I’m impressed by how often Wikipedia has an article on any topic I want to know about. I was looking for information on microphone techniques and the topic Microphone Practice even had diagrams. I also discovered WikiRecording, which had really helpful articles. Check out their category page Microphone Techniques. They have manuals for a lot of equipment, too.

I was trying to make a budget for a future Guild project – recording sessions for Body and Soul songs, with singer and chamber ensemble. I was trying to decide if I should go to someone else’s studio or if my live concert recording methods would give me a compelling CD-quality result. I don’t have the equipment for individual micing of more that 2 players. I only have four channels and I would use 2 channels for a stereo overview of the ensemble, then an individual mic for the singer, at least. Would I need to mic the three instrumentalists too? Another drawback is that I don’t have a monitoring and playback setup so the musicians can listen either, just headphones for me.

So I think I should find the right studio, and learn from what happens in the session.