Refining recorded sound ?

JohnnyReggae · 2009-06-10T09:10:53+00:00

Since joining the forum have found some new motivation to play/practice and also to record more of what I do. Working on a piece that has the guitar split into 2 different sounds. An overdrive/fuzz and an acoustic. Acoustic strumming along, and the overdrive/fuzz picking root/fith the whole time. Together they sound really cool ? The acoustic piece is however being played on the electric with a straight through acoustic sound. The problem I have is making that acoustic sound, sound warm. The sound is a little clinical/sharp, obviously the pickups and the metal strings creating that. What should I be looking at to make the sound a little warmer and fuller ? Have applied a really nice EQ, and a multi-band compressor set to Acoustic-Guitar and it does lift the sound some. Last night I found my crappy hand-held mike, pulled out the nylon acoustic and recorded that by putting the mike really, really close to the guitar. The actual guitar sound is cool but there is too much room/ambient noise when you crank the gain up which I have to do to get the sound to any usable level. Clearly have to find another way to record the nylon acoustic, which will be another mission for another day. So for now I have my electric/acoustic piece that I would like to work on to refine that seeing as I already have that.... any ideas I can try ?

TomCat

Well done....It is a Tascam DM4800.

> 64 mix channels, 24 Mic/line preamps., 3 x TDIF etc...etc...etc.....
> 2 x internal TC works effects engines, Dynamics on every channel etc....
> Full I/P and O/P routing.....plus lots more.

I came from 20plus years of analogue boards to this so the learning curve / paradigm shift was enormous....

I also installed one of these in a studio in Johannesburg north last year with Protools HD2.

Neps

Digital desks are awesome!! For weird routing options and onboard 'gear'.. The lifetime of the 'rack' is over!! But I must say, I still love standing behind a BIG analog desk and riding the faders without banks of pages to go through.. And the feel a compressor in the rack next to you.. But 'striking' time is cut in half though! which makes me a much happier man!

But I must say as for digital desks, the PM1D and 5D is still my fav!! The PM1D is a BEAST!! And it's SOOOO easy to use. Hopefully soon I get to play on those again.. And I might be able to touch an XL4 again!!! I can't sleep, so excited I am!

TomCat

Neps wrote Digital desks are awesome!! For weird routing options and onboard 'gear'.. The lifetime of the 'rack' is over!! But I must say, I still love standing behind a BIG analog desk and riding the faders without banks of pages to go through.. And the feel a compressor in the rack next to you.. But 'striking' time is cut in half though! which makes me a much happier man!

But I must say as for digital desks, the PM1D and 5D is still my fav!! The PM1D is a BEAST!! And it's SOOOO easy to use. Hopefully soon I get to play on those again.. And I might be able to touch an XL4 again!!! I can't sleep, so excited I am!

HeHeHe....I hear you....56 faders in front of you is fun and a great sense of control....But I do agree that the day of having a large outboard rack with 8 dbx 160A compressors, gates and EFX is slowly dying away.

I have never had the pleasure of using the PM 1D or 5D. I hear that they are awesome desks to work with.

What I like about the Tascam is the performance / feature bang for buck they offer... the audio is so smooth and almost non digital like.....

deanBailey

I almost never use a semi acoustic guitars pickup output. It tends to sound like an electric with an acoustic simulator on it for me (ala live dream theater)

3 mics normally do it for me;
Ear mic, because what the player hears is important to me as he/she performs according to what they hear.

Neck mic, around the 12th fret facing toward the body to get the bright tone out of the guitar.

And the sound hole mic (gets really boomy so you might want to watch that fader) but this helps with the low end that Neps was talking about.

Mess with the faders till it sounds good.

My verbs EQ's, which are normally medium plate sends, change depending on the vibe of the particular part. Dominant in the lower mids if it's a mellow part with not much going on, and higher for when it's pretty busy and you need it to cut.
Also micing over a wooden floor or carpeted affects the tones too.
If the room is treated I prefer a wooden floor.

Unfortunately micing the acoustic guitar and post effects is half the job done. I don't allow fret buzz, "string farts" or "string burps" (my own terms) which are basically dead notes in a chord (you'll know what i meant when you hear it lol).
I especially try and get as much string scraping when changing from chord to chord out as I can. For acoustic bands that works as it gives it the feel the genre needs, but It normally affects my mix when it comes to rockier stuff.

(something tells me I went OT)

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