Hi all.
I have a chance to do some recording in an actual recording studio in a few weeks. Aside from comments on my playing, is thee anything you might recommend me doing, or being on the lookout for with respect to mics, positioning, etc. I plan to record with a friend who plays bodhran (an awesome player!). What about mic set ups for him as well? Thanks in advance. Your suggestions are very appreciated.
Arbo
What kind of music background does your recording engineer have in recording acoustic / trad / classical music?
Whoa! Good Question. I have to get back to you on that. Been to the studio, know he has recorded rock bands, but what else, I don’t know.
Yep, hence the question. Too many studio engineers are clueless when it comes to recording anything but rock, and anything you don’t plug in. But the touch of a good engineer with acoustic music experience is golden.
Does yer man have any unplugged-type demos you can listen to in advance? Acoustic guitars, ukuleles, bongos, whatever. Could give you an idea of what to look out for.
Here’s how we did it…
Flute: one Neumann TLM 127 about 25cm away from embouchure hole, slightly from above, another TLM127 about 1 meter away (for room/ambient sound, depends on recording room if that’s a good idea or not). Recording on two independent mono tracks. Another option is a Sennheiser MD441 about 20cm away. Gives a less bright sound, but works great for flute.
Bodhrán: one U87 from the left, one U87 from the right, both about 30cm away (or more if the player needs the space). Two mono tracks again. Small room, very dry sound.
The preamp(s) we used where from a vintage Amek Mozart console, compressors were Focusrite 3. That said, rock/pop engineers have the habit of compressing things heavily these days. Tell the engineer not to do that, it will destroy dynamics.
Most important for you and your bodhrán man, though: relax!
Hire a German using German equipment. Can’t go wrong. 
I am not paying for the studio time. This is a dry run. have 4 or 5 free hours. Just want to lay down a few sets and see what it sounds like. No need for Germans, or others unless they want to play! 
Arbo
Arbo
That’s a good deal, Arbo.
Germans are nice. And barndances, Schottisches, flings …
Yes, exactly. They tend to want to compress everything, then saturate the mix so there’s no headroom or breathing room. The result is flat and artificial. With acoustic music, less is more.
Often they don’t have a good handle on the idea of accompaniment and melody - whether vocals or solo instruments. They may want to bring the accompaniment up to (or over) the level of the lead, so you end up with a bodhrán recording with flute accompaniment.
You can experiment with recording 1. Live in studio; 2. Isolation: flute and bodhrán in separate rooms; 3. Overtrack: record flute and bodhrán separately. Each can give a result with a different feel. 2 and 3 obviously allow more flexibility in post-processing and mixdown, but 1 sounds most natural.
Also consider your attitude toward a click track. It can make retakes and punch-ins easier for both musicians and engineer, and make it easier to add tracks later. But it can also suck the life out of your playing if you’re not used to it. Another related technique is to record a reference track, which is then swapped out in the final mix.
Good luck!
The biggest issue I’ve had with most sound engineers is that they think the flute is supposed to sound warm and soft, so they EQ it that way. One trick that may work is to bring in a CD or two that has the flute sounding the way YOU want it to sound, and explain to the engineer that this is the sound you’re after, so they don’t follow their preconceived notion for “flute.” There is also a tendency to add too much reverb, especially on slower pieces.
I agree with the advice to place the microphone over the embouchure hole, pointing down, so you’re not blowing air into the microphone. Any good vocal mic should work well with the flute. Some people like to place a second mic near the toneholes, but that seems odd to me, I don’t really want the sound of my fingers to appear on the recording.
My personal ideal setup for flute is a “live” recording in a room with good acoustics and a good omnidirectional mic placed 5-6 feet away, picking up the sound from the room as well as from your flute. That’s the most natural sound you can get, and very close to what a listener in the room would hear.
Hi,
a couple of suggestions:
1 - If you’re recording with another instrument it may be worth asking if they have any way to ensure that the bodhran doesn’t spill into the flute mic and vice-versa.
2 - Record both instruments without too much EQ or effects. These can always be added later. Ideally try and get a good clean sound at first with a good recording level on both instruments.
3 - For the flute and bodhran, mic positioning is really important. An hour spent on getting the mic position right is time well spent. As suggested earlier, a Nuemann TLM 103 or similar large diaphragm microphone would be a good choice.
4 - If its a modern studio, see if you can get a copy of the recorded audio/project to take away with you and not just a mix of the recordings. At least this way, if you are not happy with the mixing etc but liked the way you played, you can always get it remixed somewhere else or even try things out yourself.
Best of luck with the recording project, sounds like exciting times ahead!
Tom