Paul Goble wrote:
> According to the sound crews I've worked with, it's accepted wisdom that
> pairs of violins playing in unison will always sound dreadful.
> A few sound pros even expand this principle to say, "Do whatever
> it takes to avoid small, even numbers of stringed instruments."
> (There are more thoughts about this on my blog at
> <http://www.churchviolinist.com/2008/03/more-on-duet-dissonance.html>.)
>
> So what's the best way to handle an ensemble which has four violins? The
> natural way to divide them is two unison duets (2 on Violin I, 2 on
Violin
> II). Is this asking for trouble? I suspect that the problem isn't too
bad
> if there are enough other instruments in the mix, or if one avoids point
> mics close to the instruments (thus allowing room acoustics to blend out
> cla****ng pairs of harmonics). What's your experience? If groups of
four
> violins do pose a problem, how do you mitigate it?
>
> Paul
I don't know who's "accepted wisdom" your talking about.
When we mike orchestras for pops at our local concert hall,
we go overhead with a condenser like a KSM32, C3000 or such
large diaphram mike in pairs of seats.
then due to lack of channels we usually "Y" pairs of mikes
on non principle players. Is this ideal? no, but it works and
it beats doubling the mike count and renting two consoles.
If its a loud pops show, we will bug mike the strings on lavs
I love the DPA's, but we use what's available.
Bug mic'ing is not as musical as overheads, but its the only way to
hear strings at all on a loud show.
Small ensembles are usually always acoustic. I have dome some solo cello
with piano and singer with a single league diaphragm such as a KSM32
with good results.
Of course, we are working with professionals. Not weekend warriors.
You can polish a turd, but its still a turd.....
Bob
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