00:00:06 Good morning children!
Today, we're going to talk about
recording acoustic guitar,
with our resident hit maker Nelson,
who's also our resident
Lenny Kravitz look-alike.
00:00:16 We're gonna do two things.
00:00:17 First, we're gonna try a bunch
of placements with the same microphone,
and try and find the best possible
placement for this guitar.
00:00:23 Then, at that placement, we'll try
different microphones
to see just how important
the microphone is.
00:00:28 So! How hard can it be?
One guitar, one microphone.
00:00:33 It's actually kinda hard, because
the whole design of the instrument,
having this big case,
and a smaller hole,
is designed to project
the sound of the instrument out.
00:00:40 I see a lot of people do this...
00:00:44 which, instinctively,
makes a lot of sense,
that's where the sound is, right?
So, Nelson please...
00:01:10 Thank you.
00:01:12 Well that's hard, because,
what are you gonna do with this?
If you put it in your mix,
all you're gonna hear is "Mmmm."
So, what most people do is they do that,
and then they high-pass the guitar,
and it starts sounding thin,
and it's not optimal.
00:01:24 So there's several possibilities here.
00:01:26 For example, we could do this:
we could push the microphone back,
and still point at the hole.
00:01:31 And it sounds like this...
00:01:55 Ok! Well, that's better,
but it's not very focused,
and you get more of the room.
00:02:00 So if your room's not good,
this is not gonna be good.
00:02:03 But it's an interesting sound.
00:02:05 You don't have to record everything
so close.
00:02:07 Everybody records everything
very close, but you don't have to.
00:02:10 If you record it a little bit far away,
you'll find it'll work better in the mix,
but here's the trick...
00:02:14 When you listen to the guitar in solo,
it's always gonna be scary to record it
far away, if you're not used to that sound.
00:02:21 What you have to do is record
the guitar within the mix.
00:02:25 Have the mix playing, and listen to
the positioning of the mic within the mix,
and then you'll find that you won't be
as scared
as putting the microphone further away.
00:02:32 Good trick.
Now check this out.
00:02:34 What I see done a lot too is this.
00:02:37 Point, you know, where...
just where the case ends,
the body of the guitar.
00:02:43 It sounds like this.
00:03:05 Obviously, it's brighter,
which is useful if that's what
you're looking for,
but I still hear some weird resonance
coming from the hole over there.
00:03:13 What would happen
if I'm pushing that back,
going to the same position as we were,
far away from the hole,
but put it in front of the neck?
And it sounds like this.
00:03:43 That's cool!
I like that, because it's got a good
balance of the brightness,
enough distance that I know I'm not gonna
have to make some sort of weird trick
to push the guitar back in the mix.
00:03:53 I don't get as much resonance,
but maybe I'm lacking a little presence.
00:03:56 Or if your room sucks, then you won't
be able to get this good sound.
00:04:00 So I'd like to propose something else.
How about we try this?
Something like that,
which is a hybrid
between looking at the body
of the guitar, looking at the neck,
and being a little closer.
It sounds like this.
00:04:38 That's super useful for me,
for something when you need
more presence on the guitar,
maybe the guitar is the only instrument
in the middle of your mix,
and you need something really
in your face,
this is good, because it limits
the amount of boom from the bottom,
and then it gives you the "twing"
from the pick, and from the strings,
but you don't get weird resonances,
or a lot less of them.
00:04:59 I like this position.
00:05:01 Now, bear in mind, with a different
guitar, and a different player,
everything's different.
But those are the basic principles.
00:05:08 If you mike here,
you'll get a lot of boom.
00:05:12 If you mike back, you get less boom, but
you get more room, it's a little fuzzy.
00:05:16 If you mike here,
you get a lot of "twing",
and still some resonance
from the boom.
00:05:21 If you mike here, that's kind of useful,
but it's a little further away in the mix.
00:05:26 And this is an interesting principle.
Why is this different from the rest?
It's because of the angle. You're using
the pattern of the microphone.
00:05:33 This is a cardioid microphone.
00:05:35 You're using the pattern
of the microphone
to cut out the stuff
that you don't want as much,
and to focus on what you want.
00:05:41 So that's one possibility.
I like this.
00:05:43 So we're gonna get this,
for this guitar, and this player,
this is good for what I'm looking for
for my song now.
00:05:50 What if I had been in a different mood
this morning
and picked out a different microphone?
This is a Studio Project C4, which is
pretty much as affordable as you can get
for a small diaphragm condenser.
00:06:01 Let's try a big diaphragm condenser.
00:06:04 Let's do that! So let me switch
the microphone, I'll be right back.
00:06:12 So this is a large diaphragm condenser,
as opposed to the small
diaphragm condenser we had before.
00:06:17 This is an ifet 47 by Soundeluxe,
no longer made.
00:06:21 Let's see what the difference is.
I'm putting it in the same position
as the last position we had
with the small diaphragm condenser.
00:06:27 Go ahead Lenny!
Obviously, it's a lot smoother,
it's not as bright and peaky,
it's also boomier,
and maybe not as useable,
depending on the kind of music
you wanna do.
00:06:59 Maybe we should try it on the sound
hole, to see what it does there.
00:07:04 Here we go... Go ahead!
I feel that these two positions are
gonna be very hard to use in the mix,
they're too boomy, this mic generates
too much bass for this guitar.
00:07:36 Maybe it's worth a try to just
put it further away,
like this, and see if we get something
useable out of that. Let's try.
00:08:04 That's not bad,
for a more distant sound,
maybe a comping sound, way in the back,
or maybe two in stereo in the back,
but it's not a featured sound,
unless I start EQing it.
00:08:14 And I'd rather find a sound
with the microphone,
rather than with an EQ.
00:08:19 So why don't we try a third microphone,
like for example a run-of-the-mill,
$80, Shure 57?
Let's try that.
00:08:30 Alright.
So let's see how this sounds...
00:08:32 in our winner spot so far.
00:09:02 So that's definitely more lo-fi,
you don't get as much detail,
which could be a problem,
or a good thing,
because since you get less details,
you hear less of the problems too.
00:09:11 You don't hear as much "twing",
and everything is kind of like
blurred over,
which could be very useful.
Let's try this here.
00:09:21 And a little further out.
00:09:23 Check it out, this may be interesting.
00:09:49 So that's too boomy, but I really like
what it does to the pick sound,
because it really kind of like...
not compresses it,
but makes it a little smoother.
00:10:00 So, again, as always,
there's not one answer.
00:10:03 There is what you want it to sound like
in your song,
and then there's guidelines
to get there.
00:10:09 If you want a really bright
in your face sound,
we saw that a small diaphragm
condenser,
pointing straight at the joint between
the body and the neck works good.
00:10:28 If you want something a little smoother,
maybe a large diaphragm condenser,
with that angled position, a little bit away
from the joint of the body and the neck,
that works good.
00:10:47 If you want something a little more
lo-fi, a little blurrier,
with less attack, then a 57 in that
same position works great.
00:11:04 It depends on the song, it depends
on your guitar,
it depends on your player, it depends on
what you have for breakfast that morning,
it really is a question of your vision.
00:11:12 Those are the guidelines.
Thank you Lenny!
Et voilĂ !
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Fab Dupont is a award-winning NYC based record producer, mixing/mastering engineer and co-founder of pureMix.net.
Fab has been playing, writing, producing and mixing music both live and in studios all over the world. He's worked in cities like Paris, Boston, Brussels, Stockholm, London and New York just to name a few.
He has his own studio called FLUX Studios in the East Village of New York City.
Fab has received many accolades around the world, including wins at the Victoires de la Musique, South African Music awards, Pan African Music Awards, US independent music awards. He also has received Latin Grammy nominations and has worked on many Latin Grammy and Grammy-nominated albums.
Parts of this site and some files are only accessible to pureMix Pro Members or available to purchase. Please see below our membership plans or add this video to your shopping cart.
Great video, makes me want explore all the possibilities . I would love to see a sequel to this video that covers stereo recording.
Garrett Riley
2018 Dec 08
Great video, makes me want explore all the possibilities .
beschornermusic
2017 Aug 02
Great Video. It opens my eyes a little bit more and give me something for my know how I had before. Thanks!
Manley
2016 Jun 01
I always find strummed acoustic guitar much trickier than picked guitar,strummed guitar seems to produce the unwanted boom unless the mic is placed very carefully,i would luv to see some more in-depth videos regarding recording strummed acoustic guitars
anxious
2014 Dec 31
Hi, a position I always try when I'm recording acoustic guitars is in the area between the bottom of the bridge and the back end of the guitar. I put the mike about 40-50cms away. I find I get a full sound with very low resonance and little pick noise. Sometimes, above the guitar about where the head is and between the ears. As the man says,"check it out". Cheers.
MicahTHartsock
2014 Sep 30
(Cont from below...) But I love the c7fet on acoustic used much like the 47 is here
MicahTHartsock
2014 Sep 30
You know, I'll be honest, I bought my U47 FET clone (Wunder C7FET) because everyone raves about using a FET 47 outside the kick. I guess it's just one of those ubiquitous mic/instrument pairings like a 57 on snare top or guitar amp, or 421s on toms (all 3 as such, being pairings I rarely employ). It may just be personal preference, or it may be that the C7FET isn't the dead ringer for the U47FET many people make it out to be, but when I stick a LDC outside the 24" kick from my studio's "house" kit, I'm almost always using a Lauten Clarion, over the C7. The clarion is much like the 47fet though
LuLuMaster
2014 Aug 10
I would know more about what u'r calling "Sweet Spot of the converters" and how do you calculate it, if you please Fab :)
juancopro-flow
2013 Jul 29
hey fab, would you recommend recording acoustic with two mics, or one is enough and if so how would u go about recording it with two mics?
tdavilio
2012 Nov 30
I agree with Islandcode. When you move the mic to different positions, especially farther away , what are u using to keep the signal consistent? No finger style either is an oversight. I would rather have seen with one mic and what processing techniques u use.
PoPe
2012 Jan 20
I kinda like what the 57 does. Definitely sounds low-fi to me too. But it is more appropriate for what I do. Do not need all the details that a condenser would yield.
surfz247
2011 Oct 12
What type of acoustic is that?
fab
2011 Sep 01
@chimulko: I think of levels in RMS and I factor in the basic idea of how what the crest factor is. RMS levels are much more consistent than peak levels and I find them easier to wrap my mind around. The sweet spot tends to be unity on your converter. It's a good idea to find out what that is. For example a ProTools HD converter is calibrated @ -18dBFS = +4 dBu. Listening to the tone of the converter is also a good idea, although it's more subjective and indexed on your mood and exhaustion level, which may be different on the day you'll mix the song.
chimulko
2011 Aug 24
the sweet spot of the converter is that RMS or peak level? how do you look for that spoot, digital harnesh ?
islandcode
2011 Jun 10
Sweet replies! so cool! not only do I get to watch a top producer/engineer, but he answers ?s too!
Presonus? come on, let us hear your Neve desk. :-D
About the headphones, most of the time I give headphones to acoustic guitar players, they tend to player a lot softer coz the guitar is loud in their headphones. On a serious note, that afro doesn't cause comb filtering? :-D
fab
2011 Jun 07
PS: the guitar player has no headphones because I usually only give phones to players who need to hear a click or someone else. Plus it would have ruined his phenomenal afro.
fab
2011 Jun 07
Hi,
We did not discuss the signal chain to focus on the fact that it's all about mic placement. It really is.
We actually used the built-in preamps of a Presonus Firestudio Project on this video :-)
Gain settings were set to hit the sweet spot of the converter as I always do (Presonus is about -16dBFSish)
We are working on a tutorial to explain this exact process this month.
Fingerstyle is much easier to handle than strumming me thinks. Most problems usually come from the player and the instrument. We'll add an update or a new video to the shooting cue asap.
Fab
islandcode
2011 Jun 06
I enjoyed this video, it was like being in the studio with a top level producer/engineer. However, I thought the coverage was kinda lacking as follows
1. signal chain of the mics not discussed. what preamp, what gain settings. Maybe you can add this info on the video description?
2. fingerstyle playing not covered. this technique is used quite often where the guitar is a featured instrument. a lot of times I battle with signal to noise ratio when recording fingerstyle - trying to bring out the detail. I wonder how you guys do it.
lastly, I noticed the guitarist had no headphones on, why?