Remember, that this is not a traditional string quartet arrangement. It also includes guitar, vocals, drum kit. And no one has actually heard the arrangement or the vocalist or how the kit sounds so no one really knows what the appropriate setup for the strings should be. That's why I say CYA and sort it out in the mix.

Yeah, but a good recording is a good recording Steve. Just capture it well, and then you can decide where to put it later on. You can't go wrong with a good old-fashioned XY or M/S micing treatment.

Then why are there so many different string libraries out there? Or piano libraries? Would the Elanor Rigby string quartet have the same impact if it were recorded in a traditional manner? I'd say they're all great recordings, but they're all suitable for different styles, arrangements, sounds. If the recording doesn't suit the arrangement, then even if it's a beautiful recording it's not a good recording.

It may turn out that a nice ambient stereo recording is exactly what is needed. But what if it isn't? Maybe one section needs distance... maybe another section needs closeness... I don't know. And in that situation I like to keep my options open.

I think you can get over technical about it. It does not matter so much what the arrangement is, there are just some good old fashioned ways of recording a great string quartet sound. If the composition is good and the string arrangements are good and the playing is excellent, it will fit perfectly and sound great.  In any musical situation. It also does not hurt to experiment either during recording.

I have done some straight X/Y setups for this situation and they sounded good too. Not so great with AB spaced pair though. Things can collapse a bit in mono or narrow width. But with M/S I found there was a nice sense of depth. Also being able to alter the stereo spread after is really great and useful. If the M Mic is in omni and you really reduce the S signal in the decoding, you are left with a very strong mono signal. (String quartet is still in perfect balance) It's also really great to lower the M level and push the S level during decoding in a mixdown that is dense. Suddenly the strings move further out and can almost move further away from the normal L R width. If you now start adding tiny amounts of delay to one side of this and add reverb as well, things really start to sound interesting with the strings. (imagine delaying either the M or S signal prior to decoding)

Matt I find it interesting that you mention recording acoustic guitar with a M/S setup. For that I imagine it may not work so well after all. In some ways it is a point source instrument and maybe a bit harder to get great stereo imagery happening on it. Would you want to pan an acoustic guitar hard L R. I am very happy with a mono recording at the twelfth fret with a great mic. I prefer the sound of two mono recordings panned 3 and 9 O Clock of the same part just doubled (with a different guitar) That to me is much more interesting.

I think M/S lends itself to situations where there are lots of point soucres coming in from different positions and interacting with the room reverb as well. Blumlein sounds amazing too. But the room needs to be real nice, because you are letting sound in the other side as well.

Every time I've been involved with recording a trio or quartet of orchestral instruments (in a good space) the engineer has used a Decca tree configuration.

Players are sitting in traditional arc'ed positions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decca_tree

Hey vanblah the Decca Tree is very interesting too. Here is an interesting article on it. I think it might be better for larger ensembles in larger spaces. It poses some problems for small ensembles in smaller spaces as this article points out. Very interesting though.

http://www.audiomasterclass.com/?a=415

After reading that I now get a sense of what Matt was talking about now by doing a stereo recording with spot mics. At first I thought the spot mics might be random but when you think of say a co incident X/Y setup for a very strong centre image with spot mikes out on the flanks for a more spatial sound, it starts to make sense. It means you have got 4 tracks to play with too. Lot of control in post production. Your idea too Matt about spot mics on individual things relates to the sectional mics in orchestras being used to add definition here and there when needed.

Sorry james if we are confusing you with all these options.

Steve, these are the two most important sentences I've read in a long time, written by Jeff Evans in post #24:

I think you can get over technical about it. It does not matter so much what the arrangement is, there are just some good old fashioned ways of recording a great string quartet sound.

Bottom line, there is more than one way to do everything. My suggestion, being that this is perhaps your first quartet, to stick to traditional, tried-and-true methods, and at the end of the day, try not to worry about it and have fun capturing the moment. Your clients will thank you for it.

PS, and in answer to your "Elanor Rigby having the same impact comment"....

Who knows?

They created something the day they did that, just as you are creating something the day YOU are recording something. I'm sure they weren't thinking: "well, we have to create that timeless Beatles sound." They were just hired to create a good recording, and had a great facility to use. I'm sure they were using the room they thought was best, with the microphones they had at hand that they knew had a certain response that they were after, and they hired players who they were pretty darn sure could play what they were after.

If you spend your whole recording career using others' work as benchmarks, you may drive yourself batty. It's good to have a point of reference, but at the end of the day, you have to be true to yourself - or your client's overall goal - and work FOR THE SONG AT HAND. That's how timeless classics are made.

Wait - no one has mentioned the obvious. If the quartet is playing to a pre-recorded track, they are going to have headphones, and therefore, they will presumably be listenting to each other's instruments through the headphones also.

This may put some limitations on how you set up the mikes. You'll probably need one set optimized for performer monitoring, and then the main set to actually capture the performance.

Or have i missed something?

The performers in the video I posted above did the same thing. In some cases, they wanted the playback turned way down, just for tempo purposes. Some put one ear on and one ear off. It's up to the players, really. I wouldn't worry too much about a "playback" mic.