New Mic Set-Up for Recording Acoustic Guitar

[blackscot]

Recently I looked into affordable condenser mics for recording acoustic guitar, and ended up getting the Audio-Technica pack shown here:

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Audio-Technica-AT2041SP-AT2020-and-AT2021-Microphone-Pack?sku=270455

Yesterday I got a few pics of the new set-up in my home spare-bedroom hobby studio. I experimented quite a lot with mic placement before coming up with the configuration shown, which seemed to do the best job of creating a full stereo sound. Any constructive comments/suggestion are welcomed.

 

[moresound]

Are you getting a good track out of the LDC? It seems to be a little to far away.
I usually go for it much closer to the guitar but if your going for a roomy sound I guess that is where it would go.

 

[Washburn100]

That's excellent,
Funny, I was just going throught the same thing. I wanted to get some good stereo acoustic recordings, and I'm on a low almost non-existent budget. I ended up getting these on e-bay for $34.
http://www.alesis.com/am2stereomic
I was pretty leary of the quality (what can you expect for $34) but I am really impressed. Because of the dual mount they came with I use a true X-Y pattern to record with and I get great seperation.

I read about the set-up you are using and from your post, I am definately going to try that.

Thanks for the post!

 

[blackscot]

Are you getting a good track out of the LDC? It seems to be a little to far away......

I too was surprise where it ended up after experimenting. I found though, that the farther apart I placed the two mics (relative to the guitar, not each other), the more of a full sound I got. The large mic also has a lot stronger signal strength than the small one, so even with it that far away volume levels on both tracks are about equal. Then, panning each mic to opposite sides sounds like when your ears pop and everything opens up.

 

[Shadow_7]

Be wearing of timing issues between mics / tracks. Make sure the resultant tracks are not phase inverted. It might not be noticeable on headphones, but closely spaced stereo speakers could yield some oddities during playback.

And mics pointed towards speakers? Never mind any noisy fans on the computer.

 

[mshilarious]

It does not seem atypical to me.

 

[blackscot]

......Make sure the resultant tracks are not phase inverted......

And mics pointed towards speakers? Never mind any noisy fans on the computer.

I'm aware of and have checked for phase cancellation. Waveforms are only slightly offset between the two tracks.

Also, the speakers are used solely for mixing and editing audio or recording MIDI, and are off when recording audio. Live audio monitoring is with headphones.

Lastly, the computer is partly muffled with towels, mostly to keep the housing from rattling. The fan makes a little noise, but none that I can hear on playback (with my 52-year-old ears that is).