Acoustic guitar recording - Sound is low

C

conamor

New member
Hi,

Could anyone guide me on this.
I am using AT2035, Focusrite 2i2, Acoustic guitar, Reaper (DAW).
I put my gain on my focusrite at 2 O'Clock almost 3, my mic is at 5 inch from the guitar, between 12-14 fret...
When I record, the sound is really low in my ATH-M50, is this normal.
Can something be done for that?

Second question: while Im not recording, I can see the green bar moving for the sounnd, this means that the mic is taking other sound the the house, is there any way to get less and boost the guitar only?

When I play the wav in my speaker (altec lansing, not studios) - it looks like there is too much bass, like if I was too close to the mic
Please note that the acoustic is not plugged.

Thanks so much!
 
Last edited:
conamor said:
When I record, the sound is really low in my ATH-M50, is this normal.
Click to expand...
Without numbers, it's hard to know what you mean by "really low". It might be fine or it might actually be really low. Where are you peaking in db's?

Second question: while Im not recording, I can see the green bar moving for the sounnd, this means that the mic is taking other sound the the house, is there any way to get less and boost the guitar only?
Click to expand...
Other than moving the mic closer to the guitar, which could make the sound better or worse, the only way is to find the source of the other noise and eliminate it.

When I play the wav in my speaker (altec lansing, not studios) - it looks like there is too much bass, like if I was too close to the mic
Click to expand...
Don't worry about how it looks. How does it sound? Almost any music will "show" more bass than high's simply because bass takes up more energy.
 
I'd recommend switching on the low cut switch on your AT2035. I've used that mic before on acoustic guitar and got some pretty great tracks with the low cut engaged.
 
I assume you're new to recording. Welcome to the site. =]

The minus means that there's no low cut, as guitarplayr stated. The line with the drop on the left shows that the low cut is engaged (left side of the line is the lows, right side is the highs).

The dB thing says 0 right now, I'm assuming the other says something like -20? That's called a "pad," and it's typically used when recording sounds that are much louder than your acoustic guitar, such as overheads for a drum set.

Can you tell us what the dBFS value of your recording is peaking at so we can tell if you're recording too quietly or not?
 
I am a week old new to recording ;)

:( Where can I find my dBFS in Reaper, do I have to look while recording, or after the record?

Thanks for all the help
 
levels.PNG

We want to know the maximum peaking level. If it's around -12 or so everything's fine, just turn up your speakers.
RMS is average volume of the track.
:guitar:
 
Nice ill take a look when I try again!
This help is much appreciated!

I was wondering, when I record the acoustic guitar with a mic, in reaper, I don't think it matters but, the line that gets created on the track (frequency) I believe, is it normal that it records in the middle and the top doesn't reach the top of the track same thing for the bottom.

I don't think I am clear, hehe.

If the gain is too high then the recording will be like exceeding the top and bottom track bar, hope someone can understand.

Thanks so much

I am really new to this and I love how people are friendly when help is requested.
 
In general, and even though I asked what DB you're peaking at, etc....In reality, it doesn't really matter as long as you're not clipping. There's really no such thing as tracking too low (unless you're recording at something ridiculous like - 50db). It IS normal that your tacks are way lower than a commercial CD or MP3. Don't compare your tracks with "finished" tracks, because your tracks aren't "finished" until you've mixed and mastered them. You can have your tracks peaking at -20 and it won't matter.

Bringing the volume up to "commercial" levels is done during the mastering process, which is another conversation all together.
 
conamor said:
Nice ill take a look when I try again!
This help is much appreciated!

I was wondering, when I record the acoustic guitar with a mic, in reaper, I don't think it matters but, the line that gets created on the track (frequency) I believe, is it normal that it records in the middle and the top doesn't reach the top of the track same thing for the bottom.

I don't think I am clear, hehe.

If the gain is too high then the recording will be like exceeding the top and bottom track bar, hope someone can understand.

Thanks so much

I am really new to this and I love how people are friendly when help is requested.
Click to expand...

It's normal. Welcome. Start reading...

Reaper's fairly widely used here so there's usually someone who can help. It also has its own forum down below..

Cheers
 
to add to comments here. Acoustic guitars can be naturally a very "spiky" signal. I normally will apply some type of compression to it to help even out the louder vs. quieter parts.
If you record a distorted electric guitar it's largely already fairly compressed and stable signal (often looks like big brick waves visually). Acoustics will have much more variation in the signal that makes them trickier. It can be hard to make an acoustic guitar stand out if you start mixing many other instruments in.
One other thing - like some have mentioned, you can cut the low frequencies when recording or EQ them out and often make an acoustic sound more like what your ears hear. Mics can seem to make acoustics sound boomy. I like your mic position - feel free to scoot it a little closer if needed - and keep in mind compression going in if needed might help the spikiness of the signal if that is a problem for you - either that or record at lower levels so you don't have to worry so much about the peak spikes.
Hope this helps some.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top