Recording Tambourine

[jimh76]

Hi

This might sound like a stupidly simple question, but how do people record and eq their Tambourine for their tracks.

When I record tam, it's his and miss whether I get what I want. Sometimes it comes our sounding distorted even though I think I've got the gain structure right. I've used SDC and LDC mics. I've not tried dynamics though.

How far away from the mic do people stand? Mic at hip level or higher or lower? SDC, LDC, dynamic? Slightly saturated, or clean.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers.
Jim

[ManFromGlass]

Are you just looking to get the jingles or some head sound too? Assuming there is a head on your tambourine.
Either way the instrument sure cuts through. I usually close mic because my room doesn’t sound good but I back off a foot or two because the tambourines I have cut so much. I don’t try and record too hot because it won’t be a featured instrument. For EQ I usually roll off as much bottom as possible unless I need some head slap if it is being played that way. But my final EQ depends on the other instrumentation too. Sometimes drastic EQ makes it sit properly in with the others, if I’m going for a colour and energy change in the chorus for example.

Other folks will have more specific ideas I suspect.

[MOF]

Try the dynamics, they’re supposed to be better for similar reasons to ribbons often being used for violin.

[The Elf]

A tambourine is a huge challenge to microphones. Record it way, WAY low. Peaks of -20dBFS would be my aim.

After recording I head for a couple of tools... a high-pass filter and a transient designer. Shave off some of the attack and cut out the 'knock' of the tambourine to taste.

[Arpangel]

One of the most difficult things to record and get a natural sound, it's almost an acid test for a good mic.
I'd say the last thing you want is a mic with a presence boost, or a high end lift. I'd go for a dynamic, like a Beyer M201, and see how that goes.

[Sam Inglis]

Use a ribbon or moving-coil dynamic mic, don't get too close, and as long as the room sounds good you'll be OK.

For me, it's much more often a case of rolling off top end than bottom end. Quite often I actually want a bit of thump at 100 or 200 Hz on a tambourine.

If you think tambourines are awkward, try handclaps!

[jimh76]

Cheers peeps

I'd never really thought of dynamics until I wrote it in my post. I just automatically thought that the high frequency of the tam would need a capacitor. I'll try my sm57 tonight and see how that goes. Room is almost square with bay window at 1 end so will try from 2 feet away with high pass filter.

Cheers

[The Bunk]

I've used an SM58 and got away with it. Used a very basic "slap against the thigh" technique with the mic at that level. One major thing it took me a while to get used to was trying to keep the playing as tight as possible as the thing obviously starts making a sound before - and indeed after - you actually slap it.
And needless to say my thigh hurt after a few takes.

[Ben Asaro]

I recorded a song last year with acoustic guitar, shaker, tambourine, and hang drum. Getting the balance right was really tough!

The tambourine was one of those half-moon Latin Percussion ones, crazy loud! We taped about half of the cymbals off, and that got it under control, but I still mic'd it from quite a distance using a Rode NTK. When it came time to mix it, I was surprised at how full sounding and dynamic it still sounded, and ended up using some heavy compression and a LPF set quite high. Sounded great at the end of the day, though!

[Hugh Robjohns]

I'd never really thought of dynamics until I wrote it in my post. I just automatically thought that the high frequency of the tam would need a capacitor.

There are several factors working against a typical capacitor mic for this instrument (and many other percussion instruments with lots of HF).

It's a hugely dynamic instrument with very big, very fast transients and a sound range that extends well into the ultrasonics.

That means there is a danger of overloading the internal impedance conversion circuitry, possibly without even realising it, resulting in intermodulation distortion products that can make the sound harsh rather than clear.

This risk can be minimised by not miking mic too close, and consider using the pad switch if there is one on the mic, too.

Secondly, the peak of the energy in a tambourine falls right around the typical resonance frequency of the diaphragm, especially for large diaphragm capacitor mics. This can make the situation described above worse...

And thirdly, if you're recording digitally you potentially have a lot of HF energy right through the Nyquist frequency. Typical half-band anti-alias filters being what they are, recording at high levels risks some aliasing distortions becoming audible too... again adding to the harshness of the sound. Recording with an unusually low peak level (-15 to -25dBFS) will help reduce this problem -- and you're probably not going to need much level in the mix anyway as the tambourine naturally cuts through very well).

Using a dynamic mic to record a tambourine (ideally, a moving-coil mic) often helps in several ways.

Firstly, its HF response will start to roll off well before 20kHz which tames the excess of the (largely inaudible) HF energy, which will help to avoid the risk of intermodulation distortions in the preamp and potential aliasing issues in a digital recorder.

There's no impedance conversion circuitry to overload, and the diaphragm resonance is more damped and typically at a much lower frequency, too, so those potential problems go away.

And the inherent inertia of a moving-coil capsule means the transients will be naturally squashed, acting like a built-in peak compressor or limiter, giving a fuller and more 'finished' sound from the outset.

If you use a stage vocal moving-coil mic (SM57/SM58 and the like) , and mic at a distance, then their built-in proximity-effect roll-off will also provide some helpful high-pass filtering too.

[CS70]

I've recorded a few and learned a few lessons. Only tambourines with no "skin" - just the.. whatever they are called, the mini-cymbals

- Do not close mic. Typically I would have it not so much far away from the mic on the horizontal plane, but on the vertical. Basically if you have mic set up for vox, the thing will be shaken a little over your waist height.

- Monitor! The mic, room and vertical position combo affect the sound, so you really want to hear it. Going blind you may get lucky, but you may not.

- The way it's shaken matters, a lot. Drummers are often good at it. Backing vocalists, often less so - unless they are three For a specific arrangement you really want to think of the kind of beat and sustain you want. You can cut stuff away in post, but it's as interesting as watching paint dry, and speed changes (due to insecurity on a pattern) are hard to fix. For the same reason, the arrangement is important as well.

- On the other side, it's often possible to cut&paste good sections without losing feel, which is a plus.

- Record two three beat variants with the tambourine in the same position, if you're not yet sure of what you want or you have to record before having the arrangement clear in your mind. Often mixing and matching in different sections of the track is useful,

- Be prepared to do some work in post anyways.

[CS70]

Oh and yeah, a 58 works just fine.

[jimh76]

Fantastic peeps

I was worried people would be saying "what? You can't even record a simple Tambourine....?!"

Sounds like I'm struggling with the best....

Jim