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I guess that a carpet would be an obvious thing to try.
Sounds like an easy idea to try out. Floor and ceiling ?
Rhys
I guess that a carpet would be an obvious thing to try.
Thanks, I'll give it a go. Any suggestions on the frequency to use ?The answer here may be to use a filter (Low pass) rather than normal EQ that would just boost or reduce certain frequencies.
Room acoustics play a massive part. Just as a test - have you tried sitting down to record, in order to make sure that it isn't bouncing off the ceiling?I still record in the same room, with the same gear and although I have slightly altered the mic position, it has only slightly softened the harshness I hear at higher frequencies.
I have begun to wonder whether there is a resonant frequency due to some dimension in the room that is causing the problem. Although the walls are covered in books and soft finishes, the ceiling and floor are both hard and flat and parallel (unsurprisingly). The room is approximately 18 x 7 x 8 feet and box-shaped.
Can room resonance be a significant issue for recording the saxophone (or other, lesser acoustic instruments) and what can be done about it ?
I have seen various "reflection filters" that go around microphones, typically for recording the human voice in a "dry" way. This sort of thing:
But searching on the internet, it seems that opinions are divided about how useful such reflection filters are for voice recording and I've not yet seen a saxophone being recorded with such a filter in place.
Any thoughts ?
Rhys
I have begun to wonder whether there is a resonant frequency due to some dimension in the room that is causing the problem. Although the walls are covered in books and soft finishes, the ceiling and floor are both hard and flat and parallel (unsurprisingly). The room is approximately 18 x 7 x 8 feet and box-shaped.
Can room resonance be a significant issue for recording the saxophone (or other, lesser acoustic instruments) and what can be done about it ?
Ceiling and floor that are parallel could give you standing waves of certain frequencies. Most concert halls and recording studio's (from what I hear, never been in one myself) that are well constructed have a ceiling that is some odd shape.I have begun to wonder whether there is a resonant frequency due to some dimension in the room that is causing the problem. Although the walls are covered in books and soft finishes, the ceiling and floor are both hard and flat and parallel (unsurprisingly). The room is approximately 18 x 7 x 8 feet and box-shaped.
Can room resonance be a significant issue for recording the saxophone (or other, lesser acoustic instruments) and what can be done about it ?
Thanks, I'll give it a go. Any suggestions on the frequency to use ?
Rhys
I also have a Zoom H2n digital recorder which is surprisingly good, but the mic capsules are obviously budget rather than very high quality items.Are you able to borrow beg or otherwise liberate other mic's to see how they sound. Some of my mic's are OK with vocal and suck on sax some are great on vocal and ok on sax but suck on guitar. Every good recording engineer has a number of mics that work for different instruments in their studio. Finding a nearfield or midfield position that works well can take a lot of trial and error. I have spent half an hour playing around with mic positioning before finding the sweet spot with some.
I am not a fan of dynamic mics for recording sax but that is a personal thing.
Good idea - I'll try it. It occurs to me that when I'm standing the bell of the sax is pretty close to halfway between floor and ceiling, if that is significant.Room acoustics play a massive part. Just as a test - have you tried sitting down to record, in order to make sure that it isn't bouncing off the ceiling?
I mainly listen back to my recordings and do my mixing through some decent AKG headphones. When I play it out loud I use my HiFi with some good B&W speakers. I think that those headphones may be a bit bright, so I will do some comparisons.Have you tried playing back through diferent amp and speakers. Some speakers have peizo-electric tweeters which can sound horrible if even slightly over driven or if fead with low frequencies.
Just set really high (e.g. 12k which is above what you will hear) then gradually lower it until you hear a difference.
As well as the frequency, you should also be able to adjust the slope to taste (ie it is gradual rather than a sudden "cliff edge".) In Logic I might use a frequency of between 5k to 7k and a default slope of 24dB/Oct depending on the context. In a mix with other instruments competing with higher frequencies I may even go as low as 4 or 3kHz for an effect or if it sounds good.
The Low pass is cutting out everything above the frequency cut off, which may include :
The natural brightness of your tone
Added brightness introduced by a baffle or particular reed
Brightness introduced by overblowing
Brightness introduced by microphone
Brightness introduced by room reflections
Ideally, in a perfect world, I would ensure that the sound actually coming out of the instrument is what I want and is perfectly captured by the mic, but it's often not a perfect world.
Not directly I don’t think. It will give a thinner sound and a squeezed, choked sound if really too tight. You could hit a harmonic/squeak too but it isn’t that as you know what that sounds like.s. And would over-tightening my embouchure up top also cause brightness/harshness ?
With respect then, you’ve not gone through something that was able to make a difference. However, if the feel and vibe is good, then it doesn’t matter so much as we get swept up in the groove etc. If you’re talking purely about sound capture quality though I think you’d be shocked at the difference the right mic for you and the track makes.For me the mic makes very little difference.
Yeah that’s a very fair point Colin.If I was releasing a record with a contract and a multi million pound studio and engineers and all that stuff...probably.
As it is, it's me, a laptop and tinnitus. Oh! I've just named my first album.
I own a Halo. It's ok, but playing into a clothes rack does a better job. Not that you will notice less or more frequencies, you get the effect of the horn cutting through the playback in a better way.I have seen various "reflection filters" that go around microphones, typically for recording the human voice in a "dry" way. This sort of thing:
I own a Halo. It's ok, but playing into a clothes rack does a better job. Not that you will notice less or more frequencies, you get the effect of the horn cutting through the playback in a better way.
I experimented a lot with mic position, and how I place it is dependant on what I record to.
I am recording with an Avantone BV12 mic.
Cheers, Guenne
I bought it used, but like new for a bit more than half of the price. Still expensive, I agree.And that microphone is quite a price !