Hi all. I have recently been spending some time recording myself playing
and am curious to hear from others about how they get the best results. I
am mostly interested in things like mic placement, mics used to record, the addition of reverb (if any), normalizing the signal, etc. I’m recording myself on the computer, but have a mixing board as well. I used a SM58 and an AKG C1000s. I get different results from each. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks,
Arbo
If you are recording mainly to hear what you sound like, the quality is probably not all that important. In fact, if you make it sound too good, you may delude yourself about the quality of your playing. For example, wind instruments benefit immensely from reverb, but you can hear your playing more clearly if you keep reverb to a minimum.
A good condenser like the C1000S is the way to go for best results. I have two of them, plus a few others. The next thing up would be a quality large diapragm condenser (e.g. one of the Rode models). I think sound engineers generally locate the mic about half way between the emboucher hole and the first finger hole, pointing down at the top of the flute. In a studio, they might use two mics, one a bit further away to pick up ambience. I find one C1000S between the two holes works pretty well, with a bit of large room or hall reverb sounds pretty nice on a flute (not my own, mind you, as I am still a relative beginner). For ITM, other than airs, you have to keep the reverb down so it doesn’t swamp the myriads of fast notes.
Normalisation is not really much benefit for studio recording. You should get the level right at the recording stage, and leave it to the mixing and mastering stages to adjust overall track levels and dynamics. An engineer might use some compression to handle dynamics, but the side effect of too much compression is to bring out the wind noise and key clicks etc, so you can’t go overboard. The reverse (gates or expanders) to reduce noise can make a flute sound artificial. So my advice would be to get the mic sound right and use FX (other than reverb) sparingly, if at all.
Having said all that, I find recording myself at a basic level (no frills) really good to help me hear tempo, phrasing and intonation issues that I don’t notice while I am playing. It can be discouraging sometimes, but will lead to better playing in the end.