Do you follow the 3 to 1 rule for a spaced pair?
 

I'm using two ldc mics, AT2035. I have the left mic pointed at the 12 fret with a slant towards the sound hole and the right mic is at the bridge, also pointed slightly at the sound hole. I found today that I got a slightly warmer tone this way.

My mics are about 3-4 inches from the guitar and my gain on the Zoom is about 4.5 - according to this 3 to 1 rule, my right mic should be back about 12 inches. Does any one use this rule with mic placement? Thanks.

Got pretty tired with the 3:1 rule being talked about as applied to stereo recording of a guitar so I did a little youtube thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryw8v4okgLc&t=8s

Nope. The 3-1 rule seems to be widely misinterpreted. As best I can tell, it has to do with micing multiple sources, I don't believe is applies to stereo micing of acoustic guitar.

I'm not quite sure what you are describing, tho. If you have your mics 3-4 inches from the guitar, then according to the 3-1 rule, the mics should be at least 9-12 inches apart, which shouldn't be a problem.

EDIT: Rick's video matches my understanding of the 3-1 rule. Totally different scenario from stereo micing of a guitar.

I don't. When I do a spaced pair I tend to like a mic at the 12th fret, and around the bridge, which is about fifteen inches apart or less. So that would mean the mics would be five inches from the guitar. were I to follow the 3 to 1 rule. Five inches from the guitar is not a very big picture of the guitar - if it was was a flashlight it wouldn't be lighting up very much. And it would be boom city with the bass. I like to pull them out to about to about a foot, maybe a little less. So I'm closer to the one to one rule :halo:

How do you avoid getting too much "room" with the mics back that far? I get more room with more gain, so I keep the mics in close. I'm probably answering my own question, but I guess I don't have the greatest room and my mics are low level hobby mics.

Duh, thanks Rick. :)

Thanks Doug.

I don't follow the 3:1 rule for spaced pair recording. I place the mics 12-28" (typically 16-22") back from the guitar with 12-22" (typically 14-18") mic spacing (depending on mics, room,etc). I pan mics hard left and hard right. I use mic spacing distance adjustment to get desired width of stereo field.

The 3 to 1 miking rule piqued my interest about 3 & 1/2 years ago so I raised the topic on this forum then. There's still some difference of opinion online as to whether it applies to single source recordings but I found the replies at the time very helpful and ultimately have wound up disregarding the rule. I now set my mike pair about 18" from the guitar (12th fret and bridge) and about 3 ft apart. This set-up is giving me a sound I like!
Here's the link to the previous thread on this subject for anyone who is interested.
https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=409921

Ok, thanks everyone.

I don't have that great of a room either. I have bought some treatments so it's better than it was. But it's still a small, square home office in the front of a house on a busy street. So I won't be recording any albums here :)

I said a foot away earlier, sometimes it's more like ten inches. It doesn't seem like too much room sound to me. At least for simple YouTube videos and stuff I'm doing in here. Also, I have a loud guitar and technique so that's a big factor for sure.

The way I understand the 3 to 1 ratio. Then no both the R and L mics can be at 4 inches but should be 12 inches apart.

As others have said the 3 to 1 "rule" was thought to have developed for mic'ing multiple sources with multiple mic's > more specifically room mic'ing bands ,orchestras and choirs etc. and not really apply to multi mic'ing a single source .

My understanding is
The 3 to 1 should refer to the distance between the mic's horizontally in relation to the source not front to back
Like this diagram of mic'ing a choir

https://i.imgur.com/HnL2dI3.png

Thanks Kev, I'm good then.

Today I tried moving the mics back to 15" with a gain of 5. It was ok. Of course I had to up the gain in eq, increasing the "cloud", but Rx7 Elements noise removal tool does a much better job than my older tools did. I liked the mics being back farther because I could play a little looser; the mics being in so close made me feel crowded. I'll keep playing around with the distance and initial gain to see what is a happy medium.

I put on a really good set of headphones, and then point the mics until I like the sound.

If my ears don't like the results I don't care what the "rules" say.

Howard Emerson

The first time I heard about the 3:1 rule, it was in Lou Burroughs' microphone book, although he credits others with coming up with it. It has to do with using mics on individual instruments in a section. There's an illustration showing a horn player blowing straight into a mic from 2 feet away. There's another mic 6 feet to the right of the first one. Hence the 3:1.

FWIW, in my edition it's Fig. 10 on page 117.

Absolutely great reference, btw.