recording a string session...

M

michaelwookey

New member
On Saturday I'm doing my first string recording. Specifically voice, 1 acoustic guitar, cello and violin.

i have

a matched pair of groove tube mics (small diaphragm)
a rode ntk valve mic
an sm-57
a reslo ribbon mic (figure of 8 pickup pattern)
various other dynamic mics

I know that none of them have pickups, but that's OK as I always prefer to mic - but I'm scared about this session! They want to record live with the voice at the same time.

I'm thinking I should probably mic everything separately - use the riibbon mic for the guitar, the pair for the strings and the NTK for the voice. Any tips? I have 2 rooms available, both quite woody sounding.
 
michaelwookey said:
On Saturday I'm doing my first string recording. Specifically voice, 1 acoustic guitar, cello and violin.

i have

a matched pair of groove tube mics (small diaphragm)
a rode ntk valve mic
an sm-57
a reslo ribbon mic (figure of 8 pickup pattern)
various other dynamic mics

I know that none of them have pickups, but that's OK as I always prefer to mic - but I'm scared about this session! They want to record live with the voice at the same time.

I'm thinking I should probably mic everything separately - use the riibbon mic for the guitar, the pair for the strings and the NTK for the voice. Any tips? I have 2 rooms available, both quite woody sounding.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a fun project! My choice would probably be to use the pair of groove tubes on the guitar in an XY pattern, the NTK on the vocal, SM57 on the violin, and the ribbon on the cello. I would normally like 2 mics on each of the strings, but if that's not possible then you'll have to make do. Also, if you can find a nice room mic that might be good as well, to capture some of the room ambiance. You might try swapping the NTK and the ribbon mic to see which one works best for the vocalist and cello.

Just my $0.02

Let us know what you decided to use, and how it turned out!
 
michaelwookey said:
use the riibbon mic for the guitar, the pair for the strings and the NTK for the voice.
Click to expand...

That could work. Depending on the sound of the guitar (and/or the singer) you may want to swap the Reslo & the NTK. Alternately, try the Reslo on the 'cello & one of the GTs on the guitar.

Is the guitarist also the singer, or are they two separate musicians? If the former I'd use the Reslo + the NTK in fig-8 pattern so you can have the guitar in the voice mic's null, and the voice in the guitar mic's null.

Depending on how the violin & 'cello function arrangement-wise you may want to mic them as a "section" rather than as individuals: Use the GT pair in XY or ORTF from a good 5-8' away. But even if you're miking them individually remember that with string instruments, distance is your friend. You almost never want to close mic a violin; unless I'm looking for a nasty, scratchy, back porch bluegrass fiddle sound, I'll never get the mic closer than about 30". Same with 'cello.
 
Just wanted to add that I recorded a violinist recently; we put a Gomez ribbon and a AT4047. We recorded two songs, and on both we found the ribbon to be the best choice. Violins can sound very harsh/shrill with some condensors, even when you've tried a bunch of different mic positions. The ribbon minimized this and made the violin come across as very warm and woody.

Just my two cents.
 
Id say let them all record at the same time if it feels right...then record them each individually and then throw out the original track...Id use the ribbon only since that seems to be the simplest way to go.
 
thanks

So, stupidly - the session starts in 5 minutes, and I only just read your replies, having set everything already.

So, I quickly changed things around - I've opted firstly to try:

CELLO: GT33
VIOLIN: RESLO
VOICE: NTK + an old CB mic
GUITAR: GT33

It makes sense that I'd use a different mic for violin and cello - they're so different sounding, and I'm thinking that the violin will indeed be quite shrill. I've often used the ribbon on very bright guitars to dampen the sound.

I know the vocalist works best with this mic configuration because I've recorded him a couple of times - he's doing french songs in a pretty dynamic voice - from a gentle whisper "je t'aime" to almost a shout "voulez vous coucher avec moi?"

So yes.

MW
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top