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Here are some techniques and ideas you may find useful for recording. Many of them will apply to other instruments as well. Whether you do it yourself or record in a studio or at live performances, it’s essential that you know how to get your best sound, and what to do with it once you have it tracked. Don’t assume that the engineer will know exactly how to get it for you – you will have to work together.
Like many acoustic instruments, the sax records well with the use of a condenser mic. Condenser mics differ from dynamic mics in that they usually require a battery (or phantom power supplied from the mixer) and have a broader pick up pattern which makes them less useful on stage because they tend to feed back. They provide a flatter response, meaning that all frequencies are presented more equally whereas dynamic mics are often ‘coloured’ to bring out voice tones.
When recording with a condenser mic, you can ‘back off’ with it at eye level up to three feet away from your face, or ‘close mic’ keeping it aimed near the bottom of the left hand over the bell as you would performing live. Most of us have discovered not to aim it down the bell as this can do some awesome damage when you let go with a low Bb. Your choice of mic, playing style, and recording set-up will determine just where to place it. If you are recording yourself, set up a few tracks to record and compare. You’ll need it later to set the equalization (EQ).
The Neumann U87 is the industry standard voice mic and sounds great on sax. If it’s high price ($1,000 +) is out of range you might consider a Sennheiser 441. It’s a dynamic mic with a flatter response than those designed for live vocal use. Even the Shure SM57 & 58 can work well for rock & blues but you’ll need to EQ a little. My recording mic of choice is the AKG C1000S. It brings out all the warm sax tones I can’t live without and works well with other instruments, e.g. acoustic guitar and drum overhead. It was fairly well priced at around $300. It can also be used live, and doesn’t feed back as much as I might have expected.
Using the direct in approach will require that you apply EQ during mixdown. I find that with the right mic, I usually don’t need to change too much, but if you are working with overdrive guitars and thick synth patches, you might need a little help. If you have sweepable midrange you can boost 5-8K for those upper-mid voice tones. If you are using a dynamic mic like a Shure SM 57 or 58 be sure and boost the 300 – 350 lower midrange a bit to warm up the tone a bit. These mics drop off in that register leaving the sax sounding pretty tinny.
The next link in the recording chain is the compressor. The compressor will bring up the volume on the soft parts and prevent the signal from getting too hot on the loud parts. It also allows you to move around a little so you can have some freedom of movement while doing your takes. I get the best results in my home studio when plugging the mic directly into the compressor and the compressor directly in to the signal path. If you don’t have a compressor, plug the mic directly in. Wherever possible, eliminate any unnecessary circuitry to get the cleanest signal. The track will get remixed and this is where you should apply EQ and effects. The dbx 163X is a nearly foolproof compressor with only a level set and compression slider to worry about. Once the level is adjusted (usually between 0 & -10) experiment to determine where the slider goes. With the sax, around -21 is usually about right. You want just enough so that everything you play gets recorded at a good level without sounding too processed.
Always add reverb post (during mixdown). This way you get the verb in stereo while leaving your track mono (better for placement during mixdown) Because of the delicate nature of the reverb overtones, they can get easily get obscured if they are recorded while tracking. Most processors have a wide selection of presets to choose from. Because of the saxophone’s voice-like quality the hall and vocal plates work very well. For a funkier, more Sanborn like sound try the small club settings with more early reflections. You can use way more signal with these to achieve that kind of boxiness that sounds great where you don’t want an audible trail.
If you’ve ever tried to emulate those recordings where the sax is swimming in a huge reverb, you will have discovered by adding that much it sounds like it’s down at the end of the hall. So how do we keep the horn ‘in your face’ i.e. up front, and get that hugeness? Here’s the secret: Use a large hall setting and set the pre-delay parameter to around 250ms. This allows a quarter of a second of everything you play to go on dry before the effect kicks in. It works beautifully on ballads and gives the horn a truly magnificent sound.
Here’s a mixing technique they use on the big money recordings that can work well for the home recordist. Say you have an eight bar intro, then in you come. Use the pan controls at about 5 to 1 o’clock on the whole mix so that it is just about mono. When the sax comes in, pan down to full stereo. This is a subtle effect but will give the listener the impression that something magical occurred just as you started playing. Keep the magic coming!
©2008 Paul Wainwright
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