Recording electric guitar 2 mics stereo ?

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ronnelamir

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I just finished recording drums and bass with my M audio fast track 8R . I am recording the electric guitar with 2 mics on the amp , one condenser and one dynamic . I record it stereo and i'm not sure how I should divide the sound for Left and Right , I mean how high should be the dynamic compare to the condenser so the guitar would sound fine in both headphones ,should I balance the sound and make it sound the same in both sides or I should make the guitar higher on the left side and lower on the right for example ?

Thanks
 
Don't pan the mics stereo, the twon mics are dynamic for amp sound and condesner for room sound, just get a mix of the 2 that suits you, less room usually. If you want stereo record another take and use two takes as stereo.
 
AlanSwenson said:
Don't pan the mics stereo, the twon mics are dynamic for amp sound and condesner for room sound, just get a mix of the 2 that suits you, less room usually. If you want stereo record another take and use two takes as stereo.
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Why would you presume all that? (I get that mono close and room (single or dual) may be more common, but he did say recorded stereo'.

But you (original poster..) did ask an odd question; Where to balance them?
Reread the information you gave us. Bass, drums, a stereo guitar'. That's it, a trio? Do yo want these three or the guitar to mix it up in the middle, or how about guitar and bass a little each side of the kit...? (How were the mics placed was already asked.) On and on, the combinations are damned near endless, and this is your party.
 
First of all, what are you trying to do? Why did you put two mics up?

Plan this all out before you start. I'll give you an example of my own thinking:

This weekend I was recording a two-guitar band doing a 90's style arena rock song. I wanted slightly "unfocused" guitars like you would hear bouncing around a giant arena. I would do this with bleed. A lot of bleed. So I put the two guitar amps in the same room and had them play together. Each amp was close mic'd, and then there was a stereo pair of mics out in the middle of the room. I carefully placed and balanced the two amps so they would appear left/right in the stereo mics. In that case, the close mics were hard right/left and the stereo pair was hard right/left.

We did another song later in the day where a keyboard was supposed to sprawl all over the mix and hog up all the room. In that case, we only recorded one guitar using only one mic up as close as possible to eliminate any room sound. A second condenser mic didn't make any sense in that case.

A few weeks ago I did a trio (bass, guitar, drums). They had a very open organic sound and there was plenty of room for the guitar to stretch out in the mix. In that case, the close mic on the guitar got panned hard left and the distant condenser mic on the guitar got panned hard right. The close mic was up in the mix so the listener identified the guitar as being "over there", and the far mic was tucked under to just give some sort of presence on the other side.




It takes time to learn it all, but you should make the panning desision before you even record. That way you know if you even should put up a second mic.
 
Hi

Thanks ,
The only reason I use two mics is because I thought people record electric guitar using stereo,I recorded everything using mono ( bass and drums ) and to make it more interesting I wanted to record the guitar stereo .Im really only starting to record , another reason I thought I should record it with two mics is because for stereo you need two mics (I think ) .What does panning the sound means ? ( should the guitar be balanced in the two ears or higher in one and lower in the other ? i still don't understand ) ,should I record 2 mono channels separately with the two mics and record the stereo with 2 mics together , then choose what I think sounds the best ?
Is stereo better for electric guitar, if I recorded everyting else with mono , or I should record mono and pan (if it means balacing the sound ) ? the sound
Thanks
 
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Very often we would not record things in stereo. Electrical guitar, bass (damned near never), generally individual things and voices are recorded mono.
The reason for recording stereo is to capture the sound and placement within a room for example, or to include an 'accurate representation' of the whole of something -like the image of several pieces in a group.
Even when we do use two mics for recording a single voice or instrument there are options besides strictly 'left and right'; one mic 'near to get a clean dry picture (close for no room or hall sound) and a second mic back farther for room sound is a good example.
And then even when we use two mics we would use two mono tracks rather than one 'stereo track. This is to allow panning of each of these sounds to where ever we want. Just an example we could have one guitar track panned left (the dry' one sounding like source) and the room track panned right.

Other wise the only differences between a 'stereo track' and two mono tracks is that the two tracks that make a 'stereo' track are kinked together, and in name only called (and typically used) as Left/Right. It is the nature of the content (the differences in sound) of any two tracks that would make it sound stereo'. (Whether that is captured with two mono tracks or a 'stereo' track does not mater is this case.)
The only reason we have really to record with 'stereo tracks is if it is more convenient and/or safer to never have these two tracks shift -i.e. a final mix recording for example.
 
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Thanks !

Thanks mixsit , your post helped me and I finally understand it now !

Thanks everyone !
 
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