Placement for SM-58

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kelly Holdridge
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Kelly Holdridge

Kelly Holdridge

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You'll need to take the windscreen off. This kindof turns the 58 into a 57. Next, aim the mic at the junction of fretboard and body.

Fine tune from there. (compress at least 2:1)
 
Trying it right now thanks for the info i'll let you know in a few min if it works.
 
Mic is being used to for Acoustic Guitar. I am looking for a clean sound and so far all i have been getting is a muffled sound. I am using very high quality cable and my other mic sounds great same setup.. I have not done as much with the SM-58 as i have other mics so I am looking for someone to help me out with angles and distance. Thanks in advance for the help..
http://www.mp3.com/codyyoung
 
Short of a condenser, try pointing it just behind the bridge at the body very close. Clean sound with less finger noise.
 
You might try pointing it at the sound-hole. Back it off enough so that you don't get the proximity effect too much, and cut between 200-300Hz if it's too boomy. It works on some guitars, crappy for others in my experiments.
 
With Martins and guitars built around Martin type of Dreadnaught designs, the sound hole is not a great choice for mic placement (real woofy, boomy sounding).
 
ok there...an sm-58 is a poor choice of mic for an acoustic guitar...there are many reasons for this however I'll cut to the chase and offer what remedies I can.

First off what type of sound are you going for...percussive...mellow...finger picking??

these are EXTREMELY important questions for the mic placement and comp. ratio(if at all)

the main reason the 58 is poor is the fact that it is designed for live vocal applications and has a decent backround noise rejection so when your mouth is right up on it it sounds good however an acoustic guitar is an instrumnt w/ multi timbres resonating from different arias of the instrument...there for with the 58 you are only capturing the part where you aim it
not to mention having to have the mic so close to the strings (other things start factoring in here like the quality of your instrument and the wood used to make it as well as the mic-pre and mixer your using but that topic could go on forever)...basically you neen to choose a mic with a looser polar pattern ...somthing thats going to capture the whole instrument
(at 4050,4033,akg 414,shure sm-81, etc...)
however if your on a tight budget you can get away with a 57 positioned at the sound hole yet aimed tward the 12th fret...about a foot away from the guitar...if you need a little more bass boost about 3db at 80 to 60hz to make up for proximity... this might not be an audible difference but more than 3db will muddy it up so use eq sparingly...comp. as needed but also sparingly...
good luck!!!
 
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