micing and recording a SAX

  • Thread starter Thread starter Giganova
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Giganova

Giganova

gimmi your mic!
hi everybody,

here's my lil thread:
I want to mic and record a TENOR SAX. Everyone told me the key to a good sound (apart from playing well :-) is a good mic, a tube mic preamp and a compressor/limiter to keep the dynamics of the sax sound in a certain range. My setup consists of an expensive clip-on saxophone mic with dynamic capsule specifically designed for the high sax sound level, an Aphex 107 tube mic preamp and an Alesis 3630 compressor/limiter. I set the gain of the mic preamp to mid level, the polarity to inverse (sounds much better than positive -- dunno why), the threshold on the compressor/limiter (with "peak" and "soft knee") to -10, the ratio to -4, the attack to 5msec release to 500msec and the output to 0dB. You know what? It sounds exactly like WITHOUT mic preamp and NO compressor -- except that I brought the mic signal up to a line level (which is good). I thought the tube mic preamp makes the sound warmer?? Ok, I think I might hear that the dynamics is somewhat better but I am not sure. Also, I can hear "clicks" when I press the keys on the instrument (not too dramatic though). Am I doing something wrong??
 
Sounds like a good example of a little knowledge being dangerous...

Is the clip-on mic on or over the bell? If you are going for a very hard edged R&B sound, maybe you could get away with that, but if you want to capture the natural sound of a sax you need to position the mic so that it captures the whole body - since much of the sound is coming out of the airholes, not just the bell. Positioned back about three feet, you shouldn't need to worry about extreme SPL's unless you are doing some really heavy honking.

Don't worry about a tube preamp - just use the best preamp you can get. If the Aphex sounds better than your other choices then use it, but don't default to the Aphex just because they threw a tube somewhere in the output stage. "Tubes make things warmer" should be added to the list of great lies that include: "the check's in the mail", "if you'll do the record for free, we'll use you on the tour" and at least one other that we're all too polite to mention.

As far as the 3630, get rid of it. It is hard to conceive how it could help your sound. When "Everyone" told you to use a good compressor, not one of them had the 3630 in mind, I guarantee you. No compression is always superior to bad compression. Plus, I'm a little baffled by your -4 ratio. A compression ratio has to be positive, e.g. 1.5:1, 3:1, 10:1, etc. To have a ratio of -4 would mean that once the volume crosses the threshold, the louder you play, the SOFTER the signal would get! An interesting effect, to be sure, but I doubt the 3630 is capable of pulling it off!

NOTE: overly compressed tracks can definitely bring out the key clicks, as well as breath noises and other ambient artifacts in a non-desireable fashion. The safest method is to apply compression during mixdown, not tracking.
 
littledog said:
great lies that include: "the check's in the mail", "if you'll do the record for free, we'll use you on the tour" and at least one other that we're all too polite to mention.
Click to expand...

Aw, come on, what's the other one?
 
"I promise it won't hurt."

or "Of course I'll always love you."
 
hi again,

I like you lil list of "lies" :-)
The compression is in fact 4:1 ... my mistake.
When I wrote this thread I had the mic positioned almost inside the bell. Since the mic is mounted on a goose neck which clips on the bell, I just pulled it a bit out and pointed the mic towards the left-hand spatula. The mic is now almost 6inches away from the bell -- and it sounds SO much better!
So the Alesis 3630 is not a good compressor?? Which one would you recommend?
Thanks for the tips!
 
Giganova said:

So the Alesis 3630 is not a good compressor?? Which one would you recommend?
Thanks for the tips!
Click to expand...
FMR RNC.

Christopher
 
Now that he's getting a good sound, let me just throw my .02 cents in and say that there's a dBx compressor that does negative compression..... just for info. Never heard it though.
 
my friend billy recorded a sax on a song once...he didn't have much money so he used a towel rack to hang the microphone from in the bathtub, closed himself in and played away...okay so i doubt i'm helping much with that..i have heard that it helps to keep it reeeal cold when recording brass or perhaps any wind instrument at that....
 
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