[LUTE] Re: Miking a lute/theorbo
The dynamic range of digital exceeds the background noise in your room. For example, if your DR is 110 dB, and your background is 45 dB, you have only 65 dB range. A typical lute has DR of maybe 40 dB. Recording in 24 bits, each bit is worth 6dB. So when recording, set your levels high, but not at the very highest, becasue your end result will be 16 bit or less. USe that extra resolution to downsample and normalize at exactly the time of output for the best result. Use 48 kH, not 44.1: CDs are dead and 48 sounds better. Consider AAC 24 bit/48kHz for output--best kept secret in audio. Most people not only throw away the bits, they use a cheapo encoder that chops off all the high frequencies, even though free or inexpensive ones are available and need only to be set up once. dt __ From: Ed Durbrow edurb...@sea.plala.or.jp To: Anthony Hind agno3ph...@yahoo.com; LuteNet list lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Sent: Wed, April 11, 2012 3:48:35 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Miking a lute/theorbo On Apr 11, 2012, at 6:00 PM, Anthony Hind wrote: Ed Do I understand that you record in mono? I have often found that mono recordings are more relaxing than stereo, and analog more relaxing than digital; so mono analog is sometimes the easiest to listen to. It is as though the brain has lesswork to do recreating the sound image (trying to make the two sound images coincide). Although you no longer have indications of instrument position. No, I record in stereo if it is solo. Sometimes I record the lute in mono if there is a voice or other instrument because I have just one very expensive Neumann mic and I like to use it on the lute if I can. What I was saying is that if you record in a coincident pattern, there will be NO problems with phasing in mono playback. I don't know who listens in mono anymore, but it could happen. My main reason for using a coincident pattern though is that I can get a consistent sound on different days and even in different locations. I'm essentially lazy. It used to be true that mono tape had far more dynamic space than stereo (mono analog with Nagra whole track, instead of stereo halftrack; although I suppose with two Nagras synchronized for stereo, you would have the same dynamic space); but is this still applicable with the newest digital recording medium with various lossless compressing algorythms? No, I'm pretty sure the dynamic range is the same for mono or stereo in the digital domain. You choose the bit rate, after all. Personally, I feel the recording capabilities today far exceed the playback systems most people listen on. If I record at 24 bits 48k or 44.1k (some record at double or quadruple that sample rate) with nice mics, the advantages are more in the manipulation/effect/processing domain than in the playback medium. That is: GIGO. Put yet another way, start with lots of headroom and high quality and by the time it is reduced down to AAC or mp3 for a YouTube video and played on computer speakers, there still should be some discernible difference from a recording made with a PCM/mp3 recorder using its built in mics and recording in mp3 rather than wave format. De : Ed Durbrow [1]edurb...@sea.plala.or.jp A : LuteNet list [2]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Envoye le : Mercredi 11 avril 2012 2h22 Objet : [LUTE] Re: Miking a lute/theorbo Brad, I favor a coincident pair because there are no phase problems in mono, but even more so because it is easy to recreate. I don't have a problem with close miking (30-40cm). It is a matter of placement and mic quality, though. Every environment and instrument is different. It is probably safe to say that many engineers don't have a lot of experience with lutes and don't know the sound to go for. S/He might be able to fix the sound quite a bit after the fact, with your guidance. Maybe the two mics are out of phase. That will give a tinny sound. At any rate, s/he might be able to eq it to improve it. On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin
[LUTE] Re: Miking a lute/theorbo
On Apr 11, 2012, at 6:00 PM, Anthony Hind wrote: Ed Do I understand that you record in mono? I have often found that mono recordings are more relaxing than stereo, and analog more relaxing than digital; so mono analog is sometimes the easiest to listen to. It is as though the brain has lesswork to do recreating the sound image (trying to make the two sound images coincide). Although you no longer have indications of instrument position. No, I record in stereo if it is solo. Sometimes I record the lute in mono if there is a voice or other instrument because I have just one very expensive Neumann mic and I like to use it on the lute if I can. What I was saying is that if you record in a coincident pattern, there will be NO problems with phasing in mono playback. I don't know who listens in mono anymore, but it could happen. My main reason for using a coincident pattern though is that I can get a consistent sound on different days and even in different locations. I'm essentially lazy. It used to be true that mono tape had far more dynamic space than stereo (mono analog with Nagra whole track, instead of stereo halftrack; although I suppose with two Nagras synchronized for stereo, you would have the same dynamic space); but is this still applicable with the newest digital recording medium with various lossless compressing algorythms? No, I'm pretty sure the dynamic range is the same for mono or stereo in the digital domain. You choose the bit rate, after all. Personally, I feel the recording capabilities today far exceed the playback systems most people listen on. If I record at 24 bits 48k or 44.1k (some record at double or quadruple that sample rate) with nice mics, the advantages are more in the manipulation/effect/processing domain than in the playback medium. That is: GIGO. Put yet another way, start with lots of headroom and high quality and by the time it is reduced down to AAC or mp3 for a YouTube video and played on computer speakers, there still should be some discernible difference from a recording made with a PCM/mp3 recorder using its built in mics and recording in mp3 rather than wave format. De : Ed Durbrow edurb...@sea.plala.or.jp À : LuteNet list lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Envoyé le : Mercredi 11 avril 2012 2h22 Objet : [LUTE] Re: Miking a lute/theorbo Brad, I favor a coincident pair because there are no phase problems in mono, but even more so because it is easy to recreate. I don't have a problem with close miking (30-40cm). It is a matter of placement and mic quality, though. Every environment and instrument is different. It is probably safe to say that many engineers don't have a lot of experience with lutes and don't know the sound to go for. S/He might be able to fix the sound quite a bit after the fact, with your guidance. Maybe the two mics are out of phase. That will give a tinny sound. At any rate, s/he might be able to eq it to improve it. On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: Miking a lute/theorbo
Brad, I favor a coincident pair because there are no phase problems in mono, but even more so because it is easy to recreate. I don't have a problem with close miking (30-40cm). It is a matter of placement and mic quality, though. Every environment and instrument is different. It is probably safe to say that many engineers don't have a lot of experience with lutes and don't know the sound to go for. S/He might be able to fix the sound quite a bit after the fact, with your guidance. Maybe the two mics are out of phase. That will give a tinny sound. At any rate, s/he might be able to eq it to improve it. On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
It all goes to show that Micing up is hard to do. Bill [sorry . . .] From: David Tayler vidan...@sbcglobal.net To: lute lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Sent: Thursday, 5 April 2012, 4:20 Subject: [LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo Well, yesss, we can take it to extremes! But four mics is really ten times better than two, and you don't need more than six, and you can make a very, very good recording with two if you are willing to spend time on the placement to get it really perfect. Fortunately, it is all going to video now, and so the audio has to be good, but not as good. No need to fill in the image, the image is there. dt __ From: Christopher Wilke [1]chriswi...@yahoo.com To: [2]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu; Brad Walton [3]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Sent: Wed, April 4, 2012 10:55:36 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo Recipe for a really super natural lute sound: 1) Use 20-50 prohibitively expensive mics. 2) Place them at least 415 feet away from the instrument. 3) Arrange them in an incredibly intricate array involving rigging from a chemistry lab reminiscent of a bad sci-fi movie. (Be sure to record in no less than four channels.) 4) After recording, digitally manipulate the product with at least 4000 edits, taking special care to remove all aspects of the natural sound you don't actually mean to be heard (finger noises, fret buzz, the real sound your lute makes, etc.). 5) Liberally slather La cathedrale engloutie reverb all over the finished product. 6) Serve, relishing how your colleagues will compliment you on sounding so natural it is even better than the real thing. Chris Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer [1]www.christopherwilke.com --- On Tue, 4/3/12, Brad Walton [2][4]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: From: Brad Walton [3][5]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Subject: [LUTE] miking a lute/theorbo To: [4][6]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 12:05 PM Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [1][5][7]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. [6][8]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. [9]http://www.christopherwilke.com/ 2. mailto:[10]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 3. mailto:[11]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 4. mailto:[12]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 5. [13]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html 6. [14]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:chriswi...@yahoo.com 2. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 3. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 4. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 5. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 6. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 7. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 8. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 9. http://www.christopherwilke.com/ 10. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 11. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 12. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 13. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 14. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
Recipe for a really super natural lute sound: 1) Use 20-50 prohibitively expensive mics. 2) Place them at least 415 feet away from the instrument. 3) Arrange them in an incredibly intricate array involving rigging from a chemistry lab reminiscent of a bad sci-fi movie. (Be sure to record in no less than four channels.) 4) After recording, digitally manipulate the product with at least 4000 edits, taking special care to remove all aspects of the natural sound you don't actually mean to be heard (finger noises, fret buzz, the real sound your lute makes, etc.). 5) Liberally slather La cathedrale engloutie reverb all over the finished product. 6) Serve, relishing how your colleagues will compliment you on sounding so natural it is even better than the real thing. Chris Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer www.christopherwilke.com --- On Tue, 4/3/12, Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: From: Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Subject: [LUTE] miking a lute/theorbo To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 12:05 PM Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
Very clever, Chris! Is this from experience? ed At 12:55 PM 4/4/2012, Christopher Wilke wrote: Recipe for a really super natural lute sound: 1) Use 20-50 prohibitively expensive mics. 2) Place them at least 415 feet away from the instrument. 3) Arrange them in an incredibly intricate array involving rigging from a chemistry lab reminiscent of a bad sci-fi movie. (Be sure to record in no less than four channels.) 4) After recording, digitally manipulate the product with at least 4000 edits, taking special care to remove all aspects of the natural sound you don't actually mean to be heard (finger noises, fret buzz, the real sound your lute makes, etc.). 5) Liberally slather La cathedrale engloutie reverb all over the finished product. 6) Serve, relishing how your colleagues will compliment you on sounding so natural it is even better than the real thing. Chris Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer www.christopherwilke.com --- On Tue, 4/3/12, Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: From: Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Subject: [LUTE] miking a lute/theorbo To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 12:05 PM Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html Edward Martin 2817 East 2nd Street Duluth, Minnesota 55812 e-mail: e...@gamutstrings.com voice: (218) 728-1202 http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1660298871ref=name http://www.myspace.com/edslute http://magnatune.com/artists/edward_martin
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
Alternatively, sit in front of your $5 webcam with built-in mic, do your stuff, publish it, and ignore the snooty comments :) Bill From: Christopher Wilke chriswi...@yahoo.com To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu; Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Sent: Wednesday, 4 April 2012, 18:55 Subject: [LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo Recipe for a really super natural lute sound: 1) Use 20-50 prohibitively expensive mics. 2) Place them at least 415 feet away from the instrument. 3) Arrange them in an incredibly intricate array involving rigging from a chemistry lab reminiscent of a bad sci-fi movie. (Be sure to record in no less than four channels.) 4) After recording, digitally manipulate the product with at least 4000 edits, taking special care to remove all aspects of the natural sound you don't actually mean to be heard (finger noises, fret buzz, the real sound your lute makes, etc.). 5) Liberally slather La cathedrale engloutie reverb all over the finished product. 6) Serve, relishing how your colleagues will compliment you on sounding so natural it is even better than the real thing. Chris Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer www.christopherwilke.com --- On Tue, 4/3/12, Brad Walton [1]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: From: Brad Walton [2]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Subject: [LUTE] miking a lute/theorbo To: [3]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 12:05 PM Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [1][4]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. [5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 2. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 3. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 4. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html 5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
THAT is the way to go! i am reminded of how a Russian composer (i forget which) who'd moved to the USA after the Soviet Revolution, couldn't afford gramophone needles and made do with whatever needly-pinny-thingies he could find. when asked how he could abide such terrible sound, he said something along the lines of how the music was already in his head and he was listening not for sound quality but for emotion. or something like that. sorry, i'm a terrible storyteller - i vaguely recall reading this anecdote from Classic CD back in the early 90s, and if anyone can supply the name of the composer or the exact anecdote, please do! Edward C. Yong ky...@pacific.net.sg On 5 Apr 2012, at 2:46 AM, William Samson wrote: Alternatively, sit in front of your $5 webcam with built-in mic, do your stuff, publish it, and ignore the snooty comments :) Bill To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
Well, yesss, we can take it to extremes! But four mics is really ten times better than two, and you don't need more than six, and you can make a very, very good recording with two if you are willing to spend time on the placement to get it really perfect. Fortunately, it is all going to video now, and so the audio has to be good, but not as good. No need to fill in the image, the image is there. dt __ From: Christopher Wilke chriswi...@yahoo.com To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu; Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Sent: Wed, April 4, 2012 10:55:36 AM Subject: [LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo Recipe for a really super natural lute sound: 1) Use 20-50 prohibitively expensive mics. 2) Place them at least 415 feet away from the instrument. 3) Arrange them in an incredibly intricate array involving rigging from a chemistry lab reminiscent of a bad sci-fi movie. (Be sure to record in no less than four channels.) 4) After recording, digitally manipulate the product with at least 4000 edits, taking special care to remove all aspects of the natural sound you don't actually mean to be heard (finger noises, fret buzz, the real sound your lute makes, etc.). 5) Liberally slather La cathedrale engloutie reverb all over the finished product. 6) Serve, relishing how your colleagues will compliment you on sounding so natural it is even better than the real thing. Chris Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A. Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer [1]www.christopherwilke.com --- On Tue, 4/3/12, Brad Walton [2]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: From: Brad Walton [3]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Subject: [LUTE] miking a lute/theorbo To: [4]lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 12:05 PM Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [1][5]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. [6]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://www.christopherwilke.com/ 2. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 3. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 4. mailto:lute@cs.dartmouth.edu 5. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html 6. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
It may depend on many things (mic type, room acoustic, sound projection of your lute etc). So it's better to spend some time for several short sound-tests with different mic placing. But no close distances from mic to lute. Try somthing around 1,5-3 meters. 2012/4/3 Brad Walton [1]gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [2]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. mailto:gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca 2. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
David Tayler is someone who could offer good advice; his recordings are very natural sounding. David . . .? On Apr 3, 2012, at 12:05 PM, Brad Walton wrote: Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
Hi Brad, if you could post an excerpt somewhere I'd probably be able to tell you what was going on with your recording. Tinny and Distorted doesn't immediately give the impression of mic too close. A wild guess might be that the mics were out of phase with each other, that is one would have been wired the wrong way round so that the 2 mics cancelled each other, rather than working together. I'd probably start with the mic about 18inches from the instrument, on the midline of the soundboard and just to the neck side of the rose, I never recorded theorbo before so like Eugene says I'd try a number of tests to get the right placement. andy butler (sound engineer for many years, lute player for too few) Brad Walton wrote: Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
I recently recorded a CD with Christmas music in a studio in Hungary and I can tell you they get the sound of the theorbo as beautiful as possible. I really don't know what kind of microphone they used but it was a huge one about 40 cm from the soundboard and a smaller one about 20 cm from the fretboard. In that way the sound was very natural and the CD listened on a HI-FI stuff it's like a real live one... I think it's also a matter of preamps (they were using some tube preamps and amps...). Shure, AKG and Sennheiser are among the best what you can find on normal prices. Shure is my favorite. --- On Tue, 4/3/12, Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: From: Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca Subject: [LUTE] miking a lute/theorbo To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 7:05 PM Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
On 3 April 2012 18:05, Brad Walton gtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I .. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. So much for the 'professional recording studio' ... What is more important than the studio or the equipment, is the ear of the engineer. What does he want to record? If he has a preconceived idea of what a theorbo should shound, that is what he will put on tape. So, talk to the man, play for him, let him listen to what you think your theorbo should sound like. Listen to the test recordings, discuss things you would like differently, and keep coming back till you're both happy. Setting up the mics just rigth can take a lot of time, but it is time well spent. I have made many recordings, over 30 cds with many different profffessional engineers with _very_ fancy mics, and many more recordings with less professional people with very ordinary mics, but the people I could talk to, and discuss with what I like about my sound, made the best recordings, whatever their equipment. There is no one way to record a lute. David -- *** David van Ooijen davidvanooi...@gmail.com www.davidvanooijen.nl *** To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
[LUTE] Re: miking a lute/theorbo
Dear All, In my limited experience, too-close miking leads to boomey, guttural distortion. Some pros recommend 10 feet (or 3 meters) away, and 10 feet up. This, of course is based on having a good acoustic environment to start with. Cheers, Jim Stimson On 04/03/12, Brad Waltongtung.wal...@utoronto.ca wrote: Hello folks, On the weekend I recorded two pieces in a professional recording studio. I was accompanying a singer on the theorbo. The recording engineer aimed two mikes quite close to the body of the theorbo. On the recording, the sound of the theorbo is very tinny and distorted, and bears almost no similarity to the natural/ acoustic sound of the instrument. Has anybody had experience with miking a lute or theorbo for recording? What mike placement gave you the best results so far as concerned fidelity to the natural sound of the instrument? Thanks, Brad To get on or off this list see list information at [1]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html References 1. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/
