|
No problem bro, glad to help.
Don't think of EQing/compressing individual instruments as much as individual inputs/tracks/channels. You can compress the two M/S mics, but doing that might hurt more than it helps. It will bring out ambient noises more (bleed from steelpan, room ambience); it will also have the same effect on the violin as on the viola, and vica versa. The steel, however, you can probably do more to.
So...do EVERYTHING you can do get a good sound to tape. Ideally you won't need to do much more.
If you need more control (and that's a hard question - do you really need it or do you just want it) then you can do one of two things:
(1) Take the pickup/preamp outputs from the instruments like you mentioned in your first post
(2) Track piano/bass/steelpan together and overdub strings
#2 will give you better sound quality, but you'll possibly (probably) have a trade off from a good performance unless the band has played like that before. Never make that trade - it's performance that sells/inspires.
As far as a better condenser...I only want to recommend what I've used, and the V67G is it in the <$500 condensor market. It's really a nice little mic. Let me put it this way: when you get to the point where the V67 is holding you back from making better recordings, you won't need to come to this forum for advise! So please don't feel like you have to spend any more money than that.
Of course, the same can be said about most mics, and if you spend more money there's a chance (though not always) you'll get better quality. For $190 I'd look for the Stellar CM1 on ebay. It's the same mic as the Apex 405 (forum search will give you tons of info). I'm considering picking one up myself to mod (new tube, new capsule, maybe new output transformer, etc) but won't vouch for the sound (cause I've never heard it).
Dave
|