mic options-comments, please

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Monroe
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Richard Monroe

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Ok,I've figured out enough to ask meaningful questions, I hope. I now know what my available tools are, and I can begin figuring out how to use them. First, you can skip the "everybody is looking for a sound, what's yours?" and the "I don't really know what your room sounds like.", etc., ;I know that. I'll have to listen to a bunch of options, and so will the engineer. (Mama didn't raise a fool, I will need help to produce a good first CD.) However, I believe the more I know, the more I will be able to guide him toward this mythical "my sound". I may not be the engineer, but I am the producer!
First, the music- folk/blues/rock. but with the usual American folk country being replaced by Brit/Celtic influence. On the acoustic side, think CSN with girls. On the electric side, think Heart/Fleetwood Mac, and when they meet, old Jefferson Airplane
(before they fired Al Schmidt!). We're starting with the acoustic stuff first, because my room is not prepared yet for high SPL's. I know I'll need another room then.
I need to lay down acoustic steel string/ vocal guide tracks for some old friends to do overdubs, and in an ideal world, I would like to record guit/vox simultaneously, because it's more natural for me. If bleed turns out to be a major issue, I'll need to record the tracks separately.
The room is about 16' x 12', carpet floor over cement (basement). wood paneling, solid wood ceiling 8', with some annoying pipes runing across the ceiling. Auralex foam and carpeting will be applied to probem areas, windows, etc. Multiple good sets of ears think it's a better room than it sounds like here. I'm building mobile baffles, and if it becomes necessary, an isolation booth. However, the last thing I want is dead room studio sound. I don't have a problem with recording (some of) this room.
Ok, hardware boys, this is what I have- The acoustic is a Taylor 700 series with a Fishman prefix plus stereo blender. It has on board a small diaphragm condenser of unknown (I'd say questionable) value, and a rather good piezo pickup. Mic cabinet- (you knew I'd get there) 1 AKG Solid Tube, I think the main vocal mic. a factory matched pair of Oktava MC012's (cardioid), and 1 additional Omni capsule for the Oktavas. 1 AKG C2000B, a utility mid-size diaphragm, and if I need a dynamic (probably not for the acoustic stuff), I have a couple sm57's, but no shit, I prefer AKG D690's.
The recorder is Roland VS1824CD (look, ma, no PC's at all!) Outboard stuff includes DBX386 dual channel mic pre, POD Pro, Lexicon MPX-200 multi-fx processor,Samson Servo 150 power amp, Rolls RA62HA headphone amp,Furman PM-8 power conditioner, Sennheiser HD280 PRO cans x2, M-Audio SP5B powered refernce monitors. Yeah, I know the monitor path is weak, but I'm not trying to do more than a rough mix in house for the first project. Later I hope to play with mixing, but this is my first commercial project.
Now to the good stuff. I'd love to hear some comments on the following plans for mic utilization. Assume that all of what follows is while using the Solid tube for vocals. How about these options for guitar:

1. The Oktava's as an XY coincedent pair (cardioid)
2. 1 Oktava omni in front, close mic'd (I'm afraid of vox bleed)
3. same as #2, but cardioid, and farther away to decrease proximity
4. same as #3, but w/ C2000B
5. blending any of the above w/ Fishman piezo, using POD as DI
6. ? Actually use the mic in the Taylor for something ?!?!
7. You got a better idea?

Guitar will include fingerstyle/bluegrass influence, flatpick blues/boogie, and much power chords (Pete Townsend is a huge influence). I am also aware that if I use the Oktava's as a stereo pair, I will need to get another channel, and my joking aside, I think that a POD Pro would make a fairly poor pre for a Solid Tube, even when used as a DI. However, I will try that, as my resources are limited. Sorry this was lengthy, but as many of you have pointed out, the usefulness of your answers is proportional to the amount of facts you have. Thanks everybody for your advice and support. (layered vocals are coming-rah!)- Richie
 
Maybe, but the Solid tube would pick up much guitar and vocals, I don't know if that much guitar on the primary vocal track will work with ***layered vocals***. Wait'll you meet the girls! And about the POD, who knows. Sure, it's an FX processor, but when all the effects are turned off, it may turn out to be a better preamp for dry tracks than anything else I've got...or not. Isn't this fun? Remember, remixing is outsourced. I plan to use precious little effects and damn little compression. I think that would just make for problems that won't be possible to fix in the mix. Thanks for the comment, c7sus, keep it coming guys. And by the way, Harvey, you got a lot of sycophants around here trying to buff you up. I'm not one of them, but in all seriousness, it looks like your council is greatly regarded around here. I hope to be worthy of your input, master Po- Thanks, Richie
 
In a perfect world, the basic acoustic guitar and primary vocal is a live take, and everything else is a dub. If I can't reduce the bleed, I'll have to dub the vocals, but it makes the timing a lot harder. What I'm doing here is exploring ways to not have to do that. If it's what we have to do, then we will. Thanks again- Richie
 
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