Mic placement in a small area comparison

[TBman]

I'm not sure if it matters as far as which mic goes where, which is what I'm trying to determine. I'm using a Rodes NT-5 and an MXL 990.

In the first placement, the Rodes is on the right pointed at the lower bout, and not very far from the guitar. It is at the edge of my desk. On the left is the MXL 990 at around the 2nd fret, also at the edge of my desk.



The next clip is with the mics switched left/right



One man's muddy is another's warm, but these are both sounding a touch muddy to me. Perhaps its more of a distance/gain thing as well as location to a point. My desk is only so big.

What do your ears tell you? Is it really more of a concentrate on technique and the recording will take care of itself sort of thing? Since we took out our wall to wall carpet and replaced with flooring the tone has really increased for the better in this room.

(I did notice that having the Rodes on the lower bout picked up less hand movement though )

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by TBman

I'm not sure if it matters as far as which mic goes where, which is what I'm trying to determine. I'm using a Rodes NT-5 and an MXL 990.

In the first placement, the Rodes is on the right pointed at the lower bout, and not very far from the guitar. It is at the edge of my desk. On the left is the MXL 990 at around the 2nd fret, also at the edge of my desk.


One man's muddy is another's warm, but these are both sounding a touch muddy to me. Perhaps its more of a distance/gain thing as well as location to a point. My desk is only so big.

What do your ears tell you? Is it really more of a concentrate on technique and the recording will take care of itself sort of thing? Since we took out our wall to wall carpet and replaced with flooring the tone has really increased for the better in this room.

(I did notice that having the Rodes on the lower bout picked up less hand movement though )

It may just be me, but I may not be picturing your setup comprehensively. Though you'll probably get more informed responses later, one thing that occurs to me: you could do is mount a mic on a desk swing arm (broadcasting style). This might give you more mic placement options. I'm also not sure why one of the mics in your setup is pointing to the 2nd fret. That seems to be a odd placement. Did you mean 12th fret?

[TBman]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

It may just be me, but I may not be picturing your setup comprehensively. Though you'll probably get more informed responses later, one thing that occurs to me: you could do is mount a mic on a desk swing arm (broadcasting style). This might give you more mic placement options. I'm also not sure why one of the mics in your setup is pointing to the 2nd fret. That seems to be a odd placement. Did you mean 12th fret?

No Frank, its at the 2nd fret. I'm seated at the desk, with the mics left/right with enough space in between for a keyboard/a couple of pages of tab.

I have those desktop "booms" too, but I was too lazy to drag them out. I'm just curious if anyone even hears a difference.