How to Mike a Bodhrán

I've seen various methods of miking a bodhrán. It's usually necessary if the other instruments are amplified (and sometimes even when they're not). One drummer I know has a microphone mount attached to the crossbars of her drum; I don't know how well that works. Most often, I've seen a single mike on the open side of the drum, placed as close as it can be without interfering with the drummer. That's easy, but tends to miss a lot of the subtlety of the instrument.

Jeremy Goode suggested a better method. He writes:

The technique I use when possible is one mike on the skin side, fairly close, but not interfering with the motion of the tipper. EQ this leaning towards the treble and some midrange. This give you the high pitched "taps". Have another mike on the open side, omnidirectional, EQed for bass and mid range. This picks up the various bass pitches wonderfully. This technique really captures the omnidirectional complex bodhran sound and also allows for some interesting situatations if you desire to use some sort of effects on it for fun.

I've seen the rim-mount..., and I think that's the bext best thing, but I personally think it's lacking. [It] tends to create a muddy sound. Having a treble mike on the skin side gives a very clear attack.

Kevin Rice suggested:

When I play in close settings, I use an AKG 212 kick drum mike. I prefer the low-end sound more. I put the mike in the back of the drum about 2 - 5 inches away depending on how loud or soft I need to play. In festivals and open-air venues, I will mostly use the AKG or a Shure sm57. Sometimes I will use both. The EQ boosing is very important based on your drum and style of playing. I also use digital compressor to help from overdriving the system when I hit the drum hard.

John Anthony, who has engineered some recordings for Seamus Egan, suggests

My miking preference is two AKG 414s each about 12" from the drum front and back and just above center. Maybe a little 12k on the front and a little pull at around 300 hz on the back.

Gerard Robinson wrote me from the UK:

I have been playing in an 'electric' ceilidh for several years now and have settled on the following method of amplifying my instrument.



I use a 'tie-clip' mike, a ROSS RE 369, and mount it on a small bracket inside the rim, using rubber sleeving between the bracket & mike body to help cut down vibrations through the mike body. Connection is via a standard jack plug. It's simple and cheap and works well with our band. I found mounting the mike on the cross-bars tended to pickup hand movements & get in the way.

In addition to these suggestions, there have been discussions of the subject on rec.music.celtic.

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Part of the Ceolas celtic music archive

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Josh Mittleman bodhran@ceolas.org

Last updated 30 Mar 1999