Microphone for recording...

[soundian]

I've just had a listen to Sirens. The picking does sound over-compressed, unlike the vocals where certain words leap out of the mix.

There seems to be a slow modulation thing happening with the vocals too, which is a bit odd imo.

[ghost]

thanks - so guitar overcompressed, vox undercompressed? the vocal track is actually doubled with a touch of reverb on one channel. that might be what's causing the modulation.

[soundian]

Originally posted by ghost:

thanks - so guitar overcompressed, vox undercompressed? the vocal track is actually doubled with a touch of reverb on one channel. that might be what's causing the modulation.

That sounds right. I couldn't figure it out because although it sounded flangey, it wasn't following any set pattern. There's also a little 'double delay' apparent on the vocals. Two quick slapbacks. I don't know if that's intentional?

[imprinted]

for tav - to hijack the thread back to it's original point!

http://www.imuso.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?StockCode=DEAL0001

[ghost]

Originally posted by soundian:

That sounds right. I couldn't figure it out because although it sounded flangey, it wasn't following any set pattern. There's also a little 'double delay' apparent on the vocals. Two quick slapbacks. I don't know if that's intentional?

It is.

And for Tav:

http://www.turnkey.co.uk/tkweb/stockdetail.jsp?sku=AKG-C1000S&context=WEB

109 - you won't beat it.

[Tav]

Cheers for all the input guys!

[Guest Ibid]

Ghost, try using two dynamic mikes to capture pick guitar. One pointing at the join of neck and body and the other on a boom stand, coming over your shoulder. On the neck mike, roll off a bit at around 100Hz and on the boom roll off a bit at around 1.5KHz. Play your piece while wearing headphones and get an assistant to move the mikes around until you find the sweet spot-you'll know it when you hear it! Then try not to move too much when recording. No compression. When mixing, if you want reverb on the guitar tracks, have the original track dry and put the reverbs on a different track or tracks with all the bass and mid scooped out so that all you are left with is a shimmer, then adjust until it fits in with the rest of the recording. On mixdown, try and keep the guitar tracks out of the way of the vocal. You don't need to wank it hard left or right, just enough to let the vocal breathe.

[ghost]

Thanks Ibid - I'll borrow another mic and try it out. In the past I've been recording two tracks separately with the AKG pointing between neck and body for one take and then at base of guitar. Combining them sounds pretty good for strumming tracks, but definitely need to try another mic position for fingerpicking.

[funky]

i have been using a shure beta 57 i think are slightly more expensive than the sm57 but i found that i gave a warmer and brighter sound when recording guitar amps and vocals, might be worth the extra cash. Also used a rhodes can't remember the model, it was around 120-140, which worked quite well on most things, and it gave a clean crisp sound. Sm58 have more presence than a sm57 or try a Sennheiser MD421 these are older but are very like the sm57 and 58, shop around not sure about prives on these mic's.

[Guest pop-notmyface]

if youre really short on cash you can get a cheap sony mic for 10 at hmv. it works okay with computers too.

[MTA]

Have a look at http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/thoiw2_index.html the look at the Octava mics. I have used these a few times and had good results, for the money there is not much that will better them..