One guitar, two mics, question about stereo

[ukejon]

To date, I've recorded most of my tracks with either an X-Y setup or, more frequently, a spaced pair. They both go into one stereo track during the recording (Apogee Duet2 into GarageBand). In the Mastering phase I then duplicate this stereo track, pan one left and one right (sometimes all the way, sometimes partway) and then every once in a while I also add a quieter central track as well. But should each mic be recorded on its own track at the start so there is real EQ control over each one? If so, I'm having a bit of trouble setting this up in GarageBand. Any ideas would be most appreciated. I don't know that much about recording or things such as stereo imaging and the like, but would be interested to learn more.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by ukejon

To date, I've recorded most of my tracks with either an X-Y setup or, more frequently, a spaced pair. They both go into one stereo track during the recording (Apogee Duet2 into GarageBand). In the Mastering phase I then duplicate this stereo track, pan one left and one right (sometimes all the way, sometimes partway) and then every once in a while I also add a quieter central track as well.

If I am understanding what you are saying, then no, no, and no again. If you duplicate the stereo track and pan the whole original to one side and the whole copy to the other side you end up with both panned to mono and the combo of the two mono, and very likely a bad sound. In the original stereo recording one mike was full panned left and the other full panned right.

Originally Posted by ukejon

But should each mic be recorded on its own track at the start so there is real EQ control over each one?

Instead of recording a DAW selected stereo track you could record two mono tracks - one mike for each mono track. Play them back together, one fully panned right, the other left, and you have the sound you would have had if you had recorded a stereo track. The advantage of two mono tracks is the ease of having different effects added to each track, and the control of the amount of inward panning you might want to do. However I personally don't add different effects on the right and left sides of a stereo recording, except perhaps the fairly minimal amount done by a stereo reverb (and that is done automatically on a stereo track by the reverb software).