Recording - July 2015 - 13

From experience, begin with a medium pick and adjust accordingly. Also, have options and experiment as to which you prefer sonically. Lastly, remember that fingers will produce a tone and volume
that is much different than a pick of any size or thickness.
The guitar
Every guitarist and engineer has a different idea of what
sounds "best" when recording guitar. You will need to understand the factors involved and how they contribute to a final
result you'll find pleasing.
The first thing needed to get a good guitar sound is a good
sounding guitar. It is simple, but it is true-a guitar's tone and
timbre will have a much larger impact on your recordings than
whichever microphone you choose and which set up you opt
for. With that in mind, what kind of guitar do you have to track
with? Obviously a Taylor will sound vastly different than a
Martin or a Fender. Is your guitar bright and detailed, or warm
and rich? What kind of wood is it made of? Is it a dreadnought,
auditorium, jumbo, concert, or baby?
This will dictate the guitar's tone and what to base your subsequent decisions on, in terms of microphones and room ambience
while tracking. If you own a bright guitar, perhaps you'll favor a
darker, richer-sounding microphone to balance out your sound. On
the other hand, perhaps going with a brighter sounding microphone will enhance the brightness you may want to capture as your
sound. Ultimately, the only person who knows that answer is you.
By Brian Marshak

riter
Sage advice on recording guitars at home

The room
Having a good sounding room is important. What's even
more important is that you don't have a bad sounding room.
Ask yourself: is your room overly bright, or dull-sounding? Either
natural sound is somewhat adjustable.
In general, I prefer a more lively room. If your room is dull,
has poor sound quality, or lacks live vibrant acoustics, then your
acoustic guitar tracks will naturally lack excitement via room
reflections. Also, a lively room will make the exact mic position
a bit less critical, since harder surfaces will cause the sound to
bounce all around the room.
To get the most liveliness out of your room, position yourself
near hard reflective surfaces. Hard floors without carpet, uncovered walls, and even hard-surfaced furniture can augment your
room's live sound. To further augment your room, try leaning
sheets of metal or hardwood boards against one or more walls.
This is also a solution found in major recording studios.
On the other hand, if your room is too bright and reflective, try
the following to deaden your space. David "Davie" Martinez
(Capitol Studios, Stagg Street Studio) recommends hanging up blankets over walls to kill reflections, and placing a rug on the floor if
there isn't carpet. Mic placement in those situations usually depends
on where the quietest part of the room is; dealing with noise inside
and outside can be a never-ending battle in a home studio!
Barry Conley, veteran engineer and educator, prefers not to
have too much liveliness in the recording space when tracking.

If the room is too reverberant or unpleasant sounding, Barry will
throw down some carpet on the floor and drape some packing
blankets over mic stands, even building a little room by surrounding the playing area (on both sides and in back of the guitarist) to make a deader environment. In these applications,
Barry would close-mike the guitar; more on this below.
Jeff Gartenbaum (The Village Recorder) recommends something similar. Take a boom microphone stand and hang or
drape packing blankets over it. Then those draped mic stands
are placed around the microphone and/or the guitarist to better
isolate sound and eliminate any nasty room sounds.
For a more permanent solution that will help all recordings,
not just guitars, consider treating your room. Try bass traps and
other diffusion materials in key areas such as corners, where the
walls meet the floor, and potentially a "cloud" over your head
to treat the ceiling's reflections. Proper room treatment will allow
you options, when it comes to either close or distant miking, for
blending in the sound of your room's ambience.
The microphone(s)
Besides your guitar, the microphone or microphones you have for
tracking will dictate your decision-making in terms of setup and
recording. It is best to take some time exploring your options and
determining your budget, as each microphone has its own vibe and
characteristics that are its sonic footprint. These footprints are why the
microphone ought to be chosen for pairing with the guitar, so that the
tone will be there with little left to add or subtract during mixing.
Microphones vary from dynamic, to condenser to ribbon.
Each type of microphone has its own inherent strengths and
weaknesses. These fine-tooth comb details are worth exploring,
as are their individual frequency responses. The inherent frequency response is why you ought to or ought not to pursue
using a particular microphone. In general, condenser microphones are the "go-to" for tracking acoustic guitar; their accentuated high end complements the sparkle and definition of the
guitar. Large-diaphragm condensers and small-diaphragm condensers each have their place and validity of use. Dynamic and
ribbon microphones also have their place and can yield some
cool, sometimes unexpected results when used wisely.
A dynamic mic is a tiny "speaker in reverse". They have
strong sound in the upper mids but a slow response to transients
like pick noise and a rolled-off frequency response. Ribbon mics
have been around forever, and use a tiny metal ribbon in a
magnetic field to capture sound. They can be delicate but have
a smooth tone with less accentuated highs and very present
lower midrange.
Condensers are thought of as having the widest frequency
response, mainly due to their clear and present high end. A condenser is a capacitor, and the diaphragm of the mic is a capacitor that turns vibrations into electricity. The sound and performance of a condenser mic depends on the size of its
diaphragm; in very general terms, larger diaphragms have a
rich and detailed sound but a less even off-axis response, while
smaller diaphragms provide more "focus" for close miking.
Next, consider your mic's pickup pattern. Cardioid has its
highest sensitivity at the front, becoming less sensitive on the
sides, and rejecting sound coming from the rear of the mic.
These mics have a pronounced proximity effect-an increased
low-end boost as you get closer to your sound source.
Omnidirectional mics pick up sounds with equal amplitude
from all directions, and have no proximity effect. Bidirectional
(figure-8) microphones pick up sound in the front and back, but
not so much on the sides; these quieter directions are called
nulls. The figure-8 pattern is typical of ribbon microphones, but
is also found in some condenser microphones; it has the most
pronounced proximity effect. Typically, a cardioid pattern will fit
a smaller room better than an omni pattern microphone. Omnis
often require a room found at a high-end recording studio or
professionally treated space.
RECORDING July 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2015