Your microphone that is. There are good places and bad places to plonk your mikes, and they all depend on what you're recording. Martin Sheehan knows the good ones, of course.

ACOUSTIC GUITAR

There is a tendency to mike up acoustic guitars too close to the sound hole resulting in a boomy tone. A safe place to position the microphone is level with the top of the sound hole, a couple of frets in from the end of the body, and angled back towards the last fret. A cardioid microphone should be over a foot away from the body in order to minimise the proximity (accentuated bass) effect. An omnidirectional microphone can be used closer than this. Condenser microphones tend to be better for recording acoustic guitars than dynamics for two reasons: a), they are less noisy and can thus be used further away without compromising signal to noise ratio, and b), they are generally better at reproducing the higher frequencies — important for character. Very effective, though not so natural results can be obtained by using a dynamic microphone and an aural exciter. If the low bass is rolled off at the mixer, the microphone can be used closer to the guitar and then the exciter can be used to give a sparkle to the top end of the sound. Contact microphones are very useful for PA work but are not beneficial in the studio. A boundary effect microphone stuck to a wall and 'played at' from about a yard away can produce a very open sound. A little presence lift at around 3-6kHz and a touch of reverberation can be used for spice.

ELECTRIC GUITAR

For a super funky wacka rhythm, use harsh compression with a fast attack and release and DI the guitar. Loudspeakers only get in the way of this type of sound. But for any other type of guitar sound, the distortion offered by speakers is invaluable. When miking up speaker cabinets, place them away from the comer of the room to avoid boxy resonances. Even the duffest of microphones can record pleasing guitar sounds and using two microphones can create a big sound without tying up effects units. Point the first microphone at the centre of the speaker cone for maximum high frequency pick up, and place the second one anywhere you like in the rest of the room then record a mixture of the two outputs.

A long echo delay with its treble rolled off will give the appearance of increased sustain for loud work. Compression will also increase sustain (but noise as well). The buzz and hiss of effects pedals and overdriven amps can be eased out by a noise gate placed last in the chain before the signal hits the tape recorder. More forgiving than a noise gate for lead work is the dynamic noise filter which attenuates noise progressively from the top end down, and is thus less likely to chop the end off your long notes.

Where track space doesn't permit the recording of a stereo guitar, a wide sound can be obtained by later panning the dry guitar to one side and adding a 30ms delayed version of the same signal to the other side during the mix. When pressed for time, a useable guitar sound can be guaranteed quickly by DI'ing the guitar into the mixer via a Rockman or similar device. (NB. Plugging a guitar straight into a mixer can result in a dull tone (impedance mismatch). Going via a pedal can often solve this.)

ELECTRIC BASS

Compression is the key to the modern bass sound — try a high ratio of 10 or 15:1 with about half a millisecond attack and half a second release. Direct injection of the instrument into the mixing desk gives a tight sound but will accentuate fingering noise. Miking up the bass cabinet will result in a more coloured and powerful sound, and a combination of both techniques is often used. Dynamic microphones with large diaphragms (eg AKG D12) are favourite. Place the microphone 9in to 1ft from the cabinet, and point it at the centre of the cone for maximum high frequency pick-up. When using DI and microphone together, try both positions of the phase reversal switch on the mixing desk (if fitted). Default EQ settings: add a bit at the bottom (around 80Hz) take out a bit in the middle (250-500Hz), and add a bit at the top (5-7kHz). Avoid boosting the bottom too much at the recording stage, instead add a little more, if necessary, during the mix. Chorus works well, especially on DI'ed bass, but appears cliched if mixed too high. For a really tight rhythm section, put the bass through a noise gate and trigger it to open from the kick drum. For a really bright sound, boil your strings (take them off the guitar first!).

VOCALS

Singing further away from the microphone than you would 'live' helps to keep tone and level steady. Aiming your voce slightly over the microphone rather than directly into it reduces sibilance and popping. Using closed headphones as opposed to spongey ones to monitor the backing track avoids sound leakage back into the microphone. A low compression ratio of about 3 or 4:1 helps the vocal to sit well in the mix. It also makes it easier to set the recording level. Add reverberation at the mixing rather than the recording stage as the required level is difficult to judge in advance. A long repeat echo, mixed low, and timed to the tempo of the song is a good substitute for inadequate reverberation. To add richness, double track by recording the vocal onto one track and then sing it again, recording it onto another track while mixing in the vocals from the first take. If you can't match your phrasing, try automatic double-tracking using a delay of about 40 ms mixed up to match the level of the dry voice.

DRUM MACHINES

To simulate the room ambiance captured when recording an acoustic kit, set up a microphone some distance away from the monitor speakers and using headphones as a guide for level, mix in some of the sound captured from the monitors as the drum track is being recorded.

To fatten up sterile drumsounds, fade up a 50-100ms delayed version of the signal, and then back it off a little until a distinct repeat is not audible. Rolling off a little bottom from the delayed signal will keep the sound tight. Your ears will quickly become accustomed to this sound, and turning off the delayed signal will show just how stark the dry version was. Using longer delays of 200-500ms, timed to fall a third or two thirds of the way between beats or bars, will give a triplet feel which can perk up a stagnant little pattern very effectively.

Using a noise gate on the reverb send as well as the return will allow the gated reverb sound to be applied exclusively to the loudest drum of a sequence, even on a drum machine without individual outputs.

To avoid the lagging sensation sometimes caused when a drum machine is triggered from a sync track, turn the tape over and feed the sync track through a few milliseconds of delay, then re-record it onto a spare channel. When the tape is played back the right way round, the sync signal will have been advanced.

ELECTRONIC KEYBOARDS

The primary objective when recording keyboards is often to make them sound fatter and more expensive. Using a chorus, provided either by a dedicated pedal or a digital delay unit, a Leslie rotating speaker effect can be simulated (try it by playing with the modulation speed control). This sound is further enhanced by panning the dry keyboard sound to one side of the stereo and the effected sound to the other side.

Monophonic sequences can be made to sound polyphonic by timing echoes to land on the beat of the previous note. Increasing the number of repeats will increase the number of simultaneous notes although the sequence needs to be carefully arranged in order that the repeats should not fall out of key.

A richer sound can be produced without effects units by double tracking the keyboard, altering the pitch a fraction for the overdub either by retuning the keyboard, or by use of the vari-speed if available on the tape deck. A fatter sound can also be achieved by putting the keyboard through a combo at the same time as directly injecting it into the mixer. The combo can then be miked up from a distance, and some of this sound mixed in with the dry sound from the mixer to give a 'live' feel to the sound.

DRUMS

Close miking a drum kit takes a lot of microphones which takes a lot of money. Providing that the kit sounds okay as it is, and that the room it is in is not too dead, the following method can produce very acceptable results with just three microphones.

Place a pair of microphones (preferably the same model) about four feet apart on either side of the drummer's head and position the other microphone just over half way inside the kick drum just where the beater strikes. Move the overhead pair up or down for the desired proportion of drums to cymbals, and back or forwards to adjust the amount of ambient pick-up for a bigger or tighter sound. Set up the kit away from the corner of the room to avoid a boxy tone. More damping is required for recording than for live work, and a heavy blanket inside the kick drum is a good idea. For the kick and the toms, one drum head is preferable to two, but it is better to cut a hole (approx two thirds diameter) in the second head than to remove the head altogether. Removing the head is likely to allow shell distortion and to leave rattling tensioners. Clarity can be given to the recording of the kick drum by rolling off a little low middle (about 250Hz), and extra slap can be encouraged, if all else fails, by taping a beer mat to the head where the beater strikes. Very high sound pressure levels are generated inside a kick drum and if the sound just won't come right it may be that the microphone can't handle it. The bigger the microphone, the better is generally true in this case, so if you have a larger one, try it. Failing that, it is quite possible to achieve a good sound when miking up a kick drum from outside where the SPL is less. It is far better to use a few good microphones on a kit than a lot of average ones. The more microphones you use, the greater the phase problems, characterised by 'hot spots' and 'holes' in the sound. If you do have enough good microphones to play with, you can get the best of both the crack and the crunch out of a snare by miking it from both above and below. When doing this, check the phase inversion switch (if available) on the channel for the bottom microphone, or alter its position to check that the fundamentals of the sound are not cancelling out (sounds hollow if they are).

The VU meters on a tape deck do not respond fast enough to indicate accurately the peaks of drum signals, so be aware that the sound is liable to get bent long before the meter needles do.

Finally, the most effective effect for mixing down drums is the aural exciter which will help develop the high frequencies.