recording trumpet, wha mic to use?

C

coolsoundman

New member
i'm planning to record a mariachi band for a project. i have two pencil condensor mics and the sm57's and sm58's. what would be a good choice to record with, a dynamic mic or condensor? Probably about how far should i place the mic at from the trumpet? Thanks for your suggestions.
 
The thing about mariachis is that they have to sound like they sound live, meaning they have to play all at the same time, this is also important because mariachis are used to seeing each other and playing in a certain formation. I would use 2 condensers in stereo, something like ORTF to capture the entire mariachi ensemble, and some dinamics on the brass + some pencil condensers on guitars and bass. If there's a main singer you could also mic his voice, but try not to use this one as your main voice track, use it just to support the main ortf. It will sound weird if you mix the voice like a regular pop album, it has to sound blended with the rest of the ensemble.
 
dualflip,

when you said with two condensors, one mic that i just bought was the sterling audio st55 mic. i was planning on buying another mic, but i'm leaning towards the baby blue bottle mic. would any of those mics think would work to capture the entire ensemble? and on another note, not to be stupid, but what is ORTF mean? oh, would i just have to use one mic per instrument or would i have to use two?
 
To make a stereo micing like the ORTF you need to identical condensers preferably matched pair, is not a good idea to have different mics in it because there will be differences in polar and frecuency response that will produce a bad stereo image (example: one side will be more bright than the other, or youll have a blury stereo image, things like that) an ORTF is a stereo technique implemented by French Broadcast engineers a long time ago, this is achieved using two condensers, making an angle of 110 degrees (or 55degrees each one) betwee both mic capsules and 17cm space between the capsules. So the result will be two mics separated 17cm (the capsules) one pointing left in an angle of 55 degrees and the other pointing right in an angle of 55 degrees, left mic goes to one channel panned to the left, and the right one to another channel panned to the right. Experiment with mic positioning (closer or far to the ensemble) and height (looking from the top down to the ensemble or about the musicians heads pointing towards their instruments, and stuff like that)
 
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