weird sound in recording: digital clipping?

[lesouvage]

I have done a recording session with a Hungarian Gypsy orchestra. At the beginning of the recording a weird sound of the violin makes me wonder what went wrong. Digital clipping can hardly be the case because of the not to top gaining during recording, but on the other hand it doesn’t sound like a violin original sound. Can anybody tell me what actually causes the weird sound. I attached the first 30 seconds of the recording. Thanks in advance.

Erik

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[Flo84]

Hi !
Where signal come from ? mic on a stand, inboard mic, piezzo ?
At the beginning I hear noise, as tapping on the violin. Probably same thing in the rest of mp3…
Maybe check fixation of mic, wire or connector in/on the violin ?

Florent

[lesouvage]

There was a shure beta 98h clipped on the violin and a Sennheiser E614 on a stand above the violin.

The tapping on the violin is not really the problem. It is the weird violin sound at the very beginning that I can’t figure out where it comes from and what it is.

[airickess]

That’s not from your console. That sounds like some noise generated by the player or the instrument. It could be the player pressing his fingers down on the strings prior to playing. I won’t worry about it. Just edit out that sound.

[dpdan]

I would completely eliminate (do not use) the sound from the clipped on microphone. Besides, horrible phasing issues will be heard if more than one mic is in the vicinity of the instrument.

This recording is not how a violin is supposed to be heard.
The sound before the violinist starts playing is the fingers on the strings, he/she is making sure that
the pitch (placement of her fingers on the strings) is correct. They did not intend for that to be in the recording. The microphone touching the instrument is picking up terrible vibration when he/she wiggles their hand for vibrato.

Just don’t ever mic a violin that close unless you are in a predicament where the violin needs to be reinforced through a sound system, but a Shure mic small enough to clip on is never going to provide good sound, nothing compared to a mic above the instrument. Even a mounted DPA mic is not as good…. assuming the overhead microphone is of good quality and not a dynamic mic of any kind.

[Anonymous]

For live reinforcement I often strap a lapel style mic behind the bridge…

Not a trick for a pure recording though…

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