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clarinet microphones and looping

Author: Melissa
Date: 2008-12-01 03:50

I've been interested in making some recordings at home and possibly doing some live looping and I'm just not sure what kind of devices I would need. Does anyone have an idea as to what microphones are the best for clarinet and possibly someone has tried doing live looping?

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Re: clarinet microphones and looping

Author: Ralph Katz
Date: 2008-12-01 23:11

There are lots of other posts here. Search for "microphone", "mike", or "pickup" to find them.

Haven't done looping per se, but have fed the pickup into a Line6 Pod XT Live which can do digital delays - similar, but not exactly.

You have two basic mike choices: inside the bore, or outside. Inside, you get no wind noise, or interference from other instruments. But notes with most fingers up will be softer, and those with most fingers down will leap out at you. On the other hand, you can get a nice clean signal from these. The sound I got was so hot, I was surprised at how soft a reed could be used, how far *up* the pitch could be bent, and how nuanced I could get things - the clarinet equivalent of playing a clavichord.

For outside-the-bore, there are some good, boom mounted systems, that have two mikes: one for the bell, and another that picks up sound radiated from finger holes. These are somewhat pricy, but have some big name endorsements. Morrie Backun has integrated them into his replacement bells.

I have a barcusberry mike glued into a mouthpiece, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, and that model doesn't exist any more. It is over a dozen years old and has issues now, which might happen with any piece of old gear. But 12 years ago, once my electronics repair guy and I got it working, it produced an nice, hot, clean signal that was perfect to feed into the Pod and distort.

There a number of people singing the praises of hearing-aid type mikes. You drill and thread a hole in the side of a barrel to mount them. There have been some complaints about condensation causing problems. But they sound good at YouTube's minimal fidelity. One model, the PT100P, is $180, plus a sacrificial barrel and installation.

Try a clip mike pointing into your bell. Or an omni-directional mike on a stand, skewed toward your bell. See what other sounds it picks up besides your clarinet. Something like this may work for you, without spending hundreds of dollars. Then, consider something more elegant when you get your big gig,.

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