Amplifying pipes

[PJ]

I play with a trad group. Until now, I have played mainly guitar but I'm getting to the point where a few of my piping tunes are respectable enough to play in front of a crowd.

What's the best way to amplify uilleann pipes? What do professional players do - build in a pickup? Where and how many - one per reed? Is it expensive? Is it possible to amplify with reasonable sound quality using regular microphones (SM57 or SM58) and if so, where should the mics be pointed - at the reed, at the finger holes or at the chanter bottom? What about the drones and regulators?

[ballysodare]

I've had success with two regular cardiod pattern mics.
(I use an Electrovoice 676a....which is merely that companies answer to the SM58)

Chanter:
I have it on a boom stand pointed toward the floor at a 45 degree angle. I usually position it level with the 'g' hole, about 5-6 inches away from the chanter.
This way...the mike is pointed directly at the bottom notes on the chanter, but is also far enough away from them to keep them from getting boomy.
The upper notes are closer, but also not in the mics direct path.
(Be prepared to skootch your chanter away from the mic a little when you jump to that second octave. If you notice, vocalists have the mic a good 10 inches from their face when they're belting out high notes.....for good reason.)

Drones:
I found that a decent balance can be mustered if you point the mic at the floor (again on a boom stand) and get it a couple of inches above the baritone drone. The tenor usually cuts through, but you might have boost the lows on that channel to get enough bass.

I've only ever mic'd a half set. Can't really offer anything about Regs....maybe just pull a Paddy Maloney and never play them?

Cheers

[djm]

This comes up repeatedly. Do a Search on mic, microphone, etc.

djm

[mirabai]

I've written a bunch about this towards the end of my FAQs on my website: www.uilleanppes.com.

What mic you choose has a big effect on the tone you get, not to mention board, EQ, speakers and room. Pickups are usually positioned inside the reed chambers. They sound shrill and won't pick up the chanter as it sounds outside the instrument, not recommended.

Tim

[Brian Lee]

....maybe just pull a Paddy Maloney and never play them?

Wrongo! Paddy not only can, but DOES play regs fairly frequently in concert. They were easy enought o hear at last weeks concerts anyway. Acoustics of the concert halls? Who knows. But he was using just a simple set up: single mic for the chanter, another for the drones, and a small lapel type attached to the bass drone for a little extra oompf there I imagine.

[danny]

there are alot of good mics out there, but the only thing that keeps every note even{the same volume} is a pick up. some people dont like pick ups cause its stuck to the reed and the chanter plays diffrent {i.e. the second octave is a little harder to get} and it changes the sound. but if have a good one, and use an acoustic amp its more or less the same.and you dont have to be stay in one place or be stuck to a mike, which i hate. as long as the pick up is below the bridle your in good waters

[Brian Lee]

Found an old write up I had on the Chieftains sound as it pertains to the different instruments. This is the basic stuff as they do it pertaining to pipes from one of their sound guys:

CHANTER, DRONE AND WHISTLE
The microphone choices and setups are various, reflecting the unusual instrumentation. “Sean's fiddle has an ATM 35 clipped onto the bridge; it has a gooseneck, and he points it where he wants to,” explains Horton. “With Paddy's pipes, we usually throw a Shure SM81 right at the chanter to get the best sound, about six to eight inches away. The drone is close-miked with an AKG C408. Paddy also plays his accordion into his pipe mic, and when he plays the whistle, he uses the pipe mic, except for one number when he stands at a vocal mic, a Shure SM58.

“For the flute, Matt plays into an SM58. Derek's keyboard setup is the most complicated. We have a little Korg XD5; we are taking a stereo feed from it this year. The past few years, we ran a mono signal, but this year, he is using more sounds, so we went with a stereo feed to the DI. Then the promoter provides a Yamaha P200 at every show that we also take a stereo feed directly into a DI. For the grand piano, which is used for Derek's solo and the finale, we use an AKG 414 over the hammers. The harp has a little AKG 419 inside the bell and pointing at the soundboard. It's not ideal, but it's the only way to get it up to volume in the monitors.

“On the bodhrán, we use a Sennheiser 421. Kevin uses three different sizes of drums. We like to have a space heater for the drums, especially if it is moist, to keep the skins tight and in tune. His bodhráns can't be cranked with an Allen wrench like the newer drums; they are very old- fashioned. When he sings, he is using an SM58. Actually, all the vocal mics are SM58s.”

Because the pipes are naturally tuned to A447, the rest of the band tunes to the pipes. “When I was with Ashley's band, the A was actually tuned to B to play with Scott's pipes,” Horton recalls.

In contrast to The Chieftains' traditional approach to amplifying acoustic instruments, the special guests — fiddler Natalie MacMaster and guitarist Jeff White — avail themselves of technology. “Natalie has an LR Baggs bridge pickup, and she runs that into a Shure wireless unit,” says Horton. “I take a direct XLR from that box into the P.A. Jeff has a pickup, and I also mike Jeff with an SM81.”

[Thorpe]

John McSherry uses 2 mikes on his chanter. One around the A-hole and one slightly lower down. Sort of like a spaced stereo pair.

Id assume they were condensers but couldnt see properly from where i was.

[lundblad]

In my experience the best way to get a nice balance between all the chanter notes is to put the mic in an angle coming from the left (if you're righthanded) slightly from above. This will make the back D sound as much as the other notes.
I'm using a cardiodid mic (don't know the brand, it was cheap) for the chanter and a shure song mic for the drones.

[David Lim]

As djm says this has come up many times but a possible piece of new information helpful to those pipers that regularly play to audiences of 10,000 or more is the system used by the Afrocelt Sound System.

This is an ingeneous combination of pickup and mic.

A pickup of the stuck on the reed type (eg. Barcus Berry) is used solely for the foldback. This means the piper can hear him/herself as loud as they like over the encompassing din without fear of feedback. (Although without great tone.)

A microphone close in front of the chanter can then take a good pipes sound to the front of house system without any feed back issues as the speakers are probably 20yrds away and the chanter foldback is coming from the pickup.

Hope that's helpful to any up and coming piping megastars.

David

[mirabai]

A couple things to bear in mind are:

Different mics have different off axis characteristics/colorations and that the safe thing to do is to use them on axis.

Miking the chanter 20 degrees off axis to the piper's right will minimize air blasts from the holes and balance the back D with the front holes better while still pointing away from monitors and mains.

The fewer the mics the less confused the sound. Thusly, it may be preferable to use one mic for the whole thing in quiet circumstances; two mics in most situations - one on the chanter and one on the drones with the regs being picked up by both.

Omni mics have a more natural frequency response and fewer colorations but are a problem on stage as opposed to recording. Cardioid mics may be less colored than hyper-cardioid.

Most mics have a significant peak in the low to mid treble from 2-10 Khz. which will make a bright chanter cut through like a serated edged knife to the ear. There are a few notable exceptions. Knocking this down a few db with the sweepable mid set to 8-10 Khz can leave it nice and warm and still airy on the very top. This works well for drones too if you don't want them too buzzy.

Monitor placement in relation to mic placement is critical. Also minimizing monitor level is critical to sound quality as well as feedback.

Keep the drones out of the monitor because you don''t need them in there to hear what your playing. Tune by pressing your ear to the the bag.

Here's what I ususally use (from my website: www.uilleanpipes.com):

For live applications I use three mics from Crown, an LM 301A for talking/vocal/whistle/flute, a modified GLM 200 for the chanter and a GLM 100E for the drones. The LM 301A is a hypercardioid, small diaphragm condenser on its own gooseneck that mounts directly onto a short 26” stand with a small base. It has very clear natural sound, good directionality, and comes with a unique pop filter and built in cable with low cut switch. The GLM 200 is also a hypercardioid, small diaphragm condenser with captured cord and is modified for a flat, smooth response. I clip it onto a cable clip, right on the vocal mic stand at mid chanter level The GLM 100E is an omni version of the 200 with it’s own battery supply that I make myself using premium parts. I clip it onto the middle regulator tuning pin or onto the bass drone slide. Taking care to avoid the direct wind flow of either the bass or baritone drones. I am able to keep the circuit extremely simple by running it on batteries, single-ended, omni, thus allowing for extremely transparent sound at a low price. It is also excellent for fiddles, as an internal guitar mic, or for recording almost anything. Since it is omni directional, care must be taken to keep it out of the monitor mix, as well as away from any monitor speaker. The 200 can be used instead for feed back prone situations. The GLM200 is also excellent for clipping directly onto accordions. This configuration is very light-weight, compact, low profile and excellent sounding at a relatively low cost and fits easily into my pipe case.

For recording, the recommendation is context dependant. The AKG Blue line is very good for the price and very transparent and neutral sounding. A coincident stereo pair of the cardioid version placed about one foot in front and slightly to the player’s right of the chanter picks up a nice natural image of the entire set. I mostly record with a Crown SASP stereo mic custom modified by me, with built in mic pre. All these mics and more, as well as other home and pro audio equipment are available for purchase from me.

Tim