I am interested to know why the traditional setup won't work in this setting. It works in every setting. Be careful and not set them up so they cannot hear each other. String quartet players need to hear and feel each others playing. If you start setting them up in such a way that compromises this you will be in trouble.

Now I have forgotton that they might be playing to a pre recorded track, is that right. So if you do an M/S recording you will have to do a temporary decode live and send it to their cans as well as the music obviously. If you get the balance right there (slightly more quartet so they can hear each other well) then you should be OK too. When I have recorded quartets playing to tracks sometimes micing them individually might be the better option.

My wife is a violin and viola player and I have recorded the quartet many times and used the resultant recording in many different genres. The great thing about the M/S setup is you end up with this lovely stereo mix at the end of the day that is perfectly balanced and will drop in over any music anywhere. Just my thoughts anyway. Good luck with it.

Thanks Jeff, I didn't say the traditional setup won't work, I'm just aware that it may work better within the context of this song to have the violins flanking as you suggested - just reminding myself to think broad and not get too stuck inside my classical background!

Hi James Yes the traditional setup is the Cello at the extreme of one end of the arc, viola next to that (just one side of centre of arc) violin (on other side of centre positon) and second violin on the extreme side again.  This would also be good but your final stereo image is also going to reflect that and that might also be cool. My idea was to maybe have the two violins on the outer and the bassier instruments in the middle. The quartet may prefer the more trad approach. If they do the I would go with that.

The mics can be setup above the music stands pointing down towards the floor a little on an angle. Also get some string and make sure the distance from each bridge to the mics is roughly the same if you are going to do it that way.

The radius from the mics to the bridges could be around 1.2 meters or fairly tight if you don't want to involve the sound the room so much. If the M mic is in omni, it will make things sound further away a little than they really are, keep that in mind.

I would listen to Jeff and make sure the players are comfortable. That is paramount. Then, and only then, are you going to get the performance everyone will be proud of.

When I recorded a quartet here, I used an XY to capture the room, and set up mics near each of the performers; who chose to sit in the traditional manner.

Here is a video of the session.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...eature=player_embedded

Hi Spindlebox,
Not hearing a lot of stereo separation in the video.  

I have zero experience in this area in particular, but a few additional things to consider..

If you have enough spot mics to get everything, do it. If you don't, make sure you know what particular instruments are of importance so you can capture their melody with the spot mics. If a section has a very strong violin presence, maybe choose the better two violinists and spot mic those guys. Cello and double bass may not require spot mics so much. You get the idea. Find out what's of particular importance and get it.
Also maybe consider a couple of room mics as well. Something right back at the end of the hall. Always handy to have a really wet room sound to use.

I'd also probably not worry about that many stereo mic setups. Maybe just M/S and X/Y. I'm sure that would be plenty. Personally, I prefer X/Y. It has true stereo, with the left and right being different. M/S just sounds like pseudo stereo to me and although it's fun, I don't find it too practical. Put more time into spot mics and getting a zoom mic or two set up. Maybe even a REALLY spaced pair, like two back left and right corners for the room. Could be interesting and hopefully be far enough apart and complex that comb filtering would go unnoticed. It's a room mic anyway so not so important. That could create a nice strong stereo spread of ambience. Then use spot mics to further bring out a wide stereo feel. Infact, having a lot of violins miced could great a great stereo technique if you're panning say 3 players to the left, and 3 to the right, giving plenty of room in the middle.

Just some thoughts!

I would go w/ the most naturalistic sound and use the quartet's skills (if they are good, of course).  If you mike everything separately you'll have to play it, and the reason to have a good quartet is to make it sound like, well, a quartet.  They play off of each other, adjusting the volume as a group.  If you are a better musician and engineer than they are able to play their instruments, go for it.  If not, use their skills.

I like Jeff's idea to put the bassier instruments in the middle.  Would certainly make mixing them easier, with the bass in the center.

@

The sound of a string quartet is something combined from 4 people. You need to forget micing 4 things or the spot mic concept. What are you going to do with the spot mics anyway. Matt is not quite right on this. The string players themselves will do all the balancing, the total sound that will come out will be great. The less mics you use in fact the better. It is a bit like a choir.

Nothing pseudo about an M/S setup at all. It is as true stereo as you can get. You may not have done it right Matt. It is better in fact because the M mic is pointing right at two of the players and the S mic is also pointing at the other two. Even a Blumlein setup would sound excellent.

Oh yep, it's called quartet for a reason! My bad! I just automatically thought orchestra for some reason...!

You're 100% right about them doing their balancing when they play. I get that. It's just so you can add that extra bit if you want to. It's like maybe micing a drum kit, putting a close mic on the hats and each cymbals just in case, but in the end finding out the overheads provide everything you need. But maybe little sections here and there you might want to bring in the close mic subtly as well for extra flexibility and re-enforcement of a section, if the song needs it. You never know what a song might call for and having extra control is always useful, even if it never gets used. And anyway, the players might not be as good as you would hope, and they don't get quiet enough for any solo parts to shine through. That's when a spot mic can add just a little extra re-enforcement.

As for M/S, I have only experimented with acoustic guitar. It sounds much wider than XY. But I found it a less practical sound. If you're panning hard left and right with the side, I find it leaves holes in the stereo field. Maybe it'd work better with something like the quartet. I wouldn't have thought you could get different left and right sounds but thinking about it more, the interaction of the S with the mid and phase cancellation could create a perceived different left and right now that I think about it. I'll have to do an experiment walking around a 180 degree arc, talking into the mics and see how it sounds. I'll have to experiment with it a little more. It's definitely wider, I just think it sounds a little more disjointed compared to a spaced pair or X/Y.

Rimshot, that video was posted for illustrative purposes only. You may not hear any stereo separation because the sound was recorded with my camera phone!

LOL!

If you want to hear the track, you can click the banner in my signature and go to our website; listen to UNDONE. All of the tracks on this site were recorded by me by the same quartet:

http://www.oreadstrings.c...ad_Strings/Listen.html