Panning, doubling electric and acoustic guitar

O

Olijanovi

New member
I have worked as a studio session player quite often and now I am working more from home. Even though I have been around studios I have always played what they asked me to play without really thinking about it.... now I am trying to record all my stuff from home I get these questions:

Acoustic Guitar:

Should I always (most of the time I record with two mics) pan one mic to the left and one to the right? It seems like a good idea... any noticeable downside? The two mics sounds completely different AND aren't placed in the same position. Should I instead blend both tracks and then double it (copy paste) and then pan them?

Electric Guitar:

Doubling every parts? (no copy paste, rerecording) Then panning?
 
Hate to give ya the standard answer but....:)
whatever sounds best to you.

My acoustics will usually have a stereo pair on it. Usually SDC's. One at around the 12th fret, the other by the bridge. The one by the bridge will get fiddled with a bit. Angled toward the sound hole gets boomier. Sometimes that's what I want.
The panning is usually at a 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. But not always. Depends on the other instruments and where they're panned. A similar keyboard part may be leaning toward the left so the acoustic fills in the right.

I almost never copy/paste. Sometimes with drum OH's but that's usually to fix a fubar.

As to electric, almost always double track rhythm but pretty much never on lead cuz I usually can't play the same thing, note for note...:o

hope it helps man.
:drunk:
 
Well. Two mics on an acoustic guitar? It depends. I rarely use two mics unless it's a solo piece. If it's going into a dense mix, I may or may not be using the whole frequency spectrum of the acoustic so I may use a single dynamic mic or a condensor. And I may be panning the acoustic to one side or some degree there of. Doubling acoustic? Yeah, I'll double sometimes, depending on the tune. NEVER copy and and paste and slide as it can just create new phase problems. I shouldn't say NEVER but there are VERY few instances where this is a good idea.
All of this applies to electric guitar as well in my humble opinion. I would not automatically double every part. And when I am looking for more "meat" what I sometimes do is to play the second part on a different guitar/amp or play in a different register or capo up so there's some contrast. YMMV.
 
I never double the acoustic part, but will sometimes record a second acoustic part played with different chording - if the first part is down in the open part of the neck, I'll play the second part up the neck (or capo-ed), or vice-versa.
Same thing for rhythm electric parts - seldom play the same thing on two tracks.
 
For the style I play, I like true stereo acoustic. Lately (mostly because I'm laze) I use an X-Y pattern with 2 small condensers panned hard left and right set about a foot away from the 12th fret. Gives me "my sound"
 
In a mix, I really like a mono omni. solo i like an x-y stereo pair at 3 and 9 o.clock.

downside to recording with two mics is minimizing phasing (chorusy sound). you'll have to set up the two mics and set the DAW to mono to hear how they sound together, that will tell if you're getting a phase effect.

Other downside is in a mix it can get muddy sometimes or step on other instruments. That's the main reason I don't use stereo in a mix...I'm not good enough to control it.
 
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