AA2 - Week 6 - Strings

John, Will and I collaborated for this week's recording (1). While I hoped for a string quartet, there were none at the University that could make a recording on such short notice. Nonetheless I acquired a violin-playing pianist, Shelly. I was surprised that she didn't know any music, any at all in fact, so I had her play scales instead. I've never liked the sound of solo violin and this violin was no different, complete with cat-like 'meow' timbre. In a stroke of genius/insanity, I decided to have the grand piano right behind the violinist, lid open and sustain pedal wedged down. This did give the spooky reverb I was hoping for, however the violin isn't the most sonorous of instruments, so perhaps I will try it again with something more punchy- a trumpet maybe. Our final mic selection consisted of an AKG C414-BULS, Neumann KM84, Neumann U87 (room), and two other KM84s on the piano.

Recording A
This recording uses an AKG just behind the violin aimed through the bowing arm towards the f holes, a KM84 positioned 1m or so above the fretboard, and both of the KM84 piano mics. While the piano mics picked up a nice piano echo, the combination of the close mics and the somewhat distant mics on piano made the actual played notes seem a little bathroom-like in their quality.

Recording B
This take uses the AKG in the same position as the last take, the KM84 positioned about 20cms from the fretboard, and the U87 room mic. The position of the room mic was basically 4m directly behind the AKG. The result is somewhat shallow, I think the room sound is unsuitable for an instrument that sounds pretty ugly to begin with. In any case, it is quite analogous to the actual sound in the room at the time.

Recording C
Proving my point, this is a recording without the room mic, just the AKG and KM84 (positioned 1m above). The result is a much more full sound, which may have been improved even further if the room was baffled off, leaving mostly direct sound from the violin.

Recording D
This is the U87 room mic only, showcasing how bad violin sounds in such a live room. This was also the best sound we could get at the time, so I don't even what to think about what other positions sounded like.

Recording E
For something different we had the violinist playing pizzicato strings directly into the piano, recording only the two KM84s inside the piano body. The positioning of these mics was made after much experimentation to find where the most piano sound comes from when no notes are played per se, which was tested by clapping loudly. The result is very ethereal, and can be heard even more clearly on headphones. I would say this is my favourite recording due to its originality.

After the recording, we moved the violin KM84 into the piano body with the other KMs, and did some experimentation with non-traditional piano playing. I will undoubtedly post some of these after I have mixed them around a bit, perhaps even create an entire soundscape using the recordings. Ooh, it is holidays...


1. David Grice "Audio Arts: Semester 1, Week 6; String Instruments" Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 3rd April 2007.