In tape-op #36, in an interview with Brian Deck (modest mouse, ugly cassanova), he says "Occasionally I'll just bus the whole mix out to the room, set up two fairly similar guitar amps and mic it out in the room just to give the overall mix some space. I actually do that on almost every record."
I'd like to experiment with this, and I've got some questions that I hope will keep me from causing all kinds of phase or related problems, since I'm curious how this room sound is mic'd and blended back in without just screwing the mix up.
1) I don't have 2 similar sounding amps.. while I am sure I can use my exquisite (ahem) HR824's for this... is there something two amps gives you over using two mains? tone shaping abilities? smaller frequency spectrum (avoid muddy low mids when mixing it in? why not just mic a mono mix?
2) Do you mic in stereo? I'd suspect not, since instinct tells me this would mess with the stereo image already present in the mix.
3) mic choice and placement: I imagine omnis are "better", since the goal is to capture ambience ...but what about distance issues and any phase problems that might result? Are there any rules of thumb when getting room sound like this to avoid phase problems? Or does it not matter since you are looking for ambience and its inherent delay? can you just put the mic up anywhere it sounds good on the 'phones?
4) anyone doing this over using short hall reverbs on the whole mix? anyone using light reverb on a whole mix in general for rock?
for starters, I'm thinking of throwing a mono mix out my pathfinder and using an omni on the other side of the room. The song is a traditional rock arrangement.
any pointers to obvious pitfalLs with phase and timing issues would be welcome.
thanks!