Amped Up
I'm starting to track a new Earth Calling Angela song tonight. Usually these are guitar driven, but I'm starting with a keyboard pad sound this time, amped up through a Marshall. I'm mic'ing the cabinet with a Blue Kiwi through an Avedis MA5 preamp and a Distressor. The keyboard is a Korg Trinity playing a home-grown string patch.
The Kiwi is an interesting mic - it's very versatile but has a definite character that isn't always desirable. It works well on backing vocals and acoustic guitar, and if I have emmalee^crane or her clan in the studio I'll often use it on brass or woodwinds, but I don't tend to use it on cabinets much.
Right now it's working really well though, about two feet back from the cabinet with the MA5 on medium-high gain with the pad engaged to about -6db and the Distressor clamping down hard at 10:1, averaging about 12db reduction. I also have an old Midiverb IV patched into the FX loop of the Marshall to give a bit of old school reverb.
I'm recording the audio along with the MIDI straight into Logic.
