Advice on recording a cello

[YamPaula]

Any pieces of advice on recording a cello? I am a newbie and just asked a friend to come to my "home studio" to record some cello samples. Is ther anything that I should know during the process not to waste hours after realizing that the sound quality is poor

[geographyhorse]

I have no idea how to mic a cello. I assume I'd try to shotgun it with an sm57 and go from there, but I'd really be flailing around in the dark from there.

[john]

What type of microphones do you have? Everything else flows from that.

[YamPaula]

Well, that's default Shure SM57, we tried to record violin and cello at closet with all the walls covered with blankets. I read Moby recorded things this way, so guess that's not the worst way, right? And one more thing, is there any difference if violin is electric?

[john]

An acoustic violin (ie normal body) with a bug, or a purely electric violin? It greatly depends on if you want to capture some tonal specifics from the acoustic body or the environment you are recording in. It can also depend on the quality of the bug in the violin. If the bug is a good quality and you don't care about the acoustic signature, it would be simpler to record via DI, ie plug in the electric violin to a line input. Noise might also be a real factor that helps you decide.

 

That said, use your ears. I am a firm believer in going by the results you get.