this is more a philosophical (maybe also audio engineering) topic/question.
I am thinking about the pros and cons of recording my vocals with TWO microphones at the same time.
I am thinking about:
CONS: will be the same physical wave form which I produce with my voice, so non-sense to “double this”
PRO: what if I use different positions of the microphones because of their characteristics - might this enrich the experience?
PRO: what if I use different microphone types because of their different characteristics - might this enrich the experience?
PRO: what if I put the microphones further away to make it a vocals stereo recording? Would that be worth it? Would my mouth send out waves which can be considered some kind of stereo?
I emphasize, I am not talking about doing several takes after each other and then do OR do not audio alignment. This is common practice and could be done in addition, but that’s not the topic above
What are your experiences, thoughts, recommendations?
First you should just try it, play around & see what does or doesn’t work, what do you like.
In general I don’t think a recording using 2 different mics is going to be very useful and will mostly just introduce phase problems if/when you mix them together. However having recordings from multiple mics lets you choose the one recording that sounds best in the mix. But combining them is just asking for issues - make sure to triple check the mix in mono if you go there.
If you really wanted to to record your voice, a mono source, in stereo the best approach would be a matched set of mics setup the same left & right. This is useful for groups of singers but not so much for a single voice.
That said folks do use multiple mics to create effects. Bowie famously did this on the vocal for Heroes. One mic was setup normally for a vocal at one end of a long hallway. A second mic was at the other end of the hall and it had a noise gate on it that only opened when Bowie sang loudly. You can hear how this changes the ambience on the vocals as the song progresses & the vocals get more intense.
I would say to always “try it.” At a minimum, you’ll have a great test to identify “color” differences in different mics based on the same source, and the process itself could result in “happy accidents” you wouldn’t have otherwise considered. While you could certainly introduce phase issues as @raino mentioned depending on the distance and frequency response of the mics, you could also experience timbral changes that you love, and could lead you down a rabbit-hole of exploration and process that could change the way you choose to record audio.
I’d go for it, take notes, and explore. This is a journey after all, and not just a destination.
The sacred halls of Hansa Studios in Berlin. I love these background stories. Have you by any chance read about it in a book and can you recommend anything?
Same. I saw a BeeGee’s documentary showing how when the drummer was out for an extended period they spliced up the tape to loop the drums with a mic-stand to weigh down the tape, thus creating what they touted as the “first drum loop machine.”
That and Brian Eno putting multiple reel-to-reel tape machines at varying distances to create tape delays. Love that stuff
Did not know that, cool story!
Talking about the BeeGees. Funny how it took quite some convincing to use the head voice back then. What an impact this had on changing masculine vocal stereotypes in that specific genre and for generations to come.
I mean, using head voice was not a new invention by definition - it has been around in other genres centuries before that. Still, that was something new and exciting in that particular case.
Coming back to the original thread: Taking risks, experimenting - isn’t that the real fun stuff when it comes to music? What a delight it is when something happend by accident or by doing something the wrong way on purpose.
Since I have always used two mics for the recordings I produced (Direct-to-Tape Recordings label), my comments would be from a different viewpoint. Two mics at a distance from the performer(s) would be able to capture the acoustics of the performing location (which is what all my recordings have done, no electronic tricks). Of course, when you want to mix a number of tracks (which I never did because of using just two mics for the entire recording), that could cause some phase cancellation with other tracks. However, I have released many recordings, all made with two mics, and they ranged from solo piano or solo guitar to a 150 voice chorus with soloist (not miked) , pipe organ, and brass quintet for example.
Yes, I took a purist approach, but many of the resultting recordings were well received and reviewed.
The Beatles were doing stuff like that on Revolver for Tomorrow Never Knows - which turned out to be Geoff Emerick’s first day after getting promoted to engineer. His bio is titled Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles.
And the Inner Groove on Sgt. Pepper has got to a contender for first loop out side the avant-garde world.
No. But I did see the hallway in a documentary - about the studio & not Bowie I think kinda maybe. No idea of title.
