Recording Jazz Duo/Trio

[lovegoodsoul73]

First, I must state this...

Some of the answers I may be seeking in this request MAY HAVE ALREADY BEEN ANSWERED in the "Ambient Micing" thread. However, that place got ugly as I read farther and farther down, and I really don't possess the patience it requires to weed through the muck for the answers I'm seeking. I figured I'd start my own thread.

I'm VERY new to recording when it comes to equipment capabilities. I just purchased a TASCAM DP01FX, a pretty decent (to me) digital recorder that only offers two inputs to record with at any one time. I like what I'm doing at home by myself so far, and I'm very interested in recording my jazz duo and trio. Recording the duo doesn't seem to be that challenging at the moment, Rs I could either mic both the bass and guitar amps or record them direct.

Recording the trio live requires knowledge of microphones, and I honestly have no idea what to use. Now, I did hit the FAQ section on microphones...learned some differences in some mics, but I'm looking for input. I reckon I could use an 8 channel mixer and more microphones, but I'd like to try JUST micing the room.

I couldn't have asked a better group of people, and I look forward to hearing your answers.
Thanks,
jimbo

 

[Halion]

What is the trio composed of? Is the bass an electrical bass or an upright? Is the third person a singer or a drummer?

I would just try a simple ORTF setup. Set up the guitar player slighly left to the middle of the stage, the bassplayer slightly right (obviously if it concerns an amp, move the amp rather than the person) and singer / drummer in the middle. Keep in mind that you will need a good room to record in if you want a more ambient sound.

An ORTF setup is composed of two identical, preferable matches microphones, with cardiore paterns, pointing away from each other, so that the capsules are exactly 17 cm away from eachother, and at an angle of 110 degrees. Like this:
http://www.nickspicks.com/images/ortf-polar.gif

Move the mics 4 meters away for a start. If you want more ambience, move them further away. If you want even more ambience, you could change the partern of the mics to figure 8, for somewhat of a blumlein setup.

If that doesn't work, I would try omni mics and placing them even spaced around the room, pretty far away from eachother. I wouldn't go for close micing the amps or even the drums because it will sound alot more upfront and that might not fit with the style. If you do want to close mic, move them as far as you can/want. In any case, definatelly don't put a kick mic in the kick, and I wouldn't close mic the snare an SM57 either.

Hope that helps