recording sax, upright bass, guitar and drums

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Manor Music

Manor Music

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I had a go with a swinging band named Sonny And The Starfires...4 pc band...after we mic'd the drumkit we put condensors in front of the sax, the standup bass and the guitar amp

we recorded but decided to take off all of the drum mics and just go with the 3 condensors
brought up the bass eqs with cubase le5 a little...added vocals on a second run sonny in studio.webpsonny in studio.webpView attachment t for texas demo.mp3View attachment hot rod henry demo.mp3View attachment miss julia jackson demo.mp3
 
The photos are identical and make me feel dizzy !

How close to the double bass was the mic ?
 
witzendoz said:
In the first photo they are playing the 1st chorus, In the second photo they must have been playing the 2nd chorus.
Click to expand...
Must be some seriously tight playing ! No click needed there !
 
we put the mic right up close to the f-hole just a few inches away...plus he was plugged into an amp
 
The f-hole is often the last place you want to put a mic. Every bass is different, so maybe it worked. Usually, you have less woofy sound pointing the mic at the bridge or somewhere at the upper bout.

After listening though, I don't hear anything but mush from the bass so my statement is probably apt.
 
Very cab callowayish, real nice. I will listen again on non phone speakers.
 
leddy said:
The f-hole is often the last place you want to put a mic. Every bass is different, so maybe it worked. Usually, you have less woofy sound pointing the mic at the bridge or somewhere at the upper bout.

After listening though, I don't hear anything but mush from the bass so my statement is probably apt.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I used to just use a cheap pick up back in the old days. It was Ok I guess. Started playing/recording a double bass last year for the first time in a decade and I thought I'd have a go a miking it with an S M 5 8 or Superlux as an experimental place to start. I'd have it high up pointing down or sort of brige level and about 6 feet away, I found the sound was still a bit too bass guitar like or 'woofy/boomy' unless I took all the mid range off going in, then it sounded kind of nice. I had a friend doing a drum track on a piece that already had the double bass and he identified it straight off.
 
We talked about mic placement...I wanted to mic the stand-up's amplifier, but Sonny suggested we put it right up to the bass. Sonny is in his 60's...I wasn't going to argue with him...I put the mic right up as close as I could get it to the bass...plus the bassist played through an amplifier.

When I initially mixed this recording and sent it to Sonny he said it was "too hot" too digital, and he wanted it to capture the feel of an old 50's song recorded on 45 record single...like a jazzy band tucked into a small corner of dark bar...

I had no practical experience this type of band so we went with his ideas.
He also showed me an old-school technique to mic the drums...one overhead over the center of the kit, pointing down on the snare...then a second mic off to the side of the drummer maybe over underneath the hi-hats and pointing at the kick-drum...The total recording was originally 7 tracks and we ended up using 4 tracks and losing the overhead and drum mics altogether to achieve the "feel" Sonny was looking for....
 
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