harmonically, the violin is a very different animal than an acoustic guitar, and recording any instrument for a classical solo requires some special considerations. while condenser mics are a good choice for acoustic guitar, they are not very appropriate for violin due to their upper end emphasis. the bowed strings generate an extraordinary amount of high harmonic content, and benefit from warmer mics. you will find that most pro studios will mic strings with ribbon mics -
the beyer m160 and m130 are common, with coles 4038s and royer r-121s being the choice of studios that specialize in classical and orchestral recording.
my recommendation for a solo violin would be a blumlein pair of ribbon mics at about 3-4 feet distance, 6 feet high, aimed straight on at the player's body. if you have a really nice room, you can get the mics out at about 6-8 feet, and let the ribbon mics give you some ambience - this is truly where the blumlein pair excels. if possible, find a nice hall and work the mics at 8-10 feet out and about 10 feet up - this is a common arrangement for recording small string ensembles, and works well for almost any solo or small ensemble of woodwinds, brass or strings. for any distant mic setup, you may want to give the final mix a slight boost around 5K to give it a little "air".
if ribbon mics are not available, use a tube mic, or use one of the darker condensers, such as the neumann tlm193s coupled with a nice smooth tube preamp. if you simply have no access to these mics, if you are careful, you can sometimes get an excellent recording with a large dynamic mic, such as the sennheiser 421s or the EV-RE-20s.
an alternate micing method which works well for this application is a single ribbon mic at about 2-3 feet coupled with a coincident pair of nice condensers at about 6-8 feet in a nice room. balance the intimacy of the ribbon with the stereo image created by the condensers.
many pros will not use any compression for solo classical instruments, and most experienced performers agree, striving to retain as much of the original dynamic content as possible. if you are using 2" analog tape, you probably will not need any compression. i record digitally, so i do use light compression, or peak limiting to make certain i do not introduce any digital distortion from high-harmonic peaks that do not show up on the meters. track dry. if you feel the need for eq at the input, you need to reposition your mics. processing is always a personal thing, but i tend to use either a small amount of large hall reverb, or a bit greater amount of a smaller hall setting (a good-quality reverb is much more crucial for a solo performance than it is for most instruments in a rock band). i often experiment with a couple of mic arrangements at the beginning of a session, and then sit down with the performer to get their input on the kind of sound they find most appropriate for their material - some folks like the more intimate studio-type sound, while others are quite insistent on a distant-mic type of sound so common on most classical recordings. there is a strong tradition for the "right" kind of sound for classical recordings, and unless the performer is after something special, you should do your best to emulate that tradition - have the performer bring you 2 or 3 of their favorite CDs that have the kind of sound they want to acheive. A/B your work against those. good luck.
