Doublestop Magazine

An Introduction to Recording Strings at Home

When you are bowing up a storm on a song you are working on, it may sound pretty good to you while the fiddle sits on your shoulder. But, if you record yourself and listen to the playback, you may find your timing at certain areas is waving more than the flag on Memorial Day. Or, how nice would it be to be able to send a sound file to someone so you can share your music with him or her? There are many reasons why having the capabilities to record at home would be useful to today’s musician. The good news is that it has never been cheaper or easier to record at home, thanks to today’s powerful home computers.

This article will cover the basics of home recording. We’ll discuss picking out the right microphone (hint: the one that came with your computer for free isn’t the right one!), placing the microphone properly for your instrument (paying special attention to stringed instruments), getting the sound into your computer, and editing it with software.

Microphones

First, we need a way to capture the music: a microphone. Microphones, like everything else we’ll discuss, come in a great range of types and prices.

Two of the main types you are likely to run across are “dynamic” and “condenser”. You likely want to start out with a dynamic type, as they don’t require any outside power source. (Even so, many people prefer to add a preamp to their dynamic mike for best pickup.) The condenser type is very sensitive and requires a power source to operate (mixers have a “phantom” power supply for just this reason). For now, let’s stick with the dynamic microphone.

We have several types of dynamic microphones to choose from, determined by the direction from which they pick up sound. The “cardioid” picks up mainly the area in front of it, and are best used for singers, individual acoustic instruments, and placement in front of amp speakers. This would be the choice for individuals wanting to record just themselves and their instruments. You’ll also run across “omni-directional” microphones. They have a 360-degree range and would be good for choral singing, or for several musicians circled around one microphone.

Although most profession microphones start at $100 and go up from there, you can find some less expensive mikes that will perform very nicely. Behringer has a good line of reasonably priced electronic gear, including a dynamic cardioid mike for about twenty dollars that works real well. Since I have several pieces of Behringer equipment in my rack, I purchased one to try it and was pleased with the quality for the price.

If, by chance, you play an electrified instrument (or, you’d like to record someone playing an electric violin or guitar), the method used by most recording technicians is to place a dynamic cardioid mike directly in front of the amplifier’s speaker. Put the microphone up close; we’re talking inches here.

Location, location, location

The placement of the microphone can make or break the quality of the recording. Unfortunately, there is no “right” answer here, and some trial and error is involved.

The two most common placements for individual instruments are to either place a microphone on a stand pointing at the sound source, or attach a small microphone directly to the instrument.

For violin, mandolin, guitar and anything else stringed with a sound hole or f-hole, place the mike as close to the hole as possible without interrupting the playing. On bowed instruments, you may find that you are picking up excess bowing noise so you will have to move the microphone around to find the sweet spot for your music. The optimum distance would be about a foot and a half to two feet, depending, of course, on a host of variables.

If you have a tall microphone stand, shoot for a position slightly higher than the violin or viola. Then, point the microphone down at a 30-35 degree angle. Try to aim for the sweet spot at the base of the bridge.

Each environment, microphone, instrument and player is different, so you will need to play around with the best setup for your recording situation. After a while you will get that feel for what works best for you.

Getting the sound into your computer.

The chances are good that your computer already has a soundcard capable of producing high quality stereo sound. But, the input port of most soundcards is a 1/8th inch stereo jack and most microphones that are designed for that port are not really capable of the full sound that you would want to capture your music with. (They are better for conversational use, like a web-based chat program.)

Thank goodness for adaptors! These come in all sizes and shapes and types so finding one for our needs will not present a problem. Most microphones like the ones we just discussed have a three-prong plug for attaching the mike cable to it. This jack is called an XLR. You will want a cable with the XLR female on one end. and the other end should be a monotype with a 1/4th inch jack. Then, buy adaptor that either converts 1/8th inch stereo to 1/4 inch mono, 1/8th inch stereo into two mono 1/4 inch lines, giving you the ability to record two channels at once.

There is another option: an external interface that uses your computer’s Firewire and USB ports instead of the 1/8th inch port on your sound card. This option might be a bit more expensive, but it cuts down on the number of adaptors you have to chain together, and it’s fast. That’s a good thing because one of the problems we encounter when recording on computers is latency, especially when recording more than one tracks. If your computer doesn’t have Firewire, make sure your USB ports are of the newer and faster 2.0 version.

Mixers

Once you catch the recording bug, you may want to add a mixer to your growing studio to give you more control, or the ability to record multiple tracks at once. Mixers come in all sizes, from the huge boards crammed with dials and sliders found in big recording studios or live shows to the smaller 4-36 input units that are more suitable for our purposes.

They are usually designated by their input output capabilities. So a 12×2 mixer would be a twelve input two output mixer. The mixer is like your central controller. When the signals come in to the individual tracks, you can adjust volume levels, pan (move them left and right), or send them to outside effects equipment. This lets you control exactly how the music sounds before it is outputted into the computer.

There are many affordable mixers currently on the market in the sub-$200 range.
The Behringer Xenyx 802 runs $60-80 and has eight input tracks each with a effects bus, three range equalizer and a stereo out to your recording equipment. Another well-known manufacture of quality mixers is Alesis. They carry many fine mixers at affordable prices such as the Alesis MultiMix 8 USB that is set up to plug in to your computer’s USB port right out of the box with eight channels to work with. This runs in the $150 range. Yamaha and Peavey also carry a wide line.

Software: from free to fee

Today there is a vast selection of home recording software available to us that range from free to thousands of dollars. More than likely there is a program out there that will fit your needs and budget. The software will let you control and edit the sounds you’ve captured.

Audacity is a free recording program. It has many of the same functions that the high-end programs. If you’re just planing on recording audio, and perhaps you are starting out with a real tight budget, this one would definitely be one to look at. As an aside, Audacity lets you slow down audio files without changing the pitch, turning it into a handy tool for learning pieces by ear. Audacity is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

If you would like to have a band accompany you, but don’t have one and can’t afford to hire back-up musicians, there are several software programs available that will give you that opportunity. For Mac users, there is a popular program called GarageBand that likely came bundled with your computer (upgrades are available as a part of Apple’s iLife). GarageBand can also handle basic recording tasks as well. A similar low-cost commercial program is Band in a Box, available for both Mac and Windows. Both of these are incredible programs that actually put songs together for you in any key with a multiple of different instruments. Their capabilities are too much to mention here but I would suggest checking them out.

When you’re looking for something more, there are a number of professional-grade products to consider:

• Digidesign ProTools
• Steinberg Cubase
• Mark of the Unicorn
• Apple Logic Express and Logic Pro

Don’t let the screenshots of these programs scare you off! Although they look very complicated and make you think you could never learn to use that, remember that those screenshots are showing several parts of the program running at the same time. Once you get your program, the instructions will show you how to run each part of the program separately and with a little time and effort, the mystery will be gone and you will be in control of your music. With practice, you will be amazed at what you will be able to produce. And I believe you will find you are having fun while doing it.

I hope this article has given you a better look at the possibilities of recording your own music at home and being able to turn out a good sounding product. With a little time and effort, anyone can do this and can have a sense of pride not only in their musical accomplishments but in their recording abilities as well.

Editor’s Note: If you’ve enjoyed this article, please let us know by either contacting us or leaving a comment or question below. We’ll use your feedback to help guide us in creating future articles on recording your stringed instrument.

Buy products mentioned in this article from Musician’s Friend:

• Behringer XM8500 Microphone
• Behringer Xenyx 802
• Alesis MultiMix 8 USB 2.0 8-Channel Mixer