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I tried recording the flute from the front but got way too much click and pop and breath stuff. So I moved the mic to a little off the back left of her head (flute going to the right) and got much more tone but too much room. It sounds hollow to me. It has to stand up to direct electric guitar lines, so I want it real dry and clean so I can give it some lead guitarish treatment. It really doesnt bother me that much but the player and the main dude have said "hear how the guitar sounds, it should be like that". So. any thoughts.

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Hack Sun, 11/30/2003 - 12:26

I like the blanket idea, I was thinking something like this would help. I will set up 2 451s one about where I had it and the other above the players head. I like 451s into the Neve. I might try the 737 it will depend on how much time I have to set up. The other problem is that the player burns out real fast. So I cant let her warm up to much or I miss all the good stuff.

cruisemates Thu, 01/29/2004 - 16:36

How to Set the Level on Your Flute in One Easy Step: The flute has a tendency to get louder as the pitch gets higher. Once you have your mic in place and you are ready to set your level, ask the musician to play the highest note in the piece of music he is about to play. Set your level so this note is at the maximum reading on your V.U. meter that you care to record at - or set your limiter for maximum compression on this note.

TanTan Sun, 02/01/2004 - 07:53

Good idea , i'm often using a side-chain compressor at the mix stage ,i'm compressing a shell somewhere between 1600 to 2500 with fast attack (between 5 to 15 ms.) and a 3-4:1 ratio with a release time around 200 ms. then i'm playin' with the threshold til' i find the perfect spot where the flute's tonality is balanced but the high-mid frequncy is not covering anything else at that frequency range in the mix :D

anonymous Fri, 02/13/2004 - 16:53

Hope you don't end up like I did on a remote job. The flute player practiced standing at point a, for performance she moved to point b 6 feet away after I had tuned mic locatains for a at practice. All my work up in smoke because point b had different and more reflective surfaces around it and a lot less unwanted instruments and vocals in mic pattern. Then she constantly might as well say danced a 3ft circle with lots of body turns. Talk about fun at mixdown if that's what you want to call constant level changing with automation in DAW over about a 1 hour of performance time.

BTW I only had an SM57 available for flute mic everything else in my kit was in use that were rather haves. Didn't sound half bad but could have been better. (I hadn't brought enough SDC mics because I work this place regular and the flute player had moved out of town and pops up for this performance.

BTW anyone ever try one of the headworn mics like the crown for flute. Someone once told me they swear by it on because of breath and body movements??? I'll probably have this girl again in the future and I know she moves a good bit. On this gig everyone is close to each other and I do not have a lot of distance between performers so everything has to mic close to stop bleed.