Taming the 'A' string boominess on an acoustic guitar

R

randyfromde

New member
I just bought 2 MK-012's at the GC labor sale and have playing with them for a couple weeks now. I've been trying to record my Martin acoustic and have found a couple decent placements. My problem is that the mic placement sounds great for the entire chord progression except for when I play an open Am chord. My martin is pretty boomy as it is (as most are), but the Am chord is especially rowdy when recording.

What can I do to fix this? As I said, I really like the tone for the rest of the song, it's just 10 sec clips when the low a string is ringing that's a problem. Any suggestions? I'm using Cool Edit Pro 2.0 if that helps.
 
Try to record the guitar from over your shoulder, yes, the mic next to your ear.

Let us know how that sounds.
 
randyfromde said:
My problem is that the mic placement sounds great for the entire chord progression except for when I play an open Am chord.
What can I do to fix this?
Click to expand...

I had the same problem except with low G and F#
My guess is that its not the guitar or the mics but the room your recording in. Read up on the subject of standing waves. I believe that’s what happening.
I solved the problem with bass traps. It really worked and I’m happy about it. The only thing though is that is not really that cheap and that if you build the traps yourself they have to be built right and air tight or else your just wasting your time and money. A cheaper way might be to play in a different room.
 
My guitar gets a little boomy at A too so I hear ya.
It can indeed be the guitar, you might want to try different strings. That helped me a little. The suggestion by Han was a good one. I also try to oput the mic in a spot higher (maybe 26-30 inches) and pointing down at the front of the guitar near the 12th fret. Mic position as well as room position can both help a lot.

If nothing else there's always ebay!;)
 
Man, you guys are just as bad at promoting G.A.S. as other forums!

Thanks for the over the shoulder tip, I'll check that out. I've already changed strings, which did help me get less mud while recording. I'll try and switch locations in my room as well to see if I can get rid of a room reflection (if that's a problem as well).

As a last resort, what frequency range is that 'A' if I want to try and EQ it down a little? I tune my guitar standard A-440, does that mean I should try and EQ around that range?
 
randyfromde said:
As a last resort, what frequency range is that 'A' if I want to try and EQ it down a little? I tune my guitar standard A-440, does that mean I should try and EQ around that range?
Click to expand...

Well, what about 220 and/or 110? :D
 
Well, I tried the over-the-shoulder mic and a mic pointed at the 9th fret of my Martin, we're getting closer!

Middleman-

I'm going for the least compression possible on the acoustic guitar track. I want it to sound as natural as possible, so the amount of compression I am using isn't doing very much.

Han-

What do you mean by 220 and 110?
 
A standard A is 440 hz right? Then an octave lower is 220 hz, another octave lower is 110 hz, and again another octave lower is 55hz, and so on.

Cheers!
 
Sorry. I'm a fool......hahahaha

Thanks for all your help guys, this project I'm working on is turning out to be my best yet. Although that's not saying much for 3 weeks of fooling around!
 
Try over the shoulder pointed straight down, behind the bridge about 2-3 inches. Further behind for less bass.

I put the capsule so it's perpendicular to the top when I'm seated.

Position the cap on a plane about 4-6" in front of the plane of the top.

From about ear-high this gives you a pretty big sweet spot to manuveur in.
 
It looks like the over the shoulder method is one that I am going to use quite often. Really did the trick. Thanks everyone! I;ll probably put an mp3 up of what I did in the mixing clinic sometime tomorrow if anyone wants to hear my results.
 
Over the shoulder can help, but it's not an accurate representation of the guitar as heard from its front.

Changing strings is a good fix. However, the best way to do it is to put a lower (i.e., lighter) guage 5th string on the instrument. For example, a standard light guage set of strings contains a .42 A string. Try a .40 or .39 instead.

BTW, the low "A" is at 110 Hz.
 
sdelsolray said:
Over the shoulder can help, but it's not an accurate representation of the guitar as heard from its front.

Changing strings is a good fix. However, the best way to do it is to put a lower (i.e., lighter) guage 5th string on the instrument. For example, a standard light guage set of strings contains a .42 A string. Try a .40 or .39 instead.

BTW, the low "A" is at 110 Hz.
Click to expand...

Right, I could start messing with string guages, but that would ruin the tone for the rest of the chords (potentially). I guess there is the trade-off between how often I let the open A string ring versus how often I play a fretted note on the 5th string. I'd rather just deal with the boominess while recording than start messing with the guitar itself.

As far not being "accurate", that's not really too big a concern for me. I'm more interested in the sound I hear when playing or a good sound overall when recorded than complete accuracy. I am also mixing the shoulder mic with a mic placed out front...

I put an mp3 of my rhythm guitar track in the mp3 mixing forum. The two mics are panned left and right if you want to hear the differences. If you have any comments about how the track sounds with respect to my EQ'ing, please let me know!
 
What program is that? Unfortunately, Cool Edit Pro 2 doesn't let you specify frequencies (unless I haven't figured it out yet). All I have is 100hz and 125hz in that range that I can work with.
 
That is the Ultrafunk parametric which only comes with Sonar. You could do the same with an external EQ or selectable freq. on a mixer.

Ultrafunk software used to be stand alone by the way before Cakewalk snatched them up.

If you only have 100 and 125 you can try to feather the frequency by dipping both at the same time and narrowing the Q until you come close to dipping 110 adequately.
 
If you have a boomy note on an instrument you can use an EQ and Compressor the same way you would for De-essing. Feed the sidechain on the compressor with the EQ. Dial the EQ to boost the note range that is too boomy. Now whenever that note is played the compressor will kick in.
 
What you want is a [size=large]Multi-band compressor.[/size]

Multiband compressor multiband compressor multiband compressor multiband compressor multiband compressor

Got it?

Good.
 
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