Reply To: Accordion basics for the new guy

[Anonymous]

Hi John
I have been mic’ing accordions for 20 years at folk festivals and Irish pubs.
Yes not too close so that he can move around slightly if mic’s are on stands each side?
Some musicians like to us clip on mic’s as per small AKG and Audia-tech.
However you said he wants a Di?
Well that’s good start.
Hopefully both sides of the instrument will be mixed together in the accordion somewhere. They often have a balance control or 2 knobs sometimes.
On a QU16 you don’t have sub-groups so you will be going to FOH ‘I suspect’.
Flat is a good start however you may find you will need to make a narrow mid cut of somewhere around 400hz “on his instrument”
And there may be another mid-ish frequency you will need to pull out.
If he is also singing then the bleed from the vocal mic will also be in that mix

I would just bring the instrument into the mix WITHOUT HIM PLAYING and find where the 1st howling starts and gently with a narrow band pull that frequency out firstly on his PEQ.
They do like the instrument to sound ’round’

If he wants loud fold back get the musician to play and bring it up in FOH firstly as musicians hear the sound going out into the FOH and then bring it up slowly into monitors last.

my 2 cents worth
dave NZ