Are You Making These 5 Mic Placement Mistakes?

It’s funny how easy it is to screw up something simple like mic placement.

I can understand the frustration of moving the mic around without really knowing what you’re looking for. It’s hard to look for the perfect balanced sound if you’re not 100% sure what that should sound like.

And it’s even harder if you’re making any of these 5 mistakes. Then you’re way screwed…

1. Too Close – Proximity effect. No good.

2. Too Far – Too much room. Even worse.

3. Two Mics – Tricky. Can cause phase problems unless you know what you’re doing.

4. Wrong mic – Dynamic mic on acoustic guitar? That’s just weird if you ask me.

5. No Thought – If you don’t any thought into mic positioning, you’re gonna get a half-assed recording.

The only way you can set up mics with a minimal amount of thought is when you have the experience and you know exactly where it’s gonna sound good.

Or you can take shortcuts and start with the sweet spots.

The sweet spot is where the instrument has a balanced sound. Think of it as the girl that has just the right amount of make-up. No make-up at all might make her look uninteresting. Too much and she’s trying too hard to cover up her face.

That’s what the sweet spot is. Just the right amount of highs and lows to frame those pretty mids.

Even though there might not be one perfect mic placement for every the sweet spot.

The trick is to figure out where to look.

Check out more miking techniques in Recording Strategies.(www.recordingstrategies.com)

Image by: TOM81115

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