WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
Thanks Mr Blues! I appreciate that.
Acoustic Guitar Recording 101
- Thread starter WhiteStrat
- Start date
Thanks Mr Blues! I appreciate that.
Whoa!!! I think I just learned more from your post in 15 minutes than I have from reading anything else in my life. Thank you so much. The sound clips made all the difference in the world. I could stay here and listen/read your various threads, but I need to go and give this a try on my little Fostex HD-8, which will not compare to your setup, but I now at least have a good starting place for mic placement and a recording theory to pursue. I even copied your info to a file and kept it.
One question......I'm not sure if sound phase problems occurred that I would even hear them......so what is this business about using two mics possibly creating out of phase recordings, I think it has something to do with unequal distances to the sound source. If it occurs, how can I tell its happening? Finally, how can I find all your other technique posts? THANK you.
One question......I'm not sure if sound phase problems occurred that I would even hear them......so what is this business about using two mics possibly creating out of phase recordings, I think it has something to do with unequal distances to the sound source. If it occurs, how can I tell its happening? Finally, how can I find all your other technique posts? THANK you.
WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
Hmmm...I just checked the files and they all worked for me. Can you try again?
blackscot
New member
Great post! Although I have been playing acoustic guitar for something close to 40 years, I am just now struggling with my first serious attempt at recording any of my stuff. I'm finding that I have been wasting a lot of time with bad mic set-ups and other forms of not knowing what-the-heck I'm doing. Thanks for giving me some new approaches to try out.
Great Article...My wife recently bought me a Blue Bluebird for Valentines day so that I can record my Martin D1 (which coincidently she purchased for me 2 Valentines ago), and although the mic sounded great right out of the box and setting it right in front of the sound hole, by playing around with the placement of the mic as outlined in this article really made it shine. Now, if I can get my hands on two of these things, maybe I’ll be able to go for more stereo sound as suggested (even though recording right around the 12th fret facing the sound hole sounds amazing enough).
Cheers on a job well done!
Cheers on a job well done!
WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
Congrats on the new mic and thanks for the kind words. I look forward to hearing some recorded samples!
WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
Dude--don't be polluting my acoustic guitar thread with your spam! Carry on...
Hi, thanks a lot for this writeup and 2 questions:
1) How exactly do you double track? Do you have a click track or do you just have the first take play back to your phones?
2) I'm going to record my frist stereo acoustic track. I have a Rode NT2A mic and an Audio Technika 4021, do you think it's a good idea to combine these two mics in the same setup that you used? Or do you really need a matched pair (of the Audio Technicas in my case?)?
1) How exactly do you double track? Do you have a click track or do you just have the first take play back to your phones?
2) I'm going to record my frist stereo acoustic track. I have a Rode NT2A mic and an Audio Technika 4021, do you think it's a good idea to combine these two mics in the same setup that you used? Or do you really need a matched pair (of the Audio Technicas in my case?)?
WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
1) Both. I use a click track, or play along with drums if the song's got drums. Then for the second track, I play it back again with the first guitar track in place. I usually send the first guitar to hard left (even if I don't want it there in the final mix) while I'm recording the second one. This seems to "make room" in my hearing so I can tell the two tracks apart and hear them both--helps to tell if the two guits are tight enough together.
2) Nope--you don't need a matched pair. I've had great results mixing mics up as well--a small diaphragm condenser on the neck, and a large diaphragm condenser on the body is one of my favorite combinations. So by all means, mix 'em up!
Great writeup!
I've been playing a lot of acoustic stuff lately so this is right up my alley. Looking to actually start trying to lay some of it down very soon and wanted to make sure I had some good ideas how to do that in a quality way.
I do have a question - for finger-picking on classical guitars would you make any changes to the distance of the mic's from the guitar? How about positions of mic's?
I imagine it would be close to the same thing - but I've always found that using a pick is much more 'bright', and carries with it more volume, where as sometimes the subtle nuances of fingerpicking can be tough to hear because they're typically quieter (at least in my playing style).
I've been playing a lot of acoustic stuff lately so this is right up my alley. Looking to actually start trying to lay some of it down very soon and wanted to make sure I had some good ideas how to do that in a quality way.
I do have a question - for finger-picking on classical guitars would you make any changes to the distance of the mic's from the guitar? How about positions of mic's?
I imagine it would be close to the same thing - but I've always found that using a pick is much more 'bright', and carries with it more volume, where as sometimes the subtle nuances of fingerpicking can be tough to hear because they're typically quieter (at least in my playing style).
Can you please explain one more thing? When you say "way down", how "down" exactly is it? So the track is barely heard or just mute? If the latter, then I don't see what you mean when you say "I kept all 4 tracks". Thanks!
WhiteStrat, thanks very much for the write-up. As everyone has already said, it was very informative and the step-by-step sound clips were EXCELLENT for someone like me who is getting depressed with trying to work my way forward from getting a decent raw, dry sound to a finished product.
I was wondering if you could give some more details on the "mix" side of things. The mic placement techniques and mic/preamp equipment is all understood, but when I listen to your dry tracks followed immediately by your "polished" tracks, it gives me hope that maybe my dry tracks are not as bad as I thought. Would you be able to give more details on the compressor and/or EQ used? Are they plug-ins within your software? What types of settings did you use? I typically mess around all day with mic placement but hit a wall when it comes to producing the raw tracks.
Thanks again.
Oh and by the way, do you have any more acoustic guitar and/or vocal recordings I could check out? I'd love to hear some more. It's tough to find good, quality recordings from home studios, nevermind ones that give you details on the equipment, settings, and techniques used.
I was wondering if you could give some more details on the "mix" side of things. The mic placement techniques and mic/preamp equipment is all understood, but when I listen to your dry tracks followed immediately by your "polished" tracks, it gives me hope that maybe my dry tracks are not as bad as I thought. Would you be able to give more details on the compressor and/or EQ used? Are they plug-ins within your software? What types of settings did you use? I typically mess around all day with mic placement but hit a wall when it comes to producing the raw tracks.
Thanks again.
Oh and by the way, do you have any more acoustic guitar and/or vocal recordings I could check out? I'd love to hear some more. It's tough to find good, quality recordings from home studios, nevermind ones that give you details on the equipment, settings, and techniques used.
WhiteStrat
Don't stare at the eye.
Thanks, man. It would be much appreciated.
And to give more details on the little bit of time I had to mess around with this yesterday: the mic'ing and panning technique you described really gave a nice separation and fullness on a single take. So far, I've just been double taking everything and panning each one hard left and right, frustrated that a single take wasn't giving me the nice full sound I wanted to hear. To me, a single take acoustic recording has a much more "intimate" vibe (for the right song, anyways), but not being able to capture a full sound with a single take was getting very frustrating.
Now that I can make that happen, I can really focus more on figuring out exactly which equipment will give me the sound quality I want. I am also looking forward to your mix details post so that I can make sure I'm getting the most out of my current setup. But I can already tell that some serious acoustic treatment and hardware upgrades are in order.
And one last quick question: how would you compare your preamp quality to that of other, more readily available preamps on the market? I know you got yours in a group buy and that they aren't available, so I'm trying to make a comparison in my mind of your raw signal quality with that of the finished product to gauge what I need to spend to get to the sound quality level I'm looking for. Thanks again for your help.
On some recordings I like a large diaphram condenser at the twelth fret aimed at the sound hole, and a small diphram condeser mic about 3 feet away picking up more of the ambient sound of the room. I have Glenn Frye Takamine, and that arrangement sounds good for some things.
i want to record acoustic guitar to my laptop.(toshiba satellite L505) i have a mackie 1220 w/o firewire nor do i have ports on my laptop. what should i use to record my acoustic(taylor acoustic/electric)