how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

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how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Mon Feb 04, 2019 10:52 am

I have a lot of ideas and testing done but I'll refrain from tainting the replies by going into them

Six singers - two of them play guitars - acoustic six string and an electric bass

Ideas on keeping the handling noise/fretboard transients/etc. from the two guitars out of the vocal mic(s) appreciated as that's something I'm worried about

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by Studiodawg » Mon Feb 04, 2019 11:20 am

Maybe 2 figure-8 mics at 90 degrees, you know like this + and have 2 vocalists facing 2 vocalists and have the acoustic guitar and bass face each other...this is contingent on recording live, of course. DI the bass (or amp with low volume) and mic the acoustic (or DI if ya want).

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by emrr » Mon Feb 04, 2019 1:06 pm

You might have success getting some separation with a horizontal foam baffle between voice and guitar positions, at least to address the issues you mention.

I'd definitely want to try it all live. If they're crack ace users of metronomes and familiar with performing parts in iso, I might next consider tracking the instrument beds and then putting live vocals over that. If they're not, it may cause more problems than solve.

I did track an acoustic group live with two singers who each played guitar, and got reasonable separation using the dual figure 8 method on each of them, so a pair for each person at 90º to get decent balance of vocal and instrument. Used ribbons for this, SDC single capsule figure 8 would be next best pattern control, dual diaphragm LDC the worst.

Vocal approach, all depends on their ability to blend, and how picky you/they need to get about nuancing the balance later. What sort of stereo spread the vocals need to have. Etc.
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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by drumsound » Mon Feb 04, 2019 3:04 pm

Figure 8s for the guitars and the player's vocals for sure. Might work for the other singers, too, or maybe cardioid with the singers not playing guitars facing the ones playing guitars so the back of the mic is facing the guitars. Hopefully the bass amp can be low enough to not be all over every mic in the room. Speaking of room, I'd mic it for sure.

I'm thinking the 2 guitar guys in the middles with 2 singers on each "outside." Put the bass player furthest out, to give him or her room to play. Amp position might be tricks, but part of me things centered behind the room mics. I'm willing to admit that could also be a terrible idea.

s-s-s/gtr-s/gtr-s-s/bs seems like a layout that would work.

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Tue Feb 05, 2019 10:42 am

the baffling of the guitars is the thing I was thinking to mitigate the handling noise, etc.

I'm definitely doing this live

they can fill a room up naturally and balanced from what I saw at their performance

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by Studiodawg » Tue Feb 05, 2019 1:36 pm

Another approach, if you have say 16-32 tracks available to record, would be to over mic everything utilizing 2-4 scenarios for miking at the same time and then listen back to what you recorded and figure it out from there. Since they "fill the room naturally and balanced", I would set them up the way they are most comfortable and have a stereo pair as one of the scenarios. They'll take care of the aesthetics if they are comfortable and can hear each other well.

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:11 pm

omg !

great Idea to create options time permitting - just not gonna happen

I have 8 tracks in ye olde home studio to utilize - prolly should have mentioned

surprised I'm gettin' more "use a lotta mics" and less "do it around one like the old days"

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:22 pm

With 8 tracks I’d do a stereo pair for the whole group and then some spot mics for whatever needs some extra juice.

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by vvv » Tue Feb 05, 2019 6:58 pm

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:22 pm
With 8 tracks I’d do a stereo pair for the whole group and then some spot mics for whatever needs some extra juice.
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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by CraigS63 » Tue Feb 05, 2019 7:16 pm

In the still of the night.

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by drumsound » Tue Feb 05, 2019 11:25 pm

I'm Painting Again wrote:
Tue Feb 05, 2019 3:11 pm
omg !

great Idea to create options time permitting - just not gonna happen

I have 8 tracks in ye olde home studio to utilize - prolly should have mentioned

surprised I'm gettin' more "use a lotta mics" and less "do it around one like the old days"
Do you mean 8 inputs, or an 8-rack recorder? If you're using an 8-track, but have a mixer with more inputs, you can use more mics, but you need to be judicious with how you mix things to tape.

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Wed Feb 06, 2019 1:27 pm

CraigS63 wrote:
Tue Feb 05, 2019 7:16 pm
In the still of the night.
yass !!

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by I'm Painting Again » Wed Feb 06, 2019 2:10 pm

8 recording tracks - there is a mixer but I don't like it's sound quality for this type of thing

I wanna go for that 50's sound

for tone - what sounds most like it here to my ear is a c12 in omni into an API 512 padded down and then gained up again through a 50's Altec tube pre and paralleled with that signal going through a tube spring reverb with the mids cut upon return - hitting an Ampex at 15ips

I can have them all around this omni and set up a stereo pair at a distance for depth and or automate between these two points if the BG's are too upfront during the Lead parts

baffle off the guitar players bodies / instruments to the omni and mic the bass amp and guitar to boost if needed

there's also a harmonica and I'm not sure - probably have them step or turn away from the mics ?

most of the recordings I've been studying sound like there is some distance between singers and the mics

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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by joninc » Thu Feb 07, 2019 11:50 am

Sounds like a really fun project -

but I'm not sure a 512 is really from that era you are describing and might be a little too aggressive/hard souding for the smoother vintage vocal tones.

I'd go with a UA 610 or something a little "softer" that will not push the upper mids as much - especially with a bright mic like a C12.

My 2 cents - YMMV.
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Re: how would you record a six piece doo wop group?

Post by drumsound » Thu Feb 07, 2019 2:48 pm

I'm Painting Again wrote:
Wed Feb 06, 2019 2:10 pm
8 recording tracks - there is a mixer but I don't like it's sound quality for this type of thing

I wanna go for that 50's sound
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