Mic placement for acoustic guitar

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seeker of Rock
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Seeker of Rock

Seeker of Rock

Let us be unburdened by that which has been ?
I did this dry clip of a cover tune from the setup I'm using on some acoustic tracks. After experimenting with LDCs, LDC and SDC, even a ribbon and a tube LDC, this guitar is tracked with 2 SDCs, one about 10th fret and one over-the-shoulder aimed at the bridge or a little behind. 9:00 and 3:00 on this clip.
 

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It sounds really good to me...so what are you asking?
 
The guitar sounds well recorded. Nice stereo image and nice and present and clear.
What guitar did you use?

I would personally add reverb to it, and add some low mids on the reverb to add warmth. But that all depends on what the rest of the song is like.

Nice stuff,
G
 
The recording sounds very good - what everyone else said!
 
Seeker of Rock said:
I did this dry clip of a cover tune from the setup I'm using on some acoustic tracks. After experimenting with LDCs, LDC and SDC, even a ribbon and a tube LDC, this guitar is tracked with 2 SDCs, one about 10th fret and one over-the-shoulder aimed at the bridge or a little behind. 9:00 and 3:00 on this clip.
Click to expand...
Are you sharing something with us ?
 
Thanks for the kind comments. I just thought I'd share another recording technique for acoustic guitar and the sounds it produces (in my environment, on my guitar, on this song, etc.). There are a lot of techniques to use so I just wanted to share this one of the over-the-shoulder/10th fret stereo combo. I should have recorded the other techniques/mics for comparison as I was going through them.

Anyway, the guitar is a Taylor 414 and the SDCs are a pair of MXL603 running through Joemeek preamps to a Mackie 24x8 tracked to an Alesis HD24 recorder. The room is treated, but still 'live' since I left the floor and ceiling reflective (concrete and wood, respectively). This was just a little dry blurb of Jack and Diane, but the final tracks of the original songs will have some reverb added.
 
Seeker of Rock said:
Thanks for the kind comments. I just thought I'd share another recording technique for acoustic guitar and the sounds it produces (in my environment, on my guitar, on this song, etc.). There are a lot of techniques to use so I just wanted to share this one of the over-the-shoulder/10th fret stereo combo. I should have recorded the other techniques/mics for comparison as I was going through them.

Anyway, the guitar is a Taylor 414 and the SDCs are a pair of MXL603 running through Joemeek preamps to a Mackie 24x8 tracked to an Alesis HD24 recorder. The room is treated, but still 'live' since I left the floor and ceiling reflective (concrete and wood, respectively). This was just a little dry blurb of Jack and Diane, but the final tracks of the original songs will have some reverb added.
Click to expand...

Stupid question...
What exactly do you mean when you say , over the shoulder? Is the mic up at shoulder height? Behind the shoulder? Just a figure of speech? What?
 
I found that a LDC positioned 2'' above the guitar pointing down at the sound hole is a very effective way to get a full guitar sound. It may not suit every style, but for finger picking or sounds mainly composed by acoustic guitar this is a good technique
 
RawDepth said:
Stupid question...
What exactly do you mean when you say , over the shoulder? Is the mic up at shoulder height? Behind the shoulder? Just a figure of speech? What?
Click to expand...

The boom and mic stand and mic are placed behind the player and extended over the right shoulder facing down to the bridge, just behind the soundhole. The intent (I've read) is to pick up what your ears hear with the mic, so you are placing the mic close to your ear. Here is a pic of my setup. In the photo, the mic on the boom is the over-the-shoulder mic that is over my right shoulder aiming down at the bridge. Then the other is equidistant to the soundhole but set back and aimed at the 10th fret or so.
 

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wallystripes said:
I found that a LDC positioned 2'' above the guitar pointing down at the sound hole is a very effective way to get a full guitar sound. It may not suit every style, but for finger picking or sounds mainly composed by acoustic guitar this is a good technique
Click to expand...

I will try that. One of the songs I'm tracking had a finger picking part that I couldn't get a good sound with the setup I'm using even after bringing the pres up to compensate. It came out o.k., but I ended up using a pick on the strings because I couldn't get enough meat in the sound with my fingers. My finger picking technique isn't very strong, though, so that could have had a lot to do with it too. Thanks for the tip!
 
Tell me if it works for you. Im curious on how it may sound on another guitar, I have only tried it with mine
 
That sounded great! You could also try this...keep the over the shoulder but instead of the tenth fret try pointing the mic just past the hole to pick up the sound of the hole and the sounds coming from the frets. Buy two get one free style lol
 
PearlDrummer said:
That sounded great! You could also try this...keep the over the shoulder but instead of the tenth fret try pointing the mic just past the hole to pick up the sound of the hole and the sounds coming from the frets. Buy two get one free style lol
Click to expand...

You keep resurrecting old threads, this ones Feb 2012?

Alan.
 
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