Nate Coon's #GreenRoomSessions

[LEWITT] Apart from the fact that you use it a lot, what do you think about its sound, and what comments have you gotten from other band members and people who have heard your recordings?  

[Nate Coon] You know, I hear a lot of mics are good for certain things, and then certain other mics are good for other things, but I can tell you that: I haven’t heard anything that the LCT 440 PURE doesn’t record well! Especially when you’re talking about vocals. People always want to use a lot of different mics for that, and the LCT 440 PURE recorded Aaron’s voice beautifully. It gives a lot of warmth on the acoustic and makes the banjo sound like a banjo. I haven’t heard a thing where I went: “Oh, let’s try something else.” So, this is an incredibly versatile mic, and I get asked a lot of times if I use samples. “No, I just try and get the original sound and make it work!” Whether it’s me slamming my fist into a refrigerator for a kick drum sound or pounding a washing machine to get all sorts of lovely low end. And putting it on the fiddle makes the fiddle sound wonderful. It’s just really versatile and kind of bulletproof, honestly.  

[LEWITT] How about those videos, are you shooting them with multiple cameras, all at the same time, or is that one at a time and then multi-tracking?  

[Nate Coon] Well, I wish it were all at the same time, but I only have two inputs right now, and I only have one GoPro camera, so that’s multi-tracking. We start with the instrument that’s playing, top-to-bottom. We start with that, and just build it from there.  

I’m using Final Cut Pro for the video, and for the audio I’ve been using Logic Pro 10. But as of this week, I switched over to Pro Tools. Yeah, just a whole lot of Final Cut and a whole lot of Logic so far.  

[LEWITT] In some of your videos you’re also using the LCT 940 Tube/FET hybrid microphone, is that correct?  

[Nate Coon] That one actually belongs to Aaron, and that’s what he was supposed to record his Christmas vocals on. They sent that home to his town, and for whatever reason, he felt more comfortable with me engineering on the road. So, that beautiful microphone was sitting at home while we were using the LCT 440 PURE on the road. I actually asked him: “Why didn’t you bring that mic?” I’m kind of borrowing it right now, and I was able to use it on the last two Green Room videos we did. Damian, our fiddle player, in our last video we did the Game Of Thrones theme, and I was able to use the LCT 940 on him. Today I was able to use it on the acoustic mandolin and the banjo. I’m playing around with the Tube/FET sounds. That mic is absolutely incredible, and I’ve been really impressed with it so far. It’s really warm, on the acoustic especially. So, I’m definitely not done exploring that one yet. But I’ll probably have to give it back at some point… (laughs) 

[LEWITT] There’s a lot of people who tell us they like the ability to change from the warmth of the “Tube” to the articulation of the “FET” side. Have you experimented with those settings?  

[Nate Coon] For the last video, I used all “Tube” on the acoustic and all “FET” on the banjo, and I used the in-between setting, exactly 12-o’clock, on the mandolin. That got the desired effect, for sure! I didn’t really know that was possible. I didn’t know that you could switch between those settings, but apparently you can. I think it’s a wonderful addition to have.  

[LEWITT]: So, what kind of comments have you had from people about the LCT 940? 

[Nate Coon]: It’s funny! I don’t get to see this when I’m recording people, but when you’re playing an instrument or singing into it, you have this tube that you can see in the microphone. That makes people go: “Oh, I haven’t seen that before!” It’s a kind of neat thing to know that you’re singing or playing through a solid piece of equipment. Yeah, I’ve been definitely getting a lot of compliments on the warmth of the LCT 940. But I just got my hands on it, like I said, so I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to work with it yet.  

[LEWITT]: Are there any final comments you would like to make about LEWITT microphones?  

[Nate Coon]: Sure! I was born and raised in Austria by American parents, and I’m a big fan of anything coming out of Austria. So, that’s pretty interesting about LEWITT.  

And interestingly enough, that’s a lot of the appeal of Paiste, where you don’t have to go find “that” cymbal that you like. If you like one 17” crash, all of their 17” crashes sound like that. I don’t know if that is the European, German, Austrian or Swiss kind-of precision. I’m not sure what that derives from, but it seems like they’re all drinking out of the same water, and they want to make real quality products. Definitely calls of the European heritage there, and it seems like there are a lot of good microphones from LEWITT that I’d love to check out, like the dynamic and condenser element kick mic, that looks interesting, and there’s a lot of other microphones I’d love to check out. But I’m definitely holding on to this LCT 440 PURE now. (laughs)