Gearslutz.com - View Single Post - Could use some advice, recording acoustic trio

bobby yarrow · 31st January 2006

So, next week I start production on the trio portion of this acoustic act I've been working on. The trio is: ac gtr, double bass, snare/kick/HH with brushes.

In preproduction, it became clear that the singer/gtr player gives and takes a lot of time, and I think it'll be hard for them to follow if they're not all in the same room. This isn't a band, for what it's worth; the drums and bass are ringers brought in for the project.

My live room isn't huge, about 16x20. Without getting into mics & pres, I'm interested in your thoughts on general approach.

I'm thinking about setting them up in a sort of triangle, with the bass and guitar equidistant from the snare, and starting with an omni in middle. Given that the drummer's going to be stirring the soup more than smacking anything, I'm thinking about a condensor a foot or so above the snare to get the snare and hats, and another out in front of the kick. I'll mic the double bass & acoustic gtr too, maybe with an xy on the guitar.

Another option that has some appeal is an m/s array over and behind the drummer, sort of looking out into the room. The trick with that is that I'd need arrange them in a line (assuming, rightly, that I'm going to want the guitar and bass in the middle). And that seems kind of odd.

Also thinking a bit about baffles. I almost never use them, finding that the bleed around baffles sounds worse than just letting a full-spectrum bleed come thru. But this is much quieter than what I'm used to recording. Maybe I could get some satisfaction out of baffles.

Any thoughts most appreciated.

31st January 2006	#1
bobby yarrow Gear addict Joined: Jan 2005 Posts: 385 Thread Starter	Could use some advice, recording acoustic trio So, next week I start production on the trio portion of this acoustic act I've been working on. The trio is: ac gtr, double bass, snare/kick/HH with brushes. In preproduction, it became clear that the singer/gtr player gives and takes a lot of time, and I think it'll be hard for them to follow if they're not all in the same room. This isn't a band, for what it's worth; the drums and bass are ringers brought in for the project. My live room isn't huge, about 16x20. Without getting into mics & pres, I'm interested in your thoughts on general approach. I'm thinking about setting them up in a sort of triangle, with the bass and guitar equidistant from the snare, and starting with an omni in middle. Given that the drummer's going to be stirring the soup more than smacking anything, I'm thinking about a condensor a foot or so above the snare to get the snare and hats, and another out in front of the kick. I'll mic the double bass & acoustic gtr too, maybe with an xy on the guitar. Another option that has some appeal is an m/s array over and behind the drummer, sort of looking out into the room. The trick with that is that I'd need arrange them in a line (assuming, rightly, that I'm going to want the guitar and bass in the middle). And that seems kind of odd. Also thinking a bit about baffles. I almost never use them, finding that the bleed around baffles sounds worse than just letting a full-spectrum bleed come thru. But this is much quieter than what I'm used to recording. Maybe I could get some satisfaction out of baffles. Any thoughts most appreciated.