What is the best mic for recording accordian music

tangerine

tangerine

grumpy bastard
What mic should I use, I was thinking of a audio technica ribbon tube dynamic condensor. What would you use?:confused:
 
tangerine said:
That's a good 57 clone by the look of things.
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I tried one out a little while back and I could tell no difference in sound quality between my SM 57 and the ES 57.
for 29.95 a piece that is a pretty hard deal to pass up especially when I was needing some more instrument mics.:cool:
 
The last time I had to mic an accordian (not a frequent occurrence mind you) I used an AKG C535eb. This was for a live event that was also recorded direct to a Masterlink. I thought it sounded quite good.
 
Is this solo accordian or accordian in accompaniment in a group of instruments?

For the solo accordian you should have a decent condenser. Accordians have ALL the frequencies ALL AT ONCE and need something that doesnt smear the sound. or add any overtones of their own. A KSM27/32/44 is about as good as it gets for this. Detail without the hype.

For accordian mixed in with a group of instruments, I recommend SDC's in an X/Y pattern. Any of the popular drum overhead mics will do for this as a lot of the overtones from the accordian are going to be competing with the other instruments involved. So you want to capture the 'essence' of the accordian while being able to leave space for everything else.

Accordian isnt that easy to do well and if you havent recorded one you're in for a treat. The bellows breathe and make mechanical noises as well as key clicks. Placement is critical.


Anyone thinking that simply throwing up a 57 on something like this and getting a great track hasnt done this at all.
 
cavedog101 said:
Placement is critical.

Anyone thinking that simply throwing up a 57 on something like this and getting a great track hasnt done this at all.
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you're getting rep for this. :D

a LOT of it depends on how the player plays. do they just play the keys and not use the left hand (button hand) at all? if not, you can probably get by with a single mic over on the keyboard side of the accordion and you can probably get in a lot closer than you otherwise can.

if they use both sides of the accordion, then you need to back up a bit and i'd use either XY or a spaced pair of mics. if you get in too close, you're gonna have a very nasally sounding recording that is full of mechanical noise (bellows, and clicks/pops from the keys and buttons).

if you have access to something like a Beyer M160, use that. i've managed decent results with a BLUE Dragonfly and once with an MXL V67, believe it or not.


cheers,
wade
 
hahahaha...this reminds me of a story a teacher of mine told me a couple years ago. i guess there's some local accordian "club", a good 20-25 people, who get together and jam out every now and then, and they decided that they wanted to have a performance of theirs recorded.

they somehow ended up recording it at my school, and i guess most of them barely knew what they were doing, and they ended up pretty much playing a bunch of random, off-time crap. i'm glad i wasn't around for that chaos/cacophony.
 
cavedog101 said:
Is this solo accordian or accordian in accompaniment in a group of instruments?

For the solo accordian you should have a decent condenser. Accordians have ALL the frequencies ALL AT ONCE and need something that doesnt smear the sound. or add any overtones of their own. A KSM27/32/44 is about as good as it gets for this. Detail without the hype.

For accordian mixed in with a group of instruments, I recommend SDC's in an X/Y pattern. Any of the popular drum overhead mics will do for this as a lot of the overtones from the accordian are going to be competing with the other instruments involved. So you want to capture the 'essence' of the accordian while being able to leave space for everything else.

Accordian isnt that easy to do well and if you havent recorded one you're in for a treat. The bellows breathe and make mechanical noises as well as key clicks. Placement is critical.


Anyone thinking that simply throwing up a 57 on something like this and getting a great track hasnt done this at all.
Click to expand...

i have never ever recorded an acordian but i think I could make one sound pretty damn good with an SM 57 SM 58 or any other kind of mic.
I am pretty confident in my recording abilitys and how and where to properly position the mic or mics that I have to work with.

you can have the most expensive most proper mic for the job but if you don't know what you are doing it is going to sound like a train wreck.
 
Roguetitan said:
i have never ever recorded an acordian but i think I could make one sound pretty damn good with an SM 57 SM 58 or any other kind of mic.
I am pretty confident in my recording abilitys and how and where to properly position the mic or mics that I have to work with.

you can have the most expensive most proper mic for the job but if you don't know what you are doing it is going to sound like a train wreck.
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Well GOOD for you! Thats great news. Hopefully when you get the opportunity to record an accordian, you'll refer back to the little mini-lesson you got from me and Mr.Face. And after you've taken DOWN the 57 simply because it wasnt the right tool for the job, you'll understand that these forums are for learning, not for blowing ones own horn.

I know an accordian player who can play complete symphonies on that thing. As well as Jazz, rock-n-roll, country,baroque, middle eastern dance music, eastern european dances.....well, pretty much anything you can think of. Most amazing thing I've ever heard.

His accordian is custom-built and its huge. Extra bass in the right hand and a half a scale on the left...top and bottom. To properly capture this thing you have to be completely aware of the environment. The ROOM has to be good before you ever start to put up mics. You treat this machine just like the hottest guitar slinger imaginable. Chances are good he can play circles around MOST of the hot gunslingers you've ever heard. Plus...the sound of this accordian can fill a 100 seat hall.....acoustically. So you really gotta go deep into the engineering skills to get'r done.

Hope you get such a chance someday. You'll love it. And it will humble you.
 
cavedog101 said:
Well GOOD for you! Thats great news. Hopefully when you get the opportunity to record an accordian, you'll refer back to the little mini-lesson you got from me and Mr.Face. And after you've taken DOWN the 57 simply because it wasnt the right tool for the job, you'll understand that these forums are for learning, not for blowing ones own horn.

I know an accordian player who can play complete symphonies on that thing. As well as Jazz, rock-n-roll, country,baroque, middle eastern dance music, eastern european dances.....well, pretty much anything you can think of. Most amazing thing I've ever heard.

His accordian is custom-built and its huge. Extra bass in the right hand and a half a scale on the left...top and bottom. To properly capture this thing you have to be completely aware of the environment. The ROOM has to be good before you ever start to put up mics. You treat this machine just like the hottest guitar slinger imaginable. Chances are good he can play circles around MOST of the hot gunslingers you've ever heard. Plus...the sound of this accordian can fill a 100 seat hall.....acoustically. So you really gotta go deep into the engineering skills to get'r done.

Hope you get such a chance someday. You'll love it. And it will humble you.
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out of the fourty something odd mics I have if the shure dont workI am sure I can find the right one for the job ifn I ever have to record an accordian. thanks for that info;)
 
i've used an E/V dynamic with good results, damn i forget the exact model of it, but it worked better than the SM57 did.
 
For accordian?? I recommend a shotgun mic.........


Oh, I'm sorry; I meant use a shotgun......... :p

Seriously folks, take me Hohner, please......

Try an SM81 and then try an SM7b. They will each bring a different character and you can decide which one helps it sit in the mix the best.

An SM57 is worth a try.
 
bilco said:
For accordian?? I recommend a shotgun mic.........


Oh, I'm sorry; I meant use a shotgun......... :p
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You're on the right track, but only because it will allow you to be at a greater distance from the sound source. In fact, I would tend to recommend a distant stereo pair. Suggested distance: uh... how far is the nearest {restaurant, movie theater, bar, other venue of your choice}, again?

:D

Seriously, though... something with fairly flat response, with no HF disc, heavy metal grille, or metal bars in front of the capsule to smear the transients. If you're indoors, do you have any ribbon mics at your disposal? Otherwise, I'd probably use the most transparent SDC pair I could find.
 
while i wouldn't say my experience recording these things is vast......from the ones i've heard and recorded, i'm pretty sure an sm57/58 would not work too well. the midrange bump on those mics is right where you don't want it for an accordion.

i can totally see some ev dynamics working, though. i've got an RE38 that would probably do the trick. and i could totally see a 635 working quite well, as it's an omni and you can back it up some. i wouldn't hesitate to use a pair of 635s if that's all i had.

like i said, you don't want to get too close. this is one instrument in which the room comes into play big time. close miking just doesn't work.

i've actually done a live recording with a banjo and accordion (and guitar and bass, with mando overdub). talk about conflicting frequency ranges, timbres and *loud* acoustic instruments. it came out great, though--it was just a matter of getting the people in the right places and getting the right mics on the right things in the right spots.


cheers,
wade
.....who can't believe he's made two posts in this thread and managed to refrain from the usual bad accordion jokes.....
 
any mic that has been soaked in beer for at least a half an hour should give you a definate edge when recording the accordian =P
 
I started this thread as a piss take. low and behold today I get asked if I could mic up an accordion (I guess you call that kharma) I ended up using a SE electronics se1a, it worked a treat.:)

Thanks for all your suggestions, I did enjoy some of the answers, particularly the shotgun.
 
tangerine, I just talked to the drummer in my son's band and his father is a famous conjunto accordianist in the valley here in Texas. He uses the SM81, that it works better than anything else he has tried. FWIW

bilco
 
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