Mic position while recording. Where do you put your Mic?

[William Cingolani]

I’ve been researching where to place the mic when recording my sax. Here are all the recommended places for the mic and my responses: right in front of the bell…no buzz, too much like a brass horn, sounds like I’m in a tunnel. Not mellow. Bad place for the mic. Mic placed along side the bore above the bell. Not good sound. Mic next to the back of my ear. Better but still not good. Finally I put the mic above my head a little forward and off to the side a bit. Sound was better. I noticed in some of Johnny’s videos like “When A Man Loves A Woman” his mic is way above his head and forward Of the bell. So I’ll be practicing with the mic way above my head and forward. I”m using Garage Band to record.I also turn off all those adjustments in garage band keeping the Eq completely flat. I know the room has a lot to do with the horn sound but we try to to make the best with what we got. So where do you put your mic?

[Mel]

Hope you start getting some feedback William. I think it is a great question. I am anxious to read the responses for when I get to start recording myself.

[john]

Ya you can get a decent look at how I do it from some of my recent videos
It’s several feet away and high
But I do use a mic preamp so that’s why it can be that far
I think the preamp fattens it up a bit too

[brother cavefish]

i would also use a Audix T-50K Inline Impedance Matching Transformer and a foam mic head, you will get a clearer tone

[William Cingolani]

I went over to sweetwater and bought a mic preamp for my ribbon mic Sweetwater.com. The ribbon preamp will match my ribbon mic. Thanks Johnny.

[William Cingolani]

This is the preamp I ordered from Sweetwater.https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RibbonPre Hope my recorded sound is better

[john]

that looks really nice William.
mine is not at that level! I have this one:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TubeMP

[William Cingolani]

Ya Johnny. However, Sweetwater forgot to send the power chord. The preamp arrived this morning with no power chord in the box.I telephoned sweetwater and the wheels are in motion to send me a power chord. Cheers and rock on

[William Cingolani]

Ok, I got my preamp all connected. The mic, mounted up high, goes into the preamp. the preamp goes into the Audient iD14 interface, the interface goes into the computer into garage band……….? Now what? I’ll be testing out my recorded sound on Garage Band.On the preamp I have an input Gain rotary switch ranging from +6 to +63 dB. And an Output Level control that gives me an Additional 21 dB of gain. I also have gain on the Audient iD14. and when I open garage band there are all those preset gains that I usually turn off. I just want a fat sax sound with some edge.

[Jazz Cat]

thx Johnny for the tip; I’ll try one of those Art preamps; I’d never heard of them before; sounds like a good idea re analog tube for adding a bit of warmth to the sound

I also just bought a Boss VE20 and love its reverb on 03-jazz setting; adds a lot
https://www.amazon.com/VE-20-Vocal-Performer-Multi-Effects-Pedal/dp/B002W0Z8DU
(see youtyube vids about it; cool tech)

[Author]

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