Recording Glockenspiel and Uke

[jonbongjovi]

Hey guys,

So I'm trying to record my glockenspiel and ukelele with my only mike a shure beta 57a.

I've come across a few problems, I can hear the mallets too much striking the glock rather than the resonant tail sound.

Also it seems very quiet, do I need to put a compressor on it ?

With the uke its a similar thing seems to pickup alot of noise of my fingers on the string rather than the string sound tailing off.

Cheers for any tips,

Jon

 

[Mr Clean]

I've successfully recorded both Uke and Glock with a LDC Condenser. I had the LDC quite a distance away from the Glock though, like 3 feet. Got a pretty good sound.

I mic'd the Ukulele like a normal acoustic guitar with the same mic. About 12" away pointing at the 12th fret. It's got the finger sounds in there but that's a big part of the Ukulele sound.

I might be wrong but I would say a dynamic mic isn't the best bet for these kind of instruments, although I'm not saying it can't be done.

Do you have a Condenser Mic to try? If not, maybe someone else will come along and be of more use.

 

[jonbongjovi]

hey thanks for the reply, unfortunately no other mic to try with.. does it make it alot harder recording with a dynamic mic.. i got the 57a because it was cheap.. is there an affordable one that can do uke, glock and vocals well?

 

[Armistice]

Use a condenser mic, as suggested by Mr Clean above... it will allow you to get the mic further away and get you a more open sound, as it is way more sensitive.

Mics record what's there, however, so consider that both the mallet noise and the finger noise on the uke are part of the sound and you may have to adjust the way you play to minimise them... not sure how you do that on a glockenspiel...

The best solution to reducing string squeak on an acoustic guitar, for instance, is not to make it in the first place.

 

[Armistice]

hey thanks for the reply, unfortunately no other mic to try with.. does it make it alot harder recording with a dynamic mic.. i got the 57a because it was cheap.. is there an affordable one that can do uke, glock and vocals well?

Read up on dynamic vs. condenser mics. There's a Marshall LDC that's pretty popular round here at the cheap end of the scale - don't know the model, however. There are others, but again, I don't have them so I don't know what they are...

 

[dobro]

Hey guys,

So I'm trying to record my glockenspiel and ukelele with my only mike a shure beta 57a.

I've come across a few problems, I can hear the mallets too much striking the glock rather than the resonant tail sound.

Change mallets. That's what I've found with my xylophone, anyway.

Also it seems very quiet, do I need to put a compressor on it ?

No. You need to turn it up.

With the uke its a similar thing seems to pickup alot of noise of my fingers on the string rather than the string sound tailing off.

I record my uke through a LD condensor. I record the main track in a very conducive space with the mic about a foot to a foot and a half from the instrument. I record a double track in the same space about double that distance. Okay, I lied a bit. I actually use two mics when I record uke. I use the LD condenser so I can pan it right, and I also use a SD condenser so I can pan it left. I find that doubling the part works best when I strum the uke, but when I fingerpick it, it's better with just the one part panned left and right.