Recording Acoustic Guitars

[dpsmith]

First off, this place is a great place.

Now onto my newb question..

Ok Now I know your microphone is a big key in recording,
I have a lil ol cheap radio shack mic that does prety good with my voice..

Now what I am trying to figure out is how to record my guitars.
My uncle has one of those fancy XLR type mics and we still have the same
problem. That is trying to pick up the sound in a good quality.
So far the only way I can get it to sound great is to stick my mic into the Guitar.. yea looks funny with a cord hanging out the hole. but it works.

With the Fancy XLR we have to put it almost on top of the trings, but then I hit the mic when struming because it is in the way.

Oh and with the CLR mic we are using the phantom power.

So is there any tips or tricks as to how to get it to pick up better?
It just bugs me because I can have it so close but it sounds so far away.

This is the only part of the recording I have problems with.

Thanks for any help

David.

P.S,

My two acoustic guitars are a nylon and a steel 12 string.

 

[mixsit]

As a starting point, put the mic 3 or 4 inches out near the 12th fret or neck/body junction. This is a generally a spot with good tone balance, and not in the way.
Now get your gain control up enough so you are getting a loud enough signal.
Onec that is sorted out, play with the position to dial in the tone. A few inches in any direction will have big effect.
What are the mics? Are they directional?

 

[elicantu]

+1 on the 12th fret
you will get the best balance there with mics like that
but still your recording is gonna be as good as your mic and the way you use it
so just keep messing with it around there

 

[Nick98338]

This is my description, to myself a reminder, of how to place the mic when I'm recording my Martin:

"One fist distance from guitar, Mic above fretboard, in line with top bout and half way between neck/body joint and soundhole, diaphram pointed down toward floor and slightly toward sound hole."

This is my (current) positioning. I have tried dozens of different positions in the last two years. I'll probably change my mind the next time I set up for tracking. But, for today, this is how I set the mic.

 

[danny.guitar]

"One fist distance from guitar, Mic above fretboard, in line with top bout and half way between neck/body joint and soundhole, diaphram pointed down toward floor and slightly toward sound hole."

This is about the same mic placement I always use. If you're having to stick the mic inside the guitar, your mic has problems. Get a small diaphragm condenser (SDC) mic. Naiant's go for only about $20.

http://www.naiant.com/studiostore.html

You'll have to wait until January 7th for when the store reopens. Behringer ECM8000 is also another good mic but kind of noisy and their quality control isn't the greatest...so I'd wait a week and get the Naiants. Don't be fooled by the price.

 

[Dani Pace]

Another thing is (this is the way I mic acoustic guitars most of the time) to use 2 mics. One positioned as already described and a second mic more in front of the body of the guitar. The 2 mic method gives you more signal to your recorder and both will pick up slightly different tones and sounds which can be blended together to get a fuller sound. As for the weak signal you are getting, turning up the gain to your mic(s) should help, if not you need a better preamp or better mic(s). Mic positioning is a very important aspect of recording. A few inches or a slight change of angle will alter what a mic "hears" so move mics a little at a time until you find the spot where they work best.

 

[antispatula]

This is about the same mic placement I always use. If you're having to stick the mic inside the guitar, your mic has problems. Get a small diaphragm condenser (SDC) mic. Naiant's go for only about $20.

http://www.naiant.com/studiostore.html

You'll have to wait until January 7th for when the store reopens. Behringer ECM8000 is also another good mic but kind of noisy and their quality control isn't the greatest...so I'd wait a week and get the Naiants. Don't be fooled by the price.

I was just about to recomend MSH mics, good call.
For 25 bucks each you can get increadible results. I ALWAYS use these on acoustic guitar, nothing (in my modest little mic collection....) beats them.

There's something that SDC's can give you that LDC's cannot when it comes to acoustic guitar. I had an AKG 414 for a short while, and liked the MSH's better for acoustic, and the 414 costs literally 50 times more than the MSH!

If you want to mic the guitar with one mic, I get the best results when I position the mic where the neck meets the body, at a 35-45 degree angle towards the soundhole.

As a general rule, too add brightness you go up the neck, to add warmth, you go down the neck towards the sound hole. Keep in mind that going too far up will make the guitar sound thin and overly bright, and going too far down the neck will make is sound too boomy really fast.

 

[drossfile]

With the Fancy XLR we have to put it almost on top of the trings, but then I hit the mic when struming because it is in the way.

Oh and with the [X]LR mic we are using the phantom power.

i'm curious as to whether or not the "fancy xlr" mic is a condenser. if it's a dynamic, using phantom power is doing nothing to help you.

aside from this, assuming it is a condenser, how are you setting the level? it seems that you simply don't have a strong enough signal, and to compensate you're placing the mic closer to the source. since you have phantom power, i'm assuming you're using a preamp, interface, or mixer. when you play, what response are you getting on your level meters? what's your gain setting? what mic and pre are you using?

in any case, the default starting point is 12th fret, perpendicular to the neck (mixsit's post). there are lots of variations from there, but it seems to me that your fundamental problem (as indicated by the OP) is signal level.

i hope this helps--please submit additional info.

 

[TimN]

Yeah, its kind of vague about the mics--it sounds like whatever they are they aren't working. Good advice; I need to check out those Naiants, it sounds too goood to be true. I would add that I use a Behringer B-1 condenser 12
inches off the sound hole about even with the back of the hole's diameter, towards the bridge. The input gain is set at about 2 o'clock, levels at 12. The DAW's meters never go above -3 or so. I get great rsults with this. Oh, and the most important detail? A wool army blanket on a clothes drying stand diectly behind the mic (well, about 6 inches behind).