mavericmanic
New member
Yes the noise gate may color the sound during the "release time" of the Vocal or Guitar. So I found a very quiet spot in my house about 20' away that I will use. Thanks for the advice. - Stuart
Acoustic Guitar Recording 101
- Thread starter WhiteStrat
- Start date
"Once Upon a Time"
We only had one, very noisy computer (still typing on it!). This was fine when son was recording the Strat since it was either quite loud from a 15W valve amp or DI'ed.
Then "he" bought a rather nice Turner acoustic (I put " " because I stumped up the £500!)
"Problem dad". The noise issue was solved for a while by using a Fast track pro AI in "stand alone S/PDIF mode* into a MD recorder and the resultant recording bounced as a digital file into this noisy old P4!
*Still one of the few AIs that will do that.
Dave.
We only had one, very noisy computer (still typing on it!). This was fine when son was recording the Strat since it was either quite loud from a 15W valve amp or DI'ed.
Then "he" bought a rather nice Turner acoustic (I put " " because I stumped up the £500!)
"Problem dad". The noise issue was solved for a while by using a Fast track pro AI in "stand alone S/PDIF mode* into a MD recorder and the resultant recording bounced as a digital file into this noisy old P4!
*Still one of the few AIs that will do that.
Dave.
mavericmanic
New member
I upgraded from a 2.0 GHz Dual Core Dell laptop to an Acer Preditor i7 3770 Gaming Computer that runs at 3.9 GHz Quad Core and screaming fast! Cakewalk actually recommends this particular i7 and it costs just over $800 USD. It is the best upgrade I have ever made and it is my DAW computer using SONAR X2. Most of my Amps that I will be Miking are British. VOX, Marshall, and Laney. My AI is UK also, Focusrite Saffire Pro24. Looking forward to doing some serious Recording. Water Cooling helps the i7 run at top TurboBoost speed but Fans are noisy to get rid of the heat. So I have a noisy Computer also but that is the cost of high performance. - Stuart
hannanahmad
New member
I will follow your techniques in my home studio.
hannanahmad
New member
This is a very sounding track. Undoubtedly, I will also love to attempt the music composing next time in the same way.
It does not have to be so. Water cooling holds the promise of exporting the heat to a bigger, slower, quieter fan. Then you could investigate Fanspeed and other apps that allow control of fan speed. It is very unlikely that the CPU needs to run at anything like even 50% full juice most of the time but is always being cooled as if it is. This is like an old Ford Escort etc with the fan bolted onto the crankshaft. Could be minus 10 out there but the bloody fan still blows!
I am sure there are some top PC builders here or you could ask at Sound On Sound | Recording Techniques | Audio Technology | Music Production | Computer Music | Video Media
Dave.
rocknrollstar
New member
WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
Not having a matching pair is not as big a problem as you might think. Since I made this tutorial about a thousand years ago, my mic collection has grown. A recent addition is an AKG C414--a great mic for acoustic guitars. Unfortunately, I could only afford one. However, I've obtained great results using the C414 (a large diaphragm condenser) along with one of the SDCs used in the original post.
There's also a lot of value in simply double tracking the acoustic--even if it's with just one mic. In other words, two mono tracks that are mixed fairly hard left and right (as opposed to two sets of stereo tracks--as in the original tutorial).
So try tracking the guitar twice, even with just one mic. And try mixing different mics on the same take. Each approach will yield a different result, but with some experimentation in terms of mic placement, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results.
rocknrollstar
New member
The one thing that bothers me about double tracking as I want it to sound live, however when I listen to double tracked acoustic guitar (when I do it anyway) I'm very aware that it's double tracked if that makes sense?
I'm really struggling with a live take I done recently and I'm starting to wonder if the problem is with the mixing or the recording.
Any chance I could bend your ear on it? https://homerecording.com/bbs/gener...ciante-masters-also-enclosed-download-365228/
mavericmanic
New member
You do not understand IC CPU Electronics and I have a degree and worked on ASIC ICs. The water cooling allows for the highest clock frequency with Intel Turbo-boost 3.7 to 3.9 GHz. The load factor can exceed 50% and I monitor it real-time. DAW uses intensive CPU processing. The Fan is Not quieter and 'Smart Fan' is turned off in the BIOS. I am a PC Builder so please get some knowledge and then you will have a faster system for your DAW. I also use RAID 0 Striped Drives which is X2 the speed of regular HDD drives.
So my IT education (certified UCLA Extension) and IT knowledge, I suggest you use the fastest PC you can afford for DAW, which other Music Industry people do recommend, like a Gaming i7 computer and Hot Rod it for fast speed (water cooling and Turbo Boost), Lots of storage, Max. RAM, Extended Video card, Striped Drives, etc. My PC is very Fast and is upgraded for DAW and Video processing plus works as a general computer. Please look into some of the Gaming Computers and DAW is very similar in its application for high processing speed. SONAR actually recommended the ACER Preditor i7 3770 mid-tower that I have so I followed their advice and bought one. I upgraded it as described in this thread and it is blazing Fast!
I understand enough about PCs to know that with higher performance, i.e.speed goes increased processor dissipation (I was doing transistor heat sink calculations perhaps while you were chucking both ends?)
There is always a trade off twixt speed and noise and cooling, maybe a super fast gaming machine is overkill for the audio work it is doing? I have read a great deal in the last 8 years or so and "gaming" computers are not generally recommended for audio. I have seen it said many times that you don't actually need a particularly powerful PC for Home Recording and my experience bears this out.
As for hyper fast RAID drives. Again my information is ( Martin Walker SoS) that standard 7,000rpm SATA drives are more than fast enough for scores of tracks.
I respect your degree* but forgive if I don't grovel. I gain my knowledge by slowly sifting the information of many sources over a long time.
I see you do "video"? Well different ball game and I agree that needs speed and shedloads of memory but for even pretty intensive sound only work you do not need that noisy S of a B!
*I have a C&G in electronics!
Dave.
guitarpat
New member
I'm getting ready to record an acoustic for my next song. I will try this method. Thanks for posting 
Pat
PatI watched a tutorial video recently the Cakewalk website I often visit (I use Sonar X1 DAW) that described about 10 / 12 different acoustic guitar recording methods. On this, and for the first time they described the vertical-pair method, using two small diaphragm mics and he related this was his favorite of all of them. So I tried it, and loved it! This method is good because the mics are positioned such that one is picking up the higher notes/strings, and the other bass ---which then get separated to hard left and right in your tracks - resulting in a nice - high / low blend. This makes a lot of sense, since if you think about it, with horizontal mic placements, they are both getting the mix of high and low stuff in their filed of sound - even though "technically" one is placed at fret 12 and one closer to the hole / bridge - for that hi-low pick-up. But with vertical placement of small D mics, you are zeroing in on the high and low strings instead....works for me. Charles
BarryPruce
New member
thanks for the tips!
Atkron205
Member
Strat,
Thanks for the post, good info. I have a session coming up with my Dad, it will be him playing acoustic and singing. he is old country so I will have to do everything in 1 take. I plan on using a SM58 for the vocal, (thanks jimmys69). a MXL 990 on the bridge end, a AKG P170 on the neck end. Also going to use a overhead but not sure if I will need it. thinking of panning the guitar mics hard LR and adding a little hall verb, adding a little short delay to the vocal. maybe clone the vocal track and use compression and blend the 2 together. I would welcome your thoughts. I want the acoustic to sound really wide if that makes sense. Thanks!
Thanks for the post, good info. I have a session coming up with my Dad, it will be him playing acoustic and singing. he is old country so I will have to do everything in 1 take. I plan on using a SM58 for the vocal, (thanks jimmys69). a MXL 990 on the bridge end, a AKG P170 on the neck end. Also going to use a overhead but not sure if I will need it. thinking of panning the guitar mics hard LR and adding a little hall verb, adding a little short delay to the vocal. maybe clone the vocal track and use compression and blend the 2 together. I would welcome your thoughts. I want the acoustic to sound really wide if that makes sense. Thanks!
WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
Given that assortment of microphones, I'd approach it the same way. My main piece of advice would be this: don't be afraid to take some time to try variations. I know sometimes it's awkward making the player wait, play a bit, listen back, adjust, play a bit again, etc., but trust me it's worth it. Get happy with the sound before you go for the full performance--and if you don't like the sound, the first thing I'd try is flipping the two mics on the guitar. You may get a better balance going the other way.
Good luck, and post up your results in the clinic. I look forward to hearing it!
