Treatment for Acoustic Gutair Room

[stoctony]

I just fonnd out the direct is not the way to record acoustic. So, I and recording with a Yamaha acoustic. with 2 AT3035's. I have tried the whole blanket in the closet. I have 3 4ftX7ft booth walls. that sounds like crap. I have tried them with blankets over them. I have tried all mic placements possible. I was told that rooms are the best way for acoustic gutair but what should i do for treatments for the room with out having to by foam and everything. Should it be a harsh room with tile and let everything bounce or should i do the living room thing with carpret and everything. I thought the carpet and everything would be comparable to the blankets. Does anyone have any secrets. Oh yeah. My recording just sound so distant. I need up close and personal

Thanks in advance

 

[Armistice]

Don't have any answers for you stoctony, but I have a vested interest in what some of our more senior and knowledgeable members might say...

Bump..

 

[chessrock]

My recording just sound so distant. I need up close and personal

I'd go dry, then, and minimize reflections.

Secrets? Packing blankets. Lots of thick, heavy ones.

 

[randyfromde]

How far away are you setting up the mics?

 

[bucchild]

You gotta play with your sound and try everything out....I noticed that when I recorded an acoustic guitar in a pretty large room with no acoustic treatment, the natural reverb just added to the warmth of my recording. I liked the way it sounded. Then again, that's just personal preference, and I'm no guru....maybe the experts will tell you what's wrong with that idea, but it sounded pretty good when I was done with it.

I'll add this, though....I did not listen to it through monitiors, however (that was for you, chessrock, lol).

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

I now record acoustic guitar in my bedroom which is small, cluttered with furniture and carpeted. I also hang a big thick duvet behind me. I like the sound I get.

I've tried a lot of different rooms in a few different properties and like chessrock says I've found I'm better off just trying to get as dead an environment as possible and add verb and whatever later if needed.

Interestingly my current bathroom sounds horrible but then again I've recorded at a friends house and his bathroom sounded pretty good. Just goes to show you need to really check out the environments that are available to you.

I should caveat the above by saying I'm a relative newb and so I don't know much. I know what I like tho!

 

[lpdeluxe]

You need a bigger space to record. Deadening what you have will only give you dead sounding recordings. Acoustic guitar sounds best when it's recorded with a mic that will pick up some room...and there has to be some room to pick up! Do you have the opportunity to use a living room space, even temporarily? That will be a lot better than a closet.

 

[stoctony]

You are saying I basicly want as muck crap in the room as possible to absorb sound. makes sense. thanks

 

[bucchild]

I think you're getting the wrong picture

I don't think you want to record acoustic guitar in a dead room. Obviously a harsh room may be too much, but a little natural reverb is nice. Like I said before, I've notice that a large room is pretty good, preventing an overload of reflection and yet providing a little ambience. If your guitar sounds distant, I would think that's probably mic placement more than anything...

 

[mgraffeo]

Acoustic guitar in a dead room is really difficult, because it seldom feels real. You have to process it with reverb, etc, to get any sort of life out of it, and it's a pretty complex signal, so a cheap reverb plug-in often doesn't do the job.

If you're going to record in a pretty dead room, one common recommendation is to buy a sheet of plywood, and put the chair on top of it, and then set up your mics. This way, you get some floor reflection, which helps the ears believe that this instrument actually existed in a physical space.

I think that the best solution (a larger room that actually sounds good) is too far off. Experiment with different combinations of live and dead, and see where you can go with it.

-mg

 

[chessrock]

If you can't make it good, make it dead. The fact that your recordings sound distant is a red flag that your room isn't good. So deaden it. But don't use thin foam-type stuff. Use thick, heavy materials. Heavy couches and furniture, thick heavy carpeting, packing blankets, etc. If it sounds gross, then try playing on a hard surface and see what that does; I know some guys who like to stick a large sheet of wood underneath them when they track, for example. Experiment.

As far as cheap reverb plugins go, I'm not certain that they're universally bad options. I have great luck, for example, tracking in a very dead space and then using the "tiled room" preset with a little extra pre-delay on Waves Renaissance Verb.

 

[Bob Keelan]

Here's a fun little exercise. Take your guitar around to every room in the house. Decide which room you sound best in and then study why that room is the best one.

 

[sdelsolray]

What type and model of guitar is being recorded? How are the strings? The player? What's yur mic placement?

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Re: I think you're getting the wrong picture

a little natural reverb is nice.

I quite agree with this.

I was basically speaking form the perspective of someone who doesn't have a nice acoustical space to record in.
Like I said check all the rooms you have available and if you don't hear anything you like then go the 'dead room' route.