recording a stringed quartet (newbie)

[glennod]

Hello All,
I am new here and have seen some of the questions posed and answered. The information is excellent. here is my dilemma(hopefully someone can help) I am recording some friends of mine as favor. They are a stringed quartet, cello, bass, viola, violin. I have the following mics, AKG c 2000b,AKG c3000, 3 57's and 2 AT MB4000c's. My console is a hard disc system. I will be using Cubase SX plug ins galore. I plan on going direct through my mixer (16 channel alesis) through my Delta 1010 then in. The room itself has a vaulted ceiling with decent acoustics. Any info on mic placement, which mics to use, amounts of reverb, compression etc would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all in advance.
Glenn

 

[bennychico11]

at first glace i'd say set them up in a semi circle and use a MS pattern. however you only have cardiod mics. so i'd set them either in a tighter semi circle (more of a capital U shape...they'll be used to playing in that) or across from eachother in two rows of two. set them up with the cello/bass on one side and the viola/violin on the other (similar frequency ranges together). you can either face two mics at each pair or use four on each pair. Probably the large diaphram ones on the lower instruments....but i'm not that familiar with those mics, so experiment.

OR...oooo...depending on how well the room works for you, you can try putting them back in the original semicircal and place a spaced pair out a little ways in front of them. if the acoustics work well you might get a great sound.

DON'T touch any "plugins galore". Instruments like these shouldn't need any processing, provided you use good mic placement and decent equipment.

 

[mshilarious]

at first glace i'd say set them up in a semi circle and use a MS pattern. however you only have cardiod mics. so i'd set them either in a tighter semi circle (more of a capital U shape...they'll be used to playing in that) or across from eachother in two rows of two. set them up with the cello/bass on one side and the viola/violin on the other (similar frequency ranges together). you can either face two mics at each pair or use four on each pair. Probably the large diaphram ones on the lower instruments....but i'm not that familiar with those mics, so experiment.

OR...oooo...depending on how well the room works for you, you can try putting them back in the original semicircal and place a spaced pair out a little ways in front of them. if the acoustics work well you might get a great sound.

DON'T touch any "plugins galore". Instruments like these shouldn't need any processing, provided you use good mic placement and decent equipment.

Quartets are usually averse to being shuffled around. You have to take 'em as they set themselves, which in a string quartet is (stage right to left) high to low. Dunno about this ensemble; they swapped out a violin for bass.

Anyway, yeah a spaced pair or XY in a decent room. It might be worth throwing a spot mic on the bass, you can lose it later if it doesn't work. If you're bored, you can put up a room mic or two.

The room is key. Gotta have a good room because a quartet needs some space. You say it has decent acoustics with a vaulted ceiling; that sounds good but the proof is in the mix

 

[glennod]

Quartets are usually averse to being shuffled around. You have to take 'em as they set themselves, which in a string quartet is (stage right to left) high to low. Dunno about this ensemble; they swapped out a violin for bass.

Anyway, yeah a spaced pair or XY in a decent room. It might be worth throwing a spot mic on the bass, you can lose it later if it doesn't work. If you're bored, you can put up a room mic or two.

The room is key. Gotta have a good room because a quartet needs some space. You say it has decent acoustics with a vaulted ceiling; that sounds good but the proof is in the mix

thank you all for the input , I will heed the advice and hear what sounds best...

 

[mshilarious]

thank you all for the input , I will heed the advice and hear what sounds best...

Sorry I just reread my post and where I typed "spaced pair", I meant "ORTF", or near-coincident pair.

 

[Quagmire02]

Athough I have no experience recording string quartets, I have written music for them. When I had my music performed, I had someone record it. I think it would be a good idea to have them be arranged as they would in concert. If you ahve access to a church or concert hall, do it there. I would think that you really want a bleeding sound, since chamber music just of that nature. If it's too isolated, it will lose texture.

 

[Alexbt]

Yep, I agree. Generally a well spaced stereo pair in a good room will do just fine, but since you have the mics and the track space, you can set up several sets of mics and then pick which mic pair you liked in the mixing stage.

Also, if you are in a good room, give them some space. Don't put the mics too close or the strings will sound very harsh. Use the room! As an example, in a nice auditorium, the best seat in the house would be from the middle to back of the auditorium.