Nylon stings are givin' me dem ol' blues

A

a modified dog

New member
Recording my classical guitar (nylon strings) has been driving me crazy. I've been using a DiMarzio contact pickup direct into a line input on my PC with dismal result. Eventually it dawned on me that I need a pre-amp to boost the signal at the very least. I considered, for about 4 minutes, using my old Roland Cube 20 amp and running the output from the head phone jack into line in. Next, I searched the net for a pickup which might do the job. Thus far, it looks like the best choice is one of those under-the-bridge deals would be best. This conjured up visions of my guitar being ruined. Yesterday I priced a mic solution at around $340 for a mic, pre-amp with ghost power, cables, and a mic stand, these on the advice of salesmen.

Because I'm broke, I can't afford to buy, try, and trade until I find the best cheap solution. My goal is to get a basically decent classical guitar reproduction onto my hard drive. I guess most anything would be better than what I;ve got now.

I've got an AMD Athlon 550 with a SBLive drive, which I've come to realize was probably a bad move, but here I am. I'd appreciate input from you learned folk.
 
In this case...

...I don't think there's much choice - live with the sound as it is until you can afford to shell out for a good mic and mic pre to capture the sound properly!

Bruce
 
I've got one of those -under-the-bridge- piezo-type pickups. I needed it to use the nylon string live, and amplified, but I didn't want my guitar to get hurt. So they gave me a Shadow-thingy. This is just a replacement bridge, with piezo, and a little block attached to it with volume control and 1/8" jack connector.

This works ok, but gives WAY TO MUCH highs at the output. I'm cutting highs up to -10db!! Anyway, for recording I would go the mic way too. I would actually use 2 mics... And plug the Shadow in too. Got enough inputs anyway...

Just save untill you can afford a good quality mic. And a mic can do more than just guitars...
 
You gotta mic it - Hoss. Most pickups are damn near useless on the gut string. I've tried transducers, and other attachments, adhesives, etc. The waste of time was monumental, and makes the damn guitar look hideous not to mention the unwanted noise factor. Invest in a 57 or some kinda mike in the $80.00 price range. See if you can beg, borrow or steal a mixer to use on a trial basis.
 
Thanks to all who answered my questions. It seems that we have a majority vote. Music store staff agree. Since my first post, I ran across one of those cheesy $0.18 Creative mics that came with my sound card. I was shocked to find that it sounded better than my stick-um pickup by an order of magnitude.

About a mixer: would that take the place of a pre-amp?

Thanks
Denis
 
For each mic input, a mixer has a preamp. To be able to directly access the preamp out, you do need to have direct outs or inserts...

A standalone unit will mostly be of greater quality and allow more functionalities. Mic pres in a mixer are plenty, so they have to be optimized for less place and cost, to keep the price of the mixer acceptable, I guess...
 
a modified dog said:
Thanks to all who answered my questions. It seems that we have a majority vote. Music store staff agree.
Click to expand...
Oh well... if the music store staff said it, you certainly don't need us!!!!!!!! :p

:D

Bruce
 
Allow me to interject if I may,

Each mixer channel has a preamp built in it. A 4-channel mixer usually has 4 pre-amps. The quality of afore mentioned pre, will vary, depending on price, manufacturer etc. I believe Roel is reefering to channel inserts, which is a feature on some of the better quality mixers. These are nice because you can seperate channels and record them individually. If a mixer does not have inserts, then you must use the line outs, which are every signal going through your mixer.
 
That's right.

Be carefull with stereo channels however. They usually don't have mic pres.

Some mixers have direct outs for each channel. This is just an output where you can take the signal after the pre...

The channel insert is a feature that allows you to put an external device (compressor or gates, mostly) in your signal flow, just after the mic pre. So your signal flow would be: mic->(mixer in)->micpre->(insert out)->external processing->(insert in)->back to the normal signal flow of your mixer, this is eq etc...

You can use these inserts as a direct out, by just taking the signal, feeding it in to your recorder, and at the same time back into the mixer. Hope this isn't to confusing.

Without these inserts, you don't have access to *just* the micpre, so you'd always have to put the entire mixer in your signal flow.
This would also limit you to the number of outputs on your mixer. for example, if you have 8 inputs and 4 outputs, you can't use these 8 mic pres seperately, cause they all have to go thru one of the 4 outputs...

Hope this helps...
 
I agree, a microphone is the ONLY way to go in this situation. And (don't laugh), those little mics that come with your sound card or CD rom are not that bad! (Before anyone insults my opinion here, remember, the guy DOESN"T HAVE ANY MONEY!). Please, think about that.
 
"I was born a poor black child..." - Steve Martin

Tapehead said:
...those little mics that come with your sound card or CD rom are not that bad! (Before anyone insults my opinion here, remember, the guy DOESN"T HAVE ANY MONEY!). Please, think about that.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your support. In truth, I'm terribly excited that I can record the stuff in my head: it's been a 24 year wait, and boy are my arms tired... uh, sorry wrong joke...

Stinking of curry,
Denis
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top