recording with 2 vocal mics simultenously

A

amethyst_fan

New member
Hi there everyone,

Question on vocal recording...
I am working on recording a project for a friend, and we're going to be recording the vocals soon. We have come across a shop that rents vocal mics, and he has just enough cash to rent 2 super nice vocal mics for a weekend, and we want to try to get all of the tracks done.

Here is the question, since we don't really have enough time to experiment and I don't have enough experience to know which mic is better for him or the song or any of that, is it possible to use both mics at the same time to take the same takes?? I mean, I know my hardware can do it with no problem, but does it present any problems doing that?

Also, if it is easily possible or common, how should I instruct the singer to position himself...and how do I best position the mics?

By the way the mics are a AKG c-12 and neumann m147

Thanks!
 
i would place the 2 mics so that the capsules are as close together as possible--so that the sound is arriving at them at as close to the same time as possible. one might be upside down and the other right side up, or side by side, or whatever works.

i'd back the singer off the mics a little bit further than usual, and hang a big popscreen up so that it covers both mics. and then have the singer "aim" right in the middle.

i do this all the time, and get perfectly acceptable results. often i do it with an LDC and a dynamic, to get both sounds on the same track with a vocalist who can't duplicate the performance well enough to double-track it. just usually need to line em up a little in the DAW after the fact.

all things considered, though, i do think you'd be best served finding which of the 2 mics works best for the song and voice and just tracking with one of them--for one thing, it's MUCH harder to "work the mic" when there are 2 of them rather than one.


cheers,
wade
 
Oh, OK, sweet...

So does anyone have a recommendation on which mic to use? Actually at the shop they have either neumann m147, AKG c 12, or a U87a...I know the AKG is the most expensive, but is there any generalizations that can be made?

I will be recording 2 types of music, one is going to be 4 tracks of folk music, just solo guitar and voice. And the other 4 tracks is going to be hard rock with clean vocals (no screaming at all). His range is rather limited, being between maybe E5 and B6. I know it's kind of a weird combonation of music, haha, I even told him that, but hey it's his CD so there you have it.

Thanks again
 
i'd aim for the 147 and the c12 for starters. between the 2 of them, you can cover a decent amount of ground.

is there any way you can take the vocalist with you to audition mics before you rent? otherwise it'll be a crapshoot and the U87 might be the better choice.

but honestly, even though one mic works for one song doesn't mean it'll work on the next song--even on the same vocalist.


cheers,
wade
 
You absolutely need to honour the stereo 3 to 1 rule.... I blieve if you place the mics that close together you're gonna suffer phase issues.
 
Yeah, that's actually exactly what we did...but the guy didn't want to have it...he was like, well there's no way you're gonna be able to tell just by singing into them, that's actually why he agreed to let us take 2 for the price of one...but we're only gonna have 2 partial days to record 8 songs, that's why I thought it would be best to record into both mics at the same time.

I guess we'll just have to see how it goes...anything should be better than the cheap MXL stuff he was using before.
 
fraserhutch said:
You absolutely need to honour the stereo 3 to 1 rule.... I blieve if you place the mics that close together you're gonna suffer phase issues.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I'm only going to use one of the takes, not both at the same time. I just wanted to ensure I could pick and choose which mic sounded better on a different song...
The rule wouldn't apply in this case I'm pretty sure
 
fraserhutch said:
You absolutely need to honour the stereo 3 to 1 rule.... I blieve if you place the mics that close together you're gonna suffer phase issues.
Click to expand...

yes, correct--IF he's using both of them in the mix.

however, the way i understood the question, he wanted to hang both mics for tracking in order to save time auditioning the mics for each song, and would just use one of them in the mix at any given time.

slightly different scenario, and should be exempt from phase issues.


but i agree--if you use both mics in the mix, you need to adhere to the 3:1 rule or you'll have problems (indicated by my "need to line em up in the DAW" comment in my original reply).


cheers,
wade
 
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