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Thread Can't get my acoustic guitar to sound good, HELP!!

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1 Can't get my acoustic guitar to sound good, HELP!!
Me and my producer buddy (both not very experienced, which will probably be clear shortly) just can't get a good sound from our rhythm guitar regardless of the guitar or mic quality and mic positioning. We've tried tracking in stereo with expensive Martins, a Gibson J-45, a cheap unknown acoustic, a pair of condenser Audio Technicas, a Mojave Audio condenser, a couple of CAD E70s, a pair of Cascade ribbon mics, endless mic positions, all of which sound horrible and far from where we want it to be.

It always sounds either too boomy or far too brittle. We've aiming for a crunchier, mellow mid sound and have tried positioning the mic everywhere, but can't get a good sound. The room is acoustically treaded and we're recording through a Neve preamp...super frustrated since we know it's not the quality of our guitars/mics/preamp/studio, its US who can't get it right....

If you listen to John Mayer's "No Such Thing" or "Why Georgia", you'll hear the kind of guitar we're after. For the love of all that is holy, somebody help an extremely infuriated songwriter and up-and-coming producer!!

Here's "why georgia":
2
Boominess often comes from pointing the mic too close to the sound hole. Have you tried pointing the mic at the 12th fret? Also, experiment with mic distance. Depending on the room and the instrument, it might sound good to back the mic up to about 10 or 12 inches from the instrument. Finally, make sure to put a high pass filter on your recorded track, rolling off at around 100-120 Hz. Good luck!
3
Firstly, I would eliminate the notion of recording in stereo to avoid the headaches that come with phase issues, for example.

Record your guitar tracks 2 or 3 times, get a boomy take, a brittle take, one in the middle, EQ and mix together. If you think your mic positioning and equipment is all properly in order, double tracking will be your friend.

4
Quote from Mike:
Boominess often comes from pointing the mic too close to the sound hole. Have you tried pointing the mic at the 12th fret? Also, experiment with mic distance. Depending on the room and the instrument, it might sound good to back the mic up to about 10 or 12 inches from the instrument. Finally, make sure to put a high pass filter on your recorded track, rolling off at around 100-120 Hz. Good luck!


This is pretty much the first thing you should be doing.

I usually position my mic towards the 12th fret, about 5 inches away from the guitar, 10 inches above, and with a cheap 80 buck acoustic and a $200 blue ribbon mic (while keeping the guitar stationary) I ALWAYS get a sound I love