Help recording acoustic guitar

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michaelst57

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I am mixing a song for somebody but they are doing the recording. The acoustic guitar sound is not turning out how I want it to. He has an Rode NT2A and M3. Any suggestions for placement of the microphones or mixing techniques that can improve this sound.

Thanks in advance

View attachment Only Lessons.mp3
 
The link is okay for me and, to my ear, it sounds pretty good. What is it you don't like about the guitar?

If I was going to be hyper critical, I'd say the guitar is maybe slightly dry compared to the vocal. A hint more reverb/room atmosphere maybe? A second thought would be to play with the panning a bit since the guitar and vocal are both trying to occupy the centre ground. A trick I've used a few times is to add an effect which exaggerates the stereo spread (mine was built into Cool Edit but I'm sure there are lots of equivalents). Yeah, in real live there aren't any guitars as wide as a stage but it can sound good!

Or am I completely on the wrong track for what you want?
 
For me it is mostly the high frequencies that are driving me crazy. They sound to present and harsh. I have tried messing with EQ but nothing can fix it. I will add some more reverb and make it more stereo. Thanks for giving me some advice.
 
Sounds ok to me too a little dry as bobbsy says but overall the sounds good and the engineer did a fair job of capturing the instrument.
Maybe if your not happy with the sound you should change instrument or mic?
 
Well, it just goes to show that everyone is different. I've now listened on my studio monitors and two sets of decent headphones and I wouldn't call the guitar sound "harsh" on any of them. However, I'm known to like a very detailed, bright top end, especially on guitar!

(Worth noting that, of course, I was listening to an MP3 version with NO information above 16k or so....)
 
Ok, thanks for all the suggestions, I definitely added some reverb to the guitar. I guess I am just used to the sound I get with my mics recording acoustic. So if there are other people saying it is fine it must be and I am just biased against it. My friend is over in Denmark, so he records everything and then sends it to me. The one thing that has always amazed me is how good of a sound you can get in an untreated room. It's not perfect of course but it still sounds great.
 
Armistice said:
You can hear above 16K? Impressive! :D
Click to expand...

Alas, not any more...my last measurement, I was rolling off at about 15k in my left ear and 14.5 in the right. However, I'm proud to say that I COULD hear up to 16k and a bit above until about my 50th birthday--the advantage of growing up before the days of ear buds and iPods. At one point, I had better HF hearing than my son and his friends.
 
To my ears, the compression is hitting too hard - maybe try decreasing the release time?
alternatively if you want a different sound - maybe try recording with an m/s pair - I really like it on acoustic guitar
here's a recording m/s acoustic guitar tutorial
 
It could use a little more body but I didn't find it to be "harsh." Maybe try playing with some of the low mids?
 
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