Hello,

I have a basic home recording setup. The only mics I have are a matched pair of Samson C02 cardioid condenser mics. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to the best way to record my jazz piano trio (double bass, acoustic baby grand piano and drum kit) live in my lounge room. It is a pretty nice sounding room, so theoretically a stereo pair setup should work ok, but often the piano is not quite loud enough and the drums are a bit too loud. I can take a line out of the bass amp as well as having the two mics, but would prefer to get as much of the acoustic sound as possible as the amp sound is not as nice.

Should I close mic the piano and then point the other mic at the bass, and hope that the drums get picked up sufficiently (we are all pretty close together) or should I point the non-piano mic equally at the bass and drums and mix in some of the line out of the bass amp to boost the bass, or should I persevere with a stereo technique but adjust it in some way? Any suggestions?

Thanks

hbarrett wrote:

Hello, I have a basic home recording setup. The only mics I have are a matched pair of Samson C02 cardioid condenser mics. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to the best way to record my jazz piano trio (double bass, acoustic baby grand piano and drum kit) live in my lounge room. It is a pretty nice sounding room, so theoretically a stereo pair setup should work ok, but often the piano is not quite loud enough and the drums are a bit too loud. I can take a line out of the bass amp as well as having the two mics, but would prefer to get as much of the acoustic sound as possible as the amp sound is not as nice. Should I close mic the piano and then point the other mic at the bass, and hope that the drums get picked up sufficiently (we are all pretty close together) or should I point the non-piano mic equally at the bass and drums and mix in some of the line out of the bass amp to boost the bass, or should I persevere with a stereo technique but adjust it in some way? Any suggestions? Thanks

Well you have answered this question yourself already really. You are considering the relative levels of each instrument etc..

The way I would approach this is to put some headphones on and walk around with a mic to find the "sweet spot", where the best balance and sound of the trio as one is in the room. Then I'd place the mics in an XY config / crossed pair.

This would give the sound as close as possible to what someone standing in that same "sweet spot" would hear.

This is how the old boys used to record all those fantastic hits you or your folks would have grown up with, essentially balancing the band with careful microphone positioning, you just need to find that spot which sounds best, without compromising the performers in any way.

Do let us know how it goes.
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Recording Studio Suntans

I agree here. To elaborate in a sense, not only did they move mics, they would also put their instruments in the order that they wanted for volume in terms of distance from the mic. Since those guys did it with only one mic, that gives you a new dimension to work with. Since your piano is the main instrument, put that closest to the mics, right in the center. bass off to the side and behind a little bit, and drums furthest back. That's what I'd start with. From there it's experimenting and moving the mics to your taste.