Recording Gutairs..hey mixing too

[crispycutz]

Wussup all,

Ive ammassed a pretty good knowledge of most of the ins-andouts of CEP,
much thanks to dobro,lpdeluxe,ChangeofPoets among others...thank you all again...

For the first time im am considering recording an acoustic guitar,...this dude I met is pretty soulful, and I wanted to get him on disc...

Its just him singing over his guitar, so...I was considering my options in trying to best capture the sound....

I was thinking of something like this....

aim the mic at his chest (hell be sitting...) to get both the the guitar and the vocals....solely for a SCRATCH track....follow?

then respectivly Eq out "down" either the guitar or vocals respectivly, (maybe...we'll see)

and record 2 more tracks,

1 just for the guitar.. (mic aimed at the center of the guitar?)

and 1 for the vocals..

both recorded while playing the scratch track in the headphones...

sound good so far?

lemme know...

anything im forgetting, or havent thought of please, educate me.

Ill probably have somemore questions regarding Compression, EQ and reverb settings later on, then hopefully all of you can enjoy the final product...

Thanks always..

-Chris

 

[lpdeluxe]

It's a fact that what you are proposing entails some difficulties. It is very hard to minimize bleed from one mic to another, and the use of EQ is no cure-all. What you have to do is optimize the combination of the mics you have to get the sound you want. This requires experimentation and redoing, in the sense that you will have to record the music several times until you get the overall results you like. Your basic setup seems to be OK. For those of us who spend a lot of time multitracking, we start to feel that isolation is the answer...but if you have someone who is uncomfortable with recording in that manner (recording, for example, a guitar part, then overdubbing the vocal) you have to find the best mix. IF he/she can put down a killer guitar track, followed by a killer vocal track, then, more power to ya. The real world is a little more complicated. What's most important? Vocal or guitar? I have used combinations of dynamic/condensor, sdc/ldc, or whatever else I could think of. In my opinion the vocal is usually primary, so I will sacrifice guitar sound to get the song across.

I wish there were simple answers, but then it wouldn't be so much fun, would it? In any case, why don't you record something, and post it, so we can come up with more concrete suggestions?
Regards,
John

 

[crispycutz]

Interesting concepts lp, thank you...

The thing is that im only working with a single mic, and probably going to have to remain at that status when embarking on this new and exciting recording endeavor.

Its true, multitracking has narrowed my view on certain tecniques, i guess...

...I still feel that If I record it all in one track, (w/ one mic) that it'll sound very....hmmm,

not so good.

I guess the question now is what is the best way to go about this project with what I have availible?

I'll be sure to attempt my theory, and Post it up in the MP3 mixing clinic..

Thanks,

Chris