Miking Leslies

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bitflipper
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2011/09/18 11:49:24 (permalink)

Miking Leslies

I've long been a critic of how Leslie speakers are typically miked, both in the studio and on stage. Little attention is paid to capturing its lush complexity, perhaps because it's so hard to do.

It is, after all, a complex acoustical phenomenon involving the blending of multiple reflections, each with slightly different subtle pitch shifts. A hard thing to capture - but still no excuse for collapsing a wonderfully three-dimensional effect into a bland monophonic warble, which is what happens when you use one mic and position it too close.

This link came by way of the Harmony Central newsletter, and it's the best guide to miking a Leslie that I've seen. I highly recommend reading it, even if you don't think you'll ever actually need to do it yourself. You never know, someday it might arm you with enough information to save an innocent Leslie from mistreatment.

BTW, the author has also written other articles on subjects such as recording bass and miking guitar cabinets. I have not read them yet, but intend to after reading the Leslie article.


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    The Maillard Reaction
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    Re:Miking Leslies 2011/09/18 12:02:18 (permalink)
    Thanks Bit.

    best,
    mike


    #2
    AT
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    Re:Miking Leslies 2011/09/18 13:00:40 (permalink)
    Wish I had a leslie.  The church where my boy has BoyScouts has one just sitting there unplugged and unloved.  Makes me wonder if I should make them an offer.

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    The Maillard Reaction
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    Re:Miking Leslies 2011/09/18 18:40:43 (permalink)
    You should.

    :-)


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    Jeff Evans
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    Re:Miking Leslies 2011/09/18 19:48:05 (permalink)
    I agree with Mike on this. Many years ago when I was playing a lot of gigs and touring around in Australia I did a gig in an RSL club way out back somewhere and I came across a Leslie speaker cab stashed well back stage and under a whole lot of junk. I asked the club about it and they said they were going to throw it out! Well I said, can I have it and they said yeah take it away. So we were able to get it onto the truck after a lot of fiddling around. It needed to be rebuilt which I did and after that had years of service in my studio and then sold it for a lot of money later so there you go. It can happen so take Mike's advice and ask them.

    Thanks Dave as well for the link to the article. I have recorded them a few times and found I got the best result with stereo mikes up on the top horns and a bit further away as well and also putting the cab in a smallish room that had a little reverb going on but it can sound very good.

    I have got a modified Hammond rotating speaker that came out of a home organ and the speaker is fixed but it has a rotating baffle. I have got the chorale setting slower now and I must say it is a very hard effect to get any other way. Synth pads can sound very cool going through this thing.

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    #5
    quantumeffect
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    Re:Miking Leslies 2011/09/18 20:13:58 (permalink)
    I would use an sm58 as demonstrated in the following video: 

    Mic'ing Leslie

     
     
     
    post edited by quantumeffect - 2011/09/18 20:16:35

    Dave

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    The Maillard Reaction
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    Re:Miking Leslies 2011/09/19 07:38:04 (permalink)
    PWF!


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    feedback50
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    Re:Miking Leslies 2011/09/19 22:51:57 (permalink)
    Nice info Bit. Nothing sounds quite like a real Leslie (but they're getting closer). I remember Phil O'Keefe from the early days of the AW4416 user forum. Nice to see he's still at it.
    #8
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