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True love for great sound unites us.
I’m Miguel Costermans and I’m originally from the Dominican Republic, but I moved to Belgium in 2007.
I play guitar, bass, a bit of drums, and basic piano and I’ve learned most of it by myself. When I used to play in bands, I’ve always worked on some ideas.
At one point, I thought it would be cool to be able to record those ideas. That’s when I got myself an interface and started recording. After a while, I realized that this is what I wanted to do.
How I got into recording
I joined a recording course for one year, and then I got myself a bigger interface and ProTools and started recording bands for free to gain experiences and named my studio MC Home Studio.
Started in 2014, I’ve recorded demos for singer-songwriters, till I met the band Wall to Wall - a blues-rock band from Antwerp. It was the first full band I recorded, and we still work together.
Photos: Miguel Costermans playing bass & inside his MC Home Studio
I still remember that a friend of mine asked me once to replace the guitarist of his band and while we were rehearsing the manager of the venue came by to have a little chat.
When I told him that I speak Spanish, he mentioned a friend who also speaks Spanish as well, and had a studio. I wrote him an email, and the next day, the guy answered me and told me I could assist him in his studio.
I frequently went to his studio to assist, and I also assisted in other studios later, like Trix Studios & Sputnik Studio. Thanks to that I’ve learned a lot about recording over the past years.
In 2016 a friend asked me to record a demo for a Latin project Skala B, this was the biggest challenge ever: about nine musicians, different kinds of percussions, strings, and wind instruments. I have recorded this project two times already, and thanks to that, other Latin bands have asked me to mix or record songs for them as well, like a band called "Quantum Cafe" most recently.
I did the masterclass mixing in the box with Peter Claes & ideas to a song at Abbey Road Studios Amsterdam
Next to those hand on experiences, I’ve also watched a lot of mixing tutorials on YouTube, and when I discovered Produce Like A Pro, everything became clear to me.
I became a member of the academy and discovered the LEWITT mics, which I first saw in a few giveaways. I was hoping to win one until I could not wait any longer and ended up buying myself an LCT 440 PURE.
My experiences with the LCT 440 PURE
A few weeks ago, I’ve recorded the band Sonderwålt and tried the LCT 440 PURE on the cello.
While I was setting up everything, trying different positionings to find a sweet spot, I told the cellist to play something cool, and he played the intro of Game of Thrones. It sounded so great that I was blown away by the quality of this mic.
Miking techniques for recording cello
The chain I used for recording was LCT 440 PURE > Capi vp28 > RME ufx
The band consisted of guitar, cello, a little percussion, and vocals. I needed the cello to sound huge and warm. I took the LCT 440 PURE and started to move it in front of the cello about a foot away, till I got the sound I was looking for.
Pointing it slightly to the F hole in front of the edge of the cello – you’ll probably ask yourself, why I did that? If you put the mic directly in front of the F hole, you’ll get too much low-end, and for this type of music I didn’t need too much low-end, but it just had that warm sound. That’s what I did, and it sounded great!
Another option is to point the mic between the F hole and the bridge but put it in front of the F hole and slightly turn it in the direction of the bridge, about a foot away.
That's what I did to add a second layer of cello on the songs. You can also add a second mic on top in case you want to capture the sound of the bow touching the strings. Here I would recommend a small diaphragm mic, but another mic will do the job as well.
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