Recording Tambourine - Techniques for Pop Music

[jr]

Hi Group.




I've always found recroding tambourine in POP music a little challenging
due to the high dynamic range, sharp transients, totally different
sounding instruments, susceptibility to room coloration, and the ease of
moving on and off axis while playing.

What are some of your go to MICS and / or techniques for getting a nice
back beat type tambourine sound?? Fat and clear, but not peaky, etc ....


Thanks.






jr

[Les Cargill[_4_]]

jr wrote:
> Hi Group.
>
>
>
>
> I've always found recroding tambourine in POP music a little challenging
> due to the high dynamic range, sharp transients, totally different
> sounding instruments, susceptibility to room coloration, and the ease of
> moving on and off axis while playing.
>
> What are some of your go to MICS and / or techniques for getting a nice
> back beat type tambourine sound?? Fat and clear, but not peaky, etc ....
>
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> jr

Just use some flat condenser on it at a respectful distance, then EQ
and add reverb to taste. Or just stick a dynamic without a windscreen
( SM57 or better ) and do the same. Keep levels down; it'll spike
a lot. Let some room in; it's spiky enough without close mic
effects.

I've also reversed the track and gated ( and reversed it
again ) a tambourine more than once. Save the original, of course.

The hard part of tambo is finding somebody that can play one well.
Ray Cooper and Jack Ashford are not typical.

--
Les Cargill

[jason]

On Sun, 29 Dec 2013 12:52:59 -0600 "Les Cargill" >
wrote in article >

>
> I've also reversed the track and gated ( and reversed it
> again ) a tambourine more than once. Save the original, of course.
>

Clever! I'll have to try that on a recording from a year ago that I could
never get to sound the way I wanted, i.e., the way it sounded in the hall
when it was recorded.

[Scott Dorsey]

In article >, jr > wrote:
>
>I've always found recroding tambourine in POP music a little challenging
>due to the high dynamic range, sharp transients, totally different
>sounding instruments, susceptibility to room coloration, and the ease of
>moving on and off axis while playing.
>
>What are some of your go to MICS and / or techniques for getting a nice
>back beat type tambourine sound?? Fat and clear, but not peaky, etc ....

EV 635A. It will mellow it out a lot; it's not a very realistic sound at
all but it's one you'll recognize from a lot of records.

If you're recording it in isolation, get pretty far back. On a lot of
stuff from the sixties and seventies much of the tambourine sound was just
from leakage into all the other mikes.

Even recorded with a dynamic mike, there are enormous peaks in the signal.
Do not believe the vu meter.... the levels are much higher than the meter
says they are. In the analogue world you can overload the tape a bit and
get a louder but smearier sound. In the digital world you're using peak
metering and will probably need to rely on some kind of limiting to get
your levels up. But getting some room sound in there can help reduce the
amount of limiting you really need by smearing some of those peaks around
(just like recording brass).
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[PStamler]

If the player stays put reasonably well, I'd use an Electro-Voice RE15 for some of the same reasons Scott would use a 635A.

Peace,
Paul

[Scott Dorsey]

PStamler > wrote:
>If the player stays put reasonably well, I'd use an Electro-Voice RE15 for some of the same reasons Scott would use a 635A.

Yes! And in both cases, the right place for the microphone may or may not
be pointing at the instrument.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Roy W. Rising[_2_]]

(Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> PStamler > wrote:
> >If the player stays put reasonably well, I'd use an Electro-Voice RE15
> >for some of the same reasons Scott would use a 635A.
>
> Yes! And in both cases, the right place for the microphone may or may
> not be pointing at the instrument.
> --scott

In 1969 I began the practice of miking the percussion section of a TV
orchestra with a single EV RE15 on a lavalier string, pointing downward.
It always was within an arm's length of the instrument being played.
Percussionists usually play the tambourine in front of their neck. This
places it in the "30 degrees off the rear axis" null of the RE15.
Excellent pickup without overload.

One time, my elves invented a coat-hanger gadget to face the RE15 away from
the percussionist's body. They didn't tell me about it, but I heard the
difference ... on the tambourine! After the session, I asked what had
changed. They told me, and I requested that they discuss "improvements"
with me before proceeding.

--
~ Roy
"If you notice the sound, it's wrong!"