Capturing good brass recordings is fairly simple. Let's start with miking a single trumpet or trombone with an R-series mic.

1. Before setting up the mic, have the player move around the room and play until you find the spot where the instrument sounds best.


2. A good starting position is to place the mic 3 to 6 feet from the instrument and about 6 inches below the line of sight of the bell. While monitoring through headphones or taking direction from someone listening in the control room, move the mic or have the player adjust his position until you find the place where you think it sounds best. Royers are very forgiving and will sound good at various distances and angles, so anchoring the player to one position is not necessary. Many microphones will distort if the player moves too close to them, but Royers won't.

When miking a full horn section, engineers often use one Royer per player, at a distance of 1 to 2 feet. Grouping two players on one mic also works well – the off-axis response of a good ribbon mic is excellent, so having two musicians play into one ribbon mic simultaneously will yield excellent results.

For miking an entire section, you can achieve beautiful results with a Royer SF-12, SF-24 or a stereo pair of R-series microphones. Position the mic in front of the section and move the mic until you achieve an even blend. Consider how much room sound you want, since this will determine how close the mic will be.

Brass section setup for the Arturo Sandoval Trumpet Evolution recordings. Four R-121's on trumpets and four R-121's on trombones.