7 Miking concertinas
Description
This article is from the Concertina FAQ, by Chris Timson chris@harbour.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
7 Miking concertinas
...is frankly a bit of a bugger. The problem is of course that sound
comes from both ends of the instrument, and those ends move around.
Usually sound men aim a mike somewhere at the middle of the bellows
and hope for the best. A little better is to use two mikes, one for
each end, but this feels limiting somehow to the player though the
sound is much improved. In the studio life is much easier as you
don't have to cope with ambient sound and can thus use an omni-
directional mike some way back from the instrument. Use the best
mikes you can lay your hands on - the timbre of a concertina will
defeat cheap mikes. I have used an AKG C1000S mike with some success.
There are manufacturers who make a living from devising mikes for
awkward instruments - some are listed in section 8. As an example we
use Microvox kit. Their system consists of two close mikes which you
attach one to each end of the concertina using Velcro. Each mike has
a lead which runs into a small box you clip on your belt. From this
one single lead runs to the DI box. The advantage is that since both
mikes are held in proximity to the concertina you can move freely,
and the sound quality is quite good too.
It is worth considering in any situation whether you can get away
without miking at all. The tone of a concertina is quite penetrating
and sometimes in smaller venues where PA is in use we have used
mikes for our voices but not for our concertinas.
I asked the concertina maker Colin Dipper whether it would be
possible to fit mikes permanently within the body of a concertina,
but he advised that this would probably have a detrimental effect on
the overall sound of the instrument. Having said that, Howard Jones
has fitted internal mikes to his anglo concertina, apparently without
harmful effects, and has put instructions up on the net at:-
http://www.hjcjones.freeserve.co.uk/music/concertina/mike.htm
Continue to:
My Books
