help finding pair of mics for stereo home recording - acoustic instruments

T

thos

New member
Hi, I'm looking to buy a pair of mics that would be good to use for home recording acoustic instruments. Primarily for recording a pair of mbiras (African thumb pianos) but for other uses as well. Would like to know what people think are good options for this purpose and what to look for in the $200-400 range. The idea here is that the instruments would be close mic'd as well, and the stereo pair would catch the overall sound of the instruments and the room sound. The sound of of the instruments is quite complex, with lots of harmonics from the metal keys, as well as the resonance of the gourd resonators and buzzing of bottle caps is part of the sound as well.

I'm assuming a pair of condensers is the best bet, these are so many options out there and frankly I don't know how to begin making comparisons. I also see there are single stereo mic options
(like this: AT2022 X/Y Stereo Microphone || Audio-Technica US) and wonder how they compare quality-wise to getting a pair of ceondensers.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Tom
 
Using two different techniques is almost always a car crash! Close mics and steel techniques rarely play well together. So many conflicts, and sound interacts very simply. In a stereo system, using the common techniques two mics just a few inches apart have tiny differences in level and phase time and your brain uses this to recreate the sound field. X/Y for instance really needs the capsule in the same space, which isn't possible because they are in tubes or boxes, and this impacts on the soundfield. Close miking tries to capture as much of the direct sound as it can and as little room sound or other sources as possible. If you then try to add 'distance' some things add, some things cancel and often at different frequencies producing a sound field that can change as the note played rises or falls! If you buy two smallish condensers, even modest proceed ones, then you can experiment with positioning to give the right sound. You could use X/Y or perhaps a spaced pair might work better if the sound source is spread out over a bigger area. With unusual, or self built instruments that may all be unique what you need is time and loudspeakers, not headphones, as recording these with headphones can produce very odd results listened to on speakers. When you find the perfect positioning, take a photo so you can repeat it next time to speed things up.
 
Thanks for the input! Alan, I will take a closer look at the mics you suggested.

Rob, I appreciate your insight into this question. I'm just learning here & you've given me some things to think about.

Actually we've been experimenting with using piezo pickups (instead of close mics) on the instruments, and a single (mono) room mic (just a few feet from the instruments which are not terribly loud). The mic we're using is an old large diaphragm condenser, not very high quality. The pickups actually provide a nice fairly detailed sound (and warm bass response) of the instruments which seems to get lost from room mics (unless we're in a particularly great sounding room). I imagine the piezo pickups would have the same issues you mentioned, as close miking would, when combined with a pair of condensers.

The sound we get so far is decent to our ears, when we mix the raw tracks (with the instrument pickups panned L-R and the condenser centered). Trying to figure out how much better we can get it to sound by spending $400 or so.

I like the idea of using a stereo pair of condensers and experimenting with placement to get a nice overall sound, and then possibly having the pickups on each instrument to provide detail to the sound. I believe there are aspects to the sound of mbiras which are difficult to capture with pickups (or close mics) and other aspects which are hard to get from room mics (again, unless you have a particuarly good sounding room). So I'm inclined to experiment with that combination.

However if I can get a good enough pair of condensers (& the right placement), maybe I could do away with the pickups. In that case, I'm guessing larger diaphragm would be a better choice, since I've read that works better for bass response and rolls off a bit on the high end. But as I say, I'm guessing here.

Just to fill more info, I'm talking about recording a pair of mbiras, two of the same instrument, both in the same range (over three octaves) played together, which need to be well balanced in terms of volume & left-right placement.

Thanks again for the info & suggestions!

Tom
 
The Røde NT 5 or NT 55 are a good inexpensive stereo pair, as is also the Sontronics STC-1 (the STC-1 is a cardioid mic. but have optional interchangeable omni and hyper-cardioid heads available). :thumbs up:
 
I would personally have to say the Rode M5 stereo pair is an amazing set of condenser microphones. Listening to my acoustic tracks from the past (Recorded with an SM58) and comparing the quality now (Stereo Rode M5's), it's insane how much clearer they are.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top