reducing bleed through

B

banjo71

New member
I own just a couple of mics, an Equation F.20 for vocals mainly and an SM81 for instruments. I'm a home studio recorder, and don't own a whole lot of equipment but I'm looking for cheap ideas to help prevent bleed through if this situation pops up again:

The lady who wanted to do a CD records most comfortably singing and playing acoustic guitar at the same time. I used the SM81 on the guitar and the F.20 on her voice. I positioned the vocal F.20 so that it's close to her voice, and her guitar projected under that vocal mic. When she sang and played through one of her songs, I listened to the playback and of course the vocal wasn't hot enough. So I muted the guitar track and the vocal could still be louder. So I repositioned the mic to get even closer to her mouth as she sang. This time, by keeping the guitar track muted her vocal and guitar were about the right mix. I'll live with it, even though I don't have two separate tracks. Question: how could I have shielded the guitar from the vocal mic? I thought about building a baffle of some sort, but she needed to read words off a stand. Any suggestions?
 
If you really had to put the Mic right in her face in order to vet a decent mix of voice and guitar, she isn't singing loud enough. There is nothing you can do since the dynamics of her performance are so out of whack.

Her performance is the problem, not your Mic technique. You should be able to put one Mic about 6 feet in front of her and get a decent mix. If you can't do that, then there is nothing you can do.
 
There's no magic way to eliminate all bleed. You're using two fairly sensitive mics only a foot or two apart. However a couple of things you can do to help.

First, since both are cardioid mics, make use of the pickup patterns. Locate the vocal mic slightly below the mouth, angled upwards (on the pickup side) so the the guitar is getting into the area of the pattern where sensitivity is reduced. Do the same in reverse with the guitar mic--put it above the spot you want to mic (12th fret?) angled downwards. Again, this will make it slightly less sensitive in the direction of the vocal.

Second, lot's of soft stuff in the room you're using to record to avoid echoes.

However, the best solution is to let her do a first scratch take playing and singing at the same time, then persuade her to use this as a guide while she sings and plays i separatate takes.
 
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