Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodhran

Subject: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Deni
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 02:58 AM

Help. How can you mic up small drums for recording to stop tham sounding like they are being slapped with something wet and unpleasant. (Am expecting lots of crack like, 'why bother?') Some unforgettable lines come out of threads like this I've noticed... Cheers deni

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: RichM
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 03:31 AM

From your description, you are getting a mushy sound, not crisp at all--all thud and no *thwack!* ?

What mic or mics are you using?

Consider too the room you are recording in. Does it have hard reflective surfaces? Or is it carpeted, curtained, lots of soft surfaces that may be absorbing the highs?

Rich McCarthy

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Deni
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 03:58 AM

Ah. This could be the problem. We've been using an acoustic tent. So we have to go for a few hard surfaces, do we? We are just using AKG stage mikes, don't know the model. Thanks for your reply. cheers Deni

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: mooman
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 06:24 AM

I don't play the bodhran on stage but I mike up my latin percussion set (bongos, conga, tumbadora, claves, etc.) with standard Shure SM 58's. These work very well with percussion and bodhrans also seem fine through this type of mike,

All the best

mooman

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: RichM
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 09:56 AM

Placement of your mic is critical.

It may help to set the mic closer to the bodhran.

Another way to capture the typical sound of an instrument is to use two mics into separate tracks--one set really close, the other a foot away. Ain't recording fun?

Rich

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 12:01 PM

Click on the sword below , and look at my gear page... there are a couple of pics of my bodhran mic, and it's placement... That's what I've found works best for me...

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Deni
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 03:15 PM

Thanks for the help. Two mikes, I'll try that.

Love the sword ClintonHammond. Will check it out.

Cheers Deni (soon to be crisper of sound)

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: hesperis
Date: 17 Jun 01 - 04:23 PM

I miked a Native Drum by holding the mike in my hand, then putting the drum in the same hand, and holding the beater in the other. (It's hard to hold, though!)

Then in mastering the track, I rolled off some of the bottom end, (Not too much.) and added reverb. Using an SM58, which doesn't pick up much at all unless it's right on it.

It sounds really good.

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 18 Jun 01 - 01:17 PM

Let us know how it works out eh!

;-)

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Rich(bodhránai gan ciall)
Date: 18 Jun 01 - 10:20 PM

I use an AKG mic whose model number I don't remember. (One of those triangular ones that are built like a tank) I mike at lest 2/3 of the way down about 3 inches from the skin of my bodhrán tilted at a slight angle upward. I use a boom stand to place in such a way that the stand's not in my way and it's not attached, allowing me to move closer or farther from the mic. This is for performing. I don't know if this would be ideal for recording or not. I suppose in recording you could do a lot of the same dynamics fluctuation in the mix.

Ádh mhór! (good luck)

Rich

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 18 Jun 01 - 10:47 PM

Jeeziz, whyntcha just get one of them great big honkin mikes and give it a great big honkin WHAM-O and save yerself all the trouble? No great loss.

Aloha,
Mark
(filling in for 'Spaw -- didn't want to disappoint you, Deni!)

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: ddw
Date: 18 Jun 01 - 11:47 PM

Damn! I figured SOMEBODY would have said the obvious thing about miking bodrahns and banjos — from about 50 feet away.

*BG*

david

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: ddw
Date: 19 Jun 01 - 12:53 AM

Oh, that's bongo, not banjo. Never mind.

david

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Deni
Date: 19 Jun 01 - 12:11 PM

YES. YES>YES> Someone said the obvious thing. I've got various things to try now. I have also heard a 'kit' drummer moaning about recording sound of drums. Maybe this is why so many people resort to drum machines, which can sound very ticky-ticky.

Thanks all

cheers Deni

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: JedMarum
Date: 19 Jun 01 - 12:23 PM

I have found that most good mics are capable of creating a good signal to work with for Bodhran reproduction. We mic it fairly close too, so the drummer can move in or out from the mic as needed. Set the input level as hot as possible for the loudest the instrument will be played - then set the EQ for that channel to get the sound you like (this will vary from stage to stage). I like to boost the Hi freqs and the very Low freqs - and trim the mid and low mid ranges back a bit. This gives us that 'shake the fillings in your teeth' boom on the bottom, with a very strong cutting edge attack on top. It also helps cut back on the ringy mid-ranges.

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jun 01 - 05:19 AM

The best mike is a very thick duvet wrapped tightly round the bongo/bodhron.
Tune both instruments with a Stanley knife.

Subject: RE: Help: Best way of miking up bongo and bodrahn
From: Deni
Date: 21 Jun 01 - 01:09 AM

Good one.