Jan 01, 2003 04:45 pm A mic in front of the guitar can pick up some ambience from the room and make it sound more "acousticy"...
Acoustic guitar: line or mic recording
Posted on Jan 01, 2003 04:32 pm
Bruno
The Quiet Minded
Member Since: Jan 01, 2003
What is the main diferece between recording an acoustic guitar by cable or by using a mic in front of the guitar?
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Jan 01, 2003 04:45 pm A mic in front of the guitar can pick up some ambience from the room and make it sound more "acousticy"...
Jan 01, 2003 05:37 pm It will also pick up some of the finger sound's from the neck and the pluck of the string's by teh pick or finger's, depending on were you place it.
Jan 01, 2003 05:44 pm And it will also sound better.
Jan 01, 2003 07:38 pm Well, now that kinda summed it all up didn't it :-)
Jan 01, 2003 10:11 pm Yeah... because (I don't remember if I read this here or elsewhere) when you think about it, when you listen to an acoustic guitar, you listen to it in the room... not with your ear pressed up against the body...
Really it all depends on the sound you want, but for a "truer" sound, mic it.
Jan 01, 2003 11:20 pm Just to pitch in my 2 cents ;)
When you take a 'DI' feed from an acoustic guiatar the sound will often be very thin and 'wirey' - you can EQ this sound to get a fairly decent result, but often it will pale in comparison to the sound of a mic'd acoustic guitar.
A Mic will pic up more of the guitar's character, and will also give the lister a truer impression of what the instrument sounded like.
One thing that you might wish to try is to record both the Mic'd signal and the DI'd signal and then mix them together in a track - this can sometimes wield good results, but again, this depends on the quality of the "pickup" (wrong word, I know, but it's late ;) in the acoustic guitar.
Personally, I think the best sound is achieved by double tracking an acoustic line using the same mic with hard panning left and right. Then, upon mixdown, apply slightly different EQ settings to each to get a "comb filter" effect. Once this is done, apply a global reverb to the two tracks to set the "sound-scape". This can sound very pleasing, especially on headphones.
--jues.
Jan 01, 2003 11:24 pm I always liked miking it to pick up on the pick noise. I remember reading once about how in depth they mic the guitar on jewel CDs. Like her or not-great guitar sound.
Jan 02, 2003 07:02 am once again, new info (to me). im gonna try to mic and direct at the same time. i always go direct and i get a good sound. but really arent we all looking for great?
Jan 02, 2003 10:08 am My experience is that most pickups on accustic instruments, more specific, electronic vs mic based pickups color the sound of the instrument a lot! If the color fits in the piece great! go line. However, if the color does not fit; pull out the mic or mics. The Shure website has a large variety of pdf downloads on micing acustic instruments. A good starting point. From there it's experiment. The worst for me has been the upright bass. I don't have a room big enough to stop the room from becoming part of the instrument and the rooms I have used are not flattering. For guitar, I love the Oktiva 012 or maybe 021 I get confused sometimes. Good directional control, a little warmth yet detailed. Where I put it depends on the performer. I let them strum away while I adjust with headphones.
Jan 02, 2003 05:26 pm One more thing. If you don't want to be somewhat disappointed, make sure you use a condenser mic. If you do what I did and try to use an SM-58, you won't like the result!
Jan 02, 2003 08:03 pm Yup, the MK-012 is a very good choice for miccing acuostic's. And I personally like the mix of the line from the guitar, and a mic together. The guitar should have a fairly decent preamp and pickup set up in though so you can tailer the sound of the direct guitar to fit in the mix well.
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