Recording bugle?

[centurymantra]

I'll be recording some bugle tracks as part of a session this weekend. Wondering if anyone has had experience with tracking a bugle...I'm assuming the same rules that apply to trumpet could be followed? It is an eclectic and very experimental band who specializes in, as they put it, 'structured chaos', so any tweaky ideas are welcome.

Thanks in advance!

[drumsound]

If 'structured chaos' is their thing, who use 'standard' trumpet technique? Face the player at a wall and put the mic at the back of his head. Run the trumpet into a mic connected to a Leslie or distorted guitar amp. Do you have a synth with a line to process other sources with it's processing? Try that. How about an envelope follower?

[joelpatterson]

Or, you could put a 57 up infront of him, so the sound of his playing gets into the recording.

Once this trumpet player's eyes lighted up when I slapped up a 57 for him, I was kind of ashamed, I'd run out of anything else, but he was transported into trumpet heaven. Just gleaming, "What IS this?" So I was guessing the 57 tamed down the blaring enough to showcase the musicality. I dunno. I still think he was crazy.

But you could try it as a starting point.

[centurymantra]

What's a 57...?

[drumsound]

What's a 57...?

My kind of engineer!

[Evergreen]

What's a 57...?

I dunno???....I'm SHURE he's talking about Ketchup.

















ha ha ha

[centurymantra]

Well...don't know if he was totally serious, but a tip o' the hat to Tony for swinging me in a more abstract direction. Here I was thinking of trying to make a spit-shine image of the bugle bleat rather than merging it with the chaos. Might have to skip the envelope follower, but I like the 'behind the head' miking idea...it's so wrong, it just might work. Heck, I might even try a 57... I seem to recall someone waxing on about recording a bugle with an E604. I've got a couple of those kicking around and might just have to throw one up.

Cheers!

[drumsound]

I was 100% serious! You can always go 'trad/normal" if fucking with it doesn't work.

[Professor]

Or, you could put a 57 up infront of him, so the sound of his playing gets into the recording.

There are an infinite number of ways to record a screwed up bugle sound, but if you end up needing to get just a nice normal trumpet, I do tend to use 57s when I've got to record a bunch of them, though I prefer to use SM-7s for solos within the context of the a big band, and ribbons if I want to make a richer sounding horn.
And for what it's worth, Wynton records with a Neumann M-149 tube mic about a foot or so out in front of his horn.

-Jeremy

[centurymantra]

Well...I can add closure to this thread by commenting on how I ended up recording the bugle. I used a dynamic out front, a Sennheiser e604, about two and a half feet out at about the level of the top of the bell pointing slightly downwards with a ribbon mic, an AEA R84, six or seven feet behind them at about mid-back level pointing up at about a 20 degree angle. In some initial mix experimentation, I added a touch of tasteful delay on the e604 and they sound pretty nice blended together...surprisingly nice. There's still one more bugle track to lay down by a different band member. I'm told this will be running through a heavily effected signal chain...hmmm. The session itself was pretty crazy. I think I'm going to start a "what's your craziest/most esoteric session" kind of thread to summarize it.

[greatmagnet]

What's a 57...?

My kind of engineer!

Drumsound you're just trying to draw me out. But I won't let you have the satisfaction.

On the fancy-pants end of things a good ribon like a Royer SF1 or an AEA R84 always sounds great, but idunno if you're working with that kinda cash.

Simple dynamics like the mighty 57, Sennheiser e609, 441, or 421 should work just fine.

Or the TapeOp/PPA/ShinyBox/Nady/so-on-so-forth ribbon mic? Haven't tried that one, though.