Acoustic Guitar Recording Techniques

[Jeff Scott]

So, mp3s can be uploaded? Cool, I will have to get to work, then.

[CAGuy]

How about a single sm81 at the 12th fret or neck body joint? Then double that track by copying it and delaying one track by 5-10 ms or replay the track again and record that. Has anyone else tried this? The SM81 is a great acoustic guitar mic.

[Yetti]

Originally Posted by CAGuy

How about a single sm81 at the 12th fret or neck body joint? Then double that track by copying it and delaying one track by 5-10 ms or replay the track again and record that. Has anyone else tried this? The SM81 is a great acoustic guitar mic.

Yeah, the SM81 is a great mic for acoustic guitar.
Soemtimes it it worth testing the placment a little more toward the sound hole and about a foot, or even a 2 feet back. Sometimes guarding agaist the boomieness of the sound hole can leave some of that body tone out.
The delay for panning is not may fav for acoustic, sometimes cool for a special effect elec. guitar solo, but playing a second track would be my first choice in that scenerio.
Also. try a room mic along with that 81.
You can create a much better natural image than 1 close mic can do for you.
A 2nd mic (I like the Rode K2) about 5 feet back, test to see if fig 8 sounds better than omni, it gives you a great option in the mix.
Pan that close mic 81 wherever you want. say more or less hard right.
Now, pan the room mic more or less Left. You may only introduce this mic about 50% of the volume as the 81 track, but hear how you have created more depth, real dimensional space without any reverb?

[CAGuy]

Originally Posted by Yetti

Yeah, the SM81 is a great mic for acoustic guitar.
Soemtimes it it worth testing the placment a little more toward the sound hole and about a foot, or even a 2 feet back. Sometimes guarding agaist the boomieness of the sound hole can leave some of that body tone out.
The delay for panning is not may fav for acoustic, sometimes cool for a special effect elec. guitar solo, but playing a second track would be my first choice in that scenerio.
Also. try a room mic along with that 81.
You can create a much better natural image than 1 close mic can do for you.
A 2nd mic (I like the Rode K2) about 5 feet back, test to see if fig 8 sounds better than omni, it gives you a great option in the mix.
Pan that close mic 81 wherever you want. say more or less hard right.
Now, pan the room mic more or less Left. You may only introduce this mic about 50% of the volume as the 81 track, but hear how you have created more depth, real dimensional space without any reverb?

How do you think a Rode NT3 will sound as a room mic with the sm81 about 6 inches from the neck body joint?

[Yetti]

Originally Posted by CAGuy

How do you think a Rode NT3 will sound as a room mic with the sm81 about 6 inches from the neck body joint?

I have never used an NT3, but for the purpose of a room mic at a lower volume I am sure it would be fine...as long as your room sounds decent.
In general, I like the sound of an acoustic gutar mic backed off a little bit, but like everything it depends upon the style music, musician, sound of the guitar, etc.
It sometimes helps to position the mic while wereing headphones to determine the best placement, and if that is 6" away where the neck meets the body, cool....but don't limit yourself to that.

[Unclenny]

Wish I had checked this thread out earlier as I am always tracking acoustics for my somewhat sparce recordings.

I have tried mono tracking and it just doesn't make me smile. I'm primarily recording an old Stella for the guts of my tunes and I really want it to occupy some territory.

I always put up two....usually a Peluso 251 and a KSM32. I like the 32 over my shoulder and the 251 somewhere out front, but that tends to change with my mood. I track them on seperate monos and then bounce them to stereo. The trick is....for me.....to get the mono tracks sounding good (and looking good on PAZ) by panning them in close. That is usually around 35/35.

I hear comb filtering and phasing anomolies all the time and I try to use them musically to give some sense of space.

I'm also involved in a collaborative project (JDL Band) where the guits are always tracked mono. JD likes to track multiple....and I do mean multiple....tracks and I think mono is the way to go with dense stuff like that.

You can check my links for examples.......Lenny like stereo, JD likes mono.

[jksees]

Originally Posted by Todd

Oh, you're a guitarist, that explains it. You are a rare find. There are hardly any guitarists around here.

Mic it however you want. I hear the guitar with 2 ears. So i record with 2 mics. It sounds good to me. The end...
I no pro guitarist,im sure not as great as Mr. Olguitar, but here's a sample. SM81's in XY YouTube - Not flamenco

Here's one with just a single SM57. YouTube - La Ardila (Alegrias)

What's with all the right fighters on GS? Love this board, but it drives me nuts sometimes.

Beautiful playing! I have never been able to get my classical to sound correct. I have a pair of SM81's and I am definitely going to try them in this XY config. Thank you for the video because it gives me a good idea of distances etc.
Jason

[connormusic]

for my set up i use an akg c214 similar to the 414 capsule and pairing it with a neumann ksm184 sounds really nice and balanced although it cost a bit more its an investment in something awesome

[chrissyb]

What do people think about tracking the same part in mono twice?

Years ago I used to do this - I impressed myself by panning the separate tracks hard left/right.

If I worked with more experienced mixer/engineers they used to scrub my double tracking! Can't remember the discussion we had...

These days - the timing problems drive me mad though, unless the part is very simple, or you can nail it almost dead on, those timing anomalies are probably more annoying than the pseudo stereo effect they provide...for me personally.

[Yetti]

Originally Posted by chrissyb

What do people think about tracking the same part in mono twice?

Years ago I used to do this - I impressed myself by panning the separate tracks hard left/right.

If I worked with more experienced mixer/engineers they used to scrub my double tracking! Can't remember the discussion we had...

These days - the timing problems drive me mad though, unless the part is very simple, or you can nail it almost dead on, those timing anomalies are probably more annoying than the pseudo stereo effect they provide...for me personally.

I often like to double track the acoustic guitar.

I don't normally track it in mono, usually one close mic and one room mic about 4 or 5 feet back...
I like to pan those close mics left and right, and the room mics opposite.
The hard pan mono can get annoying, or sound un natural, but the room mics in the opposite direction make it sound more spacious and natural, while still giving the listner a left and right perception.
Adding a little stereo reverb to JUST the room mics can also add to the depth.
Try it...It is a good formula

[chrissyb]

Yetti - I don't follow that - although it sounds interesting...You use a stereo pair close mic'd then a room pair?

Chris

[Yetti]

Originally Posted by chrissyb

Yetti - I don't follow that - although it sounds interesting...You use a stereo pair close mic'd then a room pair?

Chris

Hi Chris,
What I was describing was using one close mono mic, and one room mic about 4 feet back.
However, I often do use a closer stereo X-Y pair and a room mic.
Even when I do that, I don't normally spread the X-Y pair hard left and right, I spread them something like a "V" on say the left side, but the room mic would be flipped to the right side.
The volume level of that room mic does not have to be very much, but as you start bringing the volume up even to about 50%, the acoustic guitar close mic placment sounds so much more natural than without that room mic.
So at least 1 close mic and 1 room mic to achieve this result.
Now, if you decide to record another seperate acoustic guitar performance (double track), then try flipping the mic panning placements opposite for that performance.
I hope that helps.

[chrissyb]

Excellent - I'll give it a try...thumbsup