While I’m gathering material and memories for the next chapter of Wagga Wagga, Music & Me, here’s a look at how I record acoustic guitars in the Lo-Fi DIY Recording Studio!
I use a Røde NT5 pointing at around the 10th to 12th frets at a distance of around 4-5 cm. The NT5 is a small diaphragm condenser mic, and I usually use my matched pair for drum ‘room’ mics in a Glyn Johns configuration. Here, I have found that pointing one at the fretboard - not at the soundhole - of my CJ-818 acoustic (CJ stands for Country Jumbo, it has a big sound in the bottom end!) produces a fairly ‘flat’ sound. I had tried pointing the mic at the soundhole and with this guitar, there is way too much ‘booming’ coming from there. I had tried pointing it at different parts of the body, and some variations in distance from the instrument, but the combination of this mic, pointing at those frets, at that distance seems to be the best.
Now, I don’t always play acoustic guitar with a hairbrush, but I thought I might try with my daughter’s special de-tangling brush after I noticed that it doesn’t have those little knobbly things on the end of each bristle. And the actual part is suited to this unusual method, being straight downstrokes.
Below is a detailed look at my recording process and my effects chain, explaining how I use a combination of Insert effects and Send effects on, in this case, the acoustic guitar tracks. Your processes may differ, depending on your circumstances. I am using Cubase 6, so some of the terminology used will be specific to that, but the principles will apply to all forms of audio recording.
Firstly, it is important to be warmed up (stretching fingers, shaking out any tension in wrists) and comfortable.
I sometimes find that my mind is way ahead of my physical environment, meaning that I start hitting the record button before I am completely ready to record! Don’t do that. Keep your ideas in your head, simmering, developing, while you prepare your gear. It’s good for your brain!
Get into a position where you can be an engineer at the same time as being a performer. Don’t compromise on either of these, because as a performer you need to be able to focus 100% on the part you are playing, and as an engineer you need to be able to make technical and production decisions quickly and efficiently.
As mentioned above, the NT5 is positioned in front of the 10th to 12th frets area, around 4-5 cm from the fretboard. This works for me - it gives me a full sound that I can work with as a starting point - for example, I can EQ it to fit into drums, electric guitars, keyboards and bass tracks without getting in the way, or I can go with the full sound if the acoustic guitar is a feature or solo instrument.
Find your ‘sweet spot’ by trying different microphone positioning and different microphones and recording some passes of each variation and listening to the results on both headphones and speakers, and making production decisions based on your needs.
Secondly, create a mono audio track (if you have a close mic and a ‘room’ mic, then two mono audio tracks) in your DAW and leave the Inserts blank for the moment. (In my case, I use a Steinberg UR44 audio interface. The NT5 is plugged into Input 4 of that, so I have to switch on the +48V phantom power.) Go to the Mixer window and check that audio from the mic is registering on the level meter. I always drop the input gain to -6dB on all input channels, just to be safe.
Play through the part you are going to record while checking the input level meter. Once the level seems good, play the part several times for familiarity, warming up, and confidence, before hitting ‘record’.
In my experience as a session musician, often going into a studio, setting up drums and getting drum sounds before even hearing any of the songs to be tracked, I found that several runs-through of each song is necessary before recording.
Get comfortable and confident with the part you are going to perform. Know the part completely.
—To be continued—
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