Another "recording singer/songwriter thread

[RezN8]

I know there are a ton of threads on this topic but here's a twist- this artist uses an amp which is a BIG part of his sound.

He brought in this tiny little Kustom amp, but I put him through a modded Blues Jr. which was exactly the sound he was going for. Used a gobo between his vocal mic and the amp to control bleed. Had things sounding pretty good to my ears and the artist kept thanking me for getting him into "tone heaven".

I'm curious to know how you guys would record someone like this. Basically it's an open-tuned acoustic with some slide through small amp plus vocals. BTW- It has to be all in one take or we lose the "vibe" and interpaly between vox and guitar.

 

[cusebassman]

Wait - if it sounds good, what's the concern? Plain ole' curiosity?

I play all my electrics through a Blues Junior (stock everything), but I run the head out to an external cab in another room, and record the vocals in the room with the head. Gets good iso and sounds great with a Rode K2 plunked in front of the speaker cab.

 

[RezN8]

Thanks Cus- just curious to hear how others would approach recording in this situation.

The vocal mic picks up a decent amount of the natural acoustic sound and I moved the amp far enough away to create space/depth in the mix. Basically using bleed to our advantage.

If I had more time I really wanted to try just one tube mic in omni, then move the amp around the room 'til I get a good balance. But then how do you go about creating stereo depth?

 

[mrface2112]

i do things in those situations pretty much the same way you did.

one thing i've learned that if you can't get the amp far enough away to keep it from bleeding into the guitar/vocal mics, then bring it in a lot closer and use the bleed as part of the overall sound. bringing it in closer can also help mitigate phase-related problems--in short, you've gotta find the "sweet spot".

as long as the bleed contributes in a positive way, it can be a very good thing. a little bleed can lend a "live" feeling to otherwise sterile sounding tracks.

in the end, as long as you and the client are happy, that's really all that matters.


cheers,
wade

 

[jabulani jonny]

One interesting thing that you could play around with is the phase of the two mics. Many times recording a singer/songwriter I'll use two mics, one for the vocal about 9" away, then another pointed at a 45 degree angle at the bridge of the guitar about 8"-1' away. Then you take the guitar mic and pan it all the way to the right and flip the phase, this has the effect of backing the acoustic out of the center and leaving a nice hole for the vocal.

Since you're getting bleed from the amp in the vocal mic, you could try doing the same thing. Give it a shot and see if you get something interesting.