Multi-Mic Techniques with Acoustic Guitar

In this video, Sonic Scoop’s Justin Colletti takes to Braund studios to show you how to mic an acoustic guitar with two microphones. Watch as he tests out spaced pair, X/Y, vertical X/Y, ORTF, and mid/side configurations; more importantly, hear the difference from example to example. You’ll not only learn how to mic an acoustic in a stereo fashion—you’ll learn when to do so, and when to go mono instead.

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Part 1 - Mono Mic Techniques with Acoustic Guitar

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[robburgess]

I love how bored Sulene looks during the explanations :-)

[ScottPenick]

Great video, really appreciate the direct, one-after-the-other comparison that so many other videos demonstrating different mic techniques don't do.

To my ears and in my studio, the spaced pair sounds the most pleasant here. But I'm wondering if it's just because it's slightly louder than the others. Have these been level-matched? I guess I could rip the audio track for this video and shove it into my DAW to check, but I'm wondering if anybody else has already done that leg work...

[edit: with with honorable mention to vertical XY for how neat the strum at the end sounds, moving across the stereo field before balancing out as it sustains. very nice!]

[MFsyrup]

Justin! My man! Always love the videos you host. Maybe sometime in the future you can do videos about mic and multi-mic placement techniques for vocals.

[MurdaMetz]

I love the xy and mid side the best . Thanks for the video :)

[lalainaichane]

Very clear, directly to the point, and very good sounds!

[jasonshrestha]

YOU videos cut to the chase and has so much value for beginners ! Thank you Justin!

[shashankarunkumar]

3:35 (Vertical XY)
3:49 (Blumlein)
4:02 (Mid Side)
4:16 ( spaced)

[nathanrodriguez]

Very solid commentary and explanation. Great vid

[bjlbernal]

Spaced pair may sound good on quality headphones, but on cheap ear buds, it sounds like two guitars playing at opposite ends of the room. I prefer the mid-side because it sounds like an authentic representation of the actual performance.

[carmushroom]

Cool video! I imagine the ones where one mic is louder than the other could be a nice alternative to recording mono and panning left or right.

[vesselint]

how about putting them at the distance your ears are with your ear angles

[TunesFromKeys]

Thank for this material. You are really good coach. I can't sleep watching Your video :)

[atroeds]

Never seen this vertical X/Y approach before but it sounded really nice! Kept it in the middle but still added some room sound. Not a big fan of a super wide acoustic guitars.

[verdarluzmagi]

very well spoken - I play Classical Guitar and also a Turkish Baglama - do you have any particular mic techniques from above you would recommend?

[Terminalbeats]

Wow, surprising - I thought I loved spaced pairs but that one sounded the worst! Thanks

[matthewjames]

The MS sounds a bit off, as in maybe it wasn't decoded properly. My favorites were vertical xy and horizontal xy.

[CarterStraub-rkpo]

where do mics plug into and then how does that plug into a computer

[JulianFernandez]

Is Spaced pair supposed to be panned like that? Sounds way to wide to the point of being unrealistic... Great vid!

[danielraska]

Question - maybe stupid one, just for a case - the pans on the channels are hard right and hard left in all configurations, right?,

[PeterBatah]

I would have definitely preferred seeing microphones used that most of us could afford. More real-world so-to-speak.