Recording acoustic guitar

Benreturns

New member
I do this:
Samson C01 condenser into a Tascam488mkII channel pre. The mic is about 4-6 inches away from the bridge of the guitar (i have moved it around). No acoustic treatment in this room (possibly a solution but not sure). Compression 2:1 on way in. I play the guitar and it is lifeless, dull and tinny on tape.
Problem:
There is no texture no matter how much different EQ I apply or reverb etc... and as soon as i place in a mix with other instruments and vocals etc... it get lost completely unless i pump up the fader then it just sounds akward.

Help!

I listen to R n B tunes and the guitar is sweet and well balanced. Or i listen to the beatles, doing some finger picking on the white album or somthing and it is still there... whats my prob?
 
i'm not a C01 owner. but i have a feeling that samson microphone needs 48 volt phantom power to operate. if the tascam 488 doesnt have phantom power (which i dont think it has - been a long time since i used tascam)
you will need to use another mixer with 48 volt phantom power. eg...yamaha mg mixers are vcheap.
i would suggest a phantom power box, but the yamaha mg mixer is so cheap its prolly not worth it. if your 488 DOES have 48 volt phantom and your using it (maybe they changed it in the mk2 - i dont know) then i'm at a loss.
 
The 488 does have phantom power.

Try losing the compression.

What kind of guitar is it? Are the strings new and good?

Guitar radiates sound from its whole body. Placing one mic that close means that you are catching only part of the guitar's sound. Try more distance, and possible aiming the mic at the guitar obliquely.
 
is this a Large Diaphram condenser? If so, then you need to move it away from the bridge and more up on the neck joint or even higher...get it out and away from the body and you'll have a better chance of capturing the very complex vibrations of the top.Most people find a SmallDiaphram condenser to be a better mic for acoustic guitars simply because of the tighter focus of the pattern. A guitar radiates in all directions at once when being played, and the difference in the frequencies at any two small areas of the top and sides is huge.Using an LD requires more of the overall sound to be picked up in a global setting rather than a small focused area.
 
cavedog101 said:
is this a Large Diaphram condenser?
Samson doesn't make a mic called the C01. Are you referring to the C02?
http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1664&brandID=2

The C02 is a small diaphragm condenser, but it has quite a wild frequency response curve and noticeably high self-noise. Just in case anyone checks it against their website, the frequency response in their documentation is nothing like the mic's actual response.

I think the best suggestion has already been said...to try repositioning the mic to capture more of the guitar's overall sound. To be honest, anything you record with that mic will sound a bit more tinny than you would like.
 
At the risk of being blunt, you're using pretty cheap gear there - I've struggled to get decent acoustic sounds with significantly more expensive equipment - it ain't easy at the best of times. If you haven't already done so, read the the big sticky thread in the Microphone forum - it will give you some thoughts as to how to optimise the sound with the gear that you have. Good luck.
 
I'm not going to be funny because I use the cheapest of cheap gear myself, but the C01 isn't a very good mic. The Studio Projects B1 and SE Electronics SE2200 can be had for the same dough and give you a way better chance of a good sound. Sorry mate!
 
Try positioning the mic around the 8-10th fret, off about 8-12 inches, pointed at the 12th fret or where the neck joins the body.

Next try to double the part, but this time record it with the mic over your right shoulder (switch if you're a lefty) pointed down toward the bridge. The mic should be just past the plane of the soundboard. There's a picture in one of these threads around here of what I'm talking about. Pan this track right and the above 12th fret track left. This should fatten it up and add a significant amount of dimension.

If you can, get a second mic and do both mic positions simultaneously.
 
Armistice said:
If you haven't already done so, read the the big sticky thread in the Microphone forum - it will give you some thoughts as to how to optimise the sound with the gear that you have. Good luck.

I've reduced the big microphone thread down to 70 pages and posted it in two parts. It is in a somewhat coherent form i.e. I've combined relevant information into chapters and sections.

Since I am very much interested in recording an acoustic guitar, you’ll find that I have put special attention to anything related to micing and recording an acoustic guitar.
 
What I do is stick one of those pickups in the guitar. This picks up a lot of delicate string noise. I also stick an SM57 as close as I can to the bridge and a B1 a little farther and higher up the neck but pointing at the bridge.

I think this sounds great. :)
 
wow

This thread has took off and given me some good ideas.
I think I will need to get a better mic. To tell the truth I was havin doubts about vocal quality with it, but thats a whoooooole other thread! Im checking out the mics mentioned above but have also heard good things about the Rode NT1A (which i toyed with the idea of buying a coupla months ago). It seems to be a respected budget mic. Any opinions?

And I guess I'll just have to drastically move the mic positioning around.

Nobody think I need to treat my room at all?
 
Nah

My room doesnt appreciate guestures liek that. Just throws it back in my face by making my sounds reverberate everwhere. even when i put up pics of the Beatles!
 
That's three superb contributions from Mark to this thread ... any other pearls of widsom? Like what colour paint dampens acoustic flutters the best? ;)
 
noisedude said:
That's three superb contributions from Mark to this thread ... any other pearls of widsom? Like what colour paint dampens acoustic flutters the best? ;)

Ahh hell...anyone knows that....it's a nice crap brown. That color is enough to make ANY flutters (acoustic or otherwise) get dampened REALLY fast!
 
I don't think the room's your primary problem - especially for a soft source like acoustic guitar - the problem with this stuff is that there are always 27 different things you can do to make your sound better. At this stage, if you're sticking with your gear, I'd work on mic positioning.

If you're thinking of new gear, then the general consensus is that a small diaphragm condenser will get you a more "accurate" sound on a physically large sound source such as an acoustic guitar. If accuracy is what you want, of course. That ain't the Rode NT1A which is a large diaphragm - read the big sticky thread, all will become clear - people round here generally like MXL603Ss as a good cheap SDC on acoustic guitar. There are many other options, of course.

Welcome to the first steps along the path of upgrade hell!
 
ben.
i would suggest you demo a rane ms1b mic pre some time as well (before buying). this mic pre is favored by a lot of pro's and will probably be better to the pre's your using now by a margin. but only a test will tell how wide you feel the margin is and whether the extra expense is warranted.
try a sdc into it for example.
 
Back
Top