I am working on some duets with another harp player and we will be playing out-of-doors. On some pieces, I will be playing flute and on others the harp. Her harp is not very loud, though- it is smaller & has lighter tension than the Troubadour I am renting. She will be using a microphone to sing some songs- is there a way she can use the same mike to amplify her harp? I don’t think anything she sings will have harp accomaniment. While I can certainly play softer, being outdoors I might have volume issues myself.
If she plans on playing outside regularly, she might want to have a pickup installed on her harp (Dusty Strings makes one). For just one gig, though, the easiest thing to do is to wrap the mic in a towel and put it inside the harp.
I don’t recommend just putting the mic near the strings, as that will pick up a lot of string noise.
She may also want to experiment a bit…some small harps seem quiet, but carry really well. What kind of harp does she have?
Redwolf
I’ll simply reinforce what Red has said, but say it backwards. First experiment together outdoors, with some reliable listeners helping with the test run. It’s all about balance acoustically. You may not actually have too many problems. If there are serious balance or carrying problems, then you need to understand them before you can fix them. When you know exactly what is too loud or too soft, let us know and we can dial the solution in for you.
Most singers discover that their voice is less powerfull than their instrument. It’s probably the most common of all acoustic perfomance problems. What will she be using for her mic? Will it be hooked up to a major amplification system or will it be plugged into a teenie-weenie amp just to give her a little boost over the instruments? That’s really key to understand. Without a mic even the quietest harp can overpower some voices. With a mic, the voice can easily leave an entire band in the dust.
Red is spot on about mic placement. Harps are different than most stringed instruments. You put a mic in front of a guitar or a banjo, even a flute or a whistle, but not in front of a harp. Other instruments are ‘point sources’ of sound, while harps radiate sound all over. The highs and lows come from different ends of the instrument, and a mic has a hard time with that. The have a ‘proximity effect’ that means the farther the source moves away from a microphone the quieter it becomes. Like Redwolf says, you can get away with putting a mic inside the harp for one or two shows, but if it’s a regular thing for you, you may soon want to explore other options like soundboard pickups. There are special ones made just for things like harps, pianos, hammered dulcimers, and other ‘radiating’ instruments. Most harp players (or at least their soundmen) get very tired very fast with the problems and seek real solutions. We have those ready for you, but you first must know precisely what the problems are for your circumstance.
Personally, I’ve been tempted to try tucking my Tascam recorder inside my harp, to see if I can get a better recording that way. Harp’s got to be one of the more challenging instruments to record.
Redwolf
Hi everyone,
In total agreement with Tim and Red. Having done this a few times, I have developed some opinions.
The most reasonable solution I have found is using both pickups and a microphone if you can manage it. Like Tim said, mic placement is critical, so be ready to experiment with it. In reasonably quiet venues I use pickups on the inside and a mic on the outside. Nice as pick ups are, they do not get the best sound out of a harp, unless they are seriously high end, hence the mic. In loud venues mics just feedback and I have to run my pickups through a powered D.I box or other amp usually with some compression to make it audible without brain floss!
For a limited number of quieter shows you can get away with a single mic. There is an important difference in microphones too. Vocal mics may work well on harps as they are designed to pickup sound in a narrow space around them. If you can find a decent omni-directional mic it will be a real boon here. I never got a decent sound from a mic until I started on the omni-directional ones.
Having a mic pointed toward the bass or tenor end of the sound board tends to work the best…but like Tim said, experiment first. If you do a test run at the place you’ll be playing at, all the better!
Good luck!
Chad