Recording - May 2016 - 18

the rich phasing (the swirl). Since the
Leslie is a two-way system, for the fullest
response you may want to add a lowerpositioned mic (or mics) on the woofer,
as well as the main stereo pair on the
(upper) horn. See picture 6.
P : Pipe Organ (as in church)
Real pipe organs can also be challenging to mike up and record. Naturally, a
stereo pair of full-range condensers is the
ticket, and of course, you could go for a
surround recording with an appropriate
array. Given the usual installation of a
pipe organ-high up in an organ loft-
and its dependence on the acoustics of
the church (or hall) for its characteristic
tone, miking one up is the very definition
of distance miking!
A key factor is getting the ideal balance of the sound from the pipes themselves and the room's contribution. Too

much room and the sound is an indistinct
wash; too little and the tone may be overly dry-you need to find the distance, by
ear, where these two elements are in best
balance. Experimenting with different mic
patterns and techniques (spaced omnis,
XY, ORTF, etc.) can have a significant
effect on this-there's no one recommendation I'd suggest, it depends on the particular situation. I've always done fine
with spaced mics, omni or directional,
depending on position/ambience.
Alternatively, you could employ two mic
pairs, one a bit closer, and the other at a
greater distance, and hope to find the
ideal blend between them in the mix.
Q : Quijada
Quijada is a good choice to bring up
the whole world of percussion instruments
of the clunky, scratchy, shaky, and generally
noise-making variety. A short list of these
might include, besides quijada ("jawbone
of an ass"), maracas, castanets, shakers,
guiro, rattles, cuica, and even rainstick.
There's no room to describe all of these, or
the myriad odd sounds they make, so I'll
just talk about general approach and mention a couple of highlights.
The conventional wisdom, of course,
is, when in doubt, throw up a condenser
or two a couple of feet away, and let
'em rip. But considering the percussive

nature of these noisemakers, the use of
dynamic mics might be a good idea to
consider here, to help keep that bright
scratchy quality in check (we use 'em for
drums, so why not for these guys?).
Whatever the choice, the key is to move
around the instrument and figure out
how it puts out sound-mics hear more
selectively than we do, so sometimes
covering one ear can help find a suitable sweet spot.
R : Recorder
The recorder is a (vertical) wooden
flute, often associated with Renaissance
and Baroque music. It has a pure, hollow tone, and, as with most woodwinds
(see below), can be miked with a condenser a couple of feet out, aimed at the
body of the instrument.
S : Saxophone
The saxophone presents a minor
conundrum-do you mike the bell of the
instrument, or the body? Of course you
can do either or both, depending on the
situation and the kind of sound you're
going for.
Miking the bell is often done in live situations-naturally, it provides the best
isolation on a loud stage. You could use
a mic on a stand-personally, I'd typically employ a dynamic for this application,

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