B O N G O S

[Whyte Ice]

What is the best way to mic a pair of bongos ?

A mic on each bongo drum? One mic for the whole thing? Mic the bottom?

 

[mikeh]

It's much like putting a mic on the batter heads of a pair of rack toms. With bongos you need to capture the high end (attack) of the drum.

Place the mic between the bongos pointed down toward the center point between the two drums (picture sitting with the bongos held between your legs - in the traditional form, the mic would be pointing at your crotch). The mic should be about 3" from the heads of the bongos.

You can then point the mic slightly toward eaither drum if you need more presence.

 

[pablo]

Well, I'm not an expert in miking, but I have had some experience miking Bongos, becouse I used to be in a latin music band...
Well, what we always did was use a Unidirectional Caridioid on each bongo, it sounded really cool, we used to play in an audthorium with a lot of reverb, so we panned slighly each input to opposite direction, like the left Bongo at 10:00 and the right one at 2:00, and the mic was over the bongoes, in the front, facing down to the center of the hit point, pretty close...
Well, but that was just my lame experience!! Maybe if you try it you would like that sound... It's all just about what type of music you're recording, we played like popular Latin Music, like Salsa and Merengue...
Have a nice time