More acoustic guitar

[polarity]

In the acoustic thread to get the sound he did he basically recorded the same track twice, one 2 mics each set (4 tracks total). Then panned them hard left and right and some other things. My question is what does the panning add? Is it just because he's using 2 different mics/positions so it gives the feeling of if you were sitting in front of the person playing or does it do something else.

I understand the process, I was just hoping to understand a little more of the why.

thanks

 

[Steenamaroo]

It depends what way it was panned, but two mics on a guitar panned hard left and right can give the listener a realistic stereo image of the guitar.
Depending what way it's miced, it could sound fuller to the left side, which is true to the real sound.


Two separate recordings of a guitar give the double tracked feel.

I guess there's no harm in doing a combination of both.

You'll end up with that sound that only double tracking can give, plus a genuine stereo image.

 

[polarity]

Thanks steeno =). You seem to be everywhere on this forum with tons of info. I guess double tracking would be a new term for me, I've always thought of it as an effect. One more question, when doing this method (and I think it is from re-reading the acoustic sticky) basically playing the track once while recording with 2 mics, then swap the mics and record it again?

 

[Steenamaroo]

when doing this method (and I think it is from re-reading the acoustic sticky) basically playing the track once while recording with 2 mics, then swap the mics and record it again?

You don't need to swap the mics.
Double tracking just means recording the same thing twice.

Sometimes people vary mic position or whatever, but the basic idea is just to do the recording twice.

If you happen to be using stereo micing, then do that twice.

Swapping the mics would just be the same as panning them the opposite way.
You can do that if you want, but i wouldn't say it's the 'done thing' or whatever.

 

[polarity]

So maybe a dumb question, would it not be better to just duplicate the track instead of trying to play it exactly again? Or am I missing the point haha, is the point to sound like 2 people playing the same thing, which would never be played exactly the same?

 

[Steenamaroo]

is the point to sound like 2 people playing the same thing, which would never be played exactly the same?

Exactamundo Bret!

If you duplicated a recording, the two copies would be identical, and therefore would sum to be the same as the original track, but louder.

Double tracking has a unique sound. It's similar to chorus, but you can still tell the two apart a mile off.

It's amazing how many guys have the go-to-technique of duplicating their kick drum track.

 

[polarity]

Well I'm dense but I eventually catch on.

Thanks for the explanation, now where did I put all those credit cards.. Think it's gear time!! If I can just buy one more piece I'm sure it will make me sound good! (j/k)

 

[Armistice]

I pretty much use the method described every time I record acoustic, and my tunes are usually based on an acoustic guitar. It's a way to get a really big, spacious sound that sounds particularly awesome in "light" arrangements when there's not much else in that frequency range being recorded.

Try it and see is my advice. You obviously have to be able to play the same thing pretty exactly for it to work properly, which can be harder than it sounds.

 

[polarity]

Yeah I have no doubt that it would be difficult. In the acoustic sticky up there he gets a great sound on that guitar. That makes me thing several things.

1) he is using great sounding mics
2) he is using a great sounding guitar
3) he knows where to put the mics
4) he knows where he should be in the room (and which room he should be in)
5) he's damn good at playing that guitar!

Lucky for me only 2 of those are equipment, the rest is just knowlege I will have to pick up on the way. I love the stereo sound he got using the 2 SDC mics, right now I have 1 LDC and it gives me a good sound now that I'm learning how to position it but I will need another to do stereo. It's time to research if I should buy 1 SDC and use 1/1 or buy 2 SDC and copy that setup. The more I learn the more I see why people are so hesitant to give "hard/fast" answers. Every position is different, every tone changed by changing 1 tiny piece.

I am starting to feel like this is one of those 'stick with it and you're going to really be awesome when you're 60" hobbies

 

[grimtraveller]

Something that I've been trying and liking recently is the four prong approach. Basically, I record the acoustic with two mics {could be a matched pair or two odd socks} but in addition, I plug the electro acoustic straight in and also, stick a crude cheap bottletop pick up mic somewhere on the guitar and connect that to my DAW. So you get four different sounds of the same performance. Depending on how you pan and balance, you can get a beautiful sound, if you like that kind of thing, which I do. It sounds great to me on 6 string and awe-full {as opposed to awful !} on a 12. I do this because I'm a lame guitarist and so I need to supplement my basic playing with a little pixie dust. . For added naughtiness, I'll sometimes "double track" but instead of strumming I'll pick the chords. When all 8 tracks are put together, it sounds ever so shimmeringly cute as lots of notes clash with panache. Real guitarists would probably laugh me out of town but I don't mind. Experimentation is a gas, but only if one likes the results. And I do.

 

[Bristol Posse]

I very often will double track acoustic guitars although I rarely bother with stereo Mic'd set up. For my taste stereo sources just eat up way too much space in a mix and can get really cluttered
I will use a mid/side stereo mic set up sometimes if a song has parts that only one guitar that I don't want to double or very few other elements going on to build a little width in the guitar while keeping an easily controlled space for the vocal in the center

YMMV

 

[Armistice]

Another side benefit can be that two less sounds that sound perhaps not so brilliant on their own, can actually sound quite good when you do the double track / hard pan thing...

There are limits, of course, but I rarely am completely happy with any one recording I get, but am usually quite happy once I've rerecorded and panned...

And yes, your five points - it helps to nail them all. And when you work out the exact position for your mics and your guitar. WRITE IT DOWN...

 

[Justsomeguy]

And yes, your five points - it helps to nail them all. And when you work out the exact position for your mics and your guitar. WRITE IT DOWN...

...and then continue to experiment the one thing that i've found, especially with acoustic guitar, is that one mic choice/postion on one player in one room will sound flippin' amazing but the same thing on a different guitar with a different player in a different room can sound utterly awful! if you've got a handful of different techniques under your belt that you have a good idea of how they'll sound then when/if you work with other people you've got all the bases covered.

in terms of what the OP was saying about mic's i'd say if you can stretch to one LDC and a pair of SDC's you've got pretty much every eventuality covered.

And i'm a big fan of double tracking acoustic guitars especially, as others have said, in mixes where the acoustic guitar is the bulk of the sound or if it's a sparse mix