Vocal – Guitar Separation with Figure 8 Mics
I record solo acoustic guitar almost exclusively, but a couple of months ago one of my buddies wanted to lay down a few tracks with vocal and `ukulele. And he wanted to sing and play at the same time. I remembered reading about an arrangement of figure 8 or bidirectional mics that gave maximum separation in a situation like this, so I pulled out the Rode NT2a and NT2000 and set them up. We were amazed by the separation between vocal and uke, even though the mics were only a foot apart.
Figure 8 mics have a pickup pattern that looks like this:
but it’s important to remember that this diagram is a 2D representation of the 3D pattern in space. Basically the pattern looks like two balloons on the front and back grills of the mic, with a null, or area of minimum sensitivity in between.
So for the vocal mic we aim the “balloon” of sensitivity at the singer’s mouth and the plane of minimum sensitivity at the singer’s guitar or uke or mandolin. And we arrange the instrument mic with its diaphragm pointed at the instrument but the plane of the null at the singer’s mouth. It’s more complicated to describe than it is to do.
Here’s a video that demonstrates this technique:
Certainly other mic patterns could be used, but no other pattern has a deep a null, and no other is as easy to aim. If you need to record a self-accompanied vocalist, a pair of figure 8 mics, either large diaphragm switchable condensers, or bidirectional ribbons, would be a good investment.
This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Audio, Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Andy Rogers Song said in post # 1,
on April 12th, 2009 at 12:45 am
Thank you so much for sharing this topic/post to us! God Bless!
jason brian merrill said in post # 2,
on April 15th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
thanks for explaining this!!!
Fran Guidry said in post # 3,
on April 15th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Hey, glad to help if I can. Jason, this is a great way to take advantage of those ribbon mics.
Fran
Victor Tsaran said in post # 4,
on May 16th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Wow, totally awesome. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Off to get a pair of 8-figure mics. 🙂
Fran Guidry said in post # 5,
on May 19th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Hey, Victor,
I’ve really gotten a lot of use out of my medium priced LD switchable mics, and the figure 8 pattern probably gets the most time.
Fran
Jeff Young said in post # 6,
on March 11th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Fran:
I really appreciate the time and effort you put into demonstrating and explaining various concepts. Also I appreciate your level of objectivity. I have been recording for about 10 years (at home for a hobby) and have come to many of the same conclusions you have. I’ve spent all kinds of money early on chasing the best mic’s (LD’s SD’s )/preamp/compression etc and in the end it really comes down to the guitar player, the guitar and the room. (In my opionion , in that order). After 100’s of different configurations of mic experiments I’ve concluded that its all personal preference where you place the mic. If it sounds good then thats where you should put the mic. For me I like to record and sing at the same time and by trial and error I came to almost the same set up you recommend with the two figure 8’s . I adjust off that configuration for taste.
By the way I use the rode’s most of the time now – both LD’s . I borrowed a couple of high end mics a last year from a studio guru I befriended and concluded they were really exceptional at picking up all the “bad stuff” in my room ,better than my cheaper mics. However apparently they are great in a well designed studio.
Thanks Fran
Jeff from mississippi
Fran Guidry said in post # 7,
on March 11th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
Jeff, thanks a bunch for stopping by and commenting, especially when your comments all say I’m right (grin).
Fran