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tmcconnell · 17th January 2007

Agree with the previous - spot mic the guitars at like 3 to 6 feet, and use a 3rd mic for ambience. Phase correct the ambient mic. Your likely issue might be too much ambience due to the fig 8 on the ribbons - so I might even take a cardioid next to the ribbons pointed away so that you would have some option to reduce ambience with phase cancellation. Might sound bad, but might be just fine and save you from a morass of reverb and you don't have to use it. Be aware of floor reflections, and keep the guitars as far apart as you can. Also, classical players complain about too much high end, they love the richness over the attack - so its a potential win to move the ribbons even closer so that the proximity bumps the lows. The r84 has a proximity effect that reaches a few feet. The 122 18 inches or so. I have both. It will likely sound beautiful with that gear - great mic choices. I'm not convinced that the "neve" sound is the goal for classical guitar. On compression, much of that will depend on playing styles. I would set the compressors if you must use them, to only reduce the gain on very loud strikes, and leave them out of the way otherwise. I would orient the ribbons so that the null plane is pointed at the floor. Most classical guitar parts (I used to perform this stuff) have loud sections and soft sections - the goal is to make a very broad based leveling so that the soft sections are loud enough but mastering could do this perhaps more effectively than you can . anyway.. I'll shut up.

17th January 2007	#5
tmcconnell Lives for gear Joined: Aug 2005 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 552	classical guitars Agree with the previous - spot mic the guitars at like 3 to 6 feet, and use a 3rd mic for ambience. Phase correct the ambient mic. Your likely issue might be too much ambience due to the fig 8 on the ribbons - so I might even take a cardioid next to the ribbons pointed away so that you would have some option to reduce ambience with phase cancellation. Might sound bad, but might be just fine and save you from a morass of reverb and you don't have to use it. Be aware of floor reflections, and keep the guitars as far apart as you can. Also, classical players complain about too much high end, they love the richness over the attack - so its a potential win to move the ribbons even closer so that the proximity bumps the lows. The r84 has a proximity effect that reaches a few feet. The 122 18 inches or so. I have both. It will likely sound beautiful with that gear - great mic choices. I'm not convinced that the "neve" sound is the goal for classical guitar. On compression, much of that will depend on playing styles. I would set the compressors if you must use them, to only reduce the gain on very loud strikes, and leave them out of the way otherwise. I would orient the ribbons so that the null plane is pointed at the floor. Most classical guitar parts (I used to perform this stuff) have loud sections and soft sections - the goal is to make a very broad based leveling so that the soft sections are loud enough but mastering could do this perhaps more effectively than you can . anyway.. I'll shut up.