More “Handy” Ideas for the Zoom F6

Friday, February 3rd, 2023

I probably seem a little obsessive about finding minimalist recording rigs using my Zoom F6. The low noise preamps and extreme dynamic range make the audio recording job vastly easier, but I miss having an all-in-one recording solution using a single tripod. I am always looking for new interesting places to shoot my Look At Me Play Guitar videos and a minimal equipment load opens up a lot of possibilities. Fewer pieces of equipment also means easier setup and teardown.

The previous post details my first experiment, using adapters and bars and accessories, and I’ve used the hex bar approach for a published video. And in this video I’m using the “omni AB plugged straight in” technique, although in that session I was using the Schoeps CMC62 omnis rather than the Line Audio Omni1s.

This time I’m looking at two other solutions and I think I’m getting closer to the ideal. One approach is to mount a miniature mic directly on the guitar, something I’ve experimented with in the past. I pulled out a pair of vintage Countryman EM-101 mics and taped them in a position I had never tried before. The other rig uses DPA 4061 miniature omnis and their XLR adapter which happens to plug straight in to the F6. With a little tape and bell wire I rigged the 4061s in an AB configuration. While it won’t win any prizes for neatness I think this rig will get a bit more attention.

Both of these approaches will probably get more attention, I can definitely think of situations where either of these could be useful. If you’d like to listen to the these recordings in more detail you can download uncompressed WAV files and compare them – Countryman EM-101 and DPA 4061

I’ve done some videos with the DPA 4061 array if you’d like to check it out:

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2023 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Comparisons, Recording. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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About the Blog

    Howdy, my name is Fran Guidry and this is my Homebrewed Music blog.

    I play Hawaiian slack key guitar and recorded my solo acoustic CD at home. Most of the recording information I find on the internet seems focused on bands, drums, multitracking, and so on but my main focus is recording solo acoustic guitar. Lately I’ve been enjoying video recording along with audio, so that shows up in the blog as well.

    I’m also a guitar nut. I love big ones and little ones, handmades and factory guitars, cheap ones and expensive ones. So I’ll be sharing the fun of exploring guitars as well, along with the challenges of amplifying acoustic guitars for live performance.

    Welcome!

Philosophy

    My recording philosophy is pragmatic, skeptical, not super critical. After all, the performance is by far the most important component of a track, and every aspect of any recording is a matter of taste.

    But I do like to know “about stuff.” Back in hifi days I learned about double blind testing. I learned that we humans can easily hear differences that don’t really exist. The more I’ve learned about our human auditory system, the more I’m skeptical of what people say they hear, especially if they claim that a particular microphone or preamp or cable has some magical property.

    I’ve only been recording since 2001, and when I started I found the usual places on the internet. I sought advice and accepted it, thought I would improve my recordings by using more expensive equipment. It didn’t work.

    Two things that did seem to lead to better recordings were experience and room treatment. Getting an appealing sound is the combination of many small details, and learning those details only comes from experience. Amd the sound of the recording space is obviously a big factor.

    I’ve only recorded seriously using digital technology, but I remember trying to record rehearsals and gigs back in analog days. I don’t have any nostalgia for analog recording and playback systems at all. I think even low end digital systems can capture marvelous recordings. So when I look at gear, I look for good specs: low noise, broad flat frequency response, wide dynamic range, low distortion. I’m not interested in colorful components, mics and preamps with a sound, I want the sound to be the sound of my guitar.

    But the last word is that I’m just learning and I hope you find something useful in my posts.