The Watering Hole

Ok, so as not to pollute Ironsheep's thread in the Listening to Music forum, I thought I'd start a separate topic here.

I went to check out Plankton using the link and saw this picture:



While that's an awful lot of nice mics pointed at one cab, one struck me as unusual.  I've never seen anyone use a pop-blocker on a mic next to a cab before!  I use one when I'm doing voice work and it's available it I ever had a vocalist drop by, but what is its purpose when micing a cab?  Is it supposed to stop loud P and B sounds when you're using a talk box (Golden Throat, et. al.)?

Just curious!  :)

Since that's a Beyer 160, the pop blocker is there to keep the air from the speaker from destroying the ribbon.  Probably unnecessary, unless these guys are tuned down or playing something really heavy and loud--I've seen Slayer throw those ribbons right up on their cabs and they push about as much air as anyone... but maybe thesound engineer lost one once, or maybe it has a custom ribbon in it...

It's not all that strange of a micing arrangement--one 57, one 421, and a ribbon mic.  I do the 57 (or AKG 330) + ribbon all the time.  Using two dynamics is kind of overkill I think, but to each his own... the 421 is the better sounding mic, IMO, but maybe they want to add a little upper mid peak in from the 57--neither of the other mics has that.

That makes sense then.  I didn't think the micing was strange (even if there does seem to be quite a few being used), I was just curious about the pop-blocker.

Maybe the sound guy once mic'ed one of Yngwie's cabs!  ;D

I would say it would stop the rush of a big cab pushing air hitting the mic full on.
not necessarily for damage reasons as I expect they can afford that unlikely outcome.

It also might have sounded better to them once that way and they are intent on keeping the physical mojo intact.

crazy way-off-axis mic'ing.

heh. it sounds good, probably the ribbon for the majority of it.

I wouldn't be surprised if the sm57 is feeding an echoplex or something like that... but, no idea.

Yep, my guess is that the ribbon mic is the main sound, and the other mics are used as needed for filler.  Considering that those mics are way off at the edges of the cones, they're not doing much anyway... the ribbon mic is in a perfect spot though.

I just went back and looked at the picture again.  It's not really a lot of mics like I first said.  On a quick look the holder for the ribbon mic and a leg of the mic stand both looked like additional mics.

Anyway, my question wasn't about the number of mics anyway, but the use of the pop-blocker and THAT question's been answered to my satisfaction!  :)