Microphone choice and placement for Alto Sax

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Permalink Reply by martyn burt on 16 May 2008 at 4:31pm

I know this is not the answer you necessarily want, but the biggest difficulty is getting them to stand still and stay still if it is a mike on a stand. We have several saxy players and a trombone player, (they don't play at the same time!) but they can't stand still! Our soundman goes nuts!

As you say, fortunately they don't need much miking up most of the time, possibly just a bit of 'sound reinforcement'. In fact our most competent sax player was so good he could easily drown out the rest of the band on his own!

In an ideal world i would attach some form of 'bug' mike over the bell, so when they move, so does the mike. I'm afraid i am not techie enough to suggest what type of mike works best - we just use a spare vocal mike on a stand pointing towards the sax which seems to do the job (but no doubt the purists would say it needs to be a specialist instrument mike of some sort). Again, depending on the type of sax, it might need to be pointing up (for the clarinet types) and pointing down for the S shaped types.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Atkins on 16 May 2008 at 4:48pm

You want a clip mic, similar to the mic's you would use for a snare drum. We have a sax, so I'll find out and let you know by on Sunday if you haven't got the answer by then!

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Permalink Reply by Tim S Kemp on 16 May 2008 at 8:10pm

Definitely a clip on - AKG C519ML with the appropriate battery or phantom power adaptor would be the weapon of choice unless there's budget for a DPA product in there...

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Permalink Reply by Mark Kendal on 16 May 2008 at 9:28pm

Thanks for the information folks very helpful. I confess I hadn't thought of the clip on aspect which is a bit rich for someone who uses a wireless headset mic for worship leading!

Tim - I confess that I don't know what a "DPA" product is! But I assume that the answer is "no". I think that the AKG would be OK though.

Thanks

Mark

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Permalink Reply by Tim S Kemp on 16 May 2008 at 10:12pm

DPA are a Danish manufacturer of extremely good, recording and broadcast oriented (but suitable for live) microphones. To give you an idea though the website recommends a 4061 for sax, cost approx £300, stuck to the bell with an adhesive pad - that's probably their cheapest mic, prices go into thousands...

I still want a matched pair of DPA mics for the piano...

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Permalink Reply by Tom Barber on 17 May 2008 at 9:15am

Just to add a couple of notes - firstly it depends upon the size of your building. From what you've said I'm guessing that most of the sound will be coming actually from the sax itself - if so, probably easiest just to an SM57 or similar, and point it towards the ground so it fits into the bell of the sax, and tell the sax player to sound vaguely still. This gives you enough to play with - problem is, if they move, you're in trouble, and sometimes the mic can even pick up more foldback, depending upon how loud your stage set up is, than it does instrument! The clip mic on the bell of the sax will give you the cleanest sound, just at slightly more expense/effort!

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Permalink Reply by Mark Johnson on 17 May 2008 at 11:27am

Other thing to think about is sensitive usage. The reason you see real pros used fixed mikes rather than clip ons is because they are sensitive to use a mike to its full capabilities, where as a clip on leaves you only able to change the dynamics with their playing.

What I mean is to have a mike set up in such a way they can move into it during passages like solos or whatever where the sax needs to come out and when it is playing a more supporting role or improvising the player can back away from the mic.

My house mates a sax player and he's been practising all day. So flippin loud you wonder why anyone wants to mic them any way heh.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Conner on 19 May 2008 at 2:34pm

You want something like this:

http://www.shure.com/ProAudio/Products/WiredMicrophones/us_pro_Beta...

Instrumental clip mic's are specifically designed to absorb the shock of moving keys and valves which can cause thudding on vocal type mics'.

Hope that helps.

Paul

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Permalink Reply by Alastair Grant on 1 June 2008 at 12:08pm

Hi.
I can understand why sound engineers have a problem with sax players not standing still when using stand mics, but I always prefer a stand mic to a clip on hwerever possible. There are a number of reasons for this.
Firstly, I can use the distance from the mic to create different sounds. The nature of the sound picked up depends greatly on how much of the bell sound and how much of the sound coming out of the keys you have. Being able to move the sax in relation to the mic allows me to change this. Secondly, the type of sound varies depending on the amount of volume I am prodcing, but I might want the quiet tone at a higher volume, or vice cersa, I can achieve that by moving away from or towards the mic.
Thirdly, I double: That is I play alto and soprano so not having to change the mic over every rime I change instruments is a real bonus.
However, having said all that, you have to have control over the positioning of the mic: Any movements from the horn need to be deliberate on the part of the player and not just from random waving around.
As far as mic types go, I usually get an SM58 at church. I carry a Beta 57 for small gigs and if I'm lucky at larger events with outside PA I might get something like a Sennheiser MD421.
I hope that adds something to the discussion.

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Permalink Reply by Jake Moore on 31 July 2008 at 9:46am

I would also vote for the Beta 57 these are great mics and not to pricey. If you have a good sax player that understands about keeping on the mic and will just pull back when needed, if you are having problems with the level going up and down then look at putting some compression on it this may help.

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