Acoustic Guitar Tracking

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tcaylor
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2008/10/30 12:06:22 (permalink)

Acoustic Guitar Tracking

I recently bought a Taylor Big Baby acoustic guitar, one of the cheaper Taylors but cheap is a relative term. I've been experimenting with mics and mic placement and found something I didn't notice before. I get a decent tone with the standard 10-12" from the 12th fret mic placement. I also noticed that I get pretty good tone if I just swivel my chair 90 degrees with the bottom of the guitar now facing the mic. Can I get greedy here and set up 2 mics in those approximate positions or will I end up with phase issues? The mics will be about 15" apart but perpendicular to each other.

Tom

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    Beagle
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    RE: Acoustic Guitar Tracking 2008/10/30 12:34:34 (permalink)
    Hi Tom! Great to have met you in person!

    If the mics are perpendicular to each other then you should not have phase problems IF they are in close proximity to each other - that's what the X/Y configuration does - it cancels the phase difference between the two mics for that configuration. however, at 15" apart, you'd need to either: make it into an ORTF configuration or NOS configuration, OR use a straight parallel configuration using the 3X distance rule. that means you have to have your source 1/3 of the distance that you have your mics spaced apart. in other words, if you have your mics 15" apart, then they would need to be 5" from the guitar.

    here's an article on that:
    http://www.recordingeq.com/articles/321eq.html

    hope that helps!

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    tcaylor
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    RE: Acoustic Guitar Tracking 2008/10/30 12:57:43 (permalink)

    ORIGINAL: Beagle

    Hi Tom! Great to have met you in person!

    If the mics are perpendicular to each other then you should not have phase problems IF they are in close proximity to each other - that's what the X/Y configuration does - it cancels the phase difference between the two mics for that configuration. however, at 15" apart, you'd need to either: make it into an ORTF configuration or NOS configuration, OR use a straight parallel configuration using the 3X distance rule. that means you have to have your source 1/3 of the distance that you have your mics spaced apart. in other words, if you have your mics 15" apart, then they would need to be 5" from the guitar.

    here's an article on that:
    http://www.recordingeq.com/articles/321eq.html

    hope that helps!

    Nice to have met you as well!

    It's amazing how something that appears so simple can be so complicated. Thanks for the links.

    Tom

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    ohhey
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    RE: Acoustic Guitar Tracking 2008/10/30 13:39:15 (permalink)
    ORIGINAL: tcaylor

    I recently bought a Taylor Big Baby acoustic guitar, one of the cheaper Taylors but cheap is a relative term. I've been experimenting with mics and mic placement and found something I didn't notice before. I get a decent tone with the standard 10-12" from the 12th fret mic placement. I also noticed that I get pretty good tone if I just swivel my chair 90 degrees with the bottom of the guitar now facing the mic. Can I get greedy here and set up 2 mics in those approximate positions or will I end up with phase issues? The mics will be about 15" apart but perpendicular to each other.


    Tom,

    I think so, I've used two mics before one at the 12th fret and one down at the nut pointing back down the neck and the recording came out great. I was using two C414s in cardioid mode. It was a spoof (think Weird Al) of needle and the damage done with just the guitar and vocal so I decided to do stereo to get it as large sounding as possible. I'll play it for you some time, it really did turn out good.

    By the way nice to meet you at the DFW SUG.. we need to get together and jam.
    post edited by ohhey - 2008/10/30 13:43:36

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    tcaylor
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    RE: Acoustic Guitar Tracking 2008/10/30 15:24:52 (permalink)

    ORIGINAL: ohhey

    Tom,

    I think so, I've used two mics before one at the 12th fret and one down at the nut pointing back down the neck and the recording came out great. I was using two C414s in cardioid mode. It was a spoof (think Weird Al) of needle and the damage done with just the guitar and vocal so I decided to do stereo to get it as large sounding as possible. I'll play it for you some time, it really did turn out good.

    By the way nice to meet you at the DFW SUG.. we need to get together and jam.

    I think I'll try it and see what it sounds like for the hell of it. I only have one C414 though I have a CAD Equitek 100 and an MXL cheap condenser that both sound decent.

    Nice to have met you too, I'm up for jammin' sometime.

    Tom

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