#1
|
|||
|
|||
Mixing / Panning Question
I was goofing around this evening with my new mic (GLS ES-57) and have a question. This new mic is less noisy than the last so I can boost the gain more than the old mic. I thought I'd play with mic position. In this case, I had the mic at mouth level but pointed down at the neck of the guitar a bit. This allows it to pick up a bit of the strings. In this recording, I have the vocal panned about 30% to the right and the guitar pickups panned about 30% to the left. I normally add just a bit of reverb to the vocal but with an 'airier' mic, I thought it sounded better flat.
So what do you folks think about that? I'd prefer to have the vocals panned center but I like that it has just a bit of stereo effect. This percentage split seemed to be a compromise. https://soundcloud.com/trjredjoker/a...-but-mine-4-21 (I was also goofing around with how I played / sing this song. There are a few stumbles but I don't expect anyone to get very far into it to have a preference on the panning question. And you can here the birds singing along at the end. )
__________________
Original music here: Spotify Artist Page |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
The panning option you chose is fine, nothing like some old Beatle records where things get crazy etc. My observation is that the guitar sounds like another player behind the singer. I would use Reverb on both vox and gtr. tracks. Consider that most of the audio from the guitar is from a pickup not a mic, there is no sense of 'room". Adding some compression might "glue" things together and if you have a fairly decent Reverb plug-in I would use it. An amazing and very affordable Reverb plug-in is "Vahalla Room" or VahallaVintage Verb". Google it to read reviews. Can't believe they are only 50 bucks a piece. PC/Mac compatible.
I use Vahalla Room but many like VintageVerb even more. I will have to pick that one up. These plugs destroy the cheaper Lexicon boxes. Decent preset starting points as well. I was not going to suggest you applying Reverb without suggesting one that I own and use and hardily recommend. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
RJ,
I hear a static flange or phase cancellation of high frequencies on the guitar; probably due to your positioning of the mics. "I normally add just a bit of reverb to the vocal but with an 'airier' mic, I thought it sounded better flat." I like the dry sound with no reverb. Flat refers to EQ, not reverb. Effects are either wet or dry. EQ is flat if there is no EQ and peaked, pinched, pumped, dipped, and a bunch of other descriptors. I would like to hear just a little more high end on the guitar. Do continue to experiment with mic placement! Hopefully you'll discover your own personal sacred geometry for how you work. I use a figure of eight mic for vocals when I play guitar and position it so the guitar is in one of the nulls of the pattern. That lets me apply different effects and EQ to the voice without coloring the guitar sound so much. Regards, Ty Ford |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Have you tried recording the guitar separately from the vocals? Record the guitar alone, miked on one track and the DI on another, then overtrack the vocals. This will give you more options on mixing, should eliminate phase issues (hopefully)on the guitar. The GLS mic can work on an acousitc (I use 2 sometimes), using just a touch of DI for the high-end 'bite'.
Be careful about adding reverb to acoustic guitar - too much can sound jangly. When mixing, put a reverb plug-in on a separate buss (at 100% wet) and then send both the vocal and guitar signal to it, but keep the guitar send very low.
__________________
Mike My music: https://mikebirchmusic.bandcamp.com 2020 Taylor 324ceBE 2017 Taylor 114ce-N 2012 Taylor 310ce 2011 Fender CD140SCE Ibanez 12 string a/e 73(?) Epiphone 6830E 6 string 72 Fender Telecaster Epiphone Dot Studio Epiphone LP Jr Chinese Strat clone Kala baritone ukulele Seagull 'Merlin' Washburn Mandolin Luna 'tatoo' a/e ukulele antique banjolin Squire J bass |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Thanks for the education and suggestions, folks. I'll give them all a try.
__________________
Original music here: Spotify Artist Page |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
|
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
This is all fascinating so I really appreciate all the input.
__________________
Original music here: Spotify Artist Page |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
It's a slippery slope!
Regards, Ty Ford |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
No doubt. Example: I have a pre-amp arriving on Friday as I now realize the impedance on my interface is too low for my guitar pickup, causing the guitar to sound crappy. That was actually the origin of playing with mic placement.
Further down the slope I slide....
__________________
Original music here: Spotify Artist Page |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
|
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
|
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
A month or so ago, an AGF member was selling their Scarlett 2i2 so I bought it. Now I can plug my JJB equiped guitar into one channel and an old dynamic mic into the other. For educational purposes, it's great that I can really separate the two but when I want to share with friends and family, I don't want to send them exactly what comes out of the interface. That's what led me to playing with all this recording stuff, I didn't / don't intend to make great recordings, just slightly better ones. I have played with micing the guitar and I like that much better but I currently only have one mic and one mic stand. So to answer your question, I have a used Scarlett 2i2, I haven't bought any real mics, and the guitar preamp is just a cheap behringer adi21. I know this equipment isn't great but I don't have much money in any of it and I figure I'll learn with what I have to help guide me where I'm going (which I don't really know where that is). If I didn't stumble on this deal for the cheap preamp, I probably would have bought/borrowed another mic and stand as that could be used no matter what I want to do in the future. This forum is really teaching me a lot and I'm SO thankful for everyone's input.
__________________
Original music here: Spotify Artist Page |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
The best thing I can advise: experiment and don't blow too much money on equipment until you understand what you have and what something new would allow you to do.
You can quickly invest $500-$1000 and notice virtually no difference in the recordings you make if you don't spend the money on the right things first (good monitors and acoustic treatment). Audacity is a fairly limited recording tool, and not a full-featured DAW, but if it allows you to do what you want at this stage, use it. I use Reaper (its free to download the full version, $60 to register it). AS whitecloud says, using reverb as an insert is not necessarily the way to do things, but I'm not Audacity allows you to creat a reverb bus. Reaper comes with a ton of VST FX, including Reaverb, and you can download impulse files for it (free) that really give you some good 'room' options.
__________________
Mike My music: https://mikebirchmusic.bandcamp.com 2020 Taylor 324ceBE 2017 Taylor 114ce-N 2012 Taylor 310ce 2011 Fender CD140SCE Ibanez 12 string a/e 73(?) Epiphone 6830E 6 string 72 Fender Telecaster Epiphone Dot Studio Epiphone LP Jr Chinese Strat clone Kala baritone ukulele Seagull 'Merlin' Washburn Mandolin Luna 'tatoo' a/e ukulele antique banjolin Squire J bass Last edited by MikeBmusic; 04-24-2014 at 08:12 AM. |
#14
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
|
#15
|
|||
|
|||
Quote:
Thanks again folks!
__________________
Original music here: Spotify Artist Page Last edited by RedJoker; 04-23-2014 at 04:11 PM. |