Members Rimmer Posted March 21, 2011 Members Share Posted March 21, 2011 Hi Guys I've been doing some recording with a blues/folk artist and his Harmonica player was supposed to bring his dedicate mic (which I think was a Shure but he couldn't remember the model number) but he forgot it. We ended up doing some temporary takes with an SM57 then a 58 as the 57 was too brash. I'm not sure if he is going to come back next time with or without his mic (flakey..) so I was wondering what mics you guys had some success with for a traditional (not huge) sound. It's not solo'ing at any time, just humming along in the background along with a couple of electric guitars and an acoustic. I won't list all the mics I have but I have quite a few from a Mojave MA-200/Blue Baby Bottle across to a load of 58's, 57's etc... Any information on any surprise success storis with non-dedicated mics appreciated.. Regards. Rimmer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flogger59 Posted March 21, 2011 Members Share Posted March 21, 2011 The Shure Green Bullet and the discontinued Astatic Blue Line were pretty popular. They're pretty crappy as mics go, but they work on harp. Try your lousiest dynamic mic, it could work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MrJoshua Posted March 21, 2011 Members Share Posted March 21, 2011 I've had good luck with an SM-57 plugged into a small tube guitar amp with a ribbon mic in front of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rimmer Posted March 21, 2011 Author Members Share Posted March 21, 2011 Cheers guys.. The SM57 might have sort of nailed it but it was pumped through an SM57 mic'd Fender cab using the Sm57 as the Harp mic. Worked in a average way.. Flogger. The Green Bullet was oddly the mic he was going to bring, as far as I understand now.. That'll probably nail it.. Regards. Rimmer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurtdaniel1 Posted April 14, 2011 Members Share Posted April 14, 2011 i got good results micing harmonica with an i-5 through a chameleon labs 7602. the eq helped and i was able to push it to overdrive a little to good effect.check this: harmonica lessons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted April 14, 2011 Members Share Posted April 14, 2011 The bullet through a small tube amp and micing the amp will give a good blues tone for sure. I did some harmonica parts on an older 60s tune awhile back. I think I tried every mic in my arsonal for direct recording and nothing was working the way I wanted. I had picked up a bunch of these when they were selling these mini condencers for $5 apiece. http://www.karmamics.com/shop/K-Micro-Matched-Pair.html Littel bugger kicked butt for some great clean harp. I was originally going to experiment putting the mics inside of acoustic drums, but never got around to it. I'm not a great harp player and for this one song I was more focused on the notes than getting the whole mic moving thing down. With The small condencer held with one hand about 3" away I was able to get some fantasticly clean full bodied tone. I could then dirty it up and add some reverb in the box after it was tracked. The mics are really small. they are built into an XLR jack so it was like holding the end of a mic cable. i was able to hold it between two fingers and still use my hands for the wah wah harp effect and have it come through. I want able to do that with a normal mic unless I had the mic in a stand and stood in front of it like a singer would micing it with more distance. i tried that with a large diaphram and it just didnt work. The littel condencer up close like that just did the trick for me. maybe if you try a mini overhead mic you may be able to get simular results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members TIMKEYS Posted April 14, 2011 Members Share Posted April 14, 2011 We have quite a few guys who sit in with us and play cross harp. By far the worst sounding are the guys that drag in an amp. They pretty well always end up with feedback and crappy tone. A bullet or other mic of their choice straight through the board always seems to sound the best. We have a couple really bomb ass harp players down here and a couple that are here part of the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Quarterwave Posted April 30, 2011 Members Share Posted April 30, 2011 Bullet straight into the board is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BigAl10 Posted May 4, 2011 Members Share Posted May 4, 2011 I second the SM57 route! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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