Recording Mics and Placement

Jazzaferri

Mic placement usually takes some experimentation by the engineer to get the best placement for an acoustic instrument. Copy their attention to this detail.

Al Watsky

I was steered to AA's by a studio owner . Said he had done shoot outs between his German AKG and Neumann units and the AA's and that the AA's held up very well at a fraction of the $$$. I have some recordings I need to do the verdict will be in by the time I'm mixing down.

Buco

A little bit off topic but this is a great time for being able to get very decent mics at the very affordable prices.
I have a pair of Monoprice small diaphragm condensers 600700 (their numbering nomenclature is terrible) for home use and am very happy with them. This pair of mics plus the exchangeable omnidirectional/hypercardoid capsules cost me around $150.
FWIW when recording at home I aim the mic around the neck meets the body area, 14th fret and about a foot away.
Records really nice.

richter4208

I'd like to bump this thread to see if Jon, Tomi or Scoredog might chime in with their current favorite mics and methods for recording guitar. Would like to get a a setup within the next few months and want to do some research.
Tomi, I'm listening to your soundcloud recordings, I like what you are using on Just Friends.
thanks for your help

Jon

@richter4208 I did reply to this earlier, but my setup keeps changing, so here's what works best now: I've been using a Shure SM81, which sounds great of gypsy guitars - sort of thickens up the mids a bit. If I only had one mic, this is the one I'd use. Also though, I use a combination an Australian made Royer 121 copy (OPR Grill U Mod) and a KM184 copy (OPR 84) which works well (used this for the solo tracks on my last album to try to match the tone from the quartet tracks recorded at Studio LDC in Paris with a Coles 4038 and a real KM184).

All that said, my latest favourite tone is just a mix between my AT831b clip on and the Mid/Side mic that comes with my new Zoom H6. Either mic sounds fairly average on its own, but together and with some significant EQ (mostly a deep HP filter on the AT, a slight high shelf boost, and a small cut around 400-500 hz) and compression (I use Universal Audio's LA-2 emulation), I love the sound - I think it's the best I've managed so far. Using it for videos now.

Hope that helps

richter4208

Cool Jon great tips and exactly what I was looking for. So do you track right on to the h6 or use the mic on the h6 to another interface?
I noticed a zoom recorder in this video, I really like the sound they achieved with this

Jon

@richter4208 I track on the H6 - just got it to do mobile video shoots, but it's actually really easy to use, and sounds great. The interface in my studio is a UA Apollo Quad, which is a really good piece of gear, but if I'm just recording solo stuff or live stuff, sometimes the H6 is easier than firing up the whole setup. I still mix everything in Protools with my UA plugins though, so maybe it's an unnecessary extra step. I started doing it because it felt easy, but wound up loving the sound of those two mics together...Looking forward to doing some band videos in a park or something.

For any overdubbing or more complex setups though, my main rig is the UA with a couple of outboard pre's for a total of 10 channels in. To tell the truth though, I may end up doing more stuff on location and just using the H6. I don't really enjoy doing tracking and overdubs (I just really like to play with people), and getting out and about with a band is so easy with the Zoom. I see that you can even pair it with an iPad and use the iPad as a fully functional 6 track live DAW - hugely portable, and good quality!

Daria91

We can get in a variety of situations where we would need to record something – starting from the birthday wish for your boss to the digital diary based on your voice recordings. Or maybe you need to record a song for a special case.

The first thought of you might be to go to the studio, but you absolutely unnecessary to do that when you can acquire a great computer mic and get almost the same qualitative record on your own. And, of course, decent computer microphones are essential for game streamers and live broadcasters.

Different questions might occur while choosing the best mic for your PC. Which one do you need: for Windows or Mac? What if the mic won’t be compatible with one of them? Which one is more convenient – a gooseneck or a stand mount dynamic microphone? Or a condenser one? In this article, find the answer which trends in microphone trends for computers will prevail in 2020

Buco

Damn where was this yesterday?! I bought a mic for Mac and I have Windows without a gooseneck which I really needed and my boss thought the birthday wish I recorded and sent was just aweful but it sounds phenomenal with my latest diary entry, at least I nailed that?!?