I use to play the fiddle at gigs whit a piezo pick -up. I like to sound as natural as possible, without effects, eco and so. Can anyone help me? Is it right to put lows down, middles up, highs down? is this one of these repetitive discussions?
Best thing to do is ditch the piezo. They don't do well with the low end and are poor at reproducing acoustic tone. Best to use a condenser, such as the AKG c1000. Roll back the low a bit so things don't get too boomy. Mics do best when placed about a foot-plus above the fiddle. You'd want to experiment, but I've found the best placement to be about a foot away, pointing down towards the base side but in line so that if you drew a line straight from the mic, it would intersect the fiddle in the area of the bass bar. Obviously a lot also depends on your instrument and playing style as well as the venue and p.a.
Good luck, is all I can say. I think it's impossible to make a fiddle sound like a fiddle. Ironically, the most acoustic-fiddle-like sound I've ever heard amplified was generated by an electric fiddle.
My cheapo fiddle w/Barkus clip-on p/u thru Barkus preamp into Roland AC-60 sounds very clean and very fiddle like. I eq flat for the most part backing down the treble side slighly and bass side up a little.
No one can correctly answer your question without hearing your sound.
A good amplified fiddle should only need EQ to adjust for the room characteristics and your personal taste. A good reverb set up will help the upper frequecies.
Mics are OK for low-mid volume otherwise use a transducer based system. Amplification is always a compromise, but great results are possible with good engineering practice and good products.
I use a piezo pickup (fishman) and I find that it sounds a little more natural if you put a very slight reverb on it. Otherwise it sounds too clean and electronic-like.
Mics are alright if you're doing smaller shows in quiter environments. I play mostly in noisy pubs so I have an issue with mics.
A good mic will sound better, but reality includes rooms with crowded stages and honking standing waves that like to feed back. I hate the sound of nearly every guitar pickup I've ever heard (that awful plastic quacking sound!), but lots of fiddle pickups sound good enough so as not to distract from the music.
Here's an experiment you can try with a little help from a couple of friends, assuming one of them is a fiddler and the other is a sound tech. Get someone to play your instrument through a sound system and listen while tweaking the EQ on the mixing board. Most boards will have one or two bands of "sweepable" mid-range EQ. This is allows you cut or boost the signal of a narrowish band that you can sweep through a wide range of frequencies.
Most sounds that need adjusting are suffering from too much of something rather than too little, so I would start by sweeping a 2db cut slowly through the full range. Listen and see if cutting (or boosting) some frequencies sounds more realistic. Then compare back and forth with the unprocessed sound to convince yourself.
If there is a muddiness to the unprocessed sound, this can often be cleared up by cutting somewhere in the range of 200-700Hz.
The mixer will also have separate low and high frequency knobs. Try these last.
Each room will have its own geometric sound processing, but this should give you a good starting point.
Have a look at the earlier thread about Fiddle Mics. Some folks contributed good experience and wisdom there.
I'm not a big fan of piezo pickups, either. Having said that, in many applications, expedience trumps sound quality. Like in a six-piece band with bass, horns and drums onstage... <G>
Mics are good. EQ is less good. If you must EQ, try rolling off some of the very highs, over 8kHz, and high-pass up to 200 - 300Hz. There isn't much fiddle down there.
Or just practice on the mic and find where it works best. If you need to stay with the piezo, try the above.
Thank you all. Sounds very interesting.One of these evenings I`m going to try your ideas in a friend`s pub (before opening). I have no panic playing in public but playing without listening myself.
fiddle equalizing
fiddle equalizing
I use to play the fiddle at gigs whit a piezo pick -up. I like to sound as natural as possible, without effects, eco and so. Can anyone help me? Is it right to put lows down, middles up, highs down? is this one of these repetitive discussions?
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by fer
Re: fiddle equalizing
Best thing to do is ditch the piezo. They don't do well with the low end and are poor at reproducing acoustic tone. Best to use a condenser, such as the AKG c1000. Roll back the low a bit so things don't get too boomy. Mics do best when placed about a foot-plus above the fiddle. You'd want to experiment, but I've found the best placement to be about a foot away, pointing down towards the base side but in line so that if you drew a line straight from the mic, it would intersect the fiddle in the area of the bass bar. Obviously a lot also depends on your instrument and playing style as well as the venue and p.a.
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by meemtp
Re: fiddle equalizing
Sometimes it is helpful to use both microphone and piezo.
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by gian marco
Re: fiddle equalizing
Good luck, is all I can say. I think it's impossible to make a fiddle sound like a fiddle. Ironically, the most acoustic-fiddle-like sound I've ever heard amplified was generated by an electric fiddle.
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by Kerri Brown
Re: fiddle equalizing
My cheapo fiddle w/Barkus clip-on p/u thru Barkus preamp into Roland AC-60 sounds very clean and very fiddle like. I eq flat for the most part backing down the treble side slighly and bass side up a little.
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by Robby B.
Re: fiddle equalizing
No one can correctly answer your question without hearing your sound.
A good amplified fiddle should only need EQ to adjust for the room characteristics and your personal taste. A good reverb set up will help the upper frequecies.
Mics are OK for low-mid volume otherwise use a transducer based system. Amplification is always a compromise, but great results are possible with good engineering practice and good products.
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by Titch {=/=}===++
Re: fiddle equalizing
I use a piezo pickup (fishman) and I find that it sounds a little more natural if you put a very slight reverb on it. Otherwise it sounds too clean and electronic-like.
Mics are alright if you're doing smaller shows in quiter environments. I play mostly in noisy pubs so I have an issue with mics.
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by natharious
Re: fiddle equalizing
A good mic will sound better, but reality includes rooms with crowded stages and honking standing waves that like to feed back. I hate the sound of nearly every guitar pickup I've ever heard (that awful plastic quacking sound!), but lots of fiddle pickups sound good enough so as not to distract from the music.
Here's an experiment you can try with a little help from a couple of friends, assuming one of them is a fiddler and the other is a sound tech. Get someone to play your instrument through a sound system and listen while tweaking the EQ on the mixing board. Most boards will have one or two bands of "sweepable" mid-range EQ. This is allows you cut or boost the signal of a narrowish band that you can sweep through a wide range of frequencies.
Most sounds that need adjusting are suffering from too much of something rather than too little, so I would start by sweeping a 2db cut slowly through the full range. Listen and see if cutting (or boosting) some frequencies sounds more realistic. Then compare back and forth with the unprocessed sound to convince yourself.
If there is a muddiness to the unprocessed sound, this can often be cleared up by cutting somewhere in the range of 200-700Hz.
The mixer will also have separate low and high frequency knobs. Try these last.
Each room will have its own geometric sound processing, but this should give you a good starting point.
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by Bob himself
Re: fiddle equalizing
Have a look at the earlier thread about Fiddle Mics. Some folks contributed good experience and wisdom there.
I'm not a big fan of piezo pickups, either. Having said that, in many applications, expedience trumps sound quality. Like in a six-piece band with bass, horns and drums onstage... <G>
Mics are good. EQ is less good. If you must EQ, try rolling off some of the very highs, over 8kHz, and high-pass up to 200 - 300Hz. There isn't much fiddle down there.
Or just practice on the mic and find where it works best. If you need to stay with the piezo, try the above.
stv
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by stv culchie
Re: fiddle equalizing
April Fool?
# Posted on April 1st 2005 by bodhran bliss
Re: fiddle equalizing
Thank you all. Sounds very interesting.One of these evenings I`m going to try your ideas in a friend`s pub (before opening). I have no panic playing in public but playing without listening myself.
# Posted on April 4th 2005 by fer