recording Harmonica

[texasmusicforge]

Anne, I hope I'm not too late to help. Good thing the rest of Taxi seems to work more efficiently than getting approval to post on this forum does...I play harmonica for a living, get most of the calls for orchestral pit work here in Austin and have authored a handful of professional loop and sample libraries for harmonica.In the hands of an inexperienced player (or a mouth breather like Bob Dylan), harmonica can be very shrill and tinny. This is especially so with players who aren't going through a harp mic and amp. You'll want to roll off audio signal over 5K and, if your best mic choice is the 57 you mention, run it through a tube preamp that you can overdrive.Here is my House O' Harmonica page:www.texasmusicforge.com/hoh.htmlThe example marked Jazz 1 was recorded through an SM-58 into a cheap ART tube pre-amp (available for $50 everywhere) and direct into the board but has a very warm and somewhat overdriven tone.All of the country/Americana samples were, if I remember right, recorded via small diaphragm condensers and have an acceptable clean sound. If using a condenser, have your musician stand back from the mic to avoid picking up too much breath noise and grunting, make sure you've got a good room sound and keep an eye on the treble.You might also experiment with using Ruby Tube or any of the other tube simulation VST plug ins to add a little warmth or grit after you've got the part recorded.I've just joined Taxi, am a professional musician in Austin and am certainly available to answer any harmonica-related questions anyone has. I am often on the road but am always reachable at info AT TexasMusicForge DOT com.Cheers,Ed KlimanAustin, TXLand O' 10,000 Guitars

[anne]

The results of the harmonica recording were excellent, thanks to all of the help we received from everyone!We made a test track and it came out very nice; we are actually going to record the actual tracks in about 2 hours from now. I used a shure SM58. Jim held his harmonica about 3 finger widths away from the mic.. He cupped his hands around the ends of the instrument towards the mic, but not fully enclosing the whole microphone, to let some "air" into the recording. This gave it a "distant but full" sound as he played it softly and evenly - the "slightly sad" sound we were looking for with minimal processing on my end.At that point I'd picked up a presonus firestudio, which is a very transparent interface, and the recording sounded as clean as could be. Unfortunately the unit died during the next session and I had to return it to the store, which was a little bit of an adventure. Given the hit or miss record of the older units of this model, and with no guarantee I was getting a new model or an older stock, I opted instead to replace it with an m-audio Firewire 410. That works flawlessly and, since I had previously owned the projectmix and am familiar with the sound of the unit (very clear, lots of headroom, a very slight darker coloration to the sound) I know exactly how the recordings would turn out. So, today we are recording and I am hoping to get to the harmonica track on the first song finished - vocal, guitar, harmonica piece. I will send links to it later if it turns out well.I have to say I'm really impressed with both units. After selling the projectmix and having the presonus die right away, I was feeling as though I had made a mistake. The m-audio 410 was only $270, has 4 inputs simultaneously, is small , solidly built, and works like a champ. Plus, you can daisy chain up to 3 or 4 of them together for more recording expandibility. Recommendation: get a small preamp for the 2 hi-z (line) inputs on the 410 if you want to record 4 mics at once, unless you have some battery powered mics.All in all, the recording is going great, the room sounds good, and (most importantly) the client is really pleased. Thanks for ALL of the help!!

[nickbatzdorf]

Great post, Ed. Really useful info.

[texasmusicforge]

Quote:Great post, Ed. Really useful info.Thanks, Nick. Harmonica was my first instrument and a lot of folks are surprised at what it can bring to the party if it's played and recorded properly.Anyone interested in hearing harmonica in a non-traditional setting, check out this song from a score I did for the play The Glass Menagerie last year:www.texasmusicforge.com/broadcast/Danci ... radise.mp3 I'm playing all the instruments, including the bass harp, and doing the horn section parts using a normal 10 hole diatonic harp. Cheers,Ed