record a xylophone

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:53 pm

drumsound wrote:I should have known what session that was.

Yeah, a little bit of lineage with the mallet instruments in that band.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:55 pm

toaster3000 wrote:charlie hunter is playing bass (just bass!)

Sweet! Just had Don Dixon and Mitch Easter over at the house and we were checking out some Leon Parker. I'm sure Charlie's a total mother playing bass. I'm not sure if he played 8-string with T.J. Kirk, but I'm pretty sure he was primarily the bass player in that band and he sounded GREAT with them. What a talent.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

Mike S · Post by **Mike S** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:23 am

One area of these instruments that is overlooked when micing is below the instrument near the resonators. You can pick up a much fuller tone from all the bars along with the other mic placements. I played marimba, vibes, xylophone, as well as other melodic percussion (timpani). In concert, sound techs would place two mics at each end of the keyboard in about a half octave and place a stereo mic on a boom about 5 feet above center. I've had this set up used in studio as well except for two more mics below the instrument near the resonators. If you do this make sure there are no rattles coming from the resonators. This is more problematic with older models.

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:29 am

it just occurred to me that it would probably sound awesome to put an xy pair right above the player's head... hear the vibes where the player is hearing them.

john

Aj · Post by Aj » Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:45 am

When I record xylo (or marimba, vibes, etc.) as a solo overdub, I use a dynamic omni. I put it about 2-3 feet above the instrument, kind of mirroring the player.

Currently, my favorite mic for this is an Electrovoice RE55. Sounds great, transients are sweet sounding, and there's not TOO much detail (which is important!).

Aj

dtguitar04 · Post by **dtguitar04** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:44 pm

I recorded myself practicing marimba once...spaced pair of 414s, about mirroring my own head position on the front of the marimba. Oh, and in omni. If anyone wants to hear some clips, I can do that.

weatherbox · Post by **weatherbox** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 5:48 pm

With these sorts of instruments my starting point is usually a pair of SDC omnis a few feet above, a little higher than the average player's head-height. Collapse to mono if the mix calls for it.

chorga1 · Post by **chorga1** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:46 pm

Don't forget to experiment with mallet selection!

creeping justin · Post by **creeping justin** » Fri Dec 07, 2007 2:28 pm

+1 on the mallets. Makes a huge difference. In a unrelated, but related topic... the drummer in our band was just showing how completely different two drum sticks of the same set sound on his ride cymbal. it was pretty eye-opening.

anyway, as far as micing xy... can't say I have any experience with that, but I have mic'd my fair share of glocks. (well, one glock a lot of times). a spaced pair of SDCs at head height was kinda cool. so was a LDC in omni at the same height. The small room reflections sounded cool to me. Also, one other technique I thought was cool was breaking up the pattern into two passes (so you only play part of the complete pattern each time), recording each one on a seperate track and panning them. not realistic at all, but I'm a sucker for panning.

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record a xylophone

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