recording guitar with mic , mixing settings

[drathbun]

Doug-

I was really hoping to be able to run a line from the amp line out directly into the sound card line in (and avoid buying a mic at all). Probably not reasonable. By the way - I really liked the sound you got on your recording.

If you don't mind me asking, how do get the signal from your mic's onto (I assume) a hard drive somewhere?

 

Thanks for the compliment! Of course you can line out directly in to your soundcard. My point was that with an acoustic pickup to an amplifier, amp out to a sound card, your results will not be a very "acoustic" sound. I expect it might sound a bit brittle.

 

My setup for the recording above was as follows:

 

Rode M5 Stereo matched pair (one pointed at 12th fret, the other at the fretboard end of my Martin 000-17sm

L/R signals in to Mackie 802 mixer panned full left and right

Mackie 802 outputs to L/R inputs of M-Audio Delta 2496 ASIO

Recorded with Sonar X3 Producer - added Sony Wavehammer compressor plugin to guitar track

 

Mastered with Sony SoundForge Pro 10

Saved to Wave out of SoundForge for CD recording

Saved to MP3 out of SoundForge for web

[fsharp]

Thanks for the compliment! Of course you can line out directly in to your soundcard. My point was that with an acoustic pickup to an amplifier, amp out to a sound card, your results will not be a very "acoustic" sound. I expect it might sound a bit brittle.

 

My setup for the recording above was as follows:

 

Rode M5 Stereo matched pair (one pointed at 12th fret, the other at the fretboard end of my Martin 000-17sm

L/R signals in to Mackie 802 mixer panned full left and right

Mackie 802 outputs to L/R inputs of M-Audio Delta 2496 ASIO

Recorded with Sonar X3 Producer - added Sony Wavehammer compressor plugin to guitar track

 

Mastered with Sony SoundForge Pro 10

Saved to Wave out of SoundForge for CD recording

Saved to MP3 out of SoundForge for web

 

I understand what you are saying about the brittle sound. Years ago I tried going from my Taylor 714 direct to a mixer and then into a sound card and I didn't like what came out. The fishman pickup on my Gibson actually models mics and the sound that comes out through my amp is way better than the Taylor. I wonder if it would sound more natural recording than my first try? As usual I'm trying to cheap out at the wrong time. Thanks for the list. It does amaze me how good a recording you can get now for relatively little investment - at least compared what it would have cost years ago.

[Cougar]

Here is my Martin 000-17sm recorded with the Rode M5 match pair with the setup as mentioned above. I did pan the L/R hard right and left for the mix though.

Scarborough Fair

 

Man, that guitar part is pristine. That's a tough piece to try to cover Simon & Garfunkle on the vocals, though. I'm not one to talk, but I usually do anyway... The immediate listener reaction on the vocals is, well, a bit of disappointment. The original is so.... perfect.... and welded into the American psyche, at least with folks from that era.... Like I've noticed in several of my recordings, they're slightly weaker somehow in the first 20-30 seconds, then they get going better. This seemed to be the case with your vocalist(s) (you?) who managed to start making the lyric more his own (and hitting every note more right on). I guess context is important. If I heard this being played at a wedding, I'd think, OMG, those guys are really good.