Quote:
Originally Posted by
pete
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which mic technique do you prefer on picking?
I really like it for both. I find that it works best with very simple arrangements. If you need a single acoustic guitar to fill the stereo field and wrap around a vocal panned in the center it think it really works great. It doesn't work so well if you are trying to blend it in with a bunch of other instruments... it just doesn't leave much room for anything else.
When recording acoustic guitar as a part of a more complicated arrangement, there are 2 other techniques I use a lot:
1) M/S on acoustic guitar is awesome. The thing I really love about M/S is that you have total control over how wide the sound gets by turning the "S" up or down in a way that has less phasing issues. If the acoustic is taking up too much space you can just turn down the "S" a little then you got more space to play with on the other instruments. The example of that I can think off the top of my head is on the Smash Mouth song "Out Of Sight"
2) Close/Far micing. A lot of times i will have one mic close up on the guitar in that 15th fret type position then have a mic that is just pointed off in the room somewhere. I even go out of my way to sometimes to put it on another instrument in the room that is not even being played at that point. It is an effort to recreate an effect I really love on old records when human beings you to play music together in a room. Those old recordings have lots of incidental room sounds. Basically the sound of one instrument bleeding in to a mic not setup as a room mic but just placed on another instrument in the room. It adds a subtle sense of space when you bring up a little of that room mic opposite the close mic in the stereo field. i can't thin of a good example of that of the top of my head. If I think of one I'll add it to this post.
EV