How to record on a Vintage Hammond and Leslie
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ส.ค. 2018
- James talks about the process he went through to record his first serious recording with his 1965 Hammond B3 with original Leslie speaker.
James states that he will be uploading a song soon "House of The Rising Sun", but that is being held up as even though we believe that the song is in the Public Domain, and James wrote his own solos, but we have had copyright challenges on the video.
BMG Rights Management
EMI Music Publishing
Warner Chappell
Sony ATV Publishing
We will make it available when we can. - เพลง
Good stuff.
Nice to see the future of Hammonds & Leslies is in good hands.
I’ve been recording Leslies for 30 years, including my own 122.
My technique is to approach the Leslie from the perspective of a human listener.
That means several critical factors need to be considered - each factor builds upon the previous factors, leading to a theorem:
1. Human ears are on average 20cm (8”) apart. So it doesn’t make sense to mic opposite sides of a Leslie, around 2-3’ apart. It also doesn’t make sense to place your mics more than about 8” apart no matter what stereo mic technique you apply. Doing so will introduce subtle left/right delay cues which confuse the brain.
2. Humans can only hear one side of the Leslie directly. It makes more sense to mic it from one side, in stereo.
3. The natural sound of the Leslie is one Doppler sweep per rotation, mixed with lower level reflections off the interior of the cabinet and the walls of the room. Therefore room mics are critical for capturing the complete Doppler sweep sensation. Also another reason NOT to mic opposite sides which creates TWO Doppler sweeps per rotation - this doubles the apparent speed of the Leslie and creates a sea sick effect.
4. The bass rotor is best mic’d with a single mono mic. Humans have great difficulty localising low frequency sound, and a mono bottom end will not cause phase issues in a stereo mix. This is why the kick drum and bass guitar are almost always mono in the center of the stereo image in any good mix.
5. Keep It Simple, Stupid (the KISS principle). What is the minimum quantity of close mics needed to capture a balanced, pleasing, and easily mixed Leslie recording? - the answer is 3. Two on the horn rotor and one on the bass rotor.
6. The room mic should be any of the commonly employed stereo techniques: mid/side, X/Y, or ORTF. Distance will be dictated by how ambient you want it to sound, and whether live leakage from other instruments is a problem. I tend to vary between about 3’ and 20’ away, with the mic roughly at ear level above the floor.
7. OK, which side of the cabinet should you mic? - it depends if you want the louvres to contribute to the sound. Most Rock organists face the Leslie backwards, and remove the top and bottom rotor covers to expose the rotors for louder sound and nice visual effect. For Rock, it is best to mic the open rear side. This also allows you to perfectly center the horn mics on the axis of rotation. The horn rotor is NOT centred inside the cabinet, it is off to the right side as you look at the rear of a 122. If you center the mics to the cabinet, one mic will be further away from the horn than the other - this will mess up your stereo symmetry. By mic’ing from the rear you can see the axis of the horn, and spread your mics equidistant from it. A stereo T-bar mic mount is very useful for the horn. Any decent dynamic mic of the SM57 flavour will work. I prefer Sennheiser e609’s. Position the mics just outside the horn compartment, equidistant from the axis of rotation, and angle them both in so they are at a 45° angle to the cabinet, i.e. pointing straight at the axis of rotation. You’ll notice that this puts the two horn mics at 90° to each other - this is the perfect configuration for a nice stereo image with only a single Doppler sweep per rotation.
8. What if you want to capture the sound coming through the Louvres? How do you center the mics on the axis of rotation when you can’t see the horn? Fortunately, the horn IS centred on the short “side” of the cabinet. With the traditional “front” of the cabinet facing you, the horn is on the left, and the motors are on the right towards the rear - you want to position your mics as far from the motors as possible. Simply find the centre line of the “left” side of the cabinet - that’s the axis of rotation. On the “left” side, measure the distance from the axis of rotation to the corner which meets the “front” side. Transfer this measurement to the “front” side and you’ll have the location of the axis of rotation on the “front” side. The best way to record the horn louvres is to place a mic DEAD CENTRE on the “left” side of the cabinet, aimed straight in at the axis of rotation, and another mic on the “front” of the cabinet aimed straight in at the measured location of the axis of rotation. So now your mics are both dead centred to the axis of rotation, and at 90° to each other for best Doppler sweep, and as far from the motors as possible.
Good luck!
James, I'm so happy to see you becoming so acquainted and intimate with the B3! You are far more passionate about its inner workings and possibilities than I could have ever been. You truly are a rightful heir to that amazing beast. 😎
The Hammond B3 is an amazing instrument, and I love it so much! It's one of my favorite musical instruments, and I'll be using it a lot on some covers I have coming up real soon!
i went to exams party many years ago in the town timber hall.and there was a b3 Hammond with 2 lei-sly 122 speakers and a key board,sitting on top of the Hammond , and the player John ,at about 1 hour in to the nite he let the Hammond have .i tell you the crowd went crazy thy just could not stop dancing and singing ,hell it was so good.
Hi James.......very nice video. Glad you posted it. I've owned 32 Hammonds over the years and multiple Leslies and Hammond cabinets. All of them have a unique sound. I have customized quite a few of them including one B-3 that I've used in a Gospel church application with four 122 Leslies placed in different areas of the church. Depending on the growl that is needed I can select what to use. Also I can use the regular Hammond bass, string bass or mix a third bass unit that can be triggered through the first 25 notes on the bottom keyboard. There is a three speed selector switch on the Leslie and a tap for two other 15" bass speakers. It's like death by Hammond, but once you're hooked you want to drive it like a bulldozer to the max. Much good luck to you. Thanks again for the video.
Wow!
Thanks James!
Way cool... Thanks!
I had read that the Motion Sounds that offered a mike output positioned their mikes two at 90 degrees. This made no sense to my at first, but I concluded the following: Close miking exaggerates the amplitude variation. Miking at 180 degrees will produce two peak amplitudes per rotation, rather then the desired one. Placing mikes at 90 degrees will smooth out the amplitude variation and will produce one peak amplitude when the horn or drum is half way between the two mikes. You should give this a try.
Have you tried the Nord C2D? It is a bit smaller, no preset keys but two buttons (or patches bank), smaller pedals too (but you get 27), you can connect it to any Leslie or rotary speaker or use the Leslie inside. You can also play pipe organ, Vox or Farfisa. I have my teacher demo'd it for the first time on my channel, he said it sounds better than the Suzuki Hammond with the Leslie.
I think I saw one of those at a music store in Indiana. I didn't play it much, but I thought it sounded pretty nice and if I see another one I will try it out more and do a video on it!
ThePianoforever
I’ll wait for that!!
What’s the specific color of your Leslie? That wood and color looks beautiful
Can you put a mic inside the cavity to record
Did you ever think of also adding a direct line from inside the Hammond for a "dry Hammond" sound? Your statement of "truly dry" would be 'truly correct" if you took the "absolutely dry" sound of the Hammond. Try it...it's TRULY Hammond. Basically, all that is needed an RCA (from Hammond) to 1/4" mono plug or your choice of a plug to your mixer.
I really love the sound of the Leslie.
Here is my perspective. The reason people have trouble making instruments sound like they do in “real life”, is a lack of distant mic techniques. Sure mic’ing close up means you get detail, brilliance, etc. but when people say things sound awesome, they’re never sitting there with an ear up to a speaker cabinet. That’s what a mic is doing most of the time. Mostly it’s a room that makes things sound powerful and rich.
Of course you are right in many cases, but I also thing it depends on the type of music you are playing. If for instance you are playing 32 notes on a piano, and you are getting a lot of room then the piano will sound muddy. The reason for for that is fairly simple, if a note leaves the piano and reverbs off a wall by the time it comes back it could be blending with the next note on a fast piece. The organ is best used for slower pieces, and therefor loves the sound of the room.
ThePianoforever yea it’s all about the mix in the end. I’d agree that dryer sounds suit fast music. It’s why people tend to improvise differently depending on the amount of echo in a room. I haven’t miked many pianos though. I just love dirty room sounds so I’m never gonna get a proper piano sound anyway haha
Play some Boston!