Recording - April 2011 - 72

i n

t h e

STUDIO
By Mike Metlay

Miking The Apple iPad
You’d have to have been living under a rock for the past year not to have seen the revolution in modern living that Apple’s iPad represents. It’s more portable than any netbook, easier to use than any laptop, more powerful than any eBook reader, and more attention-grabbing than showing up at a party with an adult film star on your arm. There are nearly 2000 music-related apps for it already on the market, with more coming every day. Let’s face it, the iPad rocks the musical universe. It can be a multitrack audio recorder, a remote control surface for everything from digital consoles to computer-based synthesizers, a virtual fake book (complete with automated pageturning), a music education tool for everything from history and notation to pitch recognition, a metronome, a tuner, an emulation of a gazillion different traditional instruments from the ukulele and trombone to the Mellotron (yeah, you knew I had to get that one in there!), a whole variety of entirely new musical instruments never before heard or played, an audiovisual/interactive music/meditation generator, and a source of personal trivia and tour dates for a whole stable of pop stars from Hollywood to Bangkok. If there’s anything the iPad can’t do in the world of music, it’s probably not worth doing. But this is Recording, the magazine for the recording musician, and let’s face it, we know you want to cut through the B.S. and get to the really critical stuff you need to know before a client walks through your door with an iPad under his arm and an itch to record next year’s YouTube magnum opus. You need to know... “How do I mike this thing?” Needless to say, as with any other sound source, there are as many opinions on this subject as there are recording engineers, and with a device as new as the iPad, there hasn’t been time for a really good consensus to be built up. Just listen to what we heard when we went to some of our best-known authors’ studios with an iPad in hand... Marc Urselli: “I’ll be using twenty of them on this project I have coming up. I’ll have to get back to you.” Rick Barrio Dill: “I’m only using one of them on this project I have coming up, but I’ll be using it in twenty different ways. I’ll have to get back to you.” Paul J. Stamler: “I’m not sure, but it’s bound to sound better if we wire a shunting resistor across pins 2 and 3...” Paul Vnuk Jr.: “Aw, how come you get to have one?” Jon Bare: “Get that digital piece of $#!+ out of my studio!” Scott Dorsey: “Oh, that looks cool.... what is it?” Not terribly helpful, right? Well, someone has to be on the cutting edge of this subject, so off we went to our test studios with our iPad, a variety of potentially useful hardware, and a decent selection of microphones. Here’s what we came up with.
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RECORDING APRIL 2011

It can do anything... but how do you mike it?
If you plan to mike the iPad in a kick drum setup, you’ll need a very stable clamp system. Fortunately, the GigEasy iPad clamp (www.thegigeasy.com) does a bang-up job and is easily configured for whatever sort of pedal you plan to use. We found that we got the best sound with a large-diaphragm tube condenser mic (the MXL Revelation worked like a charm) set up about 4" behind the iPad to capture the thump of the metal housing, combined with a small-diaphragm condenser (in our case, a THE Audio CA-4 with CS-2 cardioid capsule) aimed at the LCD to capture beater click. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that a lot of the standard miking techniques work brilliantly for the iPad when set up on a snare stand (the GigEasy again does a great job with the right mounting hardware). The trusty Shure SM57 angled across the edge of the LCD works great, and if you find you’re getting too much ring, the Drum Wallet from Old Jersey Music Lab (www.thedrumwallet.com) does a dandy job of damping things down, and doubles as a carrying

strap for the iPad after the session. Steer the drummer away from brushes, as the LCD can’t register the multiple touchpoints accurately. Those are our best results so far; we have lots of cool tones but nothing definitive yet for toms or overheads. And indeed, this is a fine time to be in the studio and experimenting with such an amazing piece of modern musicmaking equipment! We’re sure that ten years from now, people will have written entire books on how to mike up an iPad for a session, but for now, it’s a blast to be on the cutting edge, learning as we go. Speaking of cutting edge, just as we went to press the iPad 2 was announced. With its dual built-in cameras, it will be able to shoot the band’s new video and analyze the drummer’s stick technique at the same time! If you decide to try miking the iPad yourself, please remember that Recording cannot be held responsible for broken sticks, bent beater heads, sore wrists, or anything else that might get hurt in sessions involving the mighty iPad. And remember... if it sounds good, it is good! Mike Metlay (mike@recordingmag.com) would like to thank Darren Kramer for the GigEasy iPad clamp (thegigeasy.com, review forthcoming) and Chad Patrick for the Drum Wallet snare damper (thedrumwallet .com, reviewed July 2010) used in these tests.


http://www.thegigeasy.com http://www.thedrumwallet.com http://www.thegigeasy.com

Recording - April 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2011

Recording - April 2011
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
Fast Forward
Blue Spark Microphone
Chris Cox Remixes Michael Jackson
MOTU BPM
FXpansion Geist
JDK Audio R20 Microphone Preamp, R24 Equalizer, and R22 Compressor
Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X1
Slate Digital Trigger Platinum
Reviewed & Revisited: Synthogy Ivory II
WaveMachine Labs Drumagog 5.0
DAW Details
Readers’ Tapes
It’s Your Music—Know Your Rights. Chapter 13: The Role of the Producer—Part 1
Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Advertiser Index
In The Studio
Recording - April 2011 - Recording - April 2011
Recording - April 2011 - Cover2
Recording - April 2011 - 1
Recording - April 2011 - Fade In
Recording - April 2011 - 3
Recording - April 2011 - Contents
Recording - April 2011 - 5
Recording - April 2011 - Talkback
Recording - April 2011 - 7
Recording - April 2011 - Fast Forward
Recording - April 2011 - 9
Recording - April 2011 - Blue Spark Microphone
Recording - April 2011 - 11
Recording - April 2011 - Chris Cox Remixes Michael Jackson
Recording - April 2011 - 13
Recording - April 2011 - 14
Recording - April 2011 - 15
Recording - April 2011 - MOTU BPM
Recording - April 2011 - 17
Recording - April 2011 - 18
Recording - April 2011 - 19
Recording - April 2011 - FXpansion Geist
Recording - April 2011 - 21
Recording - April 2011 - 22
Recording - April 2011 - 23
Recording - April 2011 - JDK Audio R20 Microphone Preamp, R24 Equalizer, and R22 Compressor
Recording - April 2011 - 25
Recording - April 2011 - Reviewed & Revisited: Cakewalk SONAR X1
Recording - April 2011 - 27
Recording - April 2011 - 28
Recording - April 2011 - 29
Recording - April 2011 - Slate Digital Trigger Platinum
Recording - April 2011 - 31
Recording - April 2011 - 32
Recording - April 2011 - 33
Recording - April 2011 - Reviewed & Revisited: Synthogy Ivory II
Recording - April 2011 - 35
Recording - April 2011 - WaveMachine Labs Drumagog 5.0
Recording - April 2011 - 37
Recording - April 2011 - 38
Recording - April 2011 - 39
Recording - April 2011 - DAW Details
Recording - April 2011 - 41
Recording - April 2011 - 42
Recording - April 2011 - 43
Recording - April 2011 - 44
Recording - April 2011 - 45
Recording - April 2011 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - April 2011 - 47
Recording - April 2011 - 48
Recording - April 2011 - 49
Recording - April 2011 - 50
Recording - April 2011 - 51
Recording - April 2011 - 52
Recording - April 2011 - 53
Recording - April 2011 - It’s Your Music—Know Your Rights. Chapter 13: The Role of the Producer—Part 1
Recording - April 2011 - 55
Recording - April 2011 - Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Recording - April 2011 - 57
Recording - April 2011 - 58
Recording - April 2011 - 59
Recording - April 2011 - 60
Recording - April 2011 - 61
Recording - April 2011 - 62
Recording - April 2011 - 63
Recording - April 2011 - 64
Recording - April 2011 - Advertiser Index
Recording - April 2011 - 66
Recording - April 2011 - 67
Recording - April 2011 - 68
Recording - April 2011 - 69
Recording - April 2011 - 70
Recording - April 2011 - 71
Recording - April 2011 - In The Studio
Recording - April 2011 - Cover3
Recording - April 2011 - Cover4
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