Re: [Harp-L] Best Zoom H2 settings with loud music please?

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I believe I've posted this inquiry before and know I should do my own 
> manual study

Hopefully you'll get some good specific settings from Harp-l 
responses.  What I have to say may be of little use tonight, but is 
intended to add to the general discussion.

In the end it's going to be just as much about the placement of the H2 as 
it is about settings, perhaps moreso.  Since you won't have much time to 
a/b various placements tonight, make sure that both mic pairs are on, 
because at least then you'll have two stereo files you can experiment with 
later one.

But if you have time to a/b placements during the sound check, it's almost 
certain that one of the placements will sound better than the 
others.  Therefore, when one plops the H2 down in the first obvious place 
there is very little liklihood that you have chosen the optimal placement.

Of little relevance to your original question:

I have recorded some demos with the H2 in my house in the following way: I 
took the H2 and my guitar around the house and tested recording in 10 
differrent spots.  When I auditioned them together it took a bit of an 
elimination process, but in the end I found that some placements really 
didn't give very good sound, some did well, and there was a clear 
winner.  Now I knew where to place the guitar to cut that track.

I then did the same thing with the harp, and again there was a best 
location, a very different one from the optimal guitar place.  Only this 
time I auditioned the harp sounds against the recorded guitar sound.  Did 
the same with vocal.

The result sounds neat when mixed together.  Recalling that I have two 
stereo files for each track (front and back mics)  trying various mixes of 
the pairs for each track improved my results.

Now, I synched it up in the following way: I placed several sharp 
percussive hits at the top of the guitar track, before the guitar 
starts.  This is often called a "two-pop" in recording.  I recorded my 
guitar track, edited it, and laid an mp3 of it on my iPod.

At each testing placement I held the earphones up to the H2 and recorded 
the two-pop.  Now anything I played would be in synch with the guitar track 
when I laid it into my multitracker, as I could eyeball the two-pop on both 
sets of tracks, and line 'em up.  I put the earphones back on my lovely 
head, whipped out the harp and did my thing.  Same with the vocal later on.

Something that MIGHT - might - improve the final effect would be to play 
the mixdown through my monitor (a fancy word for my living room stereo) and 
try different placements of the H2 just recording room sound.  This would 
be a sort of Flintstone variation on the send/return technique where you 
combine and send a selection of tracks through a reverb plate (or other 
modification device) and use the returned, or processed signal to give the 
feeling (when cleverly added into the mix) that the two tracks were 
recorded together in a very live room instead of in a studio.  Or at least 
to reduce the feeling that they weren't.

The professional version of this technique, by the way, one of the most 
standard techniques of the modern studio, was invented by Bill Putnam, who 
engineered both Peg Of My Heart by the Harmonicats AND Juke by Little Walter.