Stereo acoustic guitar

[khudsonjr]

I have been getting good results with a LDC a bit over my shoulder and a SM57 at the 12th fret.

 

[BRIEFCASEMANX]

another one you could try is an LDC on the back(!!!) of the guitar, to the right of the soundhole when you're holding the guitar, and another one, probably LDC where the neck meets the body.

 

[GLMrScary]

I sure hope you're kidding.

What do you mean...you hope I am kidding? I am NOT. It sounds like a million bucks. Wait till I am finished. I'll post a clip.

Eric

 

[scrubs]

What do you mean...you hope I am kidding? I am NOT. It sounds like a million bucks. Wait till I am finished. I'll post a clip.

Eric

I'll look forward to hearing that.

 

[Robert D]

While I have heard an LR Baggs pickup sound pretty good recorded, and subsequently put one in my Martin........ it shure wasn't to record with. No pickup on earth, and no delay tactic can ever achieve the sound, the intimacy, the "being there" of a pair of nice mics in front of an acoustic in a good room. On an audiophile playback system, the difference will be as apparent as vinyl self sticking wood veneer on particle board vs real wood.

 

[GLMrScary]

I recorded these clips from my bedroom untreated using MSH-1 matched pair:

Dry: My Jesus I Love Thee
Wet: Guitar

Spaced pair, at 12th fret and at the bridge about 12~14" away, hard panned both left and right.

Mine don't sound quite as good as this...I'll admit. This is a GREAT sound! What acoustic are you using?

Eric

 

[XLR]

For steel string acoustic, I think if you get a rich balanced tone on the gtr first of all, and have any decent mike somewhere near the neck/body joint, you'll get a good sound. Add another mike in some variation of close miked dual-mono (like wide AB at 14th fret/bridge, or 14th fret/over shoulder) if you want to add complexity to the sound, but that's just frosting on top of a rich basic tone. And if you have a good room it can be nice to move the mikes back a few feet and use a true stereo config like XY, ORTF or spaced omnis to get a bit more room sound. That's when the quality of the mikes matters the most IME.

But if you track somebody who gets a thin scratchy tone it gets much tougher, since they're likely to listen to the playback and say, "No, that's not what I want... it sounds thin and scratchy." But there's usually some mike and close position that can make it sound better than it actually does in the room.

I'd say forget all the stuff about LDC, SDC, etc. For fairly close miked ac gtr I haven't seen much correlation between general sound characteristics and diaphragm size. It's all about the particular mikes. YMMV.

EDIT: re panning of dual mono or stereo tracks, personally I always hard pan to opposite sides. If I want mono I just use one mike, or a near/far inline combination that are phase aligned. But with any two mikes I always make sure there's reasonable mono compatibility so it'll sound OK if somebody listens on a clock radio.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

But if you track somebody who gets a thin scratchy tone it gets much tougher, since they're likely to listen to the playback and say, "No, that's not what I want... it sounds thin and scratchy." But there's usually some mike and close position that can make it sound better than it actually does in the room.

Yep. Willie Nelson's beatup '69 Martin is going to sound like a beat up '69 Martin no matter how you mike it .

Which brings in another factor: Willie actually likes his git box to sound like that (even when he's straight ). And you can recognize it a mile away. It's not what most would stereotypically call a good sounding guitar sound, but it's what works for his style and his sound. Put a Taylor 810 in his hands and it'd sound a lot fuller and sweeter probably, but it would have an entirely different emotion to it.

With that in mind, I have to ask, "What is a 'good' guitar sound?" The assumption that it's always going to mean full, rich and precise. That's a great sound indeed. But is it always what the song or performer style calls for? I say no. Sometimes that sound is as inappropriate to the recording as a classical, full-room Steinway grand is to a Z.Z. Top anthem.

P.S. Speaking of Willie, here's a quote of his I love:

"Honestly, I'd just as soon have one mic with the guitar, play acoustic, and let the guitar run through the vocal mic. It runs engineers crazy when you want to do that."

G.

 

[daav]

For X/Y or (somewhat) spaced stereo, it might be helpful to pick up a stero micing bar like Naiant sells here (scroll down) get some mics too, they are great for the price:

http://www.naiant.com/studiostore/6mmcapsulemics.html


Daav

 

[XLR]

Of course sound quality is always a matter of taste. The point is that whatever tone one is aiming at it's best to produce it that way at the source. And often gtrists want to have their recording sound very different than how they actually sound when they play.

Sometimes one wants a thinner or brighter gtr sound in a mix. But there's thin-bright that's harsh, and there's thin-bright that's not harsh, and that depends mainly on the player.

 

[mrface2112]

for tracks where the acoustic is the focus, i typically record my Martin D15 (a mellow sounding guitar) with a pair of MXL 603's in a spaced pair configuration.

i'll typically put one about 6-12in from the neck, somewhere between the 12th and 14th frets. the other one will go over the guitarist's picking shoulder (kinda near their ear), over the lower bout of the guitar, aiming down towards the ground, and back a little bit towards the bout of the guitar.

the reasoning is thus: the neck mic picks up the sound from in front. simple. the other mic picks up what the guitarist is hearing.

pan em wide to taste and you'll have a great sound, assuming that the guitar and player are not crap.

often i'll put a 3rd mic 6ft or so out in front. usually i'll use my BLUE Dragonfly or MXL V77 for that. this mic i'll pan towards the center and bring up as needed.

I'll be glad to post some links if anyone cares.

cheers,
wade

 

[tom18222]

how did you manage to get a chorus effect with recordint 2 seperate tracks? that would mean theyd have to sounds exactly the same but be a little bit offset from eachother, no?

 

[TheHunter]

Mine don't sound quite as good as this...I'll admit. This is a GREAT sound! What acoustic are you using?

Eric

I used both yahama guitars in different models.