Acoustic mic placement help needed!

JR#97

New member
I recently picked up my first condenser mic and it's giving me some fits. I'm mainly trying to mic my acoustic guitars. I'm trying to get the best sound WITHOUT EQ by using placement and I can't seem to get it right. I tried doing the old standard 6" to 1 ft aimed towards the 10-12th fret. That always worked for my 57.. but with this mic, I'm getting a boxy sound. If I back up a bit, I get more room than I want and lose some immediacy. Make sense? I posted some samples to show what I mean. Go to http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1749&alid=-1 and check out Mic_test and Tennesse. thanks!

Oh, just fyi, those are just experiment tracks... in other words, bad timing, out of tune, lots of string noise and you can even hear my HD. So feel free NOT to comment on that stuff... :D

Oh.. and the mic is a CAD GXL2400...
 
listening on my pc speakers, your guitar sounds pretty good already. The only thing that makes it not so "pro" i think is the reverb/room sound. If you don't have a good sounding room, it's always a good idea to mic closely, then add reverb later.

However, the closer you get, the less natural sound you lose. According to Harvey's thread, the natural sounding spot is about the body length of your guitar away from the guitar, anywhere closer than that would be nearfield. So you gotta play with the mic placement to emphasize certain tones created by certain parts of your guitar when you are micing in the nearfield.

1)A common mic position I read here is: 6"-8" away from the 12th fret aiming slightly off the soundhole.

2)or over the shoulder technique, meaning, having a mic over your shoulder by your ear

3)since you only have one mic, you might wanna try DY if your gtr has a pickup, and with a mic for the stereo image. Of course, you can always double track then pan them.

Anyways, a general idea is closer to the soundhole is boomier, and mic at the frets are brighter. Good luck, and I am sure someone more experienced will offer alot better/more clearly than me.

AL
 
by the way, Free Myself is a real nice tune, I will have to check out all of your stuff one day.

AL
 
As I have said before , I know nothing about mic placement etc., but I listened to 'Tennesse' and I liked the playing and the melody, and I thought the sound was pretty good over here.. Other than the things you mentioned, it's a pretty sweet guitar piece..



sorry I can't be of any help, but that is the story of my life..
 
the kind of stuff youre playing reminds me a little of phil keaggy who is an acoustic guitar virtuoso.

ive seen him live a couple of times. just him and the acoustic guitar and he gets the "immediacy" thing with his soundhole pickup and probably has another piezo pickup under the bridge.

for recording a lot of players will use a pickup for the immediacy and a mic for a smooth nice sound.

i like to record acoustic with a large condenser at a distance of maybe 2 feet or so.

you see the bluegrass guys on tv all standing around an AT large condenser and thats kinda what i go for.

i dont play the real intricate stuff tho.

if i was you i would run a search for phil keaggy's recording techniques.

if you cant find his then maybe al dimeola's or whoever you like.

theres bound to be a lot of info.

good luck!

:)
 
Man JR, These are just beautiful pieces of guitar work. I just love hearing the fingers on an acoustic, some might not dig that, but it makes the songs for me. Sorry I don't know anything about your micing question, but there don't seem to be drastic issues here to me. Keep picking that guitar like that, it's wonderful, thanks :D
 
"free myself"

i am really liking. it is a bit wordy...there are a few minor pitch issues.

who is singing?

you should record this song again with your new mic technnique....and get a perfect vocal take.

the little guitar lick is almost lifted from Pachelbels Canon in D....not that it should be changed. gives the song a great feel...

-wes
 
Good Lord JR.......Tennessee is just fantastic.Killer playing.....are you playing with a standard tune or open tuning?Man,you are one of the best acoustic players I've heard.This is sweet.

I know nothing about mic placement but I had to comment on the tune.
 
A1A2: I need to find this "Harvey Thread" I keep hearing about. Thanks for the tips. I've tried a few of those. The problem I run into is that I don't generate a whole lot of volume when I fingerpick, so I've had a hard time finding the sweet spot yet still get enough level. I think I'm going to try the over the shoulder idea with a second mic.

B.Sabbath: thanks for the comments.

Jeap: I have a Phill Keaggy CD. Dude is awesome. Ironically, the CD I have of his is electric... but I have heard quite a bit of his acoustic work. I might try getting a sound hole pickup. I've got a Sansamp Acoustic DI that I experimented blending in and it helped, but it wasn't quite what I was after. There's a sample on my NWR with different levels of DI vs. Mic.

Barometer: Thanks man!

Wes480: Thanks man... actually, for Free Myself, I blatently lifted 2 parts of Pach's Canon. I can do the whole Canon fingerstyle, so I figured why not. Mic Test is an original. I have a sequenced version with a whole string section. That is the piece that I was trying to get the good mic'd sound with. I'm hoping the mix will be full enough that I can get away with less than steller mic placement.

Kramer: Thanks man. Tuning for those 2 pieces is DADGAD capoe'd at the 2nd. The capo gets the sonics in normal guitar range and takes up a bit of the flabbiness of the dropped strings. Thanks for the praise. Tennessee was just me goofing off. I wish I had written that one.

Since most people don't seem to be noticing the boxy sound I do, maybe it's just me? Anywho, I'm going to have to try the 2 mic approach tonight. Thanks for the love!
 
to enhance your fine sounding gtr, I think you are going to need another mic (or two) and a GOOD recording environment. Back up one good condensor to get a good overall sound, and your close in mic will be added until you get the 'intamacy' you want. And/or stereo too. The room WILL make the difference. Try recording possibly in a brighter room (kitchen?) ...or go the opposite route and record in the (living room?). This should give you an indication of the direction you might want to go, by using these two extremes. Getting rid of a lot of that background noise will go a LONG way in improving your sound. You'll gain back that "intamacy" that is getting covered up by your computer hacking away.
 
Thats good guitar on tennesse ,thats what fingerstyle is all about ..the guitar sound,no effects ,squeeks n'all.
I downloaded med slide the otherday i liked it alot.
Dug out the peter lang cd's too.
 
I'M NO HELP, BUT...

Hey JR - I know this thread is all about YOU and stuff...but I have a totally lame question. In my life, I've written a grand total of 1 tune in DADGAD tuning, and it was really just a process of kinda' moving my fingers around the fretboard until I found "chords" that didn't seem to totally clash. You do a lot of stuff in this tuning. Is there any kind of a manual or guide that might give a lazy S.O.B. like me a headstart in "chording" in this tuning?

Both tunes sounded too cool and engaging for me to concentrate on sound issues. I tried, but failed. Just really enjoyable.

don't laugh too loud at my question if it's totally lame. A simple "NO" will do just fine. :D
-chris
 
JR#97,

I really liked Tennessee. Even the mic_test was great. You do have a gift for taking the raw sound of an accustic, without effects, and reaching out to the listener. Great job.

As far as mic placement, depending on what sort of sound I'm looking for determines where I put it. Just to experiment sometime, try using the SM57 at 6"- 8" from 12th fret on one track, and the large diaphragm condenser 6' - 8' away in front of you or even placed behind you just over your shoulder, on another track. Then work with blending the two tracks.

<><
George
 
chrisharris: here's another good link for some DADGAD stuff..click here . for the most part, I'm like you.. move my fingers around until something sounds right. I do cover quite a few of DADGAD tunes and that's helped with my knowledge of tuning, although I couldn't tell you chord names or anything.

mixmkr: I'm pretty convinced my room sucks. I think I'm going to try for the ultra-dry room. I just need to set up all my aurelex from my last place. I'll be sure to give your mic suggestions a try.

george and reddish: Thanks for the comments. I think sometimes getting a solo acoustic guitar to the audience is harder than a group or band. Nowhere to hide and since I dont' sing, it really adds the pressure when trying to entertain people for more than 5 minutes at a time. But the experience I've gained gigging and learning tunes is apparently paying off.
 
JR#97,

Back when I got my first large condenser mic and started trying to learn computer recording, I experimented with it on the guitar. I placed it over my left shoulder. It was a Studio Projects C1 thru an ART Tube MP pre. Here is the link to hear what it sounded like:

Breath of Eden

I'm posting it hear because it's a pretty sloppy recording with timing, sync, EQ, and recording problems to say the least. But for my first try at micing an accustic, it wasn't that bad of a sound. Mind you I'm not much of a guitar player, which will be apparently obvious when you hear it, but maybe it will give you some more ideas with micing your accustic.

Oh by the way, I did get grossly over-dramatic on this one so don't pay attention to the storm at the beginning and the end. :D

<><
George
 
George, I listened to Eden.. very nice. Do you have a sample of the raw guitar track using the over the shoulder technique?
 
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