Where is the ideal place to put a mike on a flute? Where does the actual sound “come out” of the instrument, and is air noise a problem?
Curious greetings,
Sonja
Pictures suggest that a small mike taped
to the left of the embouchure hole but down
from it on the farside of the flute is good.
But I’m glad to be corrected.
Ohhh, 
I thought you said “milking”.
“Miking” isn’t half as much fun.
Depends what you want. Most sound comes with the stream of air that leaves the blowhole, so that’s a good place to put a mike when you’re doing live performance, Rock’n’roll, etc. It’s a strong and focused sound, with some breath in it. You want your mike very close to the flute, in this case.
If you want to capture the “real sound” of the flute in a recording, you want your mike anywhere in the general area, but not too close. Slightly to the left or right of the airstream works, but leave a foot or two of distance. Slightly behind and above the flutist also works. If you’re in a place with nice acoustics, you may want to add another mike for the ambiance.
Another thing i’ve done that also works is using a mike close to the blowhole, another one close to the foot of the flute. Put some stereo separation between them. The mike close to the footjoint will catch some of the lower notes and the flute body, while you still get a powerful focused sound from the blowhole mike.
For live performance i sometimes use a small condenser microphone on a gooseneck mount, located a couple of inches to the right of the blowhole.
Hey, glauber –
I’ve been pondering going “on board” for years but have put it off for various reasons, including the eternal question of “… but what about the tin whistle?”
Anyway, putting the mic to the right of the blowhole is interesting; I’d always figured to the left. Hmmm. That’s a whole new world!
What kind of clip do you use to attach your gooseneck/condenser mic combo? Electrician’s tape is so hard on a flute’s finish. 
Thanks so much, and I always enjoy your posts!
ATB,
cat.
Hello, Cathy!
i’ve been using an Yamaha PS/7 (portable studio), which comes with such clip. It’s a discontinued model, but Fluteworld has both the complete system and just the mike and clip.
I guess i put the microphone to the right because i want to pick up more of the sound from the flute’s body. I’ve read also recommendations for this placement for recordings. Oh, when i said to the right, i was thinking of the player’s right-hand side, somewhere in between the blowhole and the C# key.
Thanks, G!
I figured you meant to the player’s right. That’s actually about where I put the flute in front of a conventional mic because I’ve always been happiest with the sound there, so duh…it would make sense to put a condenser there too, now wouldn’t it?
I’ll go look at Fluteworld. Oh, Lord, a whole new place to waste valuable work time perusing …
Again, thanks so much, and now I’m off to shop!
I’ve spent way too much money at fluteworld. Anyway, they’re nice people there, very helpful. I wouldn’t go anywhere else for flute sheet music. If they don’t have something, they’ll usually be able to find it.
Forgive the idiotic question–I understand what
the mike does, but what does the
studio system do?
Why is it idiotic? 
The Studio System is a preamp with 2 powered mike inputs, 1 line output and 1 headphone output. This version has 3 kinds of reverb. The newer versions (which AFAIK are made only for sax and trumpet) have a plethora of pinatas… sorry i mean, a slew of different effects. It’s called “Silent Brass” now, and you can get it with mikes or with special mutes that have mikes inside, but i don’t think they sell the gooseneck for flute anymore. I think these are really meant for you to play along with a tape recorder, and earphones, but the quality is pretty good, and i’ve used it a few times for performing.
I didn’t know you could get just the mike and clip without the preamp unit, or i might have done just that, since i already have a power unit, and mike level is good enough for what i do.
There used also to be advertised in Flute Talk (which i don’t get anymore) a flute clip that held 2 microphones, kind of a double gooseneck.
g
A thick rubber band or velcro strip also works well to hold a small mic in place without marring the finish of the flute 
- Tod
I use a mic clip, a Shure93, that works very well.It’s a very
small one, 0.5 cm x 1 cm x 0.2 cm more or less.
I tape it on the right of the blowhole, as on the left it seemed to catch
too much wind noise. When I use a normal microphone I play in front
of it , and place it just above the blowhole. P.A. system guys always
say me that I should stay a bit more far from the mic, but I prefer playing at
3 or 4 cm from it.
AKG 1000s it’s another great microphone for the flute.
In my band I play both flute and whistle so mounting the mic on the flute would result in fidddling around when it’s time for a tune on whistle. Because I don’t like to stay in one place I don’t like to use a mic stand… so my solution is a Sure head mic. I bend the mic up to the corner of my mouth and it works great for both the flute and whistle (although I do have to adjust the volume and high frequency a bit between them).
Clark