This document provides guidance on how to record acoustic instruments. It discusses the differences between recording electric and acoustic instruments and notes that acoustic instruments require capturing air pressure variations rather than voltage. Basic considerations for recording include understanding the instrument's behavior, frequency range, and sound emission location. Microphone choice depends on the frequency response and polar pattern needed. Placement involves testing different locations to find where the microphone captures the best sound based on the instrument and room acoustics.

1. HOW TO: Record acoustic instruments
A very primer from a very newbie
David Fernández Vaamonde
davidfv(at)gmail(dot)com

2. But first, Who am I?
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3. Who am I?
● My name is David
● I come from Spain (I live in Madrid but I was
born in Galicia)
● I play some instruments: Acoustic guitar,
bouzuki, galician bagpipes, clarinet, flutes,...
● I like recording them.
● I work with computers
● So: Instruments + Recording + Computers =
Good Mix ;)
● This lesson is for week 1 and, I'm going to
speak about how to record acoustic
instruments.
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4. And now, this is the
agenda...
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5. Agenda
Differences between recording electric and
acoustic instruments
Basic considerations
Microphones choice
Microphones placement
Summing up
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6. Differences between recording
electric and acoustic instruments
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7. Differences between recording electric and acoustic
instruments
Main difference:
Electric instruments: We are getting voltage
differences and we should obtain digital information.
Acoustic instruments: We are getting pressure
variations in the air and we should obtain digital
information.
We are going to focus in how to get that
information (air pressure) on the best way.
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8. Basic considerations
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9. Basic considerations
What data should be considered for getting a good
recording?
Instrument behavior
How is our instrument amplitude?
Which is its frequency range?
Where is the sound emission?
How is the sound of this instrument?
Which sound we want to get? (all sound, a very focused sound...).
Room behavior
How is the room where we are recording? (Reflect a lot of sound, is a big
or a small one...).
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10. Basic considerations
For example: Clarinet
● Not all sound its emitted from the bell (lower piece), only bass sounds
(That could be a common mistake)
● We should know this fact to place a mic.
Clarinet in Bb works in a frequency range between
125Hz and 2Khz (aprox). This is its clarinet spectrum
analysis: Air pressure vs. frequencies. We should know
that to choose the mic.
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11. Basic considerations
We should consider where we are playing it:
Big room: Waves reflection would have a big delay.
Room that absorbs sound: Less wave reflection to mic.
Room with a lot of reflection.
The reflected waves could be added to amplitude of our
instrument wave...
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12. Microphones choice
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13. Microphone choices
We usually want to record with a condenser
microphone:
Record sounds accurately.
They are very sensitive.
But, How do we choose a concrete microphone?
Frequencies:
We know frequency ranges and frequency behavior of
our instrument.
We should check frequency response charts and check if
its behavior is ok for our instrument.
How does microphone respond to our instrument frequencies?
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14. Microphone choices
Polar patterns:
Which sound do we want to get?
Do we want to get strictly instrument sound? (And not get
anything about what room reflects). Cardioid pattern.
Do we want to get all around-the-mic sound? (And get
some sound from the room). 360º pattern
We should know what sound we want, and how is our
room (very reflective, with a lot of reverb...).
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15. First considerations
Example: Clarinet
Choosing a good mic for clarinet... there is a lot of opinions between
professionals, we are going to choose one of them and check its
●frequency response. I'd like a “flat” response to my frequencies.
And I'd suppose I'm not much satisfied of my room, so I'll tend
to use cardiod patterns
My choice is: DPA 4011 (Cardiod pattern and condenser mic)
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16. Microphones placement
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17. Microphone placement
Basic considerations:
If we are very near from mic we only get instrument
sound
But we could have “proximity effect”: Distortions in low sounds when we
are too much close to mic...
If we are far from mic we get sound reflected in the
room too.
We should know how the instrument emits its sound.
Sometimes this is not evident (instruments usually emit
sounds all along the instrument... clarinet for example).
The hole, it isn't always the right place :).
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18. Microphone placement
The best tip that I listen:
Follow your ear: Where is the sound better?
A good experiment:
Begin to play
Move the mic all around the room
Check where the mic are getting the best sound.
Place the mic there.
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19. Microphone placement
Example: Clarinet
We should avoid putting mic in clarinet bell, we get a lot of bass
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20. Microphone placement
Example: Galician bagpipe
Galician bagpipe emits sound for three pipes:
2 ● 1) Punteiro: It's where melody is generated. (Don't mic the hole :))
● 2) Ronco (drone): It's a bass pedal note two octaves below the tonic note
● It should be recorded close, we don't want to get punteiro sound.
● 3) Ronqueta (drone): It's a bass pedal note one octave below the tonic
note.
● Exactly the same like in the ronco.
Galician bagpipe has a lot of harmonics
and a signal very high in amplitude.
3 Its sound reflects a lot if room it isn't
properly conditioned so mics can't be far
from instrument.
1
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21. Summing up
Summing up:
Know the instrument you are going to record:
Timbre, frequencies ranges, amplitude...
Where the sound is emitted
Know the room where you are going to record:
A big or small room, with or without sound reflection.
What sound I want to get...
And then...
Choose your microphone
Based in polar pattern, frequency response, etc...
Place your microphone:
Test and get the best sound.
Take care about where sound it's emitted.
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22. References
References used:
Recording acoustic instruments: http://www.musictech.net/2012/08/recording-acoustic-instruments/
Recording individual instruments:
http://www.netplaces.com/home-recording/recording-individual-instruments/acoustic-instruments.htm
Clarinet acoustic: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/reprints/AAclarinet.pdf
Clarinet acoustic: http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/clarinetacoustics.html#spectrum
Room acoustics: http://www.recordingmag.com/resources/resourceDetail/224.html
Room acoustics: http://www.silcom.com/~aludwig/Room_acoustics.html
Room acoustincs: http://www.acoustics.salford.ac.uk/feschools/waves/diffract4.htm
Polar patterns: http://blog.digitalstudent.co.uk/microphones/microphone-polar-patterns/
Miking a clarinet: http://www.dpamicrophones.com/en/Mic-University/Application-Guide/Clarinet.aspx
DPA microphones:
http://www.dpamicrophones.com/en/products.aspx?c=Item&category=234&item=24387#diagrams
Proximity effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_effect_(audio)
Galician bagpipe sound: http://www.arrakis.es/~jpresedo/afinacion.htm (spanish)
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23. Thank you very much for you
attention and for your reviewing!!!
Regards, David
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