Recording Guitar and vocals at the same time

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chrisdb
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Getting a guitar with a pickup will keep you from bleeding vocals into that track.
 
Scratch that...I have recorded a lady with a Yamaha Compass series and her vocal did bleed into her guitar track.
 
Getting a guitar with a pickup will keep you from bleeding vocals into that track.

I use to mic up acoustic guitars...then I recently tried the Dean Markley ProMag Plus pickups...and then went and also got a ProMag Grand.

http://www.deanmarkley.com/Pickups/ProMag.shtml

I doubt I will ever bother with mics on acoustic guitars again.
It's not that I'm being lazy, it's just that the ProMags sound fantastic!

I may even get the ProMag Gold just so I have all three flavors.
 
The Compass series by yamaha actually has a mic mounted inside instead of the traditional piezo PU...as I found out...but the tone on that guitar was incredible like a Martin.
 
I have started getting pretty good results using this setting for the mics here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xw9UB_8E_M...

So much useful advice, thank you :). I don't what to say haha. And Guitar Junkie that video is awesome, I still havn't watched it all but im going to, thanks for introducing it. Paul, what a legend, he seems like such a clever guy when it comes to everything in music; writing, performing, producing, and recording.

The pickup in the guitar? I've never even thought of buying one before actually, it seems like a good idea. How dgood does the one for studio recording actually sound though? Anyone have any samples? My acoustic has an inbuilt mic, but i dont really think its a good enough one, though it is £750 Seagull...

But more of the problem is the bleed of acosutic guitar through the vocal track. I probably couldn't afford a mic more than £150-£200 tbh. So that limits my options on mics quite a bit. I'm not sure whether to get a new one for acoustic guitar or vocals. What do you reckon is better to record using a AKG Perception 220, it anyone has any experience with one.
 
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[..But more of the problem is the bleed of acosutic guitar through the vocal track. with one.

Still curious then. Did you try the swap and the c1000 hypercarioid mode on for vocal?
 
I use to mic up acoustic guitars...then I recently tried the Dean Markley ProMag Plus pickups...and then went and also got a ProMag Grand.

http://www.deanmarkley.com/Pickups/ProMag.shtml

I doubt I will ever bother with mics on acoustic guitars again.
It's not that I'm being lazy, it's just that the ProMags sound fantastic!

I may even get the ProMag Gold just so I have all three flavors.

+1 . I don't know how they got them to sound so good. (Remember, not for nylon strings)

Paj
8^)
 
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I have started getting pretty good results using this setting for the mics here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xw9UB_8E_M...QUOTE]

So much useful advice, thank you :). I don't what to say haha. And Guitar Junkie that video is awesome, I still havn't watched it all but im going to, thanks for introducing it. Paul, what a legend, he seems like such a clever guy when it comes to everything in music; writing, performing, producing, and recording.

The pickup in the guitar? I've never even thought of buying one before actually, it seems like a good idea. How dgood does the one for studio recording actually sound though? Anyone have any samples? My acoustic has an inbuilt mic, but i dont really think its a good enough one, though it is £750 Seagull...

But more of the problem is the bleed of acosutic guitar through the vocal track. I probably couldn't afford a mic more than £150-£200 tbh. So that limits my options on mics quite a bit. I'm not sure whether to get a new one for acoustic guitar or vocals. What do you reckon is better to record using a AKG Perception 220, it anyone has any experience with one.

Yes it was a cool video...if the concern is guitar in the vocal track...dynamic mic on the vocal is what will do the trick here...moderatly inexpensive solution would be a hypercardiod like a sennhieser MD421...Ive seen them new for arround $250 in some places...and if it helps things...it is the mic that Elton John used back when he was good...you know...before disco...Stevie Nicks also used them for all her vocals... http://vintageking.com/Sennheiser-MD421-used
 
Still curious then. Did you try the swap and the c1000 hypercarioid mode on for vocal?

I just went upstairs to try and actually I was pleasently suprised, it works very well..hardly any bleed at all! and the perception to me sounds quite good for acoustic guitar. I feel bad about using the c1000s for vocals though, to me now it actually sounds quite good for vocals for this method. But so many people would not recomend this mic for studio vocals. I will have to experiment more. I feel like I have to use a better microphone if you know what I mean?
 
Unless you are doing a lot lof weird crazy editing or too much in the way of oddball effects that would make the vocals and guitar sound miles apart from each other... You should be fine with bleed in the vocal track. Bleed has been known to give my guitar a little more high end detail in the final mix as long as things are not too out of phase... Phase is a big problem with this type of thing so be sure to have a decent way to invert phase on tracks when mixing.

I would say that you can get fine sounds with the mics you have if you have a good room, good placement and get the levels set so the gainstage makes things fit well. I tend to make sure that the guitar mic is a little louder than I want it, so that I can turn it down and the vocal up it seems pointless on paper but when I go to make the mix it seems to leave things more open sounding.

Look into Mid Side mixing for guitar and vocals... If you can't do M/S with your software the use the same placement as Paul in that video, use a preamp with a phase button engaged to flip the guitar out of phase with the vocal and set the LDC so that the capsule is at a 45 degree angle from the top of the guitar, still in the same place as Paul has it set there in the clip...

I would bet your bleed would be so slight that you could just use the track right then and there... If you have parts where the guitar sounds weird during instrumental verses in the bleed then silence those sections.

In our studio we have been tracking live folk acts right off the floor with these methods and have not had any trouble with bleed spoiling the mix.
 
Very good adivce thanks, I was wondering if you had any useful information/tutorials on mid side mixing, it's alien to me really. I don't know what it is. I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to mixing so far. Any help would be gladly apreciated...go slowly lol.
 
Well a vocal and a guitar is pretty much simple to mix...lol...very hard to mess up.
 
Most of the time I reccomend the Dynamics for male vocals...outside of an irish tenor voice condensers are mostly for girls and nonamplified instruments.

Absolutely!

And that's why the Beatles, Queen and the Eagles had such rotten vocals.

I heard that bras and panties were for girls and condoms are only for guys.
 
As long as the guitar and vocal are doing the same song bleed is fine and often makes things sound better.

If they are doing 2 different songs it sounds funny.

Why are you trying to have no bleed?
 
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'If it sounds good it is good' aside and all..

I just went upstairs to try and actually I was pleasently suprised, it works very well..hardly any bleed at all! and the perception to me sounds quite good for acoustic guitar.
..I feel bad about using the c1000s for vocals though, to me now it actually sounds quite good for vocals for this method.
But so many people would not recomend this mic for studio vocals. I will have to experiment more. I feel like I have to use a better microphone if you know what I mean?

Hmm. Yeah there's that. 'More, different sounding, sound options, ..fun and lust thing. :) No doubt about it.
 
Absolutely!

And that's why the Beatles, Queen and the Eagles had such rotten vocals.

I heard that bras and panties were for girls and condoms are only for guys.

When you do consider that the beatles used ribbon mics and Queen had a tennor for a lead singer...and the eagles vocals could have been done better:rolleyes:
 
Try the c1000 in hypercard adapter mode in the voice voice position, the 220 on guitar?

yea, the 220 on guitar seems to sound ok but thats all ive ever had to chance to try out with. Do you think the 220 sounds bad?
 
If there was any reccomendation of a C1000 over another mic for vocals...its a bad mic...the C1000 is alike the C3000b...one of those mics that doesnt seem to be very good on much of anything.
 
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