I've tried sampling but I just couldn't get the right tone and clarity that I want to hear. It just sounds fake for me. I know how to play flute so I'm planning to just record the the track on my own. Any suggestion on how to best do it? Like the distance of the mic and how the room should be?

Thank you all in advance!

I mostly record harmonica, some ukulele, occasionally whistle for various forums, & what I use is a Samson USB mic plugged into my computer, on which I use Audacity software, & nearly always have the mic 12"~18" away from me & whichever instrument I'm using.

Regarding the room you use, normally it wants to have soft furnishings, I use my bedroom, if you use the bathroom, you will get a kind of reverb sound.

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Keith.
Trying to do justice to my various musical instruments.

the advice i've heard, and that works well for me, is that the mic should be placed fairly close to the flute (say about 1-2ft away, or the same distance you'd use for micing string instruments), aimed roughly at the embouchure hole or maybe a bit further down the flute, and positioned above the player pointing down, so that the player isn't breathing on it. with a cardioid microphone, that will get the sound of the flute and not much else, which sounds like what you want.

if you want a more natural recording with more of the room sound (and natural reverb), you can use two microphones in a stereo setup (M/S, X/Y, OTRF, ...) positioned a bit further away. stereo recording is a bit more involved, but not actually that difficult; there's loads of guides on how to do it around the internet.

I have found closer is better 3" or so but be sure your embouchure is not blowing into the mic. If you are further away you can pic up key and finger sounds. That's my experience. I can send you a link to some of my recordings if it helps.

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"What I love about the pipes is, you can always blame the weather for your poor playing..."

As far as position in relationship to the mic, you might try what these two lads do:


They seem to have had some relative success.

dave boling

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'Bundinn er bátlaus maðu'.

I wouldn't use the technique above (photos) for recording flute. If a studio condenser mic was being used you'd blow the diaphragm out. If examples are useful to you there's this one...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WxolGq ... sp=sharing

Let's see if this works as a direct hosting link:- https://www.dropbox.com/s/68oiylssfkhzd ... 7.png?dl=0

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Save your hot air for blowing down your flute

The better the room sounds the further away you can put the microphone, if that's the sound you want. If the room sounds bad then you'll want to be fairly close to it.

If you have a set of closed back headphones (highly recommended) then you can easily walk around and try different positions and hear how they sound in real time. Also good to know that where the instrument is in the room makes a difference, where the microphone is makes a difference, and the relationship between the two makes a difference.

In the photos above, the performers have their instruments very close to the microphone, but they are playing on stage, so they need to do that to avoid feedback.

If you don't have a microphone the Shure SM81 is good for acoustic instruments. It has a flat response. The CAD M179 is good too, and a bit cheaper. It also has a variable polar pattern. Sometimes different patterns sound better.