Recording acoustic guitar in smallish room. Best postition?

raindog.promo

Hey folks,

I'm doing a bit of recording and a bit rusty at it. I'm in a (approx) 8ft long by 6ft wide room. Trying out different mic positions and distances, but also going to try recording the sound source in different positions. But as rule of thumb, is it better for the sound source to be in the centre of the room, by one wall, from a corner, facing into the corner?
The walls have duvets/cushions/mattresses covering them.
The sound source is guitar played in sitting position.

Any recommendations and reasons greatly appreciated.

omen80

Not sure about the best location in the room to be sitting, but I would recommend some sort of reflection filter behind the mic......even a homemade one. In a room like that you could end up getting a lot of comb filtering which will cancel out certain frequencies and make your guitar sound thin and horrible! And make sure you have a big matress on the wall behind you too.

raindog.promo

Cheers. I've a mattress on the wall (front and back) and rigged up a V cushion that the mic is sitting in between to act as a reflection filter.

I'm only using a SM58 at the moment (a condensor is in the post), and sitting roughly in the centre of the room. Tried out a few different mic positions. The one I'm liking most is 58 aimed straight at the 12th fret (nice enough bass, gets rid of a lot of the strum noise) from a distance of about 9 inches.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

depends on what tone you want - from my limited experience :

if you want a thinner tone - record in the center -well a bit off center would be better - dead centers can cause weirdness

a deeper tone - do it near or in a corner

if its in a busy mix you tend to high pass them anyway quite a bit so the center would be a better option.

if you walk around the room giving the body a bit of a thump , youll hear the best spot for the tone you want

shayleon

What they said...

+ ask someone to play the guitar in a similar way to yours, put a set of headphones on and move around the guitar with your mic. Takes out the guess work.

(sorry if stating the obvious)

theinhouseband

best way to get a good acoustic sound (From a Martin anyway)

Sit in the middle of the room undampened.

Make sure you are facing the furthest corner and then tilt yourself 15 degrees, this should eliminate standing waves etc

Place a condenser dead on approx 6 inches from the last fret
Depending on sound, twist the mic towards neck or bridge, for desired sound

Then place a second condenser at ear level pointing parallel down to the right knee of the guitarist, this is his best ear and best side, roll eq off top (Eliminates breathing sounds) Reverse the phase and you should have a great sound to work from, Very little colouring this way and you can compress the Overhead without comprimising the dynamic of the acoustic. Sounds more natural, and the natural reverb from the roomshould give you a genuine Acoustic tone, not a processed reverb tone.

Too much room..... Dial out the OH bit by bit until right.

the same technique can be used for Fiddle, Banjo & mandolin.

A little trick i learned from a session with Nashville Producer Bill Vorndick (Alison Krauss etc)

studiorat

theinhouseband wrote: »

Make sure you are facing the furthest corner and then tilt yourself 15 degrees, this should eliminate standing waves etc

I don't know about this at all... Why would that eliminate anything?
I can't see Bil's technique being much good if the room is not good sounding. I've never liked the result of that phasey EQ thing.


Personally, I just stick a mic up put on a set of cans and start moving the mic until it sounds good. Lock it down, take a note of the position, make a recording, listen and try again.

raindog.promo

I've been wondering more that if you sit in the middle of a room, how can any corner be the furthest away? Surely they'd all be equally far away.

theinhouseband

raindog.promo wrote: »

I've been wondering more that if you sit in the middle of a room, how can any corner be the furthest away? Surely they'd all be equally far away.

with a microphone placed in the middle of the room, you are forced to sit offside to it.

EG, room 25 X 20 (Not exactly square) so the mic sits in the middle
you sit facing the mic (-3ft from centre) so you have an offset that leaves one corner further away than the other...:D:D

ROOM: 20x20 Mic in middle, offset @ 3ft still leaves you one corner further away.

Personally i record in a room with no corners (Baffled etc), but at a push, this is the simplest approach without investing a few grand treating the room.

You shouldn't get the phasey EQ thing if you reverse the phase on the mic behind shoulder, that will counteract it, and you dial it in to reduce if any issues should arise

PaulBrewer

Raindog, with all due respect this is a classic 'Internet' question - of a type that only happened since Forums/Forums were invented !

There can only be one definitively correct answer ....

Plug it up and listen.

That's also the answer to most 'Internet' questions !


Happy New Year to you all.