Recording problems

[scottish]

So i have a mini recording set up in my basement, nothing fancy. Interface for my computer, and some mikes. I have my amp miked and vocal mikes. Here is the problem. I sing better when i am playing, just feel more comfortable. But my vocal mike is actually picking up the strumming of the electric guitar. Ive tried recording the guitar track seperately, then the vocal track, but when i do it this way you can here the unamplified electric guitar in the vocals. When i record both simultaneously you can still here the unamplified guitar, not as clearly, but its still there.

Any ideas for a sloution?

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Recording problems

Use a baffle between the mic and the guitar to try to isolate the vocal mic and use a different vocal mic with a tighter pickup pattern (like a hypercardioid). That should solve your problems . . .

 

[MojoMonster]

Re: Recording problems

So i have a mini recording set up in my basement, nothing fancy. Interface for my computer, and some mikes. I have my amp miked and vocal mikes. Here is the problem. I sing better when i am playing, just feel more comfortable. But my vocal mike is actually picking up the strumming of the electric guitar. Ive tried recording the guitar track seperately, then the vocal track, but when i do it this way you can here the unamplified electric guitar in the vocals. When i record both simultaneously you can still here the unamplified guitar, not as clearly, but its still there.

Any ideas for a sloution?

First, try recording with your trim pot set between 6 and 9 o'clock.
IOW, set the sensitivity of the mic lower(also, check for a switch on your mic, set it to -10db).

You could try positioning the mic so that it doesn't pick so much of the guitar when you strum... unless the mic is omni directional.
You could try hanging a shield of some kind beneath the mic to block the sound of the guitar.
You could try to EQ out the guitar in your vocal track.
You could get a true cardioid mic.

But really, you should take this as a reason to practice singing without playing along.

Good luck.
MM

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Recording problems

Tighter mike pattern is a good idea. Also, deadening the room to prevent reflections of the guitar off the walls, floor, and ceiling into the vocal mike might help, BUT deadening a room is not as easy as just hanging blankets or gluing up egg cartons. (There are lots of threads on SD about that aspect.)

Also, is the unamplified guitar a problem while you're singing, or just in between words or lines? If you can only hear it when you're NOT singing, a gate might help clean it up.

Finally, if you record guitar and vocals at the same time (so the amplified guitar track and the unamplified bleed are exactly the same) can you really hear the bleed, or is it drowned out when the tracks are mixed together?

If you can't get rid of it, make it a "feature" instead of a "bug". I read not too long ago that the echo-before-the-vocal part in the middle of Whole Lotta Love was an equipement problem (tape print-through, bad console channel, etc) that Jimmy Page and Eddie Kramer could not track down. In the end, they just left it in, and the rest is history.

 

[scottish]

Re: Recording problems

i have what i think is a really solid vocal mike sennheuser e835....but i just realized it has a uniform cardioid pattern for pickup when moving on and off axis because its designed for lead vocal...this is probably the problem.