Recording an Acoustic guitar

[Rickson Gracie]

Im using a taylor 110 and two mxl603s' panned in stereo. one at the 12th fret and the other near the bridge about 6 inches away.

i find myself rolling off a lot of the lows with my EQ to get the finished recording to sound "good." is that common with acoustic recordings? it just sounds like the bass of the guitar kills the sound.

is it just me?

 

[Track Rat]

It depends on the guitar. Martin and Martin-like dreadnaughts are notorious for "woofing out" mics.

 

[sile2001]

It depends on the guitar. Martin and Martin-like dreadnaughts are notorious for "woofing out" mics.

Taylors, in general, produce a somewhat quieter but much more defined bass response than Martins do.

I've experienced the same effect with both my 410-RCE and 614-CE and my general solution has been to back the mics off a little bit to reduce proximity effect, but increase the gain a little to compensate for the drop in volume. Play around with the distance of your mics from the guitar and also the distance between your mics. You may also want to try an X-Y setup for the mics rather than A-B.

 

[Rickson Gracie]

Taylors, in general, produce a somewhat quieter but much more defined bass response than Martins do.

I've experienced the same effect with both my 410-RCE and 614-CE and my general solution has been to back the mics off a little bit to reduce proximity effect, but increase the gain a little to compensate for the drop in volume. Play around with the distance of your mics from the guitar and also the distance between your mics. You may also want to try an X-Y setup for the mics rather than A-B.

what is an x - y setup??

 

[sile2001]

http://www.dpamicrophones.com/page.php?PID=123

That is X-Y. Ignore all the stuff on there where DPA is trying to sell their own crap and just look at what it says about X-Y. They also have information about other techniques such as ORTF, M-S, Blumlien, etc, in their "Microphone University" section.

 

[Sonixx]

I'm fond of this technique. it can create a very balanced, open and airy stereo image.

assume right handed guitar player:

one mic is in front, down to the left of and pointed at the 15th fret... ~18 inches away straight line. rotate mic for more string or low end... towards port for more lows and towards head for more string.

second mic is over the player's right shoulder and pointed at the bridge... ~18 inches away straight line. move the mic forward/backward to help balance the low end

-keith-