Trio Recording – Studio Setup

I handled the audio engineering, production, mixing and mastering for this project.

Room

Only a single DPA was used for the room microphone. It was placed high up and at a wide angle, aiming for a stereo image.

Piano

The microphones are positioned at a distance of approximately 50-70 cm for a balanced and wide stereo image. Each microphone is also angled to face the bass and treble stringsof the piano. In addition, the KM microphones have a small diaphragm, so the upper frequencies sound detailed and natural. I tried to get a balanced response with both mics, and the cardioid pattern captures sound directly from the strings.

Violin

The microphone is directed at the soundboard of the violin (around the f-holes and bridge) and there is close miking. The AKG C414 was used for this recording because it records fine details and has a wide dynamic range. Cardioid pattern was used.

Cello

The microphone was placed at a slight angle towards the bridge of the cello, it was especially important to capture the lower frequencies of the cello, about 50-70 cm away from the body of the cello. I used AKG’s sensitive and wide-aperture response.

Recording & DAW

ProTools was used for recording. 48KHz, 24Bit project. Recordings are improvised. It starts with a piano intro at the beginning and other instruments are added in order. The send channel for reverb is opened and distributed to the instruments respectively. Separate reverb is set for each instrument. When panning, I left the cello in the center as it is. In Violin, I moved it to the right side with the doubling technique. On the piano, since I have 2 channels, I moved the left channel 80% to the left and the right channel 80% to the right and provided stereo width. I also did a little EQ and comp on each instrument and that’s it.

1- Phase control
2- Gain control (non-normalized)
3- Create a Send/Reverb channel.
4- Some eq and comp
5- Piano L – R panning 80%L – 80%R
6- Cello panning in the center
7- Violin panning right and center