New Taylor, New Recording

JohnnyAmato

New member
So I walk into Guitar Center last week for a few cables. Walked out with a $4,000 Taylor :facepalm: An 816ce Grand Symphony.

Wrote and recorded a few new songs with it, and this is one of them. I decided to post this one because the Taylor literally did all the guitar tracks, rhythms and leads. It was capo'd on the third fret.

I don't have too much experience recording acoustics, so I did a few different things here:
-Hard left is the direct electric signal from simply plugging it in.
-Hard right there's a mic'd track, that had a mic on the soundhole, and another mic on the body. The body track (which was obviously softer) is panned just a tad off center to the left, like 20%. Both mics were SM58s.

The leads/fills/melodies were all done just plugging it in and obviously all centered (except for few fills slightly to the right)

Issues/Questions:
The mic'd tracks are much warmer. The plugged-in track has way more mids and is a bit more harsh, but all three together sound huge, especially when the three are solo'd together. I'm hoping the plugged-in track isn't too mid-strong, or too harsh and taking away from the song, by clashing with the leads and melodies, since they are basically the same tones. I do have a spare mic'd rhythm track from another good take, but when I swap it with the left side (so both sides are now different mic'd tracks) It doesn't sound as good to me, it's almost too big and deep. Although the leads seemed in a better space that way...

I also tried using only the one mic'd track, with the soundhole mic hard right and the body mic hard left. It sounded good, but seemed like it was missing something.

Am I over-thinking it? Are two different acoustic rhythm tracks panned hard left and right common, like with electrics? Or is it basically a no no, and I should use just the one mic'd track (hole and body) and just get that to sound the best I can? I can easily post that version for comparison if anyone wants to hear it. Any other general mix comments are welcome as well, as this one will be getting vocals soon. Thanks ahead of time for any input!

Taylor Song Mix 1 | Johnny Amato
 
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I'll try to listen tonight on a better system.

But the rhythm guitars sound a bit tubby and cloudy. Like there is a bit too much low midrange (300hz - 600hz octave) and not enough high end (above 8K).

The mix is also narrow. A doubled and hardpanned rhythm guitar part would take care of some of that. Or maybe this is just a test of your new guitar. And congrats on that.
 
Congrats on your purchase! I agree with triple M that the acoustics were getting buried in that low midrange area. When the electrics dropped the acoustic held its own, the playing is tight and even as expected : ). I like the tune, would work well instrumentally or with a vocal.

Acoustic guitars can be tough and there's many ways to mic them up and treat them in the mix. There's plenty of videos on you tube about stereo mic'ing techniques. I'll usually manually double them like you would do with electric rhythm One thing i would suggest to try is a small diaphragm condenser pointed around the 12 fret maybe 6-12 inches from the neck. By the time it comes around to mixing acoustics i'm usually rolling off alot of lows, like more than any other element in the mix, so that micing technique gives you a good head start, keeping the percussive and more high end snap that will cut through the mix without the boomy stuff coming out of the sound hole that will be cut anyway. Compression is nice on acoustics as well.

You are an excellent player and i'm sure your ears will have it figured out quickly, but to my ears the acoustics could use a little more percussiveness(?) and high end snap.

Enjoyed the tune!
 
I agree with the suggestion to mic neck around 10-12th fret..I never mic an acoustic guitar sound hole, too much mud. I like the arrangement but a little excitement/energy can be added I think with a track using the same chord progression in higher register and/or using inversions. Totally jealous of guitar , been lusting after that exact model for years..i'm using a 412CE right now and it's great but that 816. wow
 
Hey Johnny, I agree with 3M, a bit "tubby" (good word for it) on the acoustics, and the mix feels narrow. I don't mind that, but I think cutting some lows from the acoustic and better placement of everything in the 3D space would open it up more. The lead around 2 minutes is a little loud relatively speaking. The L guitar is also a little loud. I'd say give it a few days to reset your ears then listen again and fine tune it.
 
Nice feel to this tune. I think the guitars sound pretty good. I panned hard left and then hard right a few times, while listening. I prefer the guitar sound on the left when AB'ing them. That being said, they sound nice together.
For me, acoustics are a bitch to record. One can sound magnificent in the room and I can still manage to make it sound like crap on a recording.
:)
Congrats on the new guitfiddle and a pretty dang good sounding recording of it!
 
Thanks everyone for the responses! And thanks for the congrats on the new Taylor, which I'll be paying for for a while :guitar:

After everyone's feedback, and listening myself a few times on other systems, I have a few ideas.

- I think I didn't Hi-pass it enough. I Hi-passed both acoustic tracks around 50 or 60hz, which probably wasn't enough. After some research, it seems 100 to 400hz is more the norm. I probably could use a low-mid cut somewhere as well, on both tracks.

-Also, I think I used too many tracks. Meaning since I doubled the acoustic hard-panned left and right, there was no reason to double-mic the right guitar, and use both mics with one mic just off-center. Probably explains the "thin mix" feel, since there isn't much separation due to that center track. I'll probably cut that out altogether, and go from there.

No comments on the bass or drums, so I'll assume I'm pretty close, and wait to make any fine adjustments until the vocals are down.

The main lead is a tad loud, just because I figured that's about where the vocal would be, volume-wise. Can always adjust that later if needed.

I'll have a new mix up in a day or two.

Thanks again for the feedback!
 
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