A few more miscellaneous singer-songwriter recording questions

[Glennwillow]

I don't do things the same way from one recording to the next. It depends on the song, how much time I have, what's working in the recording process and what's not. I tend to take the approach, when all else fails, record a scratch track so that you have the feel of the song down, especially if there are no drums to synch to.

Sometimes a song has a lot of verses and it's easy to get confused about where you are in the song, and then again, the idea of the guide or scratch track can really help here. You can record the scratch track reading right off a piece of music so you will be less likely to mess up. Then with the lyrics in the scratch track, you always know where you are for the other parts.

Your point is exactly right. A person has to be open to taking a variety of approaches depending on the needs of the song.

Also, regarding the mics, for the cost the Audio Technica AT4033 is an excellent mic. I have a pair of AT4050 mics and the AT4033, as far as I know, has the same diaphragm. The AT4050 has two, mounted back to back so that it can be used as a multi-pattern mic while the AT4033 is only cardoid, so it has only one diapragm. For vocal recordings I have found that I use only the cardoid pattern on any LDC mic I use. For guitar, the omni pattern can be helpful to remove the proximity effect, but you can use an AT4033 for guitar, too, just keep it back about 18-24" to negate any proximity effect. Or, keep it close to the guitar and filter out the low frequencies with EQ.

Hope this is helpful.

- Glenn