Recording Acoustic Guitar Tips
The first thing to do before you start recording is to select the microphone you'd like to record with. For acoustic guitar, you can do two different techniques: a single, or mono, microphone technique, or a two-microphone, or stereo, technique. For recording acoustic instruments in the highest quality, you'll want to use a condenser microphone rather than a dynamic microphone. The reason you want a condenser microphone rather than a dynamic microphone is very simple; condenser microphones have much better high frequency reproduction and much better transient response, which you need for acoustic instruments.
Take a listen to your acoustic guitar. You'll find that the most low-end build-up is near the sound hole itself; the higher-end buildup will be somewhere around the 12th fret.
If you are using just a single microphone, you'll want to start by placing the microphone at about the 12th fret, about 5 inches back. If that doesn't give you the sound you want, move the mic around; after you record it, you might want to give it extra body by "doubling" the track - recording the same thing again, and hard-panning both left and right.
If you have two microphones at your disposal, put one around the 12th fret, and another around the bridge. Hard pan them left and right in your recording software, and record. You should discover that it's got a much more natural and open tone; this is really easy to explain: you have two ears, so when recording with two microphones, it sounds more natural to our brain. You can also try an X/Y configuration at around the 12th fret: place the microphones so that their capsules are on top of each other at a 90 degree angle, facing the guitar. Pan left/right, and you'll find that this gives you a more natural stereo image sometimes.
You might want to experiment using the built-in pickup as well, if you've got the inputs to do it. Sometimes taking the acoustic guitar's pickup and blending it with microphones can yield a more detailed sound; however, it's totally up to you, and in most cases, unless it's a good quality pickup, it'll sound out of place on a studio recording. Remember to experiment. Each situation will be different, and if you don't have any microphones to record with, a pickup will do fine.
If you're mixing acoustic guitar into a full-band song with other guitars, especially if those guitars are in stereo, you might be better off with a single-mic technique, because a stereo acoustic guitar might introduce too much sonic information into the mix and cause it to become cluttered. If it's just you playing guitar and vocals, a stereo or doubled mono technique will sound the best.
Compressing acoustic guitar is subjecting; a lot of engineers will go both ways. I personally hardly ever compress acoustic guitar, but a lot of engineers do. If you chose to compress, try to very lightly compress it - a ratio of 2:1 or so should do the trick. The acoustic guitar itself is very dynamic, and you don't want to ruin that.
Click here for more articles...
|
|
Download and Order free loops. Hundreds of FREE Samples!
Downloads loops at LoopLib.com. All you need to make great music.
Download free loops, download free drum loops and samples, download free bass loops, free loops,hip hop loops,order free loops.
All for free, rock, hip hop beats, funk, blues, world percussion & More. 24 bit 96kHz and 16 bit 44.1kHz Acidized wav files.
Hundreds of FREE Samples! Downloads loops at LoopLib. All you need to make great music.
|
|
|
.JPG)
.JPG)
