Tips on Single Mic recording

6

60sRockManiac

New member
Hello all, I'm working on an acoustic/voice cover (looks like I won't be getting to lay it down tonight) and I'm trying to get a good single mic placement. My microhpone is an Audio Technica AT2020 Cardioid Condenser that cost me about $100 and arrived last week. I've been trying to place it so that I get a good, crisp vocal and rich guitar sound, with a slightly voice-heavy mix. I'm starting to think this might be too much for one inexpensive condenser.

I've been having some trouble finding a sweet spot. If I put it 3-4 feet away, I get a lot of guitar and the voice sounds like it's in another room. If I bring it close, I get a slightly mid-rangey sound with a good enough mix, but when I try to EQ up the treble, the guitar sounds rather like one of those bad acoustic-electric setups from an early 2000s concert and the vocal gets buried again. I actually used to get better sound just putting an SM57 with a pop filter up to my face and adding a little EQ and reverb.

Where should I place the mic to remedy this, and should I be using high or low gain to get the best result? I'm also wondering if I might change rooms. I usually have success recording in my bedroom, but should I try moving to an acoustically better room when nobody's home to record? Or should I just go back to the dynamic mic?

I appreciate any advice I can get. Just note that I do not have an option to use 2 mics, as I operate on a single-input Shure X2U interface and don't have a pre-amp with any fancy settings.

Thanks in advance! :guitar:
 
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Why can't you record the guitar part first, then do a second track of the vocal?
A better-sounding room is ALWAYS going to help.
 
mjbphotos said:
Why can't you record the guitar part first, then do a second track of the vocal?
A better-sounding room is ALWAYS going to help.
Click to expand...
^^^This^^^

I have tried the single mic for everything in the past and, even in a somewhat decent sounding space, I got the same results that you are getting. What I ended up doing (and still do most of the time now) is set that mic up, record both the vox and guitar in on take and then use that as a scratch track to play along to and record each part separately.
 
Dude, your mic is surely capable of recording properly. Although the room you're in does interfere the sound, I believe you can record in it with no problem aswell.

Try putting the mic in front of you, but listen to what it sounds like. If it lacks voice, try bending it upwards a lil bit just to get more of it.

Oh, as you're recording with a single mic, your performance deeply affects the end result :)
 
60sRockManiac said:
The main problem is that I'm trying to do a cover that is 35 minutes long and for a video.
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Why does that mean you can't track the guitar and vocal separately? I agree with what mjb said - it's what I would have said as well. There's just something I'm not understanding about the length of the recording precluding you tracking things separately.
 
A single song that is 35 minutes long? Thick as a Brick? ;) And you're shooting a non-cut/edited video of it at the same time? What are the plans if you make a mistake 25 minutes in? Start again? :eek:
Record the audio in spearate takes, mix it, then lip-synch/play while you shoot the video - if you make a mistake in the 'fake playing/singing', stop playback and video, move camera (assume you are using only 1?), restart a little before the mistake, and edit the takes together after.
 
Shoot a monitor send to your headphones and move the mic around and play/sing while listening through the DAW, rinse and repeat until you find a nice balance and sound. Remember that cardioid mics can give interesting (or awful) off-axis coloration in some cases so don't be afraid to rotate the mic around in relation to you and the guitar.

Maintaining the necessary level of dynamic balance between vocal and guitar for 35 minutes at a crack is going to be mentally exhausting IMHO.
 
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