The most important thing to determine is what kind of drummer you have. A real old school jazzer is better off with two overheads and a room mic. A fusion drummer can be miced like a rock drummer. Which is it?

URB or electric? What kind of piano? What kind of room is available?

BobRogers, post: 365571 wrote: The most important thing to determine is what kind of drummer you have. A real old school jazzer is better off with two overheads and a room mic. A fusion drummer can be miced like a rock drummer. Which is it?

URB or electric? What kind of piano? What kind of room is available?

thanks for your input. they're playing jazz standards. hes more of an old school drummer, and I don't have the greatest room to work with (my basement) so i've close mic'd the drums. the bassist is using a mix of upright and electric. not quite sure how to record the upright although he said it has a pickup so I can always fall back on that. the piano is a midi controller and i'm using an NI instrument plugin for the sounds.

Software pianos could be a problem if you want a natural sound.
Often heavily panned bass left treble right, and the piano seems to be allover the place.

Cheers,

Herbeck

You'll want a LDC for the upright. A pickup just doesn't do a nice bass justice. If you need to close mic then level with and 12" from the f hole and angle the mic up whatever degree to aim at the shoulder.

My preference for the drums would be something like the [[url=http://[/URL]="http://danalexander…"]Glyn Johns[/]="http://danalexander…"]Glyn Johns[/] method. If the room was good I'd be up for two overheads and a room mic.

On the URB I agree with John on a LDC pointed at the f hole. But you can also try a dynamic - RE20, SM7, even an SM57. If he wants a lot of string on the fret board sound try a SDC pointed up from the bridge to the neck. You can use foam to hold the mic IN the bridge for this.

For the sax I like ribbon mics. A Sennheiser 441 is another common choice. About the length of the body away from the sax pointed at the middle of the body - not the bell.

As usual, YMMV. Experiment.

Thanks a lot for the advice, had good results with the Glyn johns today on the drums. and got a good sound from the bass with an mxl 990 a sm57