Happy Fourth of July!
Here is a live performance video of an oldie from Necktie Second.
GEAR TALK:
I’ve been asked about how I record the audio for these live performance videos. Look closely at the video and you’ll see I’m using two mics. A Neumann KM184 and an AKG 414 are placed as close together as possible. The 184 is uni-directional and pointed at my face, while the 414 looks sideways in two directions thanks to a bi-directional pickup pattern called ‘figure eight.’ These two mics are combined into what is called “Mid-Side Stereo.” If you’d like to learn more about this technique, click HERE.
The mics are plugged into an XLR box connected to the hot shoe of my DSLR video camera. I record at 24bit, 48k, and dump those files into my digital audio workstation. (I’m considering switching the sample rate to 96k.) For the mix on “Fourth of July,” I added a bit of eq and compression. Then, I bathed it all in echo. Actually, two echoes. I used both tape slap and Memory Man delay courtesy of Soundtoys’ EchoBoy plug-in. For the finishing touch, I set my overall level using a Fab Filter Pro-L2 limiter.
Once I get the audio dialed, I marry the mix with picture and get to work on video post-production. More on that another time.
For now, I hope you enjoy “Fourth of July.” The song and the holiday.
Peace & Love Songs,
Pete
4TH OF JULY - Live Performance Video