I'm trying to record a song I've written, which is just my vocals and guitar. I'm sort of going for the live-in-the-studio sound or what you might hear at a cafe gig where I'm only using one microphone (WA-47jr, about face level, directed at my mouth, about 8 inches away with a bit of gain). The way I play the guitar is kind of fast. The sound of the guitar is good, but I find that the loudness of the strumming often overpowers my voice. I've tried playing more softly but to play significantly softer would mean changing the whole guitar arrangement. Does anyone have any tips for recording this properly and getting the volume right?
Put the mic closer to your mouth?
I've been trying that, I'm using a pop filter so my mouth can get maybe 1-2 inches from the mic. It's closer to what I want but still not quite there.
How are you angling the mic?
Edit: I will say that two mics will still give you that singer at a cafe effect with more flexibility. And in my experience, they usually mic their guitar or use a guitar with pickups nowadays anyways
The butt of the mic is about eye level and it's tilted down so the front is at mouth level
The tilt down is likely your problem. Try having it lower and tilting up towards your mouth. Also no offense intended, but are you sure you’re singing into the actual front of the mic? I’ve seen people sing into the ‘top’ of the mic instead of the front (side). This would certainly explain your problem if you are actually facing the front of the mic towards your guitar.
Yeah just so you know, the side of the mic is the front. Not the top of it.
If you're getting too much guitar, move the mic. Just try lots of different positions. When you're tying to get a recording of something like that (whether it's 1 mic or 2 or 20), try things until you get what you want by moving both it and the sound sources around.
In this case, you could try lowering the mic but tilting up towards your face. You should still get guitar but less of it. If you're a loud singer, you could even move the mic away and try to get a better balance that way but bear in mind you're likely to get more of the room sound if you do (could be better or worse) and your voice might sound like its from further away a bit (again, could be better or worse).
You can find videos on Youtube of people demonstrating different setups and the differences if you want some inspiration. I do think you're likely to be able to get the sound you're going for with more control/ease/quality with 2 mics* but I get if that's not what you want to do.
*I say this because there's lots of different stereo/2 mic recording techniques you could try and there's something to be said about the wider stereo field being more accurate to what you as a human hear in a room with a performer (eg. cafe) with two ears and so on versus just one mic.
Do it the other way.
The mic is pointed down, guess what else it’s pointing at and making sure it gets amplified?
Pointing up, the mic is pointed away from the guitar, and when a mic is pointed away from something, it’s less loud.
Even perfectly horizontal is an improvement over pointing down.
Oh, I didn't realize you were tilting it down. Might be a way easier fix than I assumed lol
You can fiddle around with cardioid patterns and such, but I think the most efficient fix here really might just be playing more quietly. Even when strumming very hard and fast, controllable volume levels should be achievable through precise pick control - just brushing the strings with the pick as lightly as possible. This shouldn't reduce your attack too much, but should cut out a lot of the overpowering boomy guitar sound.
The hole in the body produces the most acoustic energy so something I do a lot is have the mic stand behind my guitar neck and turn my head to the side to sing. You could also try using a felt pick or your thumb to strum
Try using two mics and I think you’ll be happy. The live sound comes from singing and playing at the same time.
Won't the guitar still be overpowering on the vocal track though?
Not if you have your microphone properly placed
One at your mouth and one at your guitar
Can’t you record the guitar first, then the vocal? In terms of monitoring, what unusually do is pan hard left and right in that situation. Vocals to one side and guitar to the other. You can blend in the mix later on if you want to.
Tilt the mic up away from the guitar and close to your mouth.
Sing louder.
If already recorded,use a stem splitter and mix tracks separately.
Put mic higher and angle it 45 degrees down towards your mouth and project up at it while singing
I found my problem and it was something stupid: I had the microphone upside-down so I had been recording the vocals into the back and guitar into the front. I've fixed the orientation and now it sounds decent.
Use a thinner pick.
You could move the mic closer to compensate, but if your voice is being overpowered with the current setup you're probably just not singing loud enough.
Instead of changing the guitar performance, maybe try some tricks on the vocals to beef them up against the guitar. Some things to try: layering vocal takes or use a doubler (stack takes will thicken the vocals), delay/reverb for space.
You could also experiment with compression to tame the guitar performance against the vocals.
try the mic in fig 8 and angle the mic so that the null is pointing at the guitar. You'll probably need to play around with the angle a bit to find a balance you like
First thing I would try is angling away from the guitar for better rejection. You could also try an over-shoulder placement (looks weird but might fix your problem).
Is there a reason you only want to use one mic, or is that just all you have to work with?
I only have the one. Would a second mic make a difference? It feels like a second wouldn't change the fact that the vocal track is picking up too much guitar
With 2 mics, you can get a more isolated and focused sound for the vocals and guitar, then balance them in the mix. There are tons of ways to do it, for starters try googling "blumlein configuration for acoustic guitar and vocals"
You’ll have to experiment with mic placement and/or learn to self mix better. If your vocals are too quiet the sing louder or play guitar quieter.
The accompaniment always has to sit UNDER the vocal. Watch videos of pros playing live and you'll see how quietly they often play, while they're actually singing. If you can't adjust your guitar volume, then you'll need to record the guitar and vocal separately.
Hey, I love your approach, I also am trying to record that way. There are very good resources on you tube. I even had that same mic (WA 47jr).
The Neumann videos on you tube may help you or give you resources.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSBuP-uTwQg
In my experience, I would try the following:
#1 turn the mic upside down and face it diagonally to your mouth, leaving the guitar "behind" (its what they do at 5:34 of the video I shared). Sometimes putting the guitar off axis is more important than putting it far away.
#2 The mic you have has multiple polar patterns, use that. Sometimes the off-axis noise rejection of the figure 8 pattern is stronger than the one in the cardioid pattern, try that. And also, with the omnidirectional you have no proximity effect, so maybe you could try putting the mic REALLY close to your mouth with that pattern.
Without hearing it, I'm 100% certain that the guitar isn't too loud, the vocals are too quiet. You can sing louder than an acoustic guitar.
Try placing the mic horizontally rather than vertically. Angle it so the guitar is pointing more at the side/back of the mic and that will help reduce the bleed from the guitar. The more you point the guitar towards the back of the mic (since it’s q cardioid pattern mic) the more drastic the effect will be.
In fact, you could put the mic in a figure 8 pattern and then if you point the guitar at the sides of the mic, you’ll get even more separation
Use two microphones or record separately
You should be able to fix this by getting the mic position fixed.
But if you really can't, I'd have a mic low down close to the guitar (all guitar no vocals) -- subtract this in the mix to reduce the guitar volume.
You could use a stem splitter, then mix them how you like.
I use the Stem Splitter in Logic to do this all the time, and it works great! I put a mic on my guitar and one on my voice, split both tracks and keep only the two elements I want from the four tracks created. Note: stem cells are a medical thing, Stem Splitter is all you need.
I also use Logic. I'll take overhead drums and remove band bleedthrough. It's great. Not sure OP has Logic.
I do have Logic. I'm hoping to get the recording to sound right though before I move on to production.