Miking bluegrass

H

heupel

New member
OK, I'm sure somebody can answer this but I dont know...I'm going to make a demo for my buddies bluegrass band. Can someone give me pointers on the correct way to mike: standup bass, mandolin, dobro, also any tricks to help the sound: effects etc.
I was also wondering the best way to mike harmonies, One mike or overdub? thanx
 
How many mics do you have?

Best setup would be live to separate mics for vocals and each instrument....

Next best would be some kind of stereo setup to two main mikes and a solo mike in the middle. (Each player steps up to the center mike for his solo part.) You have to get the balance just right!

Least desirable would be recording each instrument separately....the nature of bluegrass music is feeling and flowing from each instrument to the other...

(a fiddle takes off on a break, and right into a mandolin solo....while the fiddle player comps a few chords, and then joins in on a harmony lick!)

Bluegrass often moves along at lightning speed, and timing is very important, overdubs could be a night mare!

Try it live!

Sincerely;

Dom Franco
 
Thanks, I thought it would be most natural recording live but wasn't sure. Any ideas on the best way to mike a standup bass?
 
Any dynamic mic....SM57...at about 1 foot away from the bridge, will pick up the bass just fine. You will have to balance all the mikes carefuly, because all of the instruments will be playing at once. If you have baffles, that might help to separate the instruments.

Dom Franco
 
this kind of recording can be very tricky to get right, and i would encourage you to schedule some time with the group to do some experimenting with mic placements and trial recordings. listen to some commercial CDs of bluegrass music together and talk about what kind of sound they are after. as in any live-type recording of small ensembles, i recommend a very nice stereo pair out front (perhaps a pair of neumann km140s in ORTF for this), coupled with several accent mics for your individual instruments, all on separate tracks if you have enough. i might compress the string bass to give consistency to the foundation. track dry. a touch of medium hall reverb to the stereo pair at mix, combined with a little manual fader boost to solo lines from individual instrument accent mics without the verb to bring them more upfront during their solos. use the best mics you can get, and keep them pretty tight. the mics that work well for live performance are often not well suited to recording properly.
 
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