Help with mic'ing/recording acoustic guitar

Mack Caster said:
The bass traps may not do what you need them to do. This post is well worth reading, as you are the only one who really knows your environment. It was written by John Brandt. John is known world wide for his work in studio design concerning sound waves/rays and treatments. He's a member here and he wrote a great post for this community. He also has some great videos for treating small rooms. Have a great weekend! p.s. What do you call a guitar player knocking at your door?
Click to expand...

:thumbs up: Hard science.. Love it! Thank you!

Following this advice fully is not feasible in my apartment. I can hang (removable) panels on all my walls, but the ceiling is out of bounds as any fixtures required to affix panels there are not permitted. Maybe I can construct an artificial, collapsible lowered ceiling. Or.. possibly a collapsible room-within-a room - like a large closet.
 
I have not. Please direct me.
___________________________

I now have a better quality guitar to work with : Taylor Big Baby acoustic

When that has acclimated to it's new home, I will start experimenting again. Can't wait.
 
Sorry, I kinda had to bail on that post. Honestly it's not much to look at. I posted it somewhere around here, and I'll try to find the link. Basically, though, I built a set of free standing wall frames - 2 x 4 construction 15" on center just like any other wall. I made them in 4' x 8' sections so they're reasonably easy to move around. Then I built ceiling sections to go with them. All stuffed with regular old "pink" fiberglass insulation. I used the kraft faced R30 stuff and stapled it in just like you might in a real wall except I did this on the "outside" so that the fluffy part is toward the listener, and covered that side with that black "weed stop" fabric used in landscaping. If you used a nicer looking fabric and actually tried, it could look a lot better than mine. There is no sheetrock or plywood or anything, so it's super light. They wouldn't work as gobos to keep the drums from bleeding into your other instruments, but they do act as broadband absorbers and bass traps and really tightened up the space.

All to say that you can actually build a half decent portable "room" with cheap, readily available materials.
 
Getting back to X - 9 :

All I've been able to do this past week was (today) to get these two brief samples recorded. The first one is my new Taylor Big Baby, and the second is my old $80 Rogue acoustic. This is just some idle strumming of a couple of chords, but enough to hear a marked difference.

I recorded both with my AT2020 1-foot away on it's side on a table level with the guitar's neck and angled toward the hole. I'm using no acoustical treatment.

Progress! All that muddy, muffled stuff is gone. On my end, anyway. My next step will be to get on with some acoustical treatments.
 

Attachments

  • Old Guitar.mp3
    569 KB · Views: 2
  • New Guitar.mp3
    724.5 KB · Views: 4
Last edited:
There's a lot of noise in that track. The mic should be in a suspension mount, IMO - definitely not laying on a table, so I'd play more with mic placement in a proper stand and mount for that LDC. And, make sure that the computer or whatever is the cause of the noise is behind the mic, so it's picking up the least amount of that. There's kind of what I (Martin snob) might call typical Taylor brightness in the track, and a real solid bottom is missing, so maybe work the angle or placement to get a little more top/soundhole.

Progress!
 
Thank you, Keith.

Eventually, I will have a proper boom stand and increased acoustical treatment. Placing the mic 1-foot away as I did required much more input gain. My computer is on the floor, on a carpet, directly below the table I placed the mic on. I couldn't hear a peep out of it, yet the increased gain on the mic heard it loud and clear.
 
My next step will be to build a small mic enclosure - a box - and apply R30 or rock wool to the interior. Similar to the image below - larger, without foam. I would also add wrapped R30 batts behind, to the sides of, and above this (if possible), as well as behind me while I'm recording.

1NLI29Z.jpg
 
keith.rogers said:
...There's kind of what I (Martin snob) might call typical Taylor brightness in the track, and a real solid bottom is missing, so maybe work the angle or placement to get a little more top/soundhole.!
Click to expand...

I just played around with changing my strumming style a bit. I stayed mostly on the E-A-D-G strings and strummed a bit harder. This cut most of the brightness down quite a bit and emphasized the E and A strings more. I didn't record it, but it sounded a lot fuller to my ear.

.. a little closer.
 
I tried something new to isolate my mic from ambient room noises - to see if it would reduce my noise floor. It seems to have worked. I relocated my mic by placing it on top of my bed. I took a roll of tissue paper, ran the cord up through it, plugged it into the mic, then lowered the mic into the top of the roll's tube - where it sits in it's proper upright position. Not laying down horizontal. I set the input gain to between -18 and -12 and recorded a period of silence (no signal at all on the meter). I then measured it with ReaFir. Below are the before and after results (the before was from a previous test).

5jhaj8r.jpg

xtZ84UP.jpg
 
It's coming! It's coming! :p

I have to stick with my budget, and I'm tapped out until this month's 'allowance' is available. Couple weeks. I blew all last month's on a new guitar and some needed auto repairs.
 
Your Rube Goldberg suspension system is going to help (I used to put my Zoom H2 in a foam koozy), but it's also very important to keep in mind the microphone's pickup pattern.

Your basic cardioid is going to pick up little to nothing from behind the mic, so if you have a noise source you cannot eliminate, like your computer, or an outside window source, just make sure to position what you want to record, i.e., voice, guitar, whatever, so that the back of the microphone is aimed at the stuff you don't want to record.
 
spantini said:
My next step will be to build a small mic enclosure - a box - and apply R30 or rock wool to the interior. Similar to the image below - larger, without foam. I would also add wrapped R30 batts behind, to the sides of, and above this (if possible), as well as behind me while I'm recording.

View attachment 100991
Click to expand...
Don't put your mic in a box.

IMHO... :p
 
Mic in a box! Mic in a box! Brawk!
s2F0uSm.jpg

I'm going to try the box for my vocal, just to see how it sounds. Then I'll have to try it at least once for acoustic guitar for the same reason.

I'm learning to take advantage of it's cardioid pattern. Although.. using the rear of the mic doesn't really produce a great lack of audio as the pattern would suggest. Must be getting in through the sides.
 
I'm not ignoring the advice given here by all of you. In a couple of weeks I'll be able to purchase some acoustic materials, then I can begin implementing that advice. Meanwhile, I've been collecting (and reading) articles on this subject. I'm compiling them in this thread at Post # 137.
 
spantini said:
Mic in a box! Mic in a box! Brawk!
View attachment 101006

I'm going to try the box for my vocal, just to see how it sounds. Then I'll have to try it at least once for acoustic guitar for the same reason.

I'm learning to take advantage of it's cardioid pattern. Although.. using the rear of the mic doesn't really produce a great lack of audio as the pattern would suggest. Must be getting in through the sides.
Click to expand...

Yeah... that's pretty close! The sound of 'bawk' (lower than the bird likely.. :>) injected into all your tracks! :listeningmusic:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top