Have any of you fiddle players tried the new Shadow NFX pickup? Shadow make big claims for their new technology and it does slip on and off your fiddle very easily. It's also quire reasonably priced. There's a YouTube video here:
To be honest it sounds terrible to me in this video. However, there could be a number of factors at play here - the player, the recording technology, the sound quality on my computer. Just wondering if anybody has actually tried it and what they think.
I just wonder whether it's a good idea to clamp something that size to the belly of the fiddle in an area where it resonates well (i.e. the bass side of the bridge). I would expect the vibrations of the belly to be dampened accordingly. As an aside, that's why you should be careful when attaching a chin rest to try to get it as close to the edge as you can (not all chin rest designs enable you to do this easily).
Lazyhound, it seems to me that it's no big deal that the fiddle's acoustics would be impaired if the pickup is getting what it needs to amplify the sound. People will be listening to what's coming out of the speakers, not the f-holes.
Clamping the preamp isn't an issue - it only touches at the edge, over the rib of the instrument, like a chin rest. But what is an issue is that the transducers are under the bridge, amplifying the vibrations of the bridge, not the sound of the fiddle. These things are great if you just want to get a sound that you can feed into effects pedals or whatever. But if you want to capture the true sound of the instrument a microphone is the only way to do it.
I agree that a microphone is the only way to get a true acoustic sound. However, for a gigging musician it really has to be some kind of pickup. Llig thanks for confirming my thoughts. But is it the pickup or the the player or even the instrument that sounds rubbish? To my ears there is an artificial quality to the sound. It sounds like the unit is digitally sampling at a not very impressive rate.
It sounds a bit like those awful Line6 guitar amplifiers. These employ digital sampling technology and lots of cool, clever stuff. They might sound good to an engineer but they won't fool a musician.
I realise that the ribs of a fiddle are not designed to carry any weight but I think the electronic unit of the NFX is very lightweight. The only thing to do is bring my fiddle to the shop and try it out. I'll report my findings here.
The reason it sounds rubbish is that it is a pickup. All it picks up are the vibrations passing from the strings down through the bridge. All the tonal shaping on the violin is done by the plates and the air-body, and you are bypassing that. What you hear on that clip is about as good as you will get from a bridge pickup, if you want better you have to go to a mic.
Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
Have any of you fiddle players tried the new Shadow NFX pickup? Shadow make big claims for their new technology and it does slip on and off your fiddle very easily. It's also quire reasonably priced. There's a YouTube video here:
http://technorati.com/videos/youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgayFUACQEB8
To be honest it sounds terrible to me in this video. However, there could be a number of factors at play here - the player, the recording technology, the sound quality on my computer. Just wondering if anybody has actually tried it and what they think.
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by SteelPlayer
Re: Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
I've got decent speakers plugged into my mac and it sounded rubbish.
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by ...
Re: Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
I just wonder whether it's a good idea to clamp something that size to the belly of the fiddle in an area where it resonates well (i.e. the bass side of the bridge). I would expect the vibrations of the belly to be dampened accordingly. As an aside, that's why you should be careful when attaching a chin rest to try to get it as close to the edge as you can (not all chin rest designs enable you to do this easily).
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
Lazyhound, it seems to me that it's no big deal that the fiddle's acoustics would be impaired if the pickup is getting what it needs to amplify the sound. People will be listening to what's coming out of the speakers, not the f-holes.
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by hotsauce
Re: Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
Clamping the preamp isn't an issue - it only touches at the edge, over the rib of the instrument, like a chin rest. But what is an issue is that the transducers are under the bridge, amplifying the vibrations of the bridge, not the sound of the fiddle. These things are great if you just want to get a sound that you can feed into effects pedals or whatever. But if you want to capture the true sound of the instrument a microphone is the only way to do it.
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by skreech
Re: Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
I agree that a microphone is the only way to get a true acoustic sound. However, for a gigging musician it really has to be some kind of pickup. Llig thanks for confirming my thoughts. But is it the pickup or the the player or even the instrument that sounds rubbish? To my ears there is an artificial quality to the sound. It sounds like the unit is digitally sampling at a not very impressive rate.
It sounds a bit like those awful Line6 guitar amplifiers. These employ digital sampling technology and lots of cool, clever stuff. They might sound good to an engineer but they won't fool a musician.
I realise that the ribs of a fiddle are not designed to carry any weight but I think the electronic unit of the NFX is very lightweight. The only thing to do is bring my fiddle to the shop and try it out. I'll report my findings here.
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by SteelPlayer
Re: Shadow NFX fiddle pickup
The reason it sounds rubbish is that it is a pickup. All it picks up are the vibrations passing from the strings down through the bridge. All the tonal shaping on the violin is done by the plates and the air-body, and you are bypassing that. What you hear on that clip is about as good as you will get from a bridge pickup, if you want better you have to go to a mic.
I don't know why you think you can't uses a mic as a gigging musician - practically everyone I know does. This is what the big boys are using at the moment:http://www.dpamicrophones.com/en/products.aspx?c=item&category=206&item=24329
# Posted on April 16th 2009 by skreech