Recording Acoustic Guitars

[admin]

Tony: How do you record acoustic guitars? I have been experimenting with different microphones and through acoustic amplifiers as well. I inquired about the Fishman Loudbox amplifier to see what others thought of it under a different topic, but never really received a response. On second thought, perhaps that was a response. Any light with regard to playing acoustics live or recording them would be appreciated.

[tony_carey]

Recording acoustic gtrs is reasonably easy Peter. A large diaphragm mic placed around 8" away from the sound hole, placed neck side & pointing more to the treble side of the strings will produce a very nice acoustic gtr tone.

It is said that the ideal distance to mic any instrument, is the length of that instrument! This will enable the whole range of sounds to be captured (finger noise, key noise etc), but this is often not practicle & the ambient breathing/movement/finger noise may be just too much for a good clean recording. I often position the mic to pick up more finger noise for accordian or sax, as that can be part of the sound. You can always dual mic, but I personaly have never found this necessary.

[admin]

Tony: If you were recording an acoustic with an electronic pickup, piezo or otherwise, what would you approach be?

[shinynewtoy]

I can't begin to speak for Tony... but I like to do dual-tracks of active acoustics. I'll mute one track at a time until I get a nice full signal, then take both as full-range tracks and mix them later. I've found, at least with my wife's acoustics, that the top-end clarity and shimmer of the direct track and the rom sounds and ambience of the miked track mix very well; taking both also allows me to play more with mic placement, such as angling the mic toward the neck more which to my ear lends a more bottom-endy tone.

I didn't fall in love with the vocal sound (it will be redone) but this is one of my wife's tracks that I did, and it's a decent example of this technique. Click on "Spend A Little Time"...

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=8660067&MyToken=0ed17f62-b88e-4bc8-a10a-fdaf5a46333e

[winston]

Bob,

A MySpace question for you. I am in the process of building my own space on that site. I uploaded some songs two days ago and they have not shown up on my site. They say they are still processing. Did I do something wrong when I uploaded do you think? Is there some trick to this that I should know? Do I have to import a player or something?

Any help you can give me would be much appreciated.

[beatlefreak]

Something's not right. When I uploaded songs to my myspace page, they went through almost immediately.

[winston]

Did you have to load a player Kris or did the player appear when your songs did?

Sorry if I appear to be hi-jacking this thread a bit Peter.

[shinynewtoy]

Brian...

I sent you an email.... I hope it's some form of help!

[beatlefreak]

The player loaded automatically.

[winston]

Thanks guys the help is very much appreciated.

[tony_carey]

Peter, I would never record an acoustic other than the mic'd way. I hear what others say, but a good large diaphragm mic is really all you need. If you use the in built pickups/bugs etc, then it really can start to sound 'plasticky' & unconvincing! I know that others will disagree, but believe me, I can hear when this technique has been used & so can many others. I'm not disagreeing with you Bob, it's horses for courses, but if the mic is right, the sound will be all you need....

I have recorded all types of acoustic gtrs & even fully acoustic albums & have never had to use on board electronics. The right mic for the right job!

[jdogric12]

I record the 380L PZ with two channels: PZ to one, condenser mic to get string sound on another.

[admin]

Thanks Tony. Your comments are appreciated.

[beatlefreak]

I agree that an acoustic should be miked only for recording, but I do favor the two mic approach.

[shinynewtoy]

Neigh!