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For those of you that are into recording, what’s the best mic you have found for recording acoustic guitar (no pickups)? Does Brian ever talk about a mic for his acoustic guitar lesson recordings? I have tried a few different mics, but not sure I am happy yet. I borrowed an ADK Z-67 one time that was out of this world amazing, but they are scarce and very pricey. I’m happy with my mics for guitar amps/cabs, but not content yet for acoustic. What are you guys interested in for mics?
It's all about the journey, not the destination.
https://soundcloud.com/david_ohm
https://www.bandmix.com/drwho/ -
Hi Dave, a good condenser or tube mic works for me, about 1-2 feet away from acoustic sound hole. I sometimes also place a dynamic mic at the 12-14 fret 6 inches from guitar neck. Two mics at once. If I’m just strumming and no picking, usually the condenser setup works for me. Btw, the Warm audio collection of mics are hard to beat for the price.
Greg
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After a discussion on an earlier forum thread I punted for a Neumann KM184
Not cheap but very happy with it. Picks up every detail.That is the industry standard for acoustic guitar. Nice!
It's all about the journey, not the destination.
https://soundcloud.com/david_ohm
https://www.bandmix.com/drwho/ -
Rode M3 condenser mic. Made in Australia.
Justin Johnson’s recordings are as good as it gets, to my ears. I wonder what kind of recording setup he has.
I see he uses a Beyerdynamic M160 in many videos. Sometimes a large condenser like a U47.
It's all about the journey, not the destination.
https://soundcloud.com/david_ohm
https://www.bandmix.com/drwho/ -
Hi Dave, a good condenser or tube mic works for me, about 1-2 feet away from acoustic sound hole. I sometimes also place a dynamic mic at the 12-14 fret 6 inches from guitar neck. Two mics at once. If I’m just strumming and no picking, usually the condenser setup works for me. Btw, the Warm audio collection of mics are hard to beat for the price.
Greg
The WA47 looks like a nice mic, for sure.
It's all about the journey, not the destination.
https://soundcloud.com/david_ohm
https://www.bandmix.com/drwho/ -
The first microphone I used is the Rode NT1-A, a large diaphragm condenser mic which is very good both for vocals and for recording guitars. Its diaphragm captures very well all the body of the guitar. But because it’s quite heavy with the shock mount and a bit difficult to place it with a stand, and because sometimes I make recordings with both vocals and guitar, I later bought a “cigarette style” condenser mic Audio Technica Pro37. The latter it’s also very good, and in fact for practical reasons (it’s extremely light and easy to place!) lately I’ve been almost always using this one for recording guitar and I’m pretty satisfied! For sure other models and brands suggested above are also very good and even better (the Neumann KM184 is used by many pros as far as I know).
One of the secret for a good recording is to point the mic at the body-neck joint, less or more 30 cm far from the guitar.
Then you’ve also to set the right gain level in your audio interface: it’s a matter of practice and tests, but usually at the limit of the green. Also using post editing effects like typically compression and reverb (if the natural reverb in your room is not enough) in your DAW helps a lot for a good final result.
The state of the art in pro studios, as far as I know, is to use 2 condenser mics like the Pro37 with different positioning schemes: for example XY (crossed) or AB (parallel). You can find information in Internet.
For my purposes of home recording, one mic is more than enough!Guido
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Hi Dave, recording an acoustic guitar can be as quick or as time-consuming as you want it to be. From the outset, I didn’t want to spend unnecessary amounts of time and money to try and perfect something I wouldn’t necessarily appreciate . But I did want to record at a level I could edit and tweak afterwards.
I think condenser mics are the best for recording acoustics. The choice between large or small diaphragm mics is a personal decision. Large diaphragm mics generally pick up more ambient room sounds where as with small diaphragm mics you can direct or aim the sound recording more accurately.
I currently use a Lewitt LCT 140 Air small diaphragm mic and position it about 6 inches away from the 12th fret. The positioning of the mic is absolutely crucial to the sound and time spend experimenting at different positions is ‘really’ well worth the effort.
As I use a Focusrite 2i2 and have a pick-up on the guitar, I’ll often record via the second channel simultaneously direct into Focusrite.
During the final sound edit (Ableton) I’ll mix the two channels to best effect for the piece I’m playing.Richard
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