miking a violin/cello
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Posted on Dec 27, 2005 11:55 am
musicdreamer7
Member Since: Nov 10, 2005
hey everyone,
I'm looking to mic a violin and a cello very soon for a song of mine i'll be using them in but I'm not quite sure how to do it yet. After salvaging info off of multiple google searches so far it seems that ill take my rode nt1-a (ldc) and then place about 1-1.5ft above the violin pointing towards where the bow meets the strings. I was wondering if that would be sufficient or if anyone else had ideas or pointers if they have done this before. Also would it be smart to use a dynamic mic with this performance, say maybe close miking the violin about 6 inches away with a dynamic mic (sennheiser e609) and then maybe placing the rode a bit further back to get a good room sound?
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Dec 27, 2005 08:38 pm I would put the mike a bit more where the sound is being produced by the instrument. On acoustic guitars, this is the "body" of the guitar, rather than the "hole". I imagine it would be similar for all stringed instruments. I say, trust your ears. Put a set of headphones on and get a person to play the violin/cello while you move the microphone around until you find a "Sweet spot" that you like. All the best@ :-)
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Dec 27, 2005 10:25 pm Yes, the 2 mic idea is always good. The mt1 can be alittel closer if you like, it will pick up a little more body taht way. As well adding the dynamic will also help if you keep it pretty close.
As Dragonorchid stated, you may want to try moving them around a bit untill you get a good sound. The room you record in will really have an impact on the sound so there are no absolute set dimensions a to were to put the mics.
RigsbyUltra MagnusMember
Since: Nov 13, 2004
Dec 28, 2005 03:47 am Yeah,the room makes a big difference with violin and cello. Personally i tend to prefer an SDC with violin and LDC with cello, though my favourite violin sound so far was a violin with a pick-up plugged into a peavey valve amp, 57 on the amp and 414 (LDC) in the room with the player around two feet from the 414 and the amp around seven or eight feet behind her, that really was a beautiful tone, but i don't have the room here to do that set-up justice.
I've recorded both a fair few times now and the sweet spot is different everytime due to positioning of the player/ instrument, the room, attack, the tune and probably temperature and a bunch of other things so it's worth playing around and using your ears. I tend to mic cello a little closer than violin on the whole, getting too close to a violin gives you this fairly wooly sound, thicker than a pick-up but the same sort of quality, violins really need some room sound.
TallChapAnswer:On a good day, lipstick.Member
Since: Jun 24, 2004
Dec 28, 2005 11:01 am What Rigsby said....
Also, I'd try a couple of SDC's on booms about ten feet away from the duo, and see how that sounds. I've heard some lovely sounding strings recorded that way. Of course, it's the room that really is going to make or break the sound.
By the way, love the idea of the tube amp/57 rig.
Dec 29, 2005 12:41 am Also got a nice sound out of a violin with a pickup into a amplifier once, captured by an NT2. Problem can be pickups can br quite scratchy on the high end, so had to do a bit of a high cut... but not to much to lose the violin's tone.
