Recording bells

[Simmons]

I'm curious what methods you guys use to record bells. Im curious about which mics, mic placement, pre-amps, compression (settings and hardware)you guys use to record bells (as in xylophone-like...not ding dong-like)??

I've been playing around with some bells on a new song and I've been using a RODE NTK with a Langevin DVC with pretty good results. I don't have access to my Oktava MK-012's right now, but will try that out soon.

 

[mshilarious]

I'm curious what methods you guys use to record bells. Im curious about which mics, mic placement, pre-amps, compression (settings and hardware)you guys use to record bells (as in xylophone-like...not ding dong-like)??

I've been playing around with some bells on a new song and I've been using a RODE NTK with a Langevin DVC with pretty good results. I don't have access to my Oktava MK-012's right now, but will try that out soon.

I haven't recorded them, but live I used an overhead SM81 from 2' away. Recording I might back up a little more if that worked, but live obviously that's impossible.

I don't see a need for compression. The bells probably aren't that loud and/or dynamic to begin with. I mean if you hard those things real hard it sounds like poo. However if you wanted to make a bell set sound like a giant bell, then compression might be interesting.

The 81 also sounds nice on marimba.

I think you'd want to avoid a really bright mic, unless you're looking for that celesta tone.

 

[Ronan]

Avoid compression wihile recording bells. Its really easy to screw them up *(speaking form experience!!) Experiment a lot with mic placement as certain bells can be more copmplex then others. I would start a couple feet away and adjust to taste. Its hard to say more with out hearing the bell.