I need some tips to make these guitar sound good (i can't get rid of the boxiness)

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underp

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this is a nylon guitar, probably not recorded in so good conditions, but i want to know if it's possible to make it sound at least very decent.

the recording is "brute", no compression, no EQ.

 
I'm probably not the guy to give a whole hell of a lot of advice. But your recording sounds much like mine do. I seem to be having lots of trouble getting rid of that "live" feeling.

Most of what I found has to do with proper EQ'ing. Use whatever you got to give it a little more brightness, or high end.

Another crucial thing is mic placement. I've probably tried a hundred different ways with the mics, but I'm still not satisfied with the results quite yet. On the other hand, i did find some cool ways to add more fullness to the sound.

Last but not least, compressors and preamps seem to be our friends. I'm still looking into that side of it, so hopefully someone here will comment on that portion... and maybe help us all out a little! =)
 
I think a little EQ to clean up the low mids would make this sound pretty good. I usually run a touch of compression on acoustic guitar as well to smooth out the wide dynamic range of the instrument. Acoustic guitar frequently records with too much low and/or low mids. Mic placement can make a big differrence, but a little EQ can help a lot. I also always run a 75Hz bass roll off on acoustic guitar.
 
It sounds to me like the guitar doesn't sound that great to begin with, and it was recorded with a dynamic mic and a cheap soundcard. I mean, there's a lot of hiss in this, so when you apply an EQ boost to brighten the top end a bit, the hiss really gets accentuated. I made some really deep EQ cuts centered at 315Hz and 125Hz, and I boosted it a bit in the "hiss/sparkle" region (@ 12K).

Now it just sounds like a heavily EQ'd version of a crappy guitar track, lol.

Anyway, if you're interested, here's the clip, but I cannot overstress how important it is to get it recorded better to begin with. Even with a cheap guitar and a cheap soundcard, you can get a much better sound than this if you take the time to listen very carefully when you're tracking the guitar. Move the mic around a LOT and listen in the headphones until you get the best possible sound you can out of the guitar...you'll still have to EQ it, but maybe it'll be less extreme. Also, if I were you, I'd try some very close mic'ing around the 12th fret...see how it sounds.



Good luck....keep recording.

[edit] I also used some hiss reduction on it, which I haven't used in a LONG time, but the hiss on this was pretty severe when I boosted the top end.
 
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Is a nylon guitar, recorded with an SM57 ( probably not good for a nylon guitar ) =S . And the hiss you talk about is the sound of the air conditioned.

I'm in terrible conditions to make a better recording. The air console, is one of my biggest problems.

i Also did what you told me, and it sounds a lot better, but i'm not even closer to the test you did.
 
An SM57 is a very versatile mic, and you can even record some stuff with it (like snare drums and amps), but if you're serious about getting a better acoustic sound, you need to consider the following:

1. Get a cheap condenser microphone - I think you can pick up some of the Studio Projects mics on ebay for under $200.

2. Get a preamp - I use a DMP3 from mAudio.

3. turn off the air conditioner when you're tracking. :D

Best to you
 
i Have a "mackie 1202", do i still need a preamp, or it is fine for a condenser mic ?
 
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