Tips for Recording Strings

Previously I researched tips for humanising MIDI strings but sometimes it just doesn’t work for that specific production and you would rather record a musician in a studio because you have the resources and want a more live feel so what do you do if you want to record live strings for the purpose of capturing the expressiveness of the musician connecting with their instrument. Matthew Weiss (Matthew Weiss is a Grammy nominated and Spellemann Award winning audio engineer from Philadelphia. Matthew has mixed songs for Snoop, Sonny Digital, Gorilla Zoe, Uri Caine, Dizzee Rascal, Arrested Development, 9th Wonder, !llmind & more. Get in touch: Weiss-Sound.com.) (Matthew weiss, 2010) discusses in his article on The Pro Audio Files, tips for recording strings. I couldn’t agree more with Weiss when he says that strings (this for me also includes piano) are arguably the most expressive instrument next to the human voice. I also agree with him that they can be intimidating recording, especially being a studying audio engineer/producer, this is why I want to research further into recording strings, to enhance my productions.

1. Just like recording MIDI strings, Weiss talks about understand a sense of space, where, in the stereo field do you want to have the strings and why, what are you trying to achieve. Depending on the genre, Weiss suggests for a more bold sound, like that of a ‘soul style’ string section, you can place the overheads close to the musician which will capture the heavy harmonics. For something more supporting and in the background, Weiss places uses the distance mic technique which would pick up more room but also what he describes as width and not overpower other power instruments. For an orchestra, you would combine both close overheads and room mics to pick up both power and depth from the ensemble, however for my productions and where I currently am, I don’t think I will be recording a full ensemble anytime soon.

2. When it comes to selecting microphones, based on my knowledge I would usually go for ribbons as I’ve been told they are the most natural sounding mics when it comes to reproducing the captured sound. Weiss suggests using either Ribbons or condensers both having their own pros depending on what type of sound you are trying to achieve. Ribbons have a top end roll off which is said to emphasise that sense of distance and ease off what Weiss describes as glassy harmonics that might come off violins and if there’s too much roll off you can always boost the high end but he warns that you have to watch out for ribbon hiss which I am yet to experience and deal with but will look out for now that he mentioned it. Weiss also explains that ribbons are true figure 8 captures so you can achieve capturing width by having spaced pair ribbons for more separation or Blumlein your ribbons for a wide stereo image with a concentric mono which I am eager to listen out for next time I record some strings. Finally, Weiss points out that the transient response of ribbons usually is slower which helps round out hard staccato string sections which I find very useful as many hip-hop productions have those hard string sections that stand out from the mix however without overpowering the vocals. A great example is the strings section in A$AP Rocky’s 1 train where the strings are right up in the mix.

As for condensers, most of them have a fairly flat frequency response, which is good for capturing an ensemble and nicer all around room sound.

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Weiss goes into what pair he would use depending on the genre and feel he would try to recreate, for classical he would use an Omni-condenser which would capture the sound of the hall as well, however, he also states that these are just starting points and that you have to experiment and try different techniques to achieve the sound you are going for. I would like to discuss Cole’s album again because of the strings that are so important in the production, the amount of emotion and expression captured is one of the many highlights of the album. After going through ‘Eyez’ again, a short documentary on some behind the scenes of the making of the album, I noticed a similar microphone configuration discussed by Weiss, used in this recording session. Not clear as to what microphone is being used as the overhead but If I took an educated guess think the microphone used in front of the violinist looks like an AT4081, phantom-powered bidirectional ribbon mic. The ribbon mics seem to a favourite among the audio engineers involved in the project, it was filmed at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, where in some scenes it can be seen that for Theo Croker’s trumpet sections, a ribbon mic was used, what seems to look like a Royer R-122 MKII which is another phantom powered ribbon mic, most probably used to complement the sounds of the strings.

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Overall, it’s good to follow these tips as a starting point however you’ll have to experiments with these foundations and find what best suits your situation and gives you the best sound.

References:

Matthew weiss. (2010). The Pro Audio Files. Retrieved 20 March, 2017, from https://theproaudiofiles.com/tips-for-recording-strings/

Royerlabscom. (2017). Royer Labs. Retrieved from http://royerlabs.com/r-122-mkii/

Audio-technicacom. (2017). Audio-technicacom. Retrieved from http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/330bf5b3610f8f98/index.html

Studio session images: Youtubecom. (2017). YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azC7-tBI6gw