Orchestra microphone placement book

Meinl gooseneck microphone attachment with rim clamp for. If you are having trouble with audio quality after optimizing your microphone placement, see troubleshooting audio and recognition. How much difference does mic position make to vocals. Popular microphone techniques for vocals, guitars and.

This can be one of the most politically charged recording experiences in an engineers career. As somebody who has been burned doing this a few times now, one real issue is the orchestra quality in terms of musicianship. Classical orchestra with support microphones multitrack recording techniques are mainly built up around a main stereo pair using the ab stereo principle. With the advancement of surround sound that also includes the near and far field or front to back positioning of sound. Even slight variations can deteriorate accuracy significantly. And there was that one microphone placed center stage. Some adjectives i would use when describing what i am looking for in a string mic are.

You shouldnt have to talk yourself into liking the microphone you choose. When miking choirs with an orchestra or band in front. How to mic a symphony orchestra with ab stereo recording. Some also add a third center microphone to strengthen the center image. There are books written about acoustics and how to mathematically determine their effects. You should always trust your ears and begin by listening to how the instrument sounds, find the sweet spot, and begin your microphone placement there. Ortf combines both the volume difference provided as sound arrives on and offaxis at two cardioid microphones. Information contained in this book has been obtained by thomson course technology ptr from sources. I have heard from a proper singer that changing the mic position when recording vocals can make a big impact on the way they sound. The mics can be spaced 28 feet apart, depending on the span of the choir. The decca tree is a spaced microphone array most commonly used for orchestral recording it was originally developed as a sort of stereo ab recording method adding a center fill. Learn the basics of digital recording, each step of the signal path, and everything from microphone placement to mixing strategy through the eyes and ears of the immortal roger nichols, master engineer.

So, if our goal is to sound like a realistic orchestra we must think like a real orchestra. Now that you have narrowed down the selection, and your microphone is ready for action, consider the following. Microphone technique is largely a matter of personal taste. Signal from this microphone can also be individually processed served on the reverb, equalization, delay, etc. Since a usb connection powers the microphone, you dont have to worry about a power source, and you can record straight to an. Sound recording with ambient microphone placement dummies. The mba48 microphone boom arm is the perfect microphone accessories for any radio, podcast or home studio setup. You may place the mic a couple of feet away from the source but pointed in the opposite direction, or you may place it across the room.

Origins and development of the three channel stereophonic sound recording. On this site youll find instructions on how to mic various instruments, all excerpts from the microphone placement guide found at the back of the encyclopedia of home recording. As a general disclaimer, every instrument, musician, and room is different. The decca tree is a spaced microphone array most commonly used for orchestral recording. The placement of the mic is also very dependent on the position of the instrument in that particular roomvenue. Microphone selection and placement universal audio. Microphone choice and placement secrets for recording.

Buy a mic that makes you want to play, record and share your music with others. Al reveals his typical microphone choice, setup, space and compression for tracking vocals. Eliminate micplacement guesswork with the shavering. There are several classes of microphone placement for recording and amplification. For these examples, well look at a few common sources that benefit from the use of condenser microphones.

Proximity effect as you move a microphone closer to the source, bass frequencies increase as distance. In this configuration, a cardioid microphone can cover up to 1520 voices, arranged in a rectangular or wedgeshaped. Figure 3 shows the way not to position the microphones. Ive done live sound for decades, but have done practically nothing relating to orchestral recordings. It was originally developed as a sort of stereo ab recording method adding a center fill. Featuring clear explanations on how to achieve professional results, this book is divided into two distinct sections.

Normally the spacing is adjusted between 40 and 60 cm. Correct microphone positioning is one of the most important ways to enhance recognition accuracy. Ambient miking is simply placing the mic far enough away from the sound source so that you capture more of the room sound the reverb and delay than the sound of the actual instrument in your recording. Panning is the placement of sound in the stereo field. A complete reference for the home recording studio to get started, select the instrument you want to record from the list below or select one of the instrument categories in the menu above. For those of you who arent already aware, a light orchestra, despite the name, is not a small. For example, rather than pointing the mic at the singers mouth, you can point it downwards to capture more chest or upwards to capture more of the nasal characteristics. Sarah lois vaughan march 27, 1924 april 3, 1990 was an american jazz singer nicknamed sassy and the divine one, she won four grammy awards, including the lifetime achievement award. The meinl mic rim clamp with flexible microphone gooseneck features the same sturdy and reliable mounting mechanism as the classic rim clamp but comes outfitted with added hardware for precise microphone placement on congas, drum kits, and marching percussion. I am planning on recording a school orchestra recital and need some help deciding on a microphone setup. Its articulating design provides a maximum horizontalvertical arm reach of 48, giving users convenient flexibility with their mic placement. It is common knowledge among sound engineers that every musical instrument has a specific sound radiation pattern and that its recorded sound depends on where the microphone is placed in relation to that instrument. This rule states that if you measure the distance from the sound source e. The stereo image is created from the main stereo pair and it is therefore extremely important to place the microphone pair correctly before any support microphones are set up.

This stereo mic technique involves spacing a pair of cardioid or omnidirectional microphones apart in such a way that they cover the space but dont create phase issues for each other. In addition to being a writer, he is a freelance recording engineerproducermastering engineer, teaches music business and audio recording at indiana universitypurdue university, and is sweetwaters editorial director. Notice how the sound changes as the microphones are moved. Depends on a number of things like the mic, characteristics of the mic, singer, song vibe, etc. Microphone and speaker placement for performance ttdi. The microphone ill be speaking to in these examples is the warm audio wa87. The sound comes mostly from the front of the instrument, where the fholes are. Recording orchestra and other classical music ensembles audio. An excerpt from richard kings upcoming book recording orchestra and. The gain setting in the dsp input block defines the amount of analog preamp gain or input gain which is applied to the mic input channel. Notice how different the microphones sound from each other.

Wessel oltheten, producer, engineer and author of the book mixing with impact offers a roadmap to getting better sounds out of your mics, every time. If so, i bet youre thinking that the horrible sounds were caused by an equipment malfunction or perhaps low quality equipment in general. The comparison of different microphone positions for. I also have a limited selection of microphones to choose from. It is intended to prevent destructive combfiltering from occurring. These placement tips can help you get started but there are multiple ways to mike any instrument, and the mics you select will affect the optimal placement for a given application. The orchestral instruments will be spread out in a semicircle on the stage facing the audience, with the conductor or maestro at a podium in the middle. This is a huge topic and i only want to say that the first thing you need for good classical recording is a decent room or hall since the microphone placement tends to be farther away for a smoother recording and you want to hear more of the natural reverb of the hall. Learn how to take your vocal recordings from average to professional as fab shows you all of the classic techniques as well as often overlooked details and tricks what should the distance be between the singer and the microphone. To show how drastic a difference there is, here is a frequency graph of two identical shure sm57 mics on the same sound and same performance through. The aim is to achieve a good balance between the subject sound and the ambient noise. Recording orchestra and other classical music ensembles.

The second edition of the microphone book follows the same broad subject outline. In general, place the microphone as close as practical to the sound source without getting so close that you introduce unwanted effects see below. Adjust the mic positions so that the overlap in the mic patterns evenly covers the center of the choir. Facing the stage, the string instruments will be closest to the audience and the conductor. The technique was developed in the early 1950s and first commercially used in 1954 by arthur haddy, roy wallace, and later refined by engineer kenneth ernest wilkinson and his team at decca. Placement of instruments on an orchestra stage our pastimes.

Al shows his drum kit setup, mentions alternative microphone choices, and explains why he uses no eq. Because mic placement is an art form, there is no right or wrong. If you want to capture the fundamental of the uprightbass its nearly impossible to get it right with a mic because of the room nodes and roominstrument interaction. In this application, the pickup will largely rely upon the acoustic.

Microphone placement for the violin soloist gearslutz. This type of microphone is sometimes called an individual or backlighted. The final topics of discussion in this introductory studio basics is are extremely important ones. If you havent seen it, the dpa microphone university pages are really helpful on the various techniques.

Critic scott yanow wrote that she had one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century. It describes the output voltage of the microphone in response to sound. Realistic orchestral panning instrument placement in the. Fab dupont explores the most important aspect of recording a singer. It should be centered in front of the choir and aimed at the last row. Nearly placed microphone is used for bright, beautiful tone of a particular instrument or group, and for correction of the balance in ensemble. Listen to how you can hear more of the room as the microphone moves further away. Some of these microphoneplacement suggestions can be used in live applications, as well as for studio recording.

Secrets of mic placement quickly finding the optimum position for a mic is perhaps the single most useful talent an engineer can have. But, for a standard if i can even use that, where ive got a singer in a room alone, doing a main vox track into a ldc mic, ill start about 8 from their mouth. This serves to reduce extraneous noise, including room reverberation, and is commonly used when. Professional microphone techniques mix pro audio david mileshuber, philip williams on. While you often see microphone techniques discussed for specific applications, another approach is to learn some general principles that you can apply to any situation. Compromises have to be made so that the orchestra sounds natural with a proper stereo width.

Microphone and speaker placement for performance by admin have you ever covered your ears in pain at the sound of highpitched screeching noise at a live performance. The importance of the mic position on the speaker cone is something many people clearly dont grasp. Investigating this fact has led to a fascinating collaboration between kazuya nagae, a sound recording associate professor from. For one microphone picking up a typical choir, the suggested placement is a few feet in front of, and a few feet above, the heads of the first row.

Xlr is the common professional choice, and xlr adapters can be purchased for a 3. In close miking, a microphone is placed relatively close to an instrument or sound source, within three to twelve inches, producing a dry or nonreverberant sound. Distance between the microphones channel separation in the ab stereo technique is determined by the distance between the microphones. What is the reasoning for the placement of strings in an.

How to mic a classical symphony orchestra utilizing. Sometimes the key is to perfectly match the groups natural timbre and balance with the most transparent microphone technique possible, although the acoustic balance as heard on stage by the artists may be interpreted differently once it is. With a focus on the orchestra as an instrument and sound source, this book. The book only publishes the top view from that i assume that is all. With this technique, the mics will be positioned so that the left mic picks up the left side of the choir and the right mic picks up the right side of the choir. The importance of mic placement for guitar amps with. The technique was developed in the early 1950s and first commercially used. Al discusses microphone choice, placement, acoustics and processing for double bass. Before we can get into that though, we have to choose the proper mic first. Recording an orchestra using royer ribbon microphones, with engineer robert friedrich duration. Unique academic recording project highlights the effects. Choosing a great microphone for string players the.

The golden rule of microphone placement is get the distance right. The sound coming off the speaker cone changes drastically depending on where you put the mic. The 3to1 rule is another guide for microphone placement. The placement of a microphone can play just as important a role, and is one of an engineers most valued tools. For even more on this subject, look for his new indepth series on placing mics, starting next month on sonicscoop. The ortf stereo microphone system, also known as sideotherside, is a microphone technique used to record stereo sound. If youre new to recording and dont know where to begin, or your recordings arent as good as youd like them to be, audio recording basic trainig is here to help. Microphone sensitivity is a physical characteristic of a microphone.