recording my guitar

[floz26]

ok, i think the reason why this is frustrating me so much is I have an acoustic/electric TAYLOR guitar. i want to record a track of acoustic guitar. what ive been doing is just plugging the guitar straight into the recorder, because im pretty sure taylor's have built in preamps, cuz there are all the dbz knobs and stuff on the guitar. the problem is it doesnt sound anything like it does when not plugged in, it sounds distorted almost, like each string is irritatingly vibrating to hard. could this be solved by recording from an amp into a condenser mic instead? how do you find acoustic/electric recording sounding the best? maybe some kind of pedal that fixes this? any help would be great

 

[ACIDBANDIT]

what are you plugging the guitar into to record? how high are the gain levels set? do you have trim control on your multi tracker? alot of factors come into play here, you might want to try adjusting the gain/trim levels on your guitar input, or even adjusting the volume on the guitar itself to even the sound out. i almost never record using DI (direct input) on my 8track, for the reasons you are mentioning... it sounds like crap =) you would probably get a much more pleasing sound by micing it, even if it was with just some cheap dynamic mics.

-dave-

 

[skim]

Look, your pickup on the acoustic guitar is never going to sound as good as the natural sound coming out of the sound hole. I'm guessing you have an under-saddle piezo pickup or some hybrid there of. The fact is those pickups are interpreting the string vibrations and artificially producing the sound, so it's not the same as miking the guitar.

My suggestion - for studio use, always mic the guitar. The D/I can perhaps be recorded simultaneously for use later, but the sound of your guitar is going to come out of the sound hole, not your pickup.

I have a decent Martin guitar with the fishman pickup, and it's the same for me. A rather irritating sound that may be acceptable for live performances (still going through some kind of a decent preamp), but not for studio.

In the studio I always track both and make decisions later. Playing live I just go with the pickup.

 

[apl]

Dittoes. The boingy sound of an acoustic's piezo bridge pickup is not appropriate for recording, and as said before don't sound nothin' like a guitar anyway.