Acoustic Guitar Mics... Any Thought? (No Large Diaphragms)

CapacityWKS.

CapacityWKS.

New member
So I have an SE2200a mic for my vocals with which I love.
But it picks up my breathing when I'm recording my acoustic. (which drives me mental)
Obviously, I can't hold my breath during my takes.

Any idea's on which mics will do a great job recording my acoustic without picking up me breathing!
I was wondering about pencil mics?

Anyone have idea's?
 
Actually, pencil mics are worse. Think of them as the little lens in your motel door. They see big because they are small. There's some benefit to a tighter polar pattern- hyper or supercardioid, but even that is limited. Welcome to the world of- the skill set of a recording artist is different than the skill set of a live performer. The only real solution is to learn to breath more evenly and slowly, so it doesn't make noise. Everything else is just putting your finger in a dike. Interestingly enough, once I learned to do that, my scuba tanks lasted 15 minutes longer! There are no machines that fix bad technique, and noisy breathing *is* bad technique for a recording artist. You don't like noise? Then don't make noise.-Richie
 
Yeah, that is kinda weird. Either you breath pretty freakin loud, or you have the mic placed wrong.
 
I'd recommend against those Naiants.

I have one that i like but the omni patterns just gonna be a nightmare if you're a loud breather.
Idk, maybe the mic being so close to the body might be ok, but I wouldn't be sure if you're that loud.



I'd go with something that has a tight directional pattern, and if possible try to put your head in the null.

Maybe have the mic pointing downwards on the guitar?

Positioning is probably going to be the greater percentage of the solution here, unless you can breather quieter as mentioned :P
 
It's not that I'm this troll that is just a freaking heavy breather.. (maybe I'm troll-like... i dunno!)

But my mic picks up everything. I can even pick up what my fiance is watching on tv with the volume at 3 down stairs with two closed doors.
I've tried breathing through my nose and that seems louder.
I've tried having that Vox Guard pointed at the down ward angle.
I have no clue what to do next.
my fiance doesn't seem to think I'm a heavy breather... but maybe she likes that sort of thing and doesn't want me to stop???

I'm at a loss!

I guess no one has ever had that problem! Damn.
 
Just the reverse, Capacity! We *all* have that problem. It is an unfortunate fact of life that microphones are made to pick up sound, and that's what they do. You can't train them to ignore unwanted noise, and mostly, you can't remove that unwanted noise after the fact without removing part of the music, if at all. We of the acoustic persuasion suffer the most, because our source is very delicate. You can cover up a lot of noise with a death metal band, not so much with a mandolin. I am lucky enough to have a room that shuts out most of the outside world, but not the house. When the red light is on, my wife is exiled to the 3rd floor bedroom to read quietly with the cats, who are also banished. No one can walk on the second floor, or use the bathroom. Television? Not without headphones. I have to unplug the sump pump, turn off the heat, kill the pool timer (it ticks), lose the watch (the Neumanns can hear it ticking 10' away). I know the train schedules by heart. The simple horrifying fact is that recording acoustic music requires absolute elimination of ambient noise, and good mics and preamps will reveal noises you didn't even know were there. Furthermore, the more noise you have, the more it costs to make it go away. Do a search on "vocal booth", which is sort of an isolation box for humans. It's a royal pain in the ass, but it might be a partial solution for you. We all feel your pain, and every one of us that records acoustic music has been where you are. We're there for you, but there really is no magic wand. Mics record whatever sound is there, and you can't really change that. Good luck.-Richie
 
Not disagreeing with Richard in the slightest; He's right, but,

How loud are you playing and how are you monitoring.

The reason I ask is I've had a few singers who demand to have the headphones louder and louder and louder then they sing like a scared mouse.

They never believe you until you prove it to them, but IDK.
It's just a guess but is your gain too high and your playing too quiet?

It is amazing just how different the levels are between casual playing and recording sometimes.

Anyone that's ever done a drum soundcheck (read- wasted their time) knows what I'm talking about. :p

I think it's made worse in a home recording setup cos we don't always feel comfortable belting it out, whether it's vocals/guitar/whatever.
 
I am a fan of simple solutions, so what I'm offering here is not meant as a joke nor to be rude.
I would consider breathing through your mouth and using a snorkel to redirect the air coming out of your mouth away from the microphone or near the null of the microphone. You will probably get some resonance in the snorkel from the moving air. Maybe you could wrap it in a deadening material. Or you could try making a sort of Jecklin Disk to place in between your face and the microphone.
Thinking about this, it actually sounds like fun to fool around with some of these techniques...
...I'm off to the garage to look for an old snorkel.
 
brother rat said:
I am a fan of simple solutions, so what I'm offering here is not meant as a joke nor to be rude.
I would consider breathing through your mouth and using a snorkel to redirect the air coming out of your mouth away from the microphone or near the null of the microphone. You will probably get some resonance in the snorkel from the moving air. Maybe you could wrap it in a deadening material. Or you could try making a sort of Jecklin Disk to place in between your face and the microphone.
Thinking about this, it actually sounds like fun to fool around with some of these techniques...
...I'm off to the garage to look for an old snorkel.
Click to expand...

LMAO. I believe you that you weren't trying to be funny, but wow.
You definitely made me laugh :):)
 
So Solly, Bro Rat, but your (bizarre) suggestion runs contrary to known laws of physics. As I stated above, I'm a diver, so it would be fair to say that snorkels are a strong suit with me. A snorkel's lumen is smaller than the trachea, and restricts air flow. When a fluid is compressed, pressure rises, like when you place your thumb over a hose to constrict water flow. That's why we decrease the size of our mouths to whistle. Pressure, and a moving fluid in contact with a resonant object (all objects have some resonance) equals sound. That's why we call them SPL's (sound pressure levels). A snorkel will greatly *increase* noise. OK, maybe if you had 2 feet of concrete around that snorkel, you could direct the sound somewhere else, but it would be very interesting to see you try it. You decrease breathing noise by opening your mouth *wider*. Try it, and listen. That's no problem when playing guitar. Just open your mouth wider, and breath slower to decrease fluid pressure. The hard part is to learn to do this while you are singing. You have to anticipate when you are going to have to breathe, open your mouth wide open, back off from the mic as much as possible, and take as much air as the time in the music allows you to. Welcome to the world of a recording artist.-Richie
 
I use the focusrite pro 40 as an interface.
At the moment I don't have a mic pre so I'm going directly in.
The pre's on the pro40 are stupidly quiet and I do need to have my levels in between 9 - 10 just to get a decent recording level.
I've messed with the saffire mix control and its the same thing.
I am about ready to build that iso box for my head!
 
CapacityWKS. said:
But it picks up my breathing when I'm recording my acoustic.
Any idea's on which mics will do a great job recording my acoustic without picking up me breathing!
Click to expand...
Best solution - get used to playing guitar without breathing audibly. The source sound is everything re quality. Long term solution though... practice, practice, practice, heh.

Second best solution (and good if you record others whose practicing you can't control, haha) - use a very directional mic on the guitar, fairly close. Many cardioid mic's pick up a lot from the side. Try a hypercardiod condenser or bi-directional ribbon mic. They both tend to have lots of proximity effect so roll off the low end if it's too strong.

Edit: ...angle the hyper or bi-directional mic so the breathing is as much in the mic's pickup pattern null as possible. A bi-directional mic is pretty easy to arrange this way. I use the Fathead II. Straight to the side of the mic has almost complete rejection. But there are a lot of variables with mic selection. Good luck with it.
 
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I'll add that a good thing about omni mics, like the Nainants, is that you can put them VERY close to the guitar without getting any proximity-effect boominess.
 
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