Unconventional recording techniques (guitar, vocals, etc.)

[bdunlap]

I've been itching to try something new for a while, especially for guitar. I was thinking about buying an old VCR or stereo and running guitar into it boosted by a Blowing Up or something like that. Anyone try something like this/have any other weird studio things they've tried or want to try?

[WeHuntKings]

i want to try the stereo thing myself for dem filosofem toanz. i also wanna record something in a huge empty building like a warehouse/church and place all the mics at varying distances, but not at the speakers/ instruments themselves. i imagine the end result could sound super spacious and lonely if done well.

[zRobertez]

i want to try the stereo thing myself for dem filosofem toanz. i also wanna record something in a huge empty building like a warehouse/church and place all the mics at varying distances, but not at the speakers/ instruments themselves. i imagine the end result could sound super spacious and lonely if done well.

I went on a field trip to the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis when I was in high school and the only thing I could think of while I was in there was how cool an acoustic would sound in there. I suddenly had to "cough" while I was in there just to hear the huge trails in there. Crazy!

[GardenoftheDead]

i want to try the stereo thing myself for dem filosofem toanz.

Honestly, a Fender Frontman 15 watter will do that too.

[rfurtkamp]

VCR won't give you much, the tape circuit isn't hot for audio - it was better than some tape decks of the time if you used a good SHVS unit and good tape, but good tape...hard to find these days and stupid expensive.

And big rooms are fun, I had access after hours to the building where I had an office for a couple years and nobody was there for 8-12 hours a night, the 120' tile hallway was amazing with a Deluxe cranked.

The gun club didn't care if I used the outbuilding at 3 am either for a long time either (and was unrelated to music making, yahoos with guns + darkness + alcohol = bad), large concrete slab and metal prefab got neat resonance with PZM mics.

Sadly those days are behind me, but the outboard gear is so good these days comparatively (and I can afford it) that I don't miss it much.

[sonidero]

There are a millions things to do...

Replace a speaker in a practice amp with a car audio speaker... Put the amp in the bathtub, in a closet, at the bottom of a stairwell, in the oven, in a steel tub, in the laundry room... Mic the amp with multiple mics of varying quality, put one mic on the grill and anther 3 ft back and another 6 ft back and another 9 ft back and 12 and so on, run each of those mics through different effects... Use junky old tapes and record over it 20 times till you get a great horrible sound, play sounds from tape back through the amp and record again, leave a tape outside in the sun for a couple of days or on the dashboard till it warps... Use a huge plastic water barrel as a megaphone by cutting the bottom off, sing through a bullhorn, sing through a walkie talkie / baby monitor / headphones / microphonic pickups... Get an amp that pushes a lot of air and tape wax paper over the the grill or port, loosen screws on the speaker for rattle, slit the cone with a razor... Cut a hole in the bottom of a coffee can and drop the mic in there and use it to record vocals or amps... Try weird stereo pans with mics or front side recording, point the mics away from the amp and get reflections from the back and side walls... Put a blanket over the amp, put a mic behind the amp or inside the cab... Plug straight into a shitty mixer and max out the preamps, use aux sends for multiple effects and record them on different tracks and the same time... Record outside, in an empty pool, in the garage, storage shed, put your amp in a tree and record with one mic in the tree and one mic on the ground, play in a cave... Use a 55 gallon barrel or old gas tank as a reverb tank, just drop the mic inside...

There are tons off things to try... Get stupid...

[rfurtkamp]

There's always my favorite budget trick, take a $5 cheapie mic, stick it inside a $25 SS practice amp with a closed back cab, turn amp to max, Usually nets mic overdrive + speaker OD + ugly.

[coldbrightsunlight]

i want to try the stereo thing myself for dem filosofem toanz. i also wanna record something in a huge empty building like a warehouse/church and place all the mics at varying distances, but not at the speakers/ instruments themselves. i imagine the end result could sound super spacious and lonely if done well.

I went on a field trip to the Cathedral Basilica in St. Louis when I was in high school and the only thing I could think of while I was in there was how cool an acoustic would sound in there. I suddenly had to "cough" while I was in there just to hear the huge trails in there. Crazy!

Yeah, I visited the Taj Mahal a few weeks ago and the trails inside were inteeeeense. I really want a chance to record in an old church.

Gotta love using shitty mics way too close to speakers for lovely mic distortion and overloading recording preamps, particularly on old tape jobbies. There's definitely some fun ideas in that long list sonidero made!

[rfurtkamp]

There's also one I use periodically and forget to mention: take a small, battery powered amp, and find the spot where it creates feedback with the guitar signal in relation to where you're playing. Run a tuner out or something to it from your board, tape/hang it/whatever from a mic stand, go to town.

Think of it as a huge stupid ebow.

[theavondon]

Headphones as mics?

[Achtane]

Phone-phones as mics too...