Recording Trumpets

  • Thread starter Thread starter Henri Wolbrette
  • Start date Start date
H

Henri Wolbrette

New member
Help! I am brand new at home recording. I just acquired a TASCAM 414 mini studio in order to record myself playing trumpet. Sometimes I record an accompanist off of a CD (piano or organ) and then play along, and sometimes I am multitracking with trumpet, flugel horn, or piccolo trumpet. The problem is that the sound of the trumpets are terrible. (The organ or piano sound great) The sound of a single horn is very thin or nasal. When I record four different horns tracks it sounds like I'm playing in a barrel. I started with a Radio Shack mike, but switched to a Shure SM 57 without improvement. I've tried placing the mike directly in front of the horns, at right angles as well as pointed at the ceiling, all without success. Can anybody suggest a fix? Or is home recording of trumpet impossible?
 
Here is a recording with an MXL V67G. It is a condenser that you can get for $89 at Samash.com

This recording is of a Flugel Horn. The recording chain is V67-> Monster Cable-> Aardvark Q10 -> CoolEdit Pro (32bit float at 44.1khz)-> Waves Rverb

I think this is a pretty nice recording and did it in my living room with the player playing about 2 - 3 feet off of it.



Beezoboy
 
Thanks for the advice. I wasn't able to hear your recording but I will take your word for it. As you can tell I am a novice at this. I don't have a reverb unit. Based on your advice I assume I should get one. Do you have any suggestions for an inexpensive one?
 
You will hafta put some distance between your trumpet and the mic. The Shure 57 should work pretty well. Other candidates in the dynamic mics are the Shure SM7 and the Sennheiser MD421.

If you do decide to use a condenser mic, remember they have a greater output and can easily clip your other equipment if you play pretty loud. It won't hurt anything if that happens, but the results can sound pretty ugly.

One of the best trumpet mics of all time was the old Sony C37a, if you can find one.
 
Good Sax...

I just had a sax session over last weekend. I had the sax player in the drum room with some sound blankets up. I placed an MD441 about one and 3/4 feet away from the bell and a half an inch above the upper rim of the bell. I got some REALLY good tones. Of course it was a really good player so it probably wouldn't have mattered where I mic'd it.

The MD441 is especially good on horns IMHO, it's really smooth and it fits well in the mix. Some complain that it is too dark, but they are probably comparing to some Chinese POS. I've tried the MD421, Royer 121, and RCA BK11a to great success on horns. I've also used and liked SM7's and SM57's on horns. Are you noticing a trend? Most of these mics are dynamics, and some are ribbon. Not a condenser in the bunch.

Tom Cram
dbx Senior Technical Support
(801) 568-7530
tcram@dbxpro.com

"I should have been a plumber."
-Albert Einstein-
 
I'd also suggest the MD-421, based on my own experiences recording trumpets and cornets. Don't laugh, but the Lawrence Welk band used the MD-421 on their horn section too.
 
Well, not to be ornery, but I almost always prefer my Lawson L47 tube condenser on sax to my Royer 121 or my EV RE27. I usually leave the final decision up to the artist - i give them a blind listening test. They almost invariably pick the L47 too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top