E-Mu EMAX II, Руководство по эксплуатации, Страница: 199 / 257

Emax II operation manual
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Miking specific instruments requires specific techniques. For piano, mounting a PZM a
few inches above the round holes in a piano’s cast iron frame produces a high level
output suitable for sampling. Another option is to mount a PZM to the cover of a grand
piano, facing down into the strings. For nylon-string acoustic guitar, pointing a mic up
towards the sound hole, from below the player’s right hand, usually gives good results.
(However, most acoustic guitars have a body resonance that you may want to attenuate
with a parametric equalizer in order to get a higher average signal level into the Emax
II.) Steel string guitars tend to produce more output, which implies that you might want
to place the mic a little further away from the body to pick up more of an overall sound.
The job of miking an instrument is greatly simplified by sampling in mono. In some cases
one mic will be all you need. However, on occasion mixing several mics together will
give a better sound, such as with piano, where you may need two mics to cover the full
range of the keyboard. It’s important to monitor in mono, though, to check for phase
cancellation. And if you’re sampling in stereo, it’s extremely important to check for
phase cancellation. Two mics will, by definition, pick up signals with different phase
relationships. Listening to the combined result in mono will indicate whether there are
any serious phase cancellation or reinforcement problems.
Contact microphones can also be useful as supplements to standard mics or pickups.
Attaching a contact mic to, say, an electric guitar will pick up some of the string and
finger noises usually lost through the pickup, and when mixed in with the standard
pickups, gives a more natural sound. (Don’t overdo it, though, or the sound could
become gimmicky.) Basses tend to gain more snap when you attach a contact mic to the
body. I’ve had good results by attaching a contact mic to the headstock, or by mounting
it in some of the free space underneath the pickguard. And of course, contact mics can
be attached to garbage can lids, suspension bridge cables, steel girders, and just about
anything else you might want to sample.
Avoid Including Ambience in the Sound
Of course, sometimes ambience is part of the sound, like recording a snare drum in a
massive concrete stadium, or in a stone castle. But remember that once you record
ambience, it is part of the sample. It’s often best to record a dry sound then add ambience
later, as desired, using electronic signal processors.
Adding Vibrato
Use the sampler’s ability to add vibrato rather than playing the instrument with vibrato.
To my ears, playing vibrato on the instrument sounds better, but there are some
problems with this approach. First, when you transpose a sample, the vibrato speeds up
or slows down, depending on whether the sample is transposed up or down respec-
tively. With a multi-sampled sound where each sample doesn’t need to be transposed
very far, this is not a problem. But if you transpose the sound over a wide range, the
vibrato will change from seasick-slow to Loony Tunes fast. Besides, the Emax II allows
you to add vibrato anyway using the modulation wheels or other controllers. This gives
you more flexibility, since you can alter the speed as required and bring the vibrato in
and out as desired.
THE ART OF SAMPLING
Acoustic Instruments