kludge
11-18-2007, 10:49 AM
Yesterday, I wanted to capture a singer-songwriter playing guitar while singing. The trick is to get good guitar and vocal sounds without too much in the way of phase problems or bleed.
The surprise was using a cheap ribbon! (Stellar, which looks identical to a Fathead) The mic combination was:
1. small condenser (MXL 991) about 8" out from and slightly above the neck, aimed back about 45 degrees and slightly down at the neck-body joint - typical mic placement, done by ear while she played.
2. large condenser (Oktava 219) for vocals, about 8" out from her mouth and aimed slightly upward.
3. (the glue!) ribbon (Stellar CM5), about ear level a foot out from her head and slightly in front of her, carefully angled so its figure-8 null got as little vocal bleed as possible, and as much guitar body weight as possible.
On mix, the only mic with significant bleed was the vocal, which I could handle. Careful placement almost completely eliminated vocals from the guitar mics! And the guitar sounds huge and wonderful! Just pan and balance for best effect and stereo spread. The ribbon, by itself, sounds dull and murky, all flabby bottom and no highs. The SDC, by itself, is too bright and jangly. But together? They sound like a Martin dreadnaught. :crazy They tamed the boom-and-sizzle issues of the Martin nicely, combining into a nice, full midrange. Only a touch of eq was needed to drop out the last of the boom.
I'm really, really happy with the results, and I think I'm going to use this SDC/ribbon combination on acoustic guitars a lot more! Cheap mics used well is better than expensive mics used badly.
The surprise was using a cheap ribbon! (Stellar, which looks identical to a Fathead) The mic combination was:
1. small condenser (MXL 991) about 8" out from and slightly above the neck, aimed back about 45 degrees and slightly down at the neck-body joint - typical mic placement, done by ear while she played.
2. large condenser (Oktava 219) for vocals, about 8" out from her mouth and aimed slightly upward.
3. (the glue!) ribbon (Stellar CM5), about ear level a foot out from her head and slightly in front of her, carefully angled so its figure-8 null got as little vocal bleed as possible, and as much guitar body weight as possible.
On mix, the only mic with significant bleed was the vocal, which I could handle. Careful placement almost completely eliminated vocals from the guitar mics! And the guitar sounds huge and wonderful! Just pan and balance for best effect and stereo spread. The ribbon, by itself, sounds dull and murky, all flabby bottom and no highs. The SDC, by itself, is too bright and jangly. But together? They sound like a Martin dreadnaught. :crazy They tamed the boom-and-sizzle issues of the Martin nicely, combining into a nice, full midrange. Only a touch of eq was needed to drop out the last of the boom.
I'm really, really happy with the results, and I think I'm going to use this SDC/ribbon combination on acoustic guitars a lot more! Cheap mics used well is better than expensive mics used badly.