Recording with Mic AND Direct

[PANDAPANDELO]

Hi there, everybody!

I'm new to home recording, and I'm a singer songwriter and would love to make some music covers.

I have a AT2035, and a Scarlet Solo. I was thinking in use the microphone to capture my voice, and play with my acoustic guitar plugged. I would have 2 signals, one from the mic and other from my acoustic pickup (LR Baggs M80).

Do you guys think that I can have a good acoustic guitar sound with this method? I would blend the signals from the mic with the direct signal.

Have any of you tried this?

Thank you!

[Bob Womack]

I mix concert videos and televised performances and the vast majority of them are recorded with the guitar direct. I prefer not to do studio recording with the guitar direct but I have a mic closet full of nice mics at my disposal. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

Bob

[JakeStone]

I record myself just for fun and share some stuff on Youtube.

My thoughts are.. My Gibson acoustic can sound very good plugged in direct.
But it does end up sounding more electric than acoustic... if that makes sense.

I also have an AT2035 and it records really well.. So I suggest trying it both ways and see what you like.

[runamuck]

Why don't you try it and see what you think. All that matters is how you feel about it.

[Brent Hahn]

What a co-inky-dink.

Just yesterday I posted this same Soundcloud link to address a different subject. It's a Martin parlor guitar tracked with both a Bill Lawrence magnetic pickup and a Sennheiser 416 shotgun mic about 3 feet out. The mix is about 2/3 pickup, 1/3 mic.



And for something completely different, this is a Pearlman TM1 tube LDC about 2 feet out and picking up both the guitar and vocal and compressed quite a bit. But wait, there's more... I also took a feed from the guitar's piezo pickup and ran the cable under the door and into a '50's tweed Fender Deluxe, which I turned all the way up. The mix is about 95% mic, 5% amped pickup.

http://studio-noho.net/ball_and_chain.mp3

To complete the picture, Dylan Chambers is mid-20's, maybe 5'6" and 120 lbs., and looks like a real-life rendering of "Doug" in the cartoon show.

[PANDAPANDELO]

Thank you, everybody!

I will test this on sunday, my "free day". I was just asking for your experiences in recording voice + guitar, using the microphone AND the line to capture the acoustic guitar.

I do a few recordings, but one mic for vocals (neumann kms105) and other for guitar (AT2035). But I was thinking in use the AT for vocals, and bleed a little of the mic capturing the acoustic guitar, and also use the line to "enhance" the sound.

So far, so good. Thank you for the experiences shared.

[MikeBmusic]

Assuming you are doing vocals and guitar at the same time, the mic is going to pick up the guitar too, so you may have a hard time processing/separating the resulting track.
Have you considered recording the guitar first (you can mic + pickup), then recording the vocal after?

[KevWind]

Experimentation is the key to finding out what is possible and what one personally likes .....Just to clarify some bleed from guitar to vocal is neither inherently good or bad, desirable or undesirable , IT ALL DEPENDS
Note that hundreds of highly successful folk recordings were made in the 50"s and 60's using one condenser mic, one pass.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by KevWind

EJust to clarify some bleed from guitar to vocal is neither inherently good or bad, desirable or undesirable...

But it's definitely inevitable. You have to learn to work with it.

[MaurysMusic]

In this clip, Couser isn't singing but IMHO it shows you can achieve very good results with a mic and pup...assuming the pickup is of high quality, of course. In this clip, we're hearing the Trance Audio Amulet M in the Right channel and a Rode NT-5 in the Left channel.

[RedJoker]

Originally Posted by MikeBmusic

Assuming you are doing vocals and guitar at the same time, the mic is going to pick up the guitar too, so you may have a hard time processing/separating the resulting track.
Have you considered recording the guitar first (you can mic + pickup), then recording the vocal after?

I was just going to suggest that the bleed through is a bonus, in this case. I've done it frequently. What I would suggest is to have the mic pointing more towards your mouth (aka face sound hole). If you listen to just the mic, you should hear mostly voice but with some guitar. Then you just bring the pickup level up to volume you want in your DAW. That way, most of the guitar is that desired mic sound but you can still adjust it's relative 'volume'.

Does that make sense?

[jim1960]

This file contains three identical clips.

The first clip (0-12 seconds) is a Yamaha acoustic guitar recorded via its piezo pickup. It has the typical quackiness associated with piezo pickups.

The second clip (13-25 seconds) is the original track treated with the UAD Sound Machine Wood Works plugin.

The third clip (26-38 seconds) still has the UAD Sound Machine Wood Works and adds the Sonible smart:EQ2 set to "Acoustic Guitar." The smart:EQ2 "analyzes audio material and generates a custom filter curve." I don't know how this plugin does what it does, but I've found it to be very useful on some problematic tracks.

The end result isn't perfect, but it's certainly more usable than the original piezo track. I think this combination gets you to a good starting point and you can adjust to suit your needs and tastes from there.

I think it's still preferable to record with mics and avoid pickups altogether, but if you have to use a piezo, it can be improved.
I hope this is helpful to some folks.

[PANDAPANDELO]

AWESOME experiences and sugestions!

I will record it on the sunday, and I'll let you guys know my experience!

I liked the idea of record it and use the direct part to adjust the overall volume, since the microphone will get my vocals and some acoustic guitar. That will be probably awesome!

My pickup is a LR Baggs M80... I'll give it a try!

Once again, thank you for sharing your experiencs ans sugestions!

[Guilleonline]

You're going to have such a blast venturing into the recording world!! the first thing I'll say is: learn that limitations are just an opportunity to be creative. Figure out ways to go around obstacles until you get good results. Don't even think about spending money on better equipment until you have mastered using the equipment you already have.

if all you have is the the ability to record a (1) mic and a (2) direct signal simultaneously, I'd say record using the setup you had in mind: mic for voice + line for guitar. if you don't like the sound of the guitar, then using the previously recorded track as a guide, re-record only the guitar using the mic for the guitar. You can repeat this 10 times and get 10 different results depending on where do you place the mic (even placing the mic at an angle can also produce sweet tonal changes into what it is capturing).

Blending two passes of the acoustic guitar with the line in recording can give you a huge sound! Specially if you start panning correctly.

The key for this to be successful is your guitar playing. For it to blend flawlessly though, make sure every pass is as similar to the last one as possible. Simplifying your playing might yield to great results (as long as it doesn't take away key sonic elements from your composition).

Have fun recording!!

[JakeStone]

[QUOTE=MaurysMusic;5904893]In this clip, Couser isn't singing but IMHO it shows you can achieve very good results with a mic and pup...assuming the pickup is of high quality, of course. In this clip, we're hearing the Trance Audio Amulet M in the Right channel and a Rode NT-5 in the Left channel.


Lovely .. Don't know the artist. But I bet he can play a cigar box guitar and make it sound sweet.

Well not as sweet as the Martin