How to record Udu

[JazzPipo]

Hi there,

I just started a trio with acoustic guitar, electric guitar and percussion. The percussionist mainly plays two udu's, one large one smaller with goatskin. The sound of these instruments and the way he plays them is amazing but I can't figure out to record them properly. I really like the deep sub bass and the contrast with the light touch hand playing and the snappy skin sound of the smaller udu. But I find it hard to get a nice closed mike sound that has a good balance between the loud bass and soft percussive hand playing.

Any tips on how to setup? what mic's?

Thanx!

[mohthom]

I find it hard to get a nice closed mike sound

Have you tried recording from further away?

MohThoM

[audiothings]

i have recorded the south indian udu, ghatam, hundreds of times. the sound is coming from multiple areas and therefore extreme close micing is not recommended, unless you are in a high feedback risk based live situation. i would suggest a cardioid condenser mic about 3' away from the instrument... experiment with angle to see where you're getting the full spectrum. and post a sample when you're done.

[alessio]

I had very good result with a large diaphragm condenser on the hole, for the bass. and a schoeps cmc 5 for the slap. positioning must avoid phase issues...
alessio

[toolskid]

Decent ldc about a foot or so above the hole, or closer mic the hole and use a sdc close up on the hands then correct phase issues with an ibp. Good luck. Watch out for the amount of bottom end and the tuning, it can get insane!

[oudplayer]

ldc about 2-3 feet away, on axis with the hole the player is not whacking on but not quite on axis (an inch or two off), but pointed at the hand not whacking the hole.

I realize this sounds a bit... debauched... but I'm not sure how to describe udu any other way!

[valleysound]

Here's a trick I did live with a group. There was a small hole near the neck. I wrapped an Audio Technica lav mic, I don't remember the pattern though, in some tissue and fed it through the hole and gaff taped it where the body meets the neck, inside. I also used a KSM32 a foot or few away from his hands to get the slap and burble, with a some low end too. I would eq the channel strip of the inside mic so that the Udu player could control the low end coming out of the PA with his hands. It was controlled feedback. It worked great and was a really cool effect when there were subs!! Live is a different situation as the Udu is interacting with the PA system. I imagine with some experimenting this could work well in a studio situation or at least be interesting to hear the results. I wish the Udu was here now so I could check for myself what it really sound like mic'd this way.

[JazzPipo]

It has been a while but finally got a setup that works...

I recorded the udu with a TLM103, 1m above the udu and a AKG C451E with CK1 capsule pointed at the neck about 30cm away. I dialed the both mic's in phase with an IBP junior...

I'm very, very satisfied and included a sample... in the computer slight compression with a 1176 and a touch of 50Hz on a Neve 1073 plugin...

[d_fu]

Me like...
Is the reverb natural?

[Martin Kantola]

I have always used an omni (DPA 4006 or similar) for this instrument in the studio, because it doesn't have the proximity effect and gives a good balance of deep lows and crisp highs in close miking. Placement usually a bit above the udu. Used this instrument a lot with our band Gjallarhorn.

Martin

[JazzPipo]

The Reverb is a PCM90 Gold Plate preset...

The recording room is rather dry but has a nice ambience for percussion...

I should experiment maybe a bit more with a 1 mic setup... the only omni I got is a C451E with CK22 capsule... I'll give it a try sometime...

[Boogaju]

thought i'd resurrect an old thread with some new ideas and material...

Just got some cool results with a XY pair of shoeps CMC6 (cardioid) about 1 meter just above the udu + an omni DPA in the same position.

I then added a bit of reverb to the raw stereo track (shoeps) and layered underneath the dpa with eq and comp to bring in a bit more bass. Goal was to retain a natural, open sound.

[JoeDeF]

Originally Posted by JazzPipo

It has been a while but finally got a setup that works...

I recorded the udu with a TLM103, 1m above the udu and a AKG C451E with CK1 capsule pointed at the neck about 30cm away. I dialed the both mic's in phase with an IBP junior...

Very nice, detailed and balanced capture! So, now I know...that's how udu it!