I'm curious about microphone placement theories.
There are lots of them but most aren’t really theories, they’re principles or practices, based on scientific/engineering practicalities such as the mic performance, distance/timing between them when using multi/stereo mic’ing, plus a great deal of personal experience.
I would imagine different instruments get miked differently.
Very much so. With a fairly high pitched instrument we would likely use a condenser mic as dynamic mics have a poorer HF response. There are numerous variables that will affect what mics we use and where we place them.
I know from personal experience that miking drums is not at all intuitive.
Very true. The fundamental questions of mic’ing are: What do we want to end up with and how are we going to get there? The answer to these questions narrow down our options of what mics to use and where to place them. The answers to these questions are particularly problematic with a drumkit. What we want to end up with is typically a highly processed sound but probably something that still sounds like a single entity (played by a drummer). How we’re going to get there, is that we’re going to need quite a bit of isolation/separation between the instruments in the kit, so we can process the snare drum separately from say the hihats and kick drum but also mic in a way that makes the whole thing sound like a single drumkit, rather than just a bunch of individual, unrelated percussion instruments. There are obvious contradictions with these two answers and that’s why mic’ing a drumkit is tricky and often not intuitive, although it might seem more intuitive now, in light of these questions/answers?
Gregorio, how would you approach miking an acoustic piano? Are there different ways to mike it to get different kinds of sound out of it?
Yes, there are definitely different ways to mic it that are going to get different sounds out of it, some subtle some not so. And this is why I can’t answer how I would approach mic’ing an acoustic piano beyond just some broad steps. First step is to narrow down some of the variables, is this a grand or upright piano, is it a live performance, is this an unaccompanied (or solo multi-tracked) piano, is it a solo piano with an ensemble, is it a piano that’s just a member of an ensemble, where is this recording going to take place (pub, world class concert hall, studio, football stadium, etc.)? Next step is our good old two questions above and only after all these answers could I start to consider various practical options.
In this episode of the mastering show, they get into miking (among other things), including issues with recording acoustic pianos.
Ian Shepard knows what he’s talking about, compared to most of the vids/podcasts posted here he is a reliable source of knowledge. That doesn’t mean he’s always right but I don’t recall hearing something from him that had me frothing at the mouth. Well worth watching his YouTube stuff if you’re interested. Bear in mind though he’s a mastering engineer, he’s certainly got some recording experience but compared to say a long time recording engineer at a top studio, he’s going to be limited.
I'm particularly interested in miking concepts, not adjusting after the fact.
Ah, but the two aren’t separate, remember our 2 fundamental questions. How and what we’re going to “adjust after the fact” will largely be dictated by how we’ve mic’ed it. So, our mic’ing concepts will be significantly influenced by how/what we want to “adjust after the fact”.
G