Violin Mic

[XLR]

I love mine. I have expensive mic's too and the Naiants stand up well to those. You need to make sure there's no environmental noise interference whatever mic's you use. And no mic fits every situation. Whether or not you get a good sound will depend on your engineering skill (especially mic placement) and the players sound quality more than what mic you use. And the room of course. The Naiants are a good investment and mic's you'll keep as you expand your mic cabinet.

Well mshil might not post more in the thread since we're talking about his mic's (he makes the Naiant mic's, you know), as he doesn't discuss them on the forum as a rule. Good riddance since he disagreed with me about time-aligning, haha. J.K.

 

[dgatwood]

will i really get a good sound out of those little naiant mics?

Yes. I was going to suggest them, too.

and won't the onmi pick up some room noise?

Maybe. It will definitely be more susceptible in an absolute sense, but not necessarily in a relative sense (SNR). I'll explain.

Depending on how tight the cardioid pattern is, you'll usually have lots of rejection at the exact back of the mic, but you'll have much less rejection the farther around you get, and very little rejection at all on the sides. Most background noise sources are not particularly directional, in my experience, so this only goes so far.

Since what matters is not the amount of noise, but rather the ratio between the sound and the noise, if using an omni mic makes the background noises louder by 6 dB, you can get the same apparent noise level by also increasing the volume of the instrument by 6 dB as seen by the mic.

A 6 dB change in volume is equivalent to halving the distance, give or take. Therefore, if using an omni allows you to put the mic half as far away as you could with a cardioid (or closer) due to lack of proximity effect and/or better off-axis sound quality, then you're better off with the omni. If not, you're better off with the cardioid. The whole 6 dB number is, of course, a very rough approximation of an average. If the noise source is particularly directional and directly behind the mic, you'd have to make up a lot more than 6 dB. If the noise source is coming heavily from the side, it's probably more like 3 dB. The point isn't the numbers or the distance, but rather that the distance affects the numbers.

Also remember that the entire instrument is involved in the sound, so placement of cardioids can make a very big difference in what you hear. An omni provides some advantages there in terms of not being nearly as sensitive to placement, which is really helpful if you're miking an instrument you're not used to miking.

 

[violist]

two pairs of mics

Thanks for the advice following my previous posts. About whether one would time-align ambient mics it seemed to me that it wouldn't be necessary if the relationship between the original levels was maintained, however once the volume of the ambient pair changed then it would probably be necessary.

Here's a recording I made on Tuesday of the duo, using an ambient pair and a main pair both in ORTF. Each instrument was on the mic axis of the main pair but not so for the ambient pair, being set back. It's a contemplative movement that starts quietly but builds up in the middle. For me this seems the best result recording strings I've achieved to date so I'd definitely use this configuration again. We had the luxury of a great room, an 80-seat salon with 6 metre high ceiling.

 

[halfred]

Studio Projects C4's work great on my Stenway B for classical recordings, and I have a sense that they would do a great job for violin as well. They come in pairs as well as with interchangeable capsules (cardioid and omni) so you would have a great deal of flexibility experimenting which you absolutely need given how the subtleties of the instrument and the space in which you record impact the recording. Also, you can find great deals on C4's online. I got my pair new for well under $300.

 

[XLR]

Here's a recording I made on Tuesday of the duo, using an ambient pair and a main pair both in ORTF.

Sounds like I'm there in the room, sitting in maybe the 3rd or 4th row. Nice work. Who cares about time-aligning? Just do, as you did, what sounds good.