miking dicovery

[Jules]

I was recording yesterday at the metway studio in brighton with an engineer who wasn't used to miking horns. after a bit of experimenting he came up with a superb set up for getting the sound of my mauriat... for anyone who records themselves or uses studios- try this; one ambient mike about 4' in front of the horn- pointing at my belt level. now here's the trick, one mike to my right pointing at the bell keys. the side mike really captures the richness of tone and the whole set up it much less harsh than miking straight down the bell........

 

[Flipper2008]

Sounds great, he obviously found the "sweet spot".

Flipp

 

[dooce]

Makes a lot of sense. Nice to hear of a sound-tech actually thinking about it instead of just "doing what he's always done".

 

[Jules]

Yup- I've rarely liked my tone when recorded close miked, always felt too harsh (its never been as warm/full as when recorded with ambient room mikes). this is definately the way forward. Other discovery from last night's session- up all monday night with a new baby,crazy day at work and then into the studio- boy was I ropey (the sound was great but the playing was, well..... top tip, never book a studio session when you've got a 3 week old baby!)

 

[daveysaxboy]

Yup- I've rarely liked my tone when recorded close miked, always felt too harsh (its never been as warm/full as when recorded with ambient room mikes). this is definately the way forward. Other discovery from last night's session- up all monday night with a new baby,crazy day at work and then into the studio- boy was I ropey (the sound was great but the playing was, well..... top tip, never book a studio session when you've got a 3 week old baby!)

Got a day's recording session on sunday so will deffo the tech to try this out.No what you mean about to harsh.Most tech's dont have a clue when it comes to us horn blowers.

 

[Linky Lee]

I've always found shoving the mike down the bell to be great... for Punk rock sax!

A lot of the sound a saxophone makes doesn't come out of the bell. When I was studying music tech I spent a few days in the studio playing around with different miking techniques.

I found a few methods that worked well. 1 very similar to yours as said.

1 which involved a directional mike on a large boom stand over the shoulder and pointing in towards the left hand pinky. - had a nice mix of those sweeter frequencies you mention, a bit more breath and a slightly more even volume level.

Another was miking the sax up again with a directional mic, this time about 1' from the sax, mic pointing up towards the crook so that the bell is perpendicular to the mic and the upper stack is kind of 'in the line of fire'.

1 thing to note is if a tech really does want to shove the mic down the bell, give it some angle. just like when singing, you don't sing directly into the mic, just at a slight angle or off centre.

 

[Andrew Sanders]

Congratulations Jules on the new baba. I didn't know you were expecting! Many happy sleepless nights to you and Mrs Jules.
Andy

 

[kevgermany]

Congrats from us too. Can be a bit trying at times, but it's worth it.