Recording technique - your best experience

[Tone]

Hello my fellow congueros,

Being a record producer and recording artist as well as an aspiring conguero, I intend to record a lot more congas in the future.

So far I haven't been really pleased with my recordings of the congas.
I would be very interested to hear from those of you who are involved in professional recordings as to what is the best set up you have used or the best that had been set up for you that you can remember.

In particular the following.

Best mics. Dynamic, condenser, ribbon, piezo,... Brands,...
Best mics placement. I find it very hard to get a good balance between the tones, especially the bass if you are only recording from the top.
What is the best room? size, refexion.
Do you use ambient miking as well as close?
For three congas or more what best set up? 3 or more mics or what kind of stereo set up.
Ideal panning of the congas in the mix.
What kind of compression do you think works best? Ratio, attack , release,...
And any thing else you think can contribute to a good recording.

Many, many thanks.

[Tonio]

Hola Tone,
All the above.

What I mean is, is really depends on what you are doing. Any one tune can bring a different approach.

Salsa, forklorico, latin jazz, r&b, rock ect etc. Each genre can require a different approach of mics and placement not to mention the room situation. The project can make demands on the approach also. Not only the difference netween live/ on location or studio, but also if its a jingle, a full LP or just a single.
Some songs need a good dynamic close, and sometimes you need a large condensor for alot room sound. Or you need a different drum to begin with. Or it could be just the artist's/producers point of view. It just depends on what exactly is going on.

I have a humble home studio and record small ensembles for myself and other low budget projects for selected freinds/musicians. Been at it for a few years and have collected many mics and pro audio equipment. Of course teh hardest part is the study/approach of using the equipment. IMO experience is the biggest resource in this case.

If you would like to continue this with specific questions, I will try to help as much as possible.

I do not claim to a big time engineer, but have decent recording and mixes according to fellow musicians and pro audio folks.

T

[Mike]

Hi Tone,

I´m neither much of a studio musician nor am I well-informed about mics and stuff in generel. The only thing I can tell is that I record some tracks on my computer every now and then, multi-tracking with Logic - for the sheer fun of it, and I must say my old SENNHEISER MD 421-N is a fantastic mic for recording my congas & other percussion.
Well, I dont call many more my own ´cept an Shure.. :;):
Just wanted to share my Sennheisermania



Edited By Mike on 1181848382

[Tone]

wrong forum for this question I guess.

Thanks any way

[fed]

Hi Tone,
You are probably right, your questions are more of a recording engineer type.
And answers are dependent on music you record. If there are a lot of other instruments you probably won't need ambient/room mics, if it's just a guitar/bass/congas trio it's another story. Same goes for mix and panning, but then for your particular project you might want to break the "rules" and do something unexpected.

As far as getting the bass sound of the conga, it is supposed to be low volume and some what understated that's the nature of this drum. But then who says you can't put a mic under the drum and get more bass sound.

In general it seems that a good dynamic mic is a way to go for congas, Sennheiser 421 that Mike uses is great choice probably for it, and old stand-by SM57 would most likely do fine.

cheers

[LatinJazzLover]

Tone:

If you've ever seen the Giovanni Hidalgo instructional videos from DDI, they have a stereo position of 2 U87's (they look like u87's at least) spread out and elevated about 2-3 feet over the conga head. It sounds great, but you've got to have a great room to get that sound.

I don't have that room, and I wish I could afford those mics. I do a little recording myself in my spare bedroom.