Recording flute and clarinet

The trick with flute is to make sure you don't get any wind rushing on the mic.

I usually place the mic at just above the musician's fore head so that the wind that blow by the mouth piece doesn't get near it.



The Clarinet is simple... just stick it down near the bell and find your sweet spot.

I have recorded both of these instruments extensively. The flute is best captured up top where the musician is blowing near the hole and as Mike points out just position that mic so that any wind rushing noise is avoided. It is quite loud there too so the gain wont need to be high.

The sound of the clarinet does not emanate from the bell only, it comes from all the way down the instrument through the holes etc on the body. So you have to get a little back from it and I found it works quite well just pointing the mic (from out front) at the the lower half of the instrument about a foot or 18" away. Use the mic with the best bass response also to record the clarinet as it is a lowish sounding instrument. (Large diaphragm condenser works well) 

You can get away with recording a sax from the bell only but not so with the clarinet. If you mic the bell only some notes wont be heard there!

If you have to record them both at the same time just put them opposite each other and set the mics so the rear of one mic is pointing at the other instrument to minimise spill. You are going to get some spill if they are recorded together and then it is up to the performance to be good so no overdubs will need to be done.

If they are also playing together another option is to set them both up and just do a stereo recording of both of them in a nice room.

" I've never recorded flute or clarinet before, but I will be doing that tomorrow."


That's it, turn in your man card at the front desk...

I imagine it depends on the room and the tone that the player gets.

I've used both sdc and ldc on flutes.

In general, if the musician (I can't spell flautist with confidence) has a nice full and low tone and the room is not adversarial then I'll try the LDC.

If the tone is peaky and present in the upper mids, and or if the room is accentuating that sort of issue I'll try the sdc or maybe even a ribbon mic.

The clarinet is much more predictable... while the flute can be wildly different from song to song and player to player etc.

Have fun!


best regards,
mike

{NagBap}
This must mean that you're done with the SB vocals?
{/NagBap}

Thanks Jeff.  they had to reschedule, so I didn't get the chance to record them today, maybe in couple of weeks.

I do plan to route it through my dbx 160A with some mild settings to tame the peaks.

good advice about watching them move around and such.

I know about the mics that will attach to the flute/clarinet, etc, but don't have one and don't have the budget for that right now.  thanks again everyone.


'cept bapu.    no, I don't have the vox done yet...those aren't even scheduled until Thanksgiving, roight??

Hi Daniel
uhm...it's "not classical" (but it's not "pop" either! )

I tried to listen to your examples, but I can't hear well enough from work (very noisey environment).  I'll listen tonight when I get home.

thanks for the tips!

Daniel brings up an interesting point. The close flute recordings I did were in a style of music that was very percussive and rhythmical and in fact the breathing and all the other associated sounds really fit into the genre. A distant flute recording would not have been anywhere near as good in this situation so it does bring up the relationship of music genre and recording techniques.

I have also recorded a clarinet quartet and the best way was definitely in a lovely sounding room and I was quite some distance away. We did some tests to find the optimum ratio of direct to room sound. The first half of the room was a little deader which sounded great for them but the room also sounded nice too. 

If in doubt you can record them individually up close and the as a duo a little further away at the same time. Give yourself more options. The music that Daniel has first linked to yes does sound nice but somehow I just get a feeling that that music could also have been recorded up a little closer and then you would start hearing more detail in the playing and a little less of the room sound. That recording does sound very much like how it would sound in a concert situation and that too is a lovely environment to hear something in. But it could also have another level of detail and transients info added with a little little less room too. The second link with the percussion is closer to what I mean and this is sounding like it is because of the spot mikes too. But I could take it a slight closer detailed sound and a little less room sound as well. 

It all comes down to taste and how we each prefer to record something. We have had distant micing and that sound for years but now with great mikes and pres and A to D converters and such getting up close can also be an incredible recording experience too. I believe you can change the up close sound too with careful and subtle use of EQ plus add that to the very nice convolution reverbs there are around now and it is not hard to create the further away approach using the up close sounds. But ideally record the further away approach at the same time as the close up approach if you are going to do it. A nice MS setup could be the go there or spaced pair also sounds like a nice stereo approach too. Keep a record of the difference in distance between the up close and further away mics.