Freesound Forums

I searched in forums, articles and blogs - tons of technical infos, not one clear suggestion. I know the topic is vaste and that it's very hard to achieve a good record with one mic only ...maybe some of you faced the same situation.
we play ballads, folk and standards, with no percussions, use to record rehearse but the result is low even for a pre-demo. unavoidable problems with different instruments: oboe has a strong voice, accordion reach very high freq, and only voice, guitar and contrabasso are amplified. I use a portable digital recorder with internal mics (Edirol R1). the best mic position appear to be near the center of room, actually close to the near field of most instruments. we can change our position for a better panning, but we can't have a bigger room, too expensive to rent! here's the playing situation:

- a small rectangular studio room with two loudspeakers at corners
- one voice, amplified
- an acustic guitar, amplified
- an acoustic contrabasso, amplified
- accordion, oboe and violin, not amplified

I can only buy a new microphone - not enough money and tech skill to buy other pro hardware.
which microphone would you suggest to use? omnidirectional, hyper-supercardioid...?
which recording technique would you suggest, using one mic? I thought of a stand to put the mic above heads

thanks in advance

Rode NT4

Now that I've discovered these in-ear binaural microphones I intend to use them for a variety of purposes, one of which is to record live performances. Check them out here: www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/SP-TFB-2

For $79, the audio quality is amazing. Listen to the sample recordings to get a feel for what a live performance recorded with them will sound like.

This may not be what you're looking for, but you may want to consider recording binaural on top of what you would normally record, just to get a feel for both and which one you like better.

As far as positioning, you'll want to be as close to center as possible, and about 200ft back from the stage.

As far as gear to record with (since this is just a microphone) I also suggest buying the "recorder" adapter for the iPod and using that, or hooking up to an iRiver.

That's just my 2 cents, hopefully it's of help to you!

thanks a lot ejfortin and soundofemotion
I've found many infos in Freesound forum about NT4 and binaural mics, both are popular choices.

binaural mics, even expensive like OKM, cost less than RodeNT4, and are smaller to carry - some user warned about fragility. I like the idea to hear exactly what I'm recording - but I can't do it while playing.

NT4 looks more resistant; also used for field recording. I read articles about the X/Y technique "for getting a good stereo image of a wide sound source, using just two microphones": NT4 offer this solution with one mic only - smart / but expensive.

I'm not enough skilled to compare different samples... maybe the NT4 higher price goes not only in the double mics but also in a superior sound quality... dunno. I'll investigate in online shops and into my wallet for the final decision.
thanks again!