best way to record a tuvan throat singer

[bigos]

I need to record a tuvan throat singer for a documentary film this friday.
This will be a quick session so I wont have time to experiment to much. I listned to this music a bit and I noticed the overtones that float on top of the main drone. does anyone have any recomendations on mics, placement, room sound etc. thanks

bigos
Saraswati Studios

[leaper]

I recorded an album once with a throat singer. We went to different locations and he improvised a piece to suit the acoustics of each location.
We did spaces ranging from the inside of a car to an empty factory.
I usually used a 414 between one and two feet away from the singer's mouth and a couple of PZM's to capture room. All mics were equally responsible in capturing the multiple overtones that the guy was creating.
One of the best locations we found was a large (luckily disused) public toilet which was completely covered in ceramic tiles. In that case, a 414 directly over his head was crucial to capturing the sound.
Hope this helps.

[bigos]

thanks
so it seems that I should avoid using the dead vocal booth. I have some stone and wood rooms that may sound good for this.
bigos
Saraswati Studios

[lord_bunny]

I think it's genre appropriate in some classical solo vocals to use a good SDC (i've used a km184) up and away from the singer by as much as two feet with the addition to a stereo mic (MS, Blumlien) to capture the room, maybe 10 feet away.

I think what you don't want unless it's for a pop project is to get a LDC up and close, because it may be quite a bit too much hype.

And totally avoid your booth if your room is at all good.

[theblue1]

I suspect it's much like capturing a cello. The sound doesn't come from any one source. Of course, that's why the ambient reflection is so important.


The idea of going to different locations and improvising specifically for the local acoustics is an eye-opener -- but such a natural, when you think about it. When I was a youngster and had it in my mind to do such things, I loved taking my guitar to different places, the more reverberant or echoey the better. One of my faves was a concrete locker room in the art department at Long Beach State (cute artist coeds, too, suckers for guitar). Another was a long, long pedestrian tunnel from a bluffside park, under a four lane street (with another stairway access point there) and then under a wide green belt ending in the bluffs -- a total of approximately 300 feet. It was all but abandoned and really creepy in the middle -- but there were a few spots that had an amazing echo.

from: 33.764566,-118.168218 - Google Maps [the entrance stairway was near the marker; the beach exist is still visible as a large concrete fixture in the side of the bluff ]

Sorry to digress.

[DQA123]

put a piezo pickup on his vocal chord?

[analogjeff]

your best LDC, run through a high quality, warm but open pre, about 18 inches from the singer... in a nice room... if the room's really big and you don't want so much natural verb, put a few baffles up, but not right on top of the singer...

i have most of Huun Huur Tu's CD's and have played right after them at a big folk festival... also have a friend who throat sings/splits his voice... an amazing sound...

[travisbrown]

Hmm...didn't Björk just collaborate with a tuvan throat singer? I think Lanois had something to do with it too. Maybe there's some info or pics on what they did on the Google.

[Chris Ptacek]

I've studied and practiced a few Tuvan throat singing techniques for several years.

Without exception, they're all just normal singing techniques. You get the harmonics by shaping the palette. You get the low tones by creating buzz tones.

As such, the sounds are coming from yer face in exactly the same way as they do when singing. So you don't need anything radically different than you would use to capture vocals normally, BUT the volumes and the tones you're going for are different than what you might normally be used to recording.

I'd probably be using a LDC etc, but if the room sounds good, I'd agree that you gain a lot by capturing that too, for your purposes.

[bigos]

thanks everyone,
I think that I will try a combination of everyones suggestions by putting a U47w about 18 inches from the singer then a pair of km184s a bit behind that and then a pair or coles about 10 feet from the singer to capture the room.

bigos

[scott petito]

try a tuban mic... had to do it.....
anyway I have recorded a lot of overtone singers... normal micing techniques usually work fine one thing to consider the better overtone singers tend to be LOUD so you will want to back off the mic a lot because compressing the capsule or hitting a lot of compression tends to swallow the overtones... most singers like adding EQ especially the Air freqs up 15k plus that opens up the overtones.. the Tuvans produce a lot of subtones and a boost at 100hz can be helpful

cheers
SP