singer/songwriter - one mic!?

F

Fishybob

New member
I'm working on a new project in December with a very talented singer/songwriter. He's very Neil Young inspired (which suits me as I love the early stuff).

Because of this style he wants to sing and play guitar at the same time and then over dub loads of instruments to get the most organic sound that we can. I have a great sounding live room (Lounge with wooden floors and high ceilings!) but only one decent mic for this job.

Should I try to set up and record a balance of guitar and vocals with one mic? I've done this before with ok results, but as this is going to have other instruments in the mix I'd rather have the extra control over the vocals level.


We are on a very limited timescale and want to get cracking without too much trial and error.


How would you guys handle this?






Rode NT1000
Beyerdynamic M201
SM58

One good pre - Focusrite Penta
Crap behringer mixer with two pres of 'less than ideal' quality.
 
try for a single track, then replace later if necessary

If he is singing and playing acoustic guitar at the same time, it is difficult to get separation. If you wanted to try for separation, don't use the rode, because that will pick up too much. maybe the beyer will too.

I would try for getting a single combined vocal guitar track, keeping the guitar a bit lower in level than you would normally so that there is a bit of space for other instruments.

With luck you may get a track that you can use.

If not, at least it gves the other musicians soomething to play along to. You can then replace the original track with new vocal and guitar tracks recorded separately and later
 
Although there's not much 'zing' to the Beyer, I was thinking of putting that (through the crappy pre's) around the guitar nut and using the Rode aimed up towards the mouth (being careful about pops!) and then merge them together. May give a little bit of flexibility.

Any issue with Phase to be aware of? (The penta has a phase button if needed)
 
i would do it like this . . .

given what you have and what little i know, i would try this: sm58 aimed at body of guitar, beyer aimed at neck, mixed through behringer onto a stereo track, with nt1000 going through the other pre onto a separate track. there is going to be a whole mess of spill, but perhaps with the two tracks you will have some control over relative balance between vocal and guitar.

if it doesn't work, you can salvage with plan b (rerecording vocals and guitar after the others have done their bit).

i really don't know enough to say whether phasing will be a problem. i tend to let my ears be the judge . . . if it comes out sounding okay i don't really care how it got in.
 
Not a bad idea. I hadn't thought of using both dynamic mics on the guitar. They would have to be thrown together while recording as I'm still making do with 2ins 2outs.


F**k it! He wanted a low-fi sound, that's what he's gonna get!!!



I've done some work with this guy before and he is awesome... but... He never sorts out an arrangement so much as he knows what bit goes next just not always at the same time! Overdubbing guitar would be impossible but vocals... maybe.


We have 4 days and he wants us to do 6 songs. All with loads of odd instrumentation... should be fun. I just dug out my old Harmonium... Lord knows how to mic that! ;)


Thanks everyone. :D
 
I don't run a studio, but I used to have only one mic and a VCR to record, so I've done a bit of experimentation along these lines.

If I were you, I would run the Rode through your good pre and place the mic about an arm length away from the player. About chest level right inbetween the buitar and the voice. When you listen, if the voice seems too loud, move the mic down...guitar too loud, move the mic up a bit (more like at the chin of the singer but still arm's length away, you get the idea).

Then take the 58, and have this be a vocal mic through a behry pre. And take the other dynamic and put it a few inches off the neck of the guitar, a couple frets away from the sound hole.

The other ideas above seem great to me too. But I recommend this for the sake of effects. You will probably want more reverb on the vocals later than guitar. Ideally, the setup above will give you a nice "open" sound for the voice and guitar. But if one needs a bit more gain, you can mix a dynamic in to boost it a bit. You can also use the 58 solely for reverb, that will give you a nice way to add reverb on mainly the vocals and keep the guitar fairly dry.

Might not make a difference with your room, seems like you'll have quite a bit of verb anyway....

Good luck...
 
If you only have one decent mic, can we assume that you have other not-so-decent mics? You could try to set up the one good mic to record both, and have a second mic for vocals and third for guitar.
 
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