stereo miking accoustic

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antispatula

antispatula

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I'm having a little trouble with this. First I tried some in my bedroom, didn't sound too great, then recorded into a corner of a room, with 703 everywhere. It sounded better, but still not great. I put one mic near the 12th fret, and the other a little off the body's soundhole. I've isolated my problem though. I'd playback the guitar and it would sound sucky. Then I muted the near-the-soundhole mic, so only the 12th fret recording came through. It sounded MUCH better! So not only is the 2nd mic not helping, it's making my recording MUCH worse. When I solo'd the soundhole mic, it sounded terrible. Not a nice smooth bassy sound, but a tight, plastic, far-off sound that didn't really have any bass response to begin with. Has anyone expirienced this? Any advice would be great! Thanks!
 
The 12th fret usually does it for me but sometimes I'll take my "sound hole" mic and set it about 3 feet out and in front of the hole or maybe dropped over my right shoulder about 1 1/2 feet out and a few inches above the hole.
If you've got it on your mic, hit the roll off switch and see how that sounds.

But for most of my ac stuff...1 mic at 12th fret, angled toward the hole, will do the trick. If it doesn't, I'll also try a different mic, same position and angle, and just retrack it. Then I blend the 2 together.

fwiw.......... :D
 
sorry...meant to add that the 2nd mic is also thru a different pre...
 
I use a ldc somewhere infront of the soundhole and a sdc at about the twelveth fret and blend to taste....experiment man that's ...what I do anyways
 
first, make sure to check it in mono....... i've beat the phase horse to death a few times on a spaced pair on acu without knowing it.

and, acu's can be hard.... epically cheep ones.
i was recording a friends alveraz the other day (one of the very cheep ones)
and it sounded fine in the room (a treated (703) bedroom, used only for tracking... as dead as i could make it) and i went thru like 10 mics (many placements) trying to get a useable sound.
it was awful..... i just couldn't get the sound in the room. anywhere close it was to boomy, but when i moved up the neck the instant the boom was gone it was too thin. i even tried my earthworks, kinda a cop out, to try and just pick up what i heard in the room (a couple feet away from the git)
still sounded boomy.
eventually i found something i deemed useable.
but point being, i've recorded acu's in that room before and they sounded fine, no hassles.
but that git, even though it sounded ok in the room, the minute i put up a mic..... any mic, it sounded like poo.
wait, did i have a point?

i guess it was just a rant. whatever.

watch your phase, don't use the mic that makes it sound like crap.
 
try putting one of the mics over your shoulder. When you listen to a guitar while you are playing it and it sounds good, you are not listening to it from 3 feet in front! then try moving the othe around probably around 12th fret for more bass response.
 
petermiller said:
try putting one of the mics over your shoulder. When you listen to a guitar while you are playing it and it sounds good, you are not listening to it from 3 feet in front! then try moving the othe around probably around 12th fret for more bass response.
Click to expand...


tried that too, trust me i was all over the map.

but.... i was listening to it from 3 feet away, i wasn't playing. :cool:
 
Track it in a lively room, or place some hardboard below your feet. Then expirement with one over your shoulder and another near the 12th, or try an Xy configuration. Dead room suck all the life out of acoustic guitars.
 
Giraffe brings up a good point - with acoustic instruments, sometimes what sounds best 'live' in the room doesn't record well at all (especially when you're dealing with not perfect recording environments and equipment that can emphasize things you just don't hear when you're playing).
A while back I was having a hell of a time trying to get a beautiful sounding (and expensive) Laarivee guitar to sound halfway decent... frustrated I decided to experiment and grabbed my $300 campfire Yamaha, which sounds awful 'live' - thin, quiet, no life. Well, the Yamaha sounded great once recorded, I barely had to fiddle with the mic placement at all.
Sorry.. a bit off topic from the 'stereo' question...
 
sounds like a good ol phase problem to me, try flipping the phase on one the mics and see that helps..... if it doesn't try other mic positions
 
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