Andrew Scheps on Tracking Electric Bass

Andrew will point a condenser at the middle of one of the cones and a dynamic mic doing the same thing on a separate cone.

Some mics he might use are an Electro-Voice RE-20 for the dynamic and Neumann 47 FET for the condenser mic.

RE-20

He'll often have a direct box to capture the performance as well, incase something goes wrong with the amp. But the performance he wants is the one coming from the amp.

Prefers Evil Twin DI's for their character.

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Andrew Scheps on Tracking Acoustic Guitar

Points a condenser mic at the fourth fret up from the sound hole 6 inches away and instructs the player to move around till it sounds right in their headphones. This allows for the player to balance themselves.

Al Schmitt on Tracking Piano

Al uses Neumann M149 about a foot and a half over the hammers inside the piano.

One mic to capture the high side and another to capture the low register. Each mic is 8 inches from either end of the piano.

Note: Place the mics in cardioid not omni.

For upright piano, Al uses RCA 77's and mics the back of the piano. He likes the sound of the soundboard and it allows for a lot of separation.

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Los Lonely Boys Vocals

When working with a live band all playing in the same room, a choice is the Shure SM7B. It's great at capturing the vocalist and rejecting other sounds you don't intend for it to record.

For the Los Lonely Boys self titled album the mic was captured with the 7B and then into a Neve 1073 for a preamp and a 1176 or LA-2A for 3 dB of compression at 3:1 or 4:1 ratio.

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Mic Choice for Weak Vocalists

When dealing with weaker singers, sometimes a more transparent mic is too revealing. You want to use something that adds weight to their voice like a tube condenser, such as; Neumann U47, Neumann U78, or Telefunken C12. It's wise in these situations to go into a more transparent pre-amp such as a Focusrite so in the mix phase the mixer isn't boxed in with too much warmth in the vocal tone.

Studio Tour: AIR Studios [London, United Kingdom]

Al Schmitt on Tracking Vocals

Neumann U47 is his first choice for vocals, but if that doesn't work on that particular vocalist he'll use  either...

Neumann U67
Telefunken C12

The mic signal goes into the Neve 1073 for his vocal preamp and straight to the board.

When mixing, Al is known to use his Fairchild Compressor and at times a Pultec EQP1-A to add two dB of lows.

Al instructs vocalists to stay a hand length away or more from the windscreen on the mic and will move the mic an inch if it makes the vocal sound better.

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