Recently when doing some recording I decided to shoot some video and talk about the microphones we were using. As the camera rolled and I realized the room was too damned small to shoot in I also realized something else; I had nothing to say about the microphones. Sure I could have looked up manufacturers specifications and parroted them into the camera. But lets face it, half of those I do not even know what they mean. And what use would that be to anyone? But I do have something to say about using the microphones (in this case a Blue C-2000 and an AKG P200).

When recording I do something many in the brave new world of home recording technology find heretical--I do not usually record to a click track. Click tracks are fine. I do not hate click tracks but I find that when recording music that is based around the acoustic guitar and vocals I feel that playing to a click sucks some of the life out of the recording. I am paying more attention to the click and less to the feeling of the song. It winds up sounding like the guitar was played by a malfunctioning robot. No one is going to make a remix of an acoustic track so do not worry about the click. Just use common sense. When I do a track based on a bass line or a loop it is another story. Whatever is right for the specific song and not the prevailing wisdom or the software instructions booklet (which are usually incomprehensible to most people anyway).

When recording an acoustic and vocal track I usually record the guitar part first and then lay the vocals in on the second take. I have done it with two live mics in the room--one for vocals and the other for the guitar. The latter sometimes gives a more natural, sitting-on-the-back-porch feel; but there are some problems that can develop. Since both mics are picking up a little vocal and a little guitar, if you screw up a little on vocals or on guitar you have to throw the whole thing out. The problem I had was that with some good vocal performances came some guitar flubs. You can try to cover them up but that is tricky and often sounds like what it is--half-assedness.

When recording we (myself and Tim Larson in this case) have used the AKG P200 for vocals and the Blue C-2000 for the guitars most of the time. But there is no reason not to switch the around as both sound pretty darned good recording either. Sometimes we have also used a Shure 58 in the room for vocals as well. In the past I have used old tape recorder microphones (generally with unusable results).

Another problem with recording acoustic guitar and vocals with two live mics--and this does not happen every time--is there can be a strange delay between the two mics. It sounds as if the vocals and/or guitar parts were recorded at slightly different times. Sometimes this sounds neat! Sometimes it sounds like hell, and there really is no good way to get rid of it. It can sound almost like a phase effect is on the vocals. Sometimes you might want to place different mics around the room or booth to get a variety of different versions of a take but it doesn't always sound particularly good.

What I would do is record the acoustic guitar with no live mic in the room and sing along. Then I would lay down one vocal track. Next I would do the multi-mic placement thing and record a vocal mult.

Another thing I would note is that even if there is no click you can add things later by having actual musicians play along with the recording. I know, to some, this is a shocking idea; but it can still be done even in the age where an orchestra is just the push of a button away.