Acoustic Guitar

J

Jack Real

New member
Hi

I'm working on a new song and I might use an acoustic guitar for that one. Can you comment on the recording that I made ? The song is called "Song10 (acoustinc guitar)" on the link:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2872&alid=-1

I used a Sure KSM27 and an AKG C535EB to give some space to the recording. I also used the Guitar Ambiance reverb of my Lexicon. Any suggestions on how I can improve the recording ?

Thanks,

Jack Real.
 
Hi

Thanks for the feedback. The mics were about 1 foot from the guitar. When I apply the Guitar Ambiance reverb, it pushes things back a bit. If I use this guitar in the song and I want it more upfront in the mix, I probably won't use the ambiance reverb.

Thanks,

Jack Real.

get2sammyb said:
It feels quite distant from the mic. I like what you are playing though.
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Hey, Jack....sounds really cool. I like what you are playing, and think it sould fit in a tune nicely. Very pretty sounding.
Ed
 
Hi Ed

Thanks for the feedback. I've put the rest of the song that is in progress (no real lyrics yet). It is called "Song 10":

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2872&alid=-1

Since the electric guitar is on the left, I'm thinking about having the acoustic guitar on the right, we'll see. I will also add a background string, flute or organ.

/Jack Real.

Dogman said:
Hey, Jack....sounds really cool. I like what you are playing, and think it sould fit in a tune nicely. Very pretty sounding.
Ed
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Jack, very cool and jazzy sounds here. Sounds really good. I like the tune.
Ed
 
Hi Ed

Thanks for listening. I also like that song a lot. Will continue working on it.

Cheers,

Jack Real.

Dogman said:
Jack, very cool and jazzy sounds here. Sounds really good. I like the tune.
Ed
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Nice beginnings. Maybe fatten it up a bit, with another acoustic part. I can hear all kinds of things in my head. That isn't news to anyone here though. :eek:

I know you said you were adding an electric, but I think another acoustic part would enhance it, even with the electric.

It is a nice layed-back piece. Good luck and I will be looking forward to hearing it again. :)
 
Hi True

Thanks for the comments. I will mix the electric and the acoustic next week-end and see how it goes. I'm 80% sure about what I want to do with this song but I'm still exploring for the remaining 20% so I'll see if I can add another acoustic.

/Jack Real

true-eurt said:
Nice beginnings. Maybe fatten it up a bit, with another acoustic part. I can hear all kinds of things in my head. That isn't news to anyone here though. :eek:

I know you said you were adding an electric, but I think another acoustic part would enhance it, even with the electric.

It is a nice layed-back piece. Good luck and I will be looking forward to hearing it again. :)
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Jack Real said:
Hi True

Thanks for the comments. I will mix the electric and the acoustic next week-end and see how it goes. I'm 80% sure about what I want to do with this song but I'm still exploring for the remaining 20% so I'll see if I can add another acoustic.

/Jack Real
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And thanks for listening to my suggestion.

I just love an open mind...shows for a open heart!!! :cool:
 
Sounds good Jacques. I also listened to the song and it's a good guitar part for it IMO. Someone mentioned it sounded far away... hah, I thought it sounded kind of close. :D Personally, I'd move the mic's back another foot. You can always thicken the tone up with a bit of limiting.

The gtr sounds well recorded. It's getting a little bit of an edge on the string attack... could be that's exactly the sound you wanted for this but it might sound good too with a more mellow attack from the pick... held at a bit of an angle to the string.

Tim
 
Hi Tim

Thanks for the comments. I will try the more mellow attack to see how it goes. Since my room is not perfect, would it be better to let the mics at 1 foot from the guitar and add more Ambiance reverb or should I place the mics 2 feet from the guitar ? I'm just affraid it will pick up too much noise.

Thanks,

Jack Real.

Timothy Lawler said:
Sounds good Jacques. I also listened to the song and it's a good guitar part for it IMO. Someone mentioned it sounded far away... hah, I thought it sounded kind of close. :D Personally, I'd move the mic's back another foot. You can always thicken the tone up with a bit of limiting.

The gtr sounds well recorded. It's getting a little bit of an edge on the string attack... could be that's exactly the sound you wanted for this but it might sound good too with a more mellow attack from the pick... held at a bit of an angle to the string.

Tim
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Jack Real said:
Hi Tim

Thanks for the comments. I will try the more mellow attack to see how it goes. Since my room is not perfect, would it be better to let the mics at 1 foot from the guitar and add more Ambiance reverb or should I place the mics 2 feet from the guitar ? I'm just affraid it will pick up too much noise.

Thanks,

Jack Real.
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What I would do would be to set up the mic's and a chair, first at 1 ft distance, press record, play a phrase, scoot the chair back a couple inches, play another phrase, scoot back another couple inches, play, etc. until you're about 3 ft from the mic's, keeping the recorder going the whole time Then just listen back and see what sounds the best. Helps keep everything straight to say the distance out loud before playing each time, as the recorder's rolling. That's what I do with my mic tests anyway. Using a measuring tape can be a good thing too. You may find that one mic sounds better at a different distance than another, which is fine because you can easily time-align the tracks, sliding them to coincide at the sample level on the computer.

Tim
 
Hi Tim

Sounds like a good advice, I will try that.

Thanks,

Jack Real

Timothy Lawler said:
What I would do would be to set up the mic's and a chair, first at 1 ft distance, press record, play a phrase, scoot the chair back a couple inches, play another phrase, scoot back another couple inches, play, etc. until you're about 3 ft from the mic's, keeping the recorder going the whole time Then just listen back and see what sounds the best. Helps keep everything straight to say the distance out loud before playing each time, as the recorder's rolling. That's what I do with my mic tests anyway. Using a measuring tape can be a good thing too. You may find that one mic sounds better at a different distance than another, which is fine because you can easily time-align the tracks, sliding them to coincide at the sample level on the computer.

Tim
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Nice recording - very upfront sound to the guitars and very clean - those are nice mics. I would like to hear the difference further away with the mics too as mentioned - just to compare... Think there's a glitch or crackle at around 2:00. Nice arrangement and playing... :)
 
Hi

Thanks for listening. I've bruised my left thumb while playing it so I thought my acoustic guitar was not good. I went to the music store to try some guitars and find out my guitar was sounding better than the $300 guitars at the store. The Takamine were easier to play but not sounding as nice. The guy at the store talked about a Taylor 110. I might try that one. Now that my thumb is better, I will try a new pass tomorrow further away from the mics. For the glitch, I play the pass only 1 time and copy it 4 times so maybe you hear something between the end of a pass and the beginning of the next one.

In the mean time, I've put the electric guitar version of the pass on the site (before the effect processor):

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=2872&alid=-1

I think this guitar pass was meant to be played on electric guitar and maybe I should play something different on the acoustic guitar but I will try anyway.

Thanks,

Jack Real.


ido1957 said:
Nice recording - very upfront sound to the guitars and very clean - those are nice mics. I would like to hear the difference further away with the mics too as mentioned - just to compare... Think there's a glitch or crackle at around 2:00. Nice arrangement and playing... :)
Click to expand...
 
Hi Ed

Thanks for listening. You might notice that the first note is muffle. It's because I took the 3rd pass and I copied it all over so it doesn't sound right when it starts. If I keep that take, I'll have to do some editing (fade in) to fix that.

/Jack Real.

Dogman said:
Jack, sounds really nice. I like the progression you play also. Very cool.
Ed
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Hey man...I actually like this a lot. The acoustic seems to be recorded very well, in my opinion. I spend more time on acoustic guitars than any other element of the mix, and there really aren't any bright line rules as far as I'm concerned.

For example, people tend to put way too much importance on the room that you're recording in - some are just plain silly (in my amateur opinion). I'm not saying the room doesn't matter, but honestly, as closely as most people mic acoustics, the reflections you may be getting shouldn't make you pull your hair out or anything.

Some people have hard and fast rules about where the mic'ing should take place, but guitars aren't fungible instruments...no two are alike, even the same models from the same manufacturers. One inch can make a HUGE difference, though...you just have to really listen in the cans and in different takes in different positions until you get the sound you're going for.

Sounds to me like you're going for a more natural sound, which is totally cool in a solo piece...it may or may not work in a mix. Just from listening to that clip a couple of times, I can tell that you'd probably have a couple of EQ hot spots you'd want to focus on if it's going to be sitting in a mix with a bass and/or other guitars. I can almost guarantee you that there's nothing on an acoustic guitar track below 100Hz that's worth keeping in a full mix. And on that particular guitar recording, I'd probably notch it downwards a bit fairly wide centered at about 315Hz for starters...it'll rob the track of some of the body, but there's usually plenty of low mids in everybody's mixes without clouding it up with acoustic woofiness.

Again, I actually like the recording as is. I think you have the fundamentals down pat, personally. If it was going to stay as a solo track, I'd actually probably mic it very close to the sound hole and then roll off a lot of the low mids...really close mic'ing of an acoustic can give it a presence that's just not possible to obtain through EQ or compression or any combination thereof.

So there's my longwinded way of saying...nice job, good luck, and keep recording, LOL.
 
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