Every once in a while a forum post is so great that I feel like I need to repeat it.This "article/blog/whatever" was written by Dach, one of the most knowledgeable forum members.It's lessons are MEGA HUGE.You can see the entire forum topic here....http://www.recordingreview.com/forum/index.php?topic=874.0;topicseen


You can get some really great and very rich sounds by micing around the soundboard, problem is, many times you will get some things you may not want... just get rid of those with a little eq or change in mic placement either in distance or angle of the mic.

Think of it like this, session ac gtr player "A" has several gigs this week and he's using the same guitar (not likely, but just go with this....).

His first gig is country strumming where they want that really HF percussive element and not the sound of the meat of the guitar because it's a dense mix... well, he'll probably use a thin pick and be miced (perhaps with a brighter/harder sounding mic?) at a location(s) that minimizes boom... say somewhere around the nut to the body.... the engineer "may" cut or shelve much of the bottom and perhaps boost some frequencies in order to help it cut and sparkle - if it needs it, not to mention compress the crap out of it to make the dynamic range "0".

2nd gig is a demo for a new up and coming singer... they are just pitching a gtr/vox piece to the record company. We need a traditional gtr sound here so he'll probably use a thicker pick because there are lots of arpeggios. The eng will probably throw a single mic at around the 12th or do a stereo pair... the goal here is to get a "natural" recording and not have to use much eq and compression, just enough to make things "sit".

3rd gig is a quick rhythm overdub on some traditional "django" jazz type stuff... The part is subtle, yet driving traditional rhythm... think projection not loudness but we're still using a thicker pick. The eng will probably mic somewhere above and in back of the bridge for that midrange meat and pull the mic back to get the best balance... maybe a little eq if necessary.

Next gig is ac gtr for a "mature" pop recording. This is not a feature part just a complimentary part. Mostly some light strumming but some arpeggio stuff as well... eng might place a spaced pair, one above and down the neck joint - 7th fret and one pointing down at somewhere behind the bridge.... while minimizing phase between the mics. The goal here is either to have a decent stereo recording with different timbres on each side OR to blend them into a single sound... depending on whatever works better.

Gig 5 is a special effect percussive type part. Thinner pick. Eng will place mic 1 where it sounds the best and compress crap out of it and mic 2 10 ft away and facing into a corner. He may end up delaying and opposite panning mic 2 for a cool delay effect.

hope this garble helps a little..... the moral is just try to make it sound right for the part...