There Are a Number of Issues in the Use of Close Miking and Multitrack Recording:

• If the size of the orchestra is large, like a symphony or panorama steelband side, the number of microphones and recording tracks required becomes impractical.  You essentially need one or more microphones per instrument, or in some cases, small group of instruments.  Attempting to multitrack and close mic by recording only one or two of a group of the same instrument may seem to give a satisfactory recording, but you basically saying that the musicians and instruments that were not miked might as well have stayed home.  They are not part of the final recording.
  
  
• In order for close miking to work, the microphones must be located so that they pick up the desired instrument(s) and reject the sound from all other instruments.  The choice of particular microphone models for particular instruments becomes of particular importance when close miking.  The recording engineer has to know the pickup patterns of the chosen microphones and position the microphones carefully so as to reject the sound from other nearby instruments.  Otherwise you will find that when you mix the multitrack down you will end up with "mush" and quite possibly weird sounding frequency distortions created by nearby microphones picking up the same instrument(s) at similar levels.  It is typically more important to position microphones to reject unwanted sounds than it is to position them on axis to capture the sound of the desired instrument.  The choice of particular microphones should also be made to complement the sound of the particular instrument or voice being recorded; different model microphones have very different "sounds".  This is very different from the choice made for orchestral recording, where one wants microphones with a flat frequency response that does not emphasize a particular range of the audio spectrum.
  
  
• Proper microphone orientation becomes a serious problem, particularly if the instruments are crowded together in a small space, and/or if you are attempting to capture groups of instruments with a single microphone, as this precludes tight close miking of a given instrument.  Successful simultaneous multitrack recordings very much depend on isolation, as described above.  This isolation is much easier to obtain if the instruments are spread out in the recording venue.
  
  
• If the acoustic sound of an instrument comes from more than one point on an instrument, such as the case of a piano, you may have to use more than one microphone and track on the instrument.  In the case of pianos, there have been books written on just how to mic a piano.  As you add microphones, you make the isolation described above that much harder to achieve.
  
  

More potential recording issues on the Next Page