recording acoustic singer/songwriter

[BillyTheKid]

I'm going to enter a project with a female singer/songwriter. It's only going to be acoustic guitar and vocals. Should I put a limiter in the recording process or should I lower the gain to leave room for trancients and what not?

Any tips on different micing? Anyone tried an ambient mic on vocals?

Thanks for sharing experiences!!!

 

[giraffe]

i personally never compress/limit to tape, but some people do.
just remember, it's permenant.

and if you have the choice try mic's with more narrow pollar patterns, (fig 8, hyper-cardi) placements gets a little more sensitive, but the cross bleed can be such a pain in the butt with a pair of cardioids.

as allways, ymmv.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I wouldn't throw a limiter - or anything else - on that unless or until the setup/sound check showed that it was needed. While this is true of any recording, it's IMHO especially true of an acoustic performance like that.

You'll want to keep the guitar as pristine as possble dynamics-wise during the tracking phase. You can always flatten it some if you need to during mixing, but it's far better at that point to have an acoustic guitar with too much dynamics than one with too little.

The vocals depend entirely on the quality of the vocalist. How important the correct dynamics are to her vocal performance and how well she performs them (e.g. does she get quiet and loud for a logical, emotional reason that enhances the performance?), and how well she can control her own dynamics in how she works the mic will both dictate greatly what you should do on your side of the wires. If her dynamics are out of control because she does not have the gretest command of her voice or because she doesnt move at all or moves in on the mic when she starts to wail, then you may need to compress or even *gulp* limit her a bit on the way in. But if she is both a talented singer and one with the experience to know how to throttle the mic properly herself, then leave her signal as untouched as you can on the way in.

G.

 

[BillyTheKid]

thanks

Thanks for the tips guys =)
I know what to do know =)

 

[Esirnus]

recording acoustic guitars

whn recording acoustic guitars i was making a fatal faux pas until a friend gave me a fab tip. always aim your mic at the 12th fret on the guitar and not at the sound hole. the sound is far warmer and less "boomy"

have fun

Es

 

[simpleybass]

I'm going to enter a project with a female singer/songwriter. It's only going to be acoustic guitar and vocals.

Are you recording her playing acoustic guitar and singing simultaneously?

 

[B_rad]

whn recording acoustic guitars i was making a fatal faux pas until a friend gave me a fab tip. always aim your mic at the 12th fret on the guitar and not at the sound hole. the sound is far warmer and less "boomy"

have fun

Es

Thats the way to do it. A 57 works fine as well.

 

[lpdeluxe]

Lately I've been recording solo guitar/vocals as well as guitar/vocal duets, and I'm loving the M/S technique. I try to record (depending on the abilities of the performer) to record the guitar(s) in M/S, then overdub the vocals so I can independently set their level...although care in mic placement will allow pretty good results with a single take.

 

[BillyTheKid]

thanks again =)

Hey!

I will track the guitar in one take, then the vocals in a second one. So no seperation problem there

Sorry, perhaps a newbie question, what's M/S?

Thanks again guys!

 

[BigRay]

compression and limiting on acoustic performance??DISGUSTING!

leave them dynamics!

a pair of Spaced Omnis, or a pair of Omnis on a Jecklin Disc...a blumlein array, or a pair of Cardiods ORTF will do nicely.

 

[BigRay]

Hey!



Sorry, perhaps a newbie question, what's M/S?

MS stereo is a two microphone capsule technique using a primary microphone as the mid-signal and a bi-directional microphone for the side-signal. A stereo signal is generated combining these two microphones, with different polar responses, in an electrical matrix. Whether decoded during recording or in post production, the amount of stereo spread can be adjusted, a great benefit of M/S stereo over other stereo microphone techniques.
Polar Pattern of Typical M/S Microphones
M = Mid (Middle, Main)

The choice of mid signal microphone is arguably more critical than the selection of side microphone. The mid-signal microphone is often a flat-frequency-response cardioid {ρ = a(1 + cos θ)}, but can be nearly any polar pattern, including hyper-cardioid, super-cardioid, line-gradient (shotgun) or omni-directional. Because of the inherent mono compatibility of MS stereo, when an MS stereo signal is folded to mono, only the Mid microphone signal remains.

S = Side

In very close proximity (coincident) to the mid microphones element, a bi-directional microphone element is placed at a right angle to the Mid microphone. The side microphone signal is added to the mid microphone to construct the stereo image.

M + S = Left Channel
M - S = Right Channel

To construct a stereo (left/right) signal the Mid and Side signals are combined in an electrical matrix which sums the following signals:

1. Mid signal sent to both left and right equally,
2. Side signal sent to the left channel,
3. Side signal with polarity reversed sent to right channel.