When miking a full horn section, engineers often use one R-121 per musician at a distance of 1 to 2 feet. Grouping two players on one mic also works well – the off-axis response of a good ribbon is excellent, so having two on one mic can yield great results. Once you’ve spot miked the instruments, adding an
Capturing good brass recordings is not overly difficult when the players are good and the right mics are up. Let’s start with miking a single brass instrument with an R-series mic. A good starting position is to place the microphone anywhere from 2 to 5 feet in front of the instrument and about 6 inches below
If we had to pick one instrument that benefits the most from ribbon microphones, it would be the trumpet. Complex, powerful, loud and on the higher-end side of the frequency spectrum, the trumpet is an emotional, moving and exciting instrument – there’s nothing like a great trumpet solo or a powerful brass section letting it