Hi,

Anyone have any advice on how to record one of these things? One of my
customers has one, and it has a pair of humbucking pickups(!). I'm not
too crazy about how it sounds recording direct, and I don't like the
sound coming out of mic'd amps. I was thinking of recording it
acoustically with a SD condensor or two. Has anyone had any luck doing
this? Where did you put the mics? It is not a very loud instrument at
all.

When I first saw the saz, I thought it would be similar to a bouzouki,
but it's totally different.

Thanks,
Gord

wrote:

Anyone have any advice on how to record one of these things? One of my
customers has one, and it has a pair of humbucking pickups(!). I'm not
too crazy about how it sounds recording direct, and I don't like the
sound coming out of mic'd amps.

Well, what sound does your customer want? It's been common for the past
30 years or so for these middle-eastern instruments to be quite highly
amplified and that's what he might be used to hearing.

It's a pretty quiet intstument acoustically and doesn't have a lot of
warmth or depth. Just put a decent mic a foot or so in front of it and
it will sound like what you hear without amplificaiton.

When I first saw the saz, I thought it would be similar to a bouzouki,
but it's totally different.

Yeah - no sound hole, so no real resonance, pretty much like a
solid-body instrument.
..

Mike Rivers wrote:

Well, what sound does your customer want? It's been common for the past
30 years or so for these middle-eastern instruments to be quite highly
amplified and that's what he might be used to hearing.

The sounds he wants are nothing like the sounds that come out of the
guitar's pickups. To me, it sounds like an electric guitar when plugged
into an amp. It doesn't sound that great when going direct. He insists
on not using mics, but I feel like that's the way to go, so when he
comes in tomorrow night, I'll throw a couple of KM140s in front of it.

He gave me a recording of a saz that sounds like it might have been
done with a piezo electric transducer.

Thanks,
Gord

wrote:

He gave me a recording of a saz that sounds like it might have been
done with a piezo electric transducer.

David Lindley played saz on the Kaleidoscope records, and there's at
least a cut or two on the El Rayo X recordings that have the saz up
front. In the Kaleidoscope days, he had a Barcus Berry guitar pickup on
it and played it through an amplifier on stage. I don't know how it was
recorded, probably a combination of the pickup direct and a mic on the
amp.

Is this traditional Turkish music, or some pop application? (which
includes Turkish pop)

David Lindley played saz on the Kaleidoscope records, and there's at
least a cut or two on the El Rayo X recordings that have the saz up
front. In the Kaleidoscope days, he had a Barcus Berry guitar pickup on

it and played it through an amplifier on stage. I don't know how it was

recorded, probably a combination of the pickup direct and a mic on the
amp.

He played a bit of saz on Ry Cooder's "Paris, Texas" soundtrack too.
Sounds totally acoustic there.

Scott Fraser

He insists
on not using mics, but I feel like that's the way to go, so when he
comes in tomorrow night, I'll throw a couple of KM140s in front of it.


So he doesn't want you to mic it, but doesn't like the sound of the
humbuckers on it? Maybe he should just let you mic it up as a starting
point, then comment on what it sounds like, rather than trying to
predetermine how he thinks it won't be right.

He gave me a recording of a saz that sounds like it might have been
done with a piezo electric transducer.

Sounds like a perfect application for my 79 cent piezo buzzer pickups,
taped onto the soundboard. Seriously. I've used them all over pipa
tracks, & that's another plucked instrument with no sound hole. I just
used one last night on my grand piano for an artist who didn't want too
much of a classical piano sound. It was shockingly warm & useable, not
harsh at all, & totally different from the KM140 pair overhead.

Scott Fraser