2 acoustics

lurgan liar

lurgan liar

Jimmy Page XXVIII
Ok,

I know that I should be recording each instrument seperatly to avoid mic bleeding and thus give more options when mixing as far as EQ is concerned ...

However , i am going to be recording a 2 piece acoustic group and they prefer to play sitting right next to one another? is there any way i could set up 2 mics to get a stereo effect .... for example pan the left miced guitar left and the other to the right and not loose any of the quality

Any suggestions welcome :)
 
lurgan liar said:
Ok,

I know that I should be recording each instrument seperatly to avoid mic bleeding and thus give more options when mixing as far as EQ is concerned ...

However , i am going to be recording a 2 piece acoustic group and they prefer to play sitting right next to one another? is there any way i could set up 2 mics to get a stereo effect .... for example pan the left miced guitar left and the other to the right and not loose any of the quality

Any suggestions welcome :)
Click to expand...

I think you just answered the question yourself.

FWIW, assuming there are vocals, I'd mic them separately. If they realy want to sing while playing, just do it and they will learn that any glitch means another whole retake. But if the chemistry is in the live performance then the vocal bleed and so forth will contribute to it.

I'd concentrate in getting the tracks from each mic down cleanly. Once you are mixing you can play with doubling tracks, panning, different eqs and all that.
 
Yes, you don't have to give up synergy in the name of seperation recording. There's a special thing that happens sometimes when two musicians sit down together with acoustic guitars and play off of each other, and the guitars blend naturally in an acoustic space. Capture that acoustic event with one of the stereo mic techniques (X/Y is fairly foolproof) and don't even think about it being a compromise in seperation. It's a great way to record a duo like that.
If they want to sing at the same time, consider a figure eight mic for the two guitars, and a pair of cardioids for the vocals, performers sitting opposite each other. I prefer to capture the guitars as a stereo pair, and then overdub the vocs.
 
what i have done is first record the both (seperate trax) and not worry about bleeding and such so you get the power and feal of the live groop. and than see if you can get them to play seperatly with headphones for editing reasons. it's posible you won't need the seperate tracks but it's handy to have to fool around with.
 
I did this with a friend of mine awhile ago. It was just me on acoustic and him singing the vocal. We had separate mics going into my mixer and then into my MR-8 on track 5/6.
There was bleed, but it wasn't bad.
I took the tracks to pc and then just copy and pasted each track to fill it in. Turned out quite nice and we got the song on one take, after 2 or 3 false starts...
 
Ok, Can anyone give me a detailed explanation of where i should place the 2 microphones considering the 2 guitar players are sitting facing one another about 4 or 5 foot apart?

Some one has mentioned an x/y pattern.

I have 2 microphones at my disposal?
 
lurgan liar said:
Ok, Can anyone give me a detailed explanation of where i should place the 2 microphones considering the 2 guitar players are sitting facing one another about 4 or 5 foot apart?

Some one has mentioned an x/y pattern.

I have 2 microphones at my disposal?
Click to expand...

What mics do you have?

You don't need an X/Y pattern for this. It's easy...you're making it too complicated. Just put two cardioid mics back-to-back. Have the players sit facing directly at each other, put the two mics in-between them and point the front of the mics at the players, so the backs of the mics are 180 degrees (approx) with the other player. Record 'em on separate tracks and in the mix, pan them 9 and 3. That's all.

Easy.
 
I'd use XY for this with the guitarists sitting near each other and the mic's a few feet away, one pointing at each player. Simple and effective. If the players sound good and the room sounds good, the recording will sound good.

Tim
 
I would experiment with various placements including all of those suggested so far. As I understand it you have two mics for two vocals and two guitars. If that's right you can pretty much forget about separation. I might also try one high and one low or one near and one far.
 
Drewcifer666 said:
What mics do you have?

You don't need an X/Y pattern for this. It's easy...you're making it too complicated. Just put two cardioid mics back-to-back. Have the players sit facing directly at each other, put the two mics in-between them and point the front of the mics at the players, so the backs of the mics are 180 degrees (approx) with the other player. Record 'em on separate tracks and in the mix, pan them 9 and 3. That's all.

Easy.
Click to expand...

That's certainly one way to do it, but I wouldn't discount an X/Y setup with a pair of SDCs as "making it too complicated". It takes the same mics and the same amount of time to do either, but X/Y is true phase coherent stereo, back to back cardioids is panned mono. IMHO, the X/Y technique is a better way to capture the acoustical interaction of the two guitars and the room. I would go with the back to back cardiods only if that interaction isn't desired, like if the guitars are going to need differing surgury with EQ, and/or the room sucks.
 
lurgan liar said:
Ok, Can anyone give me a detailed explanation of where i should place the 2 microphones considering the 2 guitar players are sitting facing one another about 4 or 5 foot apart?

Some one has mentioned an x/y pattern.

I have 2 microphones at my disposal?
Click to expand...
If I had a figure-8 I'd use that. If two SDCs then orientated 180 degrees from each other. I'd point the mics at the neck/body joints - distance depending on the quality of room, and taste.
 
If he only has two mics at his disposal, none of these options are viable if vocals need to be captured as well as the guitars, unless my reading/skimming some parts of this post caused me to form incorrect assumptions. An X/Y of the mic's would definitely work well for recording the guitars, but then you are out of luck on recording vocals. If you can budget another mic or two, I'd say go for some hypercardioid condensers for vocals - they will reject almost all the sound of the acoustic, leaving you with clean vocals. And if the X/Y mic's on the acoustics are levelled properly, you shouldn't get tooo much bleed from the vocal lines into them. Cheers
 
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