Present vs Laid back

[GretschHead]

As ia m prepping to do my simple Acoustic EP, I am on the hunt listening. I have especially been studying 2 projects of late... Foo Fighters latest and specifically their song "Stranger Things" and also a complete Acoustic EP from 2003 from a guy named Justin MCRoberts.

There are many big differences between the 2 and most of which are budget related... Justin is not a national act. However, I was noticing today that the Foo stuff is very present and in your face compared to the other. I thought micing might be the beginning of the differences, realizing that Equipment and cash in the end put the final polish on.

In pondering the different sounds and putting that to practice, it seemed to me that on acoustic, to get a present sound, you would choose a mic that has a very upfront sound and do a spaced pair, close XY, or an over the shoulder gig. On the vocal, I would suspect a upfront sounding mic as well and close micing, within a few inches.

On the contrary, I would suspect that the laidback sounding project was probably recorded using a more distant XY or a Blumlein Technique on the acoustic and on the vocal mic, it obviously wasnt the same caliber as the Foo but even still, it seemed that it would have been recorded with much more distance between the singer and the mic.

The thought was that setting the stuff back in the field wasnt only by use of delay and Verb but that the micing had to be different as well. I realize that many may not have heard both groups/people but I am really satisfied just talking theory and in hearing your approach to find either result.

What do you think of my speculations and what would you try in either scenario?

Another question could be that if you were to do an acoustic EP, with guitar and vox, would you be after a upfront, present feel or more laid back or pushed back, spacious feel?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[uncle duncan]

Maybe a loud singer/brash and bold guitar player would sound better with the mics farther away? And a sensitive, intimate singer with good guitar technique would sound better with close mics that aren't overly bright? Generally, I would say bright mics for an acoustic-only project might sound kind of crappy, since they won't have to cut through a dense mix. (I did that on my last project - used a KM184 and a C12-ish tube mic on finger-picked guitar, and then spent the whole mix trying to tame the high end. On the two songs where she strummed the guitar, I used a modded Oktava 319 and MK-011 - really flat mics - and those tracks sounded wonderful.)

Putting a fig 8 mic on the vocal can be helpful, since it cancels most of the guitar sound (as long as the room sound doesn't enter from the back side of the mic.)

If you're recording yourself, just experiment, since the approach could vary from song to song. On the Feist album, the guitar/vocal sound changes on some songs, but she's adding a bunch of production, so perhaps that's not a good example.