Weird Harmonics

[Heartfelt]

I am recording acoustic with a spaced pair of Cad Trion 6000 mics. The tone is great and I am happy with it. However, as I playback, especially when recorded @ 88.2, I hear some harmonic overtones. (Actually, one is at 12th pointing towards hole and the other is over the shoulder)

If you can imagine the type of sound a tuning fork makes... it comes in in different places at different tones, depending upon the chord progression.

Am I losing my mind or has anyone ever experienced this? Any guesses on the cause?

curious

[johnnybregar]

This is pretty common - your best bet is to just keep moving the mics around until its minimized. You might also try different strings. What kind of guitar is it?

[Heartfelt]

well, that is good to know. It is a cheapie that i thought sounded ok live. Since I can't change that, I will work on the mic placement. I thought I was losing it or the equipment was freaking out.

Thanks for the tip.

[Watersound]

Yeah that is something I experience from time to time- try not only moving the mics, but also move to a different part of the room. Sometimes backing the mics up a few inches takes care of it. Acoustics are so complex that with very close micing it can introduce all sorts of issues.

[Heartfelt]

Thank you, will do.

[johnnybregar]

Just had an idea you could try - if you can't get rid of them, you may be able to sidechain a compressor and reduce those frequencies a bit...

[mojo1]

I had a similar thing happen when a guy was playing a sock rhythm. When he was muting the strings between each strum, his fingers were light enough to be making a harmonic. We tried a few guitars and it turned out that his 50's martin didn't have as much "ring" as his collings in that situation. I think it was the difference in neck shape causing his fingers to mute slightly differently!

I guess my question is.... Do the harmonics ring during a tone, or when you're heading between tones? You may have to adjust your technique to get a cleaner sound between...

When you're recording, your playing is under a microscope. Lots of things you didn't know were happening start to rear their ugly heads. Well, at least that was the case when I started!

Hope that might help!

[Heartfelt]

This is all great stuff, thanks.

It tends to build over over and morph from one freq to another. Took me by surprise as I haven't recorded this critically before. A learning experience for sure.

I took another listen and in the keys of A and D, it is the 1st string as if partially muted at the 5th for that higher harmonic (high e). I am playing open chords and not in that vacinity so I don't believe I am muting. It tends to be most pronounced on A2 and D2 when I bang it a bit, with an open first string.

It isn't god-aweful but if I can't work on it a bit, I certainly want to. I'd rather have it as clean as possible. I will try moving the mics back a bit and moving inside the room as well. I'll play with the sidechain idea too.