How To Record Mbira

Welcome to Milestone Mic Methods, a tutorial 
series brought to you by Music In Africa Live,   where we show you how to capture 
the sounds of African instruments.   At Milestone Studios in Cape Town, our engineers 
have spent decades finding the best way to mic up   instruments that are unique to our continent, and 
we're going to share this knowledge in every episode.   I'm Thabo Mobo, and today we'll be looking 
at the best way to place a microphone   on an mbira or thumb piano, for live performance 
and recording. Mbiras are musical instruments   traditionally played by the Shona people of 
Zimbabwe. They are made of a wooden board,   often fitted with a resonator or gourd to amplify 
the sound, with metal tines attached to it. You  play mbira by holding the instrument in both hands 
and plucking the tines with your thumbs.   Mbira is not a loud instrument, so you'll have to put 
the microphone close to it to capture the sound.   If you only have one mic, the best place to put it 
is over the middle of the instrument facing down.

In a live show, a dynamic mic like the 
Beyerdynamic M201 is a good option. Because the   instrument is quiet, it's likely that other sounds 
on the stage will leak into the mbira microphone.   Place the mic pointing down towards the metal 
bars and, if you can, pointing away from other   loud instruments. Make sure that you position the 
mic as close as possible to the bars, but still   far enough that the player won't accidentally bump 
it. About 10 centimetres is often a safe distance.   If the mbira has a calabash, this can sometimes 
be used to keep the sound focused on the mic.   In a studio or live situation where there's 
a lot of leakage from other instruments,   you can get a better sound by 
using a contact microphone.   This is attached to the body of the mbira and will 
pick up less of the sound of nearby instruments.   Variations of the mbira are 
found in many African countries.   In the DRC for example, a similar instrument 
called likembe is often fitted with a pickup,   which allows it to be amplified to compete with 
loud instruments like electric guitars and drums.   Especially if you're recording 
mbira as a solo instrument,   another good option is to use two mics like 
these Neumann KM84s as a coincident pair.   Condenser microphones have a wider frequency 
response than the Beyerdynamic M201.

This will   give a full stereo sound, with one mic pointing 
towards the left side of the instrument and the   other picking up the right side. Again, make sure 
that the player won't accidentally bump them.   Most mbiras have rattles attached to 
the body, usually made of bottle tops.   These add a percussive element which 
is an important part of the sound.   Don't feel that you have to try and get 
rid of the buzzing when you're recording.   If it's too loud, you can use masking 
tape to mute some of the rattles.   The mbira is softer than most other instruments, 
so if you are recording the mbira in a group of   musicians, it's often useful to put up screens 
between them to prevent too much sound leaking   from one set of mics to another.

Otherwise, 
if you have access to an isolation booth   where you can record the mbira 
separately, this is even better. Well, that's it for today. Our thanks 
to Sky Dladla for demonstrating how   these instruments are played, and to 
our sponsors Music In Africa Live,   the Goethe Institute, Siemens, and the Federal 
Foreign Office for supporting African music.   Watch out for more videos in the series, 
and until next time, cheers and goodbye. www.milestones.co.za

learn djembe here – click

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