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Inge Thomson accordion microphone setup

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Chris Peckham

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Hi

Can anyone shed any light on Inge Thomson's performance accordion microphone setup? It looks to me like she has a good quality instrument microphone on a stand for the treble side, and some kind of specialist (percussion?) microphone fixed (taped?) over the lower vents on the bass box.

Thanks
Chris
 
Pics or links where we could see?

Generally speaking, from what little I know, 90% or more of instrumental mics are the small condenser style. This style of mic has a limited area where one can get even coverage so usually multiple mics are used either inside or in some kind of enclosure or they are placed further away (which introduces it's own advantages/disadvantages). If one requires left and right hand coverage, definitely multiple mics will be needed.
 
Strangely not many camera-men or -women seem interested in Inges microphone set-up :-) but this video offers tantalizing glimpses:

 
In this video, the accordion right hand is a simple external mic stand holding on to a dynamic mic.  On the left hand there seems that there is a smaller dynamic mic taped or inserted to the accordion.  Percussion mic would be a good guess, as it seems to be a lot smaller and looks to be taped to the opening.  Percussion mics are great for capturing loud drums, but far from good compared to even a standard mics in terms of dynamics and sound capturing quality.

These mics are not the best for sound quality, but acceptable for stage/live performances where lower price, strength, reliability and ease of replacement are why people use dynamic mics in these scenarios.  One could probably use something like Sure SM58s at around $100US new a piece and get pretty much the same results.

I would prefer small mics in greater number under the accordion covers or inside the accordion itself where sound quality captured is the best for live performances.  Feedback and sound contamination is also greatly reduced.  Coincidentally, since the accordionist is using a Pigini accordion, Pigini has the services of  Heinz Aumüller, a fabricator of high end (both price and quality) accordion mic systems through Excelsior/Pigini.  The perfect solution for someone performing like this.

For studio recording, lots of options are out there, however, the better ones involve either small or large condenser mics of professional quality.
 
Pretty good guess... percussion mics indeed... those are small pretty high quality dynamic  cardioid mics, mostly used for toms and snare drum setups... not too expensive either.  You can get them in kits of 3 for around $300US (~$100 each)

e604.jpg
 
I have been using these small instrument microphones for years. With a big accordion you may need 2 on the treble side, I clip them to the last fold of the bellows, and plug them into a small mixing board (they need phantom power), then to the sound system or amp. Cables need to be tied together etc,  but this is easy to figure out. No drilling or permanent mod to your instrument.

https://www.long-mcquade.com/12953/...t_Clip-on_Instrument_Condenser_Microphone.htm
 
I made do with Blu-tac on mine for years, just needed to press it back on every few dances we played for. Admittedly it was a very small microvox bar mic, so didn't weigh much.
 
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