Recording Acoustic Chinese Musical Instruments

[irawan gani]

Yo people.

i am intending to record a few Chinese Musical Instruments.

they are the Guqin (pronounced as Koo Chin), Yangqin (Yung Chin), Pipa (Pee Pa) and Dizi (Tee Tcher).

these are the recording equipments that i have.

Mics: Shure SM57, Studio Project CS1
Preamp: M-Audio Firewire Solo, M-Audio Fasttrack
Software: Logic Express
Computer: MacBook.

any suggestions on how to to place the mics and so on so forth.

i am going to record in the school that i am teaching in (Suzhou, CHINA!). hence i dont think i would have much of a room. its heavily carpeted. i have a portable recording booth ala (porta-booth) that i built myself. the good thing is that the school is away from many things and buildings so there arent much noise coming from anywhere, unless one of my students start screaming at the top of his or her lungs in the corridor.

anyway, here's to you esteemed readers and forumers.

cheers
iwan

PS-Attached to this post are pictures of the various Chinese instruments that i have mentioned above in case you have no idea what it looks like.

[garageband]

I'll give it a shot.

1st, see if you can come up with an omni-directional or figure 8 microphone. That'll make a big difference in the authenticity of the stringed instruments. Here's my best guess on the others. I'll generalize each to it's western analog and that may be illuminating as well.

yangqin. This is a piano. With only one mic, put the mic at the peak of an equilateral triangle above the instrument with soundboard as the base of the triangle. Position the mic exactly square above the soundboard. Slowly move the mic down an inch at a time until the whole instrument comes into focus. Stop. Record.

pipa. Lovely mandolin looking lute object. Now's a good time for your omni/fig 8. Try to have it about 18 in. away but focused on the lower pitched strings half of the instrument. Try to keep the mic away from the player's mouth, as is will pick up his breathing, they are quiet instruments.

dizi. Fipple flute/recorder deal. Cardioid mic to the side of the instrument, so there is no direct path through any of the holes to the mic. About a foot toi foot and a half. Your musician will have to quiet his breathing more than he normally would for live performance. A little practice while he has some phones on and he'll get it.

guqin. Harp? Dobro? I can't tell how you play this thing from the picture. Let's go with the dobro, as played with a slide on the lap. Cardioid mic about 18 inches away at a 45 degree angle pointed down toward the center of the instrument. Keeping it away from the player keeps bodily noises to a minimum.

Leave the SM57 at home this outing. Save it for cool percussive noises.

[irawan gani]

thank you kindly... its a great help...

the guqin is played on a table. i suppose it could be miced like a yangqin.

cheers garageband... anyway, still open to all other ideas.

[Audio~Geek]

In general
-walk around the instrument and listen to where the sound is coming out, and where it sounds the best.
-if your instrument is X wide, put your mic X distance away.
-You can record anything naturally with a stereo pair.

[irawan gani]

and one more thing... after i have recorded them, i will post them over here so that you can listen to them. i will post both the instrument on its own and in the context of the music...

however, i think that would take me a month or so before the recording is complete...

again thanks guys... we shall see in the aftermath... hehehe...

[irawan gani]

yo people,

i have only managed to record the Guzheng. it is a slide like chinese instruments. basically played using fingerstyle picking.

i am sorry i couldnt do a stereo recording due to lack of proper microphones.

what i have done is that, i have put my Studio Project C1 at the bottom of the instrument, where the sound is coming from and used my SM57 to pick percussive elements at the top but placed a bit to the side.

in terms of mix, i have spread the C1 mono track and compressed them and low passed it. the SM57 i have put compressed it and hi passed it.

NOTE: its gonna be really boring.

[Audio~Geek]

hey
sounds good to me and I don't find it boring.

on headphones it's a bit weird because it's constantly wooshing from left to right, kinda ping-ponging on each note.

Better mics will give you more high frequency detail, but for what it is, I think what you've done sounds nice.

[irawan gani]

Originally Posted by Audio~Geek

hey
sounds good to me and I don't find it boring.

on headphones it's a bit weird because it's constantly wooshing from left to right, kinda ping-ponging on each note.

Better mics will give you more high frequency detail, but for what it is, I think what you've done sounds nice.

i was experimenting on the ping pong thing. probably not a wise thing to do. about the high frequency detail, i deliberately cut that out because of some hiss and the room wasnt the most ideal.

thanks.

[garww]

Ya, a stereo pair is the good old standby. Back in the cam-corder days I used a very nice battery powered Sony dual element. Not up to forum standards, but quite useful. Some have a nice heft to them.

[garageband]

I loved it. Garww is on to something. An electret can be the right thing, however this turned out great. Excellent musicianship, good instruments and decent sounding room save the day yet again.