Best Mic Techniques for Recording Acoustic Guitar (Stereo and Mono) 

Sweet, exactly what I’m going for Gem! Consider this a starting point. You’re right - ultimately the best experiments you can do are in your own studio. Let us know how it goes! Very best, Justin

Thanks! For this video it was the BH2. -Justin

Kinda sorta gotcha covered already, try this playlist here! :-) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VSq1onnGzhs.html

@@SonicScoop Excellent, thank you!

Ha! Fair enough. So “Blumlean” is the proper British mispronunciation of the original German name then 🤣 Thanks! Hopefully this minor error will get enough comments that it will pump is up in the YT algorithm 😅 -Justin - Justin

That video should be out in a couple days! Will link to it when it's out. Until then, like and subscribe and you'll probably see it :-) If you want to make sure you don't miss it, hit the notifications bell. Hope that helps! -Jusyom

PS: here's that video now! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-449mDvB_tzc.html

@@SonicScoop Cool, thanks Justin

Hard panned for all examples! -Justin

If you want the two sides to sound even more different, and therefore, potentially even wider in stereo, sure. Daniel Lanois was a big fan of mismatched stereo pairs I believe, for that reason. Hope that helps, Justin

Great observation Chris. It can be helpful to play with the positioning of the ORTF pair to better center the image. To a degree it's about the picking hand, but just as much so about the body itself which amplifies the sound of the strings much more so than the neck can! Moving the pair further up the body and away from the neck could have centered the image further still if that's the goal. Increasing the distance from the guitar can do the same. Hope that helps! -Justin

Fair enough! For classical performers like David, the guitar can be held at quite an angle, so rotating the setup slightly could separate the bass and treble strings even more on the left/right axis for that technique. A good observation, thanks. -Justin

Ah thanks! So to clarify, how would you spell out the proper German pronunciation in English? Is it more like “line”, “lean” or “lin”? -Justin

@@SonicScoopBlumlein would be pronounced Blumline

That would be a fairly unusual thing to do I think. But feel free to try it! If it works, do it!! :-) I like the way you are thinking though. This general kind of thinking often makes a lot of sense in production and mixing, especially when it comes to very dynamic and occasionally dense mixes. What might make a little more sense is using a stereo mic configuration in a sparser section (maybe an early verse_ and then when a significantly more dense chorus hits, switching to a single mic approach in mono, where the acoustic guitar changes from being featured, to just fitting in with a variety of other elements. That way you can have very wide, lush guitar where it's featured, and very tight, precisely located guitar where it's not. Switching from ORTF or spaced pair to XY could do a similar thing to a less significant degree. But if you were going to do this approach, i'd be inclined to recommend a stereo pair and a single mic, because: 1. you'd have great contrast, and an easier time fitting the guitar into a very dense section, and 2. its more feasible to use this approach and record all three channels at once than to cram together two stereo arrays with four mics at once. (In fact, if you were to do a mid side approach, you could just use the same 2 mic setup for both verse and chorus.) Hope that helps! -Justin

@@SonicScoop thank you for the reply :) , what you are telling me makes a lot of sense , I’ve been experimenting with mic configurations and came across this video and it has helped me immensely ! I am really loving how otrf is giving me space in the middle for lead elements , but I do like the idea of having a wide lead in stereo and doing as you suggest by using a single mono mic to create space for the lead to be stereo . Thanks again for your thoughts , you are the man !

Use your ears