Recording stereo with two different kinds of mics

[tojo]

I am thinking of trying to record stereo with two different kinds of mics. I haev an Audio Technica At 2020, which is a great mic, that I have used for recording acoustic guitar before with good results. I also have a pair of Behringer C-2 Small diaphragm condensers, which are probably lesser quality... (i don't really know what the difference is in sound between Large diaphragm and small) but the question is... Should I stick to using two identical mics for stereo to get a more "unified sound" or should I use a better mic along with one of the C-2's ? Will it be harder to set up with volumes can anyone forsee any problems? I was also wondering if anyone else had been using two different mics for stereo recording of acoustic guitar.

[gecko zzed]

i use two different mikes on acoustic guitar, SDC up near the neck, and an LDC near the body. I record as a stereo track, but then narrow the width later on.

[guitarboi89]

You can use two different mics and pan them to get a pleasing sound, but it will not be a stereo recording.
If you want to record a small ensemble then i would reccomend the same mics, but for acoustic guitar (im thinking pop/rock not for fingerstyle) i would just go with what sounds best

[tojo]

@ gecko_zzed: so you where you put the sdc? around fret 1-5? and does it have to have more gain because it's farther away to get a even sound? and what do you mean by narrow the width later on?

i'm gonig to describe my recording guitar in stereo and I want you guys to tell me if it's ACTUALLY recording in stereo:

I plug 2 mics in on separate channels on my analog mixer. I pan mic 1 hard left... and I pan mic 2 hard right, because that's stereo right? ... Then I have send the out into my line in on my macbook. My outs are like two female xlrs that plug into the outs on my mixer and it goes down to a 1/8th inch jack. Then I setup a stereo track on logic... and record it pretty much. Or I record them to two separate mono tracks and pan each one hard left/right and the blend the volumes...

@ guitarboi89: why using two different mics and panning them not stereo? Do you mean using an interface and recording two separate tracks with each mic and then panning them to your liking?

Sorry about the newb like / long post

[gecko zzed]

Originally Posted by tojo

@ gecko_zzed: so you where you put the sdc? around fret 1-5? and does it have to have more gain because it's farther away to get a even sound? and what do you mean by narrow the width later on?

i'm gonig to describe my recording guitar in stereo and I want you guys to tell me if it's ACTUALLY recording in stereo:

I plug 2 mics in on separate channels on my analog mixer. I pan mic 1 hard left... and I pan mic 2 hard right, because that's stereo right? ... Then I have send the out into my line in on my macbook. My outs are like two female xlrs that plug into the outs on my mixer and it goes down to a 1/8th inch jack. Then I setup a stereo track on logic... and record it pretty much. Or I record them to two separate mono tracks and pan each one hard left/right and the blend the volumes...

1 SDC aimed roughly at where the neck joins the body, maybe 45cms away; LDC aimed slightly down and to the left of the bridge, again about 45cms away. However, you need to experiment, particularly with the LDC, to figure out the spot that gives the best sound.

2 The method you describe is pretty much what I do, i.e. mikes fed in to seperate channels, hard panned L and R and fed into a stereo track in Logic. This gives a very wide guitar sound, which maybe great for some songs, but I tend to narrow this width by appling a stereo imaging plug in. I do this here rather than on the mixer because I believe it gives greater flexibility.

[tojo]

Ah I see, I greatly appreciate your help.

so another question; you feed the two tracks into one stereo track in logic? If one side is louder than the other, you would pan it to adjust the balance in volume right? Also, can you split a stereo track to a mono track in logic.

btw I've always been close micing my acoustic... like really close micing. I put the SDC's like 10-30 cm away. What does having them farther way affect, or what kind of sound will be different or distinctive?

[gecko zzed]

Originally Posted by tojo

Ah I see, I greatly appreciate your help.

so another question; you feed the two tracks into one stereo track in logic? If one side is louder than the other, you would pan it to adjust the balance in volume right? Also, can you split a stereo track to a mono track in logic.

btw I've always been close micing my acoustic... like really close micing. I put the SDC's like 10-30 cm away. What does having them farther way affect, or what kind of sound will be different or distinctive?

If one side is louder than the other, yes . . . pan in the direction of the weaker side.

The reason why I tend to mike from further away is that the sound from an instrument doesn't come from a single point; the whole instrument is contributing to the sound. Being further away makes it easier to capture this 'wholeness'. The further away you are, though, the more likely you are to (a) capture ambient noise (chair scraping, someone sniffing etc.), which is not usually a good thing; and (b) capture the ambience of the guitar in the room (which may be a good thing depending on how nice the room sound is).

I don't know of a way in Logic of splitting a stereo track into two mono tracks (however, I am using Logic 5 something, which is an older version. Newer versions may do this). You can use something like Soundforge to do this. If you discover you can't split, and you need to, then you should arm two tracks in Logic and record the signal as two separate mono tracks from the start.

[mixsit]

I'd consider any two mics, recorded to a pair on mono tracks or a stereo track, to be a 'stereo mic technique as long as they a) represent differences in the signal and b) combine and share to make a phantom image.
If a balanced true' picture is needed you'd be concerned with them matching. For something like relatively close mics on a guitar, I figure you'd just as apt to move a pair of matched mics around so each gets it's own pleasing tone balance as you would if they were unmatched yes?

FWIW, tracking in this situation in 'dual mono gives you both pan and balance options vs just the typical 'balance-pan' on a stereo track.
Options

[tojo]

I see. I think I will go with dual mono, it has that advantage you stated. I was a little confused about the

"For something like relatively close mics on a guitar, I figure you'd just as apt to move a pair of matched mics around so each gets it's own pleasing tone balance as you would if they were unmatched yes?"

but I think I know what you mean.