Your best tricks with acoustic guitar?

Firefab

New member
Hi,

How do you record your acoustic guitar with one mic? Do you change the way you record depending on the style?

Personally, I always record one track with the mic in front of the 12th fret like 1 feet away AND one other track at like the 10th fret.

So I always record two tracks of guitar, one right one left. Is everyone doing that in general?

What's your mix tricks after?
 
I've not really gone beyond the one LDC (other than playing around with new MICs, etc.). I sit down and can change guitars easy enough during tracking.

I do plan to use guitar as a Electronic Sequencer "sound" in the near future and will probably dub a couple-three tracks to move in and out for focus/weight

I think most of the tricks are in front of the MIC ?
 
If the guitar's role is relatively minor (in importance, not scale), I stick a mike about 500mm away, pointing roughly where neck joins body.

If the guitar features prominently, I usually use a pair, one pointing to the lower bit of the body, the other pointing roughly same as above. Both about same distance. I record them on separate tracks.
 
I usually only have 1 or 2 different mics in the same place, 12 fret facing towards the sound hole at an angle. If you look at the example picture, there is an AKG and a fathead ribbon, but it does not have to be this combination. I record the mics to 2 separate tracks, then during mixing blend the 2, or use one or the other depending on how it sounds in the mix. The reason I don't use spaced mics is if actually don't like stereo acoustic guitars if panning the mics, and using 2 separated mics causes phase issues. One position using 1 or 2 mics is a good way to record acoustic guitars.

Alan.

dave taylor-1.jpg
 
There's a whole thread here on acoustic guitar techniques.

If there are many instruments on the song, then I'll just use 1 LDC at the 12th fret, angled slightly towards the sound hole, about 9" away. IF the song is sparse, I'll use a 2nd mic aimed at the lower bout.
 
i just watched a video and a dewd called it the "Beatle setup" with APPROX. 12" away and 12" above and slightly tilt pointed at the guitar. I tired it and it did clean up a lot of boomyblur from being too close....
 

Attachments

  • acoustic.png
    acoustic.png
    649.1 KB · Views: 31
i just watched a video and a dewd called it the "Beatle setup" with APPROX. 12" away and 12" above and slightly tilt pointed at the guitar. I tired it and it did clean up a lot of boomyblur from being too close....

I'm usually at the bottom of the reverse L in the first photo. Keeping the same axis
 

Attachments

  • guitar_MIC1.jpg
    guitar_MIC1.jpg
    33.3 KB · Views: 154
I do similar to mjb I think, except with an SM81. Face of the mic about 6" from fret 12 aimed at fret 15 or so. Saw a bluegrass guy doing it that way on youtube, it works pretty consistently.

I think the best recording I got though was just meant to be a scratch take with a c414 at face height like three feet away. It was an accident really, haven't had luck reproducing that sound since.
 
.."scratch take with a c414 at face height like three feet away".

I think that is still valid - like with ribbons
 
I'm trying to remember the last time I recorded my acoustic.... :rolleyes:

If it's just to sit in the back of the mix, I'll use one LDC at the 12th fret angled towards the soundhole. If it's to be the main instrument, I'll use the M/S technique right at the soundhole, although I'll admit, I haven't posted any songs where I featured the acoustic as the main instrument.
 
I plug mine in using a Dean Markley ProMag pickup. :D

OK...not always...I do record acoustic also with a mic if I need more than just basic baking rhythm...like if I want the acoustic to have that sparkle and stick out more. I usually only use a single mic...LDC...and it's like maybe 10" or so from the sound hole, but not dead-on...more from the base of the neck pointing back at the sound hole.
I just move around with the guitar a bit and find the spot that gives me the tonal balance I'm after.

That said...I don't really do stuff where the acoustic is the primary instrument, in a sparse mix...etc....so I don't get into all that dual mics and OH mics and room mics kind of stuff.
Basically, I try and avoid using an acoustic at all....but sometimes it can provide a nice counterpoint to the electric rhythm guitars, so you get a interesting layering of the two.
 
Ya, it is not often I want any full-bodied instrument, and I keep silk-wound on one guitar to further that. The Ibanez gets phosphor bronze and the Cedar Ridge gets the silk-wound. From there I can get about anything out of Nylon strings - which I've been partial to since 1966, or, so.
 
Back
Top