help recording a flute

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.

 

Well I guess use directional mics for less room.Put one mic at the end of the pipe, and one above her head. And combine two mics together for the best of two positions.

 

Oh and run it through a Sansamp!

 

I used a KSM32 first time around. What do you think? SD or LD? Any reason to use dymanic over condenser? Should I start with a matched pair or mix it up?


I know....yes

 

I would definitely go SD, and diifferent kinds. KSM32 is cool but you will get more transient response with a small mic. That way it will stick out little more in the mix. I don't think I would go for dynamic, but go for it and see.

 

The only SD conds I have are 451s. I know some dudes so I might be able to get something else. What do you recommend? Come to think of it, I'm not real familer with many SD conds.

 

451s are great for this application. Don't get too close to the flute, because you want to capture the whole sound that radiates from the instrument.

 

cool.

 

Put a couple of blankets over mic stands and place them around the flute player to get rid of that hollow sound.

A C451 should do the job just fine. A dynamic like the MD441 can do it as well.

 

there are many different ways to record a flute, depending on the style of music, and the player , my favorite recording chane lately is using a tlm103 above the head of the player not too close connected to avalon sp737 , and sometimes i add two 451's as room mics with a neve 1081 preamps

 

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.

 

You might have phase problems with placing two mics like that. Maybe an ORTF or NOS stereo pair of the 451's will please you more.

I don't like XY, but that's personal. The ORTF pair of 451's can give you a very realistic stereo image.

 

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.

 

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

 

for less room try the SD condenser slightly past the mouth piece about 2 feet above looking down and about 2 feet in front of the player. :

 

A lot of the flute sound comes from the body and end of the flute not just the air passing over the mouthpiece. Try micing the end or the middle of the body.

 

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.

 

I saw mention of a flute-mounted pickup. Would this do?