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Old 05-13-2016, 12:53 PM
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Default 2-microphones or 3?

If recording vocals and guitar together in one take, as in a person playing and singing, would you use two mics on the guitar and one for vocals, or just one for each? Obviously, each mic is going to pick up some of both.
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Old 05-13-2016, 01:18 PM
MikeBmusic MikeBmusic is offline
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The question of 1 or 2 mics on guitar - for me, YMMV - depends on what else is going to be in the mix in the end. If its just that one guitar (or no more than 1 other acoustic mixed in, with maybe some percussion and/or a bass), then 2 mics is best. However, if there are going to be multiple instruments, and the acoustic is just one part of the whole song, then 1 mic works fine.

So in a roundabout way, that's my answer on 2 or 3 mics for guitar + singer (which would never be my choice for recording anything but a demo) - I always record parts separately, then no bleed to worry about.
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Old 05-13-2016, 01:23 PM
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Originally Posted by MikeBmusic View Post
The question of 1 or 2 mics on guitar - for me, YMMV - depends on what else is going to be in the mix in the end. If its just that one guitar (or no more than 1 other acoustic mixed in, with maybe some percussion and/or a bass), then 2 mics is best. However, if there are ogign to be multiple instruments, and the acoustic is just one part of the whole song, then 1 mic works fine.

So in a roundabout way, that's my answer on 2 or 3 mics for guitar + singer (which would never be my choice for recording anything but a demo) - I always record parts separately, then no bleed to worry about.
In this instance it would only be me and a guitar. There would not be any additional instruments. I'll be using a Tascam DR-70D with external mics and doing it all as a single recording, just me and a guitar. I can add a third mic so that there are two pencil mics on the guitar and one one LDC for singing, or I can just have one mic on guitar panned left and one on vocals panned right. Since each mic will pic up both singing and playing, I'm not sure if the 3rd mic offers much. But, I'm open to either technique.
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Old 05-13-2016, 01:45 PM
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I'm and engineer and some of my sessions are one-and-done, do-or-die affairs. The answer is, um, it depends. For solo guitar and voice, I typically run two on the guitar and one on the voice but there have been occasions where I've run three on the guitar (for instance an X-Y pair and center mono) in an attempt to keep my options open. If I get into the mix situation and feel the two channels of guitar don't give me enough of a cohesive center I can choose to pan them more inboard or sneak up the center mic. Otherwise I can leave the middle mic closed.

But to tell the truth, I typically run two mics for the guitar, one for the voice.

For guitar in a combo it once again depends. If I'm looking for a wide spread with a reasonably strong center, I'll record the guitar twice, each in stereo, put them on stereo channels, and balance each outboard. The guitar is everywhere. If I want a wide spread with a weaker center to leave room for the vocal I'll record the two guitars mono and pan them outboard, like I did this week on a project.

But the voice on one side and instrument on the other technique went out with the sixties.

Bob
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Old 05-13-2016, 01:51 PM
Joseph Hanna Joseph Hanna is offline
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3 mics-vs 2 mics increases the complexities by substantially more than a factor of 1
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Old 05-13-2016, 02:23 PM
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3 mics-vs 2 mics increases the complexities by substantially more than a factor of 1
Yup. But nothing ventured, nothing gained and that's why they gave us faders.

Bob
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Old 05-13-2016, 03:13 PM
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Thanks guys! So it looks like two mics on guitar and one on vocals is the way to go then.
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Old 05-13-2016, 03:24 PM
RayCJ RayCJ is offline
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FWIW (keeping in mind my amateur status) I put two mics on the guitar and one on vocals. Of course, there's a lot of bleed but, the sound reproduction of the guitar is much more realistic when two mics are involved.

My musical goals are to play guitar and sing well enough that friends and family won't cringe when they hear me. Recording separate tracks runs contrary to that goal.


Ray
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Old 05-13-2016, 05:02 PM
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Originally Posted by RayCJ View Post
FWIW (keeping in mind my amateur status) I put two mics on the guitar and one on vocals. Of course, there's a lot of bleed but, the sound reproduction of the guitar is much more realistic when two mics are involved.

My musical goals are to play guitar and sing well enough that friends and family won't cringe when they hear me. Recording separate tracks runs contrary to that goal.


Ray
Same here. I only play for family and friends so I mostly am trying to better my recordings for myself and a limited audience.
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Old 05-14-2016, 08:45 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BoneDigger View Post
If recording vocals and guitar together in one take, as in a person playing and singing, would you use two mics on the guitar and one for vocals, or just one for each? Obviously, each mic is going to pick up some of both.
Hi BD

David Wilcox put out a VHS teaching tape in the mid 1990s (Alternate Tunings and Song Arranging) which was recorded with a single AKG 414 in figure 8 mode with one side capturing his voice, and the other his guitar…and perhaps some mixing in of whatever part of his 5 way live pickup/mic system is connected to the plug sticking out the bottom of the guitar.



Pardon the lousy horizontal video artifact lines but it was recorded for about 300 lines of resolution back in the day…

It's still available as DVD (I own it) and the footage and sound are both better than the original VHS.

I think his results are marvelous, and have used this technique in studio for some player/singers who were challenged or threatened by an array of mics. They had freedom to move around while playing/singing and the results were actually quite good.



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Old 05-14-2016, 12:45 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RayCJ View Post
FWIW (keeping in mind my amateur status) I put two mics on the guitar and one on vocals. Of course, there's a lot of bleed but, the sound reproduction of the guitar is much more realistic when two mics are involved.
I agree and would add that another advantage of two mic's over one being as being able to give a fuller and wider stereo field when played back thru any system, that has stereo playback . However as Joseph pointed out one should be aware that every mic beyond 1 adds an increasing potential for phase issues

Quote:
My musical goals are to play guitar and sing well enough that friends and family won't cringe when they hear me. Recording separate tracks runs contrary to that goal.


Ray
While I completely understand that people might have a personal preference to record playing and singing in one pass.

I can"t see how recording separate tracks would be contrary to the completely different endeavor of playing live to family and friends ?
In order to "play guitar and sing well enough that friends and family won't cringe when they hear me." is a matter of simply practicing singing and playing to the point where your getting good at that.

Which is the basically same practice scenario necessary to record either separate or simultaneously .
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