WEEK 4

Audio Arts : Recording Wind Instruments : Wind instrument contains some type of resonator (usually a tube), in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at the end of the resonator. The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air.
Microphone placement depends very much on where most of the sound comes from. Learning the basic charaterstics and dynamic range of the instrument will help you in making your decisions about the choice of the microphone and its placement."Condensor microphones with a cardiod pattern will normally give you satisfactory results"(1).However, play with your creative ideas until it sounds what you want..
Lecture Notes : Kym arrives at EMU with his tenor and baratone..We started with learning the sweat spots of the room, a general idea of the instrument and different microphone placements .It is quite interesting how different microphones produced different timbre. Combination sounds of Sm 57,Beta 56, Beta 52, U-89 gave interesting results.
However for this recording I invited Imm Cielens
..(Click his name to listen to the recording)

Microphones Used:
Sm58 - pointing at the bell ,nearly 1 metre away,
AKG 414 - lower in height and pointing towards the bottom holes
Beat 52 - Along side AKG, pointing the holes
U-87 - Room microphone, infront of him, at his ear level

Trombone Recording : I invited Kara to the play for me..(Click her name to hear the recording.)
Microphone Used :
Sm 56 - pointing the bell, about 1.5 metres away at an off axis angle
AKG 414 - pointing the bell, about 1.5 metres away, quite straighter( main microphone)
Beta 52 - pointing the bell, about 1.5 metres away at an off axis angle
U-87 : Room Microphone , at her ear level from the back

References:
(1)Readings on My Uni.Music Technology(3)2007.
(2)Grice, David.2007.Tutorials on Audio Arts (3).20 March'07.University Of Adelaide.2007