Clarinet Mic Selection?

[cgarges]

Yeah, check it out. Terrible for saxophones, but very cool for clarinet. Haven't ever tried it with oboes, English horns, bassoons, etc.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Harry]

I like a 421 right by the bell.....that goes for anything with a bell ..for me anyway.
I love my beat up 421 on about everything:)

[joninc]

my beyer m160 sounds pretty good on clarinet.

i have found LDC to be a little too "clicky"

[David Piper]

Last time I recorded clarinet it was with my Charter Oak 538, 12-16 inches away, aimed at the middle of the instrument. Did the trick for me! I was almost going to say that the same player prefers the more 'overhead' position Chris Garges mentioned, but then I remembered that was when I recorded him playing flute.

[digitaldrummer]

definitely like overhead for flute - I used a 414 once and it worked great. I did a recording recently where we used a Sennheiser MD409 on the tenor sax and it was incredible (but so was the saxophonist) - incredibly smooth. If I had to mic a clarinet I'd probably want to try that mic again - it may not work but I'd sure try it and find out.

[Sean Robinson]

Now the Oboe, that's a man's reed instrument.

You might want to do a google search for zurna... now that's a reed....

Anyone have any zurna recording tips? Besides, "get as far away as possible." ?

As for a 414 on a flute player, if you get in too close to the head joint it can accentuate the "airiness" of the tone, which might be fine, but the flute player might find a little disturbing. I played some flute on a middle of the road smooth jazz session a looonnng time ago and a gold grilled 414 was placed a few inches in front of me and all the sudden I felt like half the sound I was producing was that of a leaky balloon. Most distressing.

[capnreverb]

I play reeds.

One thing to keep in mind that a clarinet produces sounds from the sound holes as much as the bell. If you just mic the bell, you will get a misleading representation of it sound. This is even more apperant in its big brothers the alto and bass clarinet.

The sax produces most, all though not all, of its sound from the bell.

As for mic choice, the wise poster who said pick the mic based on the tone of the player is spot on. I tend to find my sax tone a bit shrill for my tastes, and a nice ribbon really evens out the parts I don't like as much.
(My Crowley % Tripp is my new favorite). One might not think to use a sm-58 type mic on clarinets, but sometimes they can be a good match, especially if the clarinet tone is overly bright to the ear or mix your after. It can be a choice between accuracy or color sometimes.

As for a man's instrument, that would be the one holed skin flute, and thats not cork grease.

[cgarges]

a gold grilled 414 was placed a few inches in front of me and all the sudden I felt like half the sound I was producing was that of a leaky balloon. Most distressing.

I can't imagine, aside from a live situation where feedback is a concern, why anyone would mic a flute from a few inches away. Flutes are notoriously weird in how sound radiates from them and miking that close has all kind of potential for capturing tones that sound nothing like the instrument. And yeah, getting closer to the head joint can be really weird.

Overhead miking usually works well for me on flute, but the position of the mic across the length of the instrument can be crucial. Any decent player is likely to move a bit, but all the more reason to give yourself a bit of distance. I usually mic flute from about a foot away.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[cgarges]

This is even more apperant in its big brothers the alto and bass clarinet.

Those instruments provide interesting challenges in non-classical scenarios because they're so large, physically. Overhead miking doesn't quite work the same for me on those instruments because of how they radiate sound. I like using two mics on alto, contra-alto, and bass clarinet at different parts of the instrument, similar to miking a harp, piano, or anything else that radiate important parts of the sound from a wider physical space.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[Sean Robinson]

I can't imagine, aside from a live situation where feedback is a concern, why anyone would mic a flute from a few inches away.

Inexperience? It was strange- it was one of my first times "under the lens," having previously done almost no recording, and I had to stop the whole thing and kind of sheepishly request that maybe they might consider using another mic? And I had to endure a few minutes of smarmy looks as things were shuffled around and mics were adjusted.

I learned the hard way how much distance contributes to the sound of an instrument the first time I recorded our violin player. Strange how it doesn't really sound like a violin up close... which can be useful in it's own right. Of course, you also have instruments like bag pipes, or the aforementioned zurna, that are really meant to be heard from very far away. I mean, if you really wanted an "accurate" picture of a big bag pipe set, what's the correct distance? Half a mile away on a hill top?