Topic: NPR Tiny desk concerts

[barrettphisher]

Are they using shotgun mics for vocals?  Seems like a pain if so.

[VibrationOfLife]

Josh has an entire rundown from when he worked there (many years).  It's on youtube and will be an easy find.

He also has a new venture called global sound concerts that is very much worth following if you like to record live sound.

He's also very personally approachable.

[GLouie]

The short answer is yes. And it seems to sound fine, to me.

Josh Rogosin is the former NPR sound person who did Tiny Desk. The NPR site also has some old articles by him on the techniques and mics.

[Niels]

It is a mid-side stereo mic and it shows that all those “you can’t this or that with xxx mic” claims are irrelevant when a person knows their tool.

[opsopcopolis]

Josh has an entire rundown from when he worked there (many years).  It's on youtube and will be an easy find.

Article here as well: https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2019/04/02/705579879/tiny-tech-tips-microphones

[Gutbucket]

The approach has grown more complex at Tiny Desk over the years.  They are branded by use of Sennheiser MKH 418S, it's silhouette serving as the Tiny Desk logo and viewers expecting to see it used.  I bet its been quite a long time since that was the only mic used for Tiny Desk performances though.

It is a mid-side stereo mic and it shows that all those “you can’t this or that with xxx mic” claims are irrelevant when a person knows their tool.

Not so much irrelevant, just more that there are reasonable reasons yet few hard-fast rules.  The important details surrounding most things like are "shades of grey" relationships more so than this-or-that dichotomies. No pushback on knowing your tools though!  This from a guy who's been using a stereo shotgun mic in combination with other mics to record live music regularly for years.. often in situations that are far more "off-label" with regard to standard recommended shotgun mic usage than the ways in which they are used at Tiny Desk. ; )

[VibrationOfLife]

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tiny+desk+microphones

https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalSoundConcerts

[goodcooker]

I very much like that this series of concerts uses so many shotgun mics (in direct opposition to so many who say that it shouldn't be done that way) and that the results sound so fantastic.

It very much feels like thumbing their nose at the "establishment" who would say "you are doing it wrong" so much so that they made the mics their logo.

[VibrationOfLife]

I've spoken with Josh many times, and he is not only incredibly helpful, he's just a wonderful person.  I want to support his ventures in life so much.

He has truly dedicated his life to live music recording.

[DSatz]

I'm curious who is saying that shotgun mikes shouldn't or can't be used for relatively close pickup. The only "shouldn't"s I've seen here (and posted myself) say that at significant distance, like in the diffuse sound field, they don't behave at all the way that people apparently wish or imagine that they would, i.e. as if they were telescopes or zoom lenses.

But when they're placed so that most of the direct sound arrives on axis, and isn't competing significantly with delayed versions of the same sound arriving from off-axis, they behave like ordinary directional microphones with some filtering out of high frequencies from off-axis. That's exactly what they're designed to do. It's also why when they're used on film sets (especially wide shots), someone with a lot of experience is working very hard at all times to get them as close to the talent as possible, and to keep the talent on axis as much as possible.

[goodcooker]

I'm curious who is saying that shotgun mikes shouldn't or can't be used for relatively close pickup. The only "shouldn't"s I've seen here (and posted myself) say that at significant distance, like in the diffuse sound field, they don't behave at all the way that people apparently wish or imagine that they would, i.e. as if they were telescopes or zoom lenses.

But when they're placed so that most of the direct sound arrives on axis, and isn't competing significantly with delayed versions of the same sound arriving from off-axis, they behave like ordinary directional microphones with some filtering out of high frequencies from off-axis. That's exactly what they're designed to do. It's also why when they're used on film sets (especially wide shots), someone with a lot of experience is working very hard at all times to get them as close to the talent as possible, and to keep the talent on axis as much as possible.

There's a truck load of people that frequent other forums that I participate in - mostly location and film recordists - and many of them have been very vocal about "the only place a shotgun belongs is on a boom over the talent or on side stage pointed at the crowd for audience reaction". I tend to disagree although I prefer SD hypercardioids over shotguns personally.