acoustic guitar mics

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finchfinch

New member
Hey,

I'm looking to record acoustic guitar and vocals. I haven't purchased an audio interface yet but I've narrowed it down to firebox mobile and MOTU Ultralite mk2.

What's the best way to record acoustic guitar? I know you can use a matched pair or pencil condenser mics and experiment with positioning etc. But professionals also use 1 pencil condensor mic accompanied with a large diaphram condensor mic. Any thoughts?

Also I know it's a big ask but if you guys have any sample recordings using the above mic techniques/audio interface it would be much appreciated if you would share.

Thanks
 
Usually one would place on mic around the 12th fret position back about a foot or less, and another head level over the fret board pointed down to it around 3rd fret position....
 
Here is something i did a while ago
i used a behringer b1 into a tubepre and then into a h4n interfaced to cubase
the position was about 4 inches from 12th fret pointed to the sound hole.
I think it was too close, too much proximity.
 

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I use a couple of different small diaphragm condensers from time to time, but you can't go too wrong with the Okatava MK-012 (or MC-012) - I use these when I want the guitar to be featured - here's a mp3 with actually 2 mono tracks, 1 for the strumming and one for the lead. It's got some compression, but no other effects:



both tracks are with a MC-012 using a modded MOTU pre (Black Lion Audio modified Traveler)
 
antichef said:
I use a couple of different small diaphragm condensers from time to time, but you can't go too wrong with the Okatava MK-012 (or MC-012) - I use these when I want the guitar to be featured - here's a mp3 with actually 2 mono tracks, 1 for the strumming and one for the lead. It's got some compression, but no other effects:



both tracks are with a MC-012 using a modded MOTU pre (Black Lion Audio modified Traveler)
Click to expand...

is that recording just using 1 mc-012? what interface you going through, I would definitely be happy with that sound!
 
antichef said:
I use a couple of different small diaphragm condensers from time to time, but you can't go too wrong with the Okatava MK-012 (or MC-012) - I use these when I want the guitar to be featured - here's a mp3 with actually 2 mono tracks, 1 for the strumming and one for the lead. It's got some compression, but no other effects:



both tracks are with a MC-012 using a modded MOTU pre (Black Lion Audio modified Traveler)
Click to expand...

yup or shure 81's
 
finchfinch said:
is that recording just using 1 mc-012? what interface you going through, I would definitely be happy with that sound!
Click to expand...
Yes, that's just one, except that it's two tracks - I played the "rhythm" part and the lead part separately, then panned each slightly left and right. The preamp/interface was my MOTU traveler that was modded by Black Lion. Usually I record the acoustic in stereo, but not that time.

As Big Kenny mentioned, SM81s are nice, too - I tend to use those when I want the guitar to blend in with a mix more.
 
There simply is no "best" way to record acoustic guitar. The only thing on which there is general (not total) agreement is that condenser mics are usually used. Occasionally a ribbon mic slips in. You can use one or 2 mics, or in some cases even more. You can used matched or unmatched pairs, including small and large diaphragm mics in any combination. It's all good.

I more commonly use one mic when the guitar has to cut through a dense mix, and 2 matched mics for featured/solo acoustic. As far as the mics that work for me, for a single mic I usually use B.L,U.E. Bluebird or AKG C414B-ULS. For 2 mics, I usually use a pair of Neumann KM184's. Interestingly enough, I own a B.L.U.E. Kiwi, which is a hell of a lot more expensive than a Bluebird. It's my main vocal mic, but I don't often use it for acoustic. I also own the Oktava's, but in that price range I prefer AKG C2000B.

Especially for solo acoustic, I often use MS (mid-side) stereo recording, which requires one unidirectional mic and a figure-8. For that, I usually use one of the KM184's for the cardioid, and the C424 for the figure-8.-Richie
 
It also depends on whether you are talking about strummed or finger-picked acoustic guitar. It seems to me no one around here ever really discusses finger-picked guitar recording, which has been much more difficult for me than recording an acoustic guitar that is being strummed or picked with a pick.

For finger-picking I like some omnis in a decent room (running two Naiant X-M's through an M-Audio DMP-3 into a Presonus Firepod's line-inputs works quite well).

For strummed or picked-with-a-pick parts, I use an LDC in mono, and double-track the guitar parts (in this case, a Rode K2 with 60's Telefunken replaced tube through the same DMP-3 and interface).

I've gotten good results in those instances with those mic choices. Don't have any samples on me at the moment, but I can post later if I find the time :)

For the omnis, I'd probably recommend the DMP-3 over any stock preamps in a cheap interface (and I consider the Firepod to be cheap, not just bashing the under-$100 stuff), as it has a lot of clean gain for the price.
 
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