Recording bowls

[jh8406]

Would anyone happen to have any experience recording bowls? They might be called toning bowls( Crystal, Tibetan etc.) Anyway, I was wondering what mics might give the best results. I was thinking mics that really perform with higher and mid frequencies. Condensors or ribbons? I don't know. If anything, I was looking to purchase some Fatheads anyway, so maybe I'll try those and the Condensors I already own. Thanks in adavance.

[wren]

Do not close mic them. You'll wind up with some ridiculous, surreal-sounding overtones.

In fact, it's hard to not wind up with ridiculous overtones in my experience. But mic'd a few feet out, in a nice-sounding room, and from a "looking-down-slightly" perspective worked pretty well for me. There's actually a lot of trial-and-error moving-the-mic-around, moreso than I would've suspected; bowls are actually not easy to record well. (Or else I just can't record well, which is a possibility I've considered more than once.)

It's just another case of moving mics around and using your ears; I don't think one kind of mic would automatically be better than another. But: if I had to record bowls again, I'd try a condenser first. And I'd be tempted to try one in omni, now that I think about it.

[Brett Siler]

I've recording my brother playing a singing bowl. I used one small diaphram condenser a few feet in front of him and maybe a foot higher than where he was hold the bowl. Sounded good.

Best would be to get some inn ears or isolation headphones, get your mic and have the guy play while you walk around and listen for the best spot to put the mic.

[JGriffin]

I have access to a couple of Tibetan prayer bowls and I keep meaning to record them...not having done so, I'll just have to defer to what everyone else has said.

[Dakota]

Do not close mic them.

bowls are actually not easy to record well.

+1 wren.

They aren't easy to record well. First needed: a room in which they sound good to the ear. And a good spot in that room. They do have really unusual overtones which can sound pushy in a non-flattering room, and also pushy if you catch a non-balanced frequency slice of them in close mic'ing. The overtones kind of "develop" as they couple with room resonances. Backed off some.

Best luck I've had: some nice earthworks flat wide response mics in a large ceilinged reflective room. A few feet off, room sound allowed in with the semi-close sound. Also, PZMs, crown PZM 30D. Not so glamorous mics, but flat response with a lot of accurate and clean high extension.

Clean pres, with open and fast highs. Probably transformerless. Headroom. Not overly hot levels anywhere.

As much as I love ribbons and gooshy transformer pres for a lot of things... not so much for bowls (and bowed metal and glass in general). Those sounds are already freaky enough sounding as-is. I've had better luck with clean accurate capture. (Unless you find just the right flattering transformer thing, could happen... that'd be case by case).

And sample rate @ 88.2k or above, even if it's going to get released at 44.1k by the end anyway. Downsample nicely at as late as possible as it gets wherever it's going.

Stereo pair of mics for full psych presence.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I recorded bowls for a project last year. Ridiculous, surreal-sounding overtones were the order of the day so I close miced the hell out of them. You can get some really crazy shit happening with an SDC right inside the bowl. I ended up making samples out of the recordings and using them on a string score a friend had arranged for me. Sounded strange and wonderful.
If you're looking for clean and pristine then follow the same rules you'd use on any tricky instrument (like bowed saw or bowed vibraphone) - Good room, good mic, good pre. Back up far enough for the sound to develop.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

I recorded bowls for a project last year. Ridiculous, surreal-sounding overtones were the order of the day so I close miced the hell out of them. You can get some really crazy shit happening with an SDC right inside the bowl. I ended up making samples out of the recordings and using them on a string score a friend had arranged for me. Sounded strange and wonderful.
If you're looking for clean and pristine then follow the same rules you'd use on any tricky instrument (like bowed saw or bowed vibraphone) - Good room, good mic, good pre. Back up far enough for the sound to develop.

[A.David.MacKinnon]

P.S. Watch your levels. These things will kick out high freq info that you're meters will not catch. The same thing happens recording glocks and vibes. The meters say everything is fine but the ears hear clipping.

[Recycled_Brains]

Recorded a singing bowl for a project last year.

Didn't put nearly as much thought into it as you guys are. haha.

I don't remember what mic we used. Maybe a Josephson C42. Probably a couple feet back, aiming down at an angle towards the bowl.

I would think that "Ridiculous, surreal-sounding overtones" are the best part of something like that. Get those too!

Honestly, the thing I'd worry most about, is getting a consistent tone out of it. Harder than it looks.

[wren]

I would think that "Ridiculous, surreal-sounding overtones" are the best part of something like that. Get those too!

Well, yes, but on the other hand you don't want the bowl to eat up all your low end frequency space either. That's a little absurd (and it can happen!).

[RedCrownStudios]

Sorry, I just had to laugh because for a second I thought it said "recording bowels"..

I was thinking....medical show sfx? lol..... well,you'd need some vasoline.....

[Winstontaneous]

I've never recorded singing bowls but I do love hearing them. IMO a lot of the magic is in the overtones & the beats between bowls, including the really low tones. Recording in a quiet outdoor space might be a good way to mimimize acoustic anomalies.

I had a truly life-changing experience a number of years ago receiving a long, very deep Thai massage while listening to Karma Moffett's "Golden Bowls" CD. Large crystals (and certain other substances with a crystalline structure )were involved.
Yes, I am a hippie. This one session eliminated a number of life-long posture issues and "body armor" (fear of being touched, extreme ticklishness) I had struggled with.

[jgimbel]

Large crystals (and certain other substances with a crystalline structure )were involved.

Salt? You must mean salt.

[KennyLusk]

I've recorded bowls a lot, crystal and brass, and it's a lot of fun. Have had success with an 012 outside the bowl 3 ft. away, aimed directly at it. Omni for mono, cardioid for stereo. Also had success with modified MXL990.

The real fun for me though was copying a good mono capture into a separate track offset by like 8ms or higher and panned hard L/R to get the effect of not knowing where the sound is coming from in the speakers. The sound just kind of fills the listening space which is fantastic for meditation experience and ambient effects. A lot of engineers flee from this kind of treatment but my friends absolutely love it. Same with wind chimes. It really does imitate the actual live experience.

[norsehorse]

I'm pleased to say that I recorded with a crystal singing bowl artist who recorded unsuccessfully with three engineers before coming to me. My brief thoughts:

GOOD ROOM -- These bowls need space! Don't try to record this in a booth or in a basement. Get a church, a cave, a stairwell, whatever. But give them room to breathe and interact.

DYNAMIC CONTROL -- Ideally, no compression would be awesome, but these bowls can exhibit a massive dynamic range: so much so that playback in normal environments would be half silent. Talk it over with your client and figure out what their goals are. Some compression will probably be required.

FLOW -- Depending on the artists, be prepared to record very long takes. Make sure your workflow can handle 40-80 minutes straight.

COMFORT -- Make sure the artist feel comfortable. The bowls are associated with meditation and relaxation, not stress.

Cheers.