BBE MAXCOM Owner's Manual page 16

APPLICATIONS
during recording or playback. They are usually used when recording drum kits, where the mics are very close to
each other. High volume levels of individual instruments often cause considerable leakage onto all the adjacent
mics and results in conflicting frequency and phase coherence problems, as well as unspecified sounds ("comb"
filter effects). It is vitally important that every instrument is recorded into a separate mic and that each mic is in-
dividually gated. Patch the MAXCOM into a snare drum channel for example and adjust it so that triggering only
occurs on snare hits. Each mic should be set to its maximum operating level, monitored and the THRESHOLD
level set so that each snare hit sounds acoustically clean and separate, as though it was played on its own. The
optimum use of the Expander/Gate depends principally on microphone technique. Be particularly careful when
high frequency instruments are located to the side or rear of a cardioid microphone.
Function of an expander
F g i 9 .
Most cardioids exhibit a sharply rising off-axis response characteristic at higher frequencies. If there is only a 2
or 3 dB difference between the on-axis and off-axis response in the 5 to 10 kHz region, cymbals may leak exces-
sively into the tom mics and you may have hi-hat spilling all over the snare mic.
Please make full use of the directional characteristic of the mics to acoustically exclude all other instruments as
much as possible. Make sure that you do everything possible to achieve source separation with good micro-
phone technique. Otherwise the Expander/Gate is not able to undertake clear acoustic separation. Sometimes,
it is necessary to prevent the Expander/Gate from responding to low frequencies (rumbles etc.), especially if a
singer is moving the microphone around on a mic-stand. More information about this topic in section "USING
AN EQUALIZER IN THE SIDECHAIN PATH".
• INITIAL SETTINGS FOR THE EXPANDER/GATE SECTION
CONTROL
GATE THRESHOLD control
Begin with very low threshold levels so that the signal can pass through the unit unaffected. Now turn the control
clockwise until all unwanted noise is removed and only the sound of the desired instrument can be heard.
If the control is set correctly, the drum sounds will be "dry", "sharp" and clearly defined. If you do not have
enough mics (or MAXCOM channels!) to record each instrument separately, try to create subgroups: put the
snare and mid-toms together, and group the side-toms, bass drum and cymbals together with the help of a mix-
ing console.
The aim is to set up the Expander/Gate and to position the group mics so that each strike on an instrument
opens a specific mic and so only that instrument is recorded, whilst the other mics remain "muted".
• REDUCING LEAKAGE IN STAGE MICS
The MAXCOM has many uses in live work. On stage and in multi-miking situations, a well set up Expander/Gate
can effectively suppress background noise, compressor type pumping noise and microphone leakage without pro-
ducing any undesirable side effects. Expander/gates are commonly used for processing vocals. When specifically
used with a compressor, the distance and position of the mic in relation to the singer is very critical: the further the
distance, the more sensitive the mic is to background noise. When used in live situations, leakage of miked instru-
mentation is substantially reduced, as well as other acoustic contaminants in various recording situations.
• REDUCING FEEDbACK IN STAGE MICS
When a singer is using a vocal mic, their voice effectively stops other sounds from entering the mic. But in
pauses between the singing, the mic will pick up noise from the house PA and monitors which can lead to un-
F u n t c o i n f o a n e x p a n d r e
SETTINGS
-70 dB