One more acoustic question

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polarity

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When doing the stereo mic'ing. I'm trying moving it around abit 12 fret and 90 degrees and then bridge and 45 degrees or so but I'm definately getting way more signal from the back mic, which does seem to make it sound a little more natural, but the signal is so low I'm hearing alot more of the room. I've got the one at the 12th around 6" off the neck and the one at the bridge around 8" I've tried changing the angles but I end up with alot more low end (which I guess I could try and EQ out).

Just curious what others are doing, if you're using different gain for the 2 mics or matching, etc.

thanks
 
Hey man,
I've found that the nicest sounding stereo mic position always results in unbalanced levels for me.

I always end up having higher gain on one channel to compensate.


I guess the room sound is a treatment thing more than anything.
If you're having a problem at 6-8", imagine trying to mic a performer from a few feet back!

Hope that's useful. :)
 
Exactly what I needed. I can always count on steeno to be awake haha. Yeah I was recording at equal levels then boosting through eq and that worked but ending up with a strange room noise or squeak. Could be the cheap mics, or the cheap interface could be something in the room. Gonna keep playing with it and see what I can work out. Any other mic'ing positions you recommend trying maybe the M/S.

For refrence it's M-audio mobile pre with matched stereo pair of mxl 993.
 
Hmm seems turning off the 10db pad and down the gain produced a much nicer sound
 
Steeno never sleeps. ;)

If you're having room problems I don't know that I'd recommend M/S, but other than that I can't really help.

I pretty much always do what you described.
 
I was thinking it would help "buffer" small noises in the room, but almost seemed to do the reverse?

Going to go try and make a soundclound account and upload a couple seconds of dry guitar with stereo mic.
 
I'm not at speakers right now I'm afraid. Just a MBP.

It sounds ok on here, if a little bright/harsh?

Don't take that as gospel though. You know what laptop speakers are like.
 
Yeah I would expect it to be abit bassy honestly but I didn't eq or touch anything.. just straight record and pan
 
My 2 Cents ;)

I've always had good luck using one mic about 6" away and straight on where the neck meets the body. If you need more lows move it slightly more toward the sound hole, less for the exact opposite. Then using a second mic straight down aimed just inside the bridge but about 4-8"" up from the top of the guitar. This always seems to provide a good balance between picking noise and highs.

On the eq keep them both flat and only roll of about 4-6 db of lows (80-100Hz). On your gain question, I wouldn't use the -10db pad at all as you'll not get enough signal through the mic. The pad is best for louder sources like cymbals or a cranking guitar amp. Try panning to your liking but start hard outside L/R then adjust your gains for each mic to push your meter to equal levels.

I've used this technique with everything from a pair of SM57s to Studio condensers. The result seems to always work well.

Thats my two cents. ;) have a great night!
 
I have never ever ever gone anywhere near the bridge of my guitar with a microphone.... waaaaay too much bass...

This is not to say that your shouldn't, just that all solutions are instrument and room specific, and the frequency responses vary widely amongst different guitar makes and quality levels, and you'll have to experiment lots to find your solution. When you do... write it down... :)
 
Try setting up a Blumlein pair (if you've got a couple of ribbon mics lying around).

Awesome sound and totally natural stereo spread.
 
Thanks for all the input. Aside from the poor playing did anything sound horribly wrong. Too much bass or highs, panning sound unnatural, etc? I expected it to be too bassy honestly but it doesnt sound that way to me, which could be because of cheap headphones or cheap speakers I'm just not hearing it. The highs sound a little harsh to me so I would want to do something with that but otherwise I was pretty happy there with the mic location and levels. This being my first attempt to actually keep moving the mics until I found a sound I liked I would appreciate any opinions on things that might need to be changed.

I also want to try double tracking here soon and see how that goes.
 
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