robotmay Posted August 8, 2016 Share Posted August 8, 2016 Recently picked up a couple of small gooseneck microphones, a couple of reasonably-priced Thomann T-bone CC100s. I've figured out how to attach them to my melodeons properly, but it's proving a bit of a nightmare with the maccann. How on earth do you stop the things picking up rumbles non-stop? Seems to be mostly from my key presses, from what I can tell. I've been trying out different positions by using some large elastic bands to strap the mics to the concertina (no handy bits of leather to poke them through on the maccann), with some foam to insulate them from the body (as I thought that was causing it). Even if I position them more over the back of my hand, rather than over the keyboard, they still pick up a lot of percussion. I guess positioning them further away from the ends would help, but I think I'll need to build something to do that. I haven't spent much time with mixing yet, so I'm not sure if this is something easily rectified on a mixer, but I assume it would be better to solve it with the microphones themselves if possible. Anyone got any tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjcjones Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 If it's mechanical noise from the instrument itself, then a mic is going to pick it up and close-micing will make it worse. If that is the case it could be an issue with the instrument rather than the mics. On the other hand, you've described the sound as "rumbling" which doesn't sound like key noise to me. Do you get it when using the mics on the melodeon? I use CC-75s which I clip to the LH strap on the bass end of the melodeon and to the hand straps on my anglos. T-bones are good value, but I've had to return one with a broken cable and another which was just noisy. Are you sure there's not a loose connection somewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David S Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 I have a pair of Thomann T bone microphones and they work really well on anglos. I have made two small aluminium brackets which slip under the knurled screw that secures the hand strap. Instrument noise (part of the concertina sound anyway?) is minimal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hereward Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Looking at your set-up, David, I reckon this should also work with an English concertina - unless anyone knows better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robotmay Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 If it's mechanical noise from the instrument itself, then a mic is going to pick it up and close-micing will make it worse. If that is the case it could be an issue with the instrument rather than the mics. On the other hand, you've described the sound as "rumbling" which doesn't sound like key noise to me. Do you get it when using the mics on the melodeon? I use CC-75s which I clip to the LH strap on the bass end of the melodeon and to the hand straps on my anglos. T-bones are good value, but I've had to return one with a broken cable and another which was just noisy. Are you sure there's not a loose connection somewhere? I'll try to do a demo recording of it this week so you can see what I mean. I do believe my pads need replacing at some point, so they may be a bit more percussive than they should be. I mount one to the bass end of my melodeons by using cable-ties to tie it to the lower feet, which works really well, and the treble one either on the grille or on top of the keyboard, using the T-bone violin clip. That works surprisingly well, unless I mount it on the keyboard on the Hohner Erika, where it then picks up a lot of percussion from the fingerboard (which is quite thin on that box). The same place works fine on my Castagnari though, which I suspect is due to the button design and the thicker materials. Aye, I'm a little worried about the non-replaceable, flimsy cables, but they're so much cheaper than the alternatives that I figured they'd be worth a shot! Thomann.jpg I have a pair of Thomann T bone microphones and they work really well on anglos. I have made two small aluminium brackets which slip under the knurled screw that secures the hand strap. Instrument noise (part of the concertina sound anyway?) is minimal Nice setup! Unfortunately my Maccann doesn't have strap screws in useful places (they're on the bottom of the hand-rest instead), but I might experiment with attaching a bracket in a similar way. And aye, I'm not worried about eliminating noise entirely, just enough so that it's not overwhelming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hjcjones Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 (edited) Here's a photo of my anglo with a CC-75 attached. There's one on the other side too but it's concealed. Edited August 10, 2016 by hjcjones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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