Jeremiah Newcombe – S.I.D. 0211710

The aim of this assignment was to create several recordings of acoustic instruments using a variety of stereo microphone techniques. for my project i have decided to record Saxophone, Guitar, banjo tracks. each instrument will be recorded using an AB microphone setup followed by another two techniques for a total of 9 recordings and 7 separate techniques. The recordings were made in the CMT studios on the ARU Cambridge campus with a separate session for each instrument.

Equipment List:

1x Logic Pro 8

1x Pro Tools Digi 002 Rack

1x Bayerdynamic DT990 Headphones

2x SE4 Condenser Mic (Stereo Pair)

2x AKG C414 Condenser Mic (Stereo pair)

Plus, XLR Leads and Mic Stands  

Session 1 – Saxophone:  

Saxophone AB Setup:

for this first setup i used the cardioid heads and placed the mics parallel to each other, 30 cm apart, 1.2 m from the floor and about 1.3 m from the wall behind them pointing squarely across the room. i then had the performer play from a distance of 1 m and instructed him to back away in small increments until i was happy with EQ balance of the signal (around 2 m). I then tilted the mics upwards slightly to defeat excessive breath noise from the instrument.  

Saxophone XY Setup:

for the second setup i used the cardioid heads again and placed one mic tilted slightly upward and one tilted slightly downward but equally off parallel to the floor with an angle of 90 degrees between them. i used the same position as for the first (approx. 1.3 m from the back wall and 1.2 m from the floor) and instructed the performer to back away in the same manner as before until i was satisfied with the signal (at around 1.2 m).  there was still a bit too much breath noise so i angled the mic a little bit wider at around 110 degrees.

Saxophone DIN Setup:

for the third setup, still using the cardioid heads, i placed the mics 20 cm apart at an angle of 100 degrees to each other and about 1.5 m from the rear wall and 1.1 m from the floor. i positioned the performer using the same technique as before and settled on a distance of 1.6 m from the mic heads to the bowl of the saxophone. 

Session 2 – Guitar:  

Guitar AB Setup:

for the first guitar recording i placed the mics 32 cm apart angled slightly apart, 1.5 m from the floor and the back wall and used the cardioid heads. i started the performer at a distance of 1 m from the mic heads to the guitar’s sound hole and moved him back at increments of 20 cm eventualy settling on a playing distance of 2 m. i then tilted the mics slightly upward to lower the intensity of the plectrum noise. 

Guitar NOS Setup:

for the second guitar recording i used the cardioid heads again and placed the mics at a 90 degree angle with 30 cm separation between the heads. i kept the mics 1.5 m from the back wall but lowered them to 1 m from the floor and tilted them slightly upward towards the guitar’s sound hole. this time i decided to place the performer at a distance of 1 m from the mics using the previously described technique.  

Guitar ORTF Setup:

for the third guitar recording i placed the mics at 110 degrees with a 17 cm separation, parallel to the floor using the cardioid heads. i positioned the mics 1.2 m from the back wall and 1.1 m from the floor. using the same technique as before i positioned the performer at a distance of 1.5 m from the mic heads to the guitar’s sound hole.

Session 3 – Banjo:  

Banjo AB Setup:

for the first Banjo recording i placed the mics 36 cm apart and angled each of them apart by approximately 15 degrees from parallel, 1.75 m from the the back wall 1 m from, and parallel to, the floor using the cardioid heads. using the previously described technique i positioned the performer at a distance of 1.5 m from the mic heads. due to the lack of volume afforded by the Banjo when being picked i had to crank up the mic pre amps which unfortunately increased the noise floor of the recording.

Banjo Blumline Setup:

for the second Banjo recording i used the C414’s on the omni-directional setting and placed the mics 2 m from the back wall and 1.3 m from the floor. i then positioned the performer at a distance of 1.6 m from the mics using the perviously described technique. unfortunately the same low level signal problem was still present causing the high level noise floor

Banjo OCT Setup:

for the third Banjo recording i placed the SE4’s in line with each other with a distance of 56 cm between the heads using the hyper cardioid capsules. i then placed one of the C414’s in-between them about 10 cm further forward using the cardioid setting. the whole array was setup 1.3 m from the floor and 2 m from the back wall with the performer at a distance of 1.8 m from the array. as with the other banjo recordings the low volume of the banjo has prompted me to increase the pre-amp levels resulting in a greater amount of noise in the signal.