[Amenemhat]

I have a song that I want to get recorded nice. Im no expert, but I do have some good mics, a decent recorder/mixer, and a copy of Cool Edit Pro.

What I want to do is mic my 4x12 cab and also lay down the vocal track at the same time. My concern is getting a nice crisp and clean vocal track that does not have interference and bleed-over from the cab, which will be screaming.

Any ideas? Or will I have to lay the vocals down separately?

[zooloo]

You can record both at once but you will get some bleed from the guitar in the vocal.

Assuming you're using a cardioid for the vocal record it so you face the cab (The back of the mic is pointing at the cab) and don't have a wall close behind you.

[Amenemhat]

I am indeed using cardioid to record both vocals and cab. When you say face the cab . . . . do it in front of the cab, or maybe behind it?

This post has been edited by Amenemhat: 05 December 2008 - 06:43 PM

[zooloo]

0° is the front of the mic, the bit you sing into.

Things you don't want picked up by the mic should be in the 180° region - it will still pick-up but the minimum you can hope for.

Standing behind the cab is good as there is less noise there to pick-up.

Close mic the cab and it shouldn't pick-up the vocal

[Amenemhat]

Cool, thanks.

[mantra]

However, if you wanted to, you could record vocals/instrument seperate for a cleaner sound (atleast cleaner on the vocal performance).

[Little Wing]

You could also do your best to isolate the cab by putting it in another room.

[gavin681]

you are going to get bleed through the vocal mic. your best bet would be to record separately or do the vocals in a vocal booth...which you probably don't have...but you could make one. best to do separate I think. or use a multi fx for the guitar straight into the mixer.

[grungepuppy88]

Putting a good sound-absorbant obstacle between you and the cab would help reduce the bleed as well......carpet and foam are good things. Putting some sound absorbants on the wall behind you could be a decent idea as well......you don't want an empty wall at your back cuz the sound from the cab will just bounce off and it would be out of phase with the guitar track so it would just come through as mud on your vocal track.

[grungepuppy88]

Putting a good sound-absorbant obstacle between you and the cab would help reduce the bleed as well......carpet and foam are good things. Putting some sound absorbants on the wall behind you could be a decent idea as well......you don't want an empty wall at your back cuz the sound from the cab will just bounce off and it would be out of phase with the guitar track so it would just come through as mud on your vocal track.

Just to expound on this--I helped record a punk band the other day that wanted to play everything (besides vocals) at the same time. This meant we had to have two screaming guitar amps in one room. We did the whole cardiod microphone thing, put the amps at 180 degrees and put one of those sound absorbant things inbetween (i think its called a gobie???) and we quite literally had no bleed.