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Old 06-14-2011, 07:23 PM
DiegoFox DiegoFox is offline
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Default Acoustic guitar miking

Instructions from AKG:

Point a large-diaphragm microphone in the direction of the pick hand so as to pick up the radiation of the guitar body. Then place a small-diaphragm micro- phone in the direction of the fret hand (approx. eleventh fret). In the mix of both signals, set a wide panning (panorama left/right), thus achieving an exceptional spatial sound.

I have questions.

1) Is the left hand miking not strange, due to string sliding noises?
2) Doesn't such sound imaging yield different sound in each speaker?
3) Shouldn't miking the r.h. side (around sound hole) with the matched pair be more logical (and then pan it slightly wider)?
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Old 06-14-2011, 08:48 PM
jbasil jbasil is offline
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Default Re: Acoustic guitar miking

It really all depends. I used to always multi mic acoustics and found that in the mix I was nearly always collapsing the image instead of widening it because it would serve the overall purpose better, as impressive as the wide sound may have been. Eventually I even stopped usually doing that and now, especially if it's a band arrangement, not so much if just a guitar and something else, usually stick a favorite mono mic at my favorite place because I know that's what I want to hear in the mix. "Exceptional spacial sound" is sometimes great, often too distracting for the purpose of the recording.

But as far as achieving a good spacial sound, you can get good stereo guitar sounds doing all of those things mentioned there. Matched pairs are good, unmatched can be good too. I personally rarely mic pointed directly at the picking hand not due to string noise but because that's more or less pointing at the sound hole, which is there to let waves escape from the body but is not an especially pleasing sound at that location, IMHO. Sometimes I put a mic over the player's shoulder pointing at the upper bout. Sometimes I put two very different mics up both pointing at the same spot (usually where the neck meets the body) and pick one. Or blend them. Even those can be panned hard to good effect.

If it's for a solo guitar or sparse instrumentation where a wide sound works, and the two sides yield a different sound, you can usually compensate tonally to bring them closer together. I wouldn't worry too much about what seems like a more logical way to record. It depends so much on the guitar, player and purpose of the recording. I would take AKG's advice as just a starting point to branch off from, depending on the results it gives you.
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Old 06-15-2011, 09:14 AM
Styles Bitchly Styles Bitchly is offline
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Default Re: Acoustic guitar miking

I have found that moving the mic/mics around while the guitarist is playing will have the best outcome. I use in-ear monitors to listen, with some closed-ear headphones over my ears to dampen the direct sound coming from the guitar. Then I have the musician play the instrument while I move the live microphone around the guitar to find the sweet spot. Once you've found it, if you want to add an additional mic, just pan the first mic hard to one side, then pan the mic you're adding hard to the opposite side, and start the process over again using the additional mic. This works really well for me.
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Old 06-15-2011, 06:25 PM
DiegoFox DiegoFox is offline
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Default Re: Acoustic guitar miking

Quote:
Originally Posted by Styles Bitchly View Post
I have found that moving the mic/mics around while the guitarist is playing will have the best outcome. I use in-ear monitors to listen, with some closed-ear headphones over my ears to dampen the direct sound coming from the guitar. Then I have the musician play the instrument while I move the live microphone around the guitar to find the sweet spot. Once you've found it, if you want to add an additional mic, just pan the first mic hard to one side, then pan the mic you're adding hard to the opposite side, and start the process over again using the additional mic. This works really well for me.
That's how I generally used to work, hence the AKG advice confused me. However, once I found the sweet spot, I usually put a pair of mics. I do panning in PT.
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