Like everyone, and everyone else, I strive to think that I'm doing things "right," in other words: if the Martian looking down on me was also a recording engineer, he/she/it'd say, "yeah, sure, looks rational-- given the planetary differences, of course."

But then every so often some random, desperation ploy will be the perfect, unifying element. To all our surprises!

Take a harpsichord, please. The jam packed area infront of the pews in the gargantuan church left no room on the floor for miking it, so I hastily improvised a perch on the organ player's platform (I got the stage manager to approve this dubious scheme) and the 'chord's lid would only be marginally opened, so a trusty CM4 dangling somewhere over the box, well #@!&!! you do what you can do, am I rational or am I rational?

Turned out... that microphone, pointing straight downward, was the key to a full-spectrum capture of the orchestra, and just enough of the immense room 'verb to boot... like... it should have been the first thing to go up. Who could ever know?

Well we get lucky sometimes.

Yeah, that's a nice Balance.

Bet you can't do it again!

And therein lies our biggest problem.

D.

Yeah, many a famous story of the mistake that sounded great and impossible to repeat.

Guitar intro from Money for Nothing has been endlessly pursued by the original performer with considerable resources, but to no avail.

Joel is in trouble if they say "Yes that's perfect we'd like that every week."

Still, a slightly happy problem.

be grateful that the spooks of location recording smiled on you that day, and don't let them see you getting cocky about it. Desperation can often lead to good results, except when it doesn't.

This brings up a troubling conclusion I've arrived at about the "theoretically" impassive objects of the material world...

These objects put on a pretty good show of being inanimate, only reacting in a Newtonian way to the push-me pull-yous of physical forces... but I swear...

The "devious" ways somehow they QUITE OFTEN become creative in landing or bouncing or shimmy-shimmy coco popping in the most unlikely ways, almost like there is a conscious force out to wreak havoc, or at least wallow in practical jokery... one time the micro SD card leapt out of a camera, landed on the well-lit floor, and vanished... half an hour later, with the assistance of a flashlight and magnifying glass... it had miraculously found a crevice in the floorboards, and slipped right into it, free falling from four feet in the air... that was my exact reaction... "Try to do this! Do it a thousand times, you never could!"

...but why didn't you (a sdc as) a blm underneath the harpsicord?

Black Lives Matter? Underneath a harpsichord? You've lost me.

Boundary Layer Microphone aka the old Crown (or Realistic/Tandy) style PZM…a mic element mounted on a plate with a minuscule gap, the plate itself typically attached to the wall or floor… Im sure you’re familiar with the broad concept ?

ddy is suggesting to lay a small diaphragm condensor mic (omni or cardioid) flat on its side on the floor under the terpsichore, to functionally emulate the BLM/PZM principle…at no cost !

OH! My misinterpretation.

I guess I was deferring to an old harpsichord player's advice that the "best" way to mic the instrument was to place the mic something like 7 or 8 feet up in the air, near over the end of the box, just out infront enough to "see" the strings directly.

Never had much luck with underneathings... wow, "luck," shiver in my bones when I think how much that one aspect is so determinative of so much in life...

Speaking of bones, I couldn't help wondering if the 'best way to mic a harpsichord' should produce an accurate recording of "two skeletons copulating on a tin roof in a thunderstorm" (to quote Sir Thomas Beecham). A tricky instrument to capture, for sure!

Some quotes just endure... I'm sure the guy had complementary things to say about some people at some times... but honestly who cares? Compared to a memorable, biting bon mot?

Here is a sample of the mics "up in the air" style...

LOL I am sick and tired of that idiot Beecham slagging off the Harpsicord.

I get it. In his day there were no revival instruments and the ones made at the time were ropey.

In the last 40 years there have been many fine instruments made and they sound great.

Mine is not particularly special and was made locally, and sounds great once it warms up.

Normally go for A+B quite close about 6ft high pointing into open lid from the side. Haven't tried a mic underneath but do for piano (safety) and clavichord (soundbox exit.)

Oh and Joel your earlier comment about strange goings on is merely quantum observation. Seriously. Things dip in and out of this perceived reality quite often.

Just go with it!

His comments are right on with regard to the Pleyel which was probably the most popular instrument at the time but which did not.... did not sound like a real harpsichord.
--scott

even with a poor 'klimperkiste', a blm/pzm underneath the instrument mostly works fine and doesn't come with any of the issues associated with sdc's (with a hf bump) from the top...

anyway, back to 'happy accidents'! ;-)

Indeed. I am a fan of a good harpschord and have recorded both solo and continuo examples. I've had good luck with @ apotheosis 's advice: "Take the diagonal from the crossing of the jackrail and the long side (left of keyboard) to the Rose as a guide. Don't place microphones too close. I would say 1,5m is a minimum for a main pair of omnis, or 2m+ for cardioids (no maths, just my experience). Go high enough."

Or, magically fly some cardioid mics overhead as Joel did.