Recording banjo

[mjau]

The best banjo sound I've got was with an Oktava mc012 (I think in hyper) a few inches away, pointing at the neck joint, and an SE z5600 tube mic in omni about 3' away. The room sounded really good, so the distant mic was pretty heavily compressed.

I've not had much luck recording banjo in dead spaces, though. I'd imagine a large ribbon mic might sound pretty nice on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU58KvlJMtA

Looks like a mc 012.... sound awesome to me. a really great band/song for those who are inclined.

Nice! Great song, great band.

[vvv]

You're a braver man than me.

I doubt that. Your band has "Hillbilly" in the name.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[drumsound]

The best banjo sound I've got was with an Oktava mc012 (I think in hyper) a few inches away, pointing at the neck joint, and an SE z5600 tube mic in omni about 3' away. The room sounded really good, so the distant mic was pretty heavily compressed.

I've not had much luck recording banjo in dead spaces, though. I'd imagine a large ribbon mic might sound pretty nice on them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU58KvlJMtA

Looks like a mc 012.... sound awesome to me. a really great band/song for those who are inclined.

Wow that's a TON of reverb. It's really too bad, because the band sounds great, but the singing starts and this nice intimate, homey music starts to sound like freaking Def Leopard.

I've had good lucy with pro 37s, and 4050 on banjo.

[weatherbox]

It's good to listen to the thing from a few angles. I've not had much luck with room mics or any sort of front-side close mic for normal banjo sounds. With closed back banjos (i'd guess picking style affects this as well, but I don't really see enough banjos in to break it down) I like an SDC about level, mebbe slightly above, the players' head, on the picking hand shoulder, facing straight down into the resonator. Catches some body, fairly well mimics the dynamics the player is hearing/reacting to, and there's no shortage of brightness/definition. Because goddamn, it's a banjo.

[qball]

I record (and play) Bluegrass frequently. Randy Kohrs is a Dobro player who has a popular recording studio mainly for the great sounds he captures. Like me, Randy mostly uses ribbon mics for the smooth "not bright" characteristics. He demonstrates his technique in this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GymPWG0Tq-4

My variation of Randy's technique for a very realistic sound:
Place the behind-the-bridge mic about shoulder height and aimed straight down to the player's right knee.

[frshwtrbob]

FWIW ,
I just mic'd a 5 String Resonator banjo & used the following (because they're all I have) mics:
SM57 = small diaphragm ? dynamic
Beyer M500 = ribbon mic
SM-81 = small diaphragm ? condenser
Josephson C-42 = small diaphragm ? condenser
Rode K2 = LDC large diaphragm tube condenser (Amperex tube swap)
Sennheiser MD-441 = (large diaphragm dynamic) set to flat (no treble boost) & dialed in at M (for music, not speech)
These mics went thru a Great River ME-1NV pre-amp w/out any EQ or Compression:
My findings were that the Large Diaphragm Condenser and the Large Diaphragm Dynamic (placed 14 inches from the head, straight out in front) were tied for having the most balanced sound with equal amounts of treble, mids and bass.
The small diaphragm mics were recorded at a 4 inch distance between the last fret & right hand and sounded unbalanced. Being thin (lacking bottom end) and almost close to being harsh (too much treble)

[apropos of nothing]

Couldn't you just pretend to mic the banjo?