Mixing Acoustic Guitar and vocal.

Hi,

I have recently finished a recording of mine which contains just an acoustic guitar and a single vocal track. I have mixed it down where I think it sounds pretty good and I am pretty satisfied with it. However, I was just looking for some tips or tricks that other people may have used in this situation.
As I said, I'm pretty happy with my results so far, but I am looking to try some different techniques out. What I currently have is both parts panned center, with both having a slightly different mixture of short and long reverb and eq. Oh, and a very subtle chorus effect on the guitar, which is barely audible. I actually like the sound of it with the chorus up more, but I feel like that sound gets tiring after a while and it doesn't sound that realistic for the feeling and style of the song.

Thanks.

A commonly used trick is to clone the gtr track then pan each of these tracks left and right of centre, leaving the vocal at centre. Probably too late now if you've fx'd the gtr, but another effective process is to keep the original gtr track without an fx and to put a bit of reverb or chorus on the clone track.
Gareth

ORIGINAL: MadStrummerDad

ORIGINAL: jamesg1213

Hard to say without hearing it. How about posting a link over at the Songs forum?

The song I have recorded is not an original. It's a cover of a Jackson Browne song. Is it OK to post covers? How about on Soundclick, will they let you post covers there? (Not for sale of course)

ORIGINAL: Gareth

A commonly used trick is to clone the gtr track then pan each of these tracks left and right of centre, leaving the vocal at centre. Probably too late now if you've fx'd the gtr, but another effective process is to keep the original gtr track without an fx and to put a bit of reverb or chorus on the clone track.

Thanks Gareth, sounds interesting. I'll definitely give that a try, and with such few tracks, I haven't destructively bounced anything, so I still have the original unprocessed tracks.

-Pete

I'm a BIG Jackson Browne fan, I'd love to hear it. What I do with that type of recording is try to get the guitar as big and wide as I can in stereo and even a little distant sounding. Then the vocals in mono center and fairly dry just a tiny bit of reverb with a very short decay. A little Chorus might be needed on the guitar to make it sound bigger, recording in stereo (even with unmatched mics) helps. In fact some times unmactched mics make for a wider stereo effect then matched ones. After all no two ears hear exactly the same and the difference between the two often adds depth percention. As for vocal effects it depends on the vocal. If you think it needs help maybe a little delay to fatten it up or just EQ to take out a nasal peak or to compensate for the type of mic used.

You can post covers on soundclick. They have a section for it. Just dont put it for sale as a download.

Randy

Gareth metioned cloning the track and panning the two tracks to either sides of the stereo field to create a stereo image. This is a good idea but the two tracks must be different enough or that stereo panning will just collapse to the centre and there will be no stereo effect. When you have a mono track centered; the exact same sound comes from both speakers, when you clone a track and pan the two tracks hard right and hard left once again the same sound comes from both speakers. So you haven't changed anything.

However if you changed one of those tracks a bit they don't collapse and you get a stereo image. Using two mics when you record might be enough. Performing the part twice is definately enough and a great way to go imo. Cloning the track and nudging one say 5-7 ms is another way to make them different enough to create a stereo image. Cloning and then adding chorus to one track but not the other would also work. Enough examples, go experiment.

Thanks all for the great examples and tips. I'll be trying these out when I get a chance. Certainly, experimenting is about all I am doing right now

Sometimes though it seems I get to a point where I am just somewhat happy with the mix and the more I experment the worse it gets..

Anyway, if you're interested, I'm putting the song up on Soundclick for a little while and I have posted a link to the song over in the Songs forum.

http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1213227

Thanks again,

Pete

ORIGINAL: fep
Cloning the track and nudging one say 5-7 ms is another way to make them different enough to create a stereo image.

I used this suggestion and really liked the results. The updated file is up on Soundclick now if anyone wants to give it another listen. (Reposted the link over in the Songs forum too. (http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=1213227 )

ORIGINAL: KenJr
Only suggestions...

Not sure what the hiss is - but gotta fix that...and the vocal feels like it needs a little EQ in the 200-500Hz range. Just a little 'honky' down there for me. I think you clean some of that up and the vox really cleans up and rocks the track.

Ken, I took your advice here too and added a -1.5 db cut in EQ at 350Hz (That's what you meant, to cut it, not add it, right?

Thanks,

-Pete