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Micing accordion


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We are filming a polka dance in August, in Colorado and I need suggestions for micing the accordion player's right side - the keyboard /melody side - of the accordion. Problem I ran into the last time I did this was that the acc. player's right hand is in constant motion, squeezing and drawing the instrument, while the left side is more stable since he rests it on his left knee. So I was able to get a good track of the left/bass side

using a mic on stand, but the right side was not so good. Its going to require a mic mounted to the accordion. This particular accordion does have an internal stereo mic system that I can split off of , but I had problems getting a clean feed from it last time. The other problem I had was the trombone player stands next to where the accordion player sits , and then he tends to turn toward the accordion player and blow trombone lines into the accordion mic. But that's a different problem. Thanks people .

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problem solving is the biggest part of the gig...

I'd say it depends on a number of factors, some of which you have already mentioned, and others as well, including what is available and/or budgeted...

get the instrument in advance and figure out the internal mic..?

Edited by studiomprd
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I tried various lavs on Pauline Oliveros' accordions, but the best was a stereo Schoeps pair in front of her and the feed from her built in mics.  Maybe work on the guy's built-ins--with the band all on top of each other that's your best shot at a clean feed.  Worth recording if you can even if it's a little buzzy etc--could be cleaned up in post.

 

philp

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I tried various lavs on Pauline Oliveros' accordions, but the best was a stereo Schoeps pair in front of her and the feed from her built in mics. 

+1 on this topic, even if I'm not that lucky to have to deal with Pauline Oliveros accordions....a nice stereo pair worked best for me :)

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You can not put a lav on an accordion. No place to put the Mic. Too much mechanical noise from the keys. But if you really have to place it on the side of the circle keys not the piano keys.

Piano keys make more noise then circle once.

You can try on the harness...

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I had to record a Mexican Ranchero Band once and because they were wearing cowboy hats, we placed DPA's under the brim of the hats and ran the wires either around the ear down the back of the neck or up the inside of the hat down the back of the neck, all down to the packs on their backs.  Something about the head area with a mic pointed down works well with dialog and many strapped instruments.

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You can not put a lav on an accordion. No place to put the Mic. Too much mechanical noise from the keys. But if you really have to place it on the side of the circle keys not the piano keys.

Piano keys make more noise then circle once.

You can try on the harness...

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk

Not true, amigo, lavs worked pretty well for me on occasion, esp when the instrument had no built-in mics and the player was in the middle of a loud band (so stereo mic didn't help much).

 

philp

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Also try a baffle of some sort to block the trombone a bit from bleeding into the accordion mics. 

Clear plexi would be ideal, (low profile and no line of sight blockage for players) unless you want some absorption.  

Then try foam, like sonex type studio panels, which would also look presentable.  

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