Recording Marimba

[sqkychair]

It looks like I have to record a marimba tonight.

Anything special to watch out for?

I am thinking LDC about 3 feet out pointing at the middle?

How about the resonators?

Any advice is very welcome.

[kwiksilver]

Hi sqkychair,

Most Marimba's are 4 1/2 to 5 octaves in length.

If you have a great sounding room, one omni would work.

I would seriously think about using two mics somewhat closer. Experiment with distance to get the room sound you want.

I don't own an omni mic, so I always use two mics on my vibes and they are only 3 octaves in length.

my 2 cents

kwiksilver

[kwiksilver]

It looks like I have to record a marimba tonight.

How about the resonators?


Not sure what you are asking here???

[sqkychair]

Hey kwiksilver,
Thanks for the quick reply. I don't have two matching mics. This is not a critical recording. I will try with on or two different mics and see what happens.

I have not seen this particular marimba yet, but a lot of them have tubes that extend under the bars that are called resonators. Should I be concerned about pointing at them in any way?

I think I am going to sweep around to find some kind of sweet spot.

[kwiksilver]

Hey kwiksilver,

I have not seen this particular marimba yet, but a lot of them have tubes that extend under the bars that are called resonators. Should I be concerned about pointing at them in any way?


OK. I understand what you are asking about.

Just about every mallet instrument with the exception of Orchestra bells and glocks have resonators.

The sound from the key or note travels down the resonator, hits the stop at the bottom and travels back up. The majority of your sound rises from the notes and the resonators.

Best to mic from above or the whole room.

Even if you don't have matched mics and if you have the time it would be worth setting up two mics to compare the results.

kwiksilver

[sqkychair]

Many thanks, kwik.

Wish me luck!

[Bob Olhsson]

Overhead always worked best for me. Unless you have a good enough room to get well above it, I'd use two mikes. A pair of RCA 77s or figure-8 ribbons a bit higher really capture the "wood" sound.

[otek]

I am thinking LDC about 3 feet out pointing at the middle

I would tend to back off a bit with condensers. I find mallets become very "plinky" up close.

With ribbons, no problem of that nature (though my mallet recording experience using ribbons is limited to one occasion).

Like Bob, I prefer stereo for mallets, and LDC's or ribbons. Last time, I recorded a 5-piece percussion ensemble, using a pair of Milab VIP-50s in an X-Y config, feeding a pair of Amek pres, and an AKG 414 spot mic for small hand percussion.

[Mixerman]

You could mic each resonator.

Hey, it works for drums.

Enjoy,

Mixerman

[malice]

Like Bob says,

Marimba have a lot of transcients, more than you think, it might be very aggressive with LDC.

Ribbon works great

malice

PS: Mixerman's method should work, but do you have enough 57's ????

:D

[sqkychair]

Thanks everybody for the advice.

This recording has been delayed for now. I'll update once it happens.