Recording - June 2019 - 22

Eric Loomis
at

mic that I would recommend to someone
who could only afford one large-diaphragm
in their studio, it would be that Bock.

Coming from your bluegrass background, obviously you do a lot of acoustic instruments. I'll assume
it's all done with the 4099s
and their various instrument clips?
The mounts and clips they offer are
insane. You can do piano, you can do
mandolin, acoustic guitar, you can do
cello, violin...

Wouldn't that be fiddle?

Yes [laughs]. I also like them on upright bass. Usually on upright bass I will
do a large-diaphragm condenser like
the Upton 251-a museum-quality 251
clone-or an RCA 44 ribbon, but I also
always put a 4099 clipped onto the
bass, below the bridge, as my safety. Especially if the bass player moves around
a lot; the 4099 moves with the bass.

When working with a traditional bluegrass group,
do you just stick with the
4099 mics on everything?

For mono, yes, but when I can, I prefer
to mic things in phase-coherent stereo. I am
really not a fan of spaced-pair stereo recording; Blumlein and XY are my two main stereo techniques. Again I love the DPA 2011s
in XY, and I like the stereo R88 Blumlein mic
from AEA, or I'll put other mics in Blumlein.
When the channel count is low, you can
mic everything in stereo and the image
does not get too cluttered, but I will still
take a mono source as well. That way, if
the mix gets too dense, you can pan and
place instruments in the spaces between.
Another trick I use, if I am mixing someone else's tracks and all I get are mono
sources, is the Brainworx Stereo Maker
plug-in. It does this crazy phase trick, and
if you keep the settings within reason, it
can sound very wide but still in phase.
All of my favorite acoustic and bluegrass
engineers and producers out there have a
seriously strong grasp of stereo recording,
22 RECORDING June 2019

IVY HALL Amp Room Photo by: Jarad Clement

and how to make you feel like you're sitting
right there in front of the instruments.

Let's talk about preamps
and other gear that you
like to use.

For preamps, being from Colorado,
I'm a diehard Grace Design guy. This
fall I am touring with a group, Judah and
The Lion, and all of the instrument mics
and direct inputs are going through a
Grace Design FELiX or the smaller ALiX.
FELiX is a 2-channel blending acoustic
instrument and mic preamp with EQ that
is fantastic. And they have effects loops
built in so they can use effects pedals in
their setup with very low noise.

What about in the studio?

Ivy Hall has a 24-channel vintage
Neve VR and a ton of outboard gear. I
still find myself going for the classics like
API or CAPI preamps, and lately I am a
big fan of the 4-channel Manley FORCE
preamp, especially on drums. I also like
Vintech preamps a lot.

Seeing as you like to work
with such clean mics and
preamps, do you track
clean or will you add EQ
and compression on the
way in?

Acoustic music I pretty much leave
alone. I think that the dynamic content
of the acoustic instruments is extremely

important to maintain, and you can
change it later if you need.
That said, the two things I absolutely do add processing to on the way in
are drums and vocals. In that world I am
a big fan of Distressors and 1176s on
drums for compression, and for EQ I like
the API 550b and 560. I use a Crane
Song STC-8 for my drum bus compression. I am a big fan of anything Dave
Hill makes-again, clean and modern.

What about vocals?

For vocals I am a big fan of the TubeTech CL 1B tube compressor, but I also will
do the combination of two compressors in
series, one fast and one slow. I will add
a Distressor or 1176 to accomplish that.

What about mixing acoustic stuff?

I will usually just EQ in the box afterwards with just a highpass filter. I prefer
to get mic placement correct, and then
use a really nice phase-linear EQ when
I need to. I am a fan of the Brainworx
bx_Digital V3, and for subtle compression
I like the Waves C6 dynamic multiband
compressor. Basically, in the acoustic
world, I will use it to clean up between
300Hz and 1kHz really surgically.

Thanks for the info! There
is a ton of great stuff here.
It's been my pleasure. If you get down
here, I'd love to show you the place!

Recording - June 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2019