Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

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Phobos
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Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by Phobos » Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:37 am

What to do? Close dynamic mic and a gobo?

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losthighway
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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by losthighway » Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:06 am

Probably not a bad idea. Placement of the player in the room is important. Possibly a fig 8 could be used to eliminate some bleed, but that's assuming you have somewhere for the back end to pick up something you don't mind.

Also, for gobos. It's often more important to think about what's behind the guitarist than what's in front of them. The mic is likely to pickup more reflections off of the wall behind them than anything else, so deadening the space in back of them might be more important than putting a gobo in front of, or beside them.

Also this is one time where trying to get 'the sound' you like from the beginning is good, because if you plan on compressing later, you might find the bleed prevents it. So finding a light compression setting you can live with during setup might be a good idea so you don't walk into a wall of cymbal hash later. Even if you remove it from the chain when you start doing takes, it's a good way to see if you have any space for some squeeze.

Bleed will be inevitable, so look for bleed that flatters the rest of the elements, if it's possible.

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:14 am

It really depends on the room and the drummer. I've done it a bunch. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes not. I'd gobo in front of and behind the player. Mic placement and polar pattern will help anything coming from in front of the player but if there's a wall behind the player sound will bounce off and into your mic.
Pay attention to the bleed. It may make you pick a different mic than you would normally. The condenser you would normally reach for may bring out harshness and hash in the cymbals. Listen to the guitar in context of the rest of the band so you have an idea of what you're in for come mix time. Pay attention to what the guitar mix does to the drum sound. It's basically a room mic for anything loud in the room. If you want dry, tight drums the ac gtr mic can make that hard.

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by kslight » Tue Nov 03, 2020 11:16 am

Do what you can to make the bleed sound good?

Capture a DI too, even though DI tone usually sucks. There are some boxes out there you can plug in a direct acoustic to that will make a passable tone however.

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by vernier » Wed Nov 04, 2020 2:24 pm

Phobos wrote:
Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:37 am
What to do? Close dynamic mic and a gobo?
Seems that'd work.

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by vvv » Wed Nov 04, 2020 2:55 pm

What we need, what we really need, is some method to "re-amp" an acoustic guitar.

Or, I need to move to Oregon for summa that trippin' therapy they just legalized.
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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by Scodiddly » Wed Nov 04, 2020 5:40 pm

vvv wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 2:55 pm
What we need, what we really need, is some method to "re-amp" an acoustic guitar.
I could swear somebody was making a guitar amp that had an acoustic guitar top for the speaker baffle, or something like that.
A quick Google didn't find it, though.

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by vvv » Wed Nov 04, 2020 11:59 pm

I'm thinkin' - late-night ice-cream brainstorming here - about how you re-amp a snare by placing a driver on one and mic'ing that.

Mebbe a small driver at the soundhole facing inside an acoustic guitar body? Probably remove the strings as they wouldn't be necessary, and would be in the way ...

And no -I toldya it's ice-cream - I'm not :high:
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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by Recycled_Brains » Mon Nov 09, 2020 11:17 am

If you're not in a room with really good acoustics, good luck. It's so hard to get the bleed from the other instruments to sound good and not too overwhelming in the guitar mic AND get a good guitar sound. If you deadened up your space, you'd probably have better luck.

I've tried it a couple times and hated it.

I hate to discourage, but it's fucking hard with a "loud band".
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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by kslight » Mon Nov 09, 2020 11:26 am

vvv wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 2:55 pm
What we need, what we really need, is some method to "re-amp" an acoustic guitar.

Or, I need to move to Oregon for summa that trippin' therapy they just legalized.

Just do a direct into one of those fishman acoustic boxes? https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... lsrc=aw.ds


Not a recommendation but surely it’s got to sound better than unprocessed direct acoustic or bad bleed?

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by losthighway » Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:29 pm

kslight wrote:
Mon Nov 09, 2020 11:26 am
vvv wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 2:55 pm
What we need, what we really need, is some method to "re-amp" an acoustic guitar.

Or, I need to move to Oregon for summa that trippin' therapy they just legalized.

Just do a direct into one of those fishman acoustic boxes? https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... lsrc=aw.ds


Not a recommendation but surely it’s got to sound better than unprocessed direct acoustic or bad bleed?
Yeah, there's something to the idea that you can never make an acoustic guitar DI sound like an unplugged acoustic guitar, so maybe it's best to make it sound like the best possible acoustic/electric guitar you can. Thinking of live albums by folk/rock bands where no one is guessing the guitar is just mic'd but it's a nice sounding version of the acoustic plugged in. I think some of the pickup, preamp, stuff can help there.

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by vvv » Mon Nov 09, 2020 3:40 pm

BTW, do the Kempers, et al., have acoustic sims?

I have seen some acoustic sim pedals, perhaps re-amp thru same could help.
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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Nov 09, 2020 4:42 pm

losthighway wrote:
Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:29 pm

Yeah, there's something to the idea that you can never make an acoustic guitar DI sound like an unplugged acoustic guitar, so maybe it's best to make it sound like the best possible acoustic/electric guitar you can.
I almost always hate that sound except here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYdlqjiQPAc

I don't know why it doesn't bother me. It should.

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by losthighway » Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:06 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
Mon Nov 09, 2020 4:42 pm
losthighway wrote:
Mon Nov 09, 2020 12:29 pm

Yeah, there's something to the idea that you can never make an acoustic guitar DI sound like an unplugged acoustic guitar, so maybe it's best to make it sound like the best possible acoustic/electric guitar you can.
I almost always hate that sound except here -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYdlqjiQPAc

I don't know why it doesn't bother me. It should.
Yeah, not a bad example. For some reason I'm often thinking Melissa Etheridge on an Ovation guitar, which isn't really my jam.

The Wilco guys have always had a pretty solid live acoustic/electric sound going, but it only works if you're not expecting the guitar to be large and central in the mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtn_DD28HMo

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Re: Micing acoustic guitar live recording with loud band

Post by roscoenyc » Tue Nov 10, 2020 9:16 am

I've had pretty good results putting a lavalier microphone in the sound hole and using some console tape to affix the cable.
That and a go-bo between the acoustic and the drums.

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