Recording - December 2016 - 63

you a filtering power strip they say is explicitly designed for
audio equipment. I have one that I take on remote gigs; I can't
say whether it's better than a Corcom or a computer-store
absorber, but it does work-my gear has come through several Missouri thunderstorms so far.
Speaking of power, your studio deserves to be on its own circuit, not shared with anything else. Also speaking of power, one
of the smartest ideas I've seen recently is the 6" grounded extension cord. Ever try to pack a dozen "wall-wart" power supplies
onto a power strip? The short cords make the job a lot easier.
Lay your hands omni
Once in a while you need an omnidirectional mic and don't
have one-say you want to record a grand piano by placing
omni mics in diagonally opposite corners, an effective setup.
Everything in your kit is cardioid or hypercardioid, though.
What's to do?
Many cardioid or hypercardioid microphones achieve their
directionality via ports just behind the capsule (see the photo
on page 61, a Shure SM81-thanks to shure.com for the
photo). If you cover up those ports thoroughly with a layer or
two of gaffer's tape, the mic quits being cardioid and abruptly
becomes omnidirectional. It won't be perfectly omni; the mic's
body still casts an acoustic shadow at high frequencies. But
that happens with real omni mics too.
No, this doesn't work with side-address condensers, and I
wouldn't try messing with their capsules in any case. But it

stop things from vibrating. I first encountered it when I was
building loudspeakers; a ring of Strip-Calk under the rim of a
driver makes a dandy, rattle-proof gasket. An alternative is to
use a 12" gooseneck, which doesn't rattle and will often substitute for a boom. (I always carry a couple in my kit.) Or you
could stop the little dumbbell from rattling with a strategically
placed piece of gaff-tape.
You may have noticed a recurring theme here. That theme is
gaffer's tape, or gaff-tape, or gaff, or gaffa, which was developed for the film industry to hold things in place effectively
without leaving too much (if any!) residue. It's cloth-based, so it
tears like duct tape, but it works way better. I get mine at
Guitar Center, and pro audio suppliers like Markertek also
carry it. No matter where you buy it, it's not cheap, but it's
worth every penny.
So long, it's been good to know yuh!
I hope you've enjoyed the articles in First Steps; they've
been fun to write, and they took me back to the basic ideas
that are the foundation of our hobby/profession/obsession.
Thank you, Editor Mike Metlay, for giving me the assignment
these many months ago. [And thank you, Paul, for your hard
work and dedication; readers will be happy to know that
you've got many more useful articles planned for future
issues.-MM]
I teach at a local university, and I tell my students that they
may come into the program thinking that recording audio is

Gaffer's tape was developed to hold things in place effectively
without leaving residue. It's not cheap, but it's worth every penny.
works with Shure SM81s, Neumann KM 84s, KM 184s and
KM 140s, Oktava MC012s, and probably others. Just make
sure you peel the tape off at the end of the session-good
quality gaffa leaves a lot less goo on surfaces than its civilian
cousin duct tape, but you don't want to chance leaving even a
little bit.
Rattle those bones-or rather, don't
This seems like a no-brainer, but it's really important, when
recording, to use mic stands and hardware that don't rattle. If a
mic stand isn't battened down properly, a good bass note can
set it to rattling audibly. The mic clip needs to be screwed solidly onto the boom, the boom screwed solidly to the center pole,
the center pole (if you're using round-bottomed stands) screwed
solidly into the base. Even if it doesn't rattle, it can resonate.
Now, by "screwed solidly" I don't mean that you should
crank down every connection with all your gorilla strength;
"tight enough to stay put" is tight enough, and gorilla-torquing
will eventually strip even well-made metal threads, not to mention plastic ones.
Some manufacturers clamp the boom in place using a handle that slides in a hole, looking like a dumbbell perched on
the side of the stand. That little dumbbell can rattle like a tambourine if you let it; one way to calm it down is to put a donut
of 3M Strip-Calk® around the shaft. Strip-Calk is a black, nonhardening putty that's sold at hardware stores for sealing windows and at auto supply stores for deadening vibrations; I've
found it invaluable over the years in places where I want to

about technical things like frequency response, polar patterns,
phase response, sampling rates and bit depths. It's about all of
those things, no question, but it's about something else, too-
something deeply human.
Since we developed the ability to record and play back
audio in 1877, those recorded sounds have come to play a
giant role in our culture. We hear recorded music all day,
either as part of our background roar or deliberately brought
to the fore. We can conjure up the sounds of great musicians
of the past: David Oistrakh, Dock Boggs, Mississippi John
Hurt, Patsy Cline, John Coltrane, Woody Guthrie, Molly Picon,
Blind Willie Johnson... and bring those sounds with us to the
places we go and the lives we live. Or we can buy a CD or
download from the band we just heard at a club and take
their music with us-and, not incidentally, provide one more
source of income for the ill-paid musicians to support their
playing habit.
When we make recordings in our basements, or garages,
or purpose-built studios, we're making more than a product;
we're creating nothing less than the soundtracks of people's
lives. That's what recording audio's really about, as much as
it's about down-to-earth practicalities like sandbags, contact
cleaner, copyrights, and gaff tape.
Now get out there and take those first steps!
Paul J. Stamler (stamler@recordingmag.com) is a recording
engineer, guitarist, educator, and collector of fascinating old
recordings of all kinds, living and working in St. Louis.
RECORDING DECEMBER 2016

http://www.shure.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - December 2016