Strange recorded sound of cello

[Anti_Dandruff]

I am a musician who started to record for fun, and am finding myself getting addicted to it!
My preference is in classical music, and I am currently recording my second ensemble on location (its not for a classical label or anything, its just for fun.)

The ensemble which I am recording currently is a cello and organ duo, and they are playing in a large church with fairly lively acoustics.

The ensemble sounds fine over the monitors in the control room while recording, but on later playback the cello especially sounds dull and even sometimes weird in the mid to lower registers.

The organ has en extremely loud electronic air pump, which has a peak at 50hz and visible harmonics up until 400hz. The noise was removed using Reafir, and the noise profile is also attached, FWIW.

I have some sound samples attached, as well as the layout of the stage of the church (please excuse the crude Paint picture). The church seats about 500, and it has a very high roof.

I would just like to know if that sound is one of the pitfalls of recording a cello (i.e. its the cello which is making that sound which the mics just aggravate), or is it some weird acoustic anomaly involving the organ, or is it wrong mic placement or something else?

The recording setup is as follows:
-The main stereo pair is a matched pair of Rode NT5 with OMNI capsules, spaced 0.5m apart and 2m above the ground. It is about 5m from the cellist.
-An AKG C214 mic close to the cello just to focus the cello sound.
-The mics go into a Presonus Audiobox 44 VSL which is connected to a Lenovo Y510 Laptop running Windows 7.
-The sound is recorded into Sony Acid Home Studio 10.

View attachment Couperin_Suite_Tromba.mp3
View attachment Cello_Close_AKG_C214.mp3

 

[witzendoz]

I wonder if you are getting a phase problem with the cello and the spaced pair? Try setting up the mics in an X-Y pattern. Also there could be a phase problem with the distance mics and the close 214? Try flipping the phase on the 214?

Noise removal software also causes artefacts in the sound, I hate to say it, but getting the recording right is much better then fixing it later, any way of reducing the pump noise? It must affect the church services as well.

Alan.

 

[rob aylestone]

The only solution to the noise is distance. That and some roll off at the bottom end should cure it as long as the noise is not that obvious to people in their normal seats. The stage is also 30m wide? So try moving the cellist away which improves the separation between organ and cello. You can also try to ensure the nulls of the mic face towards the organ, or at least the main body of the instruments.

 

[Anti_Dandruff]

Hi, thank you for the reply. Yes I agree! Hopefulley I will gain some much needed insight into recording techniques during this project. The church didnt soundproof the pump unfortunately, its running on -38db. Which means the best solution will probably be to find balance between noise and post-effect sound quality. I will probably be have to content with a noisier background in the recording than what I would like.

 

[Anti_Dandruff]

@rob:

Hi, thank you for the reply. Yes I agree! Hopefulley I will gain some much needed insight into recording techniques during this project. The church didnt soundproof the pump unfortunately, its running on -38db. Which means the best solution will probably be to find balance between noise and post-effect sound quality. I will probably be have to content with a noisier background in the recording than what I would like.[/QUOTE]

 

[rob aylestone]

For what it's worth, I didn't find the noise that intrusive at all. In the first recording, the balance is fine, but too reverberant, the second is more controlled - perhaps just finding the happy medium. Looking at the noise, and the piece being played, maybe you just have too much response at the bottom end, and there isn't a huge amount of energy down there - what happens with a gentle tail off from around 100 Hz.

 

[Anti_Dandruff]

Thank you for your kind reply. I totally agree about the reverb being too much, I did adjust þe distance of the omni mics to lessen it, and the bass is less as well. I forgot to add in my post, that the samples I included was already run through a noise removal tool, believe me that air pump is quite nasty (I doubt if it has any soundproofing, apart from the matresses and blankets I tried to put where I could). I'll post an update where I have media files of the raw take; the take run through the noise-removal tool of Reafir; and a take wirh just a gate around 100hz.