Oct 26, 2007 03:06 am new strings....or maybe back the mic up a foot or two...what kinda mics do you have at your disposal?
Drab, bland, acoustic guitar highs
Posted on Oct 26, 2007 02:56 am
Keith Warren
Mans reach exceeds his grasp
Member Since: Oct 23, 2007
Maybe I should have posted this in gear, but I think it's a recording issue...
My Martin 000C-RGTE Aura has been retired to the Martin Plant in Penn. repair shop thanks to the fine folks at the Detroit Airport, so I'm stuck recording with my Dean Eandes (ALL Rosewood, front, back & sides.) It has nice low end and just the right mids, but the highs are rather lack luster. I've tried numerous micing setups and diffrent mics, but the highs still seem to be a little too colored in the wrong way, (they're resonant, but don't 'feel' there), as well as very 'flat' sounding. Any tips/tricks?
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Oct 26, 2007 03:06 am new strings....or maybe back the mic up a foot or two...what kinda mics do you have at your disposal?
Oct 26, 2007 03:42 am Brand new stings on it, Daddario 12s. My mics are all borrowed from the studio I work in, but I have a Sony G-800PAC, Nuemann USM 69, Nuemann BCM 104, AKG C-12, Cascade X-15, Sontronics Sigma (ribbon), and a pair of Brauner Valvets, as well as a gamut of various 'cigar' mics. I can say for sure it's not the mics or strings, those are the first things I checked. I need advice more so on the editing end if anything. It's one of those instances where you might have to hear it to know what I'm talking about.
Oct 26, 2007 05:31 am In hind sight, maybe I should have posted this in mixing... since I've ruled out the recording issues?
Oct 26, 2007 07:43 am Quote:
the highs still seem to be a little too colored in the wrong way, (they're resonant, but don't 'feel' there), as well as very 'flat' sounding.
This sounds like a phase issue to me.
There's the "one-to-three rule" that states that for every unit of distance the mics are away from the instrument, the mics should be separated from each other by three times that distance. For example, if the mics are six inches away from the guitar, they should be eighteen inches apart. This is not a hard and fast rule though, and can be impractical.
What I do is monitor with a mono headphone mix and adjust the mic placement until the coloration is minimized.
Oct 27, 2007 06:54 pm Nice mics! I'd love to hear some of those.
My starting point for highs on an acoustic is one mic on the 12th fret and an AKG 451 at around the 5th fret, pointing towards the players fingers, or to the headstock for even morer highs. Also, try putting a reflective surface just in front of where your feet would be and play round with the micing.
If thats not working then I'd turn to processing. What outboard does the studio your working in have? Not really sure what sound you're going for but Izotope Ozone or a good multiband compressor can mash up the sound pretty good...
Sounds like you should be using another guitar though...
$0.02NZD
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