Harvey Gerst video

Installment No. 1: Small condenser mics.

Please post your comments and questions.

Look below for Installments No. 2 through No. 6.

Great video, Steve!

Another bit of information jewel for those of us trying to learn.

A BIG thanks to Harvey Gerst as well!!

Looking forward to future installments.

Joel

Is that you asking him the question, Steve?

Yes.

Harvey Gerst video

Installment No. 2: Stereo versus mono on acoustic guitar.

Please post your comments and questions.

I could not agree more with yours and Harvey's assessment on mono tracking of acoustic guitars in a mix with drums and other instruments: mono all the way!

Even in sparse, acoustic arrangements, I often prefer mono. I also really prefer LDCs to SDCs as a mono acoustic mic in most cases. In a busy mix, I often double track acoustic and electric rhythm guitars as well.

Well yes, yes and no.

The cage of an LD mic has a LOT to do with the weirdness. That's something most SD mic don't have, which is part of why they sound better.

The more transparent the cage acoustically, the fewer standing waves between teh headgrille and the capsule.

I'll take a TLM 103 over a chinese SD cardioid mic everytime.

Ty Ford

Harvey Gerst video

Installment No. 3: Harvey talks about some MXL and Studio Projects mics that he likes. Hey, he even mentions one that he hates.

Please post your comments and questions.

The MXL and Studio Projects mics discussed by Harvey are available from our friends, Front End Audio.

Steve, this is great stuff...I suspect you've got more coming?

War

Harvey Gerst video

Installment No. 4: Harvey talks about his studio near Denton, Texas, as well as working with his son, producer and engineer Alex Gerst.

Please post your comments and questions.

Please visit Indian Trail Recording Studio.

Harvey Gerst video

Installment No. 5: Harvey explains to me how he got into the headphone business.

Please post your comments and questions.

Harvey's MoreMe Headphones are available from our friends, Front End Audio.

Harvey Gerst video

Installment No. 6: Harvey talks about the AEA R84 ribbon microphone.

Please post your comments and questions.

The AEA R84 is available from our friends, Front End Audio.

This is the last clip of our interview. I look forward to speaking with Harvey again.

That's interesting ribbon talk... ironic for me really.

I've switched to an RCA ribbon mic as my main drum overhead... I used to use a couple of Neumann KM184 for that purpose... but now I use the KM mics as stereo room mics for the drums.

I am going to have to try the backside of the mic to see how different it responds in figure 8... the results so far have been sonic nirvana.

My RCA mic sounds best through an old McCurdy preamp that I overhauled... when this Mccurdy was built in 1964, they must of designed it with RCA ribbon mics in mind... it has a huge Hammond transformer as the step up tranny to the discrete circuit.

http://www.k-bay106.com/rca_kb2c.jpg

http://www.freewebs.com/weather_station/McCurdy%20PE2400.jpg

Keep up the good work Steve... I love these little WMV movies.

I like Harvey's "air map".

War

I went to school in Denton at one stop on my varied college career. I heard about the Golden Triangle. But, I had no idea what it meant until I saw Harvey explain it. BTW, I can say from experience that Harvey's air map is fairly accurate. When you go to Harvey's make sure to get a directions from Mapquest or another service. It's in the country but the roads are paved.

Yer talkin' to a guy who lives on a dirt road!! And you have to turn down 2 of them to get to mine!

War

This interview is great. You need to hit the other forums with links to them (if the Mojo Pie bandwidth can handle it.)

We did 1/2 gigabyte yesterday. It's way down today. It's important to keep the domain host happy.

That's a really cool video - I'll look up the other two now!! Thanks Steve, for making these and putting them up, because they offer a different access point to Harvey's insight and experience. Good work mate!

"Fletcher's even got a pair"

That video was really cool again - cheers!

Has anyone tried the R84 turned backwards on a guitar amp? If it brings out a little more top end... Just a thought.

I think the R84 arguably might be the best mic on the planet for saxophone.

I'd like to try one on guitar amp but have not had the opportunity.

I have tried the R84 on guitar cabinet and loved it. I will qualify that and say that I have not had the opportunity to mic very many cabinets (don't do a lot of rock) so my experience base may not be the best.

I really liked what I got with the R84 though! It smokes on clean guitar IMO


Jason A.

Correct amundo! It does open up a bit more in reverse. I love the R84, and Jason it will smoke on a dirty cab also!

War

My little secret (don't tell anyone) is to use the R84 along with a Phantom C in an M/S configuration on acoustic guitar. As always, placement is king but find that spot and WOW!


Jason A.

I keep getting more and more GAS for this mic.

I am behind the curve here. I just watched all 6 videos. Excellent.

Thanks Oz.

Nice one Steve..

Looks like a really insteresting guy.

I was particularly interested to hear his comments regarding the T3 sounding like a C12,,

Rimmer

I had a chance to try out the R84 & R92, for acoustic guitar I prefered the R92. It has a better high end (although did not try the backside of the R84) and a sound to die for. And its a little less money. Just a heads up.

I see his point about recording guitar in mono and Ive had my best results there to. Sometimes Ill capo it up and do another track which to me is more effective that stereo. How ever I have been on a lot of nashville sessions with some of the best and they seem to alway trac the guitar with two small condenser mics and pan them left and right, for that reason I seem obsessed in making it work, I just dont understand why that is the norm in nashville or is it Jeff

I don't know Nashville norms, but if you're going stereo, try panning them closer to center and not hard-panning. Think about it - are most guitars six feet wide?

Bear

Well...

On the guitar thing...

As well as any mixing thing...

I change pans. I change EQ. I change a lot of things depending on how many instruments might be in the mix at one time. I could see recording a song that starts out as just an acoustic guitar where a vocal comes in second and then electric guitar, bass and drums later. I could see starting out with the acoustic guitar in stereo. I could see keeping it in stereo with the vocal. But, I probably would want to do something else with the acoustic guitar once the rest of the band came in.

Great effort Steve. This was very enjoyable.

Phil G.

Has anyone got their hands on a Groove Tubes Velo 8? I can't tell if it's shipping or not, I know GT has announced it though. I saw it over at JB Sound and a few other sites, but I can't seem to buy it anywhere. I wonder if it's similar to the R84.

It looks to me like a 797 Audio chassis as used on the Studio Projects C series of mics. I am a little skeptical of paying made in the USA money for a mic made in China. However, I am going to take a serious look at an sE R1 ribbon mic this week. One of my friends likes it so here I am trying it out.

Hey Steve. Have you checked out the SE Electronics Gemini?

Rimmer

Nope. Sorry.

I want to say that so far I'm happy with my experience with the sE R-1. I'm sort of jaded on gear anymore. I don't get that loving feeling too often.

I'm eval'ing an AEA R92 as well currently. I love it too. It's been an interesting couple of weeks.

I often don't see two newer products that impress me.

I've also got a tfpro P10 Mighty Twin here on loan. I think something happened to Ted Fletcher in the things he went through post Joemeek. It's like the man is undergoing a creative renaissance. He or his team or whoever it really is... They're designing some interesting gear. I'm not sure how I feel about the P10 yet.

Let's see if I have any more new thoughts on gear... Oh yeah, I've tried the new Extremes. They've changed the profile of the ear cups and they've changed drivers to a more modern sound but nothing hard on the ears. I like the new ones a lot.

I recently tried out the R92 on acoustic guitar. We sort of liked it on acoustic as it sort of imparted an organ sound to the guitar. I think in all we tried it on guitar amps (especially liked it on lead), acoustic guitar, dialog (OK but not great) and vocals (pretty damn nice).

Hey all I new here just wondering is that Harvey from Princeton TX who used to be with Sweetwater that played at the Miami pop festival if so, I'm one of Hankey's dogs.

Harvey was indeed in Sweetwater, among all the other things in a resume that's probably longer than some books.

Bear

Cool I got some good video footage of Harvey recording my Buddie Richard Hankey from McKinney and also Hankey always probably bugs the shit out of him for recording techniques anyway just want to give a big shout out to Harvey for helping my Buddie out we both learned a lot.

Even in sparse, acoustic arrangements, I often prefer mono. I also really prefer LDCs to SDCs as a mono acoustic mic in most cases. In a busy mix, I often double track acoustic and electric rhythm guitars as well