You might think this post is about playing guitar... it's not. It's about recording a great sounding guitar with the B-Rig!
Which Microphone do I use?
- For Acoustic Guitar - Use the Nady CM-88. Point it directly into the sound hole, and experiment with pointing it more toward the fretboard from there. For a more Hi-fi sound, use an MXL 990, if the guitar sounds too twangy/bright/trebly the the sm57.
It's usually, depending on the guitar, a sliding scale:
- Direct into the sound hole - deeper bigger sound, sounds scooped, less mids
- Pointing toward the 12th fret - more even sound, less bass and more mids.
- For Electric Guitar - Use the SM-57. between 3 inches and 2 feet away from the amp. There's another sliding scale here...
- bright/trebly/fuzzy/hissy (on axis)- directly in the center of the speaker
- dark/warm/bassy/muffled (off asix)- pointing at the very edge of the speaker, if the mic is close. If the mic is more than 1 foot away, just move it a little bit off the the side. just put you ear where the mic will be to see if it'll sound ok.
Off axis more than 3 feet away:
There are three types of guitar tracks:
- Lead Guitar - Carries the melody or counter-melody of the song... at the very least... it plays some melodic and relatively important part of the song.
- Rhythm Guitar - falls to the background, or plays a supporting role to another part of the song that is clearly the melody/focus. Don't confuse riffs for lead parts (see: smoke on the water) - riffs are rhythm parts, but you can combine different lead and rhythm techniques in their case, more on that later.
- Ear Candy - This is a sub-citizen of the song, less important than almost every other track. Not to be made prominent in any way. It's those little things that can make the song though, they're very important, just less important than everything else.
1. Mono Panned - record in mono (duh)
2. Haas Effect - mono (creating stereo with the Haas effect)
3. Doubled - mono
Look at that, you only need one microphone! You may ask... why is everything in mono?
Well, you can try stereo microphone techniques (stereo pairs, etc) but generally one microphone will sound better than the other... so why use the one that sounds worse? don't. Stereo Miking is acceptable for acoustic guitar only.
If you're going to use more than one microphone on electric guitar... use them to compliment each other... not to create a stereo pair. For example: One mic 3 inches from the amp, and one 6 feet away to get a little natural reverb.
So about those techniques, Mono panned is pretty self explanatory; record in mono (just get one microphone to sound good and go with it), then pan the track to a suitable position in the mix. This technique works well for lead guitar... if it's the main thing going on... pan it just a little bit (5-15% either way). If there's something else equally important pan both opposite directions (10-25%). If it's a secondary attraction, 20-50%. For any kind of ear candy (less important extra parts that don't carry the song) pan 50-85%.
For the uninitiated...
Panning (v) - the act of moving a sound either to the left or the right, by making it quieter on one side and louder on the other.
I'm pretty sure every recording program you can find has a panning function (except windows sound recorder).
Haas effect is when you double a track by delaying it on one side... but I've already written a nice long description: Mono to Stereo, the Quest of Champions
Use Haas effect for acoustic guitars, sometimes clean guitar. Basically whenever you just can't get doubling the part to sound good.
Doubled guitar is recorded mono... but it's really stereo. It's pretty simple: record the same exact part twice and then pan one take (track) all the way left, and the other all the way right. The result is a nice wide stereo pair that still sounds like one performance. If you're recording distorted rhythm guitar this is the way to go.
I'll repeat that, if you're recording distorted guitar, your rhythm guitar parts must be doubled.
Here's a bonus for you. Use the Haas effect on doubled guitar. Once it sounds good doubled and panned hard left and hard right (all the way left/right) duplicate both tracks, pan them all the way to the other side, and apply the 20ms delay. it really smooths out those little differences between the two takes, and makes it EXTRA wide. Which is a very good thing. Especially good for riffs ;)
Speaking of riffs, doubled+haas is great for when it's the background... but when it's the main thing (usually at the beginning) record a third track and leave that panned center to help put the focus on the riff until the melody comes in.
Ok that's it for guitar, here's a cheat sheet:
| Track Type | Acoustic | Electric (clean) | Electric (distorted) |
| Rhythm | CM88/MXL990 Haas, Doubled, or both | SM57 Haas, Doubled, or both | SM57/MXL990 Doubled (+haas optional) |
| Lead | CM88/SM57 Mono Panned | SM57/MXL990 Mono Panned | SM57 Mono Panned |
| Ear Candy | CM88/MXL990 Mono Panned | SM57 Mono Panned | SM57/CM88 Mono Panned |
Last but not least... ALWAYS USE A DI when you record electric guitar. This way you can do some re-amping once you've captured all those great performances. More on using a DI and re-amping next time. (Edit: DI Boxes: the magical guitar tone weapon)
11 comments:
This is NOT how to record guitar.
NEVER aim the mic at the soundhole, unless you want it to sound boomy.
NEVER aim the mic directly at the centre of the speaker cone. Two thirds-out is much better. Also, lift the amp off the ground, say on a chair or milk crate to avoid reflections.
you're right kieran, that's why I said it's a sliding scale. From one extreme to the other... it doesn't sound good if you point the mic at the very edge of the speaker either.
as for elevating the amp... it doesn't particularly matter if you close mic it, and the floor is carpeted anyway, so the reflected sound is only the lower frequencies, which aren't prone to phase issues with such a short reflection. Those frequencies would be MORE out of phase if I elevated the amp. Anyway the picture is just for demonstration.
What really matters is if it SOUNDS good. As long as it sounds good, I say fidelity is a secondary concern, Especially in rock music.
As for aiming the mic at the sound hole... it won't usually end up sounding boomy when you use a small diaphragm condenser mic which naturally reduces the bass anyway. And if it does, you can always move the mic back a few inches to reduce the proximity effect.
I'd pretty much agree with most of what's here, however, delete every instance of "Always", "Never", and "Must".
"I'll repeat that, if you're recording distorted guitar, your rhythm guitar parts must be doubled."
can sound mushy and messy.
and i agree very much with danny.
these are your opinions, these techniques will not work for everyone.
Of course there are no hard and fast rules in anything...
You Always need to use your ears.
In music, all that matters is how it sounds.
yeah your technique is fail along with your mics. use an earthworks tc 30 near the neck just under where the neck starts and an akg 420 just below the bridge.
@Anonymous
I agree with you, however those are expensive microphones and this article begins with the assumption that you possess certain budget gear. Not a $1000 pair of mics
The Shure SM57 $100 and a Sennheiser E609 $110 are the 2 most common mics seen recording electric guitar or being used in live applications today.
For acoustic use 2 mics and position one at mid neck and also somewhere around the sound hole. A large diaphram condenser over the right shoulder also works well.
Use your ear as the guitarist plays his acoustic and when you hear the sweet spot place your mic there.
You don't need really expensive mics to get a great sound for recording and don't let anyone tell you you do. But you do need to know what to do with equipment you have. Experiment
The Nady mics are junk and also just about anything behringer makes is crap, for the money there are far better choices!
When placing a mic on a speaker cab position the mic between the speaker center and edge for the most consistent sound. If you use both of these mics as I do watch for phase problems and switch one of them out of phase if needed. Listen for the fullest tone with one mic in or out of phase and use that setup.
The mics I mentioned would be considered cheap by most but they've been the industry standard for years. I didn't mention any specific mics for acoustics because the list would be staggering.
Good luck
god i HATE wannabee engineers. blind leading the blind.
god I HATE anonymous trolls... ;)
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