Here's a question with somewhat of a long stetup:
I recently spent some time researching mic placement and choice for recording acoustic guitar. For the record: I have a decent little all-wood Guild and I track in an untreated room in a suburban town home. I am most interested in grunge-era rock-intro sounding acoustic tracks: heavily processed, dark, and slick. Think Nirvana, Alice in Chains (Sap, Jar of Flies).
The three mic placement techniques that I've seen most frequently on the internet are the following:
1) Mic at the 12th fret 3-6 inches away
2) Mic at the bridge (distance ?)
3) Mic above the guitar, in line front-to-back with the face and left-to-right with the bridge (distance?)
People fortunate enough to have two nice-sounding mics can combine these to make interesting stereo recordings. In order to minimize destructive interference the mics should be at least 3 times as far apart as they are from the instrument. Condensers are suggested.
OK, getting to my questions. I currently have two condensers: an Audio-Technica ATM33a and a Rode NTK. I am going go buy a Shure SM81 next weekend. Starting this afternoon I am going to experiment with these mic placements in my studio. My 4 questions are:
How close do I need to mic to hide my untreated room sound?
How much is the sound going to vary as I shift my position?
Should I expect to compress these tracks afterwards to get a nice, slick sound that sits in the background?
Could someone provide a general sanity check here?
I tend to shift around when I play, even if I try not to. Also, in order to hear the differences in mic placements (sweet spot, etc) I have to listen to each track which requires that I move over the the keyboard and fiddle around for a bit with the computer. There's almost no chance that when I get back into playing position I'll be able to get into exactly the same spot.
Thanks for any and all advice!
I recently spent some time researching mic placement and choice for recording acoustic guitar. For the record: I have a decent little all-wood Guild and I track in an untreated room in a suburban town home. I am most interested in grunge-era rock-intro sounding acoustic tracks: heavily processed, dark, and slick. Think Nirvana, Alice in Chains (Sap, Jar of Flies).
The three mic placement techniques that I've seen most frequently on the internet are the following:
1) Mic at the 12th fret 3-6 inches away
2) Mic at the bridge (distance ?)
3) Mic above the guitar, in line front-to-back with the face and left-to-right with the bridge (distance?)
People fortunate enough to have two nice-sounding mics can combine these to make interesting stereo recordings. In order to minimize destructive interference the mics should be at least 3 times as far apart as they are from the instrument. Condensers are suggested.
OK, getting to my questions. I currently have two condensers: an Audio-Technica ATM33a and a Rode NTK. I am going go buy a Shure SM81 next weekend. Starting this afternoon I am going to experiment with these mic placements in my studio. My 4 questions are:
How close do I need to mic to hide my untreated room sound?
How much is the sound going to vary as I shift my position?
Should I expect to compress these tracks afterwards to get a nice, slick sound that sits in the background?
Could someone provide a general sanity check here?
I tend to shift around when I play, even if I try not to. Also, in order to hear the differences in mic placements (sweet spot, etc) I have to listen to each track which requires that I move over the the keyboard and fiddle around for a bit with the computer. There's almost no chance that when I get back into playing position I'll be able to get into exactly the same spot.
Thanks for any and all advice!
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