Acoustic Guitar Direct Recording

R

rjbriggs

New member
Does anyone have any ideas on how to record an acoustic electric (I have a Takamine ef-341c) direct? The sound can be very shallow and brittle. I would prefer not to use the mic'd approach and don't want to spend any money on effect units like the Boss AD-5.
Any assistance is much appreciated.
 
Have you tried other pickups that bypass your guitar's internal electronics? I use a sound-hole pickup from George L (somebody swiped my Lawrence) that works pretty well, but good mics sound better. If the sound through the amp is acceptable, a line out from the amp might do the trick.
 
Nothing beats the sound of a properly miked accoustic guitar! Why don't you want to use a microphone?...Noisy neighbors? bratty kids?... I had to build a sound proof room in the garage...and it was sooo worth it! Now my neighbor can run his leaf blower all afternoon...I have beautiful silence. You can find a bedroom and add a little sound muffing blankets and go for it!

Dom Franco
 
Thanks for the help. I've tried the amp line out approach from my Crate acoustic amp and it sounds more acceptable. I would love to be able to use the mic'd approach but don't have the mic's nor the funds right now. I'm fairly new at the recording scene. Thanks again.
 
A miced acoustic on a condenser will always sound better. If you plug the guitar in with its EQ set flat and play with the EQ on your recording equipment, you might get something a little better than what you're getting now, but it won't pass the mustard.
 
How are you sending the guitar signal to your computer? Do you have an audio interface with a guitar-level input? If it sounds a little better using your amp's direct out, then that is probably the answer - you need a preamp in the signal chain to boost the guitar's output.
 
BrianMcNevin said:
A miced acoustic on a condenser will always sound better.
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13 years ago, I would've said "'will always' ? How in the world can you know that ?".
BrianMcNevin said:
If you plug the guitar in with its EQ set flat and play with the EQ on your recording equipment, you might get something a little better than what you're getting now, but it won't pass the mustard.
Click to expand...
And today I'm asking, how in the world can you know that ?
There's a place for final, absolute statements that can never be shaken. The world of recording is rarely that place.
 
Does your current recording setup accomodate two XLR inputs with phantom power? If so, I've got some old Naiant MSH-1 omni mics which can be used to quite good effect recording acoustic. I'd send em off for free - they were cheap enough at the time that I'd rather pay it forward than make a quick buck.
If your interface/etc. can record more than 2 inputs, I would then recommend recording the two mics and the DI out from the guitar as well. With two omnis and a little bit of the high end from the DI mixed in, I get great acoustic recordings (and I'm still using Naiant omni's, they're just a newer series and have less selfnoise than the MSH1's)
 
I've had good results blending the sound from my pick up on my Ibanez acoustic on one channel, with a miced condensor on the other channel
 
Does your recording software have an amp simulator? That can help. Probably passable if the acoustic is a backing part behind electrics. But if you just want acoustic and voice, only micing it will sound good.
 
grimtraveller said:
Brian is a newcomer to the site and probably didn't look at the date of the thread. Easilly done.
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Is it easy to stumble onto a thread that old? If I recall, the search function sorts by newest first... at least the advanced search does. Now I'm not so sure about quick search.

Edit: looks like quick search sorts by last post date, hence how I ended up seeing this thread. Oh well, I'll drop this now :)
 
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