Suggestions for recording acoustic guitar

B

brianach

New member
Hi all, I have a few questions about recording acoustic guitar and would be glad to get any tips you might have from your own experience. Of course the key is to experiment and I will do so in any case once my new gear arrives but I figured it'd be useful to get some input here as well.

I'll be recording solo instrumental stuff, some of the songs have percussive bits as well. Think long-way-off Tommy Emmanuel / Tony McManus / Andy McKee kind of stuff and you'll get the idea. The gear I have / will have is the following:

Zoom H4n
MXL 603s
SM57
Pickup is Fishman Rare Earth Blend (soundhole + internal mic)

I've been reading up on different techniques on recording but does anyone have any tips about how they got on when trying to record in this style? This is what I'm thinking I might try once I get set up - MXL 603s around the 12th fret, the H4n mics on the bridge. Include the DI from the pickup as well that I might add to the mix, with it set more on the internal mic as opposed to the soundhold pickup. Any thoughts?

Some other questions:
The H4n is set up in XY with two mics, if I'm using this on the bridge (the MXL as my main mic on the neck), then should I just treat the H4n as one mic and put it facing the bridge in XY, or should I point one of the mics facing the bridge and get rid of the other one in the mix. I'm just wondering how it turns out when you do XY at the bridge, if one ends up too boomy from the soundhole and the other not picking up enough because it's pointed away.

Any tips on getting the percussive hits on the guitar body? They'll all be picked up with the mics and pickup anyway but I'm wondering if anyone has mic'd in a certain way which might be able to give you a track with a focus on the percussion that you can then play with and put into the rest of the mix.

In terms of the SM57, should I be trying to include this somehow? I tried it as a room mic but found that the gain needed added too much hiss. Would you usually think in terms of trying to get as many mics to work with or just to keep it minimal and simple?

Anyway, I know these are general enough questions and I intend on trying every which way to get the best recording I can, but it never does any harm to hear from people who have already tried something similar.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
 
It sounds like you have a really good handle on this. The sticky mentioned along with scanning youtube for tutorials will add to it. Here's something we tried that worked when I was recording a blind guitarist with his 1941 Gibson acoustic. (you need the sound hole to be clear) He so liked the sound of the small diaphragm condenser mic that he asked if we could try slipping it into the guitar body through the sound hole. We did. I have never heard such a sweet buttery sound with almost no finger or nail sounds. If your sound hole is clear, give one take a shot like that. I know it sounds weird. I honestly thought there would be lots of feedback. We encountered none. Even at that late time in my career I found that trying new things, no matter how odd, never hurts. Good luck,
Rod Norman
Engineer

brianach said:
Hi all, I have a few questions about recording acoustic guitar and would be glad to get any tips you might have from your own experience. Of course the key is to experiment and I will do so in any case once my new gear arrives but I figured it'd be useful to get some input here as well.

I'll be recording solo instrumental stuff, some of the songs have percussive bits as well. Think long-way-off Tommy Emmanuel / Tony McManus / Andy McKee kind of stuff and you'll get the idea. The gear I have / will have is the following:

Zoom H4n
MXL 603s
SM57
Pickup is Fishman Rare Earth Blend (soundhole + internal mic)

I've been reading up on different techniques on recording but does anyone have any tips about how they got on when trying to record in this style? This is what I'm thinking I might try once I get set up - MXL 603s around the 12th fret, the H4n mics on the bridge. Include the DI from the pickup as well that I might add to the mix, with it set more on the internal mic as opposed to the soundhold pickup. Any thoughts?

Some other questions:
The H4n is set up in XY with two mics, if I'm using this on the bridge (the MXL as my main mic on the neck), then should I just treat the H4n as one mic and put it facing the bridge in XY, or should I point one of the mics facing the bridge and get rid of the other one in the mix. I'm just wondering how it turns out when you do XY at the bridge, if one ends up too boomy from the soundhole and the other not picking up enough because it's pointed away.

Any tips on getting the percussive hits on the guitar body? They'll all be picked up with the mics and pickup anyway but I'm wondering if anyone has mic'd in a certain way which might be able to give you a track with a focus on the percussion that you can then play with and put into the rest of the mix.

In terms of the SM57, should I be trying to include this somehow? I tried it as a room mic but found that the gain needed added too much hiss. Would you usually think in terms of trying to get as many mics to work with or just to keep it minimal and simple?

Anyway, I know these are general enough questions and I intend on trying every which way to get the best recording I can, but it never does any harm to hear from people who have already tried something similar.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts!
Click to expand...
 
Right above this thread is a sticky: Acoustic Guitar Recordng 101

Check that out first.
Click to expand...

I had a look already, thanks, it's some good information. I've been reading up about mic placements generally so maybe I should rephrase my original post instead of keeping it too vague. Two of my main questions were about the H4n on the bridge. Because it's an XY setup, do people have any experience with using it this way or would you just set it up in such a way that one of the internal mics is facing the bridge and disregard the other mic? I'll try both ways once my other mic shows up but I'm wondering if anyone here has any info on it.

The second main question was about placement for a mic to primarily get the percussive hits on the guitar without too much of the strings. This would let me have a bit of separation to eq or put reverb more or less just on the percussion without affecting the notes. I'm not sure if there's an established mic placement for this (I haven't come across it in any of the info I've read up to now) so I just wanted to check if anyone has found something that works well for them.
 
I think you'll need to do a fair amount of experimenting to find the best combo in your situation. If your recording room does not have any acoustic treatment (bass traps, etc), then you are going to want to close mic as much as possible.
Not sure the Zoom's built-in mics are going to give you a great sound at the bridge, but you can certainly try. I typically use a 2 mic method - one mic pointing at the 12th fret 6-12" away from the guitar, and another pointing at the lower bout, which I blend in just a little bit to the overall mix. I have tried the DI as well, but seldom use it in the final mix any more - I did when I was still experimenting with techniques to add a little high end.
 
SOme of the "good" cheap LDC's can make a guitar "shine".....Studio Projects B1, Sterling st51, def. NOT an AT 2020...while a great cheap mic, has a bit of mid-bass sound IMO.
I record with the aforementioned mics and find above from behind facing down at the neck joint, a couple feet above, to be pretty good, and a foot or so away in front of the bridge pointing just to the edge of the soundhole.
Matt Noell's concreteblue Music, Lyrics, Songs, and Videos
 
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