would you use one mic or two for acoustics?

[ruebarb]

I've got friends that use two mics when micing guitars...one on the neck and one near the soundhole...I''m ambiviant about this...here's why.

It would seem to me that with possible phase problems and muddy tone, it might just make more sense to mic an acoustic once....after all, it's just one source of sound...

What do you guys think...would a professional use two mics...and if he did, he probably would use two seperate mics, and do one close, one far, not two condensors close up (like my MC012's) - correct?

I'm just having 2nd thoughts about using the MC012's when I seem to like the tone of my single NT2 a bit better lately. And then I wonder why I use two mics at all, and that little voice says "more is better" - but is it really? Me thinks less so lately.

RB

 

[ametth]

Whatever works is better. If you like the sound of one mic, use it. If you like the sound of two, three, ten mics..use it. It's a matter of taste and what works for the song.

 

[Track Rat]

Ametth touched on it. What ever is right for the song. In my own experiences, if the tune was simple in its arrangement, I'm more inclined to do stereo mic'ing on an acoustic. Personally, I dig M/S mic'ing on acoustic as it collapses to mono nicely if you have to but still sounds nice and wide in stereo. If its more of a pop kind of tune or the mixes are more busy or dense, just one mic for sure. YMMV.

 

[Kelly Dueck]

IMHO it's damn near impossible to get a really good natural guitar sound with just one mic. An acoustic guitar radiates sound from many areas -- not just the sound hole so you're not really dealing with just "one sound" here. Try one mic angled up slightly pointing at the spot where the neck joins the body (about 6" away) and one mic 6" above the the body of the guitar (that is to say over your shoulder) at the Bridge in line with the front of the guitar. Split the mic feeds hard right and hard left and you'll get a great big WOW sound. As long as the mics are three times as far apart from each other as they are from the guitar, phase shouldn't be an issue -- and besides, how many people REALLY listen in mono any more?

 

[blinddogblues]

I agree with Kelly, I much prefer the sound I get from using 2 mics on an acoustic. I use my pair of MC-012s and it usually gives me a great stereo sound.

 

[baldguy]

If the arrangement is sparse I'd use 2 mics, if it's dense just use 1. If I recall correctly somebody posted some pics of a classical guitar recording session and they had 5 mics set up but that's been a while back... or maybe it was in a magazine...I can't remember for sure. Sorry.

 

[Kelly Dueck]

If the arrangement is sparse I'd use 2 mics, if it's dense just use 1.

Good point. There are times and places where a single mic would have it's place. On the other hand, Bruce Swedien teaches that using just one mic on sound sources -- even one's destined for a dense mix -- are little more than "panned mono" and almost never as good as using true stereo recordings of even idividual instruments. Of course Mr. Swedien is famous for using an UNBELIEVABLE number of tracks. I suppose if you record every sound with stereo pairs that's gonna happen. He's also famous for a slightly unorthodox technique known as "coincident omni" recording in which he sets up a couple of omni mics in a coincident pair like you normally would with a couple of cardioids. This technique works because there are -- at the very least -- slight differences between any two mics. In theory, coincident omni shouldn't give you much stereo effect at all. What it gives Bruce Swedien, however is a rare sense of depth and richness in his recordings that I could only ever hope to achieve in possibly 5 lifetimes of learning from now.

Sorry to digress . . .