Wanted: Full Acoustic Sound

[gwimberly]

First off, hardware - working with a Martin DX1 and recording with an MXL 991. All of my recordings are acoustic, and I've never found a good mix that's made my acoustic sound full enough to be the foundation of the song. Help with placement, eq's, etc., etc?

[ryanoliver]

I'll let the other members give you exact coordinates for mic placement and EQ settings. I'm of the opinion that an acoustic sounds very thin on it's own, which is why so many players prefer to play through a tube amp and record the speaker. The natural compression of the tubes gives you a fuller sound with more character and bite. If you don't have a tube amp there are simulators like GTR RIg 3 that come close.

Good news is you have a great sounding guitar so you're half way there.

[paul999]

I have never tried the amp thing on an acoustic because I like my acoustics to sound natural. I do a lot of acoustic recordings and the mic is the kicker. The best low budget mic I have found is an sm-81. Start by aiming at the body of the guitar at about the 18th fret halfway between the fret board and the bottom of the guitar. If you need more bass go to the bridge. I have a recording in BTR in the country section titled something like "was it worth $2500 for O.H's" There are about 5 different mixes the last one on page 3 most people liked the best. In this one I used an sm-81 like I described on the 6 string rhythm guitar. A tlm 103 on the 12 string rhythm guitar and a km84 on the solo guitar. This mix was tough because It had standing bass which doesn't make a round full bass sound because of the nature of the instrument.

Hope this helps

[whomper]

how close are the mikes
how big is the room

assuming you are doing live stereo acoustic
then you may have to add some mikes closer to anything that lacks presence
i would only add one center mike and put the guitar near it also the singer if they are a problem

[willieturnip]

Originally Posted by ryanoliver

I'll let the other members give you exact coordinates for mic placement and EQ settings. I'm of the opinion that an acoustic sounds very thin on it's own, which is why so many players prefer to play through a tube amp and record the speaker. The natural compression of the tubes gives you a fuller sound with more character and bite. If you don't have a tube amp there are simulators like GTR RIg 3 that come close.

Good news is you have a great sounding guitar so you're half way there.

Thats retarded in too many ways to bother going into.

[audiomike242]

i've been paying close attention to how people mix acoustic guitars into their recordings lately and it seems like everyone like them really thin and stringy sounding. And I think it sounds good on more upbeat rock kinda songs where your going to have a lot of layers. But with just acoustic folk music or whatever your gonna need more low end produced.

I like using 2, sometimes even up to 3 mics. One at the 12th fret about a foot or two away, one at the bridge pointing towards the sound hole and put one over the shoulder. Above the strumming arm about the level of the top of the players hear or a bit higher. Keeping a good distance from the acoustic will give you a more natural sound. I don't EQ much, I let the mic position do the EQ. I will filter out lows of the neck mic and maybe add a little sparkling top end. Add some light compression and... you should be good to go.

[ryanoliver]

Amping an acoustic is retarded? I still use the traditional method of direct miking but when I'm looking for some character and a touch of soft clipping there's no better solution than a pair of el84's. It's a different approach and it's not for everyone but to say all of these acoustic tube amp designers are retarded is probably a stretch.

[Bjorgvinben]

For one mic a good starting point is pointing it at the 12th fret around 10 inches from the instrument. You can experiment with the position off/on axis of the microphone and also if you want to point it more to the thicker strings or the treble strings.

For eq, fullness is achieved around 150-240 Hz so you can search around there. I like a little 500 Hz in my sound but I cut a little from 3-400. Every acoustic is different though.

For a bigger presence, once you have a pretty good sounding acoustic you can try sending it to an aux and applying a small stereo chorus with a 20ms delay. It makes the acoustic even fuller and bigger in the fix. Then again if you have many instruments you need to round it out to make it fit in the mix.

Here are two articles you might enjoy.
7 reasons to love the acoustic guitar Audiotip a day.
Mixing a great guitar Audiotip a day.