Mandolin and Banjo Tracking Setup Suggestions

I love ribbons for mandolin - nice woody sound. But it depends what you want. The Samar would be great for that.
Banjo - never tried - but I imagine a ribbon like the Samar would be great on that as well.

If you do not want much brightness from the mando or banjo, believe it or not, the big 44 ribbons can actually sound quite good.

You know, as I slowly expand my mic locker with expensive mics (LDC’s SDC’s Ribbons) my humble SM57 always muscles his way to the top insists he’s in the shoot out for any kind of strings instruments and sometimes still wins!!

That mic cost me $100!

I agree! Strummed acoustic guitar in a rock mix, sm57 sounds awesome

I’m not personally familiar with the microphones or outboard you listed but this is usually what I do…

Mandolin: KM84 or a pair of KM84’s. Or KM54/KM56 or KM66/KM86 if they are available. Usually a GML preamp, or a John Hardy or an API (I don’t like the sound of API’s pads and a mandolin chop is often too loud and will peak without it so it’s rare I use them) I don’t compress mandolins “to tape”, occasionally I’ll use a DBX 160VU or a Distressor or an 1176 or whatever plugin to even out a chop, but honestly not often. Usually I’ll place each mic slightly off each F hole, but trying to avoid the players hand moving in front of the mics every time they chop. Hard to explain but maybe I have a picture. The sound of the mandolin comes from the bridge vibrating the top and there isn’t much sound at the neck joint, where occasionally I’ll see a microphone placed. I find you get a lot of pick noise and no low end up there. If it’s a single mic I’ll just move my head around listening to the instrument and place it where it sounds good and the player can usually adjust. That’s the advantage of a single mic placement…an experienced player can play to the microphone. Its a little more difficult if there are two because as they move the phase between the two mics changes (which apply to every instrument) Things to watch out for is the sound of the bridge plate cover, which sometimes has a high pitch “ring”. A piece of tape or a little piece of foam (or taking it off!) helps. Also, the sound of the pick hitting the top of the mandolin. It sounds like a woodpecker on a mic. That’s a technique thing and if you hear one Izotope RX is your friend!

Banjo: There are two popular “styles” of banjo tones these days…the Bela Fleck/Allison Brown/Noam Pikelny sort of muted, clean, mellow sound or the more traditional Earl Scruggs/Bobby Osborne sound. For a more traditional bluegrass sound a Neumann U87 or U67 has been my go to. The sound of the banjo is the bridge resonating the head, amplified by the tone ring, so usually I place the microphone in the open space on the below the hand and slightly above the tone ring. I’d place a microphone in the same place when I’m recording Bela or Allison or Noam but I’d go for a flatter microphone. Bela likes a U89 or Josephson e22s (he also used his personal C24), Allison likes a Coles, but I’ll usually add a second brighter microphone because in an ensemble sometimes you need a little help getting their banjos to cut through a mix. I also like an Electro-Voice RE20…works great especially when you are worried about bleed. Compression…again I usually don’t. Sometimes I’ll have to deal with a bad resonant or harsh frequency but usually just some very narrow Q equalizer will help with that. Otherwise automation is your friend. If I were to compress sometimes I’ve used my Spectra V610’s as peak limiters with success, or a LA2A. Hardy preamps usually work for me. I’d avoid overly bright microphones because you’ll get a lot of “pick noise”, especially with metal picks, which is hard to get rid off.

Guitar. Lately I’ve been using my AKG C34 a lot…Bryan Sutton was searching the internet to buy one after I used it with him on a record recently…but I’ve used KM84’s and KM86’s and KM54’s a lot too. Similar to a mandolin I like a mic on the upper and lower bouts, pointed in towards the neck. Or one at the neck joint and one down by the bridge/body. Or X/Y. There’s really no rhyme or reason to it…just whatever I’m feeling that day. GML, Hardy, or Daking preamps usually. Again, no compression. If I feel it needs it a 1176 or Daking FET II work well.

And in all honesty, good sounding recordings come from good players. Banjo and mandolin are pretty unforgiving under a microphone especially when it comes to intonation and no mic placement can fix that. So, just be diligent with that. A banjo rolling along out of tune will make the whole track sound wrong!

Thats all the knowledge I can impart at 7:30 AM as someone who records bluegrass regularly and has Grammys for it.

635a can be nice on stringed instruments, I’ve only used it on acoustic guitar, but worth a try on mandolin. I’d def try the Samar too.

As to mando, a little more info here --- there are different options depending what one wants:
First, not all mandos are the same, some are oval hole, d hole, and f holes. (I am not going to get into bowl back, and the difference between F bodies and A bodies, though sometimes the F and A body differences are more cosmetic.)
That changes the character of the mando. Let alone that difference makers sometimes have different tones. The oval and d holes tend to be a little more mellow and preferred for celtic and classical, but this is not a hard and fast rule.
Second, what is the mando's purpose in the song? If it is front and center in bluegrass mode, so to speak, then I can see where the Neumann Km84s and similar mics would be great. I would probably reach first for the Samar MG32 or 33s. Scheops and DPAs would also be welcome for this. Fred Forssel, if I recall correctly from our conversations, designed pres and such for his own recording of bluegrass music. So, that gives an idea of the type of pre for this purpose.
But if it is background tremolo, or even slower sweet soloing or chording, then I really do think the ribbons rule imho
And if you want the most woody sweet solo, I have found that the ribbon mics with a tube pre work really well, especially without active ribbons, so some of the richness of the pre gets in there as well. Mandolas and octaves can also give sweet solos with this effect. I got this effect years ago with the A Designs MP2a - a highly underrated tube pre, later with a Mercury 72s, and finally now with the Locomotive 286a.

Lastly, there has been at least one great recording of Itzak Perlman using the AEA A-440s. I had the A-440 but later decided that I liked the AEA 44ce mics just as much and I did not need the "long cable run" concept that the A-440 brought to the table. So, by interpolaton, I would imagine that the AEA 44ces are top notch on violin. And I have tried them on mando, but no in a bluegrass style of music.

My 2 cents.

Ended up just recording vocals, acoustic, and mandolin.

Mandolin:
Samar AL95 > Weigh Tank 72 Pre > Kush Electra EQ > Lindell 17xs (FET Comp)

Acoustic (2 Options):
My usual EV RE-16 > Iron Age Pre > Kush Electra EQ > Kush Tweazer Comp
Telefunken TF-39 > Chameleon 7603 Pre/EQ > Spectrasonic C610

Vocal:
TF39> Chameleon 7603 Pre/EQ > DBX 520 De-Ess > Spectrasonic C610
Serrano 87> Chameleon 7603 Pre/EQ > Weight Tank Vari Mu Compressor

Everything sounded very nice and the artist was happy. We'll see if Warner Records is cool with the saturation on the vocals... Ha! Artist wanted it, and I want the artist happy.

Good man.  I was going to say for banjo, something really nice like a u67 into a great pre like maybe a Hardy or the other direction something tube, then just make sure you don't plug the other end of the cable into the preamp.

In all seriousness, sounds like you got the capture you wanted.  I love Mando and am always looking for good chains for it.  I'll check the Samar.

Were you EQing on the way in with the Chameleon Labs 7603? If not, did you keep the EQ circuit engaged?

How close to the acoustic did you get with the RE16?

 Yes, we did some EQing with the Chameleon on both the vocal and acoustic. RE-16 was roughly 16-18 inches out, pointed a little bit inside the 12th fret. It's a pretty midrange forward mic at the distance, so we EQed to make it a little less low-mid prominent, very classic 70's sounding. I Forgot to mention we had a stereo pair of Vanguard V4s going into a UA 4-710, and blended in a touch of that. 
Telefunken sounded excellent too, but for the songs RE-16 made more sense.