Recording Acoustic Guitar And Vocals At The Same Time 

What are some of your favourite microphones for vocals and guitar? Share below

You know the best live, singer playing and singing acoustic recording I ever got was when I had no clue what I was doing and I think I got lucky with the mic placement because it sounded super clean like this. I always thought it was the room, but after hearing these results I think I had the mics perfectly in phase. What a happy accident. It only took me 10 years to stumble across the answer. Awesome stuff as always! Thanks!

I've done this with two mics on guitar cab to get the capsules aligned. Flip one out of phase and position them to cancel the sound. I didn't use a tone though, I ran a guitar loop through the amp, listened with headphones, moved mics to cancel out, then flip the phase back.

Fanfuckingtastic, thanks been struggling with recording acoustic sessions. This works and the physics adds up great

Manny is amazing !! I'm hooked on Manny's authenticity and Warren doing such a good job with PLAP! Cheers!✌🔥❤

Thanks - this trick however would just work for a fixed frequency? Phase can be flipped at the preamp, but what actually requires compensation is the difference in travel path = delay between the two mic signals, which is independent from frequency? Of course you can use the trick to make the two mic's sound waves travel paths equal, but this can only be done for one sound source at a time, either guitar or vocals...

Manny's tutorials always rules and are so helpful in daily Recording situations - Small tricks with big effect, thx for sharing man!

I’ve always wondered how to get the best sounds from sessions like these. Im learning a lot from this channel!

I really appreciate videos like this. I would love to learn more recording engineering tips like this

This is just the best! Thanks so much

Science + Application of Science always wins - this will be my new jam - thank you!!

This is a great trick. Often singers feel comfortable singing and strumming, so give their best performance that way, but it's always a nightmare to record and mix. There's still a lot of bleed, but at least the acoustic and vocal tracks aren't fighting each other. Oh, and looking forward to the release of your new single "It's Time to go back to school" :-). Thanks!

Fan-fooking-tastic. Thanks again and as always -- Manny is da man!

Really nice! Also great the faced pair with 2 figure 8 for acoustic and voice!

Manny is the KING of secrets. We are not worthy.

You’re a great teacher Manny,You explain things clearly which is easy to understand.Thanks for taking the time to share your expertise. Great tips ! Thanks x

Brilliant trick Mani. Thanks very much for the video and thanks to the PLAP team

Dang, that sounded awesome at the end. I'll have to try this. Thanks for the knowledge!

Next level stuff... great video!

Perfect timing for this video! I'm planning on doing some recordings this weekend using methods I haven't tried before 🙂

What a great tip! Thank you

Root cause for potential problems are not phase but transit time differences, causing frequency dependent phase issues as a result. The dilemma is: one can compensate transit time differences (in a DAW: aligning the waveforms of the two signals till they match) only for one source at once, but there are two sources, plus these sources are slightly moving, and even small movements can create ugly phasing effects in the high frequency domain. Actually the safest method to record such a setting would be to have the two mics at the same physical location, with just different orientation: one oriented at vocals, the other at guitar - sort of xy stereo.

Manny, thanks for sharing, I will give it a try for sure !

Simple and perfect

Impressive…Thank you Manny! cool cool

Manny is amazing, and really knows what he is talking about. He is also very passionate about music. Keep it up!

Song Lyrics: "Check! Is this mike on? Hey! Is this mike on? Are you playing? Yes, I am. Hey! It's time to go back to school. Hey! It's time to get a coffee. It's time to return that call. And get back... home." This is my first song for every gig soundcheck from now on.

If I'm checking multiple mics is it ok to make sure that all the mics are in phase with one mic or should I check all possible pairs?

Great technique! I love Manny.

Thank you for this amazing trick! 🖤

I think this just results in better phase at your test-tone frequency, but not across the spectrum. Is that correct? And if so, how is that helpful?

This is amazing thanks for sharing. Few questions pls 1) would you get a similar result from close mic-ing the guitar with a hypercardioid mic? 2) is this technique specifically to pick up room tones as well?

Great technique. Was thinking about buying one of those Radial Phazer boxes to do this electronically but since I’m not messing with anyone else’s time and can do this for no monies, than this technique sounds like a winner to me!

For me, I prefer to record the vocals and guitar separately. But I respect those who not.

Wouldn't this only solve the problem for one source (the guitar) at one frequency (the sine wave frequency )? I thought phase is frequency dependent. Don't you also have the problem that the vocal wouldn't necessarily be picked up in phase because it's emanating from a different location?

i like it like it

Hiya...always appreciative of efforts and the willingness to share and help others (Thanks Manny and Warren). I do have a couple of things though...just on pure maths 1. You are using a pure tone and the phase is only relative to that wavelength and the the multiples thereof. 2. Most voice fundamentals are generally 80-200hz )bass/baritone/tenor etc) so the 1k might give an idea of harmonics but I dont see how this can really do much at all (except for the 1k) 3. Its going to be tough with any non coincident point of mic placement and will always be a compromise EXCEPT 4. Using 2 figure 8 mics on their side and using the null sides to create rejection eg Imagine an r88 on its side, the on axis of mic 1 points to the guitar and the on axis of mic 2 (which is at 90 degrees to mic 1) pics up the voice This produces an almost perfect take, NO cancellation and just need to move the mic to the sweet spot, rough balance of vox and guitar (Can be LDC as well) Time IS Freq/phase distortion when adding waves regardless of if its in the DAW/Pre/whatever I really respect Manny and see he is a really genuine guy...but it just doesnt make sense in terms of wideband audio recording ie not pure tones/no harmonics as it will always be a compromise and some freq will cancel and some will null depending on distance etc. (imvho)...please explain? Thats not to say...sometimes accidents do happen and they sound ok...but knowing why is important :-)

Thanks Manny! 😊

I've been messing around with a C12 clone for vocals and an 87 clone on guitar after I saw the Tom Petty "somewhere you feel free" documentary. This will be a great trick to add in to get it sounding really good. Any added advice if doing this technique live tracking with a band in the room?

now that's some good info!!

This is a really excellent tip.

Great trick!

Un vídeo estupendo

Fab - I just could not help wanting to normalise the Guitar track! Difference in gain is surprising.

Question: when you try to mix a session like this and you want to tune the vocals and give it a modern pop mix, what are the steps you would typically do? Do you gate the vocals?

thank you ! what a great technique. but now i have a B in my ears :) the best results for me to record guitar vocals. small diaphragm microphone on the guitar and figure en8 for the voice and especially no headphones. it kills the interpretation! my humble opinion

i use small amps i use a 57 on the front & a 58 in the back out of phase it rocks massive sound . 12w amps

Oh!! This trick is interesting and it needs a dynamic and a fig8.or can y do this.also with other mic capsulefigures?

Just saying, your voice is not annoying in my opinion.

Why does the guitar sound distorted?

I like the mic that lets me call outer space.

Fantastic idea, I do this when using multiple mics on a guitar cab as well. Watching this does remind me though of how absolutely insane it is that Pro Tools doesn't allow you to flip the polarity of a track without a plugin. . How dumb is that!?!?! haha.

Has anyone found a good phone app that can generate the test tone?!!!

He never actually discussed what out of phase means, he only discussed how to fix it and some of the symptoms.

Nice idea but i see a lot of wrong things in this video. 1. The amp and the acoustic guitar are not in the same place so why bother, 2. using a high pitch sound, a more frequent one ,gives you more probability to align in phase(in a next wavelength) while the low end might be out of phase, 3. you check the phase for the acoustic, but the vocals have more impact and you dont align the phase on those, 4. this way you check for a tone that you wont use and you may have a position of the mic that doesnt work the best for your actual source, etc... In my opinion it is better to check where you capture the best sound and you can move slightly the waveforms in your daw. It takes less time and gives better results while you keep your energy for the performance