Need some advice on mic positioning

[Artoftone]

Hey Everyone,

I want to record my acoustic guitar album in a few weeks. I already recorded some audio for my YouTube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38iGP0dolSo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np3kwrpbtkM

The audio is recorded with a Rode NT2A and a NT5. I have a second NT5 which I didn't use for my YouTube videos.

What do you guys think? What is the best setup with these mics? Do you have some advice in general or with respect to my YouTube Videos?

I'm not very experienced with recording so all help is appreciated!

Cheers Max

[Volontaire]

Well, if you want the sound of the room, you can put the third farer of your guitar. But two seem good, I'm not a pro 'bout this.

Great songs ! Weird guitar, but great tracks...

[barhrecords]

Max,

It sounded good!

I use the same approach of two microphones.

I use a small diaphram condenser aimed at the neck body joint and another small diaphram condenser for the body (where you used the large diaphram mic).

For the body mic, I have also gotten good results by positioning it over the player's shoulder next to your ear, aimed down towards the bridge plate.

That might not give a major change to the sound you already have but I like the over the shoulder perspective.

Richard

[Artoftone]

A quick update,

I can borrow another pair of NT5's from a friend of mine. Would it help to position them in XY configuration at the neck and body? Can I expect a difference in sound? I tried a XY configuration when I was still an enormous noob at recording so I don't know what to expect.

Thanks!

[barhrecords]

Cardiod mics in XY and ORTF can be fantastic if you really like the sound of the space you are recording in. If you are in a space that is extremeley flattering, I would use XY.

In my experience, micing the neck-body joint with one additional body microphone, as you have done, is preferred if the room I am recording in has issues or if the room is simply nothing special or isn't particularly flattering.

Richard

[Rex Anderson]

Very nice sound, great innovative playing and nice compositions.

You are a very talented young man. Congratulations, you should have a successful career ahead of you.

If you have more tracks (recording multitrack somehow I assume), you can put up as many mics as you can get your hands on and blend them to taste in the mix. Be careful of phase relationships as they add together-listen for comb filtering if you start blending mics together.

I'm only listening on my computer speakers, but I don't get much sense of any stereo space happening.

As others have said, using the additional NT5's as a stereo pair (in x/y or ortf) might help.

Not sure how you are panning the 2 mics you are using in the video, but you probably don't want to pan them hard L/R, so that is why you don't have a sense of a stereo field. A wee bit of panning on them might help.

A bit of good stereo reverb added in the mix could help too-don't make it too wet or cheesy sounding!

Just some thoughts off the top of my head. Sounds good as it is!

[Nelson89]

That is one of the weirdest/coolest guitar i've ever seen!

Pretty much the way you recorded these is in the ballpark of where you wanna be. I've got the most luck recording the acoustic with a Rode K2 pretty much in the same position you have the NT2a there and i use an NT5 pointed at the 12th fret. You could pan them hard left and hard right if you want. Or you could try experimenting with the different patterns on the NT2a, i usually keep the K2 in omni when recording acoustic guitar provided the room sounds any good.

Another trick you could use is sticking the NT2a in fig 8 and trying out an M-S recording technique. Last time i recorded my acoustic i used a couple of fatheads and used the blumlien technique which is pretty similar to the M-S technique. It's good because you can control exactly how wide you want it to sound in stereo whilst still having a non-phasey mono image.

EDIT: Let me know if you want me to expand on the M-S technique

[Artoftone]

Hi Nelson89!

Can you please tell me a little more about the M-S technique? I haven't used stereo or panning on my YouTube videos so that might be a thing to look at!

Thanks!

[Nelson89]

Ok, essentially with M-S technique, you use a cardioid or an omni mic (in this case your NT5) along with a fig 8 mic (your NT2a in fig 8 mode).

You line the capsules up as best as you can with the fig 8 facing the "sides" and the cardioid facing the front. Then face this towards a good sounding spot on your guitar, probably 12th fret, might have to play around for the sweet spot.

Anyway, so after you record, you take the signal from the fig 8, duplicate it to another track and invert the phase. Then take the original fig 8 signal and the copy and pan them hard left and right.

As you raise the volume of the "sides", the stereo image will get bigger, and when you play it on a mono system, they'll cancel each other out and you'll be left with just the "mid" mic.

Ok so let me reiterate the point, cause its confusing until you do it yourself:

Record with the NT5 pointing at the 12th fret and the NT2a in fig 8 pointing to the sides, so the little gold dot on the NT2a should be to the left.

When you record your channels should be this:

1. NT5
2. NT2a

When you go into your DAW to mix it, you duplicate and then invert the NT2a channel and your channels should be this:

1. NT5
2. NT2a
3. NT2a (copy - inverted)

Channel 1 should be panned centre, channel 2 Hard left and channel 3 Hard right.

Mix to taste.

[Artoftone]

Thanks Nelson89!!

I'll definitely try this technique! Hope it works for me

Max

[Nelson89]

Originally Posted by Artoftone

Thanks Nelson89!!

I'll definitely try this technique! Hope it works for me

Max

It may or may not work for you, but its definitely a cool technique to have in the bank

[Rex Anderson]

A few more tips on the M-S thing.

Mid facing mic can be ANY pattern. Side facing mic MUST be figure eight.

Capsules of the 2 mics should be coincident (as close to each other as possible and time aligned-basically one mic on top of the other mic.

As you mix the blend, more mid becomes more mono, less mid and you get wider stereo.

Reverse the phase on the back side of the capsule to keep stereo L/R info correct. In other words, if the back side of the capsule is facing right, when you duplicate the channel in your DAW, reverse the phase on the channel you pan to the right, not the one you pan to the left.

[cruisemates]

Wow - how many times has this question been asked here? "I need to record an acoustic guitar?"

[Nelson89]

Originally Posted by cruisemates

Wow - how many times has this question been asked here? "I need to record an acoustic guitar?"

Same as "new to recording, what software should i use?". They should make them stickies...

1. A sticky for different mic techniques, i.e. XY, ORTF, Spaced pair, MS/Blumlien etc etc

2. A sticky for the different DAWs and their general uses.