Mics For Sax

  • Thread starter Thread starter studiogeek
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My 1st choice would be a good ribbon mic such as an RCA 44, 77, or Beyerdynamic 160.
 
The real question before I ever pick one is to find out what the individual instrument sounds like. Some are strident, and a bit bright, others woody and very mellow - some seems to be very wheezy, and other just dull. My soprano has got shriller as it has got older - it's about 25 years old and wasn't a classic. This makes a nice dynamic work quite nicely - Oddly, those Sennheiser guitar cab mics - the square ones are quite nice on it, but they don't record my alto very well. Sennheiser 421 suits that, or something like an RE20 for dynamics, but for a condenser, something a bit more mellow is needed - TLM103s are a bit over bright, but an old Oktava 318 is quite nice. AKG 414 or old 451 mics seem to like my tenor, but so does an SM57?

I know my instruments well, but recording somebody else means my usual choices are often wrong. The 414, for example often captures the clicks and clacks of the keywats and pads quite nastily if the player is a fingers off the keys type.
 
It depends on what you recording - Neumann U 87 Ai - Sennheiser MD 421 -Electro-Voice RE20 - Cascade Fathead Ribbon Microphone and the equivalents all work in the studio - if live you have to give us more info - do you want to move around? Are you not moving much? that sort of thing.
 
Position is everything. If you are moving around, the attaching the mic e (as in a live recording with a band) this video might help you hear how the positions work for or against you. I also found an older video that has some boring stuff about saxes at the start but tries out various mics so you can hear the differences.



 
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Thanks for the feed-back! This is my first time recording sax and flute. This will be a single player who will record some sax and flute overdubs - with I hope little moving around. I've got an MXL R144 ribbon that I plan to try (the only ribbon I own). I may also try an Aston Element, which is a LD condenser that can have some of the warmth of a ribbon. I have several other LD condensers I can try - but I'm hoping to capture a decent sound with the first 1 or 2 mics I try - I don't think this guy wants to stand around while I try 10 different mics. I've not heard the player, yet and have no idea what the tonal response of the instrument is.
 
gecko zzed said:
Some years ago I recorded a jazz quintet, and in a moment of rashness I put a $50 Behringer C2 on the sax, and was surpised at what came out.

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It's a bit funny that I bought a pair of C2 mics at a bargain price to get the case to store my Rode M5s. Turned out the that C2s are not bad mics. A little bright sounding, and not as quiet as the Rodes or my AKGs but definitely usable.
 
Slap the ribbon on it! Point it at roughly the G F area from about 1 to 2 feet depending on how nice your space is. If that sounds good, go with it.
 
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