Please, please, please don't rely on Google to find out information about recording orchestras and horns... There is so MUCH bad information floating around on the net, it's hard to sort out the good from the band and the ugly!
If you're looking for a place to ask some genuine questions about recording acoustic music, please check out Recording.org and look under their Acoustic Music Forum. You will find a myriad of professional musicians roaming about that site offering advice. My advice for mics would be: Try them before you buy them. If the store won't let you do this (or offer a good return policy), don't deal with that store. There are plenty of other good stores out there that will allow you to do this. When you start talking about microphone choice, it comes down to far more than just brand. You must also determine your pick-up pattern (for example, cardioid, omni, figure 8, etc) as well as your mic placement. You could have the greatest mics in the world, but if you don't place them correctly, you will still get horrible sounds. A good site to learn from would be: www.dpamicrophones.com They have a "Microphone University" which explains the various pick-up patterns and placement options. (Be aware though, they're in the business of selling microphones - their microphones to be specific. And while DPA microphones are among the best in the world, you don't necessarily need THEIR mics to do what you see pictured on their pages.) As for mics which I recommend, I will break them down into rough price categories - (BTW - almost all of the mics you'll see listed here are what are known as small-diaphragm microphones. Large diaphragm microphones have a bit more "sex appeal" in the studio, but have little to no place recording orchestras. They are often far too colorful. There are exceptions, but those usually have a very large price-tag.) Inexpensive (<$500USD per pair) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Rode NT5 (comes as matched pair and sound halfway decent.) *AT 4040 (cardioid - must use XY, ORTF or NOS for best pickup) *Studio Projects C4 (cheap matched pair) Moderate ($500-$1000 USD Pair) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *AT 4051 - available in Cardioid or Omni - full of options *Josephson C42 MP - VERY nice matched pair of cardioid microphones *AKG Blueline - available in omni, fig 8, cardioid - a very nice set of microphones. Can be found often on EBay for this price point. I use these often in recording orchestras as spot microphones or for operatic vocal pick-up) *Earthworks - many models available at this price point. All quite good, but you need a decent preamp to fully appreciate these. High to Extremely high-priced ($1000 USD per pair to much, much higher) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *Schoeps CMC 6 - MK2 (S or H), MK4, MK21, MK8 - some of my favorite. Very expensive, but very nice. I use these as most of my primary mics for orchestra. Chances are, if you're in an orchestra which has been professionally recorded, these mics were used. *Gefell M296, M295 - Also very nice. These are my second favorite mics. Very, very natural and clean. Very sensitive! *Gefell M300 - less expensive than the M296 or M295 but VERY nice. Comparable to the venerable Neumann KM84. *Sennheiser MKH series - also quite pricey but very nice. A favorite (along with Schoeps) of Telarc and other famous recording companies. I personally much prefer the accurate sounds of the Schoeps and Gefell to the "warmer" more "euphoric" sounds of the Sennheisers. *DPA - Expensive but as accurate as a mic gets. They also have a new budget line which falls into the middle category above, but I have yet to try them so I can't give any recommendations. *Earthworks - the high-end earthworks mics are quite good, but I would prefer almost every mic mentioned here so far in comparison. I find these to be too clinically accurate and often quite boring. *Royer - Ribbon mics. Glorious, warm accurate sound but be prepared to spend 2 hours setting up your mic to find the right placement. Otherwise, expect poor recordings (specifically the SF12 and SF24 stereo ribbon mics.) For all of you who are microphone savvy and are surprised at my obvious omission of perhaps the most famous microphone company, Neumann - this omission was intentional. I find most of the Neumann microphones of today to be flawed, overpriced and hyped. For the REAL Neumann heritage, check out Gefell mics. They maintain the original manufacturing techniques of Herr Neumann himself and not the newer techniques introduced by Sennheiser since their not too recent purchase. All of the mics mentioned above are freely available from places such as: Sweetwater Atlas Pro Audio Mercenary Pro Audio (I'm not on payroll for any of these companies - they are all just places from which I've purchased gear and been immensely pleased.) Hope this helps a little. Enjoy the addicting habit of recording! Jeremy ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ message: 6 date: Sat, 29 Jul 2006 18:52:08 -0400 from: "Steve Freides" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> subject: RE: [Hornlist] Re: Recording Linda wrote: > -----Original Message----- On Behalf Of Donald J. Ankney > On Jul 22, 2006, at 10:00 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > >>snip > > ...That being said, you also have to invest in serious mics > and especially mic pre-amps to capture that signal. > > >>snip > > In the light of the recent discussions, I purchased a PMD671 > solid state portable recorder. Now I'm trying to research > mics but am at a loss. I don't know anything about the > technologies and am not sure of what specs to look for to > record in a range of situations--from horn alone to full > orchestra. I want something that will take me into the next few years. > It doesn't have to be top of the line, but I'd like something > better than a starter mic. The recordings will be for > archival purposes, not to produce CDs. I will upgrade the mic > later if my needs change. > > Is there a resource that boils down the recording > techno-speak into something that a recording layperson can > understand? I just did a Google search on: microphones for recording classical music and found quite a bit of interesting reading. The article on tape.com talks about different kinds of microphones and their placements in recording music. Selecting brands and models of microphones is no different than selecting a french horn - there are many choices, many of which might work for you. As with selecting a horn, what you start out with might not be what you find you prefer a few weeks/months/years down the road. In addition, be sure that whatever mikes you get work with your recorder without requiring addition equipment or that you get that additional equipment when you get the mikes. Take your recorder to the store at which you buy the mikes if possible. When I was working part-time and going to undergraduate school part-time, one of the things I did to support myself was record student recitals. I found a very simple setup of two omnidirectional microphones placed in front of the audience but not too close to the performers worked well to capture the feeling of a live performance. If you're trying to achieve a "studio quality" performance, your needs will be different. A second Google search on: inexpensive microphones for live recording found other interesting articles that would be helpful to you, including one entitled, "How to buy a microphone for your home studio." Best of luck to you. -S- _______________________________________________ post: horn@music.memphis.edu unsubscribe or set options at http://music2.memphis.edu/mailman/options/horn/archive%40jab.org
