Recording Acoustic Guitar and Vocals at the Same Time

Centropolis

New member
I've seen many videos on Youtube from amateur musicians where they are able to record themselves playing an acoustic guitar and sing at the same time and the audio quality is excellent. I've also seen professionals such as Paul McCartney do this but I guess they can afford the sound engineers to make great recordings in almost any situations. :)

I want to try doing the same thing but I don't understand how they can make such good recordings without hearing any acoustic guitar bleeding into the vocal track. Or there are bleeds, I just can't hear them after proper mixing? Is there a trick? I am thinking if I use any LDC on vocals....it'll definitely pick up my acoustic guitar sound....even if I plug in directly into my interface. And if I want to mic my guitar amp, the SM57 will still pick up a bit of the vocal...albeit less than the other way around I am guessing.

What's the trick?
 
I've seen many videos on Youtube from amateur musicians where they are able to record themselves playing an acoustic guitar and sing at the same time and the audio quality is excellent. I've also seen professionals such as Paul McCartney do this but I guess they can afford the sound engineers to make great recordings in almost any situations. :)

I want to try doing the same thing but I don't understand how they can make such good recordings without hearing any acoustic guitar bleeding into the vocal track. Or there are bleeds, I just can't hear them after proper mixing? Is there a trick? I am thinking if I use any LDC on vocals....it'll definitely pick up my acoustic guitar sound....even if I plug in directly into my interface. And if I want to mic my guitar amp, the SM57 will still pick up a bit of the vocal...albeit less than the other way around I am guessing.

What's the trick?

Most of the time there is more than one mic, just one is hidden. If you only have one mic you have to find a good sounding spot in your room and than stick on some headphones and move around the mic while singing and playing until you find where you are getting the best balance.
 
Most of the time there is more than one mic, just one is hidden. If you only have one mic you have to find a good sounding spot in your room and than stick on some headphones and move around the mic while singing and playing until you find where you are getting the best balance.

I am actually thinking about using two mics as well. An SM57 on the Fishman Loudbox and an MXL LDC on locals....in the same room. But wouldn't the sound of my acoustic guitar be on the vocal mic track as well?
 
I am actually thinking about using two mics as well. An SM57 on the Fishman Loudbox and an MXL LDC on locals....in the same room. But wouldn't the sound of my acoustic guitar be on the vocal mic track as well?

If you've got the guitar hooked up to the Loudbox you might as well record it direct rather than putting a mic on the amp. Use headphones and turn the amp's speaker down or off. That would minimize bleed.
 
But you are correct, the LDC will pick up the acoustic guitar's unplugged sound. How do you know what you are listening to has discreet vox and guitar with no bleed and wasn't lipsynched?
 
If you poke a mike at the guitar and one at your mouth, each will pick up a bit of the other, so yes, there will be bleed.

This ought not to matter. You should be able to get a credible result with two mikes used this way.
 
If you use 2 mics both with a figure 8 pattern there is almost no bleed. However you still will have to use the take whole take with the 2 tracks as editing either one will be noticeable. Its just by minimising the bleed you can change the sound of either mic without effecting the other mic too much.

I have also had good results using one mic out front of the performer picking up both, check balance during the sound check and move the mic so it pick up evenly. This method relies on the room sounding good and the performer being good.

Alan
 
Any “excellent” recording starts within the performance. Then the room and mic positioning will determine how it sounds after mixing. Except for using figure 8 mics positioned to reduce bleed most of us just have to experiment and figure out what works

Bleed isn’t necessarily a problem though it can limit some of the things you could do in mixing.

For electric guitar simply isolating the amp in a closet might be a reasonable solution if you don’t want to go direct.
 
Thanks guys for all the comments and tips! I don't have the budget right now to treat the room so I will just have to experiment, live with the bit of bleed.
 
it won't be a bit, it's be a lot. Enough to make editing extremely tiresome. If you need to edit, then record the guitar first, then overdub the voice.
 
If you "eat" the vocal mic, you can minimize bleed. If your voice is too loud to get up close to your LDC, then try a dynamic mic instead.
 
I would use a dynamic mic for the vocals and the large diaphragm condenser on the guitar. You can put a mic in front of the Loudbox if you want but it ain’t gonna sound that good. I've tried putting a mic in front of an acoustic amp before and it don’t sound right at all. You’d be better off taking the line out from the amp and recording it direct than you would be with a mic in front of it.
 
I use a single condenser mic to record my singing self accompanied on ukulele. It's a matter of adjusting the positioning of the mic to give a decent balance between voice and instrument. I find if I place the mic opposite my face, both can be clearly heard but the vocals aren't drowned by the instrument. I find with fingerpicking, the instrument can be a bit quiet. In that case I also record the instrument by plugging a pickup directly into the recorder. You can then use the instrument track to achieve a better balance between voice and instrument.

If you prefer to use two mics or mic plus pickup, then I agree with what's been said earlier. Dynamic mic for vocals (less sensitive) and condenser mic for guitar or plug pickup directly into the recorder. If you're doing the latter, you might want to think about putting the output from the guitar through a preamp although most interfaces seem very well able to cope with the output from a piezo pickup.
 
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