Another Mic Placement Trial - Comments Welcomed

[Doc]

As well all know, mic placement for tuba can be a challenge, especially in a room with less than desirable acoustics. Without modifying the room, adding foam panels, mic shrouds, buying $XXXX microphones, etc., and with your continued help, I’m narrowing in on it.

In this session, I started off at 6ft (previous starting reference), then moved very close, about 1ft away. All examples with the mic under the bell level and the mic pointed slightly below horizontal.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions!

[bloke]

I - lazily - set my phone on my music stand to (albeit rarely) record things, and - though my phone mic is crap, compared to that one - the sound is the MOST similar to your "one foot away under the bell" type of sound.

Some of the other set-ups offered more "front".

They all sound like "an 8-10-feet ceiling" (to my ears).

[Doc]

They all sound like "an 8-10-feet ceiling" (to my ears).

Dealing with that may require acoustic foam panels, or something else. For now, I’ll make the best out it.

If, of course, I win the lotto, I’ll build a room/hall sufficient for such recording. If, of course, I ever bought a lotto ticket, I’d have a chance to win the lotto. Maybe I ought to buy a lotto ticket this decade… this century…?

[bloke]

How much padding is in the headliner of your squad car?

[GC]

Maybe I'm belaboring the obvious, but the mike sets at 1 foot capture much more resonance than the 6' ones, and less overtone. I think the close set is actually picking up the fatness from body resonance rather than how it projects into the room. Both sound good, but if you're after clarity instead of fatness, I'd pick the 6' sets. If you want tonal booty, go close. Also, how high the mike is (closeness to the bell) in the close position will make a big difference in capture of overtones.

Also with the distant set, resonance picks up as you approach the higher register but stays pretty consistent close up with the close set. I'm thinking this may be a matter of room acoustics and a resonant point of the space.

Either way, you really sound great on the JP377.

[Doc]

How much padding is in the headliner of your squad car?

Damned little! And everything behind the cage, including the seats, is hard plastic and metal. Very tuba-friendly…

[Doc]

A good short article on the proximity effect:

https://www.neumann.com/homestudio/en/w ... ity-effect

[Jperry1466]

Very nice playing! To me, the 1 ft. proximity was just a more "satisfying" sound in both examples. And that's as scientific as I'm going to get.

[Beyond16]

Wow, your playing is so perfect and your tone is so mellow. Those high notes sound effortless. All your mic locations give good results. I have been experimenting with mic location because my tone is bad, sometimes shockingly bad.

We changed our house from all carpet to all hard flooring. Now the sound is terrible. I can hardly understand the children talking. Now I feel like a homeless person living in a parking garage. The echo is ridiculous. We have no rugs and no soft furniture beyond a sofa. One room is huge. I practice in an ordinary sized room. The echo is so bad, I wear these earmuffs when practicing.

For the small room, I get best results with the bell pointed towards the mic, and be maybe 3 feet or closer. For the big room, the echo is a little more acceptable because of the open feel. But it's still excessive to me, so I think pointing the bell towards the mic is best.

But my needs are different than yours. There are a couple of problems with my playing that can be somewhat minimized with mic placement. One is the attacks on the notes are not clean. There is a momentary hiss of air. The other problem is tone on high notes. I have been trying to improve tone for months. I believe my high note tone problem is due to pulling my lips back against my teeth to get the note to play. I am trying to learn to play those notes without relying on the teeth so much. I also need to separate my teeth more, but I think lip strength needs to improve for that. I bet you can benchpress 350 with your lips.

I am using a fairly cheap mic, but it's very accurate. I can actually pick up a signal from a 90 KHz tone. I don't think I can make any significant improvement by switching mics.

My Yamaha YBB-104 is smaller than your Bb, but I am certain it would sound amazing if someone like you played it. It has no major unrepaired dents. Today I pressured tested it using a low pressure regulator and flowmeter. Sealing off the bell was a pain. But the leakage rate is as low and an exceptionally good trumpet, even though the valves are bigger. Soapy water confirmed no leakage anywhere beyond the tiny valve seepage.

So that leaves my lips. I think they need time to gain strength and flexibility. Anyway, I made some recordings with different mic placements. Pretty amazing the different range of resulting sounds.

For low notes, I played a few bars from Hogan's Heroes March. Here are the variations:
1) Mic dropped all the way down into the bell crook. Volume reduced because of excessive bass.
2) Mic in bell, 4 inches below rim.
3) Mic level with bell.
4) Mic above bell (4 inches).
5) Mic above bell (8 inches).
6) Mic above bell (36 inches).
7) Chunk of carpet over bell, mic 4 inches away.
8) Mic on floor (still in small room).
9) Big room, mike far away.

For high(er) notes, I played a few bars from Mexican Hat Dance. Here are the variations:
1) Mic dropped all the way down into the bell crook (kind of loud).
2) Mic halfway down bell.
3) Mic in bell, 4 inches below rim.
4) Mic level with bell.
5) Mic above bell (4 inches).
6) Mic above bell (8 inches).
7) Mic above bell (36 inches).
8) Mic on floor (still in small room).
9) Big room, mike far away.
10) Big room, bell pointed toward mic (horn sideways and hard to play).
11) Same as 9 above, but filtered with 'sox lowpass -1 1000'.

Some of those samples sound like I am just buzzing the mouthpiece. But I swear the tuba was attached for all of them.

Filtering seems like a way to hide problems, so I'm not too excited to improve my tone by that method. But lowpass filtering does help remove the hiss from airy attacks, and also removes high overtones that give the buzzing sound to high notes.