3 ways to mic and record a Hammond organ through a Leslie speaker! Can you tell the difference?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 มี.ค. 2020
- So this started off as a simple video showing a few different ways to mic a Leslie. Then we head off on a massive tangent and have a challenge for you! Can you tell the different between the close mic’s and the mid/side pair? Download the files from our website at:
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I love the way it sounds when it transitions from fast to slow.
This is an EXCELLENT video. Thank you so much, sir. Great playing too!
Thank you for watching and the kind words!
Honest comments about the ‘“got to have equipment “ brilliant and a fresh take. Thankyou👌
Excellent video. It dispels almost everything i've read about mic' ing a leslie. I have a 770 and i'm just going to get a couple of sm58s to get my hammond levels matched to my other keyboards that go through a pa. Thanks very much
Excellent work and demo! I think you have just discovered another production technique that in its own self acting very much like a Leslie in its sound stage/width/position to be used like dynamics within any arrangement. Very cool. Many ideas are germinating from this great clip. One fast 52 mins of knowledge. The common Elephant in the room is..."The Leslie" Maximum Respect ~ LW
Great stuff! Another route is a pair at 90deg face-away at the rear of the cab (at back louvers) and lrg diaphragm center low. Width but not overdone.
Another is a decent PZM inside top rotor cavity (122, 147 etc) and center low of choice. The boundary mic in confined space delivers a wonderfully nasty bite and grit.
This is brilliant! Thanks for doing the work. My 2 cents worth would be that as long as you have the information in the recording you can shape it almost anyway you want, but if the information wasn't recorded in the first place, it'll be nigh impossible to put it in "in the mix". Some of the best live albums ever made the entire stage is darn near miced up with 57s or 58s and they sound amazing! So I agree... learn to get the most out of the gear you own rather than making an excuse because you don't have "the right mic". All this said, I really liked the stereo imaging on the MS setup. It sound really lush and full! But that would also depend on the mix and the song. Great work!
Love the way the whole organ sounds on Eric Kloss' early recordings (Introducing E.K.) with Don Patterson playing. The bass sounds great.
Nice Video, I like the way how you explain things. I never recorded a Leslie but I used the closed mic technique for a live gig. For the Bass speaker I took a D112 but I don't have to use it, it was to loud anyway 🤣😅✌ keep on the good work
Awesome video. I’m looking to mic my Leslie at church. Very informative - Thank you. (If you have any more suggestions I’m all ears).
Thank you for your comment! For a church situation I’d go for a couple of dynamics on the top rotor and one on the bottom. That will give you minimal spill from other instruments and/or the acoustics of the room. A couple of SM57’s, Audix i5 or something similar will do a great job for you 👍
Nice playing ! it reminds me of James Taylor Quartet
Great video and playing! Listening to the Kula Shaker version of this his Hammond sounds really toppy. Almost like he has taken the deflectors off of the horn.
Disagree with your mention of favoring the high over low.. The lower rotor is part of the entire Leslie's tone and sound. They work together. We mic the low as well and blend appropriately.
I’m in the US, my 1st two Leslie’s were 147’s, and most of my fellow keyboard friends also had 147’s. We didn’t usually see that many 122’s in the Midwest. We also had several of the really reeealy old Leslie’s that had woofers with huge active coils instead of magnets.
The opposite rotation direction was not intentional, it was because of motor positions. They’re balanced and shouldn’t cause the cabinet to move.
The first iterations of the ‘new’ 122 and 147 (with the styrofoam bass rotor) had both rotors spinning in the same direction and just sounded ‘wrong’ because of it. It’s all those details that add up and make the sound so hard to replicate with a simulation. Thanks for watching!
@@PresentDayProduction I agree with, the spinning in the same direction just sounds wrong. If you have 2 side by side you will pick the opposite one every time. I used to have 2 - 145's. 1 for my A100 and one for my guitar rig, both church grade finishes, so I bought one of those "New 147's" when I opened the box, 10 years or so ago, here in northern Ca. the bottom styrofoam bass rotor was cracked in half in such a wrong way. It was stuck. I made the "I need to return this call" concerned that trying to start it would only make it worse. Soon thereafter and still today, they are impossible to find. Still on backorder at every big store here in the US. Hard to find used. I just secured a chopped short 145. Coming in at 30" tall with all the works from the 1960s. Sounds as big as any and fits in a car or a closet. The new big problem is the cost of delivery just tripled here. LA is a 15 hour round trip for me. So it took me and the chop king of LA a week to come to grips with the delivery cost and get it on the road. Just my 2 cents of support. Peace ~ LW
@@PresentDayProduction Opps...I am wearing corrective insoles and I stand corrected. They are back for double to not sound not quite as good. The Leslie 3300 @ Sweetwater www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/3300--leslie-model-3300-300-watt-15-inch-combo-with-2-speed-rotary-horn-black#modal 3195 plus tax and pls call for Est shipping. Gotcha!
Great video! I actually prefer the typical mic pair enclosing a certain angle for the horn rotor over the MS configuation. However, I'd probably try AKG C414s/AA OC818s/Neumann U87s (if available) instead of dynamic mics in a studio setting where every instrument is recorded separately (by the way, I'd never pan them hard left and right - it's better for the mix if the stereo image is there but more in a confined way). All those years ago I made a mistake and used kick drum mics (e.g., the AKG D112 or Audix D6) for the woofer, despite knowing that all tube amp-driven Leslies have an 800 Hz crossover. Therefore, the 15" speaker actually puts out a lot of mids. If it gets reduced to a frequency range typical for kick drum mics the Leslie will sound weak/thin. In combination with a low cut added during mixing this is the death blow for the Leslie sound. It's so important to use mics for the woofer which pick up both bass and midrange (and mix it in a way where it doesn't sound muffled). At the moment I prefer a Sennheiser MD421. On the one hand, I totally agree that the sound source (instruments, proper miking) has to be spot on from the start. On the other hand, a dense mix causes each instrument to lose considerable detail, and thus the choice of mics for the Leslie becomes less important. The question then is whether close-up miking with dynamic mics for a more direct sound is not the best solution from the start in such a case. I also agree that EQ will enable the sound engineer to get the best out of any mic. But the mic itself will influence the engineer to EQ it in a particular way.
I generally find that if I want the Hammond as a background instrument then I back the mics off considerably, often many metres away. But for a more up front sound then it’s quite often a couple of dynamics on the horn, really close, and a LDC on the bass rotor. Love 414s on the Leslie generally, but it’s all EQ so I’m never fussy about mic choices.
@@PresentDayProduction It's very understandable that an ambient instrument is recorded as it should be perceived. With the horn rotor it's actually quite easy because it's only a matter of taste (e.g., in terms of brightness) what mics to use and in a crowded mix it's almost unimportant. However, I oftentimes have the impression that it's not very well understood what the 15" speaker should contribute to the sound rather than providing a foundation to the upper driver and horn rotor. Low mids are a game changer - something I realized during A/B comparisons using different woofers.
I would never set a case of any size on the keyboard.
I closed my eyes to remove any influence of the project window and I couldn't hear any difference, despite listening very very carefully. It really proves that as long as you get a good quality recording, you can tweak it a whole lot to make it sound however you want. As you said, gear shouldn't hold you back. The takeaway is to stop agonising over the gear and just start doing it 🙂
Really great video. I’ve got a Hammond XK3C plus Leslie 2101 (not able to transport full Leslie). I always seem to pick up the ‘click’ when switching between slow and fast. Do you get that with the main Leslies? Cheers, Andy
Thanks Andy, glad you enjoyed the video. I’ve also got a 2101 that I use for the occasional gig and yes, you get a click when switching speeds, but not as much of a click as you get with the old valve ones. The 147 in particular are bad for this. The relay in the amp clicks quite loudly, but because they use a 240v switching system that also makes the amp ‘pop’ so is clearly audible through the speakers once the capacitors start to age and dry out. That’s all part of ‘the sound’ for me though, and on the rare occasion I need to use simulator, or if I get an organ track through to mix that’s been done on a clone or Leslie sim, I’ll often add in some clicks and pops and a bit of wind noise just to make it sound more authentic.
What would work best for a live band set up
For me it’s always been a couple of SM57s close mic’ing the top, and a cardioid large diaphragm dynamic on the low end - RE20/SM7/MD421 etc
good informations however I believe than SHURE SM57 is better than SM58for treble frequencies.
It's a pretty negligible difference to be honest. The 57 and 58 are essentially the same microphone, the main difference being that the SM58 has a pop shield for vocals which can very marginally affect the sound. You'd probably notice more of a difference between an older and newer SM57 as suggested in the video than a 58 over a 57.
In a live setting, would you recommend low cut on the treble mics and high cut on the bass mic? If so, at what frequencies?
It depends on the instrument and if it needs it. For example - guitars, they don’t need any sub-bass energy, so I cut about 60Hz and below. Vocals, maybe 100Hz and below.
I don’t really think I’ve ever cut treble in a low-pass from anything, but if it causes you issues, then go for it. Instruments like bass guitars won’t produce anything super high worth cutting, but maybe do it to be safe if you want everything under control
@@PresentDayProduction thank you, but I mean the 3 mics on a Lesley.
Sorry about that, it wouldn’t let us know which video the comment was on so had to assume it was a broad question!
Mark doesn’t check the comments very often, however whenever I (James) mixed the sound for Mark’s band, I did a high-pass on the top mics to get rid of any rumble or wind noise (maybe 100Hz HPF), but I left the bass mic full-range.
@@PresentDayProduction thank you
What's the band that's playing? I was groovin' every time you played a section of the track. Sounded brilliant, too!
Hi Gellért, the band is called "The Getup".
thegetup.bandcamp.com/album/take-the-cake
I feel the exact opposite as you about everything. Lol I liked everything you didn't and didn't like every thing you did.