acoustic guitar micing aka beating a dead horse

[braden_]

okay, easy question to answer i think. when you record acoustic guitar (if you do, that is) and you stereo mic it, do you use a LDC and an SDC or two SDCs? i'm going to get a new mic soon and i could either get one nicer SDC or two not as good SDC's, but i'm curious what you guys with more experience have found to be a better sound. i currently use what most would consider sub par gear for now but have gotten pretty decent results. I'm using a behringer c-1 and a Audio Technica p625 dynamic right now. the mic's i'm looking at are either 1 akg perception or 2 behringer c2's.

i know, i know, all cheap gear, but i'm spending most of my extra cash on room treatment first and foremost, so i'm making due with what i've got. eventually i'll upgrade, but for now i'm just looking for any advice you guys can help me out with.

wow, kinda long post to just ask whether to use 2 SDC's or 1 SDC and 1 LDC, huh?

[oretez]

there is a difference between (among) dual mono (or triple mono or quadruple mono) multiple mic recording and stereo

stereo mic'ng, generally speaking suggests congruant capsules with stereo field, time alignment determined by spatial alignment of capsules . . . i.e. stereo recording suggests using mic's as close to the same (as each other) as possible

should be lots of available info on why it is generally approached via smaller (then larger) capsules & not going to review that now

simple answer to simple question for stereo recording conventional wisdom suggests, at least to start, paired small diameter capsules

unfortunately recording in the near field (close mic'ng) kinda defeats the purpose of stereo recording and once you're out of the near field the 'room' begins to be a dominant variable which means that dual mono which can easily use mix of SDC, LDC, fig of 8 (ribbon) can be a satisfactory choice (yesterday tracked finger picked taylor with U47fet and AT4041, neither in near field but room didn't seem to support using a pair c451's . . . in this case for this material, this guitar, this performer, this room, on this day (107 outside) the U47 @ 2 ft. and At4041 @ 18 in. (roughly) seemed appropriate, tomorrow . . . who knows)

[braden_]

i see, well forgive my choice of words. i suppose i'll go with the higher end SDC rather than the two lower end SDC matched pair then, and eventually get a matched pair for whenever it becomes needed.

[Bristol Posse]

I'd suggest taking a look at your preamps before your mics. You state that your gear is "Sub Par" and if that is the case with your pres you may see little or no benefit to upgrading your mics.
However if you up grade your pres your existing mics will probably get a whole new lease on life and anything you get as a step up the ladder will most likely be incrementaly better.

I just recorded my Martin 000-15 with 2 SM57s, one slightly off axis at the 12th fret pointing slightly toward the sound hole about 8" out and one about 10" above the guitar at about the bridge and flush with the sound board.

I rather like how the resulting blended sound came out.

[braden_]

i have a presonus inspire. i think the pre's are fairly decent on it, but i don't really have a point of reference.

[StonedSunset]

I say stay away from behringer. although i do not know what the SDC SDL and all that exactly mean. i just know behringer = Crap

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by StonedSunset

i just know behringer = Crap

That's a bold and definitive statement. It covers a lot of ground.

Is this based on personal experience??

[gcapel]

I personally have tried the SDC pair method and didn't like it. But I don't have the best SDC mics either.

Most of the time I would use a Audio Technica 3035 LDC on one channel. I had a LR Baggs transducer (pickup if you will) installed in the martin and I use this on an other channel.

In the mix I would bury the pickup channel. I just wanted a little of that punchyness that an acoustic guitar pickup gives. But I would blend the two with the LCD being more up front (in the mix).

Some people would call me an idiot for using a pickup in a acoustic guitar for recording, but you know what? I don't care. Sometimes you deal with what you got.

[StonedSunset]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

That's a bold and definitive statement. It covers a lot of ground.

Is this based on personal experience??

sure enough it is. i used to use alot of thier stuff, a 12 channel mixer,loudspeakers, a rack tuner, a 6-pack of mics, ect. it's not that it performed badly, in fact most of the time it all sounded good. but it only lasted at the most two years. and that was the mixer, by the time it was out of use it only had two working channels.