Creme + SM57: Acoustic Guitar Setup (Video)
- 01.10.2020
- Jörg Nawra
- Creme
Video from April 2019 (11:27 min).
Ryan Earnhardt from Creative Sound Lab has used the Creme in a couple of his videos already. This time, he shows a simple yet effective method for recording acoustic guitars with two Shure SM57 microphones. Again, he uses the Creme.
Watch the video here:
What Happens in the Video
The technique is simple and cheap: two Shure SM57s, one over the guitarist's shoulder, one in front of the instrument, both at the same distance from the sound hole – measured with a guitar cable as a tape measure so the phase relationship in the low end is right. Ryan plays both mics individually first, then together in mono (one delivers the highs, the other the mids) and finally panned hard left/right as a stereo acoustic guitar. Then the Creme comes in: first without compression and EQ, then with compression, then with a little high and low boost added, and finally a comparison with a much more heavily compressed version. At the end he checks the phase relationship of the two mics by flipping the polarity of one channel: if the low end disappears, the mics are working together.
What Ryan Earnhardt Says About the Creme
"It's a VCA type compressor and I find that it just works great on kind of bus situations, drum bus, overheads or stereo microphones like this. There's something about the way that compression glues these tracks together. It also has a really nice top end boost, very, very smooth sounding." – Ryan Earnhardt (Creative Sound Lab), video, April 2019
"A little bit of top end boost, a little bit of bottom boost, I mean you can really sculpt this sound into something very nice." – Ryan Earnhardt (Creative Sound Lab), video, April 2019
What the Creme Is – and Why It Sits on the Mix Bus
The Creme is our bus compressor and mastering equalizer: a passive Pultec-style EQ and an SSL-style VCA bus compressor in one 2U unit. The order is switchable – EQ before the compressor or compressor before the EQ. On the mix bus the compressor pulls the separate parts into one whole, almost inaudibly at a 1.5:1 ratio, with a rhythmic signature of its own at higher ratios and faster timing; a side-chain filter keeps frequencies below 60 or 120 Hz out of the control circuit. The EQ offers a bass boost between 20 and 200 Hz and a high boost between 10 and 24 kHz, each 0–5 dB, every value on a rotary switch – which is why every setting is exactly reproducible. If you want plug-in recall, the Creme RC with motorized pots has it: Amazona.de reviews our Creme RC.
Want to test the Creme in your own studio for 14 days without any commitment?Register here
Related: Creative Sound Lab: Creme on Mix Bus and Overheads · Rick Beato: Recording Drums with the Creme · Archie Beatz: "The Creme Is My Glue" (Video)
