guitar and recording

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floz26

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ok, i think the reason why this is frustrating me so much is I have an acoustic/electric TAYLOR guitar. i want to record a track of acoustic guitar. what ive been doing is just plugging the guitar straight into the recorder, because im pretty sure taylor's have built in preamps, cuz there are all the dbz knobs and stuff on the guitar. the problem is it doesnt sound anything like it does when not plugged in, it sounds distorted almost, like each string is irritatingly vibrating to hard. could this be solved by recording from an amp into a condenser mic instead? how do you find acoustic/electric recording sounding the best? maybe some kind of pedal that fixes this? any help would be great
 
Mostly I put a condenser mic in front of the guitar (or two in xy, MS, ...) 40cm away and then mix the direct sound (trough a DI) in with the rest.
The sound coming from those pickups is nice for live use, but once you start recording it, it will sound to 'plastic'. Maybe some eq could help, but i suggest you start micing that taylor :D

greetz
 
Why does every guitarist with an acoustic electric expect to plug the thing in when they go into a studio? You guys are going to drive me insane! Every freaking time! Time to record some acoustic guitar tracks.... "which amp should I plug it into?" AAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I'm going to kill the SOAB who invented acoustic guitar pickups.

USE A MICROPHONE.
USE A MICROPHONE.
USE A MICROPHONE.
 
To what Noiseportrait said, I can only add,

Use a microphone!

It amazes me how guys who claim to be picky about their acoustic tone will want to plug cheapo pickups into the board! The BEST you can hope for is a useable distorted tone.
 
Hold the horses here! Which pickup system do you have? There are generally 3 in Taylors- The Fishman Prefix Plus, the Fishman Prefix Plus Stereo blender, or the expression system, which is Taylor proprietary. Now, all the big names have jumped all over me just like they did over you, and told me that you can't get good acoustic sound recording an acoustic guitar DI, you *have* to mic it up. Well, that is a half truth. The right pickup system, used properly, with a considerable amount of tweaking, can produce shockingly good results on tape, in spite of what you have been told. It can also suck big time.
First, listen to this track. This is an unmastered raw track, one guitar, 2 vocals, 5 tracks of drums, mixed down. It was recorded with a Taylor 710CE with a Fishman Prefix Plus stereo blender, with the internal mic and the piezo pickup sent separately to the 2 channels of a Joemeek twinQcs, and recorded on a Roland VS1824CD. It was originally intended as a scratch track, but the mixing engineer, David L. Sparr (Littledog) said, "I don't think anyone would complain about that track. I'll have to send Fishman a letter and congratulate them." Those of you who know Littledog know he is a mic snob with a boatload of high-end mics, a good mixing engineer with a very critical ear. The track is called "Goody's Song". Every other track on the CD was recorded with mics, mostly AKG C414B-ULS, Shure SM82, and Studio Projects C-4. Here's the link:

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/?aid=3239/album680

Whether you can get decent DI sound has a lot to do with the pickup system. The Prefix Plus and the stereo blender I understand, but I can't tell you I'm a big fan of the expression system. I don't really know how to get good sound out of it, and I haven't had a lot of opportunity to try. It might be possible, but my first impression was that I'm glad to have the stereo blender. So let us know what specific system you have in your guitar, and *maybe* I can help you out a liittle. It is simply not true that acoustic can't be recorded DI with good results. It's just usually true, and I would agree with those above regarding all pure undersaddle piezo systems, including the Fishman Matrix. I don't believe it always applies to systems using internal mics in combination with piezos and/or magnetics, such as Triad, or Prefix Plus.-Richie
 
Depends on your Taylor. I have an ES equipped Taylor which includes a pre amp designed by Rupert Neve, yeah that one. It is totally different from the Fishman equipped Taylors.

H2H

Oh, mics rule anyways:)
 
Mic the guitar, every time. If you want to record the pickup as well, that is fine, but there is no reason not to mic the guitar. There is not a pickup in the world which can actually recreate the sound of YOUR guitar. Some of them do a decent job of recreating the sound of an acoustic, but they can not do a particular acoustic. I listen to these things a lot, and they just can't do it. Maybe someday, but not yet.

However, if you are getting distortion from the pickup, one of two things is happening. Either you are driving the input to your recorder too hard, or you need to change the battery in your guitar. All of the Taylors with built in electronics have batteries in them. If it is an ES pickup, then it is located in the assembly with the output jack, if it has a Prefix system, I believe it is located in the preamp assembly (which sounds like what you have, you just have to figure out how to open the thing), or if it is just a Matrix pickup, it is mounted to the neck block inside the guitar.

The batteries in the Fishman systems last about a year, as long as you remember to unplug the instrument when not playing (this turns the system off). My guess is that the problem with the pickup is the battery.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
I've done lots of recording both ways (acoustic and pickup) and they can both sound great. Some guitars sound mediocre unplugged but have a unique and tasty sound when recorded direct, assuming you get the bread and butter stuff (levels, eqs, effects etc.) right. Some guitars are the opposite, with great acoustic tone but poor electronics. And a few do both.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to narrow down their options in the studio when there are choices that can be made intelligently, considering what style, tone, sound, vibe, whatever, you're looking for. Sometimes a mic'd guitar sounds just too "homegrown" for your arrangement, and then again sometimes that di'd acoustic with a pickup sounds cheap and tinny. Then again, sometimes that acoustic with a good mic is just the ticket; other times a brilliantly clean guitar plugged direct into the board will knock your socks off.

Same with pianos--is there anything better than a well recorded grand piano...but then again, think about how cool some tunes sound with that classic Roland synth piano or whater sound. It's all good if you get it right.
 
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