Category Archives: Dobro

Andrew Synowiec – Vibey Acoustic Instruments

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Session musician Andrew Synowiec recording acoustic instruments in his House of Syn Studio. 

All instruments recorded on a pair of R-122 MKll ribbon mics

1) Acoustic Guitar, Nylon String
2) Bouzouki
3) Dobro
4) Taylor Acoustic Guitar
5) Charango 

6) Ukulele
7) Martin Acoustic Guitar
8) Baritone Acoustic Guitar
9) 12-String Acoustic Guitar

Audio Chain:
Two R-122 MKIIs mounted on a stereo bar, using the rear side of both mics with bass cut switches engaged. Both mics fed into a Manley Force mic preamp (high pass filter at 120hz), into a TK Audio stereo equalizer with 2db of boost at 12k, into a TK Audio stereo compressor set to a 2:1 ratio with very slow attack and release times and less than 2db of gain reduction. Pro Tools AIR Reverb. 

 

In this video, Los Angeles session guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Synowiec demonstrates how he uses two R-122 MKll’s, permanently mounted on a movable stereo bar, to record all of his acoustic instruments in his Los Angeles based George Augspurger-designed House of Syn Studio.

Visit www.andrewsynowiec.com to learn more or to contact Andrew.

Here are 16-bit WAV files of each of the instruments in this video. 

Acoustic Guitar, Nylon String

Bouzouki

Dobro

Taylor Acoustic Guitar

Charango

 

Ukulele

Martin Acoustic Guitar

Baritone Acoustic Guitar

12-String Acoustic Guitar

R-122 MKII Tests – Electric Guitar & Dobro

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Royer R-122 MKll Test Tracks

The R-122 MKll is an extremely versatile phantom-powered ribbon mic with a switchable -15 dB pad and a switchable bass roll-off set at 100 Hz, 6 dB per octave.

Electric Guitar:

Recorded by Michael Wagener at WireWorld Studio, Nashville TN.

Recording chain: R-122 MKll to Chandler TG2 preamplifier. Recorded to Nuendo.

Close miking electric guitars with an active ribbon mic can result in microphone or preamplifier distortion if:
1) the mic’s output is too hot for the following mic pre to handle.
2) the mic is plugged into a preamplifier with low input impedance, or
3) the phantom power is weak,

The R-122 MKll’s -15 dB pad reduces the mic’s sensitivity to 2 dB LESS than our non-powered R-121, giving the mic plenty of headroom even in torturous conditions.

In this video, we used a 100-watt Metropoulos 12,000 amplifier turned up LOUD but fairly clean. See recording notes below.

 

R-122 MKll Test Tracks Continued

Dobro:

Randy Kohrs playing Dobro. Recorded by Randy Kohrs at Slack Key Studio, Nashville TN.

Recording chain: R-122 to RTZ preamplifier. Recorded in Pro Tools

1) R-122 MKll on Dobro, flat with no switches engaged.
2) R-122 MKll on Dobro with low cut switch engaged.
3) R-122 MKll on Dobro with low cut switch and -15 dB pad engaged.
4) R-122 MKll on Dobro with low cut switch and -15 dB pad engaged. The RTZ preamp is turned up 15 dB to make up for the -15 dB pad, bringing in more of the personality of the pre.

Randy Kohrs

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Dobro – R-122
Banjo – R-122

Recorded by Randy Kohrs
Dobro and Banjo recorded into ProTools.

In these two videos, Grammy winning engineer/producer/musician Randy Kohrs shows us his techniques for recording Dobro and Banjo. It’s a great here’s-how-to-do-it for each instrument from an outstanding musician and engineer.

Randy Kohrs on recording Dobro
randy

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Randy Kohrs on recording Banjo
banjo-randy-tn

Jim Lauderdale – Full Mix & Isolated Tracks

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Dobro – R-121

Produced, recorded and mixed by Randy Kohrs
Recorded at Slack Key Studio, Nashville TN.

Recording chain: R-121 and Mojave Audio MA-200 through V-72 Telefunken preamps, high passed at 128 (no other eq). Mild 2 to 1 compression with Kjaerhus Gold compressor.  Recorded to Nuendo 3.

“This Is the Last Time (I’m Ever Going to Hurt)” (Blackmon, Lauderdale)

a) Full Mix

 
 

b) Isolated Dobro: miked with backward R-121 left position and Mojave Audio MA-200 right position, 8 inches from the guitar for depth.

 
 

c) Full Mix, Section 2:

 

d) Isolated Dobro: miked with backward R-121 left position and Mojave Audio MA-200 right position, 8 inches from the guitar for depth.