Thought this may be of some interest here.
Thanks, that was interesting.
Aloha and very nice.
Mahalo for that post.
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Thanks, this was very interesting. Was surprised by a couple of things he said, for example he doesn’t close mike guitar amps, which seems to be conventional wisdom (to push mikes right up against the cloth). Maybe that’s just a metal thing. Also said doesn’t use compression very much, especially on drums.
Good find surfer, very interesting.
I didn’t know DSOM took a year to record. Also the advice to move the mic back to mic the cabinet not part of one speaker was very informative.
It is all in the context of the genre. Sunday I did a demo for a band, 6 songs. Minor compression on the kick and thats all. I clipped the preamp on the way in for the snare to add presence. Other instruments were compressed to keep levels even since it was fast paced. Think about it though… If you had a year to ride faders, place microphones, etc… you probably could get away with a pinch of compression.
Re micing close vs far:
Think of a microphone like a lens and the room: a backdrop. Face shot, upper torso, full body. Which of these shots give you the best impression of the entire person? With a good backdrop, the full body shot can be showcased. Micing something from afar can be really challenging if you have no tools to adjust the room’s ambiance. With inexpensive home-built gobos, you would be surprised what you can do to your “backdrop”.
Other considerations: Accomplished musicians and great gear.
Example: a lot of low-end bass guitars have over/under resonances depending on the string and the notes you are playing whereas a higher quality instrument is a lot more even. Maybe it doesn’t have a lot to do with the quality, but I come across this a lot with bass guitars in particular and it just seemed the lower-end ones pose more squirelliness. Veteran vs amateur players… You would think with years of refinement that a player would have some mastery to their instrument.
I didn’t have a chance to read/view the link yet for I have to sleep first but this perked my interest and wanted to comment.
Well, as a complete amateur, I’ve mostly only recorded my own amp. I found that putting the mike against the screen led to big variations in tone depending on small variations in placement. I like it much better about 5 or 6 inches out, pointing a little off dead center. Also, at that distance, placement isn’t so critical. But everything I’ve read on the web seems to say put it on the screen, so I always thought I was doing something wrong. Anyway, the guitar sounds great on DSOM.
I mic close to the screen too 
and usually add one back a few feet too. The unevenness you hear up close could be a cab resonance or proximity boost and lets face it, with having dissimilar things resonating together (the cabinet and the speaker), it takes some distance for the sound to connect. And… having a preference that goes against what you think the rules are makes you seasoned, not a complete amateur I mean that as a sincere compliment.
This is great, thanks
There’s this Q&A from gearslutz from last year (not sure if you have to register or not to read it):
Thanks Ted, and Doug! Interesting!
Yes, thanks guys… good stuff.