Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Get that song on tape! Errr... disk?
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marqueemoon
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Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Oct 23, 2021 11:18 am

Obviously it helps that their mixes are generally pretty minimal, but can anybody guess at what sorcery is at work here?

I suppose it really starts with the playing and arrangements, but yeah.

To my ears the main guitars sound like they are miced pretty closely, but they never sound woofy or heavily eq-ed, nor does there seem to be any obvious pumping. They’re natural sounding, but also perfectly reigned in.

Maybe really good omni mics to mitigate proximity effect + really transparent multiband compression? Just a wild guess.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by Larry Mal » Sat Oct 23, 2021 11:48 am

New to me, but I just listened to "Washing Machine", I'll give some more of their stuff a listen to since I am always into acoustic sounds.

Your idea about the omni mics is very plausible.
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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Oct 23, 2021 11:59 am

Larry Mal wrote:
Sat Oct 23, 2021 11:48 am
New to me, but I just listened to "Washing Machine", I'll give some more of their stuff a listen to since I am always into acoustic sounds.

Your idea about the omni mics is very plausible.
Yeah. I consider their stuff up with the best of modern recorded acoustic sounds.

The nylon string sounds in particular are pretty great. A lot of times that’s playing the bass role.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by Larry Mal » Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:14 pm

Well, this is a video of a recording session of theirs, I can't quite make out all the microphones, though.

https://www.facebook.com/kingsofconveni ... 1520513994
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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by Larry Mal » Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:18 pm

However that video isn't really playing for me from the link. Let me know if it doesn't work for you and I'll find some other way to get it up.
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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by marqueemoon » Sat Oct 23, 2021 1:06 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Sat Oct 23, 2021 12:18 pm
However that video isn't really playing for me from the link. Let me know if it doesn't work for you and I'll find some other way to get it up.
Worked for me, but yeah can’t make out much.

The thumb pick Erlend is using is probably the biggest insight for me.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by Dok » Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:42 pm

Looks like a Sennheiser 441 on the guy on the left? Surprising. And the woman on the right seems to be playing into some sort of Beyerdynamic ribbon. The rest are vocal mics and I can't tell what the guy in the middle is being recorded with due to the angle.
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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by øøøøøøø » Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:04 am

Dok wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:42 pm
Looks like a Sennheiser 441 on the guy on the left? Surprising.
Only surprising if you've never tried a 441 on acoustic!

It's one of the few moving-coil mics that I think really works fantastically on acoustic guitar. Obviously it's not a KM56, but it's a different kind of thing... a very good thing.

I don't get the sense that there's anything magical in the recording chain/process here--it's guitars played with fingers with a certain kind of time feel and concept of blend.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by Telliot » Wed Oct 27, 2021 10:07 am

Dok wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:42 pm
the woman on the right
Isn’t that Feist?
The cool thing about fretless is you can hit a note...and then renegotiate.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by marqueemoon » Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:36 pm

øøøøøøø wrote:
Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:04 am
I don't get the sense that there's anything magical in the recording chain/process here--it's guitars played with fingers with a certain kind of time feel and concept of blend.
A lot of it is the playing/arrangements, and there is a lot of judicious editing and automation bringing parts in and out.

Still, if there is some secret sauce here I want to know what it is.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by Dok » Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:51 pm

øøøøøøø wrote:
Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:04 am
Dok wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:42 pm
Looks like a Sennheiser 441 on the guy on the left? Surprising.
Only surprising if you've never tried a 441 on acoustic!

It's one of the few moving-coil mics that I think really works fantastically on acoustic guitar. Obviously it's not a KM56, but it's a different kind of thing... a very good thing.

I don't get the sense that there's anything magical in the recording chain/process here--it's guitars played with fingers with a certain kind of time feel and concept of blend.
I've never tried a 441 on anything. :) It's next on my list if I come across a good deal.
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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by Dok » Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:53 pm

Telliot wrote:
Wed Oct 27, 2021 10:07 am
Dok wrote:
Mon Oct 25, 2021 4:42 pm
the woman on the right
Isn’t that Feist?
I was looking at the microphone!
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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:57 pm

This documentary will probably yield a few clues, and is an interesting watch if you haven't already seen it.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by marqueemoon » Thu Oct 28, 2021 10:29 pm

UlricvonCatalyst wrote:
Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:57 pm
This documentary will probably yield a few clues, and is an interesting watch if you haven't already seen it.
Thanks for the link. That was great.

The one thing that stood out to me was the 3 hour soundcheck. That’s got to be a combination rehearsal/soundcheck, but still.

Must be nice to be able to tour on the train and have the government buy your unsold tickets.

No big revelations on the recorded sound, and it seems like they take a pretty pragmatic approach to their live setup.

Nylon strings seem to be on the smaller and shallower side, so that might partially be responsible for the more controlled low end.

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Re: Kings of Convenience acoustic sounds

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Fri Oct 29, 2021 12:18 am

Ah, I thought there was some studio footage in there - it's been a while since I watched it.

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