Fascinating, Gavin. I'm about to record a fiddle player and looking around for specific techniques including mic choices and placement and I've found your experiment here to be extremely enlightening. I hadn't heard or seen anything so far about placing the mic behind the body of the fiddle as opposed to the more accepted position in front but the difference is rather staggering indeed. The range of microphones demonstrated is also appreciated as, to my ears anyway, the more expensive the mic the better the sound. The dynamic mics held up but the condensors won the day. Thanks for the clip.
I'm pleased it's of some use and I'd very much like to know how you get on with it! My favourite mic for this purpose is now a fairly posh small diaphragm condenser that seems to have a tight cardioid pick up pattern (important in an untreated room, I guess) and a generally smooth frequency response. For this purpose the CM-1 Teal is still a contender though, and it may be that other edge connector ldcs with fairly tight pickup patterns will work similarly well.
I'm recording bluegrass fiddle today and will try this. Last session even in my treated studio the recording came out with too much room noise. Ill try and write back with the results
Please do. I think this method probably fixes biting trebly bow and string noises rather than room sound, but it's surely worth a try. Please tell us how it goes.
Excellent, Mr. Atkin! Yours is virtually the only video I could find on micing proper old-time fiddle! Thank you!
Fascinating, Gavin. I'm about to record a fiddle player and looking around for specific techniques including mic choices and placement and I've found your experiment here to be extremely enlightening. I hadn't heard or seen anything so far about placing the mic behind the body of the fiddle as opposed to the more accepted position in front but the difference is rather staggering indeed. The range of microphones demonstrated is also appreciated as, to my ears anyway, the more expensive the mic the better the sound. The dynamic mics held up but the condensors won the day. Thanks for the clip.
I'm pleased it's of some use and I'd very much like to know how you get on with it! My favourite mic for this purpose is now a fairly posh small diaphragm condenser that seems to have a tight cardioid pick up pattern (important in an untreated room, I guess) and a generally smooth frequency response.
For this purpose the CM-1 Teal is still a contender though, and it may be that other edge connector ldcs with fairly tight pickup patterns will work similarly well.
I'm recording bluegrass fiddle today and will try this. Last session even in my treated studio the recording came out with too much room noise. Ill try and write back with the results
Please do.
I think this method probably fixes biting trebly bow and string noises rather than room sound, but it's surely worth a try. Please tell us how it goes.
It's to my left, pointing at the side of my fiddle.