tracking a string quartet tomorrow..

I don't think the room is big enough to do that. We'll be over here: www.grandstreetrecording.com

grandstreetrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Front-to-Back.jpg

Any suggestions for how to position them in that space to do what you're asking?

Talking to a supremely talented fiddle player last night and he was telling me of a time his small section tuned a cent or two differently for each take ; said it made it huge.
Cheers, Ross

I mic'ed some 'violas' about two weeks ago but had just one player nevertheless in a similar situation.

I used a Blumlein pair of ribbons about six feet back and a KM84 spot mic at around 18".
The ribbons remained static and I marked out the floor with center, left and right positions for each layered pass.

The spot mic was moved with the player, phased aligned in post and panned to match the localisation of the viola within the Blumlein stereo field.

The ratio of spot to Blumlein pair was around 30% Spot, 70% Blumlein.

It worked well and gave the impression of a small ensemble rather than stacked multiple takes of the same player.

As the violas were part of a larger acoustic arrangement, guitars, mandolins, flute, vocals etc. I ran the middle violas lower than the sides to allow more middle space in the mix.

My suggestion:
- Double the section once (if possible let vi1 and vi2 change parts, or change to alternate bow)

- Double once again with mutes (make sure they bring them!)

- Both violonists plays the violin 1 part. If not written too high for viola, print an alto clef part of vi 1 for viola and let him/she join. I m e one mic/mono is ok for these. (no cello)

- Double the above with mutes

- Repeat the two last steps for the violin 2 part

- If you blend in a good sampled string section it will start to sound really big

Needless to say doubling many times of course requires really good players that intonate well, otherwise it will sound like a broken accordion. With respect for the musicians doing many takes like this I usually don't force people to move around, but instead pan the takes a bit differently when mixing. Asking them to bring a second bow for the doubled takes is a better way to avoid the typical doubled sound, which with strings can sound a bit 'phasey'

P.S. If you're not after a special effect, with these many takes I would never experiment with tuning. The problem mostly for string players recording to pre recorded basics tracks and intonating to what they hear in the cans, is getting it IN tune. Except for the experienced studio string players of course.

One more thing after hearing the very nice (!) clip. Beware what click sound you'll be using as the leakage from the cans can add up when doubling many times. Though not super accurate my favorite has become a mid pitched conga sample (not a slap sample). After the first bars of recording, stop and listen to check leakage before proceeding

If it works who cares?

It came out really well!!

http://instagram.com/p/BQQwNbIjf28

A real string quartet with proper writing sounds a lot bigger than you might expect. The tricks others have mentioned--move player seating a bit, retune and so on are all good tricks. But unless the players have done this sort of recording before, you might not get what you think you're going to get. Different players have slightly different tone, different instruments, different vibrato and differences in the way the bow stimulates the string. For a good session player this will be second nature. But if your players are new to this, they'll struggle with it. Your result might sound like a 'phasey' recording of the original 4 players. In many cases, blending in VIs at a slightly lower level might give you a better result.

As far as capturing the recording, I've been recording string quartets for years and have used all sorts of mic techniques--blumlein, ORTF, XY, spots, etc. The most natural sound that I know how to get is to set up small diaphragm condensers in an LCR format. Omnis on the sides and a wide-cardioid in the middle. The center mic stabilizes the image and the omnis give you depth and space, and generally do a better job of capturing the entire instruments. With a little care, this will work in a fairly small space too. Just remember (loosely) the old 3-to-1 rule, and you should also get decent mono-compatibility out of it.

I saw this thread a bit late and I know you already may be in the middle of the session. If not, try to get together with the 1st violinist and ask him/her to serve as virtual concertmaster (this is a traditional role, so the other players will be quite comfortable with it). The concertmaster will help set up some alternate bowings, positions, string choices and so on for the entire group. Should make it go smoother. And don't scale up the entire group--you don't want 10 firsts, 10 seconds, 10 violas and 10 celli. Something like 6/5/4/3 will get you a pretty big sound and should balance properly.

@exponentialaudio

Thanks! The players were pretty young, they'd never done one of these types of sessions before.

We did 3 passes, 2 without mutes, 1 with mutes. Each pass, they adjusted their seat a bit. You're mostly hearing my mockup in that clip. The live players are not that hot in the mix, but they're in there adding some definition.

The engineer mic'd it as follows:
4 spot mics on the players above their heads. He used Coles 4038s on the violins, a u47 on the cello and a Bayer Dynamic M160 on the viola
In the room, he used a C24 for MidSide, and a matched pair of Microtech Gefell UM70S's. the Gefell's were about 6' apart, with the C24 right behind where I was standing. Here's a blurry video of it.
Man, that room has a lot of stuff in it lol

http://instagram.com/p/BQV398tAd9S