This post is continually updated as Michelle tries new hardware and recording techniques and is up to date as of January 1, 2024.

Cellists and producers rarely agree on what makes cello recording & production sound good. As someone who has a formal education in both cello performance and production, along with recordings and placements with major labels, this is my best attempt to convey what doing both well has taught me.

Producers, and cellists, it’s time for us to find some great mics that we can agree on!

Cellists, I KNOW your pain, before I got seriously into production, I wasn’t a huge fan of the way producers made my cello sound, especially the ones who didn’t have the same hyper-nuanced training of string tonality. In fact, I still hate what other producers do to it.

Producers, after getting a formal production degree and working as an arranger-producer myself for the last few years, now I know YOUR pain; the cello is one of the more difficult instruments to mix well and often doesn’t get the priority in a mix when there are other crucial instruments to consider.

So let’s begin this exploration from the understanding that the cello is one of the most beautiful tonal instruments in the world, but the limitations of psychoacoustics— having to recreate that tone to the same two ears with only a stereo output instead of 360-degrees of live space, presents an enormous, maybe impossible, challenge.

Let’s start at the place we are all gathered together: the recording studio. The most important steps in the recording process for getting the right sound from a cello is in the original tracking: the mic and mic placement in a good room with proper gain staging will get you 95% of the way there. If you have great preamps, great signal quality, even better, but the mic and the placement are so key. The relationship between mic and distance are one of the main things that determines a mic’s viability for cello; proximity effect issues can render mics which are usually great mics unusable on cello. Many of the mics I see recommended fall into this category for both of my cellos, disclaimer that no two cellos sound precisely the same.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR USING A GENERAL WORKHORSE ON CELLO

So first of all, and most importantly, cellists, please be very aware that when you ask producer friends for mic recommendations, they may be making two assumptions:

1. They will assume you are looking for entry-level recording gear since you are “new” to the production world. If you are a professional and want to get professional results, you should be looking to spend at least $800 on a mic. Anything less, lower-level mics are actually okay for production work like vocals, acoustic guitar, light percussion, but they can’t handle the tonal detail of stringed instruments.

2. Producers are generalists. They will be thinking in terms of versatility. Producers are NOT specialists like string players, and they rarely work with instruments that are both delicate AND powerful. Their recommendations will be good mics of general purposes. Just like us, we need nuanced, specialized equipment.

I’d like to start off by saying that people often liken the cello to the human voice… that sounds all mystical, but it is NOT a good frame of reference for recording techniques. This is really important, because many of the general mid-budget workhorse mics that producers use in the studio for strings are mics that were really designed to accommodate vocals. Some differences that I can think of right off the bat: The voice has a focused source of sound, the cello does not. It’s so diffused (check out this study for specific data), that every cello’s sweet spot is in a different place, every mic pics up just a small portion of that, and needs to be listened for before every session.

Another difference: the pressure throughout the spectrum is distributed very differently. Especially in the lower range (<300Hz), the cello is so much more powerful than a voice. So much so that to record the cello, at what would be an optimal mic distance otherwise produces terrible proximity effect and, in my mind, renders a mic unusable. Remember that no amount of gain staging is going to stop a diaphragm from vibrating too much under the pressure from a low string instrument, and where pulling back the mic might work for vocals, some mics suffer so much with cellos that by the time you’ve pulled the mic back enough to alleviate proximity issue, you’ve lost the sweet sparkle of the high end and the body of the mids. This is especially true if you don’t have intelligent software like Gulfoss or Soothe 2 in your plugin collection yet that can correct for this tonal blahness of weird mic distances. Unfortunately, I have this problem with many directional large-diaphragm condensers. Mics that I was about to drop some serious cash for and really loved just didn’t cut it for either of my cellos and I’m glad I tested them out.

Before we get to my thoughts on specific mics, I think it’s time for some much needed heart-to-heart. Producers, the cellists would like to express themselves first.

Dear producers,

Cellists want you to know that the TOP consideration for them during the entirety of their cellistic studies (after intonation, which is eternally aspirational) has been PERFECT TONE. We EQ our tone via bow placement and pressure and we’re ALWAYS monitoring our EQ, so to speak. In those moments where you’re getting your project together, you know you’re going to worry about the mix later. There are many hours of work you put in where you compartmentalize your focus away from tonal balance, until the mixing stage, and some of you even hire separate mixing engineers (side note: it’s sad that this is a dying art, there should always be specialists for this). String players never compartmentalize that attention to tone. Any string player will be able to tell you what’s wrong with the tonality, so please listen to them. We might not be able to speak in frequency bands and use adjectives instead, but it is worth the effort to try to have a dialogue.

Listen, I get it, I know you have your favorite mic, and I know that ultimately the composition and mix will be yours, which are essential for you. Just consider that part of the reason people pay such a high price for string players is because string instruments are damn hard to play precisely because they require a hyper-acute attention to tonal detail. If you throw off the tone with the wrong mic or bad placement, you’ve lost the entire reason for hiring a professional string player, it sucks to waste your money and waste the player’s time. Know thyself; tonal nuance, unless you’re Dennis Sands, ain’t your thing.

We concede that cellists on their own don’t have the experience you do for understanding how that tone is filtering through the signal chain and the monitors (especially tracking monitors, which aren’t necessarily built for refined tonal balance). All we ask is to consider our perspective and to trust and use our ears to your advantage!

Love, Cellists.

Okay, producers, your turn, go ahead…

Dear cellists,

Sometimes achieving the perfect tone isn’t possible, so if a producer is trying his/her/their best, be clear about your thoughts, but try to understand that there are some issues (particularly room resonances) that come built-in to the recording space, and even with proper treatment, can still persist, especially because of how the low frequencies of your cello propagates in the space. Often times, it’s like a perfect storm of low resonance. (This goes both ways; be kind to yourself if you can’t seem to make things sound perfect in your space. I’ll write my recs soon for room treatment.)

Another thing to consider is that, depending on the track the producer needs you for, they might not be able to include the full spectrum in the recording, but a good producer will do it in away that your full spectrum is IMPLIED, and the effect of this is quite stunning. Your lower frequencies clash with electric basses, they clash with vocals, they clash with other strings, trombones, low woodwinds, and have pretty much the same exact frequency range as guitars, so when it’s time to carve out space, every instrument has to compromise. It is the mark of a great producer if they can start to shape this sound right from the session, which can mean you might sound thin. Try to delay your dismay until you hear the final mix, we love you and want you to sound good too!

Another thing that really helps us producer friends out is on those home-recorded sessions, please don’t record in a room with reflections, at any frequency. You’ve been told a lie by armchair acousticians (read: people who are amused when they are in echoey spaces, which, let’s face it, that is all of us at some point) that reflections are good for sound. I know recording in a dry room might feel super vulnerable and exposed, but remember that a clean, dry sound gives the producer so much more control over how your instrument is going to fit in with the others in the mix and will ultimately make you sound better in the end.

Love, Producers

TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT!!!

Okay, now that we all feel acknowledged and fuzzy, it’s time for me to admit that this is really the end of the practical advice in this blog post. The rest is all opinion based on my cellos and the opinion of some of my cellist colleagues, which brings me to this: THE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU IS THAT YOU MUST TEST OUT MICS BEFORE YOU BUY THEM. (Read it again, people in the back).

Just to clarify: not watching other people test mics, not examining frequency plots and reading articles like this one, but actually sitting down in front of a mic and tracking something you can keep and listen to later.

Where can I go to test mics?

My analytics report that most of my visitors are from LA, so if you’re in and around socal, Vintage King is a great place to start. They have a couple locations. There are some locations in other parts of the US as well, I think Nashville as well. They have impeccable customer service and will let you bring your axe in. Outside of the US, I’m not sure, but ask your colleagues or good ole Goog. I just gave them a call to ask about their trial policy and unfortunately they aren’t allowing testing during Covid.

How else can I test mics?

Ask your colleagues if you can come over and test their gear, work out a trade, a free session for a mic test, bring some snacks. They’ll probably have to help you track anyway and save your files, so this is a totally fair trade.

Any practical tips for mic testing?

Play both a mix of repertoire you know and just improvising. The stuff you know will put you into that playing mindset where your attention will be on your playing and not the mic, but it is good to have that element of consistency you can listen back for.
For at least part of it, just improvise, don’t worry about making coherent music, and really focus on the sound you’re hearing, how it changes when you move. I look like a -crazy person- when I test mics. I move around a lot!
Move around! Start close and purposely trigger the proximity effect and see what the sound is like as you back off. If it’s good, try to see how far away you can go and still get a great sound. Sometimes it just isn’t possible, and if that’s the case, don’t blame yourself or spend any extra time trying. On to the next.
You can play at extreme volumes, etc.
Go through the whole chromatic range.
Try plucking and different bowing techniques (you’d be surprised how different mics treat the different bowing articulations).
Always use the same headphones.
Always wait a few days and listen back, preferably blind. It’ll help you to reject or confirm any biases you may have.

Microphone Recommendations

Now I’ll talk about the best and worst of the mics I’ve tested. Before I proceed, I just want to point out that underpinning this whole review is the notion that recording cello with an omni polar pattern isn’t recommended. I wouldn’t do it and you probably shouldn’t either. Unless the client asks for it specifically, you should record cello in mono with a cardioid polar pattern. I will have a separate post at some point about cases where you would want to record in stereo or use alternative polar patterns, and how to do that.

Commonly recommended mics that didn’t work for me

AKG 414/414 XLS (any generation, any capsule). Why? Keep in mind this is subjective, but I think that 5-6k kHz emphasis isn’t flattering, and the way it’s emphasized isn’t flattering. One of my cellist friends said it best: “I don’t like the way it pronounces the higher range”.

Those jeans make us look fat, honey. This band on my cello is particularly harsh, this isn’t a refined high cut that I’ve heard with Microtech Gefell mics. Another thought is that it isn’t an ideal frequency to highlight for orchestral mixes (even non-classical orchestral). Load any orchestral or hybrid track into your Tonal Balance Control and you’ll likely see a dip at 6k, so it makes me wonder if there is something to that. Anyway, aside from numbers and all that, as a cellist, it just really doesn’t sound good to my ears. Even with the high pass enabled to flatten it out, it sounds so harsh. Other cellists I’ve talked to tend to agree.

Is there a good alternative? I really love the Peluso P-414 by Peluso Labs.
If I had the budget to buy any mics in the world, these would be a staple in my collection. The tone is incredible, there’s nothing to worry about in terms of proximity, and the tonal excellence holds up even at several FEET of distance. It has the same polar pattern flexibility that the AKG 414s have. A really wonderful job by John Peluso.

Recording Hacks says, “John Peluso learned microphone design from Verner Ruvalds, a Latvian physicist who had worked for Georg Neumann during World War II”. Microtech Gefell, a brand I swear by, is also Neumann-adjacent. “The origins of Microtech Gefell are intertwined with the legacy of Georg Neumann and the invention of the first condenser microphone. Microtech Gefell grew out of the original Neumann factory that relocated to Gefell in 1943 during World War II”.

I think the takeaway from all of this is that the real silver lining of WWII is that now have a ton of great microphones….

It is joke. :3

Neumann U87/U87 ai
It breaks my heart to say this because I really love this mic. The proximity effect just kills it. Get far enough away to alleviate proximity and the tonal balance just ain’t it. I hope this works okay for other cellists though. Like I said, test it out!

product_detail_x2_desktop_TLM-103-with-SG2_Neumann-Studio-Microphone_M-cf94a4dfbc2fa684e65895f19619171e.jpg

Is there an alternative for Neumann lovers? The Neumann TLM 103. This is my current main mic. This is a mic recommendation producers will feel “meh” about and that’s because (it bears so much repeating) it isn’t as versatile, it only offers one polar pattern. But we don’t need versatility, we need it to do one job, very well. Just like us, this mic is a specialist, and the polar pattern is really great for cello, it is wide enough to capture a lot of surface area and tonal info coming from the cello. This mic will pick up room noise because it isn’t super cardioid, though, so don’t get this if you’re in a space that has ambient noise. I have a good recommendation for those of you who live in noisy places, see the Microtech Gefell 300M below.

Shure SM7B
Okay, so this is actually a really great mic for the price, it’s used mostly as a podcast/vocal mic, but works alright for cello, my only problem with it is that the signal strength is really soft, too soft for my taste. Cello is such a wonderfully dynamic instrument. One of the few that can play quietly in nearly every part of the practical range, so we really need strong signal strength for those quiet moments to sound full and engaging.

Any alternatives? A good tonal match to the Shure SM7B, which I remember as being pretty buttery and mellow, in the same price range is the Blue Microphone’s Baby Bottle. I have heard recommendations for the Bluebird as well, but since I haven’t tried that one, I don’t want to fully get behind it. Blue mics are so great for solo recordings, and if you play into a blue with a plucked chord-melody type thing, you have to do very little editing. They don’t deliver the cleanest signal compared to the high priced counterparts, and this is a mic that cellists will love and producers might not because of the warmth and mellowness. But if you’re looking for affordable and mellow, Blue is great.

Rode NT1/NT1A

Some common small diaphragm condensers used for string recording

Small-diaphragm condensers that work for high strings like the KM184 or KSM137, Rode NT-5, etc.
Strings are not created equal! These small-diaphragm mics sound great and sparkly on high strings, but they can make cellos sound tinny.

Any alternatives? My main mics for a long time were the Microtech Gefell M300s. These are medium diaphragm mics, they are very detailed. I wasn’t a huge fan of how they pronounced the harshness around 2k Hz, but it was easy enough to EQ out and still preserve high-end detail. If you also record acoustic basses, they sound great on these as well, great bass response down to 20Hz and no proximity problems. One really great thing about these is they are very cardioid, so they eliminate a lot of room noise. These mics are really great option for people who work in places with a high-ish noise floor, like city apartments, or busy streets. Obviously within reason.

ANY USB MIC.
USB mics were built for internet based communication, namely “video voiceovers; podcasts; internet radio; skype and other forms of chat; hypnotherapy tapes; conferences; interviews and so on”. You cannot in good conscience deliver work with professional prices via USB mic. Why? All the technology you have to squeeze into that small space sacrifices a ton of signal quality, a quality that is necessary to properly capture the complexity of the cello.

Any alternatives?

Having an audio interface is essential. If you’re hoping the USB mic will make up for the interface because you’re scared of the price-tag, I totally get it.

There are some great audio interfaces for under $100 brand new, and probably under $80 on OfferUp or Craigslist (I just did a Craigslist search for fun and did find an interface on the Westside of LA for $50). Just make sure the A/D Resolution goes up to 48k kHz at least, better if you can get to 96k kHz. Some only do 44.1 and that won’t match professional audio resolution. The PreSonus AudioBox USB 96 goes all the way up to 96k kHz.

Audient portable interface with excellent preamps!

If you have a little more money to spend, The Audient and Focusrite smaller interfaces are both excellent. I’ve used them both for professional projects with great results. I have heard good things about the new smaller Solid State Logic interfaces, although I have not used them.

Warm Audio recreations of other Mics, WA 87, WA 47, WA 414, etc
I’ve tried many of them, most extensively the WA 47 jrs. I own a matched pair. I recorded a sample library with a full mic spread and one of them was the WA 87 (which I dubbed “The Burrito”- just Google it). This isn’t a hard avoid, I know some engineers who can make these sound great, and maybe there is some magic sauce I’m missing, but I just think there are better alternatives if you’re looking for great classic mic copies.

Any alternatives? Peluso Labs is a company that does this same sort of thing, and the signal quality is really great, the noise is low. If you want to get a high end mic but save some money, Peluso is the way to go.

Telefunken Large diaphragm directional condensers
Every producer I know is feeling personally attacked right now. The Telefunkens have the same problem as the U87, the proximity problems overlap those tonal sweet spots. When I go into sessions with these, I’m never really happy with the resulting tone. A lot of producers here in LA use these as their all-around mics since they do make great general workhorses. I really think producers should have more than one mic, the Telefunkens aren’t bad mics, but they aren’t great for low strings. My impression is that there is some sort of balance between low-mids and corresponding highs that I don’t know the words for, but they fall into a category of tone that cellists avoid.

Any alternatives?

The Mojave 301 FET is in a similar price point to a lot fo the Telefunken mics and is better for both of my cellos. The Neumann TLM 103 is a great alternative as well and will deliver a much more even sound.

Clip-on Mics like the DPA 4099
My producer friends out there will scratch their head at this one, but if you search Google for studio mic recommendations for cello, DPAs come up, so it is critical that we talk about these.

The best application for a DPA is a live performance scenario where the musicians are part of a section. Clip on mics, of which the DPA 4099 is the best option for cello, don’t pick up a lot of sound, the the small cross-section of sound they do pick up isn’t the ideal tonal balance because they have to clip on and fit into awkward areas of the cello, like underneath the bridge or fingerboard, lest they get in the way of the bow and the movement of the player, which is often less calculated in a live performance. The capsules and diaphragms are tiny and just not ideal for getting depth in the lows. The tech behind it is super interesting, check out the DPA website. But yeah, not for the studio.

My Favorite Mics in Every Price Range

$100

If your cello is dark to standard, tonally-speaking, a Shure SM57 is a surprisingly wonderful and super duper affordable mic. For the price, this is hard to beat. The signal is very soft, though, so turn your gain up for this mic.

If your cello is brighter or even strident sometimes, you could try the Shure 565SD. Same super low price and a slightly darker sound. (Fun fact: it was Freddie Mercury’s mic of choice for live performance… so there’s that.) These mics will not pick up as much detail as the mics in the upper price ranges, but in my experience, as long as you’re transparent about your mic, I’d say you could count these as professional.

$100 to $500

Golden Age Project’s R1 Tube Ribbon mic - Honestly, it does the damn job. It’s kind of unremarkable, but it also doesn’t have any of the problems you have with diaphragmatic mics. It’s warm, mellow, and dependable. It comes with it’s own power supply so it’s harder to break. Size-wise, it’s super cumbersome, so don’t plan on taking this with you while touring (once touring returns).

If you want something portable, the AKG P420 or P220 (both under $200) are alright, the tonal balance isn’t as refined. They work and I’d say they’re better in comparison to the Blue mics I recommended before. These are right on that border of what I’d consider professional vs. amateur. Probably acceptable for section or buried-in-the-mix playing.

Blue mics are great in this price range if you do a lot of like Erik Friedlander pizzicato chord melody stuff. (One of my Berklee friends plays often in this style and also uses a Blue mic and it’s quite stunning.) The Baby Bottle was my very first mic.

$500 - $1000

My favorite mics in this price range are the Mojave 201 and 301 FETs (the only difference is that the 301 has more polar patterns, I believe). This is my third fave right behind the TLM 103, just because I was impressed with how affordable it was for the quality. This mic really has everything you could want in a mic and I think of the mics on this recommendation list this is the one where things really start to be full-bodied professional mics. They have a strong, wonderful, full sound without proximity issues. Highly recommend these guys and I know a couple producers who swear by this for cello.

My other rec in this price range is the Microtech Gefell m300. It is a medium diaphragm but still has wonderful resolution and bass response. These are typically bought as a stereo pair for more than $1000, but if you just buy one (that’s all you need for cello - cello should be recorded in mono unless you’re recording an unaccompanied performance)… as I was about to say, one M300 alone is around $800.

From here on out, my recs will be Neumann and Microtech Gefell. Their quality is simply unmatched for low strings. They were made for each other, I think. (No really, like it seems like they were made for cellos and basses in an orchestral setting). Many of the London recording studios use the following mics for their sessions, with good reason.

$1000 - $2999

Neumann TLM 103 & TLM 49
These two tie for my favorite mic in this price range. Unlike the more transparent quality of the Microtech mics I’m about to recommend, they both have a definitive color, and that color is like mama’s Mac n cheese from some summer day in ’85, you at the kitchen table with dirt on your knees and that hockey jersey and your little banana bike laying on the front porch. Not born before 85? …well you are when you listen to shit recorded with the TLM 49. It’s warm, it’s comfort food, it’s heart-felt, these mics have empathy. There’s no other way to say it, they have soul. It’ll feed you pot roast after church that it started simmering on a Saturday night because it doesn’t like to work on Sundays. (Sorry, it’s getting late and I’m hungry.) The TLM 103 is a specialist, with only one polar pattern and a clean, flat quality. It delivers really reliable, detailed signal that can be transformed and mangled without losing clarity.

Microtech Gefell UMT 70 S
Another great mic that I’ve used in some session work, but never owned, so I’m not going to be able to give it a full seal of approval, but from what I remember, it has that distinct MG transparence and clarity. Unlike the harshness of the AKG 414, it takes the trash 6k+ harmonics on the cello and spits it back out as velvet.

Microtech Gefell UM930Ts
Of the Gefell mics I have tested in this price range, the M930Ts is by far my favorite. This mic has a transformer built into the body of the mic, and it has inCREdible, powerful and sensitive tone. In the words of my engineer friend who let me borrow this one for testing, “It has balls.” (His words not mine). Most of the Gefell mics have a delicate transparency but this one packs a punch and pronouces cello with beauty and power.

$3000 - $4999

Microtech Gefell UM 92.1S (or M 92.1 S)
This is it friends, this is my favorite mic of all time. (The difference between the two models is that the M 92.1 only has one polar pattern where the UM has three.) I’m saving up as we speak. When I went to Vintage King to test mics out, I brought my Sennheiser reference headphones with me, and I couldn’t tell if the signal was coming through, other than a little sparkle in my ears, that’s how incredibly, astoundingly, unbelievably transparent and honest this mic is. For any of you who have played in Carnegie Hall, playing with this mic is a similar experience; it somehow filters out all of the badness, all of the harshness, and somehow still gives you a perfectly honest impression of your sound. It’s like when you’re in that negative self talk loop and your BFF is like, “hey, bro, I know you’re down about this, but think about all of these other awesome things you’ve done.” Yep. This mic is there for a bitch.

Microteck Gefell UM 900
This mic is one that I have to be honest, I’ve never played on this, but I’ve watched a ton of sessions at air studios and a few other sessions where the sound was stunning, and they were using the UM 900, so I thought I’d recommend them anyway. Not a hard recommendation because, you know, $50k+ preamps and mixing boards, but hey. This is part of the chain.

$5000 - $10K

Neumann M149 - The M149 has the same capsule as the U47, which is another good mic for cello, this Neumann has the decadent butter factor without much proximity issues. I think the question here is if the high price point is worth it, and I don’t know really the practical purpose for an individual (vs a recording studio or production company) to own this mic, unless they make enough expendable income and have already treated the space to the best of their ability, invested in great monitoring, etc etc, and have started the transition to really upper-class hardware. At that point, I don’t know if this person is a cellist anymore. But if you can justify this expense, it’s a great mic.

I know I’ve tried others at the higher price point but I don’t remember enough to make any specific recommendations; I also didn’t think any of them were particularly memorable, which probably means something. Also wonder if it’s even worthwhile to recommend anything in this price range for cellists or for producers who record a full range of instruments, you’re going to know what you want for yourself.

MIC LIKES AND DISLIKES FROM OTHER CELLISTS

My colleagues love their:

Soyuz Bomblet
“Pretty even and warm sound all around.”
Rode NT1000
“I’ve been all around very happy with my Rode NT1000 Condenser”
AEA R84
“I’ve been loving the combo of the Neumann TLM 103 and the AEA R84 in M/S. It provides a really warmth, but clear and crisp, tone with a lot of depth and nuance.”
Se Electronics Se7
“The Se7’s have also made pretty good SDC mics for general purpose, and they’re mellower (and cheaper) than the NT5’s.”

Here are some mics that my colleagues didn’t like:

Rode NT1A
“The midrange of the NT1A just felt distorted and boxy. It’s a great workhorse mic that you can get a bunch of miles with. But it’s not the best, IMO”
Royer R-10
“I recently bought the Royer R-10 (ribbon mic) based off of a lot of research and recommendations and was sad to discover that it is terrible for cello upper registers.”

I hope this list has helped. I will continue to test and try many more to come and add to this list as I grow in my knowledge. Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me to try out!

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email

Subject

Message