Advice for recording acoustic guitar/vocals

  • Thread starter Thread starter willison
  • Start date Start date
W

willison

New member
Hi, I write and sing my own songs and play electro-acoustic guitar and I'm looking for some advice about how to get good results recording this at home. Until now I've just used Garageband and the internal microphone in my laptop with obviously limited results. I'm hesitating between the Blue Yeti USB mic and the Focusrite Scarlett Solo USB Audio interface package which comes with a condenser mic and interface. However I've heard mixed opinions about the latter and am slightly daunted as I've never used an XLR set up. Is it fairly simple to use and would the results be much better than the USB mic? And if I paid more and went for the 2i2 studio version, could I plug a guitar directly into the interface? The third possibility I was thinking of was to buy a dynamic mic like a Sure SM57 instead. I should add that I plan to record both the vocals and the guitar at the same time. All in all I'm a bit confused so would really appreciate some advice. Many thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
If you can afford it, get the 2i2 and a mic. With a USB mic, you can only ever use that one mic by itself, can't do anything more. With an audio interface and mic, you can add a 2nd mic, get a better mic, upgrade your interface, etc - all without dumping (some of) what you've got.

It'll be better to record your guitar and vocals separately on separate tracks so yuo can mic them. When you record both at the same time, you have to experiment on placement to get the guitar and vocal balanced out and you can't do anything like reverb or EQ on one without affecting the other.

An SM57 is a great mic for live use, and can be used for recording - if you have future live use need, go for it, it won't let you down. For recording guitar and vocals at the same time, a LDC (large diameter condensor) mic will be better.
 
A package with a microphone, interface and cable is going to be a lot more flexible (than a USB mic).

When recording both vocal and guitar together, you'll need to be able to move the microphone position to get the best sound, and so plan to add a decent boom mic stand to your package/bundle, and a pop filter as well.

I would say the Solo is just adequate for your setup, so long as you record your guitar plugged in, but if you want to get a a better sound, micing the guitar will help, and the Solo cannot handle two microphones. There are other options to look at if you want to be able to someday expand your ability to include a mic on your guitar and one on your voice, or perhaps add a second guitar, e.g., with a friend playing along. The 2i2 that [MENTION=39487]mjbphotos[/MENTION] mentioned is one, and there are others from other companies.

It may seem a little more complicated, but I would just shop for separate pieces - I don't think the bundles out there are that attractively priced right now, unless you can get a deal on one. (And I didn't see a single one that included a mic stand!)

I'd suggest you get 1) a decent large diaphragm condenser [LDC] mic, 2) a USB audio interface with 2 microphone preamps, 3) a good quality microphone cable, probably 15' for the most flexibility in positioning, 4) a boom microphone stand, 5) pop filter. Stretch your budget a little bit and you'll get years of use out of these pieces and not have to go shopping again for some time.

For recording music (vs. podcast/voiceover), very few folks here would suggest a USB mic - it's just too limited.
 
Thanks very much for the advice guys - I really appreciate it. I will go with a condenser mic and an interface then. I was also thinking about buying the Rode NT1A Mic and the Audient ID4 interface but the latter has only one mic input (like the Focusrite Solo) and the more expensive ID14 (which has two mic inputs) pushes everything out of my budget. The Focusrite 2i2 package is definitely within my budget but I've read mixed reviews about it with some people complaining of a hissing sound and other glitches. Do you have experience of using it?
 
willison said:
Thanks very much for the advice guys - I really appreciate it. I will go with a condenser mic and an interface then. I was also thinking about buying the Rode NT1A Mic and the Audient ID4 interface but the latter has only one mic input (like the Focusrite Solo) and the more expensive ID14 (which has two mic inputs) pushes everything out of my budget. The Focusrite 2i2 package is definitely within my budget but I've read mixed reviews about it with some people complaining of a hissing sound and other glitches. Do you have experience of using it?
Click to expand...
From what I've read here, the NT1 (sans "a") gets slightly more nods in that price range.

When you sell a crapload of something, as Focusrite seems to, there's always going to be unhappy folks. I'm a F'rite user, though an older Saffire model, but it's been fine on my Macs.

"Hissing" usually means the gain is turned up quite a bit, and that can be a problem with these if you use a low sensitivity dynamic mic, which many folks are trying to do by pairing up the Shure SM7b and 2i2, apparently. (Even a Shure SM57 is going to have you pushing the gain knob.) Anyway, there are a lot of interfaces in that class - I'd go to your favorite re/e-tailer and read reviews. Personally, I think that's a commodity market and by and large you get what you pay for, though in some instances, a some of what you are paying for is a big marketing department :).

And here's the first learning curve bit - you don't have to get the recorded track pushed all the way to see the waveform bumping up against 0dB like in the old tape deck VU meter days. The downside of 24-bit recording and low noise floor is that it can be hard to hear yourself in the headphone monitoring when tracking, so folks dial up the interface GAIN knob, adding unnecessary noise, ambient sounds, etc., when what they should do is change the master fader in the DAW, or perhaps spend $80 (or so) on a headphone preamp.

If you don't have good tracking (closed back, reasonably "flat") headphones, you should include those in your list.
 
Thanks again for the advice. One last question, am I right in assuming that I don't need to have speakers to listen to the output and that I can just use headphones for the time being?
 
That is correct. I might add that i have a 2i2 with an sm57 micing a practice amp and an mk319 for acoustic guitar/vocal duties hooked up to mine and neither one has the gain turned up much past the half way mark, I will say that the focusrite is susceptible to noise with the included usb cable. I had to get some from amazon with dual toroids. Also mine doesn't like to run right if the laptop is on battery only, though the lappie stays plugged in most of the time.
 
M-Audio has some really good low priced usb audio interfaces. And as people mention just buy one mic and record the vocals and music seperatly in order to mix this together in your DAW later
 
Hello,
A SM57 and Royer 121 for electric guitar. Maybe even a nice small diaphragm condensor for acoustic guitar. A nice vocal mic like the U87, Manley Reference, etc... Make a trip to your closest large music store and try out several mics on your voice before picking one. Sometimes great mics will not work for certain voices. The Neve Portico is a great preamp/eq....but remember it's only 1 channel and you may need up to 4 depending on how complex you want to get. Also, look into the Mindprint DTC. It's 2 channel and has EQ's and compressors. So does the Toft Audio ATC-2 and many many other companies have similar setups. If you can, try them out first.
 
jiachang said:
Hello,
A SM57 and Royer 121 for electric guitar. Maybe even a nice small diaphragm condensor for acoustic guitar. A nice vocal mic like the U87, Manley Reference, etc... Make a trip to your closest large music store and try out several mics on your voice before picking one. Sometimes great mics will not work for certain voices. The Neve Portico is a great preamp/eq....but remember it's only 1 channel and you may need up to 4 depending on how complex you want to get. Also, look into the Mindprint DTC. It's 2 channel and has EQ's and compressors. So does the Toft Audio ATC-2 and many many other companies have similar setups. If you can, try them out first.
Click to expand...

Wow, almost none of this would be for someone like the OP just starting out.
 
jiachang said:
Hello,
A SM57 and Royer 121 for electric guitar. Maybe even a nice small diaphragm condensor for acoustic guitar. A nice vocal mic like the U87, Manley Reference, etc... Make a trip to your closest large music store and try out several mics on your voice before picking one. Sometimes great mics will not work for certain voices. The Neve Portico is a great preamp/eq....but remember it's only 1 channel and you may need up to 4 depending on how complex you want to get. Also, look into the Mindprint DTC. It's 2 channel and has EQ's and compressors. So does the Toft Audio ATC-2 and many many other companies have similar setups. If you can, try them out first.
Click to expand...
Haha. Yeah, the U87 is the first thing I think of to suggest for someone vacillating between the Blue Yeti and a Focusrite Solo rig.
 
On the other hand I am sorely tempted by these..Rode M5 Matched Pair Condenser Microphone: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments

OP might wonder at the wisdom of recording a single instrument in stereo but it does work (bone up on "co-incident stereo recording) and in any case the two mics can be setup in the "classical" neck body join and lower bout mode.

The M5s get a very good rep at Sound on Sound. I don't have anything or anyone to record anymore but I am STILL tempted!

Dave.
 
The Focusrite, interface is fine. get a 2 or 4 mic pre interface. Mics, Just starting out look at the sE electronics sE7 (good SDC and won't break the bank). Along the same line, if you don't have a treated room, the SE Electronics V7 sounds real good for the price. I'd use the sE7 on the guitar, and the V7 for vocals. If you get some gobos , or room treatment to record with, then look at upping the vocal mic maybe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top