recording guitar and vocals at the same time

[guitar junkie]

hey guys i have a question how do i record acoustic guitar and vocals at the same time
and get some good sound? i am just another folksinger so to speak, i play guitar and write songs but i just am wondering how to record them with good sound
i am using and AT4040 right now and just using it into a board.
i wonder if you guys know of a better way.... i am not very good at singing vocals and playing guitar on another track.
i also have a cheap shure vocal mic that does not get good sound with my vocals and i have a pretty nice AKG 770 that does well on guitar but then it does vocals too. but i cannot run it and the L/D together (to much bleed) but i like the sound of the L/D it just does not get me good mixes as i cannot PAN things out when i just mic the room and play
i run the board into a computer running Audacity or goldwave most of the time Audacity although i could be running Sony soundforge 7 later on. any tips or mixing advice would help out a lot thanks

[Fletcher]

You need two mics with great rejection in Figure 8 pattern [AKG 414's work really well for this]... point the null of one of the mics at the guitar so it picks up the voice, point the null of the other mic at the voice so it picks up the guitar.

Works like a charm.

[sloop]

I have done this regularly. Find the mic or mics you like on the guitar. set them in your prefered manner. Select the mic for the vocals. Start recording. Yes you will get some bleed between the mics but that is not really avoidable in this type of situation.

[guitar junkie]

well thanks for the tips. as for the 2 new mics that sounds nice but what are we talking in price? i am 17 and still learning how to do things with what i have
i am running with what i can right now, i like my AT4040 what i have found i can do is work with the mic close to my face (with a windscreen) and i have gotten pretty good stuff the problem i see is that i need to make it stereo with guitars in one side and vocals in the other now to get a good stereo sound i have found that with Audacity i can just creat a new track and copy into that with guitar and vocals and then PAN one out to the left and one to the right. not perfect but its better than some i have done without. any more tips?for a better sound?

[ssscientist]

Can I be the voice of reason here and add that the finished product will only be as good as sum of the raw material that goes into it?

That means you will need to BECOME good at tracking the guitar and voice one at a time, because that is a skill you will use for as long as you are involved with recording your own stuff.

Audacity is a fine tool. I use it myself. Get good at using it and it will become even more powerful. Don't be afraid to make mistakes or waste time, because recording time is never wasted unless you don't learn anything from it.

[guitar junkie]

yes i do note that i should learn to track one at a time
and that is a goal for me but as it stands i have more pressing goals such as
writing more songs and maybe a better computer as well as some vocal lessons
mixed with more talent in that respect...... i do like the sound of my AT4040,the reason i use Audacity rather than something that has a big price tag is i got sonar 2.0 when i first got started and found that it slowed down my PC
really bad and it also had more to do with midi than with just pluging in and playing its a fine program but its a bit to fancy for this young folky at this time however i may still use it later on down the road.

[psongman]

hi, well, I have been doing tons of recording in my studio, aptly called the Catacombs, and have picked up a wealth of tips and tricks for recording acoustic guitar, bass, vocals, some keyboards, etc. FWIW, get a Johnson J-station, or Behringer V-amp, or some guitar effects unit. They are very necessary, as the micing can be tricky sometimes, but I do both at the same time. Of course, without a mixer this is nigh to impossible, why a lot of people try to record without one is beyond me, it fills a multitude of needs. I have even been singing background vocals while playing an instrument and sending to mixer, panned differently and getting good tracks, the more tracks the better but I am strapped by 8, with some virtual ones on my Fostex VF08. I tried recording in Cool Edit Pro, now Audition, but the tracks kept getting out of sync, but I bring them in now and fix them up in Cool Edit, mix, master, and burn CD's. Anyway, would like to start another tips and tricks message, can we do it, thanks, Psongman

[ccrider]

Originally Posted by ssscientist

Can I be the voice of reason here and add that the finished product will only be as good as sum of the raw material that goes into it?

That means you will need to BECOME good at tracking the guitar and voice one at a time, because that is a skill you will use for as long as you are involved with recording your own stuff.

But didn't they track Sinatra singing at times with a full orchestra? And there was Nick Drake's album Pink Moon. The whole thing was recorded while he played guitar and sang at the same time. The guitar was tracked in at least stereo, I read somewhere else John Wood used 4(!) microphones on Drake's guitar. I wish I knew how they recorded that session.

I saw on PBS a while back a jazz outfit was in the studio tracking a female lead vocalist a few feet from the piano player, and the performers...gasp!...were not wearing headphones. She got a little miffed at her last held note because it would have been a keeper take otherwise.

I say get some feel back in the music. Live tracking used to be done all the time. On some of the best loved records of all time. That's what I want to learn.


Peace,

Chuck