Classical Guitar recording help!

[Baderup99]

I had a problem with a musician breathing, i solved that, now need some help on recording classical guitar, this thread has a sample.
getting rid of "breathing" noise...

[Farshad]

Originally Posted by Baderup99

I had a problem with a musician breathing, i solved that, now need some help on recording classical guitar, this thread has a sample.
getting rid of "breathing" noise...

Make sure it is not a very dead sounding room. A little hard surface in the room really helps.

[The Listener]

It sounds nice - which mics? They should do the trick... just - yes - please go out of your room... Try to make an agreement with some local church or concert hall (could be smaller and nice sounding) and position a coincident stereo pair some distance from the player - that should fix all your problems - if he still breathes like yoga master tell him if he is aware of that and if he can concentrate on not doing that while recording - but don't tell him that too soon - if distance solves the problem, then it is better that he feels comfortable while recording - let the man breathe

Your recording sounds too close - guitar is spread accross the whole stereo picture - looking HUGE and quite some boominess from proximity effect is heard... Back off with stereo set up mics in a nice space and you will need only some minor EQing and maybe some transparent compression or limiting to enhance the details a little - maybe not even that...

The guitar recorded that way will breathe (instead of a musician, e) and it will be positioned in space - not as a huge sound-wall across speakers like it is on your recording, but you will be able to SEE it in the picture, surrounded by SPACE - that is so beautiful...

I hope this helps - so - go out of a room for classical, what you did was intimate home recording - which can be good - remember the thing Pat Metheny did? But - classical is so much nicer in a real ambient...

Try to use MS stereo if recording closer - let's say - 1m to 2m or Blumlein configuration if you will back off some more... let's say - 3 - 5m - depends on your mics, loudness of the guitar and quality of the room/church/hall sound. Ofcourse - experiment with positioning..

[The Listener]

Did a search for you // here you have quite a few ideas:

Recording classical guitar - any tips ?

best

[heathen]

At the tracking stage using a mic in a figure 8 pattern will help solve this as the top of the mic will reject anything above it.

[doorknocker]

I think the room is very important for ANY recording, even micing a loud Marshall stack but it becomes incredibly important when recording very quiet instruments like clasiscal guitar. On the bonus side you might use a very lively sounding room as there's less danger of reverb clutter with a source like that.

My advice would be to:

a) find the absolute best room for the recording.

b) spend a lot of time finding the right mic position

c) Keep things as simple as possible. Try to find a natural mix between the direct and reflected sound and mic from there. You probably want to use a stereo mic or mic pair but personally I would even do it in mono but that's just me.

d) When everything is set up in a satisfactory way, simply get out of the way...literally. It might be a good idea to 'hide' somewhere with the equipment so that the player will play in a 'natural' enviroment much like in a recital.

[Baderup99]

Hey gusy thanks for all the tips. Im only 20 and just started getting into recording seriously 1 year ago. i recorded that guitar with an AT4033 on the body and believe it or not a MXL 603 on the neck. The guitar was amazing a 10 string classical from 1976.


The guy i recorded teaches classical guitar at Kent state so im sure he could get me into one of the concert halls, so ill try that!