recording an acoustic guitar with external mic

[tom r]

Hi i have just got a boss micro Br. I used to have an old zoom mrs 802 and was able to record my acoustic guitars using a RODE NT3 mic. With the mic effects i got a really good sound. What mic would people suggest for recording acoustic guitars with the Boss?

Tom

[Bluesberry]

So far I have recorded all my acoustic stuff straight in through the onboard mic and it sounds really good IMO.  I usually record dry (no effects) and add effects if I feel like it after during a bounce (threads on here about this idea).  Sometimes I have left it dry with just a bit of reverb and it sounds great I think.  There are a few posts from me on here with acoustic recorded this way.  I know others have recorded acoustic the same way.  This little onboard mic is really surprisingly good.

[Geir]

I agree with BB. I haven't tried any high-end mics but I dont really think there's a reason for it. The quality of some of the recordings posted here speaks for themselves.

G.

[tom r]

Thanks for the advise i will try out the internal mic first. It was my assumption that an inboard mic wouldnt be that great. By the way could you point me in the direction of some acoustic recordings on a br?
thanks Tom

[Bluesberry]

Here are three acoustic things I have done.  All the acoustic part was recorded with the onboard mic with the MBR about 8 or 10 inches from the sound hole.  The last one was done with me playing and singing at the same time straight into the MBR with no effects except for a bit of reverb, recorded in one go.  These give a pretty good idea how the mic sounds.  There are other excellent acoustic recordings on here by other folks also.

http://microrecorders.org/community/post-your-work/snow-day-original-instrumental/0/

http://microrecorders.org/community/post-your-work/rainy-sunday-dream-original-instrumental/0/

http://microrecorders.org/community/post-your-work/van-diemen's-land-cover/0/

[Ted]

Tom,

I agree that the built-in mic is pretty good.  Stick with that if you can make it work for you.

However, here is the slippery slope I went down:

Now I mostly use the built-in mic when I'm trying to capture a quick idea before I forget it, or when I'm recording rough reference tracks.

For almost everything else, I bought a Samson C03 - Multi-Pattern Condenser Microphone on the recommendation of my voice teacher. 

But that mic won't plug into the 1/4" input.  So I needed an XLR adapter. 

But an XLR adapter doesn't provide phantom power, so I bought a three-in-one preamp/compressor/equalizer called a Joemeek 3Q (mostly because I was unsatisfied by the sound of my electric bass when plugged into the guitar input).

Not being a recording pro, that was a lot of gear for me to learn how to use--on top of the Micro BR.  So I bought Home Recording for Musicians for Dummies

I'm not sorry I did all that, but I really think I jumped the gun a bit.  I spent a lot more time climbing the learning curve, and less time just recording and enjoying myself.

If you have a mic you like, you can definitely make it work with the Micro BR--if you're up to it.

[tom r]

Hi again
i've had a listen to your recordings Bluesberry and as well as some very fine guitar playing the sound quality is really impressive. I'm assuming the acoustic was recorded with the on board mic and the extra guitar etc was recorded direct? On your first recording can you remember which mic setting you used?

Tom

[Bluesberry]

Thank you for the nice compliments.  All this acoustic was with the onboard mic, with the setting for nylon (I think), which is for recording classical guitar with.  I may have used onboard1, I cant remember.  All in all these effects are very slight and don't color the acoustic sound very much.  I play standing up, put the MBR on a bookshelf so it is in line whith the soundhole and stand about a foot away, set the sensitivity and away I go.  I record the extra electric guitar straight into the MBR on antoher track (or 2) using whatever effect patch seems appropriate for the sound I am after.