Friday, March 02, 2007 ... 3:09 PM
I know this one
A recent Google referral to this blog asked the question, "What microphone does Neko Case use live?"
We know from this revealing story in Frets Magazine that Neko tracks vocals in the studio using the Audio-Technica 4050 -- a relatively inexpensive, home-studio-grade condensor mic, which Neko sets to its omnidirectional pattern, and positions in the control room, sonically isolated from the engineer by a portable partition. Quirky.
It looks from all the pictures I've found that, onstage, Neko sings into a Shure SM-58 -- not so quirky. The 58 is probably as common onstage as the electric guitar. It shares its capsule, or innards, with the SM-57 instrument mic. The 57 is the most common, most reliable microphone in the business. I interned in a studio in which the owner suggested that he'd not feel uncomfortable mic'ing a whole album with SM-57's. The difference between the SM-57 and the SM-58 is the 58's globular screen, which filters vocal plosives.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings also sing live into SM-58's, and mic their acoustic instruments onstage with 57's. (Neko, alas, plugs in.) I've read listserv lore alleging that Gil & Dave travel with several pairs of 57's and 58's, which they have mated based on the individual microphone's sonic nuances, and that they match certain pairs of microphones to the acoustics of a venue -- essentially tuning their gear to the environment. I don't know the degree to which this lore is true. Or that, if true, the practice amounts to anything more than audiophile hokum. But I like the story as an example of fan mythology, for its suggestion of arcane ritual, the dream that the artists whom we admire are tuned to a wavelength that we are unequipped to receive. Speaking of Gil & Dave -- I promised a HickoryWind.org review of their Charlotte gig (a surprising and terrific set). In my third year of blogging, I oughtta know by now that publicly committing to a post is the best way to ensure I'll never get around to writing it. (Sol Who-pii?) So -- I'm moving house this weekend, and the Gil review is on hold. If I'm ever timely by mistake, someone please call me on it.
Brendan
Making Notes: Music of the Carolinas
(Novello Festival Press, April 2008)
includes my essay, "Link Wray"
MUSIC
Flop Eared Mule
The Celestial Monochord
HickoryWind.org
Dig and Be Dug in Return
Modern Acoustic Magazine / Blog
The Old, Weird America
Honey, Where You Been So Long?
LITERATURE
The Greensboro Review
Mixed Animal
Night Train
Fried Chicken and Coffee
Mungo (This was the blog of my friend, the late Cami Park. Miss you, Cami.)
Staccato Fiction
Wigleaf
PANK Magazine
OTHER
Cat and Girl
Film Freak Central
- July 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- November 2009
- December 2008
- September 2008
- July 2008
- May 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- June 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- June 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- August 2005
- November 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- April 2003
