Stereo

[DannyboyBarber]

I only have 1 microphone for use but I still want the stereo sound when recording my acoustic guitar. Can you record a song/riff/chord progression, duplicate that exact recording and pan the first one hard left and the second one hard right, and still get the stereo effect, or would it be the same as panning it dead center?

Also what is the difference between recording direct in with a jack stick and recording with a microphone?

 

[Jeff Ling]

If you simply duplicate a track, you still have mono. You could delay one of the tracks by 20ms or so and hard pan, but the effect isn't very natural in mono. You could also duplicate, hard pan and then EQ the two tracks differently... not very pronounced effect tho. Or, you could record two passes on the guitar and hard pan. That usually sounds very nice as long as the two performances are pretty close in terms of timing.
As for direct vs a mic, the direct sound is usually thinner sounding. It sounds more like an electronic version of an acoustic guitar to me. The pickup in most acoustic guitars is pretty un natural sounding, although there are some that sound ok... usually the more costly ones.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Can you record a song/riff/chord progression, duplicate that exact recording and pan the first one hard left and the second one hard right, and still get the stereo effect, or would it be the same as panning it dead center?

The latter.
As Jeff says, you can manipulate one copy (or both) to create a difference between the two. That will give a stereo effect but it's not usually desirable and it won't translate well to mono.

The best option here is to record the part twice.
Even switch up the mic position on the second pass to create a bit more difference if you want.

Alternatively, you could record the DI and the mic, then pan them apart.
It's not going to be stereo in the sense of representing the instrument, but it'd be a stereo effect.

 

[guitaristic]

I only have 1 microphone for use but I still want the stereo sound when recording my acoustic guitar. Can you record a song/riff/chord progression, duplicate that exact recording and pan the first one hard left and the second one hard right, and still get the stereo effect, or would it be the same as panning it dead center?

Also what is the difference between recording direct in with a jack stick and recording with a microphone?

Think about it--if you did that, you would still have the exact same signal coming out of both speakers in the exact same volume So basically, it'd still be mono and dead center. Your best bet is recording the riff in two TIGHT takes and panning one L and one R.

Built-in jacks on acoustics, like Jeff said, usually just sound thinner. I've heard some nice ones though. I kinda like hearing my Larrivee direct like that, actually. But still, nothing beats a great acoustic in a great room being recording with great mics while using great mic technique. It's just great

 

[DannyboyBarber]

Well there are definitely some good ideas here for me to experiment with. I have been playing the guitar for a couple of years and I have been singing and writing music for a while too, but I am an absolute amateur when it comes to mixing and mastering on the PC. I use Audacity as it's free...

 

[rocksure]

Recording with one mic only, the best way to get a stereo effect is to do two takes of the guitar part and pan one left and one right. If you would rather play the part only once, you can try cloning the track, panning one Left and the other R. On the clone track you put a small amount of pitch shift either + or -, and also a very short delay and set to 100% wet ( 11ms or something around that is a good place to start). It won't sound the same as astereo micing, or a double tracked part, but more like a kind of chorus effect. Whether or not it sounds right for the particular song is going to depend on lots of factors. Sometimes it can sound awesome, other times it isn't suitable. You may want to vary the EQ on the two tracks, and have different reverbs and/or delays on them as well. Give it a shot sometime.
If you have more than one microphone and want to try true stereo recording there are several different mic techniques that you can use. I have outlined the different arrays and methods in two tutorials, which you may find to be helpful:
Stereo micing techniques part 1 covers X-Y,ORTF and spaced pair recording
Part 2 has mid-side, blumlein pair and Decca tree techniques

 

[GazEcc]

Try borrow a second mic?