Hello! New guy - bedroom studio.

DrBromiAndufEwd · #1 02-19-2021, 10:34 AM

Hello all!

Its been a long while since I've been active on the forum, and I just wanted to drop by and say hello! Its funny how life takes you in all sorts of directions. I've fiddled with guitar since I was about 13. (I'm 36 now) but only really focused when my son was born 10 years ago. I discovered fingerstyle acoustic guitar, and played feverishly for 4 or 5 years. Three children later, career opportunities and moving to a different state, I haven't played consistently for probably 3or 4 years now, which I've loathed. Work, family, and frankly lack of motivation always seemed to come first. Id play occasionally, but not with any direction or purpose.

This Christmas I found myself with a handful on Amazon gift cards and not sure what to do with them. Tooling around one evening seeing what frivolous item I could use them on, I came across an old whish list that I had created and forgotten about. On it were a few items of little interest at this point in my life, but there was a audio interface I had bookmarked, and a light bulb went off. I've always been into A/V stuff. Home theater is a hobby of mine, obviously guitars, my main speakers for my PC are actually studio monitors. I thought, why not....maybe this is what could re-spark my interest in playing again.

So on a whim I purchased a scarlet 2i2. Followed that up with a couple AKG microphones. I'll admit I likely should have done some more home work first, but I wasn't even sure that this hobby wouldn't be collecting dust in 2 months time, so I purchased what seemed to be a reasonable combination of affordability and quality. Definitely deep into the "budget" category when it comes to recording.

I immediately fell in love all over again. Its like all my hobbies combined into one satisfying thing. I can't wait to continue to learn more and get better. I'm looking forward to going through posts here, and hopefully get to the point where I can help others as well. I realize its entirely possible that no one reads this wall of words but I wanted to share anyway.

My current setup consists of:

Interface:
Scarlett 2i2 interface

Mics:
AKG P120 LDC
AKG P170 SDC

Monitoring:
JBL LSR305's and some Status Audio CB-1's headphones.

DAW:
Reaper

So my first question is, as complete novice, how did I do for setup? Goals here are just hobby level. I'm not planning on producing anything professionally, this is all for fun and having a creative outlet...AND if I'm completely honest, a quiet space away from the kids occasionally! (Oh I don't sing either....strictly instrumental. Everyone will thank me for that...lol)

I went with one each SDC and LDC because I wasn't sure which direction would be best to go. Mono recording, stereo recording, ribbon mics, LDC, SDC, Dynamic mics....and reading/watching tutorials, it seemed there are as many opinions as to which is best as there are options to choose from. I've had some decent success using the LDC pointed at the 12th fret and the SDC at the bridge from about 18" back recording in stereo. Panning about 60% R/L.

I've been pretty happy with the results so far, but I think there is a lot of improvement to be had. Compared to anything I've tried to record in the past, I feel like I've gotten 90% of the way there, but I'm betting like a lot of things, that magic is in that last 10%.

Below is a short clip from a song I'm working on learning, recorded on my setup. Sounds OK, to my ears, but I think I can still get more out of my setup. The volume (Gain?) is too low, and I think I may have over EQ'd it. I do have some noise suppression as my "studio" isn't the quietest place on the planet. I don't remember if this clip used any compression or not.

Cover - Don Ross - Berkley Springs

Any thoughts, tips/tricks? Good start? Scrap and start over? (not doing that lol) Any big ticket items that I'm missing?

If nothing else, if you're reading this, thanks for taking the time! I just wanted to share and be among like minded people.

Chipotle · #2 02-19-2021, 11:03 AM

That's a decent starter setup, and you can get quite good results with it. As many others will point out, room treatment is probably the next step--acoustic panels to absorb, as much as possible, problematic frequencies bouncing around your room. That will help the rest of your gear be better. The higher the quality of your incoming signal, with minimal noise, mud and reflections, the better.

Spend a few hundred bucks buying or making acoustic panels (lots of threads in this subforum) will probably be your biggest improvement.

DrBromiAndufEwd · #3 02-19-2021, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chipotle

That's a decent starter setup, and you can get quite good results with it. As many others will point out, room treatment is probably the next step--acoustic panels to absorb, as much as possible, problematic frequencies bouncing around your room. That will help the rest of your gear be better. The higher the quality of your incoming signal, with minimal noise, mud and reflections, the better.

Spend a few hundred bucks buying or making acoustic panels (lots of threads in this subforum) will probably be your biggest improvement.

I'll have to do some homework. I've done no treatments yet. Its a smallish room, carpet, bed, some curtains, and acoustic ceiling tile. I think I've gotten away without doing anything so far just by being lucky. That's something I'll definitely look into though. Some of the lurking I've done in the past few days I have seen acoustic treatments come up pretty often as a topic.

Thanks for the suggestion!

SprintBob · #4 02-21-2021, 08:02 AM

Nice equipment setup and if you do a spaced pair with relatively close mics you can minimize room effects but do what you can with that.

I’ve gotten excellent advice here and what follows is based on that. For solo acoustic guitar, I’ve been getting quite nice results with noe SDC pointing at the body-neck junction and either my other SDC or an LDC pointing at the lower bout just behind the bridge. Both mics are set up as separate mono inputs/tracks in Reaper and then one is panned 100% left and the other is panned 100% right to get a nice stereo effect. Listen to the differences in your headphones. I set up a third track in Reaper as an effects bus and I send tracks 1 and 2 to it. That is where I set up my post processing and so far I’ve only been using the Focusrite Red 2 EQ plug-in and the only thing I use from the plug-in is the high pass filter which I’ve been setting between 60-100 Hz.

Good luck, it’s fun to record and share and have a good recording of a song you have worked hard on.

ChuckS · #5 02-21-2021, 10:12 AM

For solo acoustic guitar I prefer a spared pair setup, as you are doing. I have one mic panned hard left and the other hard right. To get a wider stereo field I will move the mics further apart, or closer together to narrow the field. For home recording I’ll also put a high pass filter set to 50-60Hz on each input. I’d suggest getting your recordings as good as possible before you add E/Q or other effects. Experiment with setting up in different locations/ orientations within your room.

Your LDC mic may pick up more ‘mud’ from your room than your sdc. Without any treatment you may not be able to mic further than 12-18” from your guitar.

DrBromiAndufEwd · #6 02-22-2021, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SprintBob

Nice equipment setup and if you do a spaced pair with relatively close mics you can minimize room effects but do what you can with that.

I’ve gotten excellent advice here and what follows is based on that. For solo acoustic guitar, I’ve been getting quite nice results with noe SDC pointing at the body-neck junction and either my other SDC or an LDC pointing at the lower bout just behind the bridge. Both mics are set up as separate mono inputs/tracks in Reaper and then one is panned 100% left and the other is panned 100% right to get a nice stereo effect. Listen to the differences in your headphones. I set up a third track in Reaper as an effects bus and I send tracks 1 and 2 to it. That is where I set up my post processing and so far I’ve only been using the Focusrite Red 2 EQ plug-in and the only thing I use from the plug-in is the high pass filter which I’ve been setting between 60-100 Hz.

Good luck, it’s fun to record and share and have a good recording of a song you have worked hard on.

Thats almost identical to how the recording I posted was setup. For some reason, my ears keep telling me to bring the tracks back from 100% L/R to about 60%. It centers and focuses it a little better, but still gives you some soundstage...might just be my preference or maybe an imaging issue with my setup. Using that third track for effects was a huge advantage. I kept trying to put it on the master track and it never sounded quite right. For EQ i've been using whatever built in EQ came with reaper. HPF and a small drop around 250hz and a bump at like 6k. I think I need to nix the EQ for a bit and focus more on mic positioning and technique.

It's amazing how using the direct monitoring on the 2i2 immediately shows you all the flaws in your playing.

DrBromiAndufEwd · #7 02-22-2021, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChuckS

For solo acoustic guitar I prefer a spared pair setup, as you are doing. I have one mic panned hard left and the other hard right. To get a wider stereo field I will move the mics further apart, or closer together to narrow the field. For home recording I’ll also put a high pass filter set to 50-60Hz on each input. I’d suggest getting your recordings as good as possible before you add E/Q or other effects. Experiment with setting up in different locations/ orientations within your room.

Your LDC mic may pick up more ‘mud’ from your room than your sdc. Without any treatment you may not be able to mic further than 12-18” from your guitar.

I was just thinking that same thing! I've honestly enjoyed the processing part of it as well....I think i've gotten too carried away with it. I've also only recorded in one position in my room. Basically where it was convenient in relation to my computer, but it does limit my options for positioning the mics. I think next time I have a go, i'm going to try a different position in the room.

I'm definitely up for doing some sound treatments. The room is already to most dead room in the house. I think the dropped ceiling and carpet help a ton. There is a large closet and a window that are both covered by curtains, so there aren't a ton of hard flat surfaces left. Definitely interested in playing around with that though.

MikeBmusic · #8 02-22-2021, 10:46 AM

I never hard-pan a 2-mic recorded acoustic guitar, as it can sound strange if a person hears just one 'side' of the recording - whether it be from using a single earbud, or proximity to one of the stereo speakers.
If you are monitoring/mising with headphones, it may sound *fine* because each ear only hears the sound from that one mic, but in a stereo speaker set up, each ear also hears some of the opposite speaker, too.