A DIY Acoustic Guitar Recording Primer (Part I)

For Part II of this article, please click here.

Cliff Goldmacher is a songwriter, producer, engineer and the owner of recording studios in both Nashville and New York City.  Cliff is also a regular contributor to EQ Magazine and Pro Sound News.  He can be reached at cliff@cliffgoldmacher.com.

Let’s assume that along with releasing your music online, you’re also a budding recording engineer and would like to record your music with you as the acoustic guitarist.  Here are a few tips that I’ve gathered in my years of doing exactly that.  Like a lot of musicians, I tend to wear several hats in the recording studio.  Along with engineering and production, I do a lot of my own acoustic guitar work.  The issue here is that in order to effectively engineer and play acoustic guitar at the same time, I’m forced to record in the control room so that I can run my Pro Tools rig.  Over time I’ve cobbled together an approach to help me get a clean, full and detailed acoustic guitar sound without using an isolation booth or bringing in another engineer. 

As there are a lot of details to cover, I think it might be best to split this article up into two parts with the more technical information coming in part two.

To Plug In or Not to Plug In?

While it may seem like the obvious way to go, I’m not a fan of using on-board pickups in acoustic guitars when I record.  While it’s true that plugging in a 1/4” cable to your guitar and plugging the other end straight into your DAW will effectively remove all room noise from the recording, the sacrifice you make in tone is too great to justify.  There are quite a few great-sounding piezo electric pickups on the market these days and when run through a live PA, they can sound full, clear and even woody.  However, a large part of the sonic beauty of the acoustic guitar lies in the way the instrument pushes air out of the sound hole.  A plugged-in guitar is only translating the vibration of the strings and loses the essential “acoustic” nature of the sound.  On top of that, because acoustic guitar pickups are often designed with stage performance in mind there’s the likelihood of a slight hum or buzz which while unnoticeable on stage in a live venue can be extremely distracting when scrutinized in a studio recording.  All this to say, unless you’re consciously going for the particular sound that a plugged-in acoustic guitar gives, avoid the easy way out and try a few of the tips I’m suggesting below.

The Room

Let’s face it; there is no trick or secret that can take the place of a quiet room for recording. So let’s start with the obvious.  Do everything within your power to control the environment in the control room before you even get started.  You might want to put up some sound absorbing panels on the walls nearest your set up.  You can even go as far as to put sound diffuser panels on the ceiling above you.  Essentially, you’re trying to deaden the environment closest to you so you won’t be recording a lot of room sound with your acoustic.  While it’s fairly easy to add reverb to simulate different spaces once the guitar is recorded, it’s practically impossible to remove the sound of the room you’ve recorded in if it’s too present in the recorded sound.  The one place I like a hard surface is the floor.  There’s something bright and clear about the tone of the acoustic when the mic is picking up some of the reflections of the sound coming up off of the floor.   Also, distance yourself as much as possible from your computer to minimize the volume of the fan noise.  Of course, since you’ll be recording yourself, you’ll need to keep your computer within reach but you can always improve the odds by facing the microphone towards your acoustic and away from the computer.  And speaking of microphones…

Mic Choice/Placement

There are many, many microphone choices you can make when recording an acoustic guitar and each has its own merits.  For my ear, a large diaphragm condenser mic set in a cardioid pattern and pointed at an angle where the guitar neck meets the body at a distance of about six inches works best.  There are several reasons for this.  First of all, I like the broader spectrum of tone I get when I use a large diaphragm mic as opposed to a pencil mic. Secondly, the cardioid pattern focuses the recording field which helps remove the questionable environment of the control room. Finally, by not pointing the mic directly at the guitar’s sound hole, you get the fullness of the tone without all the low mid “woof.”  The proximity of the mic to the guitar also enables you to get a much higher direct sound to reflected sound ratio. As I mentioned above, make sure to angle the mic so that its back is toward your computer in order to minimize what is probably the loudest piece of gear in your control room.  If you’ve got a bit more budget than most when you put together your studio, you can also consider some sort of isolation cabinet for your computer but it’s not essential.

Check back for part II next week!

Comments

[jay.soul]

some useful tips

[harry versluijs]

Dear Cliff,
being an acoustic guitarplayer myself I found a few simple solutions. F.i. to avoid fan noise from my computer I place a laundryrack in a v-shape in front of me, between the computer and the mic, the mic pointing to me, placed in the top of the v. A thick blanket across the laundryrack absorbs easily some 10 db, which is a lot. As I'm a singer songwriter, I record lots of songs in the simplest manner; 1 guitar, 1 voicetrack.
First I record the guitartrack on a cd recorder (NO NOISE!),load it into my Mac OS X using Logic Pro 7, then I add the voicetrack, thus saving 50 % noise. Of course the next step is the purchase of an iMac or a Macmini, bye bye fan! For friends I made sursprisingly pleasant monorecordings with a single mic strategically pointed halfway the voice and the guitar. This way I recorded the song "Play A Waltz" that's on the CD "Onder De Maan"(Under The Moon) by Harry Versluijs & Dreimaen on iTunes. It's the last track on the album, and even though it's mono it's quite bearable. I used a Sennheiser mic, an old one, looks like an electric razor. Recording voices is something else; I hate foam caps to avoid hiss and plop; with a piece if wire attached to the mic-stand I place a pencil right in the middle, about 1 inch off the mic, works as well or maybe even better than a screen.
The most beautiful track is "Misschien Vannacht"(Maybe Tonight) recorded by Gaston Matthijsse, who will be happy to share his knowledge and experience with you, he's a great soundengineer who makes outstanding recordings of classical music, I'm just lucky to have him for a friend! I'll leave you with the link to his website, looking forward to next week, reading more of you! http://web.mac.com/gastonmatthijsse/Site/Welcome.html .Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience with us!
Yours truly,
Harry Versluijs

[Jeremy]

Good info.