dobro
Well-known member
Mic positions, that is. I've been experimenting bigtime with every imaginable mic position, using the AKG C1000 on my nylon-string acoustic. Well, almost every position - I still haven't inserted the mic anywhere corporeal, but that may come in time.
Originally, I was looking for the 'sweet spot' for that particular mic with my particular guitar in the particular room I play in. But what I've found is this - there *isn't* one sweet spot, but there *are* a number of spots which have different colors, each of which is usable, depending on what you want. For example, last night I tried the mic parallel to the fretboard, with the capsule over about the 14th fret, just far enough away from the guitar so I didn't bash it when I was playing. Weird position, but I got a completely new and not unattractive sound with clear treble and not a load of bass, which suited the piece I was doing nicely - alternate fingerpicking and frailing. And I've found and used other positions as well - I'll spare you the details.
It's like the mic's a paintbrush, which you can make different strokes with, and end up with different, but acceptable results.
The good news is I understand how mic position works better now. The bad news is I'm the kind of person who just wants to get things set up quickly in "the way that works the same every time", but it's not that simple. I'm spending more of each recording session just experimenting and listening to different sounds before I ever get around to actually playing complete songs and recording them. Or, maybe that's good news after all.
What are *your* favorite positions?
Originally, I was looking for the 'sweet spot' for that particular mic with my particular guitar in the particular room I play in. But what I've found is this - there *isn't* one sweet spot, but there *are* a number of spots which have different colors, each of which is usable, depending on what you want. For example, last night I tried the mic parallel to the fretboard, with the capsule over about the 14th fret, just far enough away from the guitar so I didn't bash it when I was playing. Weird position, but I got a completely new and not unattractive sound with clear treble and not a load of bass, which suited the piece I was doing nicely - alternate fingerpicking and frailing. And I've found and used other positions as well - I'll spare you the details.
It's like the mic's a paintbrush, which you can make different strokes with, and end up with different, but acceptable results.
The good news is I understand how mic position works better now. The bad news is I'm the kind of person who just wants to get things set up quickly in "the way that works the same every time", but it's not that simple. I'm spending more of each recording session just experimenting and listening to different sounds before I ever get around to actually playing complete songs and recording them. Or, maybe that's good news after all.
What are *your* favorite positions?