Recording my recital, with some limitations

[SynthLine09]

So I was given a grant by my school to purchase some recording gear and play a bunch of french non-trumpet music on trumpet, thats the short version. And I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about this with my current setup. I'd have the following gear at my disposal:

Motu Traveler
FMR RNP

SM57
Rode NT5's (pair)
Blue Bluebird
AT 2020 and 20221

So six mics and six pres. This will be recorded in an incredibly nice hall very well suited to brass instruments. I will be doing 90% of the recital with piano and trumpet, one piece with harp.

I was thinking, NT5's as a stereo pair in the hall, and SM57 on trumpet. I have no idea what to do with the remaining mics on the piano. Its a big ol steinway


Any suggestions? I would just go in and experiment, but I'm paying by the hour with my accompanists so I'm trying to get a good starting point at least.

[tINY]

In a nice hall, I'd set up a stereo pair and be done.

It may be nice to have 3 pairs (XY, AB and a rear AB). That way you have options later. But, you need 3 pairs and you only have 1.

A 3rd mic back in the hall a ways might be useful - I'd go with the 2020 and point it away from the stage.




-tINY

[SynthLine09]

I planned on trying that for starters, but thought I might mic the instruments individually as well if nothing less to just mess around with if I'm not happy with the stereo mix.

[SynthLine09]

Also, said nice hall will not always be availble to practice and I may be confined to a much smaller room, in which case I was thinking SM57 on trumpet and NT5's on piano

[tINY]

Well, you said recital... I wouldn't want to be messing with close mics in a performance like that.

For "other tracks" on some "album", the close mics may be useful.




-tINY

[SynthLine09]

Sorry for the misconception. The CD i'm doing is kind of a precursor to the recital.

For the actual recital I was planning on just doing a stereo pair, and maybe putting my edirol in the audience somewhere to see what I get out of it

[jbr101]

Personally, I would swap the SM57 with a Beyer M69, which you can get a good price on from EBay. For me, the M69 has bit tighter and warmer low end, with really nice body to it, especially when combined with a small diaphragm condenser. The SM57 is a solid choice, but tends to be way to harsh in the mid-range for me, especially with horns.

[davidgazquez]

I wouldn't use rode nt5 for piano. Well in case you were thinking to buy another two nt5s for the piano:
Compare yourself:
nt5:
YouTube - Schumann Intermezzo Op 26 piano
YouTube - Test record Grand Piano with Rode Nt5 Mics (ok this one is with bad preamp, I'll put akg c1000s with bad preamp)
YouTube - Improvising with piano (testing AKG mics)

Shure sm81:
http://www.gearwire.com/media/sm81-piano-stereo.mov

Akg c1000s
YouTube - Improvising with piano (testing AKG mics) (bad preamp)
thomann website samples:
RODE NT5 - U.K. International Cyberstore
AKG C1000S MKIII - Thomann Cyberstore Español

It's difficult to find shure sm81 samples, the piano used is a very bad one.
We know rode nt5 on a great hall will sound much better than those samples. But, it happens the same with all microphones, shures sm81 included.

I would not record XY neither the standard ortf on a grand piano, one on the bass chords, one on the trebles chords. Well, this is my taste. Other thing is panning the piano. Go to spotify and listen for a while some pianos when you have a piano panned it's too "artificial-digital". Listen to the greatest pianist recordings. Listen to Pollini recordings, he likes to select the microphones himself and to revise if he likes how it sounds digitally.

There's always the whole scale of sounds in both left and right channel in all the greatest pianist recordings. Now, lately we have some recording companies selling cd's with the piano panned, we don't know if the pianist liked, we know the pianist needs to eat and if you are not Barenboim/Pollini/... you have to bear, piano panned allright. That things doesn't happen with the greatest pianist, nobody tells them what to do.

I like one mike on the bass and one on the trebles, you can put both microphones one around his right hand side, and the other around his left hand side. Very close to the pianist. I have done this in my last recording.
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...lotemp3-01.mp3
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...lotemp3-02.mp3
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/attac...lotemp3-03.mp3



This was recorded with a km84, a km184, art mpa gold, alesis io14.

Another way is to put one on the bass at the end of the piano and the other on the highest trebles of the piano, at the right of the pianist a bit forward.
You can listen to myself in my youtube webpage YouTube - davidwe's Channel
I'm not here to make any ads, I'm giving you samples so you can have a better idea of what you can do, and or more or less the expected sound you are going to get.
I have done nice recordings panning. I have done better recordings without pan, almost always, even with better microphones, and better preamps(here there can be more reasons, this is debatable as there were very different microphones, it is very different to record with omni large diaphragm mikes than with cardioid small diaphragm) But facts are facts, I get a lot less visitors since I use the pan with those omni microphones(this was my fault, if you want to use omni microphones you need a good room) . A study by Czerny is still being preffered recorded without pan over a nocturne by Chopin. Ok, if you like classical music, you just don't listen to Czerny. If you don't like classical music, you just avoid to visit my youtube site.

I think there are more microphones out there you should consider. Akg 391b... I don't know.., oktavas...

What I would do?
AT2020 is not good enough. I don't know about at2021, you may try at2021 with the bluebird and see. I would buy these ones. And sell the AT's
Pair Shure SM81 SM 81 Condenser Studio Recording Mics en venta en eBay.es (finaliza el 24-ene-10 20:38:06 H.Esp)

That's my taste, it is not universal. You may like the rodes and sound beautiful to you. I don't like oysters but there are people that love them. At least you should listen to some samples and see what do you like best.
Good morning. Excuse my English.

[Tarkovsky]

Lucky you. If you're new to recording instruments, just remember that when recording at 24 bit you've got tonnes of headroom, so better to set the levels really quite low (1/3rd) and worry more about clipping during recording, especially if you're a very dynamic player.

However you can use the RNC in the chain to prevent this. Yet I forget is the RNC mono or stereo? If it's stereo you could just use it on the front two, though the problem is, you'll enlarge the hall's reverb of the hall unless it's set right, which is one of the reason a lot of classical music has little or no compression at all. So a high setting on the threshold with some fairly heavy compression would make the most sense.

edit: BTW in the kind of music I make, the compression of the verb is often very deliberate!

Anyway my point still stands that if you're recording yourself, back well of on the levels, as volume can get way out of hand quite easily... Especially halfway through your best performance!

Don't worry there's no really any use in 'using all the bits' in a 24bit environment.

[Phil Cibley]

Originally Posted by SynthLine09

Also, said nice hall will not always be availble to practice and I may be confined to a much smaller room, in which case I was thinking SM57 on trumpet and NT5's on piano

I think an SM57 is way too bright and shrill for a trumpet.

[SynthLine09]

You might be confused, I have the RNP, not the RNC. I'd prefer not to use compression on any of it either as it is very dynamic music.

As far as the SM57 being bring on trumpet, I will have to disagree with you. Maybe if I was playing a lead part in a jazz band I would agree with you, but I have a very dark open sound and I have been quite happy with the results I've been getting from the 57 so far. But again, I guess thats all personal taste.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Money is tight so new purchases are probably out of the question, but I'll see what I can do with what I have and the suggestions given