Microphone Distances and Pickup Techniques by Instrument Family

As promised in the chapter on microphones, today we get into the second part. It is based on describing microphone techniques according to the pickup distance and sound capture according to the family of instrument being recorded. We could define miking as the types of microphone pickup of the different instrumental sources (direct, close) and ambient sources. Depending on our miking, we can fine-tune the fidelity of our instrument or look for tricks to achieve personal sounds.

Pickup Distance
First, let’s point out the variations in sound we’ll get depending on the distance we choose:

Extreme Close-Up

This is a true close-up. Placing the mic inside or on the instrument. This could be the case of a clip-on mic on a sax or a guitar. It can be useful for capturing a quiet instrument in isolation from others, or for capturing as much of the “texture” and quality of the sound as possible. To avoid vibrations, it is advisable to rest this mic on an elastic element so that it isn’t exposed to the instrument’s vibration.

Close-Up

Placing the mic a few centimeters from the source. This approach has the drawback that various rubbing noises and the like can be picked up, but it is nonetheless one of the most widely used. For vocals and even instruments.

Medium Distance

We would use this kind of distance to capture very loud sources or families of instruments that we don’t want to capture separately. The distance for this medium placement is approximately one meter.

Ambient Distance

Placing the mic several meters from the source. Obviously with this placement we lose definition and the signal is weak. The aim is to capture the room and add tonal richness to the recording.

It is also possible to mic an instrument such as a classical guitar by capturing more than one distance. That is, for example, placing a clip-on microphone at extreme close range to capture detail perfectly while also picking up, on a second channel, a medium or ambient distance to enrich that close-up.

Type of Pickup Depending on the Instrument We Record
It is important to know the characteristics of the instrument we are going to record, so we can mic it the way each one needs. Thus, we could classify:

Woodwind Instruments
Very harmonic sounds, slow attacks and decays. They are also characterized by emitting, besides the sound, the noise of the breath.

We can place the mic pointing at the mouth and angled slightly to avoid the breath from the mouthpiece, bearing in mind that the closer it gets to the mouth, the more highs we will get, and conversely, if we want lows we should move it closer to the bell of the instrument.

Very rich sounds, high, piercing timbres, and quite loud.
The miking could be done by placing the mic on the axis of the bell (which is where they radiate from), slightly off-center to tame the timbre. The distance should be approximately one meter. At shorter distances we would probably run into problems of peaks and overload.

String Instruments
Harmonic sounds, fast attacks, and slow but even decays.

Mic placement:

• We must bear in mind that the string instrument family is very broad, and depending on the family it belongs to (bowed, plucked, struck), we must adapt our mic’s position (and type) to capture the nuance or nuances that characterize it.

  Miking Percussion
  Membrane and metal percussion: drums and percussion instruments

• 
  Kick drum: Mic placed in front of the front head (a hard-hitting mic). Placed about 30 cm from it and on an anti-vibration stand.

  Floor tom: Mic about 10 cm away, pointing at the rim to capture the bright sound.

  Rack toms: Mic suspended about 20 cm away

  Snare: Mic about 10 cm away, pointing at the center of the head. We should not place the mic below the snare, since we would pick up all the noise of the springs and the snare wires.

  Hi-hat: Captured at 10 to 15 cm, pointing at the edge of the cymbals but avoiding the “rush” of air they produce.

  Cymbals: Cymbals generally have especially bright sounds. That means we should place the mic a little farther away, around 30 cm, to avoid overload and so on...

• 

• Electric Guitar and Bass
  As we know, these instruments could be connected directly to the console line input. But the signal is likely to be weak, and more importantly: the sound is absolutely artificial and “pointy.”
  We all prefer (sometimes even as an indispensable condition) to record the sound of our amplifier, which requires a suitable, well-placed microphone.

  The miking is done by placing the mic facing the amplifier’s speaker, angled slightly. Since the miking is very close, there will be no reverberation, which we will add afterward “artificially.”

  There are also effects processors that emulate the typical sounds of tube amplification and other types, for both bass and guitar. This lets us save on miking with quite acceptable sonic results, plugging the instrument straight into the line input, but with the “fighting” sound of traditional amplification, the “battle-tested” kind.

  Conclusions
  It is logical to think that in our home studio many of the instruments will be triggered via MIDI, which means we won’t have to consider all these “tricks” to generate good miking. Nevertheless, I think it is very important to always add the human touch as faithfully as possible, and for that we must use good microphones and record our instruments in the most real and warm way we can.

  Presumably each musician will have their own possibilities and preferences when setting up their studio. A guitarist will probably sequence a large part of the instruments except the guitars, which he will take the trouble to record properly with good mics. A sax player, for his part, will surely have different priorities.

  We have talked about the types of microphones, their characteristics, their advantages and drawbacks and, finally, in this part reviewed the types of distances, miking techniques, and curiosities. So we close this section, in principle bringing to a conclusion the part we’ll devote to microphones in general.

  See you in the next “episode,” where we will keep going deeper into the particular forms, devices, and “intricacies” for building, improving, and/or optimizing our home studio, getting the most out of each of the elements and aiming for that dream quality, “just as nicely” from our little home.