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@tonybhoy1881

3 жыл бұрын

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5th Law: before you hit record, make sure you have practiced the song like you're gonna play it live... You have it down so well you can play it blind folded. When you know the song that well, you're relaxed & smooth & that feeling is communicated in the performance.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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5th law: Always tune your guitar when using a capo 🙂

@badfish41969

3 жыл бұрын

Yes this is so true and a lot of people don't know that 12 tone equal temperament fret layout isn't exactly perfect

@danielsandefur6340

2 жыл бұрын

I had no idea you could do this. That explains why a lot of my songs have sounded better without a capo

@jenniferzuiff8517

2 жыл бұрын

Oh yeeeah. Definitely

@NPHomeStudio

2 жыл бұрын

@super broly No, I meant tune your guitar "again" whenever you'll play using the capo, because as you put a capo on, it actually alters the tuning, so you have to tune it again. Got me?

@NPHomeStudio

2 жыл бұрын

@super broly sure man! no problem! :)

My 5th law: Be fearless in experimentation and be careful of limiting your approach to a single way of doing things. You both learn from mistakes and from accidents that work great.

Law Nr. 5, invest in a great tuner and tune your acoustic really rigorously, this can make or break your recording!

@CugnoBrasso

3 жыл бұрын

I literally had to detune all of my guitar tracks down 20 cents last week because of a bad tuning, definitely killed the vibe.

@ronbooth1382

3 жыл бұрын

That's good advice. I always only use one and the same tuner for all instruments I record.

@ThomasPenninger

3 жыл бұрын

@@ronbooth1382 yeah that's another really good tip, especially for guitars! Personally for my acoustic guitar I use the peterson strobe tuner, it's expensive for a clip tuner but so insanely good!

@ODEMUZIC

3 жыл бұрын

Use your ears when tuning. I've a had a year violin lessons and tuning by ear was one of the most important things I learned.

@MixChecks

3 жыл бұрын

Right on. Gotta tune

This is awesome advice, I love it. As someone who has done a lot of recording of acoustic guitar, and learned through trial and error :-) the only other rule I was add to your list is: Don't play with a heavy touch (hard strumming/picking). You're going to get a better tone, and stay in the groove better, by playing with a lighter touch. Let the acoustic guitar body produce the tone, don't try to bang it out of the guitar by playing harder. Adjust your headphone mix so that you can hear yourself comfortably in the mix, while playing with a light touch and you will get a better tone and intonation as you play through the track. Also, be aware of dynamics in your song and use your acoustic guitar to accent those dynamics and pauses. This will help your track to add to the dynamics of the track overall. As you layer different acoustic guitar tracks, they will all add to the song dynamics and "organic" sound if they're all working together to accent the song dynamics. In addition, have a few different types of picks try on your track to get the tone you want. A heavier pick is going to give you a fuller/rounder sound and a thiner pick is going to give you a thiner tone. Depending on the role of your track, you may decide to use one type of pick or the other.

I feel so lucky to have found your channel. I've avoided looking up videos like these (especially on mixing!) because it seemed both overwhelming, and there's so many different opinions from different people on the internet. Your approach to teaching is so easy to understand, you explain so well and so simply. I liked the flashlight metaphor in particular, that really helped me understand and visualize WHY we need that distance from the mic (that's totally been my problem)! I appreciate your channel and your videos so much, thank you thank you!

Awesome video Graham, you've helped me so much with my acoustic music!!

Great video as usual Graham!

Perfect, and very timely! I was just getting ready to record some guitar. Thanks!!

Thanks Graham! The recording revolution has helped me tremendously in my music productions. God bless you!

Speechless. Lovely video. Spoken from the heart. Thanks

great video full of excellent tips. thanks mate!

Thank you so much for these excellent tips my friend 👊👍😎

this is super helpful! Thanks for that! Your tips always helps us to do better sounding music! Cheers from Mexico

@MixChecks

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah! He's a good dude :)

Awesome video as always, I was struggling getting a great acoustic sound, switched to mono and it was perfect and double tracked

Mid side works like a charm for me when I want to record a solo acoustic guitar performance. I love the wideness you get with 2 mics. For the rest of the situations I stick with mono recording.

Great Suggestions Graham! (especially the D.I. bit) Thank you!

Excellent vid! Thankyou!

my 2 cents..I have been following you for years and in fact it was you who taught me to record using pro tools; but I strongly disagree with your saying using 2 mics is difficult and unnecessary...engineers having been using 2 mics on acoustic for years because it imparts a wonderful sonic quality and quite frankly it's not that difficult to fix phasing issues by hitting the phase button on the channel strip or eq etc or blowing up the wav files and matching them up ...the same thing happens when you use a top and bottom snare mic, or 2 room mics for drums, yet they are used constantly and issues are dealt with...that being said, everything else you said was spot on...and yes it is easier as far as mixing goes to use one mic. Then you could use a tool like microshift to thicken or even double it. I really appreciate your continued support and education of us out here in mixing land...Doc

@MixChecks

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah I like 2 mics on the acoustic too. Though I don't do much recording anymore ;)

@HuffwareStudio

3 жыл бұрын

I agree and was thinking the same thing. I use both methods mentioned(using 1 or 2 mics). Normally 1 mic when acoustic will be used just for accompanying on the side or in the background in the song and 2 mics when the acoustic will be more predominant or of course the main instrument in the song and there are times when I use more than just one or two mics(room mics). It's really all about capturing the right sound for the song at hand.

@aleksamrkela831

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed. Stereo-mic'd acoustic guitars are perfect for sparse arrangements. But in a denser one, there's no need to go that route.

@jasonbodden8816

2 жыл бұрын

@@HuffwareStudio I think his main point there was that it isn't necessary. You can do it if you like but it's not technically necessary. In other words, do whatever floats your boat.

@HuffwareStudio

2 жыл бұрын

@@jasonbodden8816 right..

Great info. Thanks for sharing. I'm gonna try all of this this week.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Makes sense, you just saved my next recording Graham! lmao this is so true about plugging in the guitar, I've recorded guitar parts over and over on songs and just couldn't figure out how to make it sound natural in the mix, Now after watching this, I'm never plugging in my guitar, plus fewer cables to deal with. I just started your Jumpstart Series. A lot of good knowledge, the whole series is a Goldmine! Thank you for making it for us and sharing your knowledge and experience

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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These laws are well crafted and so useful! I agree with all of them. For those of us who don't record every day this video should be in our favorites list.

Beautiful video brother...

Thanks for the video - especially the phase cancelling part - new info to me!

@Melvin7727

3 жыл бұрын

Definitely learn about phase cancelling and learn to start looking for it when you mic up any source with multiple mics. It's invaluable and part of the essence of a multi-mic session. It's also worth mentioning that his caution against phases issues is nearly unfounded for x/y and mid/side techniques here. Only for spaced pair techniques.

@PatriciaLoranger

3 жыл бұрын

@@Melvin7727 that's a bit more technical than I understand at this point, but I will keep it in mind.

Thank you so much Graham. This was very helpful. You are so right about not recording acoustic guitar directly because I find that when I use a mic, I like my guitar recordings better.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Yeah, the points you make are right on. Thanks.

Agree and the 5 law for me is the room sound , something to care , grat video grham 🤘

As always, great tips..Thanks Graham.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Thank you for the great advice!

Very useful, thanks a lot.

I agree, Graham. Over the course of 50 years I have recorded acoustic guitars in every conceivable way. After the smoke clears, it comes down to where I realize how easy it is to complicate a simple thing, and that making it more complex doesnt make it better. One good mic positioned well is the best bet, and it becomes more a question of what mic to use for the specific application.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Great tips. I do alot of solo singer songwriter stuff, so stereo setup works best for me in those situations. But with full instrumentation, one Mic is always the way to go.

Hey Graham, thanks for the tips. The DI one explains a lot and the distance from the mic comes with time and experience I guess. I always think new strings before the recording session brings out a crisper and clearer sound too. Cheers!

Great Content as always!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Keep rocking🤘🏻

Makes sense, and I''m now inspired to record some acoustic guitar tomorrow. thanks

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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These were great tips. The biggest insight I got was thinking about how we normally don't hear the acoustic guitar right next to the sound hole, so we should back up the mic. Thanks, Graham!

Thank you so much... you've saved me hours and a ton of frustration!

I agree 100% To me it just makes sense I will definitely add this to my what to do list. Thanks Graham!!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Your "how-to's" are good. But, this is some of the best advice I've heard.

Hey folks, this is one of the coolest cats on the entire platform. All of the expertise, without any of the arrogance. Hats off!

Thank you for this useful information 😍🤘🏻

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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That was great advice and I have violated it many times and tried to EQ my way out. Thank you. I am going to follow this!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Thank you so much!

Thanks man!!! Was planning to get another mic for guitar recording :)

Thanks man.. I totally agree with you

Thank you. Thank you for making it clear and easy to digest. I dig the way you teach. PS 18:30

Very useful 👌

Great great advices dude

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Great video! This will help a lot of people I think, myself included. I personally record DI alongside a mic'd acoustic and leave it muted unless there's a specific problem I'm trying to solve in the mix that a DI blend can fix. Problems may include not enough low end or if the player moves around a lot creating an inconsistent sound. Honestly most of the time the DI stays muted in my mixes and eventually gets deleted, and most of the time when it does get used, it's heavily filtered to remove most frequencies.

great content!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Agree with #2 with one caveat: some interesting effects can be had by combining a DI from an acoustic along with a mic on the same guitar, or just taking the DI signal and running it through some modulation effects for a "acoustic + electric" vibe. This would be where it would be somewhat in the background of the mix and just adds a touch of something unique to the song.

@Melvin7727

3 жыл бұрын

Good tip

Totally agree. People who record acoustic guitar in stereo almost always do it out of habit and because of some long forgotten dictum they were told was the "proper way to do it," without realizing how much mono guitar works as well or better, and usually better.

I particularly love law N*2😍 100% with a mic👌

Fresh strings and try out different guitar picks. It's where the rubber meets the road. These have a huge impact on the sound.

@danielrains2055

3 жыл бұрын

Saw I guy mixing acoustic with squeaks from finger movements on strings n I listened last time I played n heard a lot of me doing the same so they have string lube I think that eliminates the squeaks pretty sure.

@jimbob3574

3 жыл бұрын

@@danielrains2055 Good tip. On the other hand, sometimes just the right amount of finger squeak is tasty, as it provides a clue as to the performer's effort, or "struggle".

@danielrains2055

3 жыл бұрын

@@jimbob3574 this recording must've been closed miked cause it was really loud. But yeah absolutely. I agree.

@augustleo7434

3 жыл бұрын

I typically give strings at least a few days to a week to break in before recording. You still get the brightness without all of the finger noise as you're moving around the fretboard. 100% agree on pick selection. It is a quick and effective step that any artist can take to help shape their sound - would say it is as important as mic placement.

@willesposito9165

3 жыл бұрын

@@augustleo7434 yeah, you definitely need to give the strings break in time.

How timely. I just recorded a couple of guitar tracks today for my band. We're working up a version of the Beatles "If I Needed Someone" and I wanted to lay down the basic rhythm tracks - two acoustic parts; one open A and another capo 7 in the D position. I've slowly been moving the mics away from my guitar to minimize the proximity effect and with your advise, I moved a bit further - about 2 feet away, above the upper bout and visualized the cone of cardioid reception to encompass the whole guitar. Best acoustic capture I think I've ever had. Full disclosure I recently purchased a mic preamp which I'm sure helps. But I'm quite pleased. Thanks for your help!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Good advice. I do enjoy running my acoustic through my line6 dl4 delay pedal as a DI, strumming is a fail but single note leads through an amp plug-in can yield interesting results.

Great video!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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I usually use a mic to capture the low end and DI to capture the air. Blending both gives me best of both worlds. The natural lows and low mids from the mic and the air from the DI. Matching the phase is crucial for this though.

Great vid. Would love an “addendum” vid with actual sound examples.

I've often captured the DI from an acoustic when I'm micing it up, because I always think "Well why not capture it anyway" - But I almost always end up muting the track when mixing. I will use multiple mics for acoustic when the acoustic is the main focal point, but if I'm using it as one of many layers, I'll switch to just one.

You are the MAN!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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#2 Yes! I was wondering about this

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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I've always used mics and a DI and got a nice blend between them

All that being said, it's essentially free to go ahead and track your pickup through a DI (get the guitar's onboard tone controls right) in ADDITION to your main mic. You may not use the track, but it's there. I've used it many times to compress, distort, chorus, phaser or EQ the crap out of and set 15-25 DB (or more or less) down behind the main mic. It might sound like garbage by itself but you'll be amazed at the tones you can pull out that are not available using the main mic track itself.

You’re about the only engineer I’ve heard advocating mono recording but make a great case, def gonna try that out! I’d love to hear advice on FRET SQUEAK though, it seems very few people address the issue. I hear pro recordings with little or zero fret squeak but it always causes me problems 😖

@mikesmith1290

Жыл бұрын

I’ve retrained the way I play when I record. Instead of sliding, I jump over to where I need to go. I intentionally do a fret squeak here and there to make the recording a bit more interesting

First of all, love your videos. Second of all, bro you look like anakin skywalker and i cant stop seeing it

#2 is a soothing balm on my damaged soul. I can't believe how many high end pros still believe there is a place for that horrendous piezo sound in recording. Thank you! As for #4, it hurts to follow that one, but I guess I'll try. My "excuses" for recording stereo have been the following: a) I love the combination of a LDC mic and a SDC mic on acoustic guitar. (LDC toward the bottom of the body, SDC at the 12th fret, angled away from the sound hole). If I already have two signals, why not pan them a little, if I can avoid phase problems? because b) I was always telling myself the most natural singer/songwriter setup would be to have the vocal in the center, and "bracket" the two guitar tracks left and right of it, creating more space for the voice to be clearly audible. Are those really just excuses? Am I deluding myself? (This is for a stripped down, acoustic guitar plus vocal setup, maybe with a bass added.)

Thanks it's help quite a bit just recording at mono and keeping the distance.

Great Advice! The role of the guitar is so important because it can change how you record it. DI makes sense with electric, but acoustic is not meant as much for that.

Thank you Graham! as far as my experience goes , I totally agree with the four Laws of Acoustic recording. Best of all, neve record through a DI: while it may be good in a live band situation, in a studio it never does. And most of the time, an acoustic is there just to add texture and connect other instruments, so...

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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@5:55 Wait, what..? One foot equals 1.5 meters now..? When did that happen? Also, here's a reason you may want to (additionally) record the piezo; low pass @110Hz or 220 or whatever, compress the poop out of it, blend to taste with mic signal -> solid/consistent low end.

I was once at a session and the producer I was working with recorded an acoustic with 2 sm57s in xy. They were touching at the grill at a 90 degree angle 14 inches away parallel with the top of the guitar. This had one pointing at about the 12th fret and the other right behind the bridge and panned them 50 to each side. Having the mics so close kept and phase issues in check and he was able to control the natural eq with the level of neck or body mic. Have done this every time I’ve recorded an acoustic instrument since.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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this is the perfect description of how to lean to listen to what is to be recorded.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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I’ve started using two sp-1 microphones for stereo recordings and I’m pretty sold on doubling the performance. It feels better though I’ll still learn about sterio recording.

Well I just purchased a NT1-A mic so next week I planed to try stereo acoustic with an extra SM57 mic. I will use your advices just to tell how muddy and hard is to get a proper stereo recording and I will stick with the single NT1-A track after that being tested for learning purposes. I will use a phase analyzer with diferent mic setups and try to guess how it will look before the analisys. Thanks for every tip!

Good stuff, good advice! I must say I have recorded DI acoustic, or i should say I’ve utilized the acoustic pickup system plugged into an electric amp and distorted the snot out of that sound. Then we blended that track under the dirty electric guitars. It created a nice little extra texture to the guitars. Recorded acoustic DI is an unusual sound! I doubt it would work on everything, but it did work on a hard rock song.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Thanks Graham! I realize there are always alternate ways and opinions, but this sounds like a simple safe method for a good sound, so...GOOD! :-)

Graham, I understand your point about not recording acoustic guitar in stereo (mostly to avoid phase issues). I agree that double tracking is the better option, and it comes with the added benefit of extra texture, richness, and a bit of chorus... provided 1) the guitar player is competent enough to deliver a second performance that tracks closely to the first in terms of tempo, groove, and tone. This point isn't self-deprecation or a dig at guitar players, we are all limited by a technical threshold. 2) the song consists of more than guitar and vocals I think Vincent Black Lightning (live) by Richard Thompson is a good example. If anyone is unfamiliar with this song, it's easy to find on KZread. This specific interpretation of the song is my current Everest, and when I conquer it I fully intend to record it. A mono recording would sound extremely narrow and there would be very little opportunity to create movement in the mixing process. Assailing it with a bunch of plugins to artificially add width and depth would sound... well artificial. I imagine I will reach a point where I can consistently play the song well, but I question if I will be able to play it exactly the same twice for recording purposes. The alternative of recording a ridiculous number of takes followed by many hours of comping and massaging doesn't seem very efficient. This was a long way of saying I think most of us would agree that mono is the way to go for 90%+ of musical styles and recording applications. However, unlike your point of "never plug and record directly into a DI", I don't think an absolute law is fitting for the question of mono/stereo. I think stereo is the better approach for the fingerstyle singer-songwriter genre.

good stuff

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Thank you very much. I'm just getting started so you've saved me a lot of experimenting. I'm going to stop recording my acoustic guitar in stereo.

I use a sm57 and mic it roughly within 6 inches of the sound hole (I play an ovation so the largest sound hole is actually pretty close to the neck so I can of kind of get that dual benefit that people stereo mic for) and then I send that signal to a separate track of dedicated reverb to give it a lot of atmosphere. I'm a noob, but I mostly write music for myself at the moment anyways and I enjoy the sound I get. I've been finding the imperfections of my production make it more intimate experience anyways. Eventually I'll get around to professional production.

I agree with nearly everything theoretically. If I were to make a 5th rule, it would be to "know when to ignore the first four".

I usually try for acoustic guitars like bad co. "Shooting star" left and right strumming .

I definitely agree with the first and second law. I feel those are good basics. The third law I'm not really sure about because we've recorded several times in a professional studio and they never make the acoustic guitar that far away it's always usually about eight inches away from the sound hole. I hadn't heard of the fourth law but that makes a lot of sense. I would appreciate it though if you would address the third law as to why you think professional studios do that, you would think out of all those pros, if moving the mic further away was best then they would be doing that?

Rule # 5 before you hit record if you have any other acoustic guitars hanging up take them down and lay them sound hole down on carpet, couch or get them out of the room all together, nothing will destroy a recording faster. Great tutorial and thank you for this. -Drew

awesome as ever. I record in a small room with a dreadnought that I made, that has a lot of bass, so I will now be moving back 18 inches from my Rode NT1A, but it’s too boomy with the mic in front of the sound hole, so I have to position it in front of the neck join.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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I have used a second mic but in an analog situation. But it was in an extremely bright sounding room along with an omnidirectional pointed toward a glass reflection. However, this was when you were lucky to have 8 tracks to work with and much of the "mastering" had to be done in the tracking process. Now you can duplicate the track, add space and pan it where ever you want it to be along with nearly unlimited tracks. The only time I will plug one in is if I want a separate feed for effects and even then it never gets to the master until it has been effected.

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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I laughed at this one quite a bit, thanks for the tips!

I broke the law, and the law won. I have tried all of the things that you describe as don't do this. And your right they do not work. So thank you this video was great. Not saying this is a fith law for guitars without a traditional sound hole but here ya go. I have an Ovation (Applause Elite) acoustic / electric so no traditional sound hole. What I did on my last recording (the guitars role was both melody in the verse which moves into a three part harmony in the chorus, and the main rhythm part in a song with Piano, Synth pad, Bass, and drums) was to put an SM 57 two inches below the bridge and two inches off of the body while playing the strings just below the neck. This gave me the best tone I have recorded yet. It also gave me plenty of string scrapes to edit out. I have to try a single SM57 or a single SM58 three feet back. I have a cloud lifter for the mic through a steinberg UR-RT4. My main problem is this guitar just is not very loud. I am looking to get a good acoustic/electric, soon I hope. Thanks again, David

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Have you tried Acoustic Guitar Impulse Responses? Haven't seen or heard enough of them to form an opinion, but it's a great idea for quick recordings

Thanks Graham !! and my law #5 is to repeat law #2 with some more Never, Never, Nevers :)

The type of pick you use makes a huge difference also. Their hardness and the type of material they are made of can change the tone totally.

Great tips, Graham! I'd like to add that *sometimes* a DI sound can sound great in a mix, especially when it's a supporting role in a "wall of sound" of a dense pop/rock/metal mix. It just needs some tweaking! ;) It's of course preferred to go mic'd almost all the time, but sometimes you gotta work with what you have! :)

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

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Agreed that two performances panned left and right sounds great. Even better if you change it up for the second performance with a capo or alternate tuning. Thanks!

@GaryMeadowsMusic

3 жыл бұрын

Check out the acoustic guitars left, right on bad company " shooting star"

@PollameWazzaaaay

3 жыл бұрын

Loved this. Thanks

What are your thoughts on the space of the room as it relates to backing up from the microphone? Won't room sound be a factor? I usually avoid anything not close miking for this reason as I don't think I have good room treatment. If so, is two mics capturing different parts of the body of the guitar a good option for fuller capture?

"And that is because it sounds like poop." Epic. I hate the DI sound, though the k&k body pickups are actually pretty good when you are live and have no other choice to both perform and record. I don't record studio acoustic much, but I almost always wish it was better when I do. Thanks for sharing!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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Good advice. I think a further consideration to attach to rule 1 is, think about how you're going to play the part that's needed for the song. Pick or fingers? Where you strike the strings - near the bridge or beyond the sound hole or somewhere in between? How many strings you want to use? Light strumming on top 4 strings beyond the sound hole can produce a shimmering, dulcimer like sound for instance. Strumming on only 2 or 3 of the low strings near the bridge can provide a clearer full sound than hitting all 6 strings. I like to get the mic at least 2 feet from the guitar, pointing at where the fretboard meets the body; off-axis always sounds sweeter to me. Top tip: 1 mic only!

@DidierBampiliMusicProduction

3 жыл бұрын

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There is one reason to use a DI on acoustics. If you are using them for effects. The Supersuckers did that on the intro and outros for Sleepy Vampire and Tom Waits did for I don't want to Grow Up. They were mic'ed and distorted to great effect.