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Ehh, so hard to find professional feedback on studio recording of accordion. It's still pretty exclusive and rare (there is even no tag for it here!), especially the most high end accordions, which i have (it's from Yupiter, an accordion with converter for 10000 bucks. I perform with it on music competitions, and it's sound is almost PERFECT, with only little compromises).

When recording, it almost always gets colored, especially those high pitched sounds - the treble is unnaturally boosted. Totally unacceptable when performing something classical, it ruins the whole royalty and perfection of sounds this instrument can making.

Anyway. I'm looking for ANY PROFESSIONAL advice on recording accordion, particularly about choosing a microphone (what specs should I look for, and some examples). Also maybe some of you have experience about those built-in mic systems for accordion, I have no idea how they sound?

Michael Hansen Buur
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Darek Buryński
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I would go with 2-4 goosenecked clip microphones positioned in top and bottom of each sound source, something like this:

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The important thing here is that the mics stay at a fixed position, so you will not get varying levels as you play and move around, as with a mic on a stand.

The DPA 4099 series would be a good choice. They actually made an accordion optimized package: d:vote™ VO4099A Stereo Microphone System for Accordion

enter image description here

If you want a cheaper option, which sound good too (but constructionwise is not as good as the DPA), take a look at Thomanns t.bone Ovid System CC 100 The ovid mic also comes in a bundle with lots of different mounting options:

enter image description here

As for the room micing - if you are recording in a room with attractive acoustics, I would use a mid-side or blumlein setup about 3 meters away and blend that with the close mics.

Also, take a look at this question over at the music SE: https://music.stackexchange.com/questions/20758/how-to-mic-and-amplify-an-accordion-for-live-performance

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Michael Hansen Buur
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With such a dynamic acoustic instrument, it's usually a good idea to use an array of different mics and placement techniques to capture the full range of the instrument.

A good stereo array (I'm partial to X-Y pattern myself, but experimentation and room consideration are key here) of Shure SM81s in a decent room can get a very natural sound. Pair that with an SM57 close miking near the body to emphasize what you consider the "sweet spot" of the instrument's sound and balance those in the mix and you should be off to a good start.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/stereo_microphone_techniques/

Of course, you can swap out the close mic to vary the sound a bit (technically this is coloring, but it might be important to balance some of this sound with the further distanced stereo pair). Something with a larger diaphragm may help here.

One final note, try to restrain the urge to go overboard with mics, some people might say the 3 mics is overboard for this approach, and it's definately worth remembering that over-thinking a process can leave it muddied. With that in mind, keep the 3:1 Rule of Microphone Placement in mind http://www.sweetwater.com/insync/31-rule-of-microphone-placement/