micing acoustic

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michael.butler

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What's your method?

I just recorded an acoustic guitar track placing a BLUE babybottle about 6" from the 13th fret and sent the signal through my new joemeek q3. I thought it sounded ok 'til I ran across an old recording I'd done sticking a small octava condenser in the same place w/ no pre and, wow, it sounded great....actually better.

What kind of mic do you use? Where do you place it? Also...say you're micing close to the bridge (probably a bad idea unless there's another placed closer to the fretboard) and the strummer's hand is going up and down between the guitar and the mic...will that do strange things to the sound waves and cause a poor signal?

Michael
 
most people i have dealing with have been doing stereo mic'ing one around the 12th or 13th fret then one near the bottom back of the sound hole but like 8" away,these people are pro's and can afford some sweet ass mic's like neumann's and telefunken's.i tried to mimic this procedure,but i had an akg c2000,and an sm58,using the 58 at the sound hole.but ....then recently,an engineer said that the sm 58 would be detrimental to the sound,that the akg was good enough,and if i really want stereo,duplicate the track(i am using pro tools )and pan hard left and hard right and just nudge a milisecond or so with one track,good idea,i haven't tried it yet,i am still tracking,but i can't wait to try it,although i am questioning if i even need stereo acoustic guitar,i mean they're crucial to the song but there is soooooo much in the songs,like electric,organ, drums and bass,leads,all sorts of production involved.any thoughts on stereo acoustic versus mono?
 
Mind you, I'm a beginner, but I'm starting to believe that, unless the acoustic is THE main instrument, mono siganals suffice. I'm doing a project right now where some of the tunes are pretty involved (multiple elec. guits., piano, organ, drums, lotsa percussion and backing vox) and I'm finding an acoustic stereo image just kinda muds things up. Now when it's just the acoust. w/drums, bass, and maybe a lead, I do spend a bit mor time double micing and working on a great stereo sound.
 
michael.butler said:
Mind you, I'm a beginner, but I'm starting to believe that, unless the acoustic is THE main instrument, mono siganals suffice.
Click to expand...

Actually, there might be some truth to your theory.

If the mix is that busy, then I tend to prefer double-tracking and just panning the two extreme far Left and Right.
 
michael.butler,is it possible that i can hear some of the stuff you're working on ,or something you've done in the past?it sounds like we have similar instrumentation and i am worried about so many tracks going on at once,like i got one song with 2 stereo acoustics,one elecrtic rhythm,one electric lead(doubling the rhythm's hooks)1 bass,6 tracks of 1 drumset,tambourine,morrocas,lead vocals and backup harmonies.it would be nice to hear how someone else is recording their acoustic amongst other stuff.how the hell do i mix all this sh*t?
 
try not to think you have to close mic an acoustic. you could use one nice microphone and move it back a little bit. if you've got a nice room, you'll get a wonderfull sound in the right place. letting the guitar breathe can make the track sound a lot better.

allthough, sometimes you do need to close mic. but im just giving an alternative.
 
Chessrock-thanks for the link and tip. You're always very helpful. I did, just recently, try doubling an acoustic part and it sounded pretty cool.

LongWave-you got me thinking. I shouldn't be stuck in the mindset of "close is always best." I've got a couple of large condensers that might work well with a little distance. My room is completely dead, though. Still, I'll give it a try.

Mojo-it really DOES sound like we're tracking similar instruments. I do drums w/ 6 tracks also. I wish I could post something, but I don't yet know how to convert my mixes to something that can be posted. I don't know if I have what I need to convert to wav.files. (I record w/ a vs 2480.)

michael
 
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