So, you’ve got a good-sounding guitar, you’ve placed it in the right spot in the room, and you’ve picked the right mic for it. Where do you put the mic?
Mic placement can have a dramatic effect on how the guitar sounds in the recording. (Remember how mic placement transformed a floor tom into a kick drum?) A great guitar can sound absolutely horrible with the wrong mic placement. On the flip-side, a mediocre guitar can sound better than it is if you find the right mic placement for it.
There are two main factors to consider with mic placement – distance and location and today we’re simply talking about mono mic techniques, that is, using only one microphone.
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Once you’ve got a great-sounding guitar in a great-sounding spot in the room (and don’t underestimate how important those two steps are), you’re ready to pick your mic.
If you only own one microphone, your choice is easy. 
If you own several, here are some tips for choosing the right one.
Condenser Mics
95% of the time, I use a condenser microphone when I record acoustic guitars. Condenser mics, as opposed to dynamic mics, tend to capture much more detail, particularly in the high-end. They’re also fairly sensitive, which means they capture the subtle nuances of an acoustic guitar much more effectively.
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We’ve look at how important it is to record a quality instrument and to really know what that instrument sounds like. Next? Microphones, right?
Hold on there, cowboy. There’s another HUGE variable that comes into play. Before you ever set up the microphone, you need to have a good understanding of what’s happening to the sound BEFORE it hits the mic.
The first step is the instrument itself. The second step is the room.
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Acoustic guitar. It can be your favorite instrument to record, or it can be your arch nemesis. Some days you think you’ve got it figured out, then you listen to that guitar part you just recorded, and it sounds boomy, muddy, harsh, tinny, lifeless — pick one.
The word frustrating comes to mind. I know. I’ve been there. What’s the deal?
Well, for one thing, the acoustic guitar is an acoustic instrument. Aside from the human voice, a lot of us simply don’t record a lot of acoustic instruments. We use virtual instruments and samplers. If we need a piano sound, we use a piano plug-in. If we need an orchestra sound, we use an orchestra patch in our favorite sampler.
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I had a conversation with an engineer friend of mine a few months ago. He does recording, mixing, and mastering for a living here in Nashville. He pointed out something that I thought was really interesting and very true. Engineers are a very insecure group of people.
What did he mean by that? We’re in a very creative field, and our job consists of making hundreds and thousands of subjective, creative decisions.
There’s not much about music that’s objective. I can dial in a guitar tone. You can tell me that you don’t like the tone, but you can’t definitively say it’s a bad guitar tone. Everything must be taken in context and everything subjective.
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I love the movie What About Bob. One of my favorite parts is when Bob is encouraged to take “baby steps” when dealing with any potential issues that he faces.
It’s not bad advice, especially for you in your studio. What am I talking about? It’s easy to overdo things in the studio, especially if you’re new to recording or simply excited about a song.
I would encourage you to take it easy and take things one step at a time, rather than making big, dramatic adjustments that could, in the end, prove harmful to the music.
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In all the magazine ads and music videos, this one thing is a staple.
Whether it’s a documentary on your favorite band, a movie scene in a recording studio, or a full-page ad in Sweetwater‘s latest catalog, one common theme exists: vocalists use large-diaphragm condenser mics.
I’m not a big fan of the phrase “that’s how we’ve always done it.” Certainly we should learn from the experience of others, but doing something JUST because everyone else does it leads to a fairly boring experience.
Do I use a condenser mic on vocals? Sure…but not exclusively.
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Is there a certain part of the recording process that stresses you out? Recording? Editing? Mixing?
It’s different for everybody, but I can tell you, from personal experience, that whenever I’m stressed out in my studio, chances are it’s because of overwhelm.
In other words, my most stressful times in the studio are when I’ve got too much going on in a particular song. Too many tracks, too much editing to do, too many plugins, too many versions of the song…anything.
Stress isn’t always bad, and I always like to impose a little bit of stress (like creating a deadline and even using a timer) to keep me on task and productive.
Today I want to share with you one way to instantly remove one HUGE source of stress — too many takes.
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