Advice Please. Recording a singer/guitarist?

[Jeremy H]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for suggestions on mic type and set up to record a vocalist playing accoustic guitar.

I wish to record the vocals and the guitar at the same time - to seperate tracks with the minimum of spill.

I have seen pictures of guys singing while playing guitar and standing in a box with their head sticking out!! But I really don't want to go there!

Perhaps my fellow forum members can relate their experiences and methods with various polar patterns and mic placement etc

All advice appreciated - as always.

thanks in advance.

[jkhuri44]

there's a story about James Taylor...doing that box technique...or at least trying it....from memory...i think he ended up ditching it, it proved good for spill reduction but it hindered his playing.. :(

sometimes a technique like that is really necessary....for example the guitarist in my band has sinus problems, which are terrifying when it comes to recording :(

however...a bit of spill is ok, if you are not planning on editing the performance. A good technique is micing things really well, and checking for phase, AND if possible using an add on pickup so that if you ever have a problem with the guitar performance, you can replace the acoustic recording with a fixed DI performance. (this is only something i have read)

if you want less spill, you probably cant use stereo micing techniques and stuff like that, probably the best sound you can get is a nice large diaphram mic pointing sligtly downwards at the 12 fret, about 40cm away. Similarly for the vocals, a nice diaphram mic probably in cardiod pattern to avoid the vocal performance. If you tilt the mic upwards, the singer can sing down into the mic which will avoid more guitar if in cardiod.

Hope that helps.

JK.

[Chris H]

You will be plesantly suprised at how much isolation you can get with fig 8 pattern. Works best in a room that sounds good or place a baffel behind the mic, usually a few feet back to minimise problem reflections. I use the fig8 on the guitar, positioning to sound right and aiming the null point at the vocalists head.
If you close mic the vox you can get away with a cardoid pattern and if a dynamic mic like an EV RE 20, a byer 88 or senhizer 421 sounds good with their voice, the spill will be less.
Are ther going to be any other instruments recorded or is it solo guit and vox?

[Jason Dirckze]

Or you could use 2 Fig 8's... one for each. I've tried this with quite good results in the same scenario as you mention. I think Stav is a fan of this technique. I used a pair of U87's when I did it.

As far as placement, you just need to experiement. I recall having some degree of difficulty with this setup, and there was alot of trial and error, but in the end it worked well...

[Roy]

I've done a fair bit of that type of recording lately. I was lucky in that their voices and guitars were fairly even in volume. Because we were after a natural sound, there wasn't much of a call for seperation,eq, or anything fancy. I just got the best mics I could, best preamps, played around with some mic positions for a bit and it turned out great! Sounds like he's there in the room.

I find spill often nice (as long as it's not excessive, of course). But then maybe I'm crazy.

[Jeremy H]

thanks a lot everyone..I appreciate your comments.

A little more of the story..I am recording a singer songwriter (guit /vox) at times with a bass player (DI no spill problem)

Our goal has been to capture a vibe... later adding things like banjo, mandolin, lap steel etc. Then we thought we would re do the vocals and guitar to seperate new tracks. However, with this guy anyway, the redone vox or guitar performance are never quite as good as when he sings and plays at the same time. So I would like to capture the original tracks with as much seperation as possible... to have more eq options (and compression) with these two tracks, after the other instruments are added.

Sounds like I need some figure 8's.
thanks again guys

[toadmark]

Fig 8 is really the way to go. Remember that the dead side of Fig 8 is "deader" than the back of Cardiod. For Fig 8 you're going to need multi-pattern condenser or ribbon mic (I can't think of a current model of ribbon that isn't fig 8 AEA, Royer etc.)

Have fun.