Klarinet Archive - Posting 000156.txt from 1996/01

From: bcourtne <bcourtne@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Good Microphone for Clarinet ?
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 14:34:27 -0500

I am a young clarinetist and recording engineer. This topic is fun
and elusive
It strikes me that D Bourque's comments along the lines of
"what will you be using your bass clarinet for?"
are extremely appropriate for microphone discussion.
Versatility in a microphone is harder to come by than in an instrument,

additionally there is a huge huge variety to select from, esp. compared
to the clarinet market
anyway, the chap who uses a lapel mic shares this with Buddy Defranco
who sounded quite nice with this set up.

For now I will just say two things (rememeber, I am not a pro [yet]):

1)for recording, you will rarely want to seriously consider a dynamic
microphone, although there are exceptions. if you are talking about
recording "legit" solo clarinet music in a hall, then a high quality
condenser is what you are after. I usually leave the balance up to the
performers and use some type of stereo pair and try to adjust the mic
position to the room/the room to the mics (shells, baffles) when it is
soloist with piano. In this situation, you strive for naturalness,
unless your room is really crappy, then a colorful mic might be handy.

2) in a different area, we have live, close miked situations, i.e.
jazz big band, jazz small group, anything with other amplification or
drum set or large performing area. For this, dynamic or electret mics
are the way to go. Contact mics on the mouthpiece are questionable, and I
have little (read:none) experience there, but your goal in this situation
is to mic the clarinet and nothing else which always hard to do when a drum
set is involved.

Unless the drummer is in another room, every mic is a drum mic.

Anyway, SD Systems has instrument mikes available through
Woodwind/Brasswind and they are slightly expensive but you are paying for
the mounting scheme(s) which is probably worth it
the mikes themselves have decent specs, but i have not heard them
Anyone who has, please let me know what you think
Some big name jazzers even use these mikes for recording.

BC

Discussion question for those who got to the end:
Does everyone think that key clicks (not written, but incidental) are
always extremely undesirable in a recording?