Topic: folk music (arrg) - what's the best way to tape?

[vwmule]

Some people from work are playing at a house tomorrow night and I am considering taping as a gesture of good will. One of the banjo guitar duo is moving away, you see.  I'm wondering what is the best way to record. I can get as close as I want.  Should I run XY or just AB ?

[vwmule]

think they'll have small amps, not much.

[mmmatt]

think they'll have small amps, not much.

I just did 2 acoustic guitars with cards in x/y and about 2-3 ft from the body of the guitars.  The tape came out great.  Closer the better IMO.  If it is just 2 guys and no vox you should just mic the instruments (assuming you can only record from 2 chan) otherwise go with a config.  cards in X/Y work great up close.

Matt

[Brian Skalinder]

A few years back I recorded an unplugged folk trio - two guitars + fiddle, vocals from all three - and set up ~5' back, XY, ~4' up.  Played around a little bit with distance and height to get it reasonably right.  Too close and you won't have blending / balance from the instruments and vocals and you'll hear the players moving back and forth, forward and back as they sway with the music.  Too far and you'll pick up too much room and lose some punch.  Somewhere in between and you'll have nice blending of the instruments and vocals with minimal room chatter.  FWIW.

[mmmatt]

A few years back I recorded an unplugged folk trio - two guitars + fiddle, vocals from all three - and set up ~5' back, XY, ~4' up.  Played around a little bit with distance and height to get it reasonably right.  Too close and you won't have blending / balance from the instruments and vocals and you'll hear the players moving back and forth, forward and back as they sway with the music.  Too far and you'll pick up too much room and lose some punch.  Somewhere in between and you'll have nice blending of the instruments and vocals with minimal room chatter.  FWIW.

good point Brian.  +T

Matt

[mmmatt]

OK... I did a little critical listening to the 2 acoustic guitar recording I did Wed. night.  I hadn't had a chance to do that yet with this tape... just a "background music" type of listen.  This was Fareed Hague and Goran Ivanovic. 
     I was listening to the soundstage  I have to admit, it isn't ballanced very well.  I was mic'ing up close right between the two guitarists as they sat immeadiately next to each other, and the center part of the image is filled mostly with the sound from the guitar player on the left.  This I assume is because the sound from a guitar comes both off the neck and out of the sound hole.  So the sound coming from the center WAS primarily from the guitar player on the left because that is where the neck of his guitar was located in the physical image.  Standing back a few more feet would have solved this I think.  Good call Brian... live and learn! 
    My end result is the guitarist on the left (Goran) feels more upfront, and the right (Fareed) feels more in the background... Fidelity wise it sounds great but the image isn't quite right.

Matt

[pfife]

onstage, ORTF?

[mmmatt]

Well I was going to go ortf, but I decided to do the x/y... I was thinking about the "hole in the middle" if I spread too far, but that may have helped some?  In truth I didn't have much option for placement because of walkways... there wasn't really a stage so to speak, plus they were reading music off a stand that was in the way and you name it.  A different config is about the only thing I could have done differently.  The business ends of my mics were sort of threaded between the mic stands the sound guy was using.  I'm going to try remixing the left and right channels and see if I can recenter the image a bit... I think it is salvageable, but we'll see.

Matt

[mmmatt]

  I'm going to try remixing the left and right channels and see if I can recenter the image a bit... I think it is salvageable, but we'll see.

Matt

I think this fixed it... anybody want to loan me their ears to see if I'm nuts?

Matt

[Brian Skalinder]

I'm going to try remixing the left and right channels and see if I can recenter the image a bit... I think it is salvageable, but we'll see.

I was gonna suggest it earlier - good idea!

I think this fixed it... anybody want to loan me their ears to see if I'm nuts?

I'd love to hear it - wish I could've made it to the show!

[mmmatt]

I'm going to try remixing the left and right channels and see if I can recenter the image a bit... I think it is salvageable, but we'll see.

I was gonna suggest it earlier - good idea!

I think this fixed it... anybody want to loan me their ears to see if I'm nuts?

I'd love to hear it - wish I could've made it to the show!

OK... I officially hijacked this one I think!  Up until 5 minutes before I left, (I called the venue) I thought it was GIG opening for FHG... Quite the pleasant surprise though.  I made a couple of 4.5 mb mp3 samples of before and after the remix... can I e-mail them to you for an opinion before I finalize?
Matt