[riiiiicola]

Hi there,

I've got a nice little band with violin, viola, steel pan, bass, vocals, and keys. We're about to start tracking our first album. ON A BUDGET.

So I've got a great board (Phonic Helix Pro 18 Firewire) which gives us 16 independent tracks in and two tracks back out for monitoring. I am going to buy a Behringer B2 Pro and a CAD M179. Both multipattern condensers.


I'm thinking:

Steel Pan, miced from above with either condenser.
Bass and Keys, DI to board (with direct box or line out from amp, we'll figure that out later)
Vocals will be laid in later.

But my problem is the violin and viola. We cannot afford 3 condenser mics (steel, violin and viola), so I'm hoping to get good results from a figure of 8 pattern with them on either side with pick ups on their instruments for isolation purposes. So three tracks total for the violin and viola. We'll likely have some bleed from the steel pan, but oh well...

Can anyone think of a better (by which I mean cleaner and as cheap) way to get all of these instruments somewhat isolated without iso booths?

Thanks!
-Will