[guitarmax_99]

Originally Posted by Les

Yeah I read a little more in the other thread. It's a really nice sound. how low did you tune with those thick strings? Whole step?

I'm tuned a little funny in that clip actually. BF#BEF#B is the actual tuning. But basically, it's about a fourth down from standard tuning.

I'm doing the final voicing of the mic and I want to get it right. About the last thing I'm thinking about is live guitar plus singing. A lot of folks like to do that, and don't want to track. The classical solution is figure eight ribbon or condenser with the guitar mic null pointed at the singer and the vocal mic null pointed at the guitar.

Another neat approach to recording someone playing guitar and singing at the same time is to try an SDC off axis. Use a cardioid pattern and try pointing the mic directly at the floor, about a foot infront of the 15th fret. This minimizes the vocal getting into the guitar track. Some SDC's do better at this than others. Also important to take into consideration the floor (you might want to use a throw rug if you are on a hardwood floor). Once you get a decent acoustic sound on your SDC, you can mic the vocal with your mic of choice. Yes, there will be bleed. It's all about getting a musical result and avoiding phase cancellation, so you have to have a good monitoring situation and really use your ears.

Can't go figure eight in this SDC design, but could go hypercardioid. Might try that. If pointed slightly down you could get the vocal in the null. Then use LDC for vocal on figure eight.

We've been using XY on the prototypes at the body neck juction for tests, but it can be a little wide. Bad if the player moves much too.
But then one can pan them a little toward center or elsewhere (not all the way to mono, just a little) to control it if needed.

I've found it very difficult to use SDC's in XY patterns on acoustic guitar, largely because mic placement is so critical and so temperamental (move ever so slightly and it profoundly changes the sound). I've been pretty happy using the technique I've been using lately (described in detail in the other thread). I know it's not "by the book", but it's much more forgiving if the player moves a little bit.