Acoustic tone?

  • Thread starter Thread starter FoulPhil
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FoulPhil

FoulPhil

Well-known member
Hi, I'm working on recording my acoustic. I've only got a Studio project B1 right now and running that through a FireStudio Mobile with some Yamaha hs50m monitors. Two tracks panned left and right. This is just a little sloppy clip. I know you guys have a bunch of different monitors. I added a little compression and the Slate FG-X in the master channel for a little loudness. Don't mine the crappy playing I just want to know if it sounds ok or not. It's a little boomy on my crappy computer speakers so I'll work on that :D

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I like it. I can see how it would sound boomy.
If it's meant to stand alone I'd probably leave it like that. If a bass came in I'd likely HPF it.
Sounds nice though.

Pretty heavy on the compression but maybe that's the sound you want.
No complaints here on Mackies.

PS:I'm half expecting Johnny Cash in his later years to kick in.
 
Steenamaroo said:
I like it. I can see how it would sound boomy.
If it's meant to stand alone I'd probably leave it like that. If a bass came in I'd likely HPF it.
Sounds nice though.

Pretty heavy on the compression but maybe that's the sound you want.
No complaints here on Mackies.

PS:I'm half expecting Johnny Cash in his later years to kick in.
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Thanks for the reply. I'm not really trying anything with the compression I just wanted to be able to hear if any background noise was getting in there. It's just a plug-in nothing permanent and I'll be able to change it up later. I don't really know what I'm going for other than to have good sounding guitar recorded lol. Not sure if there is anything I can do to make it better or if that's the best I can do with what I'm working with :D

edit:

You guys think I should just have 2 tracks or even go as far as recording 4? lol
 
The hated answer - It depends what you want man.
I did this last night.
It's a live performance stereo miced at about 1' distance.

That's the sound we wanted but it's never going to sound as full and close as yours.
Yours will never sound as natural as mine though.

If you're interested in layering either try a different guitar, different mic position, or different inversions of the chords.
It'll really make a difference.
 
I only have 1 acoustic. I think I'll just go with 2 tracks panned left and right and just focus on doing the best I can within my ability. Then cross my fingers it comes out good lol...

Yours was real good though.
 
Kick ass.
I think the only thing that could make it better is a DIY cello. :p
(That was you right?)
 
Sounds really nice to me Phil.

I mean, I guess I don't know if it would need adjustments in a full mix or something, but as is, I thought it sounded nice and full and clear.

I generally use an SP B1 as well (it is by far the most expensive mic I own!) and I don't get these kinds of results.
 
heatmiser said:
Sounds really nice to me Phil.

I mean, I guess I don't know if it would need adjustments in a full mix or something, but as is, I thought it sounded nice and full and clear.

I generally use an SP B1 as well (it is by far the most expensive mic I own!) and I don't get these kinds of results.
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The B1 seems like a pretty honest mic that sounds nice with a little sparkly top end. Sometimes I think it's too transparent or something. I'm not sure because I'm no pro lol. I think most of the sound is the guitar itself. I'm recording a Martin HD28 and it still amazes me sometimes when I hear it. Every time I put new strings on it's just out of this world beautiful sounding. It's hard for me to figure out if it's sounding good in the recording I'm doing. I've been recording since 2:30 and it's 6:22 now and I'm not even sure I have anything worth keeping. I hear a nasty string squeak or a loud truck drives by and then I get pissed off and think the whole take is ruined. I go back listen for loud trucks in the recording. The super loud string squeaks annoy the hell out of me and even more the mistakes I constantly seem to make when I'm recording. When ever I'm just jamming out I don't seem to screw it up as much. I guess I just want it to be better than whats within my abilities :facepalm: LOL
 
Well, that clip was pretty short, but no screw ups to be found.

Yeah, having that martin probably helps. They tend to have a pretty rich tone to them.

I really like the B1, but it seems to accentuate some harsher hi frequencies for me (10-14k?) sometimes, so when I stack stuff it can get kind of brittle or almost metallic sounding.
 
heatmiser said:
Well, that clip was pretty short, but no screw ups to be found.

Yeah, having that martin probably helps. They tend to have a pretty rich tone to them.

I really like the B1, but it seems to accentuate some harsher hi frequencies for me (10-14k?) sometimes, so when I stack stuff it can get kind of brittle or almost metallic sounding.
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Yeah sometimes harsh you have to be careful with it. I tried recording differently because I like to sit back and tilt the guitar with me, so I kind of angled down the mic towards the guitar, but it came out more boomy. I might have to re-track it. I don't think I should settle for half-ass decent. I recorded the whole damn song and it ended up being over 5 minutes long LOL. I don't expect anyone to listen to the whole thing with no vocals on it yet... I hear a little fret buzz on some parts from not landing my finger correctly and it bothers me, but at the same time it's more realistic, maybe. Not sure I'll end up keeping this take, but off too a good start I think. A few weeks of working on it and I might be able to wrap up a new amateur album :D

I think it came out sounding weird, but I don't know. I'll listen tomorrow and try again LOL

 
Sounds good Phil. Might sound even better if you got Tesha to lay down some accordian...if that's your bag.

Steeno said:
I did this last night.
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Never heard that, is it one of your own?
 
Sounds good Phil. Don't know how helpful this will be, but on my monitors I found pulling down around 500 hz helped a bit.

I'm guessing it depends on if your guitar is going to be in a mix or standing on its own. In a mix, I'm always pulling down the low end to leave room for bass and kick without muddying the waters.

I gotta say, that Martin of yours sure does sing!! I've got a cheap-o Made in Mexico Martin and it sounds real nice with new strings.
 
I think it sounds fantastic! Like someone else said, if it becomes part of a larger mix then hpf the lows. The low end is very tight and the midrange is sweet.
 
Thanks for the replies :D

I don't really have access to any other instrument other than guitars and bass. I don't have much gear either, just a very basic set up. So I got 11 songs I'm working on lol. More than likely the majority of it will just be kinda like folk style back in the day with just guitar and vocals. I don't want to crap it up with drum machines and BS like that. Would be cool if I could get some other real instruments on it...

Mick Doobie said:
Sounds good Phil. Might sound even better if you got Tesha to lay down some accordian...if that's your bag.
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That would be funking awesome lol, but probably not for this song. I think I have a few love songs and I know one of them could use a bad ass romantic sounding accordion like on this song :D

 
I thought there was a low end problem on a few notes. Like some boominess around 100hz in spots here and there.

There is fairly nice top end clarity, but not super clear.

Midrange sound nice. Not harsh, not muffled.
 
TripleM said:
I thought there was a low end problem on a few notes. Like some boominess around 100hz in spots here and there.

There is fairly nice top end clarity, but not super clear.

Midrange sound nice. Not harsh, not muffled.
Click to expand...

Yeah I feel like I'm getting too much of some kind of natural reverb effect, maybe from the room I'm recording in or could just be the natural sound of the HD28. I did envision a different approach to recording the guitar. Doubt it's anything new, but the idea seems like for my situation it'll be better than just setting up the mic and recording in random positions. Right now I'm recording in my living room because my back room that I normally use for recording is full of crap I need to get rid of.

I put a blanket covering the window. Then stuffed it with pillows and then threw another blanket over it so it wouldn't look so bad. Then the large front window in the front of the house was done the same, but I also threw a king size mattress over it and then a blanket over that. Most of the outside noise was coming from there. I have a few other blankets covering other bad spots in the room. It's a lot better than it was, but far from perfect.

Now I'm going to set up my mic right in front of the computer facing away from the computer so that it's not picking up direct computer sound. Then I'm going to record the acoustic about 4 or 5 inches away from the mic so that while the guitar is playing it'll over power any background noises such as the computer etc. I did something like this yesterday when I recorded the track and it worked out pretty good. Next I'm going to record the song in pieces. Such as, Intro, Verse, Chorus, Fills, Bridge, Outro. As I do one at a time I'll make sure the timing is as tight as possible and I'll do each piece as many time as I have to until it's absolutely perfect. Once I have all the perfected pieces I'll arrange them in the proper order and "holy shit" I have a perfect sounding recording in less time than to sit there and try to play the whole song all the way through.

How this is different from creating a "loop" is that I'm not going to be just recording a short riff and looping it. I'm going to record whole sections of the song so that it'll transition into each section without any weird off time or defects being introduced into the recording. Because there probably wont be any other instrument to cover up any mistakes it's crucial that I get it right the first time. I did something like that yesterday with this track as well, a few parts sound a little off to me, but that's where taking the time to get it perfect comes in. I'm going to tackle one song as a time until I have all the guitars recorded then I'll add vocals and do something similar to record it. :D

Sorry for the long novel, but we'll see how it comes out! It'll be fun experimenting and I'll let you guys know how it's coming along if you decide you want to try it out for yourself :thumbs up:
 
When listening last night, I didn't hear any background noises. I think your setup is working.

I always tell myself I'm gonna record sections at a time like you described. Eh, I never do, I just record straight through. I might retake on a particularly bad flub, but usually just accept the little flubs; I call it 'Style'. :) :D :laughings:
 
Chili said:
When listening last night, I didn't hear any background noises. I think your setup is working.

I always tell myself I'm gonna record sections at a time like you described. Eh, I never do, I just record straight through. I might retake on a particularly bad flub, but usually just accept the little flubs; I call it 'Style'. :) :D :laughings:
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I tried that too, but it just seemed like it would take forever. I tried with and without a metronome. I tried just playing and singing the song like I would in a live situation and then trying to layer the tracks on that foundation. Part of getting a great sound is experimenting until you get something you're happy with. A lot of times I'm like screw it, it's good enough. This time I really want it to be REALLY good. I want to kind of surpass the other stuff I've done in the past. So, I keep experimenting and trying to get it amazing instead of mediocre :P
 
I tend to do 3 or 4 full passes until I know I've done everything right at least once, then I comp it all together.
I make a point of doing it all in one sitting because it never ceases to amaze me how a precise setup can sound totally different an hour or two later. :facepalm:
 
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