Mixing acoustic guitar properly = Witchcraft

[AaronBalakay]

I've always struggled with mixing acoustic guitars. for some reason, I always get these honky tones out of acoustic guitars and it drives me crazy. Never been able to get it exactly the way I want it. I was following this article and got some great ideas https://www.waves.com/tips-for-mixing-acoustic-music

however, I'm still getting this boxyness that I can't seem to get rid of, along with very unpleasant sounds when moving the left hand on the strings. How do you mix your acoustics? is there any way to get rid of this or tame it? I tried using a dynamic eq but it just doesn't cut it

[donkey tugger]

Top 2 things I'd say from experience are;

Get the recording right in the first place - spend a bit of time getting the mic(s) in a good position so you capture a balanced sound. Gets easier when you know your mic(s) and foibles of the room/guitar

Be gentle with the effects/eq. Not so much for percussive rhythm stuff, where you can compress the buggery out of acoustics, but for exposed takes always best to subtly cut and boost with wide range eq's rather than making severe cuts. Similarly, with compression, if it's required, a little bit of light 'glue' should be all.

Apart from that probably work out which miking techniques work best for you....

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... tic-guitar

I'm of the 'small condenser pointed away from the soundhole' school, but depending on technique/material etc there are loads of ways to do it.

...and that was 3..

[schpaeckulum]

Boxiness and unpleasant sounds means your recording is not right.
This is not a question about mixing at all.

[AnX]

are you recording from the pickup or from a mic?

[Unaspected]

Mic positioning and selection is your first step in EQ and later mixing options. Usually I would expect two signals (hole and neck) but I've recorded guitarists who like to track a DI signal (guitar depending) and I've experimented with placing microphones at greater distances from the performance to recreate ambiance.

The two mics on the guitar are important though; for which I favour a hypercardioid dynamic (Super 55) paired with a standard cardioid polar pattern small diaphragm (SE3). I would experiment with swapping out the pencil mic with others, such as AKG C 451 B. Doesn't have to be crazy expensive. I find the SE3 slightly plastic sounding for overheads but it works really well for snare sizzle and I quite like it on the neck of acoustics. Logically, the hypercardioid is placed on the sound hole.

Then you can either pan the signals in the mix or blend them on top of each other. As DT suggests, go easy with the EQ and processing in general. You'll want to use as much of the natural recorded tone as possible.

You might also like to ask your familar for mixing tips.

[AaronBalakay]

Thanks everyone for your replies! Appreciate it a lot!
So I understand that this is more of a mic-positioning related issue now.. also I understand that it's a part of the natural sound of the instrument but it's just so damn annoying..
I was using a seagull acoustic (small and bright) recorded with a WA-87 pointing straight to the soundhole from around 1.5/2m away.. I'll try some different techniques, it's just a shame that I got this take that was really great and the sound is just awful it makes me wanna cry... I'll try your suggestions!!! Thanks everyone!

[imrae]

I was using a seagull acoustic (small and bright) recorded with a WA-87 pointing straight to the soundhole from around 1.5/2m away..

Yeah, that's too far away unless you are in a wonderful room. Close-miking will give a brighter, dry sound that is easier to reshape. As well as having different tones, different positions will pick up more/less finger noise.

[Unaspected]

I was using a seagull acoustic (small and bright) recorded with a WA-87 pointing straight to the soundhole from around 1.5/2m away..

Yeah, that's too far away unless you are in a wonderful room. Close-miking will give a brighter, dry sound that is easier to reshape. As well as having different tones, different positions will pick up more/less finger noise.

Absolutely. If you want a more intimate sound, you'll want to get more intimate with your instrument. At that kind of distance, you'll get a lot of room sound - which might be great if the room is. But it would certainly be less distinct in a mix with other instruments that have been captured with more detail/have more pronounced transients.

[AaronBalakay]

I was using a seagull acoustic (small and bright) recorded with a WA-87 pointing straight to the soundhole from around 1.5/2m away..

Yeah, that's too far away unless you are in a wonderful room. Close-miking will give a brighter, dry sound that is easier to reshape. As well as having different tones, different positions will pick up more/less finger noise.

Absolutely. If you want a more intimate sound, you'll want to get more intimate with your instrument. At that kind of distance, you'll get a lot of room sound - which might be great if the room is. But it would certainly be less distinct in a mix with other instruments that have been captured with more detail/have more pronounced transients.

Gonna try your suggestions pretty soon.
Appreciate you a whole lot!

[khanyz]

A bit late and a bit left field but you might want to try a Shure SM57 (or other dynamic but they are cheapish) as a close mic and have the WA-87 (v. nice BTW) behind it and possibly offset (away from the fretboard). The SM57 will give you dry guitar and the WA-87 will include ambience too. Watch for phase issues when you mix. There’s plenty of plugins that will do it automatically but I prefer manually, usually with Voxengo’s PHA-979.

[lfm]

I use a clamp on DPA 4099G, and experimenting where to point mike, is always over neck between neck joint and sound hole. The more towards sound hole the more of the box, the guitar body, you get.

Looking at new acoustic a few years back I watched a lot of YT reviews and they always have external mic positioned more towards neck joint, and maybe 3' away or so. Nothing directly towards sound hole.

So experiment with position like that.

[imrae]

Best and easiest acoustic guitar tone I've recorded was a borrowed AKG C451B about 40cm away pointing just below the neck joint. Helps that it was a fresh set of strings and a good guitar player!

I should probably save up for one of those microphones, but not doing much with acoustic instruments lately

More eurorack it is!

[Hermetech Mastering]

Mic position first, any decent mic, get that right and the rest should fall into place.

My fave position with my setup is usually a Neumann KM84 (cardioid) about 12-24 inches (30-60cm) off the fretboard/body join, into a TG2 pre. It gives a nice, balanced sound WRT to timbre and room vs direct sound. Any closer and you start to pick up too much boom and finger/string noise. This is just what works for me, my playing, my guitar, my room etc., experimentation is the real key

I'd like to try it with an Omni KK83 capsule at some stage to see if I could get closer without the boom. I am also considering a Coles 4038 as I have never owned a ribbon, and would allow me to do M/S with a KM84.

I like SDCs on acoustic, but I disagree that two mics are important. I rarely stereo mic, as it usually just sounds wrong to me/not like a guitar in a room, even though I have a matched pair of KM84s. I have tried NOS, DIN, X/Y, Spaced Pair, 1 on body 1 on fretboard, 1 over the shoulder 1 on fretboard or body etc. I nearly always just end up using one of them, or going back to my "old faithful" position. It might just be the very minimal Folk fingerpicking stuff I do though.

For strummed parts, I prefer to double track and pan/EQ each take slightly differently, gives a nice stereo spread/feel.

For post processing, I usually use a HPF and a LPF, 6dB per octave for a very smooth sound, and edge them, up and down until it sounds right in the mix. TDR EQs also have a cool "De-Resonate" feature which can sometimes work wonders. If you can't bear the "string scrape" noise, and can't fix it with mic placement, then try other strings. Martin Monels and D'Addario Nickel Bronze seem to suffer less, and obviously you could try flatwounds, (hey, don't knock it till you've tried it!) Or back to post, I have gone through acoustic tracks with RX7 Advanced spectral editor, very easy to lasso the offending scrapes and reduce them 2-6dB.