This switch right here is something a lot of seasoned engineers understand instinctively, but don’t really articulate. You may not be using it as effectively as you could be. You’ll see this taught through this case of emergency brake glass kind of lens.
It’s more nuanced. As you may know, this is a pad. In this case, it reduces the sensitivity of the mic by 10 or 20 dB.
And you may in fact have to pad this microphone in front of something really loud like a blaring guitar amplifier or a snare drum. But definitely times that no matter how much you turn it down, you’re still going to be pegging the meter. And in those instances, the pad is the mic’s last line of defense.
Look, I’ve recorded plenty of loud music and my mic locker is full of mics that handle pretty much anything I throw at them. So why are we still talking about this? In recording, we’re taught about this fictional ideal, which we call a straight wire with gain.
The idea is that when you amplify something, you can literally just make it bigger or smaller. In reality, every element of the chain adds its own coloration. It doesn’t matter if it’s a bunch of tubes or tons of iron in the transformers of a console.
You’re not just matching the instrument, the source. Minimally, you’re matching the source, the mic, and the preamp. And that’s where this can really shine because this is the OG tone control.
That’s going to let you balance how hard this is working against how hard that’s working because they’re going to sound different. And so if you want to amplify something, share that with someone who belongs in a Beat Kitchen class.
