Ableton Forum

Hi guys,
I have only recently setup a little studio in my room and have my Yamaha acoustic guitar going into an EMU 0404 audio card via a jack plug. i have a pair of m-audio dx4 monitor speakers and and running Ableton 7.0 and Reason 4.0. At the moment when recording my guitar it sounds a little bit 'tinney'. I was wondering if anyone new how to get a nice rich acoustic sound or would i need to go through an audio interface box?

Cheers,

Electro Acoustic yeah? It'll come down to a few things such as the strength of signal from your pick-ups, soundcard/mixer pre-amps, EQ going into Ableton/Reason

Acoustic guitars will almost, always sound better mic'd up with a decent condensor sitting by the sound hole - i've used an SM58 at the neck to get some bright attack and mix the 2 together. Experiment with the rooms you record in as well...this also makes a huge difference to the sound.

at the moment i am going from the guitar straight into the sound card via the jack plug. so you reckon its best to mic the guitar up?

cheers

yes for sure, you will need to record the guitar with a couple of decent mics, recording acoustic guitars is a world of pain.

thanks very much for your advice.

poolmaniac747 wrote:at the moment i am going from the guitar straight into the sound card via the jack plug. so you reckon its best to mic the guitar up?

cheers

Do both. If you don't have 2 mics try micing over some distance to capture the ambience. You can then mix this signal with the direct line signal.

cool. do you know of any good mic's?

The standard go-to mic for recording acoustic instruments is a Shure SM-57.

One reason the recorded guitar sounds "tinny" has to do with the type of pickup. You can use the EQ to boost bass and reduce treble until it sounds richer. The great advantage of recording vs. live sound is the after-the-fact manipulation.

A little touch of reverb would also do nice .

In regards with the mic SM57 are ok but I would prefer a condenser from a distance for an acoustic guitar.

Do three tracks and mix them, DI your guitar, record with a condenser from a slight distance frmo the soundhole (experiment to find the sweet spot) AND a dynamic at a 45 degree angle back to the soundhole from the top of the neck.

Then mix all three tracks as you see fit to get the sound you are looking for.

Essentially the more ways you can record it, do it. Then you'll have more to play with come mixing time.

Unless I'm mistaken the 0404 only has line level inputs. So even if you record direct with a jack, you should still use a pre amp. An analogue mixer would do, but you also need to check the impedance of the input (mics are low impedance and pickups high- I think). If you use a pre amp that doesn't take instrument levels, you'll also need a DI box to match the signals.

Some kind of stereo pre amp or samll mixer that can take both mic and instrument inputs and output onto the 2 channels on the interface would be best. Or an interface with built in pres, of course.

Sometimes just using the pickups is fine, it depends what you are doing.

don't even bother using the pickup in all frankness, they are for greasy pub gigs where no one cares

you can get really quite decent condenser mics for bugger all these days, that is by far the best way to record acoustic guitar, it is definitely worth it

The Rode mics seem to be the best low budget ones around. I have a Groove tubes GT-55 I've had for about 4-5 years and I'm really happy with it - got it for about 150 quid at digital village in London, you would probably get something fine a lot cheaper now

but yes you will need a pre-amp of some kind - I have a little Mic pre I got for about $60 AUD that is quite okay, but a little mixer might be the go - there are some really cheap ones around too

poolmaniac747 wrote:Hi guys,
I have only recently setup a little studio in my room and have my Yamaha acoustic guitar going into an EMU 0404 audio card via a jack plug. i have a pair of m-audio dx4 monitor speakers and and running Ableton 7.0 and Reason 4.0. At the moment when recording my guitar it sounds a little bit 'tinney'. I was wondering if anyone new how to get a nice rich acoustic sound or would i need to go through an audio interface box?

Cheers,

quiet room, good sounding guitar, a condenser mic a couple of feet away (experiment here to get a balance of guitar vs. room blend). cardiod mic pattern too close to the body of the guitar will likely result in a boxy sound.... if you have to get close, better to aim mic at upper fingerboard.

you can really get deep in the ditch with mic techniques and preamps.... but the above is as basic as you get. mic in room (most likely middle of room). you and guitar in room. move until it sounds good, take notes on what works. the straight pickup sound can be blended to taste.

might want to use strings that don't squeak much, like Elixirs, unless you are looking for that, or like hand-drawing them down in a DAW.