room's acoustic treatment

Attached is son on what is I am sure a Turner steel strung acoustic, a small guitar that perhaps works better in small rooms? The recording was way back in 2006 and I am pretty sure the microphone was a Sontronics STC-2 LDC.
It is actually quite hard to find any of his solo pieces, most are 'chopped up bits' for later incorporation into finished works, with drums, bass, voice etc. Not useful for you to get acoustic guitar sound. I have some later pieces of Bach he has done but they are on a nylon strung classical guitar. Again not really what you are after?

Two further suggestions. To keep the room out you can buy mics and/or attachments that allow very close micc'ing of the instrument. Rather "artificial" but in this game "what works...bloody WORKS!"

Last words here. Are you being too hard on yourself? Post a (320k MP3 attmnt for me) and let the guys here give their views. My judgment is flawed because 1) I am just an old 'tronics tech and 2) very mutton!

Oh! Last idea. Son also uses a Tascam Pro 40X 'hand held' (but don't) for classical guitar and a bands he is with. Just setup on a camera tripod in L room with yer gobos? The recordings can be transffered via USB.

Dave.
 

Attachments

  • flower final01.mp3
    2.7 MB
I used to close-mic my acoustic guitar before I put some sound treatment in place. Was never a good sound, not sure what mics would be better for it ( a mic is a mic). Some instruments need space for the sound to 'bloom'. Nylon string guitars need more room than steel string guitars, for example. Have someone play your guitar, and move your head around while blocking one ear, listening to how the sound changes as you move. I think the closer you are to a stringed wooden instrument, the more 'string sound' you pick up, and the less 'body sound'. When playing a lead part, I'll usually try to be about 6" away, for strummed parts, on the mahogany top about 9", on the spruce top 9-12" away.
 
Attached is son on what is I am sure a Turner steel strung acoustic

Last words here. Are you being too hard on yourself? Post a (320k MP3 attmnt for me) and let the guys here give their views. My judgment is flawed because 1) I am just an old 'tronics tech and 2) very mutton!

Dave.
That recording sounds pretty good and it's nicely played. I like that bluegrass trad kind of thing. I think that kind of single line lick playing though not without issues, is more doable in a subpar room. It's really (for me anyway) when you want to strum that overtone and resonant snafus come in. But anyway, I've decided that I'm going to start recording acoustic guitar out in my much bigger front living room and use gobos etc. I'll see how that goes.

As for my stuff...I had a big thread in the mixing section of this site where I was convinced that it was my poor mixing skills that made my stuff bad (and that is part of it). I posted a lot of my songs over there. Come to find out...mixing is not really the big issue. The issue is much more to do with poor tracking and poor monitoring. Bad room = problems. Can't hear accurately the nature of the stuff you're recording = problems.

I haven't posted any of my music here in a while. But here's some songs from over the last few months.

3 of these have acoustic guitar strumming . All electric guitar is recorded in my small room with amps/ mics except for 'What You Need' which was the last time I used amp sims for electric guitar. All the bass is recorded with an amp/mic in the small room. All the vocals are in the small room.
 

Attachments

  • I Been Riding .mp3
    5.4 MB
  • Penelopie.mp3
    5.1 MB
  • The Wisest Men.mp3
    4.3 MB
  • What You Need.mp3
    4.4 MB
Last edited:
That recording sounds pretty good and it's nicely played. I like that bluegrass trad kind of thing. I think that kind of single line lick playing though not without issues, is more doable in a subpar room. It's really (for me anyway) when you want to strum that overtone and resonant snafus come in. But anyway, I've decided that I'm going to start recording acoustic guitar out in my much bigger front living room and use gobos etc. I'll see how that goes.

As for my stuff...I had a big thread in the mixing section of this site where I was convinced that it was my poor mixing skills that made my stuff bad (and that is part of it). I posted a lot of my songs over there. Come to find out...mixing is not really the big issue. The issue is much more to do with poor tracking and poor monitoring. Bad room = problems. Can't hear accurately the nature of the stuff you're recording = problems.

I haven't posted any of my music here in a while. But here's some songs from over the last few months.

3 of these have acoustic guitar strumming . All electric guitar is recorded in my small room with amps/ mics except for 'What You Need' which was the last time I used amp sims for electric guitar. All the bass is recorded with an amp/mic in the small room. All the vocals are in the small room.
I think they all sound clean, well played and recorded. I'm listening on ear buds, and the only critique I have is the outro vocals on "I Been Riding" are a little low when the harmony parts come in. I think you really did a good job.
 
I think they all sound clean, well played and recorded. I'm listening on ear buds, and the only critique I have is the outro vocals on "I Been Riding" are a little low when the harmony parts come in. I think you really did a good job.
These are probably the best mixes I've done. They are the ones where I started using the SoundID/ Goodhertz Can Opener combo. When I got VSX though, I could really hear a lot of issues. Mixes seemed veiled or lacked clarity among lots of other stuff. I've nearly finished my first re-mix of a song with this VSX system. I think it's quite a bit better than how it turned out with SoundID/ Can Opener. I'll probably post the song for comparison and anyone who comes across it can see if I'm right.
 
Here's the same song, 2 different mixes. One is with SoundID & CanOpener. The other one marked VSX is the VSX one. Not claiming they are sensational, awesome mixes. Just that the VSX one is more clear. The SoundID one is more woolly or too much verb on the voice or just lacks the kind of definition of the VSX one. Using VSX I felt like I could dial in more accurate eq, judge reverb better etc. The old version sounds like I wasn't able to accurately sculpt eq etc. In photo terms, one mix is slightly underexposed and blurry and one mix is more accurately exposed and more in focus. What do you reckon? Do you think the VSX one is a bit more crisp/ better/ more appropriate?
 

Attachments

  • Keep Running From Me.mp3
    5.4 MB
  • Keep Running From Me VSX.mp3
    4.4 MB
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