[Nate Najar]

So I'll be doing a little recording soon, just me on classical guitar and an upright bassist. I'm going to do it in the bassist's living room. This is for reasons of ease and relaxation of performance. I want to do it as easily as possible. If I only use 2 channels I can bring minimal gear. I would use my sound devices USBpre2 and a laptop running reaper. I can bring extra converters and preamps for multichannel but I feel that would over complicate things for a variety of reasons. It is important to document this particular duo and now is definitely the time to do it.

The best mics I have available to me are a pair of schoeps cmc641, a pair of dpa 4061, a decent sounding 414buls and a THE with a LD cardioid head. But I am only planning on 2 channels.....

My inclination is to go one of two ways. Close mic each of us with the schoeps like a studio recording, and apply mild eq, reverb and pan after the fact. Considering the room this may be the best way to go. Although the room isn't "bad", it just sounds like a living room!

Or put them on a stereo bar and go to town. Since they're super cardioid, I am not sure the proper angle and spacing for something like this. Going the stereo bar route would be the most comfortable for the bassist, as he can forget the mics are there. We can balance ourselves naturally and without conscious consideration in a small setting like this, although the aesthetic will be different in the final product. I am used to recording the guitar and making it sound much larger than it is in real life! Close miking with a schoeps is good for that!

Since I am the recordist and performer, I am inclined to close mic so I can worry about the performance and deal with the sound later. But the ease of the stereo approach is tempting, plus the natural sound. I cannot listen to the group and move the mics around to find the best method for the obvious reason, and some trial and error is possible but not too much or it will kill the moment with this particular combination of musicians.

So I really have 2 questions, one more important than the other. The most pressing one to me is, if I use the schoeps on a stereo bar, how the heck do you orient them considering they are super cardioid and not regular cardioid?

The other question (I know this room so I am pretty sure I know the answer to this) is, would you just do it on the stereo bar given the circumstances?

Thanks!

N