Join the Discussion: The Best Sax Mic?
Tuesday April 14, 2009
This week, I'd really like some of my readers to weigh in on a discussion in the Home Recording Forum: what's the best saxophone microphone?
I'm a big fan of the Sennheiser MD421 as well as the Shure Beta 57; I'd really love to hear what your choices would be!
I'm a big fan of the Sennheiser MD421 as well as the Shure Beta 57; I'd really love to hear what your choices would be!
Comments
Hey Joe, Sennheiser MD421 are the best and my favorite too! had an all brass quintet to record once in my home studio and since I could not afford 6-7 MD421’s I rented them at my local music store and it did a great job!
I also own a very old Altec (Western Electric)639B made in 1938 in excellent condition that I used on a $8,000 barytone saxophone last year with very impressive results! I also used a Blue Babybottle on a tenor sax and a soprano, it was very satisfying too.The best I guess is to experiment, only if you have time! Peace, Best,
Hans Leveille
Last weekend I used an AKG 414 with very nice results — about 12-to-18″ out from the bell of a tenor sax. If you have a sax player who likes to move around a lot, you may need to use a mic that clips onto the sax, otherwise you’ll lose portions of the performance — especially if they are soloing (they tend to lift the instrument up and off axis of the mic).
The Royer R122 does a very nice job also — about 2 feet away. I’ve got sweet results when running it through a Pendulum Audio Quartet. Particularly a soprano sax.