Singing while playing vs Tracking
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Steenamaroo
...
Can do.
What way did you mic this? Sounds good! There's no mud going on which is something I have to contest with a lot.
I find on axis miking to be quite muddy, with my guitar and environment anyway. That's why I was experimenting with off axis and found it sounded more like your clip ^.
I heard the working class hero moment at 0:28.
As always, voice is tip top.
Bobbsy
Boring Old Git
It's purely down to your personal taste.
One thing...you mention having both mics pointed at the sound hole from two directions. I try to avoid the sound hole totally, finding that the sound coming from there is muddy and boomy. I tend to go with two SDC mics, one on the twelfth fret (just for a change) and the other between the sound hole and the bridge. Both are pointed at the strings, NOT at the sound hole.
As for your original question, it's totally down to preference. If you do go the sing and play at the same time route, Steen is on the money (as usual) suggesting having the guitar mics slightly above the normal position pointing down at the strings and the vocal mic below normal, point up. With relatively close miking and an absorbent room, you can get pretty good separation.
Or...for a third option, I've often recording a first scratch take with vocal and guitar at once, then gone back and tracked guitar and vocals separately with the performer listening to the scratch take in his headphone mix. Often this works as a good compromise.
One thing...you mention having both mics pointed at the sound hole from two directions. I try to avoid the sound hole totally, finding that the sound coming from there is muddy and boomy. I tend to go with two SDC mics, one on the twelfth fret (just for a change) and the other between the sound hole and the bridge. Both are pointed at the strings, NOT at the sound hole.
As for your original question, it's totally down to preference. If you do go the sing and play at the same time route, Steen is on the money (as usual) suggesting having the guitar mics slightly above the normal position pointing down at the strings and the vocal mic below normal, point up. With relatively close miking and an absorbent room, you can get pretty good separation.
Or...for a third option, I've often recording a first scratch take with vocal and guitar at once, then gone back and tracked guitar and vocals separately with the performer listening to the scratch take in his headphone mix. Often this works as a good compromise.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
I've always done them separately. One of the guys that plays drums for me sometimes has this habit of shouting during or making a noise at the end of a take before the sound has completely decayed or coming out with something that may be mildly amusing at the time but which is infuriating when you consider it will be on there till the end of time so I've always been adamant about keeping the vocals completely separate.
But I was becoming curious about what it would be like to record the vocal and guitar simultaneously so a while back I did so, recording the guitar with two mics and the voice with one. Naturally, there was bleed into all three mikes but it didn't sound unusual in any way.
I found that even though live I never had a problem singing and playing guitar, recording was different and I had to do about 8 takes. I'd forget a guitar bit while remembering the vocal or vice versa ! Remembering all my vocal bits and inflections was hard at first because although I had done both live for years, when I record, I'm much more precise and as a result I can be a lot more off the wall and improvisatory concentrating on just one thing. It seemed like a bit of an effort to do both.
Funny thing was, in the end, I loved the sound and was going to leave it as just voice and guitar. But true to form, I started hearing other possibilities and before long there was a mandolin, harmonies, whispers and the original intention kind of got drowned.
It's going to be interesting mixing it !
But I was becoming curious about what it would be like to record the vocal and guitar simultaneously so a while back I did so, recording the guitar with two mics and the voice with one. Naturally, there was bleed into all three mikes but it didn't sound unusual in any way.
I found that even though live I never had a problem singing and playing guitar, recording was different and I had to do about 8 takes. I'd forget a guitar bit while remembering the vocal or vice versa ! Remembering all my vocal bits and inflections was hard at first because although I had done both live for years, when I record, I'm much more precise and as a result I can be a lot more off the wall and improvisatory concentrating on just one thing. It seemed like a bit of an effort to do both.
Funny thing was, in the end, I loved the sound and was going to leave it as just voice and guitar. But true to form, I started hearing other possibilities and before long there was a mandolin, harmonies, whispers and the original intention kind of got drowned.
It's going to be interesting mixing it !
witm8
Member
Ahhh so I'm not the only one who does this then !!
Get a great raw song with a simple acoustic stumming patter and singing - nice and clean and raw. Then after a few listens I thinks that I'm the worlds best at everything to do with music and I'm convinced that my 2 minute acoustic song is going to turn into some 6 minute epic Pink Floyd masterpiece !
By the time I've done, I can't hear the origional acoustic, all the main beats are all over the place, random cymbals crashing in, some moster electric guitar solo (which isn't very good) and basically it's just a jumbled mess
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
There's quite a few songs I've written where, once the other instruments and voices come in and thus begins the "heavy weather and big deal touring", the beauty of those original chords and how they sound and work together is completely gone.
But I really like where the song has gone.
What I've ended up doing in quite a few instances is to use the pattern again in another song and make sure I don't overdo it with an over melodic or distracting bass and fill it with counter melodies and rich harmonies. Sometimes, I've left the bass out altogether.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
That's always been my problem and eternal quest to make sense of~ I can !
Imagination nearly always trumps real life though !
KristinaBrooke
New member
I always track them separately, unless an artist is unable to do so.
It allows me to do different things to each track, as I rarely (if ever) treat vocals the same as I do guitars. It allows for a lot more flexibility when mixing.
It allows me to do different things to each track, as I rarely (if ever) treat vocals the same as I do guitars. It allows for a lot more flexibility when mixing.
gecko zzed
Grumpy Mod
My preference is to track everything separately, but it depends on what the artist wants.
There was one time when a person came in and did a quick demo recording prior to recording a good version. For the demo I threw up a vocal mike and stuck a couple on the guitar, and it came out ok.
So we started work on the proper version, to a click and with everything separate, and added a few other bits and pieces.
And it came out, like, blah. The one take demo was way better, and that's what he used on his CD.
But that was an exception.
There was one time when a person came in and did a quick demo recording prior to recording a good version. For the demo I threw up a vocal mike and stuck a couple on the guitar, and it came out ok.
So we started work on the proper version, to a click and with everything separate, and added a few other bits and pieces.
And it came out, like, blah. The one take demo was way better, and that's what he used on his CD.
But that was an exception.