quickly. Don't overthink it. 

[00:19:00] So it's different for every room. So this is why I can't give you a great starting point or like preset sort of here. but my, my recommendation is to just quickly walk around the room, listen, and put a, put a micro to where you think it sounds great. Alright. It tars record, RDI and the mic simultaneously. That's the tip number one here with. The closer you are to the cap, the more low end you get the closer to the center of the cone of the speaker. You are the more highs you get, but it can also get harsh. The closer to the edge of the cone you get, the warmer it gets, and the more low end you're going to capture. And a great starting point is exactly the spot where the dust cap meets the cone. So if you take a flashlight and you. Look inside, like look behind the grill of your speaker cabinet so that you can see the actual speaker. Uh, you can just grab your phone, turn the light on and like, try to try to see what's what's behind the grill. 

[00:20:00] And, um, once you see the speaker, try to find the spot where the dust cap in the center, the, the round circle in the center, where that meets the cone. So this transition there and try to start with one mic right there and you find it's too dark, move it even more towards the center, right above the, like right at the dust cap. Basically, if you find it's too harsh, move it more towards the outside. You get more low end, you get more body and find the sweet spot. Then. Do that with one mic, literally one mic and only add a second mic if you can't get, or like, if you, if you should be able to get some sort of decent tone with one mic, but if you have that and you still feel like something's missing, then add a second mic to add that, but really do the exercise with one mic. Do it quickly. And somewhere in the central, between the, the center of the speaker, like in the middle, between the center of the speaker and the outside of the speaker somewhere, there will be your sweet spot and this great starting point that. Very very often is right where the dust cap meets the 

[00:21:00] cone. Again, recorded the eye in the max simultaneously just in case. So you can always go back and re-emphasize. When it comes to distance, I would say start right at the grill. And only if you feel like you're getting too much low end and it's too boomy, move it away slightly from the cap, but don't go too far. Otherwise you get a lot of room sound, which is mostly not like very desirable with electric guitars depending on the room. Always of course, but like I would get right at the grill. And when in doubt I would rather use like a filter or something to get rid of some of the low end, but the most energy in this direct sound that you get from that is what you want in most cases. So. Straight up the grill pointing at where the dust cap meets the cone is your starting point base recorder. The I and the mic simultaneously. And also same principle applies if same principles apply. That's what I wanted to say. If you get closer to the cap and get more low-end, if you get closer to the center of the speaker, you get more highs and you also get the base. That means you get more of the pick sounds and finger 

[00:22:00] sounds right. If you get closer to the edge, it's going to get warmer. It's going to get fuller. It's going to be less direct. Of course, you're going to get more low end. So a great starting point with bass actually to me is dead center because I like the articulation. I like. The pick sounds, the finger sounds the definition that you get in the center. So I would start with positioning dead center. and if you only, if you think that it's too cliquey or too present or whatever, then move it towards the outside slightly. But with a base, honestly, there will be more than enough, low end from a cab anyways, the really, really low, low end. You don't get that from any cab. You need the dye for that. That's another reason to always report to the eye with a base. But like the, you know, I dunno how to say it, like the harmonics in the low end and the stuff that's also audible and smaller speakers. the, the growl and the fullness of the base. You get all of that with, uh, making a cab close to. And you get more than 

[00:23:00] enough of that probably, but what you often don't get enough of is the articulation, the definition, the details, the presence. So I would start with like pointing it straight at the center of the mouth of the speaker, if you want to use a mic at all on a base, but it's cool. I would try it with. The closer to the mic you get, the more low end you get. Same as with any mic, any directional mic has this, proximity effect. So if you go with vocals, the same thing, if I go very close to the mic, I'm going to have a lot more low end than my voice compared to when I go further away. Right? So the closer to the mic you are, the more low end you're going to have. If you sing straight into the mic, it's going to sound direct and aggressive because all the air and like the breathing and all the plosives and all of that goes straight at the diaphragm, straight at the capsule. If you slightly angle the mic away from your mouth, you contain the SS. so the way I'm talking now on this podcast is my 

[00:24:00] mic is pretty far away, actually, and I'm not talking into it. I'm talking. Away from it actually, almost like to the side, because I'm reading from my laptop here and I have this weird office set up and I, and also I want to prevent like plosives and S's and stuff. If I talk directly into the mic, it will probably sound a little better and more direct. But I also, but also at the risk of having like plosives and sounds that are harsh and, you know, it's more aggressive, more direct and probably better sounding, but also, yeah, if you want to slightly. Tame the S's and PS and all that. You have to slightly angle the mic. And that's usually that usually does the trick. You want to avoid the direct airflow into the capsule, and you're not as drastic as I do it on this podcast. Now just a tiny little bit, you know, you're singing directly into the mic basically, but you just angle it a little bit to break the airflow or to avoid the direct airflow into the actual. If you have the mic slightly lower pointing up, you have more air and highs and top end articulation, because this 

[00:25:00] comes from the top of your mouth basically. And if you make, for most people, if you make an S sound S you can feel the air, uh, at your lower lip. So the air, it starts at the top of your mouth, basically. And then it goes down. So, if you have the mic lower pointing up, you get more of the, of this airflow, more of the breathiness, more of the highest, more of the SS and the top end articulation. It's slightly that that stuff happens slightly below your mouth. Usually for most people, if you have the mic higher pointing down, you get more of the mids and the nose quote-unquote nose, less of the definition and highs and air, but it's also going to be a little more. Yes, this nice, like gritty, mid range that you're going to get without the harsh top end stuff. So oftentimes with very aggressive vocalists, I'd have the, the, the mic higher aiming down, and then I'm getting very close to the mic. So I can have this very aggressive, direct sound, but without all the harshness and the SS and the PS, 

[00:26:00] so that all that stuff, the air is sort of going. It's sort of not hitting the mic, it's below the mic, but the mic is still very close to the mouth. Just pointing down from an angle, like from above. Right. And, um, and if I want a very airy breathing, pop performance sort of thing, then I have the mic slightly lower pointing up at the mouth and I keep a little bit of a distance to avoid too much of the aggressiveness and the air and the plosives and all that. but it gives me the breathiness and the air and it's different, honestly. For different people. So I don't have a really good starting point here. I'd say, I'd say a starting point is like, put like your hand. I would say front, when it comes to distance, put like your hand, your thumb and your nose. and then, you know, spread like from your, from your thumb to you. It's, it's weird if you don't want, like, if you're watching the video, you'll see what I'm doing right now this year. Right. If you don't see the video, I'd say the distance of like one hand between you and the mic. So you, 

[00:27:00] you touch your nose with your thumb and then you spread your fingers and then where your smallest finger touches the, the, the. Uh, w wait, wait. Yeah. That's where the mic should be. That's a horrible explanation. Sorry. I'm still not fully there after my COVID thing, I guess. I think, you know what I mean? one hand distance between your, uh, your nose and the mic, and then that's, that's about the distance that I would recommend. And then you put it slightly below, or above. Your mouth and angled up or down, depending on if you, whether you want to have more of the top end definition, or you want to have less of the siblings and more of the mid range. That's my, my recommendation. So I don't know why I can't explain this distance thing. And I was trying to explain, I, I I'm lacking the right words for that, but I hope it makes sense. I don't even know. I can't even remember the word for small. Finger because in German is literally, it's 

[00:28:00] literally just the small finger. Uh, is there a word for that in English? I'll have to Google that real quick. Sorry for that. Let's see. Oh, the pinky finger. Yeah. How can I, how could I forget about this? Okay. So I'm trying once again, so you touch your nose with your thumb and then you spread your fingers. Um, so your, your Palm facing. Towards the side. So, um, and then where your pinky is, that's when you want to have the mic. Right. So I hope that makes any sort of sense. Watch the video if you can. Uh, and then, aim it upwards or downwards and, um, yeah, I think that's a, a pretty good. And I don't even know why I always do that with the nose. I mean, you could do with the mouth, but for some reason that sort of is the distance. Like if I do that, that also gives me sort of a, you know, I don't know, just works, watch the video. that was the worst podcast moment I think we ever had on 

[00:29:00] the show. Anyway, that is it. I think I'll do a quick recap, just a really, really quick. Kick drum inside cake gives you. Click outside. Cake gives you thump and natural. Um, sound better hand click resonant, tandem body fullness, and starting point for cake straight in the like straight in the S in the middle between resonant and better head. Pull it out for more body. Push it in for more click snared rum, flat angle pointing straight. At the center of the snare away from the high hats, right above the rim. Tom's point away from symbols. Try to point the mic straight down, or like not straight down, but like at a 45 degrees angle, aim it right between like at the middle, between the rim and the center of the. Once more attack, make the angle even steeper, 

[00:30:00] want a more full picture of the drum, make it flatter, but that's the starting point. So 45 degrees pretty close to the head away from symbols, aiming straight at halfway between the rim and the center of the drum overheads. Imagine the line through kick and snare. Think of this as the middle axis of the kit plays to Mike's Equitas. And from that line to keep kicking snare center. Listen and turn or move those mix toward more towards symbols or towards shells until it sounds balanced, less than ideal room. Try X, Y good room. Or if you want a wider image, try AB or space pair either way. Use that middle X's of the kit and listen for the internal balance of the whole kit. just walk around and listen, find the spots with the most energy and vibe place. The mix there, you can do mono stereo. It's more about the vibe than about technical perfection pointing. My ex away from the kid can make the room sound bigger, record a DIA Mike simultan 

[00:31:00] simultaneously for guitars. The closer you are to the cab, the more low end you get. The closer to the center of the cone you are, the more highs you get. But it can also get harsh. The closer to the edge of the cone you are, the warmer it gets and it gives you more low end. A great starting point is where the dust cap meets the cone. Right. Right at the grill, as close as you can get and then pointed right where the dust cap of one speaker meets the cone. All right. With a base recorded the I at Mike simultaneously, same thing, closer to the caviar. The more low end you get the closer to the center of the speaker. You are the more highs, um, The more pick sound and finger sounds and articulations and all of that you get. So, uh, closer to the edge, it's going to be warmer, fuller, less direct. Of course, you're going to get more low end, but for base, my preferred starting point is like dead center, right at the dust cap. You get, you still get enough, low end, more than enough usually. And you get all the definition and top end 

[00:32:00] articulation that is often missing with. Vocals the closer to the mic you are the more low end you're going to get. If you sing straight into the mic, it's going to be direct and aggressive. If you can avoid the direct airflow into the mix, that's oftentimes preferred so slightly angle the mic to team the SS and the piece, the plosives. If you have the Michael lower pointing up, you're going to have to get more air and highest and siblings and top end articulation. If you have the mic, a little higher pointing down, you get more of the nose and the myths. A great starting point is again, my wonderful demonstration that I completely messed up before is if you're spreading your hand, the distance between your thumb and the pinky finger. If you put your hand towards like your thumb on your nose, and then you spread your fingers where your pinky is, that's where you want to have, where your pinky ends. That's where you want to have the mic. That's a good starting point. And then you can get closer for more direct and a sound. And for more low end, you can move away from the mic, even more for 

[00:33:00] more room sound and the less direct sound. you can angle the mic. As I said, all those things great. Starting point is straight into the mic at this distance. And then. Depending on whether you want more top and articulation, or whether you want more mid-range and less top, and you can move the mic down or up and then angle it towards the mouth or slightly away from the mouth, whatever you prefer. All right. Hope that helps. Again, this is a real, very practical episode. And all of the things that I just explained in this episode are in a very short form, easy to digest forum. On this cheat sheet that I mentioned. So if you go to the self recording band.com and you just scroll down on the main homepage, you'll find the mic placement teach sheet there as a free download. It's one page, a PDF you can just. Take it to your jam space or have it on your phone or wherever it can print it out and hanging somewhere or just have it on your phone and you can easily quickly reference it. The next time you record it gives you great starting points. Um, so you can capture your songs 

[00:34:00] quickly without thinking about it for too long. You can move on. And you can like when it's been an inspiration strikes, origin can just quickly have a look, throw a mic there, see how it sounds, move on and, um, create and capture great art. And you can always refine later. These starting points will be good enough to at least capture a great demo of pre-production maybe even the final recording and you can always take it from there. All right. Hope this was helpful. I've got some cool things in store for you. So, um, I don't think Malcolm will be back next week, but it also probably won't be a solo episode. I can't say too much at this point, but, uh, we have great things planned out for you and I'm excited for that. So talk to you next weekend, please. Forgive me my little rambly solo episode here. Uh, yeah, I hope I made it valuable still at not just a filler. Thank you for listening as always appreciate you. Don't you next week. Bye [00:35:00] bye.[00:36:00]