Acoustics question and Gear Question

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bustthenotes

New member
Hey guys, just started getting into recording. I've been classically trained (and learned by ear) in piano, and composed my entire life. Over the past year I've taken up mixing and digital composition. Recently I've been given the opportunity to compose the soundtrack for a local documentary short. I now want to get into the business of recording.

So I want to record strings for a string quartet. I have no recording equipment as of right now.

Let me start by saying; I want to record strings that have a warm quality to them, but you can also hear the raw acoustic sound. So something more dry than reverby.

I have two options right now for a recording space, and both are in the studio for this film, and neither are made or meant for recording. So the floor is hard wood, and the walls are brick, and the ceilings are high (8-10 ft). One room is a square office, I would say 16ft by 16ft if I had to guess. One is a small rectangular closet that could be very easily sound proofed. I'm not sure which room to choose. Since I am recording strings, I'm thinking I will want to get some of the reverb, so the larger room would be better?

Question of mics; I don't own or have access to mics right now. I will need to purchase each mic for this project. What I can afford is veeeery small (like... $300 small). So I've decided to record each string part separately for the string quartet. I wont have to worry about bleeding, so I'm thinking a pair of small diaphragm (to pick up the subtle acoustic sounds of a string instrument) condenser mics. Obviously with my budget I'm planning on getting these used.

And I know I'll need a pre-amplifier, and a mixer. Any suggestions there?

Any help you can give me would be great! I'm just not sure what brands/equipment is best with my small budget.

Thanks guys :)
 
What equipment have you got so far? Anything? $300 isn't much for mics and preamps. Personally I'd always try and record a string quartet together. The sound comes together when they play together in the same room and it's generally much easier for them to be in time and in tune when they have the other musicians there in front of them and they can hear everything in the room. More natural. You can do that with just a couple of mics.

If you give us your equipment so far it might be easier to advise you.
 
I've had good luck using a stereo matched pair of Rode NT-5's. They're small diaphragm and probably somewhere around $400. You might want to think about renting some gear to do this gig though if it's important to you.
 
NYMorningstar said:
I've had good luck using a stereo matched pair of Rode NT-5's. They're small diaphragm and probably somewhere around $400. You might want to think about renting some gear to do this gig though if it's important to you.
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Agreed on both accounts. I've had good results from the NT5s too. Also if $300 is your budget, you might be better off going into a studio or renting some gear to make sure you've got what you need (headphones is a tricky one usually forgotten). I don't know what $300 will get you, but £300 would get enough time in a decent enough studio over here.
 
Hey, it is so awesome that you have started recording. I would suggest using the closet for your recording space. It will be a cleaner recording when you don't have all those sound waves bouncing around in the square room. Remember that you can always add reverb on your computer to make it sound better. I do think a couple of good condenser mics will get you started like these:
homemusicgear. com /recommendations /condenser-microphones/
You can check out preamps/mixers at homemusicgear .com / recommendations
hope this helps!
 
I would not predict anything good will come from recording in the closet. The bigger room will be better. Some type of treatment will probably be of help, but for tracking in the room, you really need to try it to find out how it sounds.
 
homemusicgear said:
Hey, it is so awesome that you have started recording. I would suggest using the closet for your recording space. It will be a cleaner recording when you don't have all those sound waves bouncing around in the square room. Remember that you can always add reverb on your computer to make it sound better.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with Jimmy hear. Recording in the closet is going to make for some nasty effects (unless you want a particularly box sound). You'll still have "all those sound waves bouncing around", but because the walls are closer together, the standing waves (frequencies that have wavelengths that exactly fit into the dimensions of your room) will be higher frequencies and have more audible effects. You'll get more desirable effects from the larger room definitely.

Have a look at this for what gear to buy (MixTips: Building a Home Studio On a Budget)
 
homemusicgear said:
I would suggest using the closet for your recording space. It will be a cleaner recording when you don't have all those sound waves bouncing around in the square room.
Click to expand...
Horrible advice. A closet is probably the worse place to record anything.

Don't record in a closet. Ever.
 
if $300 is your budget, you might be better off going into a studio
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Best line on the page -- And of course, can the closet. Noisy equipment and brooms go in closets.

That said --

In a 16x16 room, you're going to need far more than $300 in broadband trapping, far more than $300 in preamps, $300 in mics, etc.

I mean, you could certainly grab a pair of FatHeads and be in good shape mic-wise... But really -- If the budget is under a couple $k, *plus* you don't exactly have the experience for the task at the moment (which can easily take months/years to develop - once the room is properly in order), going to some sort of existing facility is going to trump everything else.
 
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