Recording cello....

I record a lot of cello. Almost every day, or at least several times a week. Today was one of those days where I had an idea for a new piece with lots of cello tracks. I started out by laying down some chord changes with Omnisphere, the virtual instrument synth, and the GForce M-Tron (Mellotron) software synth. A click track gave me a sense of timing. That was enough of a foundation to record 16 tracks of cello.
I figured that there would be four part harmonies and that each part would be played four times, but through four different mics, so as to not augment the characteristics of only one mic. I chose two Cascade ribbon mics (Vinjet and Fathead, through a Cloudlifter), a Neumann TLM103 condensor, and an Avantone CV28 tube mic. All mics were recorded through a Soundcraft 400B and dbx 166 and 163 compressors (my current favorite signal path). The combination of these mics gave me such a realistic string section sound! Silky and present, but with lots of warmth.
It was fun work to compose and play 16 tracks on a six minute piece (4 hrs of focused composing and playing) and this is just delicious sonic bathing....
The piece is far from finished but a new baby is born and it will, at some point, see the light of day. STUDIO 330 is always cooking up some music- either my own or an artist's who is currently recording here, or for whom I lay down some string parts. I love it!