Need advice on condenser mic and pre-amp

[giantrobotswin]

Hello Everyone,
I'm looking to record electric violin out of an SWR California Blonde II acoustic amp. The sound is very much like that of an acoustic violin/viola/cello. The genre would be mostly classical and soundtrack.

Right now all I have an SM-57 and a Tascam US-122L Audio Interface, which does not work very well at all for capturing warmth, definition, and liveliness.

I'm looking to seriously upgrade everything, and my total budget for a mic and mic pre-amp is around $1200. If possible, I'd much rather invest in relatively higher-quality equipment and then plan on not upgrading or getting additional gear for a long time.

As of now, I'm considering

1. Shure FSM32 mic and DAV BG-1 Preamp

or

2. AKG C414-XLS mic and Black Lion Audio Auteur Preamp

Does anyone have any advice? Or perhaps recommendations for other options?

Thanks

 

[moresound]

Well.... get ready for you'll get as many combos as there are members here at HR.

AND welcome to the forums

 

[giantrobotswin]

Well.... get ready for you'll get as many combos as there are members here at HR.

AND welcome to the forums

Thanks!

 

[mixsit]

Hello Everyone,
I'm looking to record electric violin out of an SWR California Blonde II acoustic amp. The sound is very much like that of an acoustic violin/viola/cello. ..

At once curious, interested, (suspicious, ... but then I don't know what is out there.
Question, if/does the naturalness come from the instrument? Go direct?
(Sorry, too many years of anything electric-"acoustic" + amplifiers = dodo and frustration.

..and welcome again.

 

[giantrobotswin]

At once curious, interested, (suspicious, ... but then I don't know what is out there.
Question, if/does the naturalness come from the instrument? Go direct?
(Sorry, too many years of anything electric-"acoustic" + amplifiers = dodo and frustration.

..and welcome again.

Thanks for the welcome

In terms of achieving an acoustic sound quality, having a very high-quality amp and graphic equalizers is essential. Plugging in direct, in my experience with relatively lower level instrument pre amps, yields a very sterile "electric-sounding" tone.

The piezo crystals in my electric violin's bridge pickup produce a high-quality albeit very harsh violin sound, and after that it's just a matter of manipulating and dialing in the tone until you get something you really like. I'd post a recording for you, but there's the issue of finding a mic and pre-amp I have to surmount in order to do that.

In short, the naturalness comes from the high-quality piezo pickups, the high-quality amp, and the extensive equalizer manipulation.

 

[Jim Lad]

Are you talking Electric Violin or Violin with a pick up?
If you're talking about an electric Violin, I don't see any advantage at all to going any way other than "Line In".
If you mean Violin with a pick up then I suggest you throw away the pick up and read some of the other "How to record Violin" threads.

Welcome Aboard, by the way.

 

[mixsit]

...In terms of achieving an acoustic sound quality, having a very high-quality amp and graphic equalizers is essential. ..
...The piezo crystals in my electric violin's bridge pickup produce a high-quality albeit very harsh violin sound, and after that it's just a matter of manipulating and dialing in the tone until you get something you really like.
...In short, the naturalness comes from the high-quality piezo pickups, the high-quality amp, and the extensive equalizer manipulation.

This is possible (not saying it isn't. Likely then where we might differ here is the 'natural' part. And my personal experience is mostly guitars, a few ukuleles, but not violin. ..Add recently a mando player that has just bailed on his pu and gone back to mic.. I've not never found eq a fix for it. (Oh if only it were that easy..
I'm doing an acoustic gig tomorrow, nice Takamine.. Gona try the RE-16 into the Roland.

 

[giantrobotswin]

Are you talking Electric Violin or Violin with a pick up?
If you're talking about an electric Violin, I don't see any advantage at all to going any way other than "Line In".
If you mean Violin with a pick up then I suggest you throw away the pick up and read some of the other "How to record Violin" threads.

Welcome Aboard, by the way.

Thanks for the welcome

I once tried a pickup on my acoustic violin, and I actually did throw that away that pickup . Ugh! However, in all earnestness, "Line In" has never worked for me. For a quick background-- I currently play a fretless Mark Wood Viper w/ Barbara transducer bridge pickup (http://www.woodviolins.com/html/viper.html), and I've uploaded a clip of myself playing later in this message.

Here are audio clips from an electric violin website I found. I strongly suspect they were recorded direct, given the tonal characteristics. Plugged in direct, my electric violin sounds more or less similar to this.

Now, here's a very short, very rough audio improv clip (3.6mb WAV file) of my electric violin and amp set-up. I used a $100 Tascam US-122L audio interface as my pre-amp () with my SM57; the audio quality is very dull and lifeless compared to the actual amp sound. However, you should still be able to discern the difference in tone compared to the first clips.
http://www.wikiupload.com/wfIJ5PYR

This is possible (not saying it isn't. Likely then where we might differ here is the 'natural' part.

My electric violin isn't all the way there yet; you can hear it most on the lower G natural and E natural notes (need to adjust the graphic EQ for the D string and tweak the parametric mids on my amp). However, it's nevertheless a very sweet sound. It's not 100% like an acoustic, but I still consider this "natural" compared to those other electric violin clips.

 

[Sonixx]

have you considered a Ribbon mic?

Maybe a Seventh Circle N72 Pre and a AEA R92 ribbon. If you can't stretch $$$ for this then possibly look at a Fat Head.

 

[Simman]

have you considered a Ribbon mic?

Maybe a Seventh Circle N72 Pre and a AEA R92 ribbon. If you can't stretch $$$ for this then possibly look at a Fat Head.

2nd going with a Ribbon mic. Royer if you have the budget but there are other lower budget ribbons like the Fathead ( other cacade mics too) as well as even someing a cheap as a modified Apex 205 that work well.

 

[moresound]

Take a look at the Naiant line of microphones you may be pleasantly surprised especially when you look at the price.

 

[mixsit]

Thanks for the welcome

I once tried a pickup on my acoustic violin, and I actually did throw that away that pickup . Ugh! However, in all earnestness, "Line In" has never worked for me. For a quick background-- I currently play a fretless Mark Wood Viper w/ Barbara transducer bridge pickup (http://www.woodviolins.com/html/viper.html), and I've uploaded a clip of myself playing later in this message.

Here are audio clips from an electric violin website I found. I strongly suspect they were recorded direct, given the tonal characteristics. Plugged in direct, my electric violin sounds more or less similar to this.

Now, here's a very short, very rough audio improv clip (3.6mb WAV file) of my electric violin and amp set-up. I used a $100 Tascam US-122L audio interface as my pre-amp () with my SM57; the audio quality is very dull and lifeless compared to the actual amp sound. However, you should still be able to discern the difference in tone compared to the first clips.
http://www.wikiupload.com/wfIJ5PYR

My electric violin isn't all the way there yet; you can hear it most on the lower G natural and E natural notes (need to adjust the graphic EQ for the D string and tweak the parametric mids on my amp). However, it's nevertheless a very sweet sound. It's not 100% like an acoustic, but I still consider this "natural" compared to those other electric violin clips.

Considering the raw source tones (the raw clips are what I feared they would be), you have dialed in a nice tone. It's bewildering that this is our 'state of the art in pu's, but.. onward. Capturing warmth, definition, and liveliness and few best guesses.
A 'voice in the room has the advantages of surrounding added depth and reflections –there may be a strong portion of the liveliness. 'Definition may be walking the tight rope here. You're getting pretty warm as it is (ducking definition..

I'd say go decent on the pre and a pair of nice mics. And base the mic considerations on if you want to capture the room, or ever want to record other things in the future as well. As far as choices for capturing an amp, you're really wide open there with dozens of very nice versions of usable flavor' on top of that- positioning and further eq options.