Saxophones, and where NOT to put mics.

[rob aylestone]

I had a chat with somebody who was struggling to record his saxophone, and he'd been trying to mount a mic on his sax, but figured the rotten sound was him doing it wrong. Apart from studio stuff, I've been sticking mics on saxes on stage for ages and made a video to explain how it goes wrong. Clearly, in the studio, you don't put the mic on the instrument, you put it in the best place - which oddly (for those who have never done it is not pointing up the hole at the end.

In the video, I figured I'd record a bit of sax, recorded with a clip on mic, in the common bad position, and a better one. There is quite a difference, and then I've applied some EQ, and then EQ and a bit of reverb, so you can hear the differences. If you have never recorded saxes (and clarinets and woodwind in general) this might be useful. The sound that comes out of the end of the tube is horrible. On stage this means some fairly savage EQ to tame it.

Hopefully it will make some sense.

 

[mixsit]

Very nice. Thank you :>)

Hey I also got to find out your Youtube ch. I never knew about

 

[spantini]

This is interesting. I'm responding in the reverse of what I was expecting, based on your opening descriptions.

Listening to the first two samples, I actually prefer the "up the spout" sound, The alternate sounds very sterile to me.

 

[rob aylestone]

Ha! Thats the thing isn’t it. What you like is what is best … for you. There are quite a few famous tunes where that raw sound makes it. Live its very cutting without lopping off the HF. If you listen carefully, you can also here a sort of thump as each pad seats. Its not mechanical, its a sort of pop as the padchanges the air flow. From the outside, you hear the click, inside, the pop.

On the bigger saxes its not quite so bad as the tube length is longer.