This past week I was hired to record a few lines of violin being played by Caroline R. Cloutier for a yet to be released short film called “Love in Motion” by Rick Harkness.

There was no budget to rent a studio with full acoustic treatment and great pre-amps, so I had to record the session at my home studio, which runs ProTools 10 LE with an Apogee Duet interface. My home studio is not fully treated, but I have the setup that best fits the acoustical environment on my place, including having the speakers on stands with acoustic foam isolation facing a soft couch and a flag on the wall, none are near to corners and the windows have heavy drapes to absorb the sound reflections, but for this session, I used headphones.

In order to obtain the highest possible quality, I analyzed all of my microphones and chose 2 to be recorded in mono tracks and mixed later in post as the mixer wishes: I chose the RODE NT2A as the large diaphragm mic on its cardioid mode  to capture all the body and air of the violin. I placed it high up in the air, facing down towards the violin and carpet to capture the least reflections as possible. The Neumann MK150 was the weapon of choice for the closer perspective mic. It was placed near the acoustic hole, in between the bow and the head in order to capture the humane motions of the instrument while also capturing its presence and body. Below, a few pictures for visual reference of the microphones placement:

IMG_6207 IMG_6206 IMG_6205

Bellow, a playlist showcasing the sonic qualities of each microphone and a very rough mix I did to preview how the tracks would blend together. The tracks being showcased are not the select tracks for the movie and are copy-written.