First attempt with my MSH1O

  • Thread starter Thread starter JuliánFernández
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JuliánFernández

2&4
Hi guys... This week a friend of mine came to my place to record some stuff, and I asked him to play a couple of acoustic pieces (with a Takamine G series) to try to learn how to record an acoustic guitar...

Anyway, here´s my first try... 1 MSH1O at 12th fret, no eq, or any other fx added...

http://boomp3.com/m/2cbdc967a443

Tell me what you think...
Any tips based on the clip?

Thanks!
 
JuliánFernández said:
Tell me what you think...
Any tips based on the clip?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I think tonally it is pretty good, however the pick noise is a little overbearing.
I'd move the mic back a little (you don't say how close you are) possibly up about top of head high.
Possibly try different picks. Thinner give a light sheen but a flappy pick sound. Thicker is more robust, but you have to hold the pick tight or the pick will slap and click.
 
Thanks Tmix! :)

I´m hearing the clip again and I notice what you´re saying... Next time I´m gonna ask him to use different pics to see if that helps...

Btw, the mic was about 1 ft. (or maybe a little less) from the guitar...

Anyone else wanna tell what you think? :D
 
Sounds good Julian. Sounds a lot closer than ~1ft. though, like the guitar needs room to breathe. Very slight "boomy" sound but not really anything to worry about (usually around 120,240Hz and sometimes 440Hz).

Sounds like the mic did a good job of capturing the guitar faithfully. Mic position just needs a *little* tweaking.

P.S. Still waiting on your e-mail about what you want me to do to the fairacres design ;)
 
Thanks Danny! I *think* that I place the mic 1 foot away from the guitar, but I may be wrong...

I had a good time recording guitars... I need to keep experimenting...

Anyone else? :D
 
Guitars are fun.
They radiate sound from all over, but they have a particular projection from the sound hole, and to a lesser extent from the face of the guitar itself.
Sometimes the right sound is NOT pointing straight at the most obvious place. Pointing down at a fairly steep angle will give a smoother less percussive sound, sometime coming from slightly in front of the guitar pointing toward the bridge is a nice sound.
 
Try cutting the track in the 315Hz region with a Q of about .5 and drop it maybe 5-6 db in that region. You'll be surprised how much it'll open up.

I'm not a purist - I'm all about tweaking whatever was recorded. Acoustic guitars are damned difficult to record, imo. My daughter plays a Tak G-Series and I've recorded it before...try that cut and post the results.
 
Listen to this Chris/guys...



I think the tweak works, but ask for more eq on other frequencies... It sounds sort of more open but a little hollow, Do you agree?

It´s hard for me to know when to "aprove" certain take and start experimenting with eq, compression, reverb, etc...

It´s easier with drums (I´m a drummer), but I want to develop my ears to the point of knowing when it´s the time to stop tracking and start tweaking! :D
 
The sample sounds to me like you're getting a lot of "room boom" from the room reacting to the lower pitches of the gtr. With ac gtr, if you want a natural sound you're better off experimenting with mic placement, player-in-the-room positioning, and acoustic treatment to get a balanced sound rather than relying on EQ to correct problems. If the gtr is part of a busy mix naturalness of gtr tone may not matter. If it's a vocal/gtr arrangement or gtr instrumental it makes a huge difference.

That said, EQ is less effective in repairing low-mid and low end boom on ac gtr recordings than multiband compression since room related problems like that aren't just frequency level issues, they're time domain issues... dealing with ringing in the 80-400 Hz range. Carefully adjusted multiband comps can handle that better since they can let go during parts where the boom isn't happening.

Just my opinion. YMMV.
 
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