My New Dudley 5-string ....Loving it !!

[fiddler59]

These are some pics of my new Dudley 5-string......slightly smaller model (14" instead of 14.5" in length)

Cannone pattern. Slightly deeper in the ribs than his other model. English sycamore back and sides, Ebony strip in the middle of the neck. Old engelmann spruce top....slightly wider at the nut...bubinga strip in the middle of the fingerboard. Great tone and projection !!! I am lovin it...

David Blackmon

[Allan Speers]

Massive fiddle lust ....

I just GOTTA get me a 5 string one of these days.

I love the Ebony stripe, my Kobayashi has something similar.

 Very striking. Killer varnish as well.

Fiddler, any chance we could here an audio clip of this baby?

 I'm really dying to know what they sound like.

[Doug Rice]

Lovely work Barry. David, bring us some tunes!

[BarryD]

If you want to hear it go here http://www.myspace.com/dudleyviolins and you can hear this fiddle being played.

[MANFIO]

Hi Barry! Quite nice violin and I loved the sound sample, the fidler is quite good indeed!

[Allan Speers]

Yeah, that guy cooks.  Is his name really "Curley Maple?"

 too funny.

Very nice sounding fiddle, Barry, considering it's new.  (A

bit too closely-mic'ed for my taste, but good enough)

I'd love to hear one that's had a chance to open up.  I'd also

like to hear one played slowly, with emphasis on the C-string.

 -And, of course, it would be great to hear this one compared

to the standard, larger model.  You should get a bunch of

sound-samples on your website. 5-bangers are definitely

the future for non-classical players.

[BarryD]

I am talking to a classical player to see if I can get some classical stuff recorded. The player is David Blackmon. He has played with Jerry Reed, Wide Spread Panic and Blueground Undergrass. He was classically trained as a kid and is quite talented. He also plays a hot Mandolin too.

[fiddler59]

Since I was the fiddle player and the engineer on the fiddle tune on Barry's myspace page, I'll make a brief comment. First I would like to thank everyone for the kind words. It truley means more than I can say in words coming from a forum that is focused more in the classical realm. I know the people on this forum get to here a lot of fantastic players...so again thank you. The fiddle on that track was recorded with a KEL Audio HM-1 microphone placed about 2.5 ft. away from the instrument overhead slightly to the left. The microphone was then inputed into a Sebatron VMP-4000 Mic preamp, then into an Echo Layla 3g 8-in 8-out sound card. The recording software was a DAW called Reaper. No eq or compression was used on any of the instruments. Just a little reverb on the master out on mix down to give the track some ambience...smooth things out a little. That was my wife Noel Blackmon on acoustic guitar and Christian Lopez on mandolin We still need to add our bass player, Chris Enghauser.....touch up the mixing and master the recordings. I'm having a lot of fun doing this as I have been the fiddle player on a few recording sessions in my 40 years of playing but this is my first attempt at being the engineer as well.

Again, Thank You

David Blackmon

[Allan Speers]

David,

that a fine job for a first-attempt as engineer.  The guitar

sounds especially good.

2.5 feet is REALLY too close for violin!  Holy cow...

Even for pop / Nashville stuff, you should go for maybe

4-5 feet.  The violin is literally one of the hardest

instruments to record well, mostly because its various frequency

clusters radiate out in different directions.  Your recording

is a little bit dark, or mids-heavy.  I assumed this was

because the fiddle is new, but it could simply be that you were too

close to capture all the HF component.  Probably a combination

of both. 

My favorite set-up is to use what's called "A-B stereo."

 That's two omni mics out front, maybe 4-8 feet away (genre

dependant) and 5 - 1o feet apart (room dependant) This

requires a good sounding room, and an expensive mic / pre setup, so

probably not for you right now.

with a single mic, you are in exactly the right place (up &

slightly off to the bass side, if I read your post correctly) just

too close. I also prefer a good ribbon mic to a

condenser, as they don't accentuate the harshness many violins

have.  However, Barry's fiddle seems to have a very smooth,

controlled upper midrange, so this doesn't seem to be a problem

here.

Last-  don't be afraid of a little compression, especially

when close-mic'ing.  Remember that when a listener

is in the audience, say 20 - 50 feet away, there is quite a bit of

natural compression happening, simply from mechanical loss as the

sound waves propogate through the air molecules. Studio

compression can't mimic this perfectly, but it's the best we have.

Notice on your recording how some notes jump out,

volume-wise?  I really like the fact that the violin itself

has has that expression in it (Kudos, Barry) but if you knock that

down with, say, 2-to-one and just a few DB on the peaks (faster

attack than normal) it would be easier to listen to.

Onward and upward.  I look forward to more sound clips of

these violins, so please keep 'em coming!

[fiddler59]

Allan.

I have done hundreds of recording seesions, some in Nashville, a few in LA, some in New York, and a whole boat load in Atlanta and Athens GA, and I have never encountered an engineer that miced my fiddle 4-5 feet away from the instrument. 2.5 to 3.5 ft. is the norm for most sessions I have worked. I have done some sessions where the engineer has used 2 mics....one placed as I have stated before and another placed further away as a room mic. I too prefer a nice ribbon such as a Coles or Beyer M160 but I busted the bank acct. on mic pres a while back. I was going for a more mid heavey sound in mic placement because I am a fiddler and fiddlers (like me) like a darker more midrangey kind of tone if you will. If you have ever played

one of the fiddles used by Darol Anger, Aubrey Hanie, Kenny Baker Casey Driessen....etc. you will see what I mean. Fiddlers as a rule prefer these kinds of tones. I was doing a workshop with Aubrey a couple of years ago and he had the opportunity to play a couple of great Cremonese violins (Strad and a Del Gesu) and he said as great as they were they would not be good for fiddling. Yea....if I would have had a Coles or some other nice ribbon mic it would have been nice but it just ain't in the cards right now. Thanx for the kind words on the tracks though it really does mean a lot and I'll definantly take your suggestions on compression and such and try to put them to good use. As I say I am pretty new at the engineering thing. It seems like a bottomless pit of info to learn !!!

David Blackmon

[Allan Speers]

Interesting that our experiences differ that much.  I was a

tracking engineer in Nashville for about 5 years, (way back when I

still had hair)  and never so it done that close.

I guess it could work if you're careful,

but the gain in presence is a trade-off in lost HF and overall

complexity. Maybe these days Nashville may

be trying to compete more with rock or something, but I don't

think that's a healthy trend.  (nor is all the Auto-Tune

usage, but I digress...)

BTW, I do know fiddles (I even own one made by Grover Sutton -no

chance of ever calling that one a "violin" !) and understand the

difference in tone. I am in fact a Pop & country musician, not

classical. 2 1/2 feet still just doesn't work for me.

 But that's cool.  All sorts of ways to approach it.

Anyway, your playing just SMOKES.  I'd love to hear more.

[maestramusica]

I'm curious- and intrigued about the new 5 string fiddles. I'm a violinist, but I also currently teach a violist, and and am thinking it would be a good strategy to have a 5 string so I could get down to the C string notes too. I have heard/ read that both 5 string violins and violas exist, and I'm guessing that which you choose would be dependent on which finger stretch you're accustomed to. Is this correct?

I agree about David's playing- Love it!

[BarryD]

Many teachers who teach both violin and viola like the 5 string instrument because they only need one instrument to teach both groups of students. Whether you go with a violin with a "C" string or a viola with an "E" string may be determined by which instrument you feel the most comfortable with.

[fiddler59]

Allan, I'll also give the 4-5 ft. approach on mici placement too, I have a friend who I just talked too that said I could borrow his Royer so I'll definantly give it a shot and see what gives......fiddles are certainly one of the most difficult of all instruments to mic. I have not done any sessions in Nashville in years but I do still work in Atlanta and Athens GA some....

David Blackmon