Tips on recording Miked Acoustic Sound?

That's what I am wishing to recieve.. tips..

Now to learn how to record with it..

ignore the playing.. oh..well..anyways..

this is a clip using condenser mic v63.. behringer mic200 into toneport with noamp or speaker added...
http://www.box.net/shared/7u6lrgxcss
What is the best way to record condenser mic into computer to get the natural sound?

it also has an Ibeam inside the guitar but the condenser mic sounds closer to the sound of the guitar i feel.

Still, not exactly..seems a bit muffled compared to the clarity i think I am hearing in the room?

what's the best type setup you guys have come up with for this? (washburns guys?)

and how do you point the mic compared to your acoustic?

any suggestions besides "yuck..don't ever record" would be appreciated..

I've used a Shure SM57 straight into a mixing board a couple of times and I was pleased.

I'm definitely no expert Justa, but this may help.

thanks strums.. it did help some..
I also tried a sm57 and flavored the condenser..
I don't think any of them sounds to bad.. just wondering on some tips..
like stay away for rugs? add rugs.. always do something with the eq and placement of mics etc..

that video told me I want a little mixer board..
also told me where to place the mic.. or mics..

I love GAS!! its my best friend!!

Justaguyin_nc said:

.....

I love GAS!! its my best friend!!

Click to expand...

You and me both my friend. I've yet to attempt acoustic recording of the Martin so I'm watching this thread closely. Btw I too love that ice tea burst on that Guild son. Sweet!

Besides the video Strum put up there..
I found this as a good read and view:
http://www.recording-microphones.co.uk/recording-Acoustic-Guitars.shtml

I had it all wrong.. (Yup.. you will have that)

I mic'ed to back of bridge of geetar and low..
seems like High and on the fret board gets you the brightness..
was nice seeing videos and hearing the different placements.
I will have to test this later today..

I also noticed.. in these and other articles..
eveyone likes 2 mics on acoustics..

Sometimes I boost the the EQ at 4K and up. It can add some presence and brightness, without changing the fundamental tones. I'll do this with vocals, too.

Im learning one thing for sure...

Mic Placement
Mic Placement
Mic Placement
Mic Placement
Mic Placement

http://www.box.net/shared/vti8ax2goc

Hi Justa...

Yes, you are so right about the mic placement comment. It really is everything.

When I'm recording at home I use a condenser mic for acoustic. The condenser sounds the most natural and will capture much more of the presense of the guitar than a dynamic mic (like an SM57) will.

I have only one decent quality condenser mic so I can't do any fancy stereo micing yet. I usually position the mic right above the 12th fret (or close to it) and then point the mic facing back toward the direction of the sound hole until it sounds right. This works pretty well most of the time. You want to avoid placing the mic right in front of the sound hole because it usually sounds too boomy there.

When I'm lucky enough to record in a real studio with an experienced sound engineer they will usually place two mics on the guitar. One positioned over the neck about midway and one toward the back of the guitar past the sound hole. They usually use a small diaphram condenser over the neck to get more of the high frequency sounds and a large diaphram condenser to capture the sound of the body.

One thing you can do to help determine the sweet spot for your mic placement is to setup you mic, put on your headphones and play in front of the mic, then move around with your guitar changing the angle of your guitar relative to the mic and also moving your chair so that the mic is closer and then further away from the sound hole along the neck. Each of these distances can change the tone in a huge way. If your guitar sounds to boomy try changing the angle of the mic so that it's pointing away from the sound hole. If the guitar sounds too trebbly, try pointing it back in the other direction, etc.

Another thing that some people swear by is using a good mic pre-amp for your mic before the signal hits your mixing console. Some people like to use a small tube preamp to warm up the sound a little. However, I don't think that this affects the overall tone as much as good mic placement does, it only makes a good sounding mic sound a little warmer.

I hope this helps, -- Jim

thanks all for your comments..

JP, you said in text about exactly what I was experiencing in that audio file I put there on box.net.

very reassuring indeed! Im on the right track at least.

Im at a very low level when it comes to this stuff, very interesting to see what even cheap mic's can do for the sound when you move around.
very responsive in sound to your movements.

I been eyeing some cheap small condenser mics for matching up with the large condenser.

There are so many out there.. I would expect all will do for my level.
with advances in the past 5 years in about every field, I would assume
cheap priced mics can keep up with old fashion ones anyway.


I really want to see what a few mics in a room can do at the same time.
I have a pickup inside the acoustic also, which I will add in when I
finally break down and get a mixer.

At the present time I am looking at a Behringer 1202 mixer as they are pretty darn cheap
and seem to have enough inputs outputs for a small band.
Price does matter when it's just a hobby.

The sm57 was kinda good..and great on amps..
but there was a big difference with what is yet a cheap condenser mic.
I also have a Behringer Mic200 which has the tube inside.. basicly like the ART preamp also.
With the Condenser mic.. you can actually hear/feel the different settings on that preamp.. it works!

Hi Justa...

Yes, the general rule of thumb is to use a dynamic mic for capturing your electric guitar amp (the SM57 works great for this) and use a condenser mic for acoustic instruments and vocals. Condenser mics used to be so expensive that they were out of reach for most of us, but recently there have been a lot decent-quality ones at an affordable price.

The large and medium diaphram condenser mics work wonders for vocals. Just get a pop screen for it and invest in a compressor/limiter (such as the dbx166) if you plan to do alot of vocal recording.

It would be fun to try a multi-mic approach on the acoustic like you are trying. If your acoustic has a piezo pickup then I would try mixing in just a little of the pickup but more from the room mics. Too much of the piezo pickup will make it sound like a plugged in acoustic versus the real thing. But if you play around with the levels it sounds pretty good mixed in with the mic'd sound.

Good luck with the recordings!