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Stereo acoustic guitar, solo recording
Hi MP friends! I have a solo guitar piece attached. Would love any feedback on this recording, but would also love to know if you have preferred ways of stereo miking a solo guitar performance like this. Here I am using two tube LDC’s in blumlein, which to me sounds very natural.
I have a long list of solo pieces i’m hoping to re-record and am looking to thoroughly dial the sonics.
Thanks for listening and cheers!
Joe Robinson -
21 Replies
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Joe,
That’s another gorgeous guitar piece from you. The believable sound-field created by your Blumlein mic setup is wholesome. It’s not crazy wide, yet dramatically different and far more compelling than mono. I’m a tinkerer so I tried some harmonic distortion as a brightener, and to my own surprise, a pinch of hall verb to give it even more depth. The first 30 seconds of the piece are below to spark imaginations.
As always, thanks for letting me play in the playground.
PT
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Nice, Paul! (as always) ⚡️
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I’m curious to see if Joe digs it. I may have made it ever so slightly unnatural sounding if the intent was 100% au natural.
PT
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Thanks Paul – I really dig this!! The extra grit and larger soundstage with the reverb is very cool!
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Joe! This is so great! Technically, compositionally, musically, and microphonically (is that a word? haha). Bravo, man!
I love me some Blumlein stereo mic’ing! And you’ve captured a gorgeous, natural sound. Here are a couple things I noticed … super minor stuff!
- the stereo image feels ever-so-slightly left-heavy. Easy fix – just turn up the mic fader on the right (or if you’re using a stereo fader you could add a multi-mono trim plugin, unlink the left and right channels, and add a touch more gain to the right channel of the plugin)
- I’d love to hear more body in the low strings – more fundamental, more “note”. You could try adding EQ to boost the low end, but it’s easier to accomplish during recording by adjusting the mic(s) position. Often it’s a matter of vertical position of the diaphragm(s) — … though I’m realizing this is much easier to demonstrate visually than it is to describe in writing, haha. But basically, imagine if your blumlein setup was configured on one single mic stand, 6 inches from the strings, pointed at the neck of the guitar where the neck meets the guitar body. The sound is clear and well-balanced but the low strings sound a bit thin and under-represented. Solution: raise the mic stand an inch or two higher so that the mic diaphragms are more centered vertically on the low strings. And/or wear some loud, closed-back headphones and try moving your body up/down, left/right, fwd/back while you play, allowing you to *hear* the best mic position in realtime. When you’ve found the sound you like, hold that position and hit record!
I have lots of fav stereo acoustic guitar mic’ing techniques (I’ve always considered making a course or video series on that subject). I know @jlew has been experimenting a lot with that too these days, including some Mid-Side acoustic gtr recording.
All in all, I think your blumlein setup is sounding great!
Here’s an IG post I did a while back showing a stereo setup I devised for a solo slide acoustic guitar recording that worked well:
instagram.com
93 likes, 18 comments - danafrio on August 22, 2023: "Here’s the equipment and thought process i used to record acoustic slide guitar with Craig Jameson the other day 🎤 . . . #protoolshdx #atcloudspeakers #dcommand #producingmusic #recordingmusic #outboardgear #soundstudio … Continue reading
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… and a follow-up IG post with some more ideas:
instagram.com
82 likes, 7 comments - mixprotege on August 22, 2023: "Been using a lot of different mic combinations lately to capture solo acoustic guitar. all in the same general configuration, all beautiful results in their own way!".
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Thanks Dana!!! I really appreciate it!
I have often wondered how to LR balance a stereo acoustic guitar, because the body side of the guitar is so much louder when recording. Sometimes I use a matched pair of DPA’s and when close miking I have to gain up the fretboard side 10db or so! I guess having pretty evenly mixed levels is what would be most appropriate.
I actually made an acoustic guitar recording course a few years back, because there was nothing I could find that taught people how to do this. I would LOVE to see a stereo miking course from you!!!
I have created a lot of guitar courses over the years and it’s a big part of what I do these days. My teaching site is: https://www.invisibletechnique.com/
That’s a great suggestion regarding moving the mics a little higher so they are centered on the lower strings. I have a seat that moves up and down so next time I’m recording I will experiment with that!!!
And thanks for sharing the videos with the Gefell and AEA combo! I have been meaning to watch that zoom video working on Fingerstyle guitar with Craig Jameson!
Thanks again for taking the time to listen, really appreciate it and hope you have a great weekend!!
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Joe! I’m sorry I forgot to respond to this till now! Your Invisible Technique site is super pro and looks like a ton of amazing content! Are you u using Kajabi? How’s that been? I’d love to chat sometime about all that stuff and how that’s been going for you — looks like you’re crushing it!
And yeah a stereo guitar course would be a lot of fun – maybe even something we could work on together at some point.
Hope you’re doing great, man!
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Thanks Dana!! I am using Kajabi – it’s changed my life, honestly. I was creating courses for TrueFire and Udemy before I branched out on my own and it’s really been an amazing journey and has given me a lot of freedom. My wife teaches illustration on YouTube (her channel is ‘Genevieve’s Design Studio’) – she has courses too, so we’re very much a Kajabi family and know the platform really well.
Kajabi are constantly releasing features that don’t work properly and I get the sense they are more focused on signing up more users than anything 😅, but having the courses, email lists, funnels and website all in one place is so easy to manage and I know a lot of people who are doing really well with it.
I also use Circle.so for my community, much like ATA – because Kajabi’s ‘community’ product is not great.
I was wondering which platform you used to build Mix Protege – it seems great too! I’d love to chat more and am happy to help out in any way – love your courses and MP!!!
Cheers and hope you have a nice holiday season!
Joe
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That is so cool Joe! Especially that you and your wife are both creating video courses and content – presumably sharing ideas and tools etc. – that’s awesome. And YES I would love to chat about your journey and Kajabi and Circle (both platforms I enjoy and use often for other folks’ communities/courses). Let’s hop on a call – I’ll shoot u a DM.
Everything here at MP is WordPress-based with lots of 3rd party integrations. I love that I can basically build/design whatever I want and use whichever integrations I want and because of that, MP looks/feels a bit different from other course/community platforms. BUT .. that also means everything is custom and requires a lot of maintenance, plugin updates, troubleshooting, and time. (Enormous shoutout to MP dev guru extraordinaire @avernet!)
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Thanks Dana! That’s really impressive you’ve built this with WP, I’ve heard that can involve a lot of moving pieces! Look forward to chatting and cheers! Joe
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Good Grief!!! I’m a bit late to the party but this is so ABSOLUTELY shredding and beautiful! It sounds fantastic and very natural (reminds me a bit of my favorite parts of Tommy Emmanuel’s sound) but frankly when you play on that level and compose so beautifully it’s hard to not just get wrapped up in the vibes. Fantastic man! Let us know when the album is out!!!
PS -May I ask what guitar you were using on that recording?
Best,
Jesse
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Thanks so much Jesse!! This is the video I made for it, which features the guitar I used for the recording, it’s a Maton I’ve been playing since 2011, nicely worn in and I love the way it plays. TE has been a huge influence on me, especially in a song like this!! https://youtu.be/YxYQTbJQyYY
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Stunning!!!
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Absolutely gorgeous!!! Visually and musically! 🙌💜⚡️
@andrew-feltenstein would surely recognize this backdrop! Looks like Livingston!
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Thanks Dana & Jesse!!
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Joe,
So far over the line into awesomeness, both your playing and visually. I can definitely see a collaborative effort between you and Jesse. It would be unquestionably tasty. The only question would be if you play in 7 or 4. That and the inclusion of natural sounds. I kinda dig the calming effect of rushing water. Just gorgeous!!
PT
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❤❤❤
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You know it’s true.
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Thank you Paul!! It’s really great to have connected with Jesse here!!
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