Recording Question

[Velvetground]

What sort of effects can you throw onto an acoustic guitar in a recording program to make it sound, for lack of a more specific term, better?

[brandnew741]

Hm. I'm not sure if effects would help that much. It is most important for it to be tracked correctly. Try loading up and EQ and messing around with some upper mid and lower end stuff see if anything sounds better tinkering with that.

[Tristan Needler]

Record it as well as you can (mic choice, placement, the room you're in, your strings, etc.). After that, put a compression plug in on it with a bit of compression, but not too much. Play with the EQ, cut frequencies you don't like, boost frequencies (but not too much) that are lacking. You can do some other things like double tracking it, depending on where in the mix you want the guitar to be, and what other instruments are there. Sometimes a pinch of reverb can make it sound a little more live, or "big" but you can go overboard very easily with that.

[remoteCONTROL]

as far as mic placement, if you are just using one mic like an sm57, place it about 2 inches away from the 12th fret. You get the best tone without the bass response of the sound hole. If you have two mics, place the second one at a distance to get the natural room reverb. If you are using GarageBand, I can take a screen shot of my setup to use as a reference

[theguy77]

double tracking is a big one that really helps bring out the tonal qualities of your guitar.

[Tristan Needler]

as far as mic placement, if you are just using one mic like an sm57, place it about 2 inches away from the 12th fret. You get the best tone without the bass response of the sound hole. If you have two mics, place the second one at a distance to get the natural room reverb. If you are using GarageBand, I can take a screen shot of my setup to use as a reference
Two seems close to me. I usually go six. I should try two though. I use an SM57 through a shitty pre... if anything I have trouble with not enough bass, not too much. In a single acoustic only setting, that is. In a fuller band type setting the trebly sound is okay.

[theguy77]

Two seems close to me. I usually go six. I should try two though. I use an SM57 through a shitty pre... if anything I have trouble with not enough bass, not too much. In a single acoustic only setting, that is. In a fuller band type setting the trebly sound is okay.

proximity effect dude. closer micing would give you more bass

[Tristan Needler]

proximity effect dude. closer micing would give you more bass
He said without the bass response of the sound hole, so I thought he meant so it didn't sound as bassy. I'll have to give it a try though.

[remoteCONTROL]

proximity effect dude. closer micing would give you more bass

directly in front of the sound hole produces a really muddy bass tone. But right up on the strings infront of the 12th fret is pretty standard for recording acoustics. Get a good pencil mic if you can with a large diaphram mic for the room tone. I'll post videos of us doing the acoustics at play/work so you can see the exact set up

[Tristan Needler]

directly in front of the sound hole produces a really muddy bass tone. But right up on the strings infront of the 12th fret is pretty standard for recording acoustics. Get a good pencil mic if you can with a large diaphram mic for the room tone. I'll post videos of us doing the acoustics at play/work so you can see the exact set up
I wish I could afford an SM81 or something of the sort. As it stands, I have zero money for recording expenses.

[Velvetground]

Edit: Fixing link, hold on a moment.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=c47309a15c5ee550af924764f 9977b1de04e75f6e8ebb871

That's what I've been working on. Any specific tips would be WONDERFUL, just try to not throw me completely under the bus, I know my singing/recording ability shits the bed.

[Esrb99]

for acoustic, I suggest a good ol' 57, at about a 45 degree angle away from sound hole towards fret board, 3-5 in. away. Mic placement is important- even a fraction of an inch can make a big difference. If you can afford it, try not to plug straight into your interface, get yourself a decent ($200) preamp, or if you can afford it, one around $600. Some will argue that you're wasting your time with preamps under $500, but it can be beneficial to boost your signal to line level with one anyways.

Hook it all up, and in your DAW, patch through a noise gate, and just listen, with out playing. get all the background noise out, same with eq if possible.

Practice REPEATEDLY with the metronome at a comfortable speed, this will improve the flow of the piece leaps and bounds.

Finally, add a LITTLE room reverb patch when done tracking. get it low enough so that you can hear the reverb, then go a bit further down. it will be more pronounced later in the mix.

All of this is useless by the way if you're using shitty converters, shitty computer speakers or 'hi fi' monitors, or (especially) if you're in an untreated room and don't know how to compensate for your Room's shitty acoustics.


after tracking, mix, add eq, LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT compression to the tracks, pan, volume, and effects automation till satisfied. Bounce to a wav(add a dither here), and either send to a master, or do a quick self master.

For something involving acoustic guitar, I suggest hitting the track with some pink and white noise filters if you haven't hit each individual track already. add an overall recording room reverb/eq if you want, but again make sure to turn the reverb WAY down. you may want to hit it with a compressor if you've left the tracks without one, and then at the end, hit with either a soft or adaptive limiter, and make your final bounce.

Hope this helps!

[Esrb99]

Edit: Fixing link, hold on a moment.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=c47309a15c5ee550af924764f 9977b1de04e75f6e8ebb871

That's what I've been working on. Any specific tips would be WONDERFUL, just try to not throw me completely under the bus, I know my singing/recording ability shits the bed.

if you don't mind, I'd like to try doing a quick digital remaster of the stereo file. Not the best quality with mp3, but it'll do.

[Velvetground]

if you don't mind, I'd like to try doing a quick digital remaster of the stereo file. Not the best quality with mp3, but it'll do.

Go for it.

[Esrb99]

Go for it.

I went ahead and did it last night anyway lol. it seems you either recorded as hot as possible and then hit it with lots of compression. recording as hot as possible is unnecessary in this day and age, due to the lack of dynamic limitation on cds. it's ALWAYS best to peak your recordings at around -8 to -6 dbs, averaging between -15 to -18. the best rule is to NEVER go over 0dbs, even when self mixing. headroom is very important. don't attempt to record or mix to cd volume, that's all take care of during mastering.

I suggest reading the guide at www.tweakheadz.com it will be very informative.


and now for your song...

since it was compressed so much, I first lowered the volume about 8 dbs, and did some eq-ing, boosting the the upper and lower mids. I put on a gate at around 18000hz, and added a live recording room reverb, with reverb at 7%, dry at 81. I bounced it, then opened back up and hit with a light adaptive limiter to add density and volume, and checked my peaks, and bounced the final file.

I think that was it, I may have missed something, I did do it last night, after all.

here's the link to the thing...

http://www.filedropper.com/pillageacoustic2

[Tristan Needler]

As far as recording levels, check out this thread specifically from the Tweakheadz forums. It's an extremely important part of recording that most people never get because instruction manuals tell you wrong, and no one ever really mentions it when telling people the basics.

http://www.studio-central.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=130&t=34078


It took me about two weeks to fully understand what they were talking about haha. It's complicated stuff. I tried to explain it a bit more simply in another thread here... I'll see if I can find it.

[Esrb99]

As far as recording levels, check out this thread specifically from the Tweakheadz forums. It's an extremely important part of recording that most people never get because instruction manuals tell you wrong, and no one ever really mentions it when telling people the basics.

http://www.studio-central.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=130&t=34078


It took me about two weeks to fully understand what they were talking about haha. It's complicated stuff. I tried to explain it a bit more simply in another thread here... I'll see if I can find it.

I love that forum so much!

I've been delving lots into the room acoustics side of things, and man is it intense!!! im preparing to make my first big purchase of Giks, it's exciting!

[Tristan Needler]

I love that forum so much!

I've been delving lots into the room acoustics side of things, and man is it intense!!! im preparing to make my first big purchase of Giks, it's exciting!It's really a great resource, as is the guide. People are usually pretty helpful too, even with my relatively simple, common questions.

I don't read much about room acoustics because it would just depress me, since I have nowhere to record besides my bedroom haha. I'm going to try some of the methods you suggested for recording acoustic though. I've been told by a few people to mic it about 6 inches from the 12th, angled slightly toward the sound hole. It always sounds kind of trebbly and jangly I guess though. Works in some situations, but not idea for just an acoustic with no other accompaniment.


Anyway, for the OP, this is the thread where I tried to explain recording levels in a quick and dirty sort of way. http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=322961

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. I'm not a genius when it comes to recording, but I've done a little and I've read a lot.


Fortunately, I was always interested in physics when I was little, so I already understand how sound waves work and things like that, which is helpful for understanding what's happening when you record, rather than just knowing what knob to turn haha.

[Velvetground]

I went ahead and did it last night anyway lol. it seems you either recorded as hot as possible and then hit it with lots of compression. recording as hot as possible is unnecessary in this day and age, due to the lack of dynamic limitation on cds. it's ALWAYS best to peak your recordings at around -8 to -6 dbs, averaging between -15 to -18. the best rule is to NEVER go over 0dbs, even when self mixing. headroom is very important. don't attempt to record or mix to cd volume, that's all take care of during mastering.

I suggest reading the guide at www.tweakheadz.com (http://www.tweakheadz.com) it will be very informative.


and now for your song...

since it was compressed so much, I first lowered the volume about 8 dbs, and did some eq-ing, boosting the the upper and lower mids. I put on a gate at around 18000hz, and added a live recording room reverb, with reverb at 7%, dry at 81. I bounced it, then opened back up and hit with a light adaptive limiter to add density and volume, and checked my peaks, and bounced the final file.

I think that was it, I may have missed something, I did do it last night, after all.

here's the link to the thing...

http://www.filedropper.com/pillageacoustic2

Thanks so much!! It sounds awesome!!

I'm gonna go hit up that site you and Tristan recc'd, should be fun.