Recording Strings

"If you want a natural, full-bodied sound from a violin, you have to give it space." - Hugh Robjohns, Sound on Sound

This week I'll be heading into a studio session on a Neve custom series 75 to record a violinist for the first time. It's going be a lot of fun! We plan to capture as many unique and different sounds as possible to provide a greater opportunity for layering textures when it comes to arranging my next track.

Miking-up and recording a violin is one of the more challenging instruments to get right, so I've done some good research into the best practices of how to record string instruments. Today I'll share with you some of the main factors to consider - and my plan of attack for the session.

First up, I'm feeling pretty confident with how the whole session is going to turn out. We've got some solid and very catchy melody-lines to work with, and an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist. When you consider the priorities of recording music, I believe we've got a good basis to work with:

Music > Performer > Place > Microphones & Mic Placement

My primary vision at the moment is that I will want the violin to have a big presence in the track, so a big focus will be the emphasis on achieving a solid stereo image.

"recording a violin performance in a nice‑sounding room often is worth doing in stereo."

My plan is to set up an X-Y pair of ribbon mics, and a 30cm spaced pair of omni-directional or cardioid small-diaphragm condensers (depending on availability at the studio). Throughout the session I'll experiment with the positioning and height of both sets of mics around the violin, as the tonality can dramatically vary in different positions. By having both setups, I'll be able to capture a greater amount of edge and detail from the performance with the ribbons, and be able to layer that with the smoothness of the omni's.

I'll update this post after the session and fill you in with the whole experience and what I've learned! :)

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Sources:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-how-should-i-mike-violin

http://djtechtools.com/2016/02/21/recording-a-string-section-for-dance-music-productions/

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/electronic-music-instruments-electronic-music-production/924833-recording-violin-sticks-out-sounds-squawky-mix.html

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/recording-violin-piano