stereo arrangement suggestions for single acoustic guitar tracks

U

underp

Member
What's up guys ? .... sorry about that question :)

i never thought i was going to ask for this, with so many info going in and going out of the forum.

Anyway...

(i got a session from a rock band here in town, and they only have 1 acoustic guitar track in the project)

i want to make something special with the guitar, at the beginning of the song, and i'm afraid of doing something unprofessional ( like adding something that i think it works, when in fact is doesn't help at all ).

i'm looking for some basic suggestion for room or hall density, feedback, reverb time, delay timing suggestions. anything you think works great in these cases.


thanks you very much :)
 
Check out the fabulous MSH-1A SDC, a matched pair is less than $50 and are excellent for acoustic guitar. There are more clips here.

Put one about a foot from the seventh fret, one about a foot from the soundhole.
 
Just by reading your question I assume that they did the tracking on their own and gave it to you for mixing, right?
For what I've found it worked for me you con do a couple of things...

-double it with delay, set it up at 30-40 miliseconds, low feedback, 100% wet, and then pan it to the opposite to the dry signal.

That will open it up big time, you can also use a chorus, and a slight detuner for a more jungly sound.
 
Before I can really offer suggestions, how did they track it?

Assuming they tracked it with only one mic, and the mic was up close to the guitar, what I would do is take your best single speaker, place it in your best sounding room, and take two mics in an x/y config and record the sound of the speaker playing the recorded guitar part in the room. Then I'd mix that stereo room sound gently in with the original recorded guitar part.

I'll take actual mics picking up actual room sound over digital effects any day.

Of course, all of that is assuming it was recorded the way I guessed.
 
SpotlightKid83 said:
I assume that they did the tracking on their own and gave it to you for mixing, right?
Click to expand...
yep, that's correct.

the guitar was recorded, with only one mic i think.

it doesn't really have a big rol, once the song reach the choruses. But it has a big rol in the intro, and i want to make something special.

-------------------------------------------

Chibi Nappa said:
what I would do is take your best single speaker, place it in your best sounding room, and take two mics in an x/y config and record the sound of the speaker playing the recorded guitar part in the room
Click to expand...

sounds interesting... that would probably, modify the original sound character. (something great could happen, who knows).


any other tip?
 
depending on how the guitar part was recorded (strummed or picked) and what you want to end up with....you might copy the track to another track w/ a slight delay...(5 mS ? experiment) pan one track a little to the left and the other the same amount to the right.
 
underp said:
i wish i could post a sample... it's something like.... let me see... mmm....

"dust in the wind" ?
Click to expand...

I read an interview w/ Kerry Livgren (who wrote the song), & they layered several guitars for that song - I don't remember how many. It surprised me, since it sounds like one guitar. I may still have the magazine around...I'll have to look that up.
 
I did an improptu acoustic multitrack recording in an apartment many years ago that was one acoustic bass (soundhole pickup) and three acoustic guitars (miked various ways, but all mono tracked). We recorded live as it happened and I added some blues harp and vocals to it after the fact. We recorded three songs; Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See", and the Beatles "Let It Be". Considering the impromptu circumstances and entry-level gear used, the tracking came out pretty good.

I brought the tape back to my place for mixing, and I played around with it all a bit just to see what could be done. On "Let It Be", at one point I inserted an old Alesis QuadraVerb 2 into the lead acoustic guitar channel and started "channel surfing" through the different effects on the QV2 just to see what happened. I hit the Quad Chorus and got a really great full stereo sound on the lead acoustic that, with the un-touched (except for just a smattering of differential EQ) acoustic guitars behind it combined to give a really cool final mix.

Just food for thought. It's not always appropriate, of course, but there are times when the unusual idea of throwing a thick chorus under an acoustic guitar can give some interesting results. I probably wouldn't use it on "Dust in The Wind", though (the cynical part of me says the only thing I'd use on "DitW" is the Mute button, but I'll be nice and not say that ;) :D ).

But the more general idea is just experimenting with some stereo effects like that can lead you down some interesting roads that may not sond like they should work very well if you think about them, but can be quite interesting when you actually try them out.

G.
 
let it stand ,...

if the acoustic track is good quality,then add a small amount of stereo revereb,give the tone some body,a small bit of comp/limt,..turn it up in mix,...it should speak proud,:)dobrocop.
 
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time slip,..

my goodness ,.is this forum that old? thats a good point,but it would still be good to know what he finally did? i will keep an eye on the dates from now on,..thanks for pointing it out,...i just had to lauh,...cheers.:D
 
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