Samplin a cello

[ScottWasilewski]

anyone have any experience recording a cello?
Mics? Mic Position?
any insight would be of great help, thanks a bunch...

[bro. miles]

Just a few tips from a former bass viol player:
Use the best condensor mic you can.
Record in a room that is not too reverberant, like your living room.
Minimize unwanted sounds like traffic noise, squeeky chairs.
Let your ear guide you. Start by placing the mic about 3 feet from floor, facing player, about 4-6 feet away.
A cello is mono, so record in mono unless you are trying to get concert hall reverb in your recordings.
If you do decide to record in the hall, use two condensor mics crossed in an X, or read up on mid-side recording (requires special mics). Place these in the center of the audience area about 5-10 rows back if it is a full size hall - in other words,where your ears are when seated in the best seat in the house.

Some factors in deciding what to do are whether this is a recording of a cello solo, a part in a string quartet, a part in an orchestra, or a recording for sampling. If it is a solo cello consider recording in the hall in stereo. For all others use the close mic technique in mono. At any rate, close micing in stereo or with multiple mics is pointless.

Record a take and listen for the sound you want. Adjust mic as needed.

A good low budget way to record cello is to use one of those PZM mics and set in on the floor about 6 feet in front of the player. Radio Shack (!) sells these cheap, Crown has more expensive and possibly better ones.

In general one mic is better than many, because as soon as you mix the mics together you get problems with phase cancelation. Exception to this is mid-side method.

Micing in stereo in the hall is OK as long as it won't be mixed to mono.

Don't EQ the cello if possible unless it's for a pop music track.

Have fun - the cello is a beautiful instrument.

One more tip - do whatever it takes to create a comfortable atmosphere for the player, like dim the lights, buy him/her an espresso, have them imagine they are YoYoMa, "forget" to tell them that you are recording, give them as many takes as they want, etc. A poor recording of a great performance is better than a great recording of a poor performance.

[ScottWasilewski]

thanks a lot,
Lots of sound advice, space is a bit tight which is too bad but i appreciate the tips. Hopefully next weekend I'll get all the tracks down, but so far the condenser a few feet forward and low has done the trick!

Thanks again!
scott

[Kriminal]

Claire Fitch is the girl you want, she has done this, and even has samples on her site.

[learjeff]

In general one mic is better than many, because as soon as you mix the mics together you get problems with phase cancelation. Exception to this is mid-side method.

I'm a big fan of mid-side, but note that it's not really an exception -- an often overlooked or misunderstood fact. You can still get phase cancellation problems with mid-side. The way to minimize phase problems is 1-point miking (e.g., XY or MS with the two mike capsules as close together as possible).

With MS miking, you're usually using 1-point technique, so the problem doesn't arise. Also, with MS miking, when summed to mono the side channel disappears so you don't ever get phase problems in that case.

Where you CAN get phase problems with MS is -- assuming there are phase issues in the tracks to begin with -- for any listeners closer to one speaker or the other. If there are phase issues in the recorded tracks, you'll hear them by listening to just one side or the other. This is the opposite of XY, where you hear them most when summed to mono, but won't ever hear them in one side by itself.

[Mies van der Robot]

Bro. Miles fairly well covered it, but here are a few more tips from a recording cellist.

- Make sure the celiist is comfortable. Cellists are very sensitive to the height and shape of their chairs/stools. If you don't have something suitable (preferably with adjustable height), then request that the cellist bring his/her own seat. This can make a huge difference in the performance you get.

- Allow extra time for tuning, especially if you're a low-budget studio and don't have good climate control. Cello strings are far more temperamental than guitar strings...they *will* stretch and slip out of tune over the course of a longer session. Be patient...it's not the cellists's fault, it's the nature of the equipment.

- Mic placement can make a big difference. Miles has a good starting suggestion, but you can tweak from there. DO NOT get too close, or you'll be getting too much of the scrapy, scratchy micro-sounds of the bow/rosin and fingers on the strings instead of the actual cello sound. It's a big instrument and it moves a lot of air around, so keep the mic back and record that air. (Unless you're deliberately going for those sounds...then close in on the bridge by all means. Or if the cellist is playing a line with harmonics, you may have to get in a bit closer to get a good signal level.)

- Don't just consider mic placement, consider where the cellist IS in your space. Again, our instrument moves a lot of air, so what happens to the sound can be significantly altered by moving us around in the room. A cellist in the corner will sound vastly different than a cellist in the middle of the room.

Good luck, and have fun! Cellos are difficult, but once you get things set right the sound is oh so sweet!