leftybassman392

I would have thought 3/4 - or maybe 6/8 - is a pretty good candidate. It's how your heart beats.

Not to say that 4/4 isn't, just that if it is then it's unlikely to be the only one.

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I knew Horace before he was famous. He went to school with my next door neighbour and would pop round for a chat from time to time. That was the late '70s.

Then the band took off and I never saw him again.

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27 minutes ago, Bigguy2017 said:

If you're recording solo guitar and not guitar to for use in a mix, then try a live room/space with a high ceiling and a nice open ambience.

Mix close mic and room mic to taste.

There's unlikely to be many band mixes of the kind I think you're talking about. I like the open space idea, but unfortunately none of the rooms is big enough to make it feasible. Something else to look at and experiment with though.

3 hours ago, bazzbass said:

I got interesting results from an SE X1 condensor and the Aston Halo reflection filter I use for vocals.

I think best result was with the halo over the soundhole with the mic pointing towards the neck joint.

Thanks for that. I have a mic screen, and one setup I'm going to look at is very similar to this. Watch this space...

Update, I think I'm going to get an AKG P170 rather than the C1000S. It looks like a better mic for less money.

Or I might push the boat out and get a matched pair of Rode M5s. Amazon has a really good price on them right now.

If I were getting properly serious about it I'd get a matched pair of C451s (which seem to be one of the industry standards for recording acoustic guitar), but I can't justify the price at this point.

38 minutes ago, skankdelvar said:

Couple of things:

* I only really record acoustic for use as a rhythm part and it's usually in the background. So I point one mic at the 12th fret, varying the lateral angle relative to the body depending on whether I want to pick up some boom or not. If there's too much boom I high-pass the track. If there's not enough jangle I cut below 800hz and boost around 3.5khz (and sometimes at 10khz though this can sometimes pull up room noise).

* In the past I've pointed one mic at the 12th fret and another at about 45 degrees to the soundhole. As it's a two mic set up I try clean up any comb filtering with a phase alignment tool on one of the tracks , example (https://www.audiocation.de/en/plugin ).

* In the past I've regretted not having two identical mics, mainly because I'd like to try (i) the thing where you put both mics on a t-bar then angle the caps at 90 degrees to each other for 'real' stereo and also (ii) mid-side recording. 

* As well as (or instead of) treating the room you could invest in a gobo or two (an acoustic screen but I like the word gobo better because it's funny). 

Thomann sell gobos (e.g. https://www.thomann.de/gb/clearsonic_s2466x2_s5_2d_sorber.htm), as do any number of other suppliers and manufacturers.

Being skint I've been thinking about getting a couple of second-hand office partitions, slapping something on them (acoustic foam, rockwall) and screwing on some casters on so I can shove them in the corner when not in use. Two partitions gets you a V, three partitions gets you an open sided box. Four partitions is possibly overkill.

Tip 1: Get a rectangular guitar case,  stand it  on end then open it to form a V (so it stands up on its own) then position it in front of you and the mic when you record. It works as a cheap and dirty small scale gobo (as long as you're recording sitting down). Enhancement: a lining of acoustic foam inside the body compartment and inside the lid gets you a two-sided, midget 'isolation booth'.

Tip 2: EQ-ing - Record some blank air in the room, set the playback to loop. Slot in an EQ plug-in, choose a band, narrow it right down, boost it by 5-10db. You should see a sharp, very narrow peak in the EQ graphic. Hit play. Sweep the EQ peak backwards and forwards until you find an exaggeratedly nasty noise. Reverse the boost so it's a cut. If you find more than one nasty room noise, cut that as well. But keep it narrow.

After you've recorded your guitar, try cutting a narrow-ish point somewhere between 300-500hz to reduce any 'boxiness'.  Experiment with a high pass set at 60hz to cut rumble and a low pass starting somewhere above 12khz to take out nasty 'digital' high end, also room 'hiss'. If your earlier room noise correction is getting in the way of a nice sound try reducing the cuts.

Thanks for that Paul. Excellent advice as always. I do like the idea of open guitar cases as sound deadening.

27 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Always consider a mic positioned over the player's shoulder pointing down; as this will come reasonably close to capturing the sound that the player hears which may well be the sound that they want.

Indeed. I've used that technique before and got some good results with it. Thanks for the reminder though.

All grist to the mill at this point. My recording will be pretty low-key and for my own satisfaction (certainly at this stage I have no intention of trying to revive a recording career that's been dead for 10 years). If I do produce something I'm happy with though, I may well put it up for review. Watch this space...

Looks handy. The industry seems to be a bit dismissive of mic screens from what I've seen and read, but if it helps in my situation then I don't really need to care what industry pros say!

Thanks for that.

The room seems not too bad actually, but walking around is not feasible as there's really only one place I can set up. Good news is that there'll be soft furnishings in front of me and heavy curtains behind. One wall I could cover with a duvet at need, but the 4th wall is the problem. I have some big pieces of foam from an old mattress in the loft so if all else fails I can use them, but it would be a bit of a ballache to have to retrieve them every time I need them and put them back when I've finished (which I would have to do). Hence the query about the hypercardioid response pattern. The plan would be to angle the C1000 so as to have the 4th wall in it's null region.

ETA: I should add that I have a mic screen that I'll be using with the NT1A, which should help a little.

Bit of a techie question, this.

As some here will know, I've recently decided to take the plunge and get back into recording after a gap of 10 years.

I'm expecting that quite a lot of what I record will be performed on an acoustic guitar. That being the case, I want to set up my recording gear in such a way as to optimise it for that format.

What I used to do is to have the main mic (which at the time was an AT4033) pointed at the neck/body join from around 30 cm, a second mic (usually one of my pencil mics) pointing at the neck/headstock  from around the same distance to pick up a bit of extra resonance, and where available a suitably EQ'd feed from the guitar's preamp, partly as a backup but also to give me the option of blending a bit of it into the main feed. Having bought the NT1A as my main mic, I'm now looking at a C1000S Mk.4 as a second string. (I used to have 2 of them so they're a known quantity to me) - cheap as chips ATM (£88 from Amazon) and still a very good unit IMHO.

I'd greatly like to hear what other setups members use to record acoustics (I also plan to get my 5- string banjo into action at some point so a bit of advice on that wouldn't go amiss either). I'm planning to do a bit of experimentation before committing to anything remotely serious, so any thoughts you have would be appreciated.

As a bit of a side-issue, the C1000S has a choice of polar patterns. I'm looking at using it in hypercardioid mode to minimise side reflections (I'll be recording in a room with hard walls either side that will be difficult to damp properly without considerable disruption). Any thoughts?

On 07/12/2020 at 18:26, whynot said:

Absolutely

Hello Alan! Long time no see.

Another 'take the money' here. Whatever we think of the morality, he's long since paid his dues and it's his to do with as he likes. His legacy is assured whatever is done with the music, so WTF?

3 minutes ago, stewblack said:

@leftybassman392 sounds like absolute paradise 

It was a beautiful scene (on the northern rim of the Massif Central if memory serves). Unfortunately the house we were shown was very run down and would have required a huge investment of time, energy and money (which we were not prepared to do).

Shortly thereafter the French government passed some protectionist property laws that pretty much put an end to the dream.

17 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Close neighbours, old chum. 200 kms for me (Nantes...) , and five times that for the next biggest (Nice...). Nearest 'big' town..? Population 12,000 (Mayenne...). 

Around 17 years ago Mrs. LBM and I were thinking of moving to France to live, and got as far as visiting a couple of times to check out some of the regions we were interested in, including visits to a number of properties that might suit.

On a visit to the Burgundy region, we got taken to a property in what was described as a rural location. It turned out to be one of 2 or 3 properties on a hill in the middle of a forest. From the garden the view consisted of trees in every viewable direction as far as the eye could see. Not 200 km for sure, but you get the idea...

3 minutes ago, chris_b said:

I've been in very few bands that didn't play at least one original song. That includes the cover bands. If I get a vote in a band, I'll judge the song not who wrote it.

Labels are a pointless distraction, unfortunately, too many originals bands aren't original at all. The better bands (of any style) play songs that are interesting.

IMO a good covers band beats a bad originals band every time, and vice versa.

Again a fair point.

In truth I was speaking more about the music business as a whole.

IME a professional approach involves seeking to get the best from those around you, not pointing out - much less sneering at - what you see as their failings or inadequacies. Music production and performance operates at a huge range of levels. If you're that good at what you do, it should be a no-brainer to understand that. It's the people who do understand it but choose to be a PITA about it that I get annoyed with.

8 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Very tight... But they've fallen foul of one of my pet hates; while the women have made an effort to look like they're in the band the blokes are just wearing boring shirts/tshirts and look like they've just walked in off the street. It happens far too much for my liking!

It’s a fair point, especially if you do a lot of function work, but tbh it’s much less of an issue for a covers band imho. I did have an ‘outfit’ when playing in a blues cover band, but never really bothered about it in any of the other formats I played in.

10 minutes ago, hiram.k.hackenbacker said:

Oh, please don't. Not again 🙄

Spoilsport!

I didn't see the clip but it wouldn't have made any difference to what follows.

I've been retired for some years now, but before that I was involved in the music industry in numerous capacities for the best part of 20 years. In all that time I never did quite manage to get my head around the snobbery that I encountered from time to time, mostly from people who should know better.

When I come across it on Basschat (less frequently than used to be the case to be fair), it kind of reminds me of this

Apologies for the much-shortened clip; best I could find at short notice.

Can I just confirm: the people in the audience, they've paid real money to be there... is that right?

Many thanks for all the helpful replies guys. Much appreciated.

If I haven't gone with your suggestion, it doesn't mean I've ignored it.

After due consideration, I've pulled the trigger (curious phrase for buying stuff I've always thought...) on:

this

and

this

The 4i4 bundle looks good at the price (yes I know the DAWs are free anyway, but even so). I got the extra channels on the interface as I can see me using them once in a while, so I took the view that it was better to have them and not use them very often. I still have some good quality leads from my studio days, so with luck I'll be good to go.

All I need now is some music to play through it...

I've had an offer on an inteface that uses the original thunderbolt protocol. Anybody know where I can get a thunderbolt - thunderbolt 3 adaptor?

I've had a look around the internet and can't find anything on either the Apple website or Amazon.

In more general terms I'm kind of keen to get a bit more of a handle on latency issues. I'd like to use the thunderbolt 3 speed if possible, but the thunderbolt 3 interfaces I've found are stupidly expensive and ridiculously over-specced for my needs. I dunno, maybe that's telling me something I need to listen to.

Many thanks for the responses so far. For the mic, I’m leaning towards a Rode NT1. Has anybody tried recording acoustic guitar with one?

Anyone using protools lite?

43 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

4 minutes ago, Pea Turgh said:

Not seen the Rode interface before.  Lots of love for the NT1 out there.  My only prolonged experience with LDCs was my Peluso P67 (talk about sellers remorse!) so not really experienced enough to offer advice there.

I think any recent interface from a trusted brand has a much higher basic quality level than over 10 yrs ago (probably, though the curve was flattening even then).  Make sure you pick a manufacturer with good support - Alesis have a bit of a back catalogue of units that no longer work after major Mac updates, so personally I’d avoid them.

Id assume you’re going to monitor on cans?  There’s a lot more appetite for that these days, especially as you can pick up a decent set for the price of poopy monitors, and monitoring environment is then a non-issue.

Monitoring on cans, yes. I have a set of Shure in-ears which I use for spoken word editing with Audacity. Well-balanced and lots of detail. Then again, at around £250 you could say they should have!

I also have an old pair of Beyerdynamic DT100's from my studio days. I recently replaced the ear pads and TBH I've been itching to use them for something.

Monitors are a non-starter really, for a variety of reasons.

4 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Does that not imply two mic's, or has the acoustic a pre-amp..? 

Could go either way as the acoustics both have very good preamps built-in. I might consider a pencil mic as an alternative (I've had good results in the past from pointing a mic at the headstock).