I'm planning on posting a few examples of the basics of recording, especially as it relates to whistle. There are plenty of other forums where you can get an understanding of the basics of how to chose recording (DAW) software, or what to look for in an audio interface (the thing that connects the microphone to the PC). I'm not going to get into that too much, but instead focus on the practical application wrt whistle.

So here is the first installment. It's called "Which microphone?" I made a short clip with one phrase repeated four times. I used a different microphone for each of the four takes. They are, in order:

Shure SM-57 -- About us$100
Shure SM-81 -- About us$300
MXL 990 -- Maybe $50 or $75, but used for as little as $15 if you get lucky.
CAD M179 -- $125

The first is a dynamic microphone. It is a live sound standard. You almost can't go to see some act on stage and not see an SM57 somewhere. The others are all condenser microphones. I used the same position for each microphone and kept the whistle in the same location for each take. I can hear differences in each of them, although not as much as some descriptions might lead one to believe. I'm kind of surprised that there isn't more of a difference between the 57 and the 81. The M179 has a variable position switch -- I used it in the cardioid setting, because the other three are also cardioid.

In the future I envision similar recordings using a microphone at different distances, moving the microphone within the room, and moving to different rooms. I also see demonstrations of EQ and compression being useful.

Or SM58 - which I believe is the same microphone capsule, but with the ball-end pop screen.


Are you going to post the clip? You might want to identify the whistle used, too.

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Vivat diabolus in musica! MTGuru's (old) GG Clips / Blackbird Clips

Joel Barish: Is there any risk of brain damage?
Dr. Mierzwiak: Well, technically speaking, the procedure is brain damage.

DOH!

Here's the link: The microphones are in the order listed (57, 81, 990, 179)

https://soundcloud.com/piperbob/57-81-990-179

The whistle is a Carbony D.

Good point about the 58 -- it is the same as the 57, except with the screen. The screen keeps you from being able to get too close to it -- good for singers, not so good for guitar amps, but not much difference either way for whistle.

just to confirm (my brother in law used to work for them)
http://www.shureblog.co.uk/faq-whats-th ... -the-sm57/



If you're canny can cannibalise an old 57 or a Unidyne B and a bit of spare plastic housing you can make a swap grille and have two mic characteristics in one

Distancing the whistle is probably a good idea as the effect of the 57 shield is to slightly raise the response above 5kHz, which might be the opposite balancing you need. If you don't want to get too close then use a vocal pop shield.

PS. the SE1 is a good home recording buy (get a pair if you can) but then you need an interface with phantom power

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Mark

I use a pair of these...


Plugged into one of these...


Or sometimes one of these...


and a bunch of those...

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Mark