Production & Recording for Musicians

Task 3 – Stereo Mic Technique.

Harmonica.

A-B Stereo Pair.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with omni directional heads.

Positioning: The mics are placed on the stereo bar 30cm apart (approx) facing parallel to each other. The musician (and therefore sound source) was facing the mics, stood at a distance of around 80cm. The Harmonica was roughly 30cm higher than the microphone setup with both mics pointed up to the harmonica itself.

Results: This Technique resulted in a full and warm sounding recording with fairly minimal amount of breath noise.

A-B Stereo Pair Using Cardioids.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with cardioid heads.

Position: The positioning of both the microphone setup and the musician was identical to the recording with the traditional A-B Pair.

Results: I have found it quite difficult to determine a substantial difference between the results of this technique and the traditional AB pair, however on close inspection I fell that this setup gives a slightly better response at the lower end of the harmonica’s frequency range. In my opinion, this technique resulted in the best recording of the harmonica.

Experimental Technique.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with cardioid heads.

Positioning: One mic was placed to the right of the musician, approximately 60cm away at shoulder height with the microphone head aimed directly at the side of the harmonica. The other mic was to the right of the musician 120cm away and 80cm above. The mic head was not aimed at the sound source in an attempt to pick up some of the acoustic characteristics of the room.

Results: I am not pleased with recording received from using this technique; The harmonica sounds very ‘thin’ with no ‘warmth’ and the breath noises are very apparent. My attempt to capture some of the characteristics of the room failed, however I feel this may have been due to the ‘dry’ nature of the room itself.

Guitar.

A-B Stereo Pair.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with omni directional heads.

Positioning: The mic setup is the same as the previous A-B Pair (used for the harmonica recordings) however, after some experimentation I decided to use quite an unconventional method for my mic placement in relation to the sound source: the mics were placed behind the musician with the mic heads aimed at the back of the guitar head and fingerboard.

Results: This recording is very rich, there is a warm, full and natural sound to the guitar. I feel this setup resulted in the best recording for the guitar. When experimenting with the microphone position I was shocked a the quality of the results in comparison to placing the mics directly in front of the guitar’s sound hole as this is where I would have previously assumed was the most logical placement.

OCT

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with hyper-cardioid heads.

x1 Rode NT-1A Cardioid.

Positioning: The cardioid triangle was set up with a width of 100cm and a depth of 10cm (approx). The musician was positioned directly in front of the cardioid mic (x1 Rode NT-1A) with a distance of 60cm.

Results: This technique also provided very nice results with a slightly lower bass response to the A-B pair.

Experimental Technique.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with hyper-cardioid heads.

x1 Rode NT-1A Cardioid.

Positioning: This technique was a adaptation of the classic OCT, I used a relatively large cardioid triangle with the musician placed in the middle, the mic heads were aimed as if this were a traditional OCT setup so all the mics were pointing away from the sound source.

Results: This technique provided some interesting result; the recording sounded ‘thin’ and ‘distant’ in comparison to the previous setups but the higher frequencies sounded very ‘crisp’. Overall this gave the recording a nice characteristic and a quality that I feel would be useful within certain styles of music.

Mandolin.

A-B Stereo Pair.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with omni directional heads.

Positioning: The mic setup obviously needed to remain the same as the other A-B pair recordings. With this instrument I found the best position for the mics was in front of the musician with a distance of 50cm, 40cm lower than the mandolin with the mics pointed up towards the bridge of the instrument.

Results: The mandolin sounded very natural in this recording with sharp sound at the higher end of the instruments frequency range. I feel this was the best of the recordings for the mandolin.

A-B Stereo Pair Using Cardioids.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with cardioid heads.

Positioning: The positioning of the mics remained fairly similar to the traditional A-B pair, however I decided to raise the height of the mics so they were only 15cm below the bridge of the mandolin. I also adjusted the angle of the mics; rather than pointing the mic heads directly at the instrument I decided upon an angle of approximately 75 degrees (almost pointing towards the ceiling.)

Results: The high frequencies in this recording are very rich however, the overall sounds far too ‘bassey’ and therefore the madolin sounds unnatural.

Experimental Technique.

Mics: x2 Octava MK-12 with cardioid heads.

Positioning: For the third mandolin recording I tried an experimental technique with one mic above the instrument pointing down towards it, and the other mic below the instrument pointing up towards it. The high mic has a distance form the mandolin of 100cm while the lower mic only has a distance of 40cm.

Results: This technique resulted in quite a good recording although it did not sound as full as the results given with the AB pair.