quick question for acoustic guitar recording

P

polarity

New member
Just one more quick one I think. When you're recording, guitar/vocals/anything really are you keeping the volume/signal fairly low during recording (seems like you can record what sounds like a perfectly clean sound with no real room noise) and then boosting it with the output on EQ?

I'm already working on building my room treatment and trying to isolate the noises in the room (fans in computer, making sure the AC isn't blowing air anywhere close to the mic, etc) and I could just need to keep working more and more on that but I noticed when recording my guitar yesterday if I put the mics pretty close and turned the gain down, looking at the wave form the signal was really low(quiet?) but it sounded super clean.

Thanks as always for the help everyone, I really can't belive the wealth of knowledge on this forum.
 
Is this how it should be done or am I just throwing a bandaid on it? I'm continuing with room treatment anyway I was just curious what the "proper" way is. I would think each track would be low so when they are combined you end up with a big noise but that's an uneducated guess honestly.
 
Well, we'll assume that you're getting a clean signal from your mic and preamp. If you are, you should be tracking with the PEAKS of the signal not exceeding lets say, -12dBFS, -18dBFS even better. All things being equil, your signal to noise ratio should be sufficiant to give a great recording.
 
Thanks guys! I've been goign about it all wrong haha. I've had the gain on the interface jacked up to about 75% and basically as loud as I could get it without clipping, and I was getting alot of room sound. Can you guys recommend any good books for learning about recording in general and maybe about effects (what is compression, how to EQ, etc)?

I'm planning on picking up a logic pro book too, mixcraft is easy but jumping from it to logic I feel like I'm trying to do the hard stuff before I learn the beginner stuff.
 
A lot depends upon the noise floor of your signal chain and the type of sound you're getting.

Generally I mic acoustics 9 - 12 inches away, sometimes further, never closer, as I don't like the end result from super close miking.
 
6 inches sounds close which can sound cool in a mix. 12 sounds close too just not as close. 18-24 sounds best to me but if the room sucks more distance just introduces more suck. So I generally stay around 12-18 as a compromise.
 
It sounds to me like you're trying to mic your guitar closer and turn the volume on your pre-amps down to get rid of some noise you're getting from the room, yes?
That is just putting a band-aid on it. You want to be able to move those mics around wherever they get the BEST sound you can coming in, so you don't have to mess with EQ and compression and such as much when you're mixing.
Granted, wherever you place your mics, Track Rat was correct in saying that you want to make sure your peaks are around -12dBFS. If you have a way to view RMS level in dBFS mode, then it should be right around -20dBFS if recording 24 bit, and around -16dBFS recording 16 bit.
So to put it simply; yes, it's a band-aid, but if it still sounds good, you're fine for now.
 
Thanks man.. Made a few mistakes on that one, but that's exactly why it was a test run. The first 2' board took me close to an hour to get done. Both the 4' boards took about 10 min haha.. The wife is going to help me pick out a good fabric that matches the new color in the studio so everything is moving forward.

1 of my new mics (matched stereo pair of mxl 993s) was DOA so they are shipping me a new set, but I got some new mic stands and the mics are on their way again.. All it all I'm happy with my progress.
 
Ahh, the panels I'm making put the 703 inside the board (using MDF), since some of the side is being covered with wood instead of just fabric then insulation from what I've read it basically gives more "surface area" for absorbtion. Also they look kinda cool.
 
polarity said:
Also they look kinda cool.
Click to expand...

And THAT'S why we use bass traps. xD
Nah, but seriously... That's why we throw condenser mics upside down when we record vocalists. They see an upside down condenser, they're like, "Oh, snap. I'm a real artist now."
 
MrWrenchey said:
And THAT'S why we use bass traps. xD
Nah, but seriously... That's why we throw condenser mics upside down when we record vocalists. They see an upside down condenser, they're like, "Oh, snap. I'm a real artist now."
Click to expand...

Exactly... and if the mic has a gold grill, then it works even better... :D
 
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