Recording - July 2016 - 24

Audio-Technica condensers, the largediaphragm multipattern AT4050 and the small
side-address ATM450 cardioid. I have already
written about my electric-guitar experiences with
the Royer R-122 in my July 2015 Recording article about miking the electric guitar.
I ran all of the mics through my very transparent API 500 Series 512c preamp, adjusting gain as needed. When I use a second mic
to record in stereo, I like using my Tonelux
MP5A 500 series preamp, which is also quite
transparent but perhaps a bit warmer.

By Beto Hale

Studio photos by Sasha Hale

Mic choices and techniques for acoustic guitar
Miking the acoustic guitar is a very important skill to master for home
recordists and commercial-studio engineers alike. The instrument is a complex
beast, and finding the right combination of mics and placement takes a lot of
experimentation. Granted, "right" is a very subjective word here, since a "good"
acoustic guitar sound depends enormously on the genre of music you are recording and also the individual taste of artist and producer.
The space
My current home demo recording setup-like many of our readers'-is in a
fully carpeted bedroom with average height ceilings and only minimal acoustical
treatment on the walls. Because of this, most of the combinations I'll be talking
about today involve close miking, since this room is quite dead.
To test which miking combinations sounded better in larger, more reflective
rooms, I moved to the living room, which has higher vaulted ceilings, but which
is not acoustically treated at all. My main goal with the larger room was simply
to get an idea of how much of the room certain miking
combinations would capture, since mics' polar patterns
(how well the microphone "hears" sound from different
directions) and the distance between the mic and the instrument greatly affect the result.
The mics and signal chain
Lately, I have mainly been using three mics for recording
acoustic guitar: a Royer R-122 active ribbon mic and two

The guitars
I recorded my three favorite acoustics, which
all "happen" to be Martins. My classical C1-R
is a gorgeous piece of work. It was designed
by master luthier Thomas Humphrey and has
great volume and projection; enough to fill a
concert hall without any PA support, just as the
gods intended. This guitar has a sweet, full
sound and is great for a wide array of styles,
from classical to acoustic Boleros, Brazilian,
and Spanish/Flamenco.
The two other guitars are outstanding as
well: a 12-string custom, and an HD-28 6string. The 12-string has a gorgeous, lush
sound, and the 6-string has a classic tone,
ideal for open chord accompaniments as well
as fingerpicked runs and everything in
between. As has been said in these pages
before, if you have a good-sounding
instrument, you've already won half the battle.
Let's see how we can mic them!
Placement
A lot has been written about the placement
of microphones for recording acoustic guitar,
and the reason is that there are many possibilities. Using your ears is crucial. Ideally, you
want to move around the front of the guitar, listening at different distances and angles. As the
player is strumming or picking, try to hear the
difference in tone, volume and EQ.
The second best option, which is the one I
applied while writing this particular article
(since I was by myself), is to record yourself
many times, moving the mic(s) around after
each take, until you find those special placements that sound great.
I recorded both mono and stereo takes,
since depending on the style and context of
the music, you will likely prefer one or the
other. I recorded into Ableton Live, since it
allows me to easily record take after take and
compare each very rapidly, looping each take
to listen to four- or eight-bar phrases in a very
efficient manner. Trying to do this in Pro Tools
or Logic (or any other linear-based DAW)
would have been a lot more cumbersome.
AT4050
I've owned this mic for many years, and
had mostly used it for vocals. A few years
back, though, I started using it for all sorts of
other sources, such as djembe, tambourine,
handclaps, and, yes, acoustic guitar. It has
three available polar patters (omni, cardioid,
and figure-8) as well as lowcut and -10 dB

RECORDING JULY 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - July 2016