Welcome to the next installment of "Tech Talk." This monthly feature will hopefully help you understand about certain sound and musical gadgets that everyone sees but are just not sure how they operate in the real world.

This month we will be talking about recording the acoustic guitar.

The first thing to do before you start recording is to select the microphone you'd like to record with. For acoustic guitar, you can do two different techniques: a single, or mono, microphone technique, or a two-microphone, or stereo, technique. What you do is completely up to you and what resources you have available.

For recording acoustic instruments in the highest quality, you'll want to use a condenser microphone rather than a dynamic microphone. Good condenser microphones for acoustic guitar recording include the Oktava MC012 ($99), Groove Tubes GT55 ($250), or the RODE NT1 ($199). The reason you want a condenser microphone rather than a dynamic microphone is very simple; condenser microphones have much better high frequency reproduction and much better transient response, which you need for acoustic instruments. Dynamic microphones, like the SM57, are great for electric guitar amplifiers which don't need as much transient detail.

Microphone Placement

Take a listen to your acoustic guitar. You'll find that the most low-end build-up is near the sound hole itself; the higher-end buildup will be somewhere around the 12th fret. So let's look at the two types of microphone placement I mentioned earlier.

Single Microphone Technique

If using just a single microphone, you'll want to start by placing the microphone at about the 12th fret, about 5 inches back. If that doesn't give you the sound you want, move the mic around; after you record it, you might want to give it extra body by "doubling" the track - recording the same thing again, and hard-panning both left and right.

Two-Microphone (Stereo) Techniques

If you have two microphones at your disposal, put one around the 12th fret, and another around the bridge. Hard pan them left and right in your recording software, and record. You should discover that it's got a much more natural and open tone; this is really easy to explain: you have two ears, so when recording with two microphones, it sounds more natural to our brain. You can also try an X/Y configuration at around the 12th fret: place the microphones so that their capsules are on top of each other at a 90 degree angle, facing the guitar. Pan left/right, and you'll find that this gives you a more natural stereo image sometimes.

Using The Pickup

You might want to experiment using the built-in pickup as well, if you've got the inputs to do it. Sometimes taking the acoustic guitar's pickup and blending it with microphones can yield a more detailed sound; however, it's totally up to you, and in most cases, unless it's a good quality pickup, it'll sound out of place on a studio recording. Remember to experiment. Each situation will be different, and if you don't have any microphones to record with, a pickup will do fine.

Here is a video to give you some ideas about recording acoustic guitar:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4d-BwkciOk

Good Luck!

Roger F

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