microphone for violin/viola

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sathyan

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What microphone would you recommend for a violin (down to 196 Hz) and viola (down to 130 Hz)?

I have asked this question elsewhere (w/o giving a budget) and been recommended a $200 AKG. I can't afford that. Something around the cost of a SM57 would be doable.

With this extreme budgetary limitation, I probably can't be particular about the sound but ideally I'd like a distant sound like you hear on those Fritz Kreisler 78's from the 1920's.

I'll be connecting this to a Yamaha mini-mixer (for mike pre) which can take 1/4" or XLR and has phantom power. recording will be done with an Onkyo Dolby C stereo tape deck or Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card (haven't decided). This is just for recording my practices to listen for ways of improvement. I have been using a GE cassette walkman with built-in mic and just laying on the floor but the sound quality is bad. I want to just hook up everything (I have a mike boom stand) , set the level, hit record and deal only with the music until I run out of tape. It will take place in an efficiency apartment with no acoustical treatments whatsoever.

thanks
Sathyan
 
Oktava MC012 sounds great. YOu can pick one up at GC for about $100. I got mine for $75 there! Test it in the store before you leave though!

I was recording violin the other day and I tried a U87, Royer SF1, and an AKG C3000 also. My $75 oktava kicked all their butts :-)

happy recording...

-Chris
 
I think an MXL 603 might do the job and fit your budget.

Carlos
 
I have almost always found that when recording violins or violas my best friends are always ribbon or dynamic mics... so if you don't have a ribbon mic available... check out a dynamic mic or two and see if you can find one that best fits the tone and texture you are trying to add to the material.

Best of luck.
 
Fletcher said:
I have almost always found that when recording violins or violas my best friends are always ribbon or dynamic mics... so if you don't have a ribbon mic available... check out a dynamic mic or two and see if you can find one that best fits the tone and texture you are trying to add to the material.

Best of luck.
Click to expand...

Odd, isn't it? I always thought a condenser would be the best mic to capture a violin because of its freq. response and its ability to follow the transients and the very high frequenties of a violin.

One day I had to record a huge choir and a band. There was only one violin, a very old one which sounded beautiful and the guy who played it was in his seventies and a really great player.

I had only a Sennheiser MD441 available and much to my surprise the sound was just perfect.

A while ago I was recording a klezmer band on location and I had two mics on the violin, a condenser and a Beyer M260 ribbon.
When mixing the whole band preferred the Beyer over the condenser.
 
What's a ribbon microphone?

Its mentioned but not defined in the FAQ: https://homerecording.com/mics.html

MusiciansFriend.com is my primary source for equipment. They divide their microphones into dynamic, condenser and percussion. I ran a search for "ribbon microphone" and got no results. The dynamics seem to start at a lower price (Nady SP-1 is only $8).
 
I would pick up a used Shure SM-7 (not SM-57), on a budget. I'm not sure what they are going for at a used cost though, they should be pretty cost effective, and the cool thing about that mic is that you will always find a use for it. They sound great on guitar cabs, kick drums, problem (ie screechy) vocals....so that's perfect for up close bowed intruments.

In response to your question about what a ribbon microphone is, here is some great information below on ribbon mics (A "FAQ" and construction methods)...there are lots of classic ribbons mics out there from Royer, Coles, AEA (wonderful RCA reproductions), and Beyerdynamic. Good Luck!


http://www.royerlabs.com/news.html#tours


Nathan Eldred
atlasproaudio.com
 
Most condensers capture the sound of the bow on the string, especially when placed on axis to the f holes.

My favorite mic is the Royer (ribbon) R121. I place it over the headstock of the fiddle, at the height of the top of my head, pointed at my chin.

You have to try many places. Also, I'm a fiddler, not a violinist, so I bow for a very different sound and attempt to mic to capture that. YMMV.

Pete
 
I recently had a violinist come in to my home studio and do 4 songs. I have lots of mics, no ribbon mics though. I ended up with a pair of 603's (X-Y) and a SP B1. It turned out surprisingly well. I think I got lucky. So much of how acoustical instruments sound depends on the room that your in. She orininally wanted to be in my vocal booth, which is longish and it sounded a little dead. So we moved her into the control room and it worked. Her quartet went to a large facility 3 days later and spent a good part of the day overdubbing to make a quartet sound like an "orchestra" she said it was grueling. The facility actually paid them to record. He wants to make a name for himself for doing this kind of stuff so he was willing to pay people to allow him to experiment. At least my experiments are cheap:p

SoMm
 
A ribbon would be great its just that I dont think you have the kind of preamp that would allow for their low level out puts...and most require some sort of voltage ...+12 i think....
 
Considering your budget and what you're trying to do, you might just grab an EV 635a for 25 bucks...
they can sound very nice on a fiddle in a good room...
 
i am not much of a fan of cheap mics, and i cannot make myself recommend any of them any more, especially for a nice acoustic instrument like a violin. inexpensive mics will suffice in a busy mix, but for any exposed instrument (solo, duo, small live ensemble), a cheap mic is always going to sound like a cheap mic. what you really need is a mic with a flat response curve, and you sure arent going to find that in any $100 (or even $500) mic ive ever seen. however, if you are serious and you really have to go as cheap as possible, i can suggest that you look at the DPA 4060 - it is a miniature mic made for professional stage use for opera singers. DPA, as you probably know, makes some of the finest mics in the world, though most are in the $2000 per mic range. anyway, the 4060 is only about $350 - even less if you can find a used one on ebay, and DPA makes a little custom mount to put it on a violin. used in that way, the 4060 sounds just incredible. a couple of credible but affordable choices in normal SD condensers would be the gefell M300 and the new josephson C4 - both around $400 or less used. the least expensive LD conderser which i have found useable for strings, horns and woodwinds it the neumann tlm193 - around $5-600 used (most people do not like the 193 for vocals because it is "too dark", but it is this quality that makes it a nice classical instrument microphone). i dont like dynamics on strings, though the SM7 and Re20 are both damn nice mics for some applications - you can probably do a pretty good job with either of those mics IF you have an upscale preamp. i owned a pair of royer r-121s for a couple years, and they are also very nicely made pieces of gear - they will work wonders on instruments with tons of highend harmonics, such as picollo and trumpet (again, IF you have a really nice preamp withlots of clean gain), but they seemed a tad muted when close-micing most strings to me - they do make a nice blumlein pair for small ensemble work in a good hall. this is all personal preference - i just happen to like the sound of good SD condensers.
 
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