How to record an acoustic guitar

[Redler]

I tried to find a thread that deals with recording acoustic guitar, but I didn't...

I have discussed with a few members about this and got very useful tips – thanks guys!! But, I think this may be good topic to discuss, especially now when The Unplugged Fest is in progress...I have listened to just excellent acoustic guitar sounds. So, please share your tips about presets and recording technique, generally!

I had problems with lower sounds until I edited low and mid tones towards negative side in the effects. (Effects>EDT>EQ>>LOW Gain> +/- > Lo-M Gain +/-.) In the phase of mastering I decreased lower sounds if needed: EFFECTS>EDT>MIX>adjust Lo and Mid tones. If needed I set more gain if it sounds too silent.

Kari

[Greeny]

Here's how I do it. It's not necessarily the right way, but it works for me. This is for an electro-acoustic, so you'll need an MBR, a guitar and a lead...

- Connect your guitar to the MBR
- Effects to 'OFF' (for the most natural sound going!)
- Press GTR + MIC on 'input'. If you get it right, you'll see the '+' appear between them.
- Position the MBR quite near to the guitar sound hole
- Test levels and adjust the guitar volume (I tend to use the direct guitar signal as just a little boost / enhancement to the natural mic sound, so keep the volume low on this)
- Record!

I don't play around with any settings until after recording. This is where I adjust panning and add some reverb. Reverb is a good touch on acoustic recordings - it adds some nice space and more of a live feel.

I don't do any of that EQ / gain stuff... too complicated!

Just my technique.

[Redler]

- Press GTR + MIC on 'input'. If you get it right, you'll see the '+' appear between them.

Thanks, Greeny! I didn't even know that GTR+MIC can be recorded on same time, thanks for the poor finnish manual. I don't own electro-acoustic gtr, but maybe I'll try this method with on board and external mic...

- Kari

[launched]

Yeah, I've been trying to get better at producing a good acoustic sound - Yours isn't too bad, Kari. I've always enjoyed it.

So I've progressed from the "Really hollow far away sound" to "Somewhat hollow, not too bad, but could be better"

I really want to get it right as well. It would be great somebody could give us some more pointers. I don't particularly like the plug in syle mics as the sound is to tinny and unnatural. Recording straight from the hole is my goal.

I also don't see where buying more gear is the answer. It could be room acoustics as well. This sounds stupid, but maybe playing with a blanket over me would make a difference.

[chapperz66]

Having recently had the chance to record someone else playing electro acoustic guitar, (and therefore had more opportunity to experiment than I seem to do when I'm playing myself) I found that using a close mic at the same time as DIing the electro output gave the best results.  Panning the qute different sounds across the stereo image gave a lovely warm sound. 

Having said that I use a BR1600 so this may not be of any use on other recorders that may not have this functionality.  It also of course ties up two tracks which may well be an issue.

Paul

[Geir]

I've landed on recording without any effect or with the "OnlyLMT" Patch. I place the mic of my mbr 10cm (that's about 4 inches for you who is a member of that denomination   ) away from the 12th to 20th fret. (the more bass I want the closer to the soundhole)

I rarely EQ the recording after that, but sometimes (depending on other instruments used and how deep the vox are) I cut off some bass in a bounce.

[nathanclarke]

I had a go at recording some acoustic guitar for my new song "Alone" last night.  I recently bought a pickup for my epiphone hummingbird so i just plugged in the guitar jack and then used the clean bass effect. It sounded really warm, Could be worth trying if you have an electro-acoustic.  The clean bass effect took out a lot of the fake sounding treble i normally get through the mbr when i record acoustic.

[Greeny]

I had a go at recording some acoustic guitar for my new song "Alone" last night.  I recently bought a pickup for my epiphone hummingbird so i just plugged in the guitar jack and then used the clean bass effect. It sounded really warm, Could be worth trying if you have an electro-acoustic.  The clean bass effect took out a lot of the fake sounding treble i normally get through the mbr when i record acoustic.

This is a good tip. I use this technique when I record my electro-acoustic 12 string. It adds some nice depth, and, as you say, takes the edge off the treble. I don't use it for  my regular 6-string anymore, but that's only because my Tanglewood sounds so amazing without any effects needed. Just depends on the guitar I guess. My Takamine and Ibanez acoustics would still benefit from this patch.

[Scorpios]

Cool, I was also unaware it about being able to record GTR + MIC on the MBR, I am definitely going to give this a try soon. -

Some helpful tricks I have found for recording acoustic:

-Mic placement, more treble and pick attack aimed at the bridge , more bass warmth towards the neck.

-I read a while back a technique of placing a good size cardboard box (about knee high) between the guitar and mic, tried this out and it seems to help in some rooms. In some recordings I wanted a brighter quick natural reverb and recorded in a tiled bathroom for example. If using a MBR, your options are pretty wide, a friend of mine recorded in acoustic one day in an old church during the day when no one was there and got an amazing sound, experiment with different shaped rooms, hallways, outdoors etc.

-The room itself of course makes a huge difference if you are going to use a mic only. Using 2 mics can really help to get a wider spectrum of the instrument or one close mic and one ambient room mic.

If using the MBR and you don't have an option for 2 mics, check out a stereo plug in condenser mic, they come in useful for a lot of things, or run a mixer to your line in for more channels that can be mixed into one or a stereo pair of tracks

EQ is also a big help, depending on the playing style it's going to vary a lot for strumming, finger picking, soloing etc. - I remember finding some good guidelines for basic eq settings on the fishman site. - I also had good results with the "Far Distance" effect setting on the MBR.

[peterp]

This site aint bad to get an idea of methods to use.

http://www.recordacousticguitar.com/

Most descriptions I've found use at least 2 mics on the acoustic, so that means mixing their inputs somehow.