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Nice Microphones do help a lot!

breezybellows

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Using nice microphones does make a difference. I was of the opinion that internal mics were better than external mics. I tried using 2 external mics today and I really liked the output.



Thats a huge improvement over how it sounds with the phone's microphone.

 
Cheap internal vs good external, externals will always win.

Talking good internal vs good externals, I feel internals are better.

I have $1300 SE Electronics SE4400 condenser mics and Limex 10 mic right and 5 left system and the Limex to.me sounds slightly better AND gives way more separation/control.

More than anything, room acoustics and the post-production have a bigger impact than mics. I have made $20 external mics sound as good as $500 external mics with good post processing.
 
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Cheap internal vs good external, externals will always win.

Talking good internal vs good externals, I feel internals are better.

I have $1300 SE Electronics SE4400 condenser mics and Limex 10 mic right and 5 left system and the Limex to.me sounds slightly better AND gives way more separation/control.
I have a harmonik system installed in my other free bass. While it provides better isolation is left and right hand, I still liked the external microphone better. I should also note that the comparison is based on the settings I have on my harmonik. I usually keep the volume very low so that it doesn't pick up button/key noise.
 
For performing internal mics can be very good and give constant volume (no distance between player and mics to consider).
But for recording I always use external mics. I currently use a Tascam 40 recorder with a pair of AKG C214 mics for my recordings.
In the past I have used a Zoom H2 digital recorder (with its own built-in mics) and I can already hear the Tascam with its own built-in mics is better and with the AKG mics it is even better. Good microphones do make a difference!
 
Piling on to what was already said... internals may have their place if you're playing in a band and need to be amplified... but only externals can tell you what your audience is going to hear sitting at a given distance from you.
 
with the advent of tiktok reels and the like, I find myself skipping many recordings that have processing more and more
I pretty much prefer the raw authentic 'kitchen' recordings of am ad-hoc piece by any good player - don't mind if on a potatoe mic

I feel with the rise of AI content, rawauthenticity will become the new gold
 
For performing internal mics can be very good and give constant volume (no distance between player and mics to consider).
But for recording I always use external mics. I currently use a Tascam 40 recorder with a pair of AKG C214 mics for my recordings.

I have the Tascam DR-40. I had low expectations for the Tascam internal mics but they make a better recording than external Sennheiser mics. It's great for recording accordion though - I can record in 4-track mode with the Tascam mics and my accordion's internal mics.
 
I have the Tascam DR-40. I had low expectations for the Tascam internal mics but they make a better recording than external Sennheiser mics. It's great for recording accordion though - I can record in 4-track mode with the Tascam mics and my accordion's internal mics.
That's good to hear. So far I have made some rehearsal recordings with the Tascam internal mics and they were fine, and I make my main recordings with the Tascam plus the AKG mics. I have not tried them in combination with the internal mics (of the Tascam or of my accordion). I'm always a bit worried about phase differences between different mics picking up the same sound. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much...
 
I think Piotr uses external mikes: they work for him!
They also work well for me too. :)
But there is one aspect that is very evident in both our videos, external mic’s are a visual PITA. Piotr tries to hide them by using a side angle and severe close-ups of only his right hand, where I choose slightly less effective mic placement and variable video zoom angles to choose from and the mic’s are easily visible in the shot. Now, neither is worse than the other, just compromises to accept when using external mics. I won’t discuss the issues with trying to get consistent volumes and tone from the left side as the left hand moves closer and further from the left side mic.

If your preference is external, go for it. For me, choice is more based on what instrument I will use. With the Roland, It will be both wireless and no mics, ever. On the Beltuna, those mics rule and that is the only method I will use with that accordion. On my Gola and other “mic-less” accordions, I will need to use external mics, but believe me when I say that if it were possible to do reasonably, all my accordions would be mic’ed the same way as the Beltuna system, if it wasn’t so ugly externally… lol
 
They also work well for me too. :)
But there is one aspect that is very evident in both our videos, external mic’s are a visual PITA. ...
You can either put mics left and right far enough away to not be in the video shot. (As video recordings to wider and wider nowadays, from 4:3 to 16:9 to 21:9... that becomes more and more difficult.)
The other alternative is playback. Record the audio first, and then play in sync with the recording while recording the images. This is actually done a lot and sometimes you can tell in (professional) videos that the acoustics of the recording do not match the scene where the video is shot (audio acoustics are then too good for the video location) and sometimes you can even tell that the video is "played" using a different accordion than what was used for the audio.
 
That's good to hear. So far I have made some rehearsal recordings with the Tascam internal mics and they were fine, and I make my main recordings with the Tascam plus the AKG mics. I have not tried them in combination with the internal mics (of the Tascam or of my accordion). I'm always a bit worried about phase differences between different mics picking up the same sound. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much...
Utilize the phase difference. A good combination I use is closeup microphony sent into a wet-only stereo reverb for volume stereophony and A-B stereo in a bit of distance (two microphones pointing parallel with a distance resulting in about 1ms of phase difference for signals from the left and right end of the sound stage). Because the sound stage is narrow compared to the distance, this means putting the mics apart further than just one head of distance.

That gives you the A-B phase differences as the early signal (which determines directional hearing due to phase differences) and a left/right wet reverb with good volume separation. The result works well on headphones and stereo sets and even to some degree on laptop speakers.
 
You can either put mics left and right far enough away to not be in the video shot. (As video recordings to wider and wider nowadays, from 4:3 to 16:9 to 21:9... that becomes more and more difficult.)
The other alternative is playback. Record the audio first, and then play in sync with the recording while recording the images. This is actually done a lot and sometimes you can tell in (professional) videos that the acoustics of the recording do not match the scene where the video is shot (audio acoustics are then too good for the video location) and sometimes you can even tell that the video is "played" using a different accordion than what was used for the audio.
I hope that you know that I already knew all of that. :)

My solution (which works REALLY well) is green screens, you can shoot "the talent" in any aspect ratio you want (I shoot in 4:3 or 3:2 at the highest resolutions the equipment offers) and place that in any frame that I want, usually at 16:9, I am not in to the cinematic or anamorphic resolutions which work best in situations you are trying to show off the surrounding scenes. 4:3 is the old TV standard and that was actually REALLY good for framing in an accordionist. With green screens it became easy to "carve out" the mics as long as the bellows didn't slip behind them while making a big bellows pull.

The thing is I am a stickler for quality, I absolutely hate shitty quality green screen work, even the flickering of a single hair on my head bothers me and I work and test so that in future videos its not there and I have to live within my personal and financial limitations.

Sound quality is also important for me... actually that is priority #1 (which is a bit of a blessing, because to do *good* video is a hundred times harder, but thankfully bad videos with good audio are easier to watch and more popular than good video with bad audio). I have never played to a video in synch (backing track aside!), I kind of feel it is cheating, but that said, I know that as my desire to do better videos in the future grows, that sometime it is going to happen, and it will be a lot of fun for me.

When I first started looking at videos of accordionists on Vimeo and YouTube, they are all static shots of someone sitting and playing, 99% of the time using the mics from their cellphone or camera. I moved fast to recording the audio separately and instantly my videos were better (to me! Everyone has the right to their own opinion, right?). Once that was done, I worked on that static look, I introduced multiple cameras, green screen and motion in to the videos and I enjoyed that a lot. The "look" now became near as important as the music of the video. My pleasure level looking at the results grew exponentially.

My big limitation is that I am ONE person doing it all alone (and that is something that I do not want to change). I am the performer, the musician, sound engineer, lighting engineer, set designer and videographer of multiple cameras and multiple recording devices. The professionals have sound studios with many people working every minutia with many more people covering every other task that happens.

They can move to different locations, shoot while syncing to pre-recorded music and move on... try doing that alone! Sure it is possible, and I will do it one day just to say I did it, but WOW, the amount of work involved compared to sitting in the basement, turning on the cellphone and playing a tune is astronomically more complex and difficult.

Looking back now, I think that I am up to something like 8 years of studying and testing (probably well over a thousand mini video tests and even more in hours invested), to see if I like an effect or if it appears what I want it to look like and I have many more hours coming simply because I enjoy it. I like making educational or "how I did it" videos, it's also part of what I like to do.

All that said, we're living in a wonderful time, technologically speaking, where a single person sitting on their bed in front of a small $100 laptop, a $50 audio interface and a fair quality mic or 2 can put out quality audio files so good that most people cannot tell you if it was made in the finest studios around today, or not!
 
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The audio team that Hrstevich has available seem to have their miking well organised:
I agree! That is an example of great sound through simplicity. The simplicity of using a wonderfully natural reverberant location (that looks GREAT), a singular instrument using a singular mic (albeit it has to be a good one!) and the simplicity of making a MONO soundtrack.

I am no pro sound engineer, but I would say that if he had an instrument that had an expertly designed and installed internal stereo mic system along with 2 external mics to the sides and 2 more mics behind the altar and about 10 feet high facing in to the wall behind (for capturing the room ambiance) and an awesome sound engineer, would give you an amazing stereo image of a stellar performance.

Here is the kicker, though... I wonder how many people would even care? I personally know that I would more enjoy it if it was a stereo audio file, but the technology is not the focus of a video like this... it is the stellar playing of an expert bayanist. :)
 
I agree! That is an example of great sound through simplicity. The simplicity of using a wonderfully natural reverberant location (that looks GREAT), a singular instrument using a singular mic (albeit it has to be a good one!) and the simplicity of making a MONO soundtrack.

I am no pro sound engineer, but I would say that if he had an instrument that had an expertly designed and installed internal stereo mic system along with 2 external mics to the sides and 2 more mics behind the altar and about 10 feet high facing in to the wall behind (for capturing the room ambiance) and an awesome sound engineer, would give you an amazing stereo image of a stellar performance.

Here is the kicker, though... I wonder how many people would even care? I personally know that I would more enjoy it if it was a stereo audio file, but the technology is not the focus of a video like this... it is the stellar playing of an expert bayanist. :)

Have a look at some of his other videos where there appear to be several mics being used.
 
You mentioned my recordings. This is how I use Audio Technica external microphones and I am very pleased with them. Sometimes you can see them in recordings, but it doesn't bother me.
I compared the AT 4040/2020 to the small ATM350. Each of them has a different use.
For a home studio, I recommend large capacity ones.
 
I thing I mentioned before that the AT2020 were the best performance/budget quality mics on the market. They were on my list until I heard the SE4400a.
 
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