Sleigh bells!!! Best way to record them?!

[xtjdx]

Yes. I'm recording sleigh bells for a band. The way they are doing it is with a high hat stand (because they want to only accentuate certain hits) and it sounds okay in my opinion (I can't hear much of a difference between the actual bells and the recording... when I played the recorded piece, two of them looked at the bells to see why they moved) but the band thinks that it needs more "sparkle". I tried giving it more high-end, but that just made the sound brittle. I'm recording it with an AT3035 and Samson CO2. I also have a D112 and SM57 at my disposal. Any suggestions?

 

[AGCurry]

One of the "acid tests" for microphones is jingling keys. This kind of high-frequency, fast-transient sound is a challenge for many mics. Sleigh bells would be similar.

Generally, the mics that do best with these sounds are small-diaphragm condensors and ribbon mics, due to their superior transient handling.

 

[Chippy569]

yes definately a small-diaphragm condenser mic. it doesn't look like you have one of those, tho, so... i'd start saving?

 

[The Green Hornet]

Put a gallon of Tequila in the horse chow--wait twenty minutes--cut the horses loose by screaming "Viva Zapata...." then record the wildest bells you've ever heard.




Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Green Hornet

 

[mshilarious]

I got a set of sleigh bells for Christmas and I hadn't even tried them out yet. So I just tested my entire mic collection with them. The runaway winner:

Beyer M88. Nice natural sound, not too bright. If you want to boost high EQ, it needs to be really high, like 15kHz. Anything lower was unbearable.

So I'd break out the SM57.

There wasn't a single condenser, large, medium, or small, that I liked. Most of them were simply painful. The SM81 was the worst, and that is not a bright mic. Surprisingly I didn't like my ribbon at all, but it isn't the greatest ribbon in the world (Shure 330).

I also noted the frequency response was very sensitive to mic placement--the tip of the bells has more high-end energy than the sides.

 

[TimOBrien]

I did a Christmas album last year and let my boy play the sleigh bells just so he could be part of it... good ol' SM-57 about a foot away sounded just fine.