Salvador Castañeda
Microphone techniques beyond the simple rutine
In the professional audio field, microphone placement for the guitar amplifier, for many of us is an everyday duty. Many recording or live sound engineers have established their way of working which could not be the optimal and its job could be filled with myths that has to be demolished in order to achieve better results. To help eliminate some of those myths, Salvador Castañeda, a long time friend, member and collaborator of the AES Mexico Section, gave us his lecture "Mic'ing the Guitar Amplifier... Science behind the Habits". This time we held our workshop in ARTeria Mexico-Fundacion Autor, as part of our monthly conference program.
For starters, Salvador spoke about the different ways to amplify contemporary instruments and that guitar, being one of the most common ones, the technician chooses the equipment and placement, following other people's preferences in order to be "In fashion" or just for "the looks of it" and not by its technical characteristics. The challenge for technicians is to know the equipment and the way it sounds so he or she can make it sound the best possible way under any circumstance, be under ideal conditions in a studio or under not such thing in a live performance, where variables are aplenty.
The sound engineer's job is precisely to know the equipment and listen the amplifier's response with a wide variety of microphones and placement of them. Salvador says that we have set out ourselves to use only a limited number of makes and models just because we see other people are using them, but not always can be the best choice in our particular situation.
One of the tools that have proven to be very effective to compare the operation of different systems, are the measurement methods were you are able to watch the response in real time, like the SMAART system he used for his presentation, changing mic placement in relation to a fixed amplifier position and later changing that position to evaluate the big differences it makes. Those were the examples Salvador did for the audience so we could check what happens with those variables under study. Dynamic and capacitor microphones with different polar patterns were shown and we were able to hear and watch those differences, without any preconceived idea before its placement, giving the expected response with a scientific approach.
The Section's activities are fully working and the open invitation is that everybody can join us and participate of the program of actualization and training of the organization, with the only goal that the professional audio evolves.
Niza Sopeña
Texts and photographs
AES Collaborator
