Home Recording...need some tips

[ahrenba]

Hey Guys,

I have been getting quite frustrated lately trying to do some home recordings. Nothing crazy, but I am just trying to get some good sound.

My questions are not necessarily about the equipment, but technique and skills.

I have been trying to record my acoustic guitar and vocals at the same time.

My first question deals with mic bleed-over. I've been experimenting with using my condenser for vocals and dynamic for guitar (and visa verca).

1. No matter how low I turn the condenser down it is always picking up the other source, especially the guitar. It's annoying as hell. Any tips for this?

Ok, mic placement.
2. For vocals, how far should I be back for an:
a.) Condenser
b.) Dynamic

3. How far should my mic be away from my acoustic? I have it pointed at the 12th fret.

4. On my recording interface, there is a little dB meter on the front that has -40, -20, -6, and Clip on it. What signal level is this showing? I am assuming the output since when I turn the volume/gain knob it goes up or down. What level should this be at?

5. When I record into Adobe Audition, the wave form for my condenser is a lot smaller than my dynamic, but yet it still is just as loud when I play it back. What's up with this?

6. In my recording software, the waveform is pretty large, but yet the output volume is so much less than I am used to. Why is and do I just amplify the signal?

Any other tips are appreciated.

 

[Dogbreath]

Some of my best recordings with ac guit/vox have been with 1 condenser. Alot of it will come down to mic placement. Not sure of the mic you're using but is it set to omni? If so, omni pics up in a 360 degree. Try it at cardiod. That only pics up what's in front of the mic. Then tweak til ya get a good split of vox over guit.

I've also had good results with an LDC in front of the vocalist (with a pop filter) about 6 inches out with the mic angled up to minimize the guit in it. I also put an SDC (not a dynamic) at the 12th fret...ish. Anywhere from 2-5 inches out. I'll move it around a bit while he's playing til I find what works. (bleed can be your friend)

If you're in 24 bit, the levels I'd be shooting for would have peaks no higher than maybe -10 ...maybe up to -6 peak. 24 bit has ALOT more room to play with (sonically) than 16 bit so no sense in eating up all that room at the tracking stage. I usually keep my peaks at -12 to -15.

As to the software stuff....I dunno.
But I brought beer.

 

[ahrenba]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply man.

My condenser is a MXL 2001 . How do I set it to cardiod?

As for the dB meter on my interface, is that the level coming in from the mic, or the level going out after it's hit the preamp and volume controls of the unit? I am assuming the latter?

Now, keeping the peaks at a certain level. When this goes into the audio software, won't this be quite low? If so, do audio technicians usually always boost the signal in the program? Or how does this work?

As for the number of bits, how does going up or down in bits affect the signal you should have? And what do most people record in?

 

[Riffmaster]

See this thread for many adavnced techniques.
http://www.homerecording.org/bbs/showthread.php?t=265093
sorry...wrong thread...my bad.

 

[Dogbreath]

OK...I just read that it's a fixed cardioid so it may just come down to tilting the mic around til you find the sweet spot. More vox, less guitar.

As to levels, when I track vox (or whatever) I'll put my faders at unity, master fader at unity and adjust my INPUT gain (or trim pot) until I get my levels. Seems to be workin out pretty good.

And the lower levels are giving some workable room later in the mix. Like, say you've got an ac/vocal tune that you decide to add bass, drums, piano etc later. Between those and adding EQ, you'll eat up whatever room was left when you get it to whatever mastering you want to do to it. Plus (biggest benefit to tracking at cooler levels) is that you end up with a punchier, cleaner mix. You're not overloading your AD/DA converters. I first started tracking lower a couple of years ago and it has made a nice difference in my tunes.

jmho, of course...hope it helps.

 

[ahrenba]

Thanks!!

What exactly does unity mean?

 

[KineticSound]

Unity = No cut or boost from the fader. Fader(s) at pure zero - this will be marked and is usually about 3/4 the way up the fader path.

 

[ahrenba]

Cool! Thanks.

I am a total noob to recording stuff, so please forgive me.

Do people generally "track" at low volume and boost in software, or how does that work?

 

[KineticSound]

It's not about "tracking low" per se, but tracking with headroom. In other words, leaving yourself enough room that a sudden loud passage won't be enough to cause distortion. You can always boost later.

Try running a forum search on "input level" or "headroom" - you'll get more info than you can digest in one sitting!

 

[ahrenba]

It's not about "tracking low" per se, but tracking with headroom. In other words, leaving yourself enough room that a sudden loud passage won't be enough to cause distortion. You can always boost later.

Try running a forum search on "input level" or "headroom" - you'll get more info than you can digest in one sitting!

Lol! Thanks for the help!

 

[gerremy]

Well you are far more advanced than me, I am barely making plans for home recording...

 

[MCI2424]

Hey Guys,

I have been getting quite frustrated lately trying to do some home recordings. Nothing crazy, but I am just trying to get some good sound.

My questions are not necessarily about the equipment, but technique and skills.

I have been trying to record my acoustic guitar and vocals at the same time.

My first question deals with mic bleed-over. I've been experimenting with using my condenser for vocals and dynamic for guitar (and visa verca).

1. No matter how low I turn the condenser down it is always picking up the other source, especially the guitar. It's annoying as hell. Any tips for this?

Ok, mic placement.
2. For vocals, how far should I be back for an:
a.) Condenser
b.) Dynamic

3. How far should my mic be away from my acoustic? I have it pointed at the 12th fret.

4. On my recording interface, there is a little dB meter on the front that has -40, -20, -6, and Clip on it. What signal level is this showing? I am assuming the output since when I turn the volume/gain knob it goes up or down. What level should this be at?

5. When I record into Adobe Audition, the wave form for my condenser is a lot smaller than my dynamic, but yet it still is just as loud when I play it back. What's up with this?

6. In my recording software, the waveform is pretty large, but yet the output volume is so much less than I am used to. Why is and do I just amplify the signal?

Any other tips are appreciated.

If you want to minimize unwanted pickup with a condensor mic, you could make some temperary gobos. Prop a mattress between you and a wall and record in there. Blankets etc. propped up around amps will do.

 

[Hi_Flyer]

there is always going to bleed with condensors. they are, by nature, very sensitive mics.

you can't track a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing at the same time, and expect one mic to pick up only vocals and another to pick up only the guitar.

either overdub vocals later to eliminate completely, or use mic technique and/or some kind of gobo to minimize the bleed.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

A variation on the gobo idea here, since we're talking about a singer with an acoustic guitar...

Kinda hard to slide a gobo in between the guy's guitar and his mouth , but you could use a Jecklin disc setup to effectively do the same thing.

Though, frankly, for that kind of Bob Dylan/Neil Young singer/player setup, I often prefer just to embrace the bleed instead of trying to avoid it. A nice figure 8 works great, and if you don't have that, an x/y pair oriented vertically instead of horizontally can work fine too. Or just simply mic the sources separate as desired and - as the Stones used to say - let it bleed.

G.

 

[guitar junkie]

I have another method that has worked well....

For me what I do is take two mics both Large Diaphragm and mic vocals normally then I take the second mic and run it along parallel to the strings around the 12th 14th frets... Now I turn the capsule at a 45 degree angle from the top of the guitar pointed down towards the treble side of the strings. After that I flip the phase on the guitar mic on the preamp, it's critical to make sure that you can flip the phase in the preamp

Setting the levels can take a little doing with that technique but it's not hard to find the balance and from there I use high pass filtures to cut things below 60-100Hz compression on the whole mix can be done on the master channel, reverb and all that is easy enough after that too....