Expandable Vocals and Acoustic

[strat_69]

I've been working with cubase for a while now and I haven't been able to get what I want out of my setup. I've only got 2 mics to work with at college (marshalls), and I usually record standing with my vocal mic and guitar miked at the 12th fret. Once I get that, with a compression ratio of about 4.5 to 1 or so, It sounds decent, but then I'm not sure how to eq everything to make the sound right.

I tried having 3 tracks for each, one centered with more highs and the other two panned quieter with more lows kind of. I have been looking for advice on a similar setup to mine but haven't found much, I'm going through a firepod by the way to my laptop in a closet studio. I thought the three tracks was too much and was probably not right.

Does anyone know ways to pan, multitrack and eq in specific hz ranges to make this sound full and expandable as I put it in the title, meaning it would maybe sound good mixed with more instruments added later on some songs, like violins or drums, but hold up on it's own acoustically.

I've been messing around with recording for a while and have stumbled onto some good things, (somebody also stumbled onto my whole studio and stole it all, so that's why I'm in a closet now) but I don't have a very good knowledge of what exactly to DO, rather than stumble, and I would appreciate it so much if someone would shed some light on this for me. Thanks!

 

[strat_69]

anybody have any ideas?

 

[scrubs]

For songs that are just vocal and acoustic, I try to do as little Eq'ing & compression as possible, especially on the guitars. Basically work with mic placement to get the sound you want. Then, Probably roll off a little bass, and that's it (guitar below 80-100Hz and Vocal below 100-150Hz).

Try tracking two guitar parts, perhaps varying the mic placement, or track the acoustic with both your mics together. Here's a site with a few 2-mic techniques for acoustic. Then pan the two acoustic parts away from center (either partially, or hard-pan, whichever sounds best to you).

Record your vocal with just a single mic, but keep it centered. If you want to thicken things up, you can record the part twice (try to sing it as close to the first take as possible) and pan, like the guitars, or compress the second vocal and have it centered, but at a lower volume, just to give some body to the main vocal.

 

[strat_69]

hey thanks I'll look into that site, any info is awesome here cause I've kind of been getting a strange sound trying to do it how I was so I'll try this as soon as I can.

 

[Ironklad Audio]

do as little Eq'ing & compression as possible

b-i-n-g-o!

never, ever, ever, use compression on plain acoustic material! at least not on the guitars, that is...the "fullness" of the sound comes from the transient peaks that occur when notes/chords are picked or strummed, and compression smashes those peaks down and smooths them out.

try recording the acoustic with 2 tracks at once, with the mics either in an x-y setup or as a spaced pair - if you don't know what either of those are, do a quick search. pan the tracks L/R to where they sound best to you, then overdub your vocals. depending on your style/ability/whatever, it may be appropriate to compress the vocals a little bit, and possibly to EQ a tad bit so that they stand out from the guitar tracks, but that shouldn't be all that necessary if the vocals stay in the center and the guitar tracks are panned around it

basically, you're going to be best off to be as minimalistic as possible when recording this type of music. if you're planning on adding more stuff to the mix later on, then you might want to compress/eq something a little bit to stand out from the other elements in the mix, or even drop down to a mono guitar track if things start getting really layered - but i wouldn't do any of that until the other parts of the arrangement are actually there.

 

[strat_69]

yeah it looks like I was going about this the wrong way. I have another condenser mic that I think I'm going to bring and see how that goes. I'll try the stereo with the acoustic, the samples I listened to sounded really good. If I want to add something acoustic like bongos and shakers in there, how should I go about that? I'm guessing just keep it simples still and try some good mic placement. If I want to electrify a song that I recorded acoustic, or beef it up with drums, more bass, or something of that nature, should I compress a bit so it fits together smoothly then?

Also, what about the vocals, how much compression should I use on those, and what eq should I use, I have a bass voice but sing a bit higher, so my tone is low kind of. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[scrubs]

yeah it looks like I was going about this the wrong way. I have another condenser mic that I think I'm going to bring and see how that goes. I'll try the stereo with the acoustic, the samples I listened to sounded really good. If I want to add something acoustic like bongos and shakers in there, how should I go about that? I'm guessing just keep it simples still and try some good mic placement. If I want to electrify a song that I recorded acoustic, or beef it up with drums, more bass, or something of that nature, should I compress a bit so it fits together smoothly then?

Also, what about the vocals, how much compression should I use on those, and what eq should I use, I have a bass voice but sing a bit higher, so my tone is low kind of. Thanks for all the help guys.

When I have an acoustic part as part of a larger mix, I generally only record it with a single mic (pointed approximately at the neck/body joint) and I tend to roll off more bass on the track. The soloed part may sound too thin, but it will sit better in the mix. Sometimes, a little compression is necessary (never more than 2:1 ratio) to keep the level consistant, but listen first before you start compressing.

Also, keep in mind that if you're recording in a closet, the acoustics of the space itself will impact your recordings. A closet full of clothes may be ok for vocals, as it will sound very dead, but a guitar generally sounds better with at least a little ambience. Try tracking the guitar in a larger room, if you can, and experiment with different mic distances (from the guitar) to find out what sounds best for each piece. For a guitar in a busy mix, a close-miked acoustic may be best, but for a solo guitar/voice piece, you may want to have the mics a couple of feet away to capture a more natural sound.

 

[strat_69]

I've managed to get a much better guitar tone using slight compression only with two mics in the xy position, so that's getting better I think.

Unfortunately, my vocal situation isn't quite where I want it to be, how can I bring the vocals forward in the mix and make them sound more present? How much compression do they need, and should I try some very slight delay on them and add some highs in the right place to make them thick and shiny or something? I'm getting there so this is awesome but I want these recordings to be proud and not just some crap. Thanks guys.

 

[Delgado69]

Reading this thread has given me a bunch of ideas as well with my acoustic music. Thanks everybody.