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Post by GuitarZ on Jun 2, 2018 16:43:46 GMT -7
This may have been discussed previously, but I had an 'ah ha' moment recently.
I'm working on recording a few acoustic guitar/vocal tunes. In the past, I've gone with a simple mic set up either with x-y mics or a guitar & vocal mic and have always found there's a little more realism if I play and sing at the same time.
Fast forward to wanting to record the guitar and vocal separately and my attempts have sounded sterile no matter how i positioned the mics and or mixed the sounds.
Well, I happened upon an article talking about acoustic guitar mic positions and one idea was to place a mic somewhere near your head since that captures more what you generally hear. Brilliant!
That article made me realize that most of my acoustic sound on the previous recordings was coming from my vocal mic. Plus, it made too much sense to get a mic closer to my head position since that mimics more what I hear.
Long story (cutting) short is that I employed a mic pointed at the 12th fret and then my vocal mic around head level pointing down towards the guitar. I'm now getting a nice warm tone from the guitar the mimics more what I normally hear. Yea!
My point is if you're not getting the sound you want, think about how you hear the music and is there a way to mimic that!
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Post by sharkboy on Jun 2, 2018 17:00:37 GMT -7
This even works better when recording the guitar alone, but you’ right, live voice with guitar (played and sung well) seems more compelling, intimate and immediate.
I have been dealing with bright guitars, bright mics and a bright room, of late. My typical method is 3 mics: cardioid about a foot from the 12th fret (angled at about 45 degrees;) cardioid about a foot ftom the sounboard junction at the butt of the guitar at about 45 degrees and an omni near the ear, but adjusted for light/ dark by placement. It is easiest if I make the omni at ear dominant and mix in the other two mostly as an EQ for what needs to get out of the mix. At other times when that doesn’t work well, I move the omni away for more of a room sound. Make sure to get the phase compatible. I hope to try out my new Fat Head ribbons on the guitar positions soon- they might help soften the extremes.
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Post by GuitarZ on Jun 7, 2018 18:25:55 GMT -7
I'm finding the same to be true. That 'ear dominant' mic is the one. The others add texture, warmth, space, etc as you dial it in.
Maybe that's a new term you invented: 'ear dominant mic'. I like it!
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