Just picked up a 414 and tried some mid side. What do you guys think?

[Fichtezc]

Hey guys, I always love coming here to talk about acoustic guitar recording. I'm looking for some feedback on my first MS recording. What do you guys think? It sounds a little woofy to me but that might just be the guitar. When I tried to move it more to the side I lost warmth.

http://youtu.be/baeKFz8VzLw

[Doug Young]

Sounds very nice to me!

[YamaYairi]

Sounds muddy to me. In my opinion you have the mic too far away. It's picking up too much of the room. I am using 414's also and I record with 2 of them. One at about the 12th fret, pointed toward the sound hole, and about 7" away from the neck. The other is in front of my mouth (I sit when I play) about 1 foot away, and pointed down toward the sound hole a bit. I set them to cardioid. I actually pan them to mono and when I add the stereo reverb, that makes sort of a stereo effect. There's a link to my recordings in my signature.

[rick-slo]

It's a little lacking in treble (no sparkle). Probably just a mike position adjustment would make a big difference.

[Doug Young]

I assume he's going for the typical distant classical sound, not a close-mic'd in your face sound here. On my speakers, the stereo image is nice, and it has a nice round classical guitar tone.

[Fichtezc]

Yeah, I did a few tracks initially with the mics closer and A LOT closer. Both were overly boomy and had serious peaks. Once I got it back to this recording it sounded more like a classical guitar.

As for the sparkle, yeah we were having some trouble getting good trebles. I
Don't think that guitar has any sparkle in it but I do wish the trebles were a little more present.

I do really want to try it on a steal string soon but the too of my Taylor just cracked so I'm taking care of her.

[ljguitar]

Hi Fichtezc...

Wow, that was really nice. I like the sitting-in-a-room-with-you while you play feel.

[YamaYairi]

Originally Posted by Fichtezc

Yeah, I did a few tracks initially with the mics closer and A LOT closer. Both were overly boomy and had serious peaks. Once I got it back to this recording it sounded more like a classical guitar.

As for the sparkle, yeah we were having some trouble getting good trebles. I
Don't think that guitar has any sparkle in it but I do wish the trebles were a little more present.

I do really want to try it on a steal string soon but the too of my Taylor just cracked so I'm taking care of her.

The boominess comes from positioning the mic above the sound hole. It works better at about the 12th fret, pointing toward the sound hole. I monitored with headphones and tried various mic positions until I got the sound I felt was most natural.

[runamuck]

Beautiful.

I agree with others though that it could use just a bit more high frequency info. You might be able to get that by eqing a bit of the low-mids out rather than adding anything.

Jim McCarthy

[Fichtezc]

Originally Posted by YamaYairi

The boominess comes from positioning the mic above the sound hole. It works better at about the 12th fret, pointing toward the sound hole. I monitored with headphones and tried various mic positions until I got the sound I felt was most natural.

This was pretty much at the neck joint (12th fret on a classical guitar) pointing straight ahead. I thought about moving it further out towards the neck.

I have the 414 and Oktava in my apartment with me and I'm going to give a steel string a shot now.

EDIT:

Also, anyone who is thinking it could use more high end, wanna give it a shot? I couldn't get much more out of it.

Here are the files, the encoded "stereo" 414 and the Oktava center.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7p4k0xzw3awrri5/TDiWnuNyW7

[YamaYairi]

Originally Posted by Fichtezc

This was pretty much at the neck joint (12th fret on a classical guitar) pointing straight ahead. I thought about moving it further out towards the neck.

I have the 414 and Oktava in my apartment with me and I'm going to give a steel string a shot now.

Try 2 frets away from the body. I haven't tried recording my classical, if I get a chance I will give it a shot. Since I am using the 414's, my results might be helpful to you. Also try setting the mic to cardioid.

[Fichtezc]

Originally Posted by YamaYairi

Try 2 frets away from the body. I haven't tried recording my classical, if I get a chance I will give it a shot. Since I am using the 414's, my results might be helpful to you. Also try setting the mic to cardioid.

Yeah, when I get my Mojave back I'll start playing with them in other patterns.


Here's a more modern styled steel string recording I did in my apartment. I used my presonus interface instead of my protools HD rig so it doesn't really sound as open I don't think. It'll be fun to get back over to the studio and try again.

https://soundcloud.com/fichtezc/mid-side-steel-string

[Doug Young]

This one seems rather "hard" sounding, even considering the steel string. Maybe the room acoustics at home? It also sounds a bit unbalanced to me, right off at the beginning, the first few chords are way over to the right. It sounds like perhaps you're mixing the sides too hot, creating an exaggerated stereo width? Or maybe too close to the guitar now? Not sure. It'd be interesting to play with the raw undecoded tracks.

[Fichtezc]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

This one seems rather "hard" sounding, even considering the steel string. Maybe the room acoustics at home? It also sounds a bit unbalanced to me, right off at the beginning, the first few chords are way over to the right. It sounds like perhaps you're mixing the sides too hot, creating an exaggerated stereo width? Or maybe too close to the guitar now? Not sure. It'd be interesting to play with the raw undecoded tracks.

Yeah, I agree. It does sound "hard." I was looking for a word to describe it and that fits perfectly.

I try to counteract my room acoustics as much as possible, I have a few (8) of those 703 panels that I use to break up the room but it's never perfect.

I might well be mixing the sides too high... They're supposed to be pretty low, right?

There are the files!
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qk32ztebi92x78h/LFyyP59lNL


EDIT: I went back and looked at my files and my mid side coding is weird... The 414's are....out of phase?
EDIT2: Replaced by a good 414 track.

[YamaYairi]

Actually it sounds good to me. Depends on the speakers I suppose. I am listening on Dynaco A25's if anyone cares. They are very natural sounding speakers, free of coloration.