can't believe I never tried this!

[jmorris]

I was breezing through the new Sonar 3 ad in Mix and noticed a track on there track veiw page that looked like a vocal track was recorded in stereo. I have never tried that. Anyone out there done it??? What would be the best way other than the obvious way with 2 mic?

 

[BrettB]

I was breezing through the new Sonar 3 ad in Mix and noticed a track on there track veiw page that looked like a vocal track was recorded in stereo. I have never tried that. Anyone out there done it??? What would be the best way other than the obvious way with 2 mic?

the first thing that come to mind to me is: phase problems? Or maybe that's the sound you're after?

 

[4-Man Takedown]

If you're using sonar, you could just fix the phase problems by moving one of the waveforms so that it lines up perfectly to the other.

 

[mixsit]

... Anyone out there done it???

Sure, on anything that you want to include some space, depth and/or movement. An XY pair or whatever.

 

[jmorris]

phase

should not be issue I don't think,I can reverse phase if needed while tracking. Explain x/y set up if you can. Never tried that.

 

[bennychico11]

X/Y pair is done by taking two microphones (usually a pair of cardiod) and putting one barely above the other one without touching at a 90 degree angle. If you look at it from above it will look sort of like an X with the capsules as close as possible. It's a good stereo technique, however usually it's not done on one vocalist. If you think about it, the voice is a mono instrument. Sound comes from just the mouth (of course...sometimes the chest area, but not enough to mic it I don't think). Usually XY or stereo techniques are on drums, guitars, or a group of vocalists like a choir. It helps drum rolls stand out, guitar sound coming from the tone hole and the frets, and make it seem like a choir is standing right in front of you. It just makes it more life like. But if you're REALLY wanting to try a stereo techinque for just one voice you can just duplicate the vocal track and pan it the opposite way. Or you can try what I like to do: duplicate the vocal track twice, pan two of them hard left and right, flip the phase on one of the two you panned, and move the center one slightly ahead of the phased on...like about 3 or 4ms. Just mess around with it to make the vocal sound more thicker.
Hope I could help.

 

[the sneak]

If you're using sonar, you could just fix the phase problems by moving one of the waveforms so that it lines up perfectly to the other.

Then what is the point of stereo?

 

[TexRoadkill]

There really isn't any point in stereo micing vocals unless you are going for something pretty weird or ambient. If you want a tight, modern sound then stereo micing will only cause more problems.

 

[dr.colossus]

i tried stereo vocal on a recent project... i definatly adds some subtle ambience, the voice kind of floats in the stereo field...i tired it on heavy rock vocals (hetfield style) and it didn't quite work, but i do think it would work well on something sparse and melodic...

 

[4-Man Takedown]

Then what is the point of stereo?

Well, I think there are more reasons to record in stereo than just phase. If you place mics in different positions you'll get different sounds, if the phase sounds bad, then fix it. If you're just using an XY or something, then you probably won't get much phase problems in the first place.

 

[mawtangent]

I once heard that David Bowie did the vocals to "Heroes" ("We can be heroes...") with one mic close to his mouth and another mic like 20 feet away (I think down a hallway like enclosure)...I don't remember the details but it seemed that a gate was involved and a different sound was produced as he went from singing softly to shouting out the lyrics.

 

[bennychico11]

yeah, i can understand using a different mic for room ambience or something like that...but placing two mics to achieve a stereo signal is something I don't think needs to be done. It's one voice. It'd be like stereo micing a single tom, or a trumpet. They aren't stereo instruments.

 

[Jack Real]

I was breezing through the new Sonar 3 ad in Mix and noticed a track on there track veiw page that looked like a vocal track was recorded in stereo. I have never tried that. Anyone out there done it??? What would be the best way other than the obvious way with 2 mic?

Hi

I used to track my vocals with 2 mics, 1 dynamic and 1 small diaphragm condenser. It's one way of getting a pseudo stereo effect on a lead vocal because the characteristics of the mics are different. It was giving good results on some occasions but not all the times. Now I track my vocals with a large diaphragm condenser.

/Jack Real.

 

[jfrog]

What would be the best way other than the obvious way with 2 mic?

2 mics x 1 take or 1 mic x 2 takes

I've recorded a singer singing the same part in 2 separate takes. Since he's a consistent singer, the end result was that it sounded chorus-y - which is what happens when the 2 tracks are randomly going in and out of phase with each other.

 

[ecktronic]

Never heard of stereo vocals really, expect from i suppose when you double track and budge one of the tracks along a tiny fraction and then pan to a degree. This just gives a stereo feel with space.

 

[mixsit]

yeah, i can understand using a different mic for room ambience or something like that...but placing two mics to achieve a stereo signal is something I don't think needs to be done. It's one voice. It'd be like stereo micing a single tom, or a trumpet. They aren't stereo instruments.

This isn't to point at you Bennychico -just for the thread- and I do agree you're right, mostly it would not be needed.
One of the main points or maybe the only point of deciding to mic something stereo is to get a three dimensional image. In this case we're looking at a single voice, but it still has the potential to fill the whole sound stage with width and depth.
On the other hand, if you put one mic on the voice and one on the room, it's two tracks with a mono ambience -which works fine for all the other reasons of course.
Wayne

 

[darnold]

First of all, two mics do not mean stereo. period. Does give cool sounds though.

But also, it would be very difficult to fix phasing problem with vocals because any slight movement would change the phase. Sooo where its 3 milliseconds out of phase 1 second it could be 6 milliseconds the next second.

So its basically not recommended.

Danny