Micing for home / studio recording

[PaulKing]

Prompted by @Duckyincarnate and @Beedster and @Ramirez over in another thread, who can share experiences with mic placement and mic choice for recording? 

 

I've settled on a set-up that seems to work for me, though I still use some processing in the DAW.

 

2 mics and a piezo.

• A shitty old sE condenser at bridge height, about 12" from bridge, straight in front. Its nothing special but just seems to cope with the bass well.
• A nice AKG P420 just above right hand height, about 12" from fingerboard, pointing down towards hand.
• Underwood piezo thru Schatten Min-Pre. 

 

Then I use a wee bit of EQ and maybe some AO 'Re-Life' (it's magic!) and SD 'Fresh Air' plug-in to soften the mids and add presence. 

Sometimes have to phase shift one of them.

 

I bought a lovely GAP R1 ribbon specifically for bass, but I never got quite so nice a tone as with the combo above. Might try it again though, now I've settle on positions.

I went through so many alternative positions and distances, watched all the videos, Herve Jeanne's StringMatrix especially. 

 

What works for you?

[Ramirez]

Ooh, I think I may be of some use here!

 

 

As alluded to in the other thread, the choice of microphone itself is of FAR less importance than the microphone placement, performance, the instrument, crucially, and the room acoustics.

 

 

I remember when I first bought my DB - I had/have been spoiled by working in nice recording studio for years, with a great selection of mics and a wonderfully controlled live room. In that room, I've come to expect that I can put a microphone up and that whatever's in front of it will sound OK...

 

...but this was far from the case when I set up a couple of nice mics in my living room to have a go at recording the DB. The results were very disappointing - granted it's not a great instrument, and I'm no great player, but the acoustics of my living room were making it almost impossible to get a decent result.

Too close to the bass and it horrendously boomy, but slightly further out ir was horribly roomy, and there wasn't much useful in between!

 

When I took it in to the studio it was night and day - pretty much any and all mics gave an acceptable rendering of the DB as it was when placed appropriately. I tend to go a few feet (perhaps a metre) in front of the bass, and then fine tune the position. I rarely use two mics on it, and I'm very happy with the results I'm getting on myself and on other people - the limiting factor is usually the instrument or the playing.

 

Of course, positioning is highly dependent on what else is going on around the room - if it's a live ensemble and the bass is played a bit weak, then closer positioning might be of advantage, or blending with a pickup. Microphone polar patterns are crucial here too - a figure 8's deep side nulls can work wonders for rejection.

 

In terms of accuracy and a full frequency response you're not going to get better than s mall-diaphragm omnidirectional mic. Simply due to their physics they go deeper than anything else, but of course, and omni will also pickup a lot of the room. Omnis also don't suffer from proximity effect, which can also play havoc with the positioning.

 

Having said that, I find that anything that works well on vocals can work nice on double bass - I'm not sure why, but I feel that a voice and DB share a certain something in terms of expression. To that end I've often been using a nice large diaphragm condensor - and old Neumann U87, or more recently the United Studio Technologies Twin48 valve mic that I've just bought for the studio (if it's an overdub, I find that the omni patterns sounds a bit nicer). I also like the AEA R84 on DB, and I also find that the Beyerdynamic M160 ribbon is a great mics that can work well on most things.

Other large diaphragm mics we have that have worked well are Austrian Audio 818, Sony C48, AKG 414, and in terms of small diaphragm, I've had very good results with Beyerdynamic MC930, Sennheiser MKH40 and the cheap Line Audio OM1 omnidirectional.

Dynamics are also an option - I wouldn't be too upset if all I had to record a DB in a nice room was a Beyerdynamic M88 or M201!

 

However these are just nice things to have - in the same room I'm sure I'd be almost as happy with the results from a £50 mic providing it wasn't broken. I'm sure what you have is capable of giving very good results - before you go spending any more I'd experiment with the room acoustics if at all possible. Even if it's just a matter of hanging some duvets around you and the mic when you're recording. After all, if the room sounds bad, all a better mic will give you is a more faithful rendition of that inherently bad sound!

Edited 2 hours ago by Ramirez

[Homatron]

Thanks for starting this thread. Very timely for me! I've just started playing DB and have been recording a few bits on a handheld Tascam recorder as a practice aid.

 

I'm currently getting  a very "roomy" recording, so I'll experiment with some of the positioning and room control suggestions above to see if I can get better results.