Recording - May 2018 - 20

Strings Go Pop !
you'll want a tight-pattern condenser mic that can be aimed as close
to the sound hole as possible to avoid bleed from other instruments.

Quartets, trios, and faking it
Most of the above refers to tracking solo instruments, and
will also be your starting point when tracking a duet, trio,
or quartet. The spot-plus-room-mic approach will be the same
whether you're tracking the group together or one by one. The
plus of tracking at once, especially if the players are all used
to working together, will be tightness and vibe, and if no one
messes up, the sessions can move quite efficiently. You will
also get a nice touch of bleed.
The downside to this approach is also bleed. If one person
messes up, they all have to play again and again. Also,
beyond cutting between multiple takes, it can be hard to fix
things in a mix later. Trust me! I have also found that after a
whole afternoon of take after take, it's easy to eventually wave
the "Okay, that's good enough" white flag.
This leads me to faking the string section. My method here
is to either have each player play their part individually, or
have one person play all the parts on different instruments.
Recently I found a well respected high-school band instructor
(TJ Hull, if you are in the Milwaukee area) who came in and
not only scored the parts for the session, which he sent in for
pre-approval as MIDI files, but played all the parts himself.
When doing individual tracking, I still set up my seating and
my mics as if all the players would be playing together. Then
I set up a stereo room mic about 6 to 10 feet away, and have
the player(s) sit where the cello, viola and/or violins would
naturally be in a group setting. It's weird to have one person
moving from chair to chair, but it adds realism, and the stereo
room mic guides the panning of the spot mics later in the mix.
Also, since each individual part is on its own, you can fix, edit,
and even tune (yes, I said it) with much more flexibilty.

Mics
My current favorite pencil condenser mic for solo and spot
miking at 4"-12" is the Aston Starlight. It has multiple sound
options, from rolled off and dark to bright and forward, and it
is literally laser-equipped for perfect f-hole aiming.
For large-diaphragm miking, I often use a Lauten Atlantis. I like
that I can set up one mic and then have multiple voice options...
and if the string instrument is a tad too quiet, instead of just a pad,
it has a boost! I also like the darker FET flavor of an Audio-Technica
AT4047, or, if budget is a concern, the Mini K47 by Roswell Pro
Audio is hard to beat. Actually, even if budget is not a concern, it's
hard to beat, thanks to its small size and great round, forward sound.
I love ribbon mics on strings, especially when tracking
ensembles live, as the off-axis rejection of figure-8 ribbons is
perfect to reject bleed. The AEA NUVO N22 is a great choice
for up-close string work-it's more open on the top end than
many classically-voiced ribbons, and has a very controlled
proximity effect that tames the low-end woof found on larger
instruments. At a distance, I like its sister mic the NUVO N8, and
I have also had great luck with the sE Electronics Voodoo VR-1.
For cellos, despite Royer's SF line being synonymous
with classical recording, the rock workhorse R-121 is my
longstanding favorite. It's great paired with a Cloud Microphones Cloudlifter-Z-not only for signal boost, but for its
impedance adjustment to control tone. I aim it low to pick up
body resonance rather than f-hole woof (photo 3).
Oh, and don't be surprised at how awesome the humble
Shure SM57 can be if you need the mids to cut. The Telefunken
M80 dynamic is also great for its condenser-like top end.
For room mics, any good clean pair of large-diaphragm
mics can work, but lately I have been using the LEWITT LCT
640 TS in stereo mode. It's a side-to-side stereo mic, but can
be easily adjusted in the mix after the fact with the company's
included pattern plug-in.
Lastly, one of my all-time favorite string mics, especially for
live use or for very tight up-close miking in the studio is the DPA
d:vote 4099 with the violin and cello mounts (featured in photo
1). Why this mic works so well here is that it is actually a miniature
shotgun-style mic. This allows you to get close and very focused on
the instrument, almost like a pickup but with infinitely better sound.
Hopefully these suggestions will yield some inspiration and
find use in your own sessions. Adding strings can be easy and
fun, as long as you remember to serve the song's needs first.

RECORDING May 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - May 2018