Fab Dupont / Will Knox

Acoustic Guitar – SF-1
Violin – R-121
Banjo – SF-2
Standup Bass – R-122
Drum Overhead – SF-24
Drums, Tom-Toms – R-122
Drums, Kick – R-122V
Drums, Hi-Hat – R-121

Producer: Fab Dupont.  Engineer: Meredith McCandless

When our friend Fab Dupont set out to record singer/songwriter Will Knox’s album “The Matador And The Acrobat” with engineer Meredith McCandless, they decided to track the album entirely with Royer ribbons (except for a condenser on Will’s vocal and a dynamic on the snare). Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the recording process that Fab and company so kindly put together for us.

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Vocals & Guitar: Will Knox
Violin: Clayton Mathews
Banjo: Kyle James Houser
Standup Bass: Chris Anderson
Drums: Timur Yusef

Visit Fab’s website at www.fabulousfab.com. Visit Flux Studios at www.fluxstudios.net.

Puremix.net is an educational website featuring a wide assortment of videos on recording, mixing, mastering and much more. Puremix.net was created by Fab Dupont; his partners in Puremix now include Ben Lindell and Ryan West.

 

Lukas Rossi and Kenny Aronoff

Drum Overhead – SF-24
Drum Rooms – SF-24, R-122V, R-122
Electric Guitar – R-121

Recorded by Ross Hogarth
Recorded at Sweetwater Studios, Ft. Wayne IN

Grammy winning Producer/Engineer Ross Hogarth gives a seminar on his techniques for recording drums and electric guitars with ribbon mics, showing mic placements and letting us hear mixed and isolated ribbon-recorded tracks.

Drums – Kenny Aronoff
Full mix, conversation about drum mic placement, then isolated ribbon-recorded tracks.
“Dreamer” (Lukas Rossi)
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Electric Guitar – Lukas Rossi
Full mix, conversation about electric guitar mic placement, then isolated ribbon-recorded tracks.
“Dreamer” (Lukas Rossi)
dreamer-gtr-tn

 

Cannon

Vocals – R-121
Acoustic Guitar – R-121
Drum overheads – R-121

Producer: Shawn Sullivan. Engineer: Kyle Homme.
Recorded to Pro Tools at World Class Audio, Anaheim, CA.

One back side R-121 on vocals and acoustic guitars. Two R-121’s on drum overheads.

Sean Sullivan was the original discoverer of the backward R-121 recording technique. Due to our patented offset ribbon element, the back side of the microphone is slightly brighter than the front side when placed within 3 ft of any sound source.

“Again” (Dan Sistos & Jevon McGlory)


Roger Wojahn & Scott Wojahn – Commercial Scores

Percussion – R-121
Electric Guitar – R-121
Violin – R-121
Drum Overheads – SF-12

Recorded and mixed by Steve Kempster.

Song 1. R-121’s on all percussion instruments and brass. SF-12 stereo ribbon mic on drum overhead.
Recorded to Sony 4038 (16-bit) at Signet Sound, Hollywood, CA. 

1. Commercial (Roger Wojahn & Scott Wojahn)

 
 

Song 2. R-121’s on all percussion instruments, guitars and violin. SF-12 stereo ribbon mic on drum overhead. 
Recorded on a Sony 3348 (16-bit) at Village Recorders, Los Angeles, CA.

2. Commercial (Roger Wojahn & Scott Wojahn)

Kevin Shepard – Drum Tracks

Kick Drum –  R-121
Drum Overhead – SF-12
Comparison Tracks

Engineer: Roger Summers
Recorded at Royaltone Studios, Burbank, CA

Session drummer Kevin Shepard playing a Gretsch kit in a large iso booth.

Recording chain: all mics through Neve console preamps, recorded directly to DAT.

 
1. Kick Drum/Room – one R-121 three feet from the front head.


 
 

2. SF-12 overhead, lightly EQ’d to open up highs.


 

3.  C-24 overhead (same position as the SF-12, for comparison)


 

4.  SF-1’s overhead, lightly EQ’d.
(The SF-1 is discontinued, but the active SF-2 sounds identical and has higher output.)


 
 

5.  SF-12 overhead (lightly EQ’d) and one R-121 three feet off the kick drum.


 
 

6. SF-12 overhead and one R-121 three feet off the kick drum. Same track as #5, but with no EQ.


Ross Hogarth – Various Isolated Tracks

B-3 – SF-24
Drums – R-121, SF-12
Drum Room – SF-12, R-121
Bongos – SF-24
Shakers – SF-24
Electric Guitar, Heavy Rock – R-121

Engineer/Producer Ross Hogarth was one of the first engineers to ever use a Royer ribbon microphone. He has a large collection of Royers, including early serial numbers of all of our models due to his beta testing everything we’ve ever made. Over the years his contributions have been numerous and invaluable and we count him among our closest of friends.

Ross gave us the following isolated tracks to help teach engineers what Royer ribbons are capable of doing in the studio.
1) Isolated B-3 from the Damon Castillo Band, recorded on an SF-24 stereo ribbon microphone.
B-3: SF-24 on top of the Leslie with a Heil PR-30 on the bottom.
Recording chain: SF-24 into a Great River MP-2NV preamp, PR-30 into a Chandler preamp.
Recorded by Ross Hogarth at Sunset Sound Factory, Hollywood, CA in 2007.



 

2) Kenny Aronoff playing drums. One compressed R-121, 3 feet high and 6 feet back from kit.
Recorded by Ross Hogarth at Rumbo Recorders – Canoga Park, CA, B-room.



 

3) John Molo – Various Drum Tracks
This is a drum session broken down into isolated tracks cut on various Royers, with a final mix of all the Royer mics that were used on the session. This mix does not include the other mics that were used on the kit for the final drum mix.
Recorded by Ross Hogarth

3 a) SF-12 in front of the kit



 

3 b) R-121 left and right, front of the kit



 

3 c) One R-121 in front of the kit



 

3 d) All Royer mics from 3a, 3b & 3c blended



 

4) Bongos and Shakers from the Ryanhood song “All Right” recorded on an SF-24 stereo ribbon microphone. SF-24 12-inches above bongos and 8 inches from shakers.
Recording chain: SF-24 thru Great River MP-2NV pre, to Crane Song HEDD converter.
Recorded by Ross Hogarth at Track Records, North Hollywood, CA in 2008.
Play Audio



 

5) Stereo rhythm distortion guitar bed. R-121’s on two Marshall 4-12 cabinets.
Recorded by Ross Hogarth in Pro Tools at Rumbo Recorders – Canoga Park, CA.


Arturo Sandoval’s “Trumpet Evolution”

Brass – R-121, R-122, SF-12
Trumpet – R-121, R-122
Trombone – R-121
Drum Overhead – SF-12
Room Mic – SF-12

Engineer: Al Schmitt, Producer: Gary Grant
Recorded at Capitol Studios (Studio A), Hollywood, CA.

Recording chain: All mics routed through an assortment of Mastering Lab, Neve and Studer tube mic preamps. Recorded to Pro Tools

One R-122 on Arturo Sandoval’s solo trumpet
Four R-121’s on the trumpets
Four R-121’s on the trombones
SF-12 overall big band room mic
SF-12 drum overhead

1) “Manteca” (Dizzy Gillespie, Fuller, O’Farrill, Pozo)

 

2) “Concerto for Cootie” (Duke Ellington)

 

3) “My Funny Valentine” (Hart, Rodgers)