How best to mic a penny whistle?

Subject: RE: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: GUEST,Eliezer
Date: 15 Aug 13 - 08:51 PM

Two best ways to do it.

1) Into a vocal or instrumental mic (SM-57 etc. on a mic stand: Use a windscreen. Play about 2" away and aim the mic between holes 3 and 4. Do NOT mic the fipple unless you are in a very noisy bar. You will get way too much breath noise, so you MUST use a quality wind foam. Turn the bass EQ off. Yes, off. Don't let anything below 200 Hz get through. Very important -- tell the guy running sound that whistles in the low register are softer than anything else he or she is micing. Whistles in the high register are louder than anything else ... and it varies as you go up and down the scale. So he or she should set up a very tight compressor, or leave it in the middle and YOU move closer and father away. Or both.

2) If you don't intend to play into a vocal or instrumental mic, get a lavalier mic, preferably with a phone jack or 3-pin professional jack. Put a windscreen on it and, place it below your fipple and hold it there with electrical tape or glue or a rubber band or velcro. Do NOT aim it right at the windway or it will sound like an Arctic gale. I go 45-90 degrees. Depends on the mic, the wind foam, and the whistle. Experiment ahead of time. Be very careful of the wire, as it will probably pick up noise from moving around. Same business with the bass EQ and compressor.

I don't see how reverb helps. It just muddies up your sound. But I won't argue with you about it. A lot depends on what else you are playing with, where you are playing, and whether you use a cheap whistle (shriek city!) or a Copeland or Burke (almost no shriek).

In short you cannot properly mic a whistle through a PA system, but what the hell. It's like a session - no one hears you on the low notes and no one likes you on the high notes.

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: hesperis
Date: 20 May 01 - 02:32 PM

Thank you! I'll try that next time.

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: SeanM
Date: 20 May 01 - 01:56 AM

Hesperis;

If you're getting a lot of 'pops', you probably need to get one of those screens that you often see used in studios. They let the sound through but prevent the direct blast of air hitting the mic.

If you don't have that as an option, have you tried whistling directly over the reciever end of the mic, so that the air flow passes well over the mesh? At one show where we had to jury rig our sound set up I wound up with a REALLY sensitive mic on my spot. ANY noise I made was instantly transmitted over the PA... we managed to finally solve it by me singing over the top of the mic. They had to boost the level slightly, but it solved the air pops that I'd been getting...

M

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: hesperis
Date: 20 May 01 - 01:34 AM

I wasn't being silly! I tried to record some whistling, and got a lot of pops... so what is the optimum distance? Where should I direct the air? (I can sing into a mic with no problems, but whistling...)

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 19 May 01 - 08:16 PM

It didn't take this perfectly legitimate, serious, scholarly question long to devolve into utter and unmitigated silliness, did it?

Gosh, ya gotta love this Mudcat!!! };>{)~

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: hesperis
Date: 18 May 01 - 01:30 AM

How do you mic whistling? Like, the kind that you do either through your teeth, or all puckered up.

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: InOBU
Date: 17 May 01 - 11:19 AM

Dear Cap't - that goes without say, like the old adage, don't lend your fiddle to the late and dearly lamented Johnny Cronin, as he often would crack it over the head of a noisy audience member... PS the solution is to only have band members who you would not mind biteing on the nose. - Larry

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 16 May 01 - 10:36 PM

If by any chance you try the nose technique I would strongly advise you NOT to use this method on whistles other than your own. One of our band members demonstrated this unusual method on my whistle. It took hours of cleaning before I felt like playing that whistle again.

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: InOBU
Date: 16 May 01 - 07:55 AM

Hi Uncle Jaque: I supposed that the fellow played Irish music, which in stead of tonguing, one devides notes with ornaments... in which case nose flute works fine, as I have found to the disgust of friends and family.... Larry

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 15 May 01 - 11:51 AM

I particularly like the one where you clamp the pickup in your teeth and play through yer nose! The only drawbacks I forsee might be:

Tounging could be a bit of a bear. Dunno 'bout you, but I ain't got one in there.
Drool can be enough of an issue in the fipple; snot could really compromise one's intonation!
Aside from the aerodynamic influence of snot/mucous/phegm etc., isn't all that stuff nearly as conductive as it is gross? I'd think you might do well to stand on a rubber mat while performing / recording - plastic bag nonwithstanding - just to be on the safe side.

When recording with my fife (which our Tech was hitherto unfamiliar with) he put the mic way over in one corner of the sound booth and backed me into the opposite corner. I still heard muted sounds of distress from the master control panel when I let her rip in the high register (they do call it a "Battlefield instrument" for good reason).. but it came out all right in the end.

Do be careful, now; good whistlers are hard to find!

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Whistleworks
Date: 15 May 01 - 08:39 AM

Tom, there ARE various caves and caverns to select from on the Boss pedal. And, what is also cool is that you stomp on it at the end of the tune and you can talk into the mic and not sound like God. Unless of course, you WANT to sound like God. The switchology on the box is easy to understand and you can go from your own private small cave to St. Paul's Cathedral with 10 seconds of reverb. It also has a delay function for when those metal bands ask you to don the spandex and play heavy whistle with them.

All the best,

Bob Pegritz

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: InOBU
Date: 14 May 01 - 03:53 PM

PPS don't try this at home kids, this is done by serious trained professionals...

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: InOBU
Date: 14 May 01 - 03:52 PM

PS you have to wrap the picup in plastic so that you don't electrocute yourself... Larry

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: InOBU
Date: 14 May 01 - 03:52 PM

Try my way... put a pickup in your mouth and play the whistle with your nose... Larry

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 14 May 01 - 02:18 PM

Yup

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: GUEST,Tom
Date: 14 May 01 - 12:48 PM

Thanks for all the help. My computer at work freezes up when I try to enter the Chiff and Fipple site,(?) will have to wait till I get home. Hey, I never thought of using a stomp box, cool. Are there various caves and caverns to choose from on the Boss? ;)

Skipjack-I take it the Microvox sytem is a pick-up unit that attaches to the whistle?

Tom

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Whistleworks
Date: 14 May 01 - 11:14 AM

Dear Friends,

Thanks Seamus for your very nice mention. I hope to see you at Stonehill. And Uncle Jaque is right on the money to direct Tom to chiffandfipple.com. There isn't a perfect way to mic a whistle, but all the posts say a few inches from the fipple which is absolutely correct. Of course, sound levels while playing in the upper register are of great importance to achieve balance.

I will share a secret since I am of the Joanie Madden school of Maximum Reverb (bless you Joanie). I have two effects pedals that I use. The signal comes from the mic (an Audio Technica dynamic) into a Boss BASS equalizer which boosts everything from 1000 hertz on DOWN since the low whistles do not have the "oomph" that the high ones have. Everything above 1000 should stay flat. Then out of the EQ and into a Boss Digital Delay/Reverb set to about "Luray Caverns". This gets me the Joanie/Cherish the Ladies kind of reverb that does make some folk cringe. However, it allows me to take St. Patrick's Cathedral with me in my gig bag.

All the best,

Bob Pegritz

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 14 May 01 - 06:45 AM

I wired this thread to my mate Mike, who does these things, and he says:-

"The Microvox system which I use is brilliant. It is a velcro (correct spelling?) thing attached between sound hole and finger holes."

I've heard his rig, and it is as good as the man says.

Skipjack

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: SeanM
Date: 14 May 01 - 02:06 AM

Sheesh...

If at all possible, I recommend an instrument mike in addition to your vocal mike for reasons given above... in my case, I sing low baritone-mid bass range, and drive the poor sound man to fits when I suddenly chime in with the whistle.

Barring that, during sound check play with distance from the mic. I find that for me, I usually have to be between 4"-6" away from a mic that will also carry vocals for me. Your mileage may vary.

M

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:50 AM

One of our 'catters, Whistleworks (Bob Pegritz) is a whistle virtuoso, with a new CD. He also happens to be a Nashville-trained sound techie. PM him and see what he has to say, in case he doesn't see this thread.

All the best.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 14 May 01 - 01:19 AM

One other thing (and this is NOT first-hand expertise). . . When I commented to a friend who has a fair bit of experience as a sound tech that I found the sound of a pennywhistle through a sound system to be a bit too shrill, he said that if there's an EQ on the soundboard, they should roll down the frequencies at around 1500 and at 3000 hertz and that would take out most of the shrill quality and give a more natural sound.

Just passing that on for what it may be worth . . .

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 May 01 - 11:53 PM

Mute/damp/pull down every body else.......esp. banjos and fiddles.

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 13 May 01 - 11:17 PM

You have the right idea Tom. I usually keep the mic about two to three inches from the opening in the mouthpiece. You should probably have someone check your sound level before the preformance since the mic's tend to vary to some extent. It would also be best to have the mic above the pennywhistly pointing downward. The flexible extenders make it a bit easier.

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: Help: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 13 May 01 - 10:52 PM

I have not a clue... but I'll bet there is someone who does at: http://www.chiffandfipple.com/

I play whistle, but not so well as to be appropriate for amplification. A whistle MUTE on the other hand, is an item which my neighbors, family and dogs might be interested in...

I've long considered the whistle one of those "au naturale" instruments like the Great Highland Pipes, Bugle, Fife and Drum which need electronic enhancement about as much as Dolly Parton needs a breast implant. But then I like to play a gut-strung parlor guitar by the light of an oil lantern or my whistle from a canoe in the middle of a Maine lake at 0530 and confuse the bejeezus out of the Loons, too. So stay tuned, Pilgrim; someone who knows a whole lot more about these things than I will be along presently to enlighten Thee. };>{)

Subject: How best to mic a penny whistle?
From: GUEST,Tom
Date: 13 May 01 - 10:19 PM

Just wondering where the best place is to place a mic when playing the penny whistle. I think it would be near the mouthpiece, am I right? This is for live performance, in case that makes any difference. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Tom