Thanks! I dont have 3 LDC's unfortunately, but I might pick up another one soon, so I think I can make the multi-miking work. And as for steps 2-4, I can definitely manage that, and it makes sense to do that. I'll be sure to true these out soon, she's supposed to be back over here within the month to record her solo stuff, so I'll be sure to put it all into practice. Thanks for all the tips!

My thoughts are that you're definitely on the right track. You're recordings are pretty decent, it's just experimenting with mic techniques and then ultimately mixing & mixing & mixing & mixing; the more you do it the more you'll learn and the better you'll get.

That's the engineer bit - but also pay mind to the producer role. The vocals especially sounds like the singer was not totally comfortable, and so you need to be able to make her feel comfortable, by knowing when to push her and when to not, and how to go about doing so.

It's always a weird experience recording in a new environment (which is why I love recording at home and being my own engineer heh), no matter how confident a performer & musician you may be.

i went into a studio recently to lay down some lead guitar tracks on a bands new album. It took me a few takes to get comfortable. The engineer would often say after a take 'One more for luck!', which I know really meant 'You can do better than that!!' He just had this way of saying everything that really got the best out of me. He made me feel like I could do better, but also like I really wanted to do better. Some great takes were made that day heh

Thanks man, I'll definitely keep that in mind. I'll try to make more of an effort to make the artist more comfortable in the future.

I love it! A clinking chain works well. Get a heavy steel or iron chain about 3 feet long and lift it until it is nearly completely off the ground then lower the suspended chain down at varying speeds to get different sounds.

Creaking floor boards would do it, too.

I've heard some great creepy sounds out of bowed cymbals. Close mic'ed or even with a fishman style piezo pickup taped directly to the cymbal.

Big improvement on the second version. Maybe you could go a little further with that.

Consider finding a good room and putting two microphones out where the "audience" would be sitting. Maybe a church/synagogue/mosque.

Wow!

What a great eclectic piece.

I agree with Joel about playing around with the vocals to get some different spacial interest.

.....and maybe consider sneaking some other strings up under that great viola. Find a nice warm orchestral patch and play around with it.

Please don't. Nothing kills a good string sound like a synth patch. Double, triple, harmony parts maybe. NOT synths.

You're probably right.......makes sense.

Just reacting to what I was hearing. You never know what might work in this game, though....right?

Autotune + Techno Beat in the background = grammy