I've been enjoying myself at home with this recently - my setup is a variety of guitars fed into a Fender Accoustasonic 30 amp and then a line out to a 4 track recorder (Fostex X25 from memory).Kristie_Amperzahn wrote:Awesome tips But what would be really great, would be tips on speicifically recording accoustic guitars.... Have been doing a little of that at home lately, and not quite getting it to sound how I want it too....
Although mine's a Fender, there are all sorts of similar accoustic amps (about 30 watt 2 input 1 for guitar 1 for mic) at a variety of prices - no need to pay for the name BUT trying to get a decent amped sound through ordinary guitar amps, stereos etc seemed to be impossible - could be just me but allways sounded like 'turd under a pillow'.
Pickups on the guitar vary from Barcus Berry Hot Dots, chinese pizeo passive to Maton AP 5 system - have a Bill Lawrence soundhole one I've not tried yet. For warmth/dynamics I use a noname mic (think it was an el cheapo from Dick Smith) on a mic stand at an angle (about 45 degrees) about a foot away from the soundhole and slightly above it. Needless to say the sesssion usually result in curses and swearing as the mic stand chooses to drop or slowly sink during a particularly important bit. The mic feeds into the mic side of the amp (it's 2 channel).
I don't clip the levels but drop them about 10 percent below red and you have to play evenly with less dynamics than you'd normally use (or use a comptressor) touch of reverb is nice and judicious chorus use can highlight different passages. Plus panning to one side is good to seperate from the other stuff.
Guitars are bog standard dreadnaughts with light to medium gauge bronze strings ranging form el cheapo chinese Saehan to Martin D28 - less difference amped than you'd think! Use a medium pick (1mm Herco/Dunlop and similar) as I think thin ones sound tinny. Never worry too much about strings - say if older than a month I'll change them for a particularly important bit but otherwise don't bother.