This is my first try at recording acoustic guitar. It’s a cheap old Yamaha acoustic with a cheap LDC mic (AT2020) in a space that’s pretty dead. The acoustic parts are all doubled and panned hard left and right. Bass is a Fender Jazz bass using amp’s direct out, and electric is the trusty old Strat through Guitar Rig. Various virtual drums and percussion.
Would appreciate your comments and suggestions, especially on recording acoustic. Thanks.
what a cool arrangement, love the change. the acoustic seems really close to the tone of the electric or was it all acoustic except for the lead spot in the change.
sounded great to me
A pleasant listening experience. I like the rhythm shifts. If anything, the acoustic sounds a bit sterile and one dimensional. But what do I know? It’s all a matter of personal taste I suppose. Overall I would probably prefer a little fuller mix. But, again, personal preferences …
Thanks for listening, Bob. I doubled the electric on the second time through, so you’re just hearing both instruments together, I think.
Scott, thanks for the feedback. Did you mean fuller sound for the acoustic guitar, or overall? I had cut the lows on the acoustic guitar, maybe I went too far.
I just listened again through my headphones this time. I guess what I’m hearing with the acoustic is almost like a brittle, sharp attack. I’m not sure what I’d suggest to change, though.
The background during the guitar solo bit sounds really nice.
I think what I might be missing is a little more low end in the drums/percussion. I’m not feeling a kick.
Then again, after mixing my latest tune my ears are probably not in the best shape to be judging anything!
I particularly liked the well-balanced sound this microphone produced, both on voice and on acoustic guitar.
I use the AT2020 for vocals and acoustic regularly
Liked the track - particularly nice when it kicks in at 2:18. Acoustics sound well recorded, though a little hard and cold sounding I thought. Often I find I have to pull out a bit around 2-3kHz. Overall I think the mix could benefit from a little more warmth and ambience.
Thanks for listening, Ian. AT2020 is a cheap mic, but probably not the weak link in my chain! Bought a pair of them for drum overheads, and have been satisfied with them. I guess the acoustics are had and cold because I really ought to have recorded in a livelier room. I have a laptop I can use to do just that, so probably will next time. I cut a lot of lows out of the acoustics, but I think a little natural room reverb would have helped.
How would you give the mix more warmth and ambience? Do you mean like a saturation plug, or equalization, or do you mean something more basic like changes to the arrangement? Thanks again, I value your thoughts.
I’m liking this, too. Really nice interplay on the B part. I agree with the comments regarding the acoustic tone.
It’s a bit cold and one dimensional, and part of that is the fact that it’s doubled and panned hard left and right.
Are you sure that’s neccessary? I’d try rerecording that part with less compression and warm up the tone and see
how it sounds without being doubled - maybe try a bit of very short stereo delay or chorus on it?
A nice composition. Thanks for sharing it.
Well, as mentioned what works for me is a little subtractive EQ around 2-3kHz - it seems to take out some of the brashness that I often hear with my guitar/mic/room combo. But bear in mind that’s relevant to my acoustic recorded in my environment (which is also devoid of any natural ambience). I also often add a bit down around 400Hz-ish. Other things come into play too, for example pick choice. I used to have a terrible time getting a good sound until I eventually discovered a softer pick yielded a much better result. I also use a fairchild vintage compressor plugin (from the T-racks suite) - with fairly mild compression settings. As Lenny suggests you could try chorus and or/delays, though a warmer longer reverb with a pre-delay could also do the trick as well.
Lenny, thanks for the comments and suggestions. I doubled the acoustic because it made the melody so much fuller. I will try your suggestions on one of the tracks and see if I can give it a softer tone.
Ian, thanks for the ideas as well, and I hope to get some time tonight to play around with the eq, compression, and reverb settings.
Thanks all for the help and suggestions on the acoustic guitar sound. I eliminated the doubling, except for underneath the lead solo, I’ve tweaked the reverb, the compression, the equalization, and stereo placement, to give it a softer tone that I hope fits in the mix better. See what you think. Thanks.
Early http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=10924387&q=hi&newref=1
Yes a nice balanced recording, well done. I really like the electric guitar solo part , sounds more natural in regarding the timing. The melodic lines are very interesting, nice bass line, the piano a little to much quantized?
regarding the mix, it sounds open and clear to me, but maybe because of that less warm?
Still very nice.
Yeah, that’s a lot better. everything has it’s place in the mix. I really like the interesting tension in much of the keyboard work - those are some cool chords you’re playing. Nice solo, and I like the way the rhythm picks up there.
The only thing I’d have done differently is the way that main acoustic part is played. It’s a sweet melody, but it’s a bit lacking in dynamics.
it seems like most notes are played with roughly the same attack, and that originally made it sound to me like you were using samples. Compression may have something to do with it, but some softer hit notes and maybe a hammer on or a trill on that part would add a little something. IMHO, of course.
