Lately I've been experimenting with using pieces of foam to isolate mics and it works great. Auralex sells a kit to do this but I think it's better to just grab a chunk of 2" foam or even egg crate and make your own. If you're grabbing scraps from a foam place you can make a set in a nice charcoal grey for $5 and they'll cut a jagged edge on the pieces (like the Auralex pads) for $1 each. I first got the idea from seeing the kit on the Auralex site and then emulated that with foam I have here, I'm impressed with the results. I'm shocked how much of a difference it makes in some situations. Putting a "pizza" shaped disc of 2" egg crate as a collar below a mic makes a dramatic difference on some stuff. I use that on almost all my voiceover stuff now. 2 cents anyhow.

What works really well for upright bass, is to put a mic inbetween the strings and the body (Is the english word 'bridge' ?), with 2 pieces of rubberband..I've tried a 414 cardiod facing the body, a Neumann km 140 facing upwards, or an omni...All sounded really nice, and a lot of separation for such a quiet instrument..

Wow Calgary, thanks for the pictures and great idea. I will use this on upright bass, where I encounter the most bleed.

Huub, how far apart do you place the mic's and is lid closed also which pattern setting for a live recording.

Thanks guys for the great ideas.

Jim

Credit goes to Auralex on that one for sure, I never would have thought of that even though it makes so much sense once you try it. :D

Huub, i was just going to suggest that same technique!! except i used a d112 and wrapped it in foam and just kinda wedged it in. Hey, for the piano, try placing laveliers( 2 of them) inside/hangin from the lid. use tape to do this and try grabbing the piano with just those two, its really good. I used sony Ecms for this. Also, worth a shot to go with 2 small diaphragm condensers pointed in towards the strings(sort of an XY pattern). hell somebody i know even put a pzm on the lid and got wonderful results( then again your pianist likes to keep his lid open, but maybe you can find another place in the piano to place it? who knows?). Good luck.

Interesting idea Aux-thanks.

What for tape?