Condensers for ...

[nicolaad30]

Which microphones would be good and affordable to mic and record properly and professionally an Ovatio elct-acust. guitar, and what pre - amp to use with those mics.

I thougt about a MArshall - Electronics mic and an ART tube pre - amp.

 

[jrosenstein]

are you planning to actually mic the guitar? or send it through some sort of amp? ovations aren't made to sound particularly good unplugged.

 

[postalblue]

ovations usually have their own quirky amplification circuitry. you use that and mic it simultaneously. when you mix, try overcompressing the signal and printing to another track, and mixing it with the original signal.

 

[Jagular]

are you planning to actually mic the guitar? or send it through some sort of amp? ovations aren't made to sound particularly good unplugged.

Boy have I found that out

 

[mkeene]

No kidding, buying an Ovation acoustic with the intent of actually playing it acoustically was one of the worst gear decisions I've ever made. I'm getting a Taylor as soon as I can get rid of that thing....

 

[Richard Monroe]

Actually, some Ovations don't sound that bad. Ive seen them used by Seals and Crofts and Kenny Loggins, with mics. They seem to work well with dynamics, like SM7 and Sennheiser 421. They don't sound good to me through condensers.
For mic'ing acoustic, I've tried a lot of mics, and still have found nothing that beats an old Shure SM82 line level broadcast mic. I swear it is the easiest mic to use I've ever played with. It's just a great mic that nobody ever used for music, because it was line level, and it lurked in the remote kits of war correspondents.
I saw one on ebay recently for about $200. It's a great acoustic guit mic, and many other things, but you need a phantom power supply to feed it, and line level ins on your pre. In a pinch, of course, you can run the mic right into your sound card or recorder, it's already line level, but you'll need to adjust gain somewhere.-Richie

 

[pundit]

No kidding, buying an Ovation acoustic with the intent of actually playing it acoustically was one of the worst gear decisions I've ever made. I'm getting a Taylor as soon as I can get rid of that thing....

It seems to me the the standard rounded fibreglassed backed Ovation was really developed for live amplified use.

Acoustically they lack the boominess associated with conventional acoustics (read Martin dreadnought! ) which makes them more forgiving on stage re feedback, unfortunately they also don't sound very good as a straight acoustic instrument as they tend to lack character. IMO all the Ovations I've ever played are somewhat dull and boring in their tone. I own a Lowden which oozes character so the comparsion is dramatic.

However, I think in their day they were quite an innovation.

They were amongst the first mass produce acoustics to feature an integrated pickup system with eq and that, along with their relatively even response, made them more suitable for high SPL's on stage than almost anything else that was around at the time.