Advice needed on recording acoustic guitar and vocal using one mic.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

I'll soon be recording myself based on the way the musicians back in the 30's did it: one mic in front of them to handle both acoustic guitar and vocal. All of the songs will be from that time period.

The recordings will be available only as mp3 downloads. With today's technology, I'd still like them to be of the highest quality possible.

I already own a Blue Yeti mic which I plug directly into my iMac, using Quick Time. I'm thinking there might be a better way to do this. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

First off, if you haven't watched the PBS American Epic series, I'd highly advise it:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/american-epi...ut-the-series/

[Mbroady]

I have heard some amazing recordings from a great room and one good mic set to Omni

It's all about the room

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by Mbroady

I have heard some amazing recordings from a great room and one good mic set to Omni

It's all about the room

A buddy sent me some video he shot on his phone in the live room at Sun Studios in Memphis. It sounds just like the live room at Sun.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

I'll soon be recording myself based on the way the musicians back in the 30's did it: one mic in front of them to handle both acoustic guitar and vocal. All of the songs will be from that time period.

The recordings will be available only as mp3 downloads. With today's technology, I'd still like them to be of the highest quality possible.

I already own a Blue Yeti mic which I plug directly into my iMac, using Quick Time. I'm thinking there might be a better way to do this. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Toby,

Tom Collins has a long running topic on Banjo Hangout demonstrating technique. Several folks have commented on how balanced and good sounding the video demonstrations are, and Tom recently added some information about the equipment he uses and a few plug ins used in recording to even out the sound.

Here's the discussion so you can review it if you like. Tom uses a single SDC to capture both vocal and instrument.

http://www.banjohangout.org/topic/327297/3

[Toby Walker]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

First off, if you haven't watched the PBS American Epic series, I'd highly advise it:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/american-epi...ut-the-series/

Oh yeah, I have that. Great stuff indeed.

[Toby Walker]

Ok... right now I'm experimenting using the Blue Yeti Condenser mic and Audacity recording software. I worked out the placement of the mic, figured out how to use settings like Normalization, Equalization, Noise Reduction, Compression, and how to save those settings so to keep the files sounding consistent.

I may order a Behringer B-1 mic and Focusrite interface just to see how they compare with the sound I'm now getting, which is pretty good. If those new components aren't much of an improvement then I can always return them.

Thanks for the suggestions so far folks.

[rmsstrider]

I don't know much about this, but I have been using a Blue Snowball condenser USB mic with my Samsung S8 with pretty good results. The video quality is excellent and the condenser mic sounds pretty good.
I also have a Zoom H4n that has 2 XLR inputs for mics and can connect to the video on my phone. I might experiment with that.
I will be interested in what you come up with.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

Oh yeah, I have that. Great stuff indeed.

Also if you didn't see the "50's style recording" topic I posted it's totally worth the time to check it out.

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...d.php?t=468157

[ngockhanh1988]

You can use AT2020USB microphone to record guitar + vocal

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Toby Walker

Ok... right now I'm experimenting using the Blue Yeti Condenser mic and Audacity recording software. I worked out the placement of the mic, figured out how to use settings like Normalization, Equalization, Noise Reduction, Compression, and how to save those settings so to keep the files sounding consistent.

I may order a Behringer B-1 mic and Focusrite interface just to see how they compare with the sound I'm now getting, which is pretty good. If those new components aren't much of an improvement then I can always return them.

Thanks for the suggestions so far folks.

Toby I have not used either the Yeti or the Behringer but in a general sense ,in todays market with only some few exceptions, two pieces of equipment in relatively the same price range, are going to have only marginal differences if any.

[MikeBmusic]

You might get more out of using a real DAW (Cubase, Sonar, Reaper, etc) rather than Audacity.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

You might get more out of using a real DAW (Cubase, Sonar, Reaper, etc) rather than Audacity.

More in the post-production sense, sure. A "real" DAW won't make the recordings sound any different.

[russchapman]

Any progress on the single mic front?