Help on guitar tone I Need feedback

wfaraoni

wfaraoni

ear art's not a science
This is the first quick track I put down of this little warmup doodle which Ive done for years. I'm trying to get some feedback on the tonal characteristics of this recording. I have had a pretty significant degree of difficulty trying to get a rich fat guitar tone from either an acoustic or an electric guitar. Unfortunately my 50 year old ears have suffered a pretty significant amount of hearing damage over the years and getting the tone right is a real problem for me. Id like some feeback on the guitar tone and any suggestions on how to enrich it. It was recorded using an Alvarez Yairi WY1 through an Ax2 amp with a shure beta58 mic. into my Pa then into cakewalks sonar2. Perhaps if someone has the time they could download it and equalize it and tell me where Im messing up here. I feel that in spots the bass is boomy and the highs are chimey, the string sustain seems to get exagerated during the recording process causing some mud which I dont hear live.. I didnt want to spend the time now but The guitar playing will get a rework when I try to do a final version but for now Im more interested in getting a better tone, It sounds fairly good out of the amp live Thanks Bill
Here is the link . Angels dancing on the head of a pin

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1644&alid=-1
 
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I`m not a guitar player but I`d certainly like to hear it. I couldnt find the link in your post.
 
I just heard it and it's pretty cool although I would raise the mids and lower the lows a bit. I would raise the 1-5khz frequencies a tad and lower the 250 and below a tad. On my monitors that made it sound much better and more in place. And while you're at it, maybe a little delay might help...
Just my two cents

Carlos
 
Thanks Carlos; I appreciate your comments. You adjustments suggestions seem to be inline with those who can still hear well. If your interested in what others have to say and some reworked samples as the gurus worked this over see the posting in the mp3 clinic. Its kinda fun to see what others hear and think is good or bad!
 
To me it doesn't sound much like an acoustic guitar, the sustain you are refering to sounds like compression that makes it sound like an electric, although maybe that's what you are going for. Why are you going thru an amp, and then the pa (I guess mixer?) into the soundcard? I don't know anything about the AX2, but why not take its output direct to the soundcard? Or just use the mixer and not the AX2? Are you using one of the AX2's amp models, or just using it for effects? The less the signal is "processed" the cleaner it will be. Also I think that you will need to use a good condenser mic to get a conventional acoustic guitar tone, a dynamic mic will not capture the timbral nuances of an acoustic instrument.
 
Major Tom; Thanks for your input. I was not very pleased with the sound I achieved either. I overprocessed the effects trying to get ANY decent sound. The reason I was trying to go through the amp is that the mic'd guitar sound is very dry with the dynamic mics I have. The ax2 has an output which I can put directly into my soundcard but the sound quality is compromised because the output is altered internally to compensate for speakers not being used and they did not get it quite right! Yes, You are correct, I am using my PA (Yamaha EMX5000) as a mixer only to input my mic to the soundcard. I just this week got a roland MMP-2 mic modeler preamp which I hope can help with this problem. It has equalizer, compression, and preamp models for many mic sounds but it has a learning curve. At the suggestion of others I posted a mic'd raw acoustic sound (shure58a beta to mixer to soundcard)for someone to help with adjusting, its up at the same site as above and says mic at soundhole. The final result is much better and much more acoustic sounding. see mp3 mixing area on this board for results of that post. Let me know what you think.
Peace Bill
 
The straight mic sound I think is a lot closer to a starting point for an acoustic sound. You might want to check out some articles on mic'ing acoustic guitars, I'm sure there are about a million out there. Aiming a single mic at the sound hole is a no-no, too much boominess. Generally you place the mic in front of the 12th fret or so, angled to point somewhere around the neck/body joint, experimenting to find the sweet spot. This should give you a more balanced sound, closer to what your ears are expecting. Use a good CONDENSER mic for professional sounding results( if you have the $$ ). The 58 is a great dynamic live vocal mic, but its not engineered for capturing acoustic instruments. Conventional wisdom is to record a dry signal, with maybe a little compression to get a more managable signal, and then process/add effects AFTERWARDS within your multitrack program (a cakewalk product I assume) to enhance, tweaking to your heart's content with the UNDO option always at the ready. I think pretty much anyone will agree that the secret to a good recording of any instrument is to use the right tools and techniques to get the best raw/natural sound recorded, and then enhance/process after. EQ's, compression and effects will never "fix" a tone that was lacking something at the start. Happy New Year !
 
Your absolutely right Major Tom, I just got a akg 3000 and a roland mmp mic modeler and The results are much, much better. Ill post something when I get the time.
 
I threw a real short sample , since my dsl is down, of what the mmp can do up at nowhereradio its named "raw acoustic"not a song , DOWNLOAD it if your interested in what the mmp-2 can do even for someone with hearing problems like me. I did not spend any time tweaking it but I think its far better than my previous attempts at acoustic guitar recording already. and it has not been adjusted in any way.

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=1644&alid=-1
 
Way better - sounds like a good starting point. Only thing I can suggest now is to search out and read articles on recording and processing acoustic guitar.
 
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