Hi,
Over the last 45 CDs that I have recorded in the last seven years, about 20 have had horns. For saxophones I usually use a Neumann TLM 103, for trumpets a U87, for trombones I use AKG 414 XLS. Or, if a trombone player is timid, I will put an AT ATM 350 onto his horn.These seem to be about the most transparent for these instruments. For a clarinet and baritone sax I also use the TLM 103. It seems to show the sonic qualities of the instrument. It all is in the positioning the microphone however. That is the key. You can get a lower level microphone this sound good but it needs to be positioned correctly.
But, the toughest instrument to record is the female voice. I typically am now using U87 or an Avantone CV-12. For male vocals I will use either a Neumann M149 or U87.
Double bass I will usually use two microphones. A Cascade FatHead and an ATM 350.
Tom
Sax recorded live with the band in the studio. Some bleed on the track. Here is a short sample.
Big Smoke sample
Mike = $50 Behringer C2, poked roughly at the sax from about a foot away (Sax player moved around a bit).
I'm not sure what value you will get from your experiments, because there is context to be considered: how does the sax fit within a mix?
The band is the Matthew Ives Quintet, with Alex Howroyd on sax. Though all members are very busy musically, the band probably doesn't exist as an entity any more.Thank you for your reply. I heard this sample in an old thread, very nice sounding. BTW, What's the band's name? I'd like to get more of their stuff.
I need to record samples to show how the reeds sound because I'm developing my own reed brand. The recordings should sound nice but at also realistic, I'd prefer to not use EQ or other artifacts because I would not being honest.
At some point you get to where all those clips are meaningless.
Most of them have their own charms and lots of them sound good, just in different ways.
I've been playing and recording sax for 50 years ..... for session work studios have used ALL kinds of different mics. Every engineer has his own favs . All the sax tracks I've ever done in sessions sounded fine regardless of the mic used.
I never tell an engineer what mic to use ..... because I don't think it really matters that much.
You usually end up sounding like you ...... just like with guitar a lot of the tone is just in the fingers.
Lately I've been having a preference for small diaphragm condensers but I'll eventually get bored with that and use something else.
Prior to the SDC I was preferring dynamics to LDCs.
I don't believe you can decide that one particular mic is THE best for recording sax ..... your taste changes and you hear differently from day to day.
Use a decent mic and play something compelling is all I look for personally and I have significant experience at it.
You can drive yourself crazy obsessing over all the differences from one mic to the next.
meh ..... I find 3 and 6 to both be ok recordingwise although they do sound different of course with 3 having a lot more high end and thus, gets a little shrill.I do prefer mic 6 while the author prefers mic 3 which I consider horrible.
But to me this just reinforces what I said because ultimately on both of those clips I find his tone to be horrible and it shows thru both mics.
he'd be better served to spend the time improving his tone. Every single one of your clips sounds better than his because you have much better tone.Yes, but mic 6 is more forgiving for his horrible tone.
Every single one of your clips sounds better than his because you have much better tone.