guitar and vocals at once

  • Thread starter Thread starter earthboundrec
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earthboundrec

earthboundrec

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I've got a guy coming in to record some acoustic tracks and he wanted to do the vocals while playing. I was thinking that I'll use my 603s as a spaced stereo pair on the guitar and my SP C1 on vox (my mic locker is not too full, but I do also have some dynamic mics). Do you think that theres going to be major issues with bleed into the stereo pair that will make the vocals sound too wide? I was thinking that if I angled the 603s down a bit that it would reject the vocals somewhat b/c they'd be out of the polar pattern to an extent. Any thoughts? Thanks!
 
I had a guy once who said he felt more comfortable playing and singing at the same time. the thing was, it just wasnt as clean. Unless he just wants it to sound live...try this. let him record himself playing and singing at once. Use that as a scratch track. go back and let him listen to that in headphones and play along with it....same thing for vocals. Maybe since he is listening to himself, he will feel more comfortable.
 
have him do the simultaneous method, then tell him to play along with the guitar (seperate track), then have him sing along w/ the original (seperate track), then let him hear both and let him pick.
 
Do you have a multi-pattern mic that can do a figure 8? Pointing the lobes sideways towards the bridge and neck, with the null up is a good way to do this.

-RD
 
Robert D said:
Do you have a multi-pattern mic that can do a figure 8? Pointing the lobes sideways towards the bridge and neck, with the null up is a good way to do this.

-RD
Click to expand...

agreed. i saw this at a recording workshop and was blown away by the isolation. i kicked myself for selling my 414's that day.

OP: watch for phasing issues. when i record a guy who wants both at the same time i either use 1 mic (usually a ribbon or LDC like your C1) or am very careful with the set up. i use a relatively tight-patterned mic for the vocals - usually a dynamic of some sort...57/58 is fine. then i get in my headphones and place the mic in front of the guitar where it sounds best with the vocal mic.

i've had it sound good at inches and up to a foot away. body, 12 fret; angled down, perpendicular...all ways...use yer ears...

if it makes sense - try to look at the two (or three) mics as "one mic" and see how they interact with each other...don't just get a great vocal sound with one and a great acoutic sound witht the other and try to add em up...you may come up short

if it doesn't make sense... well... that's probably me, i'm whupped. :eek:

pax,
Mike
 
bigtoe said:
if it makes sense - try to look at the two (or three) mics as "one mic" and see how they interact with each other...don't just get a great vocal sound with one and a great acoutic sound witht the other and try to add em up...you may come up short

pax,
Mike
Click to expand...

Great advice. I don't know if you have the luxury of a well isolated control room or Iso booth, and a second or an assistant to move mics, but well isolated monitoring while positioning mics is key here. If you have to do it yourself, use your most isolated closed headphones with the volume up enough to overcome the bleed while he plays and sings, and you position. Extra time spent here will be well worth it, and a good overall sound trumps isolation between the guitar and vocal, to an extent.

-RD
 
Thanks for the help everybody.. I'm going to try to get the guy to do it on two seperate tracks, hopefully he'll be ok with that.. Unfortunatly I don't have any figure 8 mics that I can use, but I imagine that it would be handy.
 
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