recording acoustic guitar

[mchurley]

I am miking a solo acoustic guitar with an Audio Technica condensor mic, running the mic cable directly into a Tascam Porta 2 fourtrack, then mixing down one song at a time directly to a standalone CD burner. The volume of the recording on the CD is a LOT softer than storebought CD's, even with the input controls wide open on the CD burner as I mix down. Any ideas on how to improve this?

 

[Carter Simcoe]

Get the same people who make the store bought CDs to make yours.

 

[Carter Simcoe]

Okay, sorry I was an ass in my last reply but the fact is a four track and a stand-alone CD burner just cant compete with the equipment profesional mastering houses have. If you just want a slight improvment though you should look into compressors and noise gates.

 

[necromancing]

Hello mchurley,

I do just about the same thing with my Tascam to Philips Cd burner. My volume cooks on high! Just make sure you are recording the intial tracks on the Tascam loud enough. Don't be afraid to go into the red a bit, 0 to +3...+6 might be too loud for drum machine, but the acousic guitar should be ok. But +3 is a good level.

When you mix it, also make sure you are mixing at a loud enough volume. Then when I'm done. I just go to standby on the Cd burner and make sure I watch the levels. If you want it loud, again go a little into the red. On home stereo speakers it sounds great. But if you have crap speakers in your car like I do, then you might have to master the CD a little lower so the speakers don't crackle.

So in conclusion, try recording it TOO LOUD, if it is too soft still...you've got a problem. If it's LOUD, then there you go.

 

[little z]

JUST SOME TIPS..............

YA MIGHT WANT TO TRY THESE THINGS TO SEE IF THEY HELP.......
1) A MIC PRE-AMP, ART HAS A TUBE PRE FOR LIKE $ 100
2) RECORD AS LOUD AS YOU CAN W/O BLOWING OUT YOUR
LEVELS, DONT BE AFRAID TO GET GIGGY WITH IT!!! LMAO
3) WHEN MIXING DOWN TO CD-R, DO LIKE WHAT'S HIS NAME
SAID AND PUSH IT AS FAR INTO THE RED AS YOU CAN W/O
GETTING DISTORTION.
4) MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!!!!!!!!! KEEP EXPERIMENTING, HAVE
PATIENCE AND KEEP AN OPEN MIND, HAVE FUN FIRST AND
FOREMOST........
LITTLE Z (STEVE)