salvaging sax

[robin watson]

Old vintage Selmer saxophone, absolutely exquisite player. Mics at hand:

Milab DC96B (probably the best mic I've got in the rack): some serious reed rasp and noise coming from an instrument in need of some TLC. I've recorded this guy before with decent results using just an SM58, so it's not his technique, definitely the instrument.

Rode NT1A: same problem, just too much rasp going on.

Beyer M88: not happening at all.

Ended up with a '57. Was disappointed not to be able to use a more sophisticated mic setup - his playing is certainly worth the effort of capturing the best way possible. The '57 wasn't all that inspiring, and I'm left with a rather thin, nasily sounding dry track, which will definitely need some bass boosting to give it some body, while taming the upper mid rasps described above (albeit minimized with the use of a dynamic mic).

Any pointers for sax EQ'ing? The arrangement are quite sparse: vocal(s), guitar(s) mainly, with the odd song having upright bass. I'm thinking of Coleman Hawkins, Nighthawk, up close and personal kind of stuff (which is how he plays, breathy and all). Anyone compress sax to any degree, and if so, what kind of settings?

Sorry, long post, and probably not really answerable either! Oh, well...

 

[bigtoe]

more important that what you used is where you put it.

"taming the upper mid rasps described above (albeit minimized with the use of a dynamic mic)."

ach - a 57 accentuates these frequencies.

what compression do you have available? if ya got one with a sidechain - slap a de-essing type thing on it.

when i compress sax i use a couple la2a copies...one lightly compressing (needle just nudging), the other shaving the peaks off with a limiter. i'd have no qualms doing this with a 2 channel compressor like the 166 or the original composer though...

for body - you could do worse than kicking it out through a speaker/monitor and micing it up with an M88. try it - sounds weird but it can work to re-mic something like that.

Mike

 

[AGCurry]

First of all, it's a shame that this guy isn't taking care of his Selmer. Until he does, the better mic will simply pick up more of the problems. That's why you ended up using the 57, I bet.

Where are you placing the mic? A sax is big enough so that too close will not yield a complete picture of the instrument's sound. I start about 2 feet from the instrument, about 2/3 of the distance from mouthpiece to bell.