Recording in a Chapel

[unknown-user]

Hi all,

I’m currently recording myself in a chapel with my Zoom H2. Does anyone have a suggestion as to the placement of the mic? So far I’ve found that placing the mic closer than about 6 feet to the harp catches the articulation amazingly but gives everything I play a harsh tone and that putting it too far away makes everything mush together, not to mention that I sound very far away even when I put the gain all the way up. Even when I’m relatively close (6-10 feet) the recordings sound as though I’m very far away. I’ve been trying to make my tone as warm as possible so that I can bring the mic closer, but that may only help so much…

Any suggestions – any at all?

~Sam

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Look at the microphone setting options in the set-up guide. It definitely will not be good up close. Too many recordings are done that way today, and like you found, there is a lot of attack and finger noise. You need a setting for a farther-away mic, perhaps a different pick-up pattern. I found my concert recordings to be rather faint too, I guess that’s why. There are level adjustments, but you need someone to do that while you play. I would honestly recommend doing it on any kind of tape first, then feeding that throught the H2.

[adam-b-harris]

Sam,

I record in a similiar room. I have the mics up close (slightly less than 5 feet) and roll off the top end using eq to combat the harshness. Not a purist “optimum mic placement” approach, but is quick and easy and seems to work. Generally I use better mics, but did a quick demo this way with an H4 and it seemed to work ok.

good luck with it

adam

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