Pickups vs. Mic for acoustic guitar

H

HyperAXISZ2

New member
Hey all,
I've heard some people use two microphones to record an acoustic guitar to produce a nice full sound. Others use only one microphone. But what about acoustic pickups? Are they used more commonly than a regular microphone setup? Or are regular microphones (nstead of pickups) what you'll see in most home studios/professional studios?

Thanks!

(ps. I've been recording with a normal mic and it seems alright, but I don't know if I should shell out the cash for some acoustic guitar pickups without knowing first if it's worth the money :confused: )
 
A combination of mic(s) along with active pickup on seperate tracks is the way to go imo. A good mic records the natural sound and resonance of the guitar while the pickup track is for any efx you might want to use to enhance the sound. Mics tend to "hear" more of the pick noise and any bumping of the body and finger squeaks. Micing also means that the guitarist has to remain in a relatively constant position (guitar to mic position) throughout the track. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods so you need to find which works best for you or do like me and combine the two. If you want a nice ambient sound use a mic, if you prefer more of a crisp ringy sound go for a pickup, for crisp ambience use a mix of both. And don't forget relatively new strings, no matter which method you use.
 
HyperAXISZ2 said:
(ps. I've been recording with a normal mic and it seems alright, but I don't know if I should shell out the cash for some acoustic guitar pickups without knowing first if it's worth the money :confused: )
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In this situation, especially, I would not bother with pickups. They are fine for live playing, but fail to capture the natural sound of an acoustic on a recording. Work on mic placement and room acoustics to get the sound you want.
 
Forget pickups unless you need them to play live... in the studio/bedroom you will get much better results from a couple of small diaphram condensers...
 
I usually record with the pickup in addition to microphones. The pickup may have some nice bottom that you can mix in to get a full sound. It's always worth a try.
 
scrubs said:
In this situation, especially, I would not bother with pickups. They are fine for live playing, but fail to capture the natural sound of an acoustic on a recording. Work on mic placement and room acoustics to get the sound you want.
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Very well said. Yeah, I'm going to agree with Scrubs (and just about everybody else that's replied here.) Both the magnetic soundhole pickups and the piezo pickup systems (which fit under the bridge) are designed to help you amplify the acoustic guitar so that it'll be heard in a live setting. But neither system sounds particularly "realistic." They do NOT sound anything like what a real acoustic guitar sounds like in a room. They are a compromise that people put up with just so that they can use the guitar on stage.

Now, if you happen to already HAVE one or more of these systems available, and you've got an extra channel to record it, it certainly won't hurt to track it, so that you have it available at mixdown. You might be able to use that signal effectively in some way (like using the piezo signal to bring out string noise a little bit, for example). But if you're already getting a recorded acoustic sound that you're happy with, there's no need to get one just for that reason.
 
Dean Markley make a nice sounding pickup, as stated above a good combination = tracks recorded with mics + track recorded with pickup, blend, beautiful!
 
Handsome Al said:
Arrrrrahhh!!! Even although that's an expensive fishman pickup that's exactly the sound you don't want to get what you record an acoustic guitar!

I'm sorry apl but in my opinion this is a great example of why you should use microphones to record acoustic guitar...
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The best I could say about it was "OK"! :D

Recording with a good mic is better.

The pup sounds very good live over a PA because it lacks the boinginess of piezos.
 
I think that lot's of commercial recordings of solo, steel-string acoustic guitar instrumentals are recorded with microphones plus one or more pickups. They are EQ'd, verbed and otherwise processed (think Kottke, Hedges, possibly some Fahey, see also anything by Acoustic Guitar Workshop http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=103613). Most of these sound really good...but they don't sound like acoustic guitars.

It's always nice to tinker with addtional sound sources if you have the the time and skill to add a third source. But finding the perfect position for stereo miking takes up more time than I have.
Good luck.
 
I like contact mic's/transducers for specific things. Sometimes I wake up really early, like 4 AM, and nothing's better than firing up my system, putting headphones on and recording through my electric classical. There's something satisfying that's hard to describe about making music within a self contained environment totally isolated from the outside world. While I like recording that way, beyond listening back once or twice I never save the files because they sound so artificial compared to a good mic. It’s just a bit of practice but it does help me hear different things in the music sometimes.

I've used a Dean Markley Artist transducer for live amplification and it sounds very good with the right buffer. Sounds like sh*t if there's an input mismatch though. I don't use it for recording. To me it's only useful live where a mic is just a feedback headache. Transducer>tube pre>RNC on supernice mode>SWR Calif. Blonde amp is a hot combination. And if a tiny bit of a mic is mixed in (the SWR is two channel and has an XLR input) it masks the artificial quality pretty well.

IMO, mic’s and a good room are the way to go for recording acoustic instruments.

Tim
 
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