I will be recording a friend at school who has a jazz trio (piano, drums, bass) in our preformance hass, which is a rather "live", but good sounding room.
The equiptment I will have access to is as follows:
-2 SM81
-8 Sennheiser microphones that a friend is bringing (i'm not sure about the specific model number, but they are small diaphram condensers in the $400-700 range)
-Soundcraft Venue console
-SM91 (I know this mic is used in reinforcement for kick drum, but what about jazz recordings? Do I even need a kick mic?)
-ADAT 8ch.
Do you have any advice for mic placement. Should I use and room mics? Should I mic the piano several feed in front or should have close mic it? I have read several posts in this forum, but i'm trying to get as much info as possible.
We are going for a Marcus Roberts Trio/Dave Brubeck quartet sound.
Thanks for your help and advice,
Joel
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I'd go with two mics on the piano (high end/low end), 1 micropho
I'd go with two mics on the piano (high end/low end), 1 microphone on the bass (positioned on the high-strings side just over the bridge), a stereo pair in x-y in front of the set and perhaps a kick to suplement it.
For the drums, I position the microphones about a foot to 1.5 feet in front of the set beneath the cymbals and over the toms "looking" at the snare. With careful placement, you can really get a great open drum sound (and let the drummer control his or her sound).
This brings us to 6 channels... If you like, you can also area mic the ensemble with a stereo pair to help fill out the sound. Be aware, though, if you put up a stereo pair, your imaging with the spot mics will have to be close to what the stereo pair is showing or it will sound really strange. I tend to pan as you see, anyways- Piano basically on the left, bass in center, drums towards the right. I guess it is sort of an old-school approach.
Good luck and have fun!
--Ben
I'd probably use two mics on the piano, a mic on the bass, and f
I'd probably use two mics on the piano, a mic on the bass, and four mics on the drums (2 overheads, plus a mic for the kick and a mic for the snare). That's seven tracks. If it's a nice sounding room, the last track would be for a room mic.