Recording an acoustic guitar isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do, but when you find the point perfect, it’s a one-way street. The problem with recording an acoustic guitar is that if it’s done wrong, the song ends up sounding poor (in production). And it’s a shame, because with some techniques and tweaks it can sound incredibly good.In In this article, I am going to share with you 8 tips to record an acoustic guitar like a pro.
Contents
8 Tips for Recording an Acoustic Guitar1. Finding the perfect room with good acoustics2. Condenser vs Dynamic Microphone3. Ideal position for recording in mono: Fret 124. Stereo recording techniquesX-Y techniqueA-B technique
4. Pro alternative: Double recording5. Equalization and effects7. Mix with headphones/monitors8. Record via direct cable?
Final thoughts
8 Tips for Recording an Acoustic Guitar
1. Find the perfect room with good acoustics
The first factor to take into account when recording an acoustic guitar is the place or room where you will take the recording. Do not underestimate this point, if your recordings are fairly poor, the first thing to consider is the room. Find a place with Good acoustics are a key factor. What to avoid are places where there are reverberations such as bathrooms or empty rooms.
Good signs for the fourth:
- Room with carpet: The carpet greatly improves the acoustics of the room.
- Furniture: Furniture helps absorb sound.
Bad signs:
- Empty rooms: They generate a lot of reverberation.
- Large rooms where there is a lot of unfilled space.
In itself, the idea is to find a place where the sound does not expand to many sides.
2. Condenser vs dynamic microphone
To record an acoustic guitar, it can be done using a condenser microphone or a dynamic one. Generally, condenser ones are recommended because they have higher sensitivity, but you can also try dynamic ones. Large diaphragm condenser ones capture a better range of the guitar and that is why it is more efficient. I like to record with my Rode NT1A condenser microphone because it captures a sound with good body and quite natural. But there are no rules, since each microphone can capture a different tone of the guitar.
3. Ideal position for recording in mono: Fret 12
I remember that when I started recording my acoustic guitar I did it with the microphone pointing towards the soundhole of the guitar. At that time I was a teenager and I didn’t know much about production… and the recordings simply sounded horrible. Well… the The problem is that recording with the mic pointing towards the sound hole of the guitar sounds too bassy and the recorded sound is super unbalanced and terribly wrong. The “sweet spot” to capture a balanced sound is to place the microphone near the 12th fret. In this case point, you will get a good, very natural guitar range. Of course, I mean this for making mono recordings, that is, with a single microphone. If you want better bass, you can also try moving it a little closer to the 15th fret.
4. Stereo recording techniques
If you want to get a fuller sound with better depth from your acoustic guitar, then you should try stereo recording. The only impediment is money.. you need to have two microphones to make stereo recordings. There are two main techniques used to record in stereo:
X-Y Technique
X-Y is one of the most used techniques with good results. It consists of placing the microphones very close to each other, at a 90° angle between them.
Image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:XY_stereo.svg
The idea is to place them at the height of the last fret of the guitar, with the goal that one microphone points towards the neck and the other towards the body. Then, pan each track to its side (left and right), and you will have amazing stereo sound.
A-B Technique
The A-B technique is also very popular and consists of placing two microphones in parallel. To avoid phasing, they are positioned with the 3:1 recording rule which says that the distance between the microphones should be three times the distance between them. Guitar. [Ref]For example, if you leave 10cm of space from the guitar to the mics, you should position the microphones 30cm away from each other. A good position is to place one microphone near the bridge, and the other at the 12th fret approximately. After recording, you should also pan each track to its respective side to generate the stereo feel.
4. Pro alternative: Double recording
One of the “tricks” to make your guitar sound very deep or super full without having two mics, is to record it twice. The technique consists of recording the same thing twice and panning a track to the left side and the another to the right. This makes a big difference in the final result and makes it sound much more professional. If you are too lazy to record twice and have them fit together, you can also duplicate the track and pan one on each side. On one side you apply a lowpass filter and on the other a highpass filter. This way a fairly natural stereo will sound. And the great advantage is that you don’t need two microphones like in the previous tip.
5. Equalization and effects
Acoustic guitar equalization is a fundamental part of making your final track sound good. As the topic is a bit complex, I will make another post. But when it comes to effects, on acoustic guitars, you can never miss a good reverb to add a little more fullness. Compression is also a MUST so that all the sounds sound. notes at the same level. Other VST plugins that I like to apply to acoustics are stereo modulation or saturation (a bit to generate harmonics).
7. Mix with headphones/monitors
Linked to the previous point, audio post-production is vital to know that our guitar sounds good. But in order to know how the audio we recorded really sounds, we need studio monitors or headphones with a flat response. There is no way to mix with PC speakers or gamer headphones, since they will not show us the sound faithfully and we will not be able to edit the audio in the DAW correctly. So, if you want to level up your recordings, you need a good reference point.
If you don’t want to go on a budget, in this article I show cheap studio monitors that produce good results.
8. Record via direct cable?
This is not a tip, but an alternative… can you record via direct cable? For those who have an electronic amplification system on their acoustic guitar like Fishman (converting to electroacoustic), you may be thinking… what about How does it sound for direct cable recording? It can be a highly discussed topic, but… yes, it can work out well on some occasions. But the sound obtained is not the same as through microphones. Cardioid microphones manage to capture a better natural acoustic of the guitar, which amplification systems cannot capture. Just as its name says, the electronic system makes its sound sound more electronic and less natural. But be careful, it can be good if you are looking for a sound like that. Then, with a little equalization and mixing, it can be a good result. But as a recommendation, if you do not have an amplification system, do not buy one to record… but Better focus on a good condenser microphone and some good studio monitors.
Final thoughts
To obtain a good acoustic guitar sound, you have quite a few alternatives. The ideal is to stick to the budget you have and try to get the most out of it using different techniques. And of course, you can always try new recording and mixing methods to improve your productions.
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