Guitar Recording & Effects

When recording classical or acoustic guitars, I've found that a very cheap and effective way is to use a tie-clip microphone, and clip it to to edge of the soundhole just below the top E-string. That way you get a recording that is almost straight from the soundboard with a minimal amount of noise. Naturally, getting a pick-up is more efficient, but more expensive; they're great for steel stringed guitars, but on classical or spanish guitars, I find that this removes a bit of the 'natural' element of the sound, and prefer to use a mic.

I've got some tips for Erwin for getting a good acoustic guitar recording.Obviously the best way to reduce unwanted noise would be to get a decent pickup however if you insist on using a mic you need to use the right kind i.e a cardoid condenser mic like a sm94 or similar.These have a wide pickup range and enable you to set the mic further from the guitar,this will give you a more natural and ambient sound and help eliminate unwanted fret and plectrum noise.

Try eliminating as much background noise as possible (double glazing on the windows helps) and use a good quality microphone cable.The main problems with using a mic with a computer is the fact that PC's are noisy as well,try experimenting with dampening the sound in the room, a few well placed sheets of polysterene can work wonders as well as positioning your microphone away from the PC.

The best results I have acheived recording an acoustic involve spending some cash. I use a good sounding guitar with a run of the mill pickup but plugged it into a BOSS AD3 acoustic effects pedal this conditions the sound so its very PC freindly, its really designed for plugging acoustics into mixing desks and is quite a reasonable price definitely worth a look if you wan't to drastically improve your sound.

Using an external mic preamp such as the Tube MP(~$99) with an SM57 microphone(also ~$99) going into the line-in on the Live! will give the best quality over the mic-in because of added warmth and control over line level. Believe me, it's worth the extra $99 to get a great recording and besides it will come in handy in many other applications as well. All the techniques discussed above such as mic placement and EQ settings play a huge role in the overall sound quality you get also. Lastly, since you are recording to a PC hard drive you have access to good sound editing tools such as Cool Edit to remove any noise present in the recording.

If noise is the main problem with your guitar recordings, download CoolEdit 96 and process your WAV file through it's awesome Noise Reduction feature.

When i record accoustic guitar or any source using a microphone, i always play in a different room than where is my computer. why? simple... less junk comes in the microphone: Computers, screens and speakers are sending magnetic garbage even in nice shielded cables thus giving a bigger hum or hiss in your recording.

If you cant place the microphone in a different room, put it as far away from the screen and pc as possible and once you start recording shut the screen off. you will get less garbage. As for microphone placement, it is all a question of tone and guitar. My yamaha sounds amzaing when i play it on the on the end of the neck rather than above the hole and i point the mic at the bridge... but my ovation sound a lot cleaner when i play at the bridge and point the mic at the hole... so experiment.

Each instruments is unique and each as a special placement for mic. As for getting a pickup, most affordable pickup will change the tonality and richness of your guitar sounds, but it can help in some case. The final word is experiment placement and microphone types, and stay away from your pc and screen... especially with pickups... And most importantly, have fun doing it... Stephane

A Quick reply:

The gain on the mic input is often turned right up (to to allow the use of cheap and nasty desktop mics.) Try tuning it down, this can be done via the Live's software.

Recording acoustic guitars should not be too difficult as long as you get a decent sound from the off. A caridoid mic such as the ShureSM57 will give you a 'harder', tighter sound and a condensor mic, such as the AKGC3000 will giev a more natural 'woody' sound.

You should really use a mic preamp between the mic and the input on the soundcard - either a mixing desk or a dedicated standalone unit such as the Joe Meek VC3 preamp/compressor/enhancer - so that the signal is nice and strong.

Acoustic guitars create a lot of unnecessary frequencies which will make them sound boomy and bassy. Microphones used close up can often exacerbate this, so you might want to cut some of the low EQ at around 80-100 DB. The ear won't miss the bass and it'll make the sound sit more comfortably in the mix.

Also, don't overdo the reverb. A touch of plate reverb should give it a nice brightness.

I tend to like the 'fat' sound of compression on an acoustic, so try that. (Short release, a ratio of 4:1, and then experiment with the threshold setting: the lower it is, the more pronounced the effect.)

But a good initial sound is the most important thing. Put on some headphones and move the guitar around the mic until you are happy with the sound.

Aim the mic at somewhere around the fifteenth fret and angle it slightly above the soundhole.

You might also want to try recording two tracks of guitar (play the same chords but strum or pick them in a slightly different way) and then panning them on either side of the stereo field.

I've recently recorded an acoustic album with a ShureSM57, an AKGC3000 and a JoeMeekVC3 on a PC running cubase and it sounds wonderfully preofessional.

About guitar recording I have two things to say:

1. I record accustic guitar parts with my Yamaha steel string guitar, and I get the best quality sound, if I put my microphone *inside* the guitar body. This is good, as there are absolutely no noise, because there is music all around the mimcrophone. I suggest you try this.
2. When I play with my electric guitar (Les Paul), I plug it into my Marshall amp (a small Valvstate 10) then I mut the mike (Shure BETA58) cca. 5 cm away from the speaker, pointing at the speaker. I raise the volume while playing, looking at the signal meter on the volume control. I love my amps distortion combined by Live!-s reverb settings. I suggest you try this as well.

When you make such a recording, there are four possible weak links.

Mic, mic amp, codec adc, digital processing.

Oh, and the pc fan noise, record in another room!

First looking at the live itself:
The mic amp/using mic in with boosting on is by far the worst thing here. You can make very high quality recordings if you use an external mic preamp/mixer to make the gain. So, if you buy a better mic, also buy better amplification. The codec line in recording quality is good enough to make very good recordings. But still experiment with live fader setting contra gain in external amp to get lowest noise.

Digital signal processing: The reason why you should use 48kHz is not the general difference between 44.1 and 48 - it's very small, you need very good ears and equipment to hear it. No, you should *always* use 48kHz on the live, 'cuse rec and playback on the live always *is* 48k in hardware, it's samplerate converted in the 10k1 to what you ask it to be. And that gives (a little) worse audio quality and some serious timing problems, if you try to use it together with other audio or midi tracks in a sequencer/multitracker.

About the microphone, buy a cardoid (not omni) mike, it supresses noise from the back of the mike.

You folks trying to get the best sound when recording acoustic guitar with a microphone have omitted one very important thing; the pre-amp. You must run the mic through a pre-amp, either on a mixer channel (i.e. Mackie) or a dedicated mic pre (ART has one for less than $100 that is not too bad). Running a mic directly into the SB almost guarantees poor sound, even with a decent mic (like an SM57 or even the c1000s.)

As for mic placement, you need to experiement with different positions; generally an off-axis placement about 12 inches from where the neck joins the body will maximize high end; a similar position near the bout of the guitar will maximize mids and lows. But again, experiment. Record the same passage played the same way with different mic positions. Take a break, come back and listen to them all with fresh ears.

Also, make sure your environment is a free from noise as possible, such as traffic outside, air conditioners, plumbing, etc. Some rudimentary soundproofing is needed in most 'home' recording environments. Hey, Leo Kottke recorded his first record using big tarps as soundproofing, so you don't need to build a major enclosure to get decent results. Remember, the soundproofing needs to completely enclose the area you will use for recording, even a small gap will render the soundproofing useless.

And last, a stereo set up is preferred to a mono set up when recording. Of course you'll need a separate mixer (even a cheapo mixer will work just fine) due to the SB's input limitations.

You can get some good results with the SB at low cost if you're willing to make the effort.

There are several things which u can do. Firstly and most obvious choice is to get a better microphone. Try to get a mic with a low impendance(Z) rating. i.e. anything as low as u can get at consumer level. This reduces it sensitive to bg noise.

The other thing i would really recommend is to get a pickup. These thing are of reasonable price and definately much better than a microphone. There are two types u can get, one is a piece of wood that fits in onto the hole in the soundbox. The next one is an internal one which i guess u need someone to help u install it.

If u still insist on a mic, try these tips. Point the mic at the bridge of the guitar. Believe it or not, that is where the sound produce is the loudest, not that nice hole in the soundbox. Next thing is to play around with EQ which i dunno if u have it as software or hardware but it can cut out unwanted noise as well.

Recording acoustic guitar you pretty well have to use a good quality mic. (SM57 or equiv) New guitar strings help a lot also. ALWAYS use 48000khz for that low-noise, crisp hi quality sound. Ensure the mic is within 2 feet of the guitar pointing at the opening. Use the boosted mic input setting and ensure your mic gain setting peaks just below the red. Using this method I've been astounded at the hi-fi quality Im getting even using an el-cheapo acoustic gat!!!

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The Sound Blaster Live! has 4 separate S/PDIF digital outputs, with each of them carrying stereo (left & right)!

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