Recording Acoustic Guitar

[blue]

the best way to avoid plosives is to not sing them in the first place. tell the dude to mind his P's and S's.

did you shelve all the bass off of the guitar? i'd get a little more soundhole in there until there's some bottom, especially since his voice has none. you have a lot of room to play with down there.

is this capoed?

"Be" sounds like you got a better mic position, but also shows off how much bass is lacking when he hits that single note at the beginning of each verse riff.

If I were producing this, I'd encourage him to relax and strum and stop chopping at his strings so much. He doesn't need to record it like he plays it, unless he's adamant about it. It'll sound a lot sweeter with a nice, solid strum pattern.

btw, plosives are very easy to take care of in a wave editor, esp if you only have a couple in an otherwise good take. just look at the beginning of the word with the wav zoomed in and you'll see a giant leap in volume. chop and smooth till it sounds right.

[HeuristicsInc]

the best way to avoid plosives is to not sing them in the first place. tell the dude to mind his P's and S's.

heh. yeah, i'll do that.

did you shelve all the bass off of the guitar?

no, i didn't do any eq-ing actually until the mastering step. and there i didn't shelve it, no.

i'd get a little more soundhole in there until there's some bottom,

er, i don't understand this. point the mic more at the soundhole?

is this capoed?

not these, but i imagine we'll have some in the future that are. we tried to go with simpler to start with.

"Be" sounds like you got a better mic position, but also shows off how much bass is lacking when he hits that single note at the beginning of each verse riff.

If I were producing this, I'd encourage him to relax and strum and stop chopping at his strings so much. He doesn't need to record it like he plays it, unless he's adamant about it. It'll sound a lot sweeter with a nice, solid strum pattern.

i'll pass on these ideas. we might get together again this weekend.

btw, plosives are very easy to take care of in a wave editor, esp if you only have a couple in an otherwise good take. just look at the beginning of the word with the wav zoomed in and you'll see a giant leap in volume. chop and smooth till it sounds right.

heh, sounds obvious, yeah
thanks for the suggestions!
-bill

[blue]

i guess the first question i should have asked is "does it sound like his guitar?"

because if it does, then you're done. and yes, moving the mic more toward the soundhole will usually make the tone bassier.

[HeuristicsInc]

I'll check that next time he comes, compare the two tones and see how they sound next to each other. I have now noticed the lack of bass in these songs. thanks!
-bill

[Dan-O from Five-O]

My kneejerk reaction to the bass issue is the direct line track is probably hotter than the mic track. A peizo pickup reacts that way, meaning, rather on the treble side of things. I used to use three sources, 2 mics and a direct line to help capture some of the high end. I would almost always find that the direct line track would be the lowest level during mastering. I wasn't trying intentionally trying to bury it, it just sounded best there, centered with the two mics panned to capture the stereo part.

I also hear a lot of buzzing going on with the strings. On the positive end, I'm hearing it so you captured what's going on. Step 2 is removing it, which is the really hard part. The best way to remove the buzzing is have a more accomplished guitar player record the part. Unfortunately, that's also the really hard part. The first really good article I ever read on recording acoustic guitar contained along with the micing techniques these 3 very simple points.

1) New strings.
2) Tune the guitar before EVERY take.
3) Have someone who can PLAY acoustic guitar play the track.

I'm not saying whoever played the tracks can't play, but I am saying there are people out there who can play smoother and without the buzzing on the strings. I'm guilty of it myself. Your choices are either track until you can get through the whole thing without the buzz, or another guitar player. Being a guitar player I usually opt for choice one, but I wouldn't be opposed to option 2 if I could get the guy to come buy and help me out.

On the other hand it could be the guitar's setup. Have whoever is playing the guitar play the chords slowly and with single strums while holding the chord until it dies out. If none of those chords makes the same noise, the source is the technique. Overall Bill, the guitar sounds OK. With practice I'm betting you'll make it better. And if the same guitar player does the track, he should practice the song until he can do it flawlessly.

[blue]

or record it in bits and mix them. if there's trouble making a transition from, say, the first two chords of a progression to the next, and you REALLY want to be anal about it, do a take of just the first two, then a second track of the next bit, and so on.

one note at a time, just like the pros do it.

[jack]

i can think of at least one track i've recorded here where i had a section of arpeggiated chord pickings and each chord was a seperate track.

i got sick of re-doing it and this method was alot easier to control and edit.

[HeuristicsInc]

yeah, when i recorded the j$ cover i did all the chords separately. that may be because i'm not so good at playing guitar, though. moving the fingers around... so difficult.

i had some buzz issues myself on that cover, rerecorded takes until i fixed it.

anyway, no, we're not going to get a different guitar player. these are bryan's songs; it's the same guy playing the guitar and singing (tho i had him do them separately for recording purposes).

what about the guitar setup would lead to buzzing?
-bill

[Dan-O from Five-O]

what about the guitar setup would lead to buzzing?
-bill

I'm not a guitar tech by any stretch, but if the neck is bowing at all it could need a truss rod adjustment, something best left to a trusted professional. Again, I would play each one of those chords individually and hold them down as best you can and see if persists. If not, the culprit is proabaly hand strength / technique related. Practice and building up those callouses are the treatment needed. The recomendation Blue made about breaking the song down into manageable parts and piecing them together is an excellent idea also.

[bwell]

Here's one resource that has some good information on tracking down the source of buzzing...
http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Luthier ... intro.html

Of course, as mentioned, this only applies if it's not a technique problem. I'd have to listen closer, but my first impression was that it might be the technique.

[blue]

it's pretty easy to tell - play each string open with a decent amount of force, or see what fret the player is on when it buzzes and have them play the string fretted there. if it buzzes by itself, it's probably gonna be hard to clean up while playing chords and the action needs fixing. if it's fine, you've got more takes in your future.

[Dan-O from Five-O]

I'm curious about sitting position when other people record acoustic guitar. I use a stool, usually my right foot propped up to support the guitar, maybe both for comfort reasons. I'm wondering if everyone does this or if they've tried sitting back on a comfortable foamy couch for instance, and if that effects the sound of the guitar? Certainly mic positioning becomes an issue, you would have to use a boom and then the attack of the mic might be more from the top, but not necessarily. So any thoughts?

[nyjm]

I'm curious about sitting position when other people record acoustic guitar.

i do all my recording at my desk in front of my laptop. not the most ideal recording set-up, but i have receieved some kudos for guitar tone, so i must be doing something right.

so, i sit in a swiveling, rolling desk chair. i'm self-taught, so i don't hold the guitar in the classical style. hell, i probably look more like kurt cobain, both feet forward and firmly planted on the floor, hunched over the guitar on my right thigh and everything.

i've just started using two mics, a high-end one (whose specs escape me) aimed at the 11th or 12th fret and a Telex M-540 one that captures richer, lower tones better aimed at the bridge. like it's been pointed out earlier, the mics are pointed in a v-shape, forming a triangle with the guitar. the mics and soundhole are all about on the same plane. this latter bit of positioning is just sheer luck that my desk and its components are at the right height.

back to my posture/positioning, i record like that because that's how i write and usually play. i used to have a stool, but it's too hard to write there, and i have always felt awkward standing up, except with an electric guitar. and i can't play very well leaning back on a couch or bed or whatnot - i have to reach too far around the guitar.

however, i believe the real key for me is that sitting in my desk chair is just the most comfortable, and the comfort allows me to focus on playing, so i get better recordings in fewer takes. so, record the way you're most comfortable and arrange the mics accordingly would be my advice.

</soapbox>

[Caravan Ray]

I'm curious about sitting position when other people record acoustic guitar.

I never sit to play guitar. From the first time I picked up a guitar, the whole point was to wiggle the arse, thrust the pelvis and impress the chicks.

So now, 20 years later, I still find sitting down to play very unnatural - so much so I really can't keep rhythm sitting down. And even alone in my room recording - it still like to wiggle it - just a little bit...

[Dan-O from Five-O]

And even alone in my room recording - it still like to wiggle it - just a little bit...

Well who doesn't?