Direct miking of the clarinet is very similar to that of the soprano saxophone, bassoon and oboe, e.g. aiming at the fingering holes, 1/3 of the length up from the bell at a distance of 15-20 cm. Use an
omni such as 4006A or a compact omni when possible. If leakage is unwanted or you want less of the room to blend in, a
cardioid 4011A or wide cardioid
4015A could be used instead. Their
compact variants take up less space, which can be convenient.
As with the soprano sax and oboe a good solution for very close miking is the two-mic technique; one at the bell and one at the tone holes. Please refer to the saxophone section for further description. The wide cardioid microphones can give the advantage over the traditional first order pattern, that all tone holes are covered by the wider pick up pattern.
Too often, in our opinion, engineers use cardioids where omnis or wide cardioids would simply provide a better overall sound. If you are in a multitrack orchestral situation and the orchestra has two flutes, two oboes, two bassoons, and two clarinets; an off-axis omni microphone technique will work very well.
Place the microphone between the two instruments, at about head height, and pointing straight down at the floor, which should not be carpeted. This technique will eliminate "keyboarding" and the bizarre polar patterns of these instruments will find their way into the microphone.
When mixed into the rest of the orchestra it will not demonstrate that "too close" sound that should not be in this type of recording. Woodwinds are never in the front of an orchestra. With this technique you can place the woodwind section into the mix with pan pots and faders to the position that they physically occupy.