Recording in the Tent Of Doom
In our 4th Trimester in SAE Institute Dubai, we were given the challenge to use quirky recording and mixing techniques for our audio assignment. We have adopted many techniques that have been used by many legendary productions and bands for each instrument recorded.
For the guitars, we adopted the legendary hard rock band, Metallica's recording technique used in their biggest commercially successful album self-titled 'Metallica' in 1991 (also referred to as 'The Black Album'). The recording method utilised is known as the 'Tent Of Doom'. This tent was built in what was the band's designated "Low-end room", a room made for the frequencies in any of the instruments to have more prominence in the low-end of the frequency spectrum ("Bass Player Magazine", 1996). They used four cabinet speakers set up next to each other and had pointed a pair of an SM-57 and MD-421 on each speaker,and used a stereo pair of AKG-C414s as a room microphone. The 'Tent' aspect of this was built from moving blankets and foam on the sides to enclose the cabinets and keep the sound tighter, and better suit the high gain, distorted guitar sound ("gearslutz",2008).
As we adopted this technique, we had to limit it to what we possessed and used a lot to our advantage. We had used one cabinet speaker instead of four, that was brought with a 100 watt Blackstar amplifier by myself. Instead of foam, we used the movable padded walls our studios in SAE Institute Dubai, on the sides of the amplifier. We did not understand for a while what moving blankets were used and how thick they must be, after searching that the blankets used were U-haul blankets ("Tent of Doom", 2006), we used two single cover, thick blankets for the tent, and hung them on the mic stands for the SM-57 and MD-421 placed in front as shown in the picture above. We placed a K2 outside of the tent as shown below, but after some phase-cancellation and unnecessary frequencies had risen, we placed it above the tent which gave a better enclosed, tighter sound for the high gain guitars. The three microphones were recorded through three AUX buses and blended into one track. The result gave the desired tight sound with a lack of further adjustments in the 12-band EQ in mixing stage. The result would be found in the "Projects" section of this wixsite under "T4 project" ("saifsami", 2017).
References:
Jason Newsted Interview - Bass Player Magazine 1996. (1996). Metallicaworld.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.metallicaworld.co.uk/Interviews/1996_jason_bassplayer.htm
Metallica Black Album Mic Technique Help Me!. (2008). Retrieved from https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/180359-metallica-black-album-mic-technique-help-me.html
saifsami. (2017). saifsami. Retrieved from http://sqassim.wixsite.com/saifsami/projects
Tent of Doom. (2006). Retrieved from http://www.harmonycentral.com/forum/forum/recording/acapella-14/222486-
