Resources for recording acoustic guitar at home

March 28, 2020 10:27 AM

I'm thinking of spending my time during shelter in place doing some recording. I'm wondering if there is a single, comprehensive resource for recording acoustic guitar. There's obviously a hundred thousand videos and short articles on the internet, but I'd like to read something that is a cohesive and detailed whole.

There's a book on Amazon, but it's poorly reviewed.

I'm open to one-off recommendations if you feel like a video or article really filled a niche in your understanding. I did find this video very interesting and helpful, actually. But I'm wondering if there's something more comprehensive out there.

If it matters, I am thinking of picking up a LDC microphone and/or a matched pair of cardioid microphones. I'm open to recommendations about software usage, too, if there's something like a detailed resource out there.

posted by baptismal to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Good times!

There is no one true way. I actually think this SoS article does a good job of covering the basics. 6-10 inches away pointed at the twelfth fret is a pretty standard place to start.
Common mistake to avoid: Don't point the mic at the sound hole. Guitar is a bassy instrument, and the low end can quickly become a boomy mess.

I am thinking of picking up a LDC microphone and/or a matched pair of cardioid microphones
Cardioid is a pickup pattern, Large-Diaphragm Condenser refers to the size of the capsule and the nature of the electronics. So you can have a matched pair of cardioid large-diaphragm condensers.

The most commonly matched pairs of cardioid pattern mics are small-diaphragm condensers. But a matched pair is mostly only necessary if you're doing stereo recording, and even then there are other tricks to get "stereo." This is only possible if you have an interface that can record two channels simultaneously. So if you don't have that, don't worry about matched diaphragms.

Past that it all depends - any recommendation we could make is contingent on your guitar, room, interface, operating system, playing style, and budget. You can learn to setup a guitar yourself, and giving your guitar new strings and as good a setup as you can do on your own will make at least as much difference as your choice of microphone.

If you're in a city basement near a refrigerator with a buzzy, rattly pawn shop guitar, I would recommend a slightly different mic than I would if you've got vaulted ceilings and hardwood floors overlooking a lake in the woods, playing a freshly-set-up 1973 Guild D-25.

Just getting started, if you have a Mac I'd use GarageBand, on Windows or Linux I'd start with Reaper. Both are basically free, and introduce concepts that will be useful later.

Get your guitar sorted so that it sounds as good as it can, in whatever room it sounds best in. If there is noise from another room, you may need to close doors or hang comforters in between the mic and the source of the noise.

I can make mic suggestions depending on your budget, interface, and space, if you want to add those.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:01 PM on March 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks for that, aspersioncast!

I have an interface with two channels already, the Sound Devices USBPre 2.

I own one guitar, a Santa Cruz D model, so if there's a problem, it will certainly be my playing!

To give you an idea of my budget, I was considering a pair of Neumann KM184s.

I'll be recording in my small, carpeted apartment with normal ceilings.
posted by baptismal at 2:07 PM on March 28, 2020

As a data point, I bought a $40 cardioid mic off of Amazon recently; my teen-age son uses it to record himself playing an acoustic guitar, uke, and mandolin into Garage Band. The results have been really, really good for a kid just messing around! He's able to combine several tracks, sometimes with a beat from Garage Band, and make some really fun videos that he calls "Corona Covers."

In other words, it doesn't take much these days to get good results, so do some reading and then throw yourself into it. :7)

And as you go, don't forget to post on Projects!
posted by wenestvedt at 4:12 PM on March 28, 2020

That is a lovely guitar and a high-end prosumer interface, so with that budget you might as well consider Schoeps and Gefell mics as well. But the 184s are great mics, and they'll hold their value well if you decide you want something else. In your shoes I'd probably get a pro-level multi-pattern LDC from Audio-Technica or Shure, and a single 184, because that would provide the greatest range of options. Hell, throw in a Shure SM57 while you're at it, because an LDC plus a dynamic mic is a great combo on acoustic guitar - just have to be careful with phase.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:31 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Pretty much what aspersion has said.

I have used my Shure KSM32 for years as the primary sorta-near-soundhole mic, and then an sm57 or whatever somewhere pointed up at the neck to blend. There's of course varying opinions on exactly where to place the mics, room vs. no room (no room meaning, record in a dead space like inside your clothes closet, which is what I do, then add artificial reverb later), and as the SoS article says, if the blend of mics together sounds worse than individually, you may have a phasing problem (also mentioned in article).

Also note that if your have a nice boomy acoustic, which some of us do, that's pretty great for acoustic gigs with no amplification, or maybe you are not recording any other instruments, but since mine is, i tend to turn on the bass rolloff on my KSM. Yes, I could remove it after the fact so its nondestructive but that's how I roll.

stay safe fellow muso
posted by bitterkitten at 11:45 AM on March 29, 2020