Acoustic Recording

[Tav]

I was wondering if anyone had any info on goods ways to record acoustic guitar? Probably looking a microphone with tube pre-amp set up that won't burst the bank.

Basically my dads been coming up with a lot of material on acoustic guitar and we'd like to record it. I would probably be putting it onto my PC but I am unsure what is the best way to go. So any recomendations on mics/pre amps or alternative methods would be welcomed.

Cheers!

[Doc Ascension]

any simply mic set up pointed at the sound hole of the acoustic would do you.... however, you would prob ideally want to use a good (read:expensive) cardoid mic a bit further away to get a much better ambience to the sound...

Using 2 mics is often good for acoustics, one dynamic mic close to the soundhole and one cardoid further away, then you can record them as 2 tracks and mix then together later to create a phenomenal sound.... mind the cardoid would pick up more reverb depending on the acoustics of the room and you might need to flip the phase of one of the mics...

anway where were we? it depends on the quality you'd like to lay down, you could probably pick up some decent mics on ebay for this - also what PC interface (soundcard) are you using to record?

[Doc]

Dynamic mic pointed where the neck joins the body. Overhead condeser pointing over your shoulder. Play and move mics till the sweet spot is found....you'll know it when you hear it.

[spellchecker]

i find it hard to mic up an acoustic, because i have to record things first to tell if i have a good sound (cos the acoustic by itself colours what you hear through monitors/headphones!!).

normally though, i have my condenser mic placed about six inches away from the glory hole, though it depends where the player is strumming.

i then put the sm58 pretty close to the first / second fret area. it picks up some of the nice fingery sounds, and is usually a lot more trebley.

both mics go into my wee spirit folio desk; i pan one hard left and one hard right, and then take the left out and right out from the desk as inputs into my soundcard's breakout box.

individually the mics sound rather strange, but mixed together they sound really full and tasty. the variation in the sound each gives probably is the reason for that. i find the condenser close to the glory hole gives a great bassy muffled sound, that is the real beef of the guitar sound, while the sm58 near the 1st fret gives a lovely shine on the sound.

to be honest though, experimentation is the key. if you only have one microphone, and it's something like a computer microphone, then i'd just place it as close to the sound hole as possible, the more uncoloured sound you get the better in that case.