I am recording a solo banjo piece next week and would like some advice about the best set up.  Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

Depends on a lot of things:

1. What mic(s) do you have available
2. What mic pre(s) do you have
3. What sort of room is the recording to be made in
4. Is the room treated in any way

Bristol_Jonesey


Depends on a lot of things:

1. What mic(s) do you have available
2. What mic pre(s) do you have
3. What sort of room is the recording to be made in
4. Is the room treated in any way

Thanks for the response.  My room is treated extensively with 2" 6 pound rigid fiberglass panels and a dropped acoustic ceiling.  It is a small room (12' x 12'), and almost totally relying on absorption. 


Below is a list of my equipment.


Microphones
— Shure SM7B super cardiod, dynamic (2)
— MXL 960 large diaphragm, cardiod tube condenser
****** Modified with Peluso CEK-89 capsule and vintage 12AY7 tube
— Rode NT 5 small diaphragm, cardiod condenser (2)
— Sennheiser MD 421 cardiod, dynamic
— MXL 603s small diaphragm, cardiod condenser (2)
— Sennheiser e835 super cardiod dynamic (2)
— MXL V67G large diaphragm, cardiod condenser

———————————————————————————————————————————

Rack
— Grace Design Model m101 mic pre amp  (2)
— ART Pro-VLA II – Compressor/Leveler
— Tech 21, Sansamp RPM bass pre amp
— DTAR Solstice, acoustic guitar pre amp
— RME FireFace 800  AD/DA converter
— Behringer Powerplay Pro-XL HA4700 microphone mixer (2)
— Yamaha MG10/2 mixing console

Thank you in advance for your help.

Tom

i've seen the kruger brothers live, 5 times.

jens kruger, by far the best banjo player i've ever seen or heard.

playing live, he has an incredible tone, using a single medium sized condenser right in front of him:




and here, in a vid setup, he's playing in front of a classic ribbon:


http://youtu.be/rLyM4gCrn1k




i've also heard him at the fiddlers convention in north carolina, and he was sitting in front of a shure sm58, and that sounded excellent


point is, you use whatever you have, and position it correctly.


that takes time, patience, and concentration.




I can vouch for the Shure KSM44 as an excellent choice of mic for this purpose

jens kruger, by far the best banjo player i've ever seen or heard.

 
Agreed....to me, he's the EVH of banjo players. Simply mind-blowing. Ever see this? You probably seen them do it live...this always impressed the heck out of me. They all deliver the goods so incredibly well...to heck with production when you have this kind of talent.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQECXZKg-gc&feature=endscreen&NR=1
 
-Danny

Here's what you want;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiZFtN1xm-U

I have always got a good sound out of it. It is easy really, a lot of the sound is coming off the drum head so a mic position 2 feet or so would be nice with a decent condenser mic. It is quite loud too so you need less gain usually. Maybe a little HPF to stop any unwanted sub sounds.

If you have got a figure 8 and a nice cardioid I would do an M/S recording. That way you can always just used the M part of the sound if you want but if the room is nice than the S signal could be trimmed to taste during decoding so you would have some control over how much room you hear. (in stereo)

that was impressive....(vid by DD)  and they didn't even look like they were in agony.  Just setting there... not even breaking a sweat....