Gear/Help : Recording Band Organs, Nickelodeons, Calliope's, etc.

[stepmoderatio]

Hello.

Long time reader, first time poster. I'm looking for input on gear choices as well as techniques for recording a massive variety of band organs, calliopes, violin machines, nickelodeons, etc. Most of these machines are very loud and vary in size, but the most complicated would be the large band organs.

The band organs are massive, some of them as big as 10'h x 30'L x 10'd. Most are in the range of 8'h x 10'L x 6'd. The difficulty, for anyone not familiar with them, is that they often have a dozen or more instruments in them. A snare drum at one end, reed or pipe organ pipes running the length of the unit, half a dozen horns, etc.

First, I'd appreciate help on where to begin getting a good recording out of these. It isn't practical to mic up each instrument independently. I was considering one or two pairs of mics for the mid to large sized machines.

Second, while I've worked in a small professional studio, and numerous project studios, I don't have knowledge of the vast amount of microphones, pre's, etc available. We have between $1000 and $3000 to spend on the mic's and pre's. Currently I have a macbook pro, and have considered using an Eventide Orville, with a digital connection into my computer as the front end. That would provide 4 inputs. I'd consider getting an ADC if it could fit in the price range.

Let me send my gratitude in advance to anyone who is willing to help me with this. It's a dizzying project, but one I'm very eager to get started on.


Cheers,
Tom

[NorseHorse]

Given that you are recording primarily vintage instruments, you may want to look at ribbon microphones, since they can impart a "vintage" sound. Take a look at Royer ribbons in particular.

As far as placement techniques go, each instruments will be different. I have an old pump organ that I recorded in stereo by placing one mic to my left and one to my right about a foot over the keyboard. Given your breadth though, sometimes you may want to back up and record a near coincident cardioid pair in the room.

Or a pair right in the pipes.

Or a pair beyond the organ.

Or mics mounted on your hat.

Basically, when it comes to these kind of things, your best bet is to alot yourself sometime to play around with placement to come up with something you like.

Good luck!

[Roland]

An Omni pair is a good choice, particularly if recording outside (less prone to wind noise). Alternatively MS pair or even a Soundfield would work brilliantly. Ribbon mics may give a nice sound, but particularly unsuitable if working outside (real chance of damaging the ribbon elements). Trying to mic theindividual elements is fraught with problems of balance, when you get close there is a lot of mechanical mechanism noise on these machines. For me a lot of their charm is the sound they make in a large space.


Regards



Roland

[NorseHorse]

Good point. Don't want a little breeze ripping through your $1000 ribbon mics!

[boojum]

I have a mic setup I have been playing with that might work in this situation: MS + omni's. I set up the omni's as determined by Williams' charts for omni's and put the MS in the center of the two omni's. From the four tracks I can blend in enough of the omni's for the "openness sound" and use the MS for the articulation. It is compact and easier to set up than the Eargle setup of ORTF with flanking omni's at a greater distance. I am just starting with this rig and have not tried it in a lot of situations but it did a grand job of with a classical performance of a Dohnanyi string trio and some opera excerpts.

I would test it first in your venue. And if you like it, I would love to hear how it sounds for you. And do let us know how the recordings come out. I am very envious of you and this project. Where did you say it was??? ;o)