Recording Electric Guitar and Vocals at the same time

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kadzuki
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Kadzuki

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Hey everyone,

I was wondering how I would go about recording vocals and electric guitar at the same time without the twang of the electric guitar bleeding into the mic (same person doing both). I can't seem to make this happen.

Vocal Chain:
AT4040 > Digi 003 Rack > Pro Tools 8

Guitar Chain:
Guitar > Digi 003 Rack > Pro Tools 8

I've tried a gate but that's a no go because once it opens for the vocals you can still hear guitar. Vocals are 2 and half inches from the mic. They don't have to be completely knocked out they're really taking away from the vocals at the moment.

Is there any way I can remedy this?

Thanks for any help!
 
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can you get the guitar amp into another room? you can chain your mic cables, and get a reasonably long guitar cable(s). or you can go direct with the guitar, run it through something like amplitube, and use headphones for the performer.
 
I'm assuming you can't put them in separate rooms. I'm also assuming you're micing a guitar amp - not going direct. So here's my suggestion...

When you record both of them together, just assume the vocal track is a scratch. Try to arrange the vocalist so that s/he is not singing toward the guitar amp so that the mic on the amp isn't picking up any vocal. Hopefully the amp will be loud enough to cover the vocal. When that is done, record the vocal while referencing the previously recorded guitar track.
 
Hey kadzuki! I am fairly new to home recording, and do not use any of the same gear as you. But, the best way that I have found to record guitar and vocals is by recording the the guitar in seperate small room or cabinet that is muffled in some way: foam, blankets, mattresses. I use foam from an old couch, and stack it around the sides and top of the amp and mic. Then I place the vocal mic a good 5 feet or more away, facing the opposite direction. If you can get the guitar through some headphones, you can wear 1 ear on / 1 off to hear the guitar better while you record.

I use a small Behringer mixer, and a set of Nady mics.
 
You could try using a mic with a cardiod pattern, if you are not already and experiment with positioninh so that the guitar is behind the mic. Also, ensuring that the tracking room has absorption to create a reflection free zone will help a little; how much depends on how loud the acoustic sound of the electric guitar is.
 
Sorry. I forgot to mention that the guitar is going direct in. It's not the volume of the amp. It's the sound of the strings themselves being picked up by the microphone since it's directly beneath it.
 
The microphone is a cardiod pattern. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to get the guitar behind the mic if it's strapped to me and I'm trying to sing into the mic at the same time. Can you clarify about mic positioning for this?
 
man .... you gotta either being banging hard on those strings or singing super softly and have the mic cranked for electric git strings to be loud enough unamplified to interfere with your vox. Are you listening to the guitar thru headphones? That bleeding thru would seem more likely. And what kinda guitar?
 
I would treat the initial vocal as a scratch track. Record the "real" vocal track afterwards while referencing the recorded guitar track.
 
Lt. Bob said:
man .... you gotta either being banging hard on those strings or singing super softly and have the mic cranked for electric git strings to be loud enough unamplified to interfere with your vox. Are you listening to the guitar thru headphones? That bleeding thru would seem more likely. And what kinda guitar?
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The mic gain is only a 1/4 of the way up. It's not the headphones as I can still hear the the strings on play back even when I record it without monitoring.

I'm not banging on the stings at all; just strumming. It doesn't matter how loud the singing is because once the gate is open the guitar gets twangy and changes the sound of the guitar when the I'm singing.

The guitar is about 21 inches underneath the microphone.
 
If you must, Fig-8 mic on the voc, nul aligns around and down. Works very well even with an acoustic guitar.
You'll always have some bleed, and your best-for-tone voc mic positionson might be back away from the mic. If that's the case, the 'scratch take + overdub is still the way to go.
 
Get closer to the mic. Doubling the distance between your mouth and the diaphragm effectively increases your bleed by 6dB.

For example, say the diaphragm is 3/4" behind the grill. Going from lips-on-grill to 3/4" off the grill lowers the level of your voice by 6dB, but the bleed doesn't change. 2-1/4" off the grill lowers your voice another 6dB.

Unfortunately the 4040 isn't as well suited to lips-on-grill as a dynamic "ball" mic, but you could try wrapping the grill with nylons and getting right up to it. Also, try aiming the null of the mic toward the guitar as much as possible. And just to be sure, you know that it's a side-address cardioid mic, right?
 
bouldersoundguy said:
Get closer to the mic. Doubling the distance between your mouth and the diaphragm effectively increases your bleed by 6dB.

For example, say the diaphragm is 3/4" behind the grill. Going from lips-on-grill to 3/4" off the grill lowers the level of your voice by 6dB, but the bleed doesn't change. 2-1/4" off the grill lowers your voice another 6dB.

Unfortunately the 4040 isn't as well suited to lips-on-grill as a dynamic "ball" mic, but you could try wrapping the grill with nylons and getting right up to it. Also, try aiming the null of the mic toward the guitar as much as possible. And just to be sure, you know that it's a side-address cardioid mic, right?
Click to expand...

Yeah. I know it's a side address. I guess I'll just have to try and get closer. I'll give that nylon idea a try. I never thought of that.

Thanks a lot for the input guys.
 
About ten years ago, a friend of mine was doing a vocal for me and she just couldn't hear a particular note of the melody. I kept singing it and she'd get it but when it came time to record, she'd fluff it. So I said I'd play the note on a mandolin and when I did this, she'd get it perfectly. So we carried on recording and at the appointed moment, I'd strike the note repeatedly and she'd get it. But in order for her to hear it I had to get it close to her ear and so it kept bleeding onto the track. Tried it a few ways but it was always there. So in the end I just kept it ! It actually sounded pretty cool.
I'm not suggesting you do that, by the way. I just wanted to win the "Most irrelevant post of the day" award, as judged by my peers.
 
Definitely try the figure of 8 pattern technique. I use this all the time with acoustic and voice. If you've not got the option of figure of 8 try pointing the mic up a bit so the the off axis of the Cardioid is point as much towards the electric as possible. Maybe try buying a reflection filter too, but not sure if you wanna spend anything.

There's a little bit about recording guitar and voice here... mixtipsblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/while-in-livingston-studios-last-month.html
 
Haha I love how everyone was like "Put the amp somewhere else!"

Durrr dee dur durrrr :p
 
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