Mic Archive

Instrument

Guzheng

Chinese plucked zither with 21 (most common), 25 or 26 strings over movable bridges, about 1.6 m long, paulownia soundboard, played with finger picks (Wikipedia). Strings are tuned to a pentatonic scale; the left hand presses behind the bridges to bend notes.

Range
D2–D6
Sources
4 (3 independent)

Recommended mics

Mics sources recommend

6 setups from 4 sources, 3 of them independent of any mic maker. Each mic shows how many sources name it for that role, and how many of those are independent. Listed alphabetically: there is no ranking.

Studio

Overhead

  • DPA 4015A maker's advice1 source, 0 independent

Close

  • DPA SMK4061 Stereo Mic Kit (miniature omnis) (variant of the DPA 4061) maker's advice1 source, 0 independent
  • small-diaphragm condenser1 independent source

Main pair or array

Bottom

The 5 setups behind this: placement and quotes
  • Overhead DPA 4015A
    overhead, single mic at head height, centred
    One overhead mic picks up the timbre and dynamics; 4015A at performer head height, centred (paraphrase).1
  • Close 2 × DPA SMK4061 Stereo Mic Kit (miniature omnis) (variant of the DPA 4061)
    close, surface-mounted on deck, right of string bridges and mid-instrument
    Surface-mount the omnis at the deck, right of the bridges seen from the player, and in the middle (paraphrase).1
  • Main pair or array 2 × Blue Hummingbird
    stereo pair
    Blue Hummingbird mics in an ORTF stereo pair for the guzheng.2
  • Bottom Shure KSM44
    under the instrument (soundhole side)
    Shure KSM44 in cardioid directly underneath each instrument; clean, handles dynamic range, good off-axis rejection (paraphrase).3
  • Close small-diaphragm condenser
    close, in front of and under the instrument
    Zhang et al. (2017) found the best two positions are right in front of and under the guzheng (paraphrase).4

On stage

Close

The 1 setup behind this: placement and quotes
  • Close DPA 4099 CORE+
    close, two on deck edge about 30 cm apart
    Two 4099 CORE+ mounted on the deck edge about 30 cm apart, capsules angled towards strings (paraphrase).1

Range

about D2 to about D6573.4 Hz – 1.17 kHz

21-string zheng in the basic D pentatonic tuning: string 1 D2 to string 21 D6 (Atlas guide gives piano-key numbers D18 to D66, with A25 = 110 Hz). The low D can be tuned down and the high D up by a half-tone. Bending behind the bridges adds pitches in between. This confirms the earlier estimate.

Tuning: Basic tuning pentatonic D E F# A B repeating each octave; bridges movable, each string retunable by about a half-tone either way. Atlas guide: intonation in China is 'mostly just, not equi-tempered'.5

Where the sound goes

Most fullness comes from the soundhole underneath (Production Expert). A test of positions at 15 degree steps at 50 cm found the two best spots were right in front of the guzheng and under it (Zhang et al. 2017, as reported by the UBC blog). DPA: a pair of overheads gives "too wide an image", so use one.

Recording it

DPA: single overhead (4015A wide cardioid) at head height, centred. Or close: two miniature omnis (SMK4061 kit) on surface mounts at the deck, to the right of the bridges seen from the player and mid-instrument. Production Expert: Shure KSM44 (cardioid) directly underneath, and a small capsule over the plucking area if more channels were free. Mix: Blue Hummingbirds in ORTF. UBC: small-diaphragm studio condensers, in front and underneath.

On stage

DPA: two 4099 CORE+ on the deck edge, about 30 cm apart, capsules angled towards the strings.

About the range

The 21-string runs as four pentatonic octaves, about D2 to D6 (estimate; a search summary stated this, but I could not confirm it on a page). The page I opened (Wikipedia) gives only "major pentatonic".

Names

Zheng, gu zheng, Chinese zither or lap harp.

Sources

  1. DPA Mic University: How to mic the gu zheng (Chinese lap harp)manufacturer · dpamicrophones.com
  2. Mix: Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra at United Recording (engineer Brian Vibberts)magazine · mixonline.com
  3. Production Expert: How To Record Traditional Chinese Instruments - Expert Tutorialmagazine · production-expert.com
  4. UBC Communicating Science blog: guzheng recording (cites Zhang et al. 2017)educational · blogs.ubc.ca
  5. Atlas Ensemble / VICO: Zheng (composer's guide by Moshe Denburg)Moshe Denburg · educational · atlasensemble.nl