Recording - May 2010 - 6

Note to faithful writers: When sending your letters by email, please remember to include your name and where you hail from.
The basics of recording bass Scott Dorsey’s article on recording bass that endorsed the importance of harmonics vs. the fundamental (“More Boom, Less Muck”, December 2009) had me going back and rereading Carol Kaye’s recommendation (Recording’s Bass Column, June 2009) of muting the strings slightly to kill over and undertones. Are these two approaches to recording bass competing with each other or are in fact complementing each other? Am I confusing harmonics with over/undertones or is the muting of the strings affecting the fundamental more than the harmonics? Thanks for the great articles!
John Acchione West Chester, PA

Scott Dorsey replies: Thanks for writing, John. Let’s see if I can show how the two statements fit together. You need some upper harmonics to make the bass come across on small speakers, but you probably don’t need sounds that are clangy and clattery, and muting the strings a bit can help that. That clattering is sometimes from high frequency components that aren’t really harmonics at all; they aren’t even multiples of the fundamental and that makes them sound discordant. Musicians talk about overtones (which are harmonics), but they sometimes call other sound components that are higher than the fundamental “overtones” when technically they aren’t, because they aren’t really integer multiples of the fundamental. Actual undertones (sounds which are integral fractions of the fundamental) are really kind of rare with actual acoustic instruments. But there are often sounds which are lower than the fundamental, which are the products of higher-frequency sounds beating together and creating difference frequencies below the fundamental. I don’t know how big a deal this is with string bass, although it is definitely part of where piano tone comes from. In actuality, all of the different harmonics sound different. And you can also encounter issues where, for example, there are a lot of even upper harmonics on the attack of the string but less even harmonic stuff on the rest of the note. That makes a very bright attack to the note but a less defined tailing off. You could spend your life sitting with an FFT analyzer figuring out where different bass tones come from! That’s why folks like Carol Kaye are so valuable... they know how they want it to sound, but they also know how to make it sound the way the producer wants (if the producer can articulate it, and sometimes that’s hard to do). Translating between the spectrum on the display and the sound in your ears is always going to be an art, and that’s what makes the whole recording field so much fun. For your particular tracks, combine my suggestions with Ms. Kaye’s and see what works best for the music.—SD

It’s a Shure thing Dear Mr. Vnuk, I wanted to take the time to thank you for such a well written review of the Shure SM27 (November 2009). I had been sitting on the fence regarding my first Large Diaphragm Condenser mic purchase. The reason I was sitting on the fence, was that I wanted a perfect fit for my application, at the price point I could afford. The flip side of the coin is, I also did not want to buy into junk. I had been on the fence so long, my butt was starting to hurt, but I held out... well, because I am a stubborn old goat! I am so glad I did! I read your review several times detailing each tidbit of information. The term “workhorse”, and the statement “first LDC for a beginning mic locker”, kept rolling around in my head. So I did some cross referencing on the web, and all your statements stood up. Another aspect of the mic that really drew my attention was the fact that it is the first LDC in the SM line. Having a background in sound reinforcement, I know the durability of the SM line. Obviously I don’t have experience with the KSM line, but that was a hook for me as well, just due to Shure’s reputation for quality. Santa Claus was really good to me this year, and left some studio money in my stocking! I got a hold of my sales rep at Sweetwater, and laid out my case for the SM27. He also told me it was a great mic, that he had used in their studio, and he was impressed with it as well. Case closed... send me one now! I got my new mic on New Year’s Eve, and immediately hooked it up and began testing. I do a lot of reading on the technical side of engineering, so I had an idea of what to expect with a LDC mic. No amount of reading can replace the first time experience of using one. My Seagull S6 acoustic guitar sounded like I was in heaven! I did some comparisons with my SM81, and was shocked to hear the difference there as well on my Seagull. I also used the SM27 as a room mic on my drum set... holy cow! That was a shocker as well, and a wonderful shock at that! I have yet to do some serious recording with it, as I am in preproduction, but I can’t wait to put it into action for real. I wonder sometimes how it would feel to write a review for equipment for a publication like Recording, knowing how finicky people engineering can be. I am sure you probably get your fair share of “Are you crazy?”, and that would probably be the polite side of that description. I, for one, just wanted to say thank you for steering me to an absolutely perfect fit for my studio. Bright Blessings Always,
Sincerely, Todd R. Yarbrough

Paul Vnuk Jr. replies: Todd: I’m glad my review experiences translated into a good experience for you. Thanks for letting me know; a grateful letter from a reader makes up for a lot of “Are you crazy?” responses.—PV

Write to us at: Talkback, Recording Magazine, 5408 Idylwild Trail, Boulder, CO 80301 Or save stamps and send email to talkback@recordingmag.com
6
RECORDING MAY 2010

Recording - May 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2010