For most of the horns especially trumpets, trombones, flugelhorns, any of the brass I like large-diaphragm mics, and that’s because they do a great job of capturing the essence of brass, part of which is the sound of a musician pushing air through a mouthpiece, and their tongue and teeth are all part of the sound.

All of those things play a big, important role in how it ultimately sounds. With a large-diaphragm, you can actually even hear them before the note comes out. You’ll hear them “phth” into the note, and I like that. I notice that when I use a small-capsule microphone, whether it’s some of the Earthworks DK25/R mics or even a Shure SM57, you miss something. The Neumann M 147, TLM 67, and U87 have always been my staples, and I also like the SE 5600 large-diaphragm. I like the 47 on the trombone, 8 to 12 inches from the trombone. I like the 87 and sometimes the 67 on a trumpet, 12 to 14 inches from the horn. I also like the 67 on a flugelhorn, 8 to 12 inches away.

For tenor sax especially for players like Kirk Whalum, who play a lot in the higher register—I always start off with a large-diaphragm right at the bell. I will put another large-diaphragm, like the U87, on the side of his horn, where all his valves are, so I can hear the valves moving and capture some of the resonance. A lot of the note that’s coming out of the bell is also coming out of the valves, especially the larger holes. I then blend again to taste. I roll off with the EQ the stuff I don’t need. I might roll off all the way up to 100 Hz off of his bell and roll off up to 80 Hz on the side mic.

With the alto sax, you can actually go with a small-diaphragm microphone because with the alto, literally all the sound is coming out of the bell—there is hardly any sound that comes out of the valves. It’s all coming right out of that bell. So you can go as extreme as a 57, or you can be as broad as using a high end, Neumann M 147 or 47 FET this all depends on the song and sound that you are going for. Any large-capsule mic is going to capture it. The alto is so poignant and it’s such a sharp-sounding horn, you can literally record it with any mic.

One of the fun littel sax's for me has always been that B-flat curved miniature alto sax, like the one Grover Washington used to play. It such a littel beast to record. You need to give him some space. And when I say space, you’ve got to be away from it, because the sound seems to change when it gets out of it, opposed to when you’re tight. You’ve got to give him some space to where when it hits the air, then you here more of the true sound.

It mellows out in the air because it can sound really sharp and just sound…eeeh if you do not let it breathe. I recorded Grover when I was working on a Stanley Turrentine record many years ago at Motown Hitsville L.A. There have been very few people who can play the alto well, like Grover.

Baritone sax a whole other thing in itself. In some cases I’ve used three microphones on a baritone—on the bell, the valve side, and ambient about a foot or more away. That is because a bari sax moves so much air. It’s leaking out of every hole. It’s coming out of the neck, out right at the curve of the bell, and, of course, it’s coming out at the bell. Again, I like to use large-diaphragm microphones blended to taste.