Short story: producer was happy, musicians were happy, engineer was as
close to happy as he ever gets.

Long story: For those who are curious, we are working on a very cool
project for the National Film Preservation Foundation. In 2004 they will
release a 3 DVD set of 50 restored silent films. My job is to work with
the music curator recording accompaniment for the films. (Further info at
"www.filmpreservation.org", then click "DVD Collections" and "Saving the
Silents." And btw, there are also clips from the last DVD set, "Treasures
from American Film Archives" which was also recorded by yours truly, toot
toot on my own...)

Most of this music is solo piano, but every once in a while the music
curator throws me a curve. This one was for a film called "The Flute of
Krishna", which is a filmed document of a Martha Graham choreography from
1926. So an Indian ensemble was a natch.

So as I said: tamboura, tabla, sarod, and flute. But only three musicians
-- the ensemble leader wanted to lay down the drone of the tamboura first,
and then track over that while he doubled on sarod. But since we do this
on location in a recital hall without a proper control room he wasn't sure
(before talking to me) if we were going to have overdub capabilities. If
not, we would have no option but to use the electronic tamboura while the
three played live. (Plus he was taking public transportation, and didn't
want to lug a real tamboura along with the sarod if it couldn't be used.)

The electronic version of the tambora is a little box about the size of a
tube mic power supply. I didn't have a chance to ask how it worked, but
you turn it on and it sits there and drones away. You can tune it, and
apparently it drifts over time. (Aside: when I asked the ensemble leader
if they were done tuning, he said, "We're never done tuning! We're always
tuning.")

First we laid down the drone with the acoustic tambora. Then he tuned the
electric to the track, and they tuned and warmed up against the electric.
When we lit the light they played to the electric in cans.

I happened to get lucky and had with me some really good armaments that
had been "loaned for evaluation" by a pro recording retail outfit that I
buy my stuff from. Thus in addition to my regular stuff I had a pair of
Schoeps CMC6/MK4 combos and a pair of Neumann KM 184s to play with! Here's
what I did with it all:

INSTRUMENT DETAILS:
Tambora: It looks a bit like a mini-sitar. I put my TLM 103 on it, through
a Millennia HV-3D (did everything else through the Millennia too). He
said, "go for the buzz from down here by the bridge."

Sarod: a roughly guitar form, but with a goatskin stretched over the
"drum" which the bridge rests on. The neck appeared to be a tin (?) panel
over a hollow chamber. The tone was somewhat reminiscent of a dobro, which
I attribute to the metal fretboard. It almost like it's got it's own
reverb built into it. I put a KM 184 just a bit above where the neck met
the body, at about a 30 degree angle. I had a pleasing twang when the
producer grabbed it and aimed it more back towards the drum, giving a
rounder, muddier tone. I let him be the boss.

Tabla: did it with one mic, the TLM 103, positioned pretty much
exclusively over small drum, at about a 45 degree angle down towards the
head. I turned the body very slightly towards the large drum, figuring I
would get the bassy boom off-axis without it getting out of control.
Depending on where I listen, I'm either really pleased, or I feel there's
too little large drum. I had a dynamic standing by, but I liked the 103
and nobody complained, so I stuck with it.

Flute: my my my, wooden flutes are SOOO much more mellow than our modern
nickel. This was the one part I wasn't really happy with. When I got away
from the mouth, it laid too far back in the mix. When I got closer, I got
a harsh breathiness. We went with the harsh/presence. I'm sure it was
helped by the Schoeps -- but maybe that's why it was too mellow when I was
further away to begin with? At any rate they were ready to play and it
sounded a lot better once I got some wet on it.

They played the seven minute film through three times, improvising with
suggestions from the music curator. We kept take three, and that was it!

I could post a sample from a mix somewhere if folks want to hear it.
What's the preferred format for music samples in these parts?

Thanks everyone for the tips. Confidence means a lot to a smooth session,
so just knowing what other people had done made me feel like I could be
free to experiment and then "fall back" on the tried and true if that
failed.