Issue with recording Acoustic guitars.

[Mm1066]

Hey there. I have a bit of a dilemma.

I'm wanting to record acoustic guitars for a part in a song, however I'm stuck between recording direct (it's an electro-acoustic) or just using the built in mic on my Mac. I have a SM57, but it's currently not working so these are my two options. I've used the built in mic for some vocal recording before, and had just managed to clean up the sound using some gating and EQ and it's sounded pretty decent, but I'm unsure that the same approach will work for acoustic guitars.

Do you have any ideas/thoughts? I might be able to produce some demos of them both side to side if that helps.

Thanks

 

[LeSedna]

I once recorded the preamp and applied an clean amp sim, it sounded decent, but it won't really sound as good as recording with a microphone imo. Usually it loses some body, but it will obviously depend on the guitar and the type of music. It sounded okay for me cause those guitars were in an arrangement, but if this is a guitar/voice song it may need some more work.

 

[LeSedna]

Just had an idea : maybe you can record both of then one after the other, using the built in mic as a room mic. Even if it's junk, it may give some air and body when blended.

 

[Mm1066]

Just had an idea : maybe you can record both of then one after the other, using the built in mic as a room mic. Even if it's junk, it may give some air and body when blended.

Thanks. That actually sounds like a good idea. I just tried blending the two demos together and they sounded quite interesting.

The song itself is mainly metal, but the acoustic part is more of a break and change in mood - a contrast if you will. Instrumental.

 

[arv_foh]

Slightly off topic but how in the fuck did u break an sm57? Those mics are basically indestructible

 

[Mm1066]

If I knew it wouldn't be broken. It's some electrical fault. The cables managed to become un soldered, so I re soldered and it's still doing nothing. Tried soldering both ways with still nothing. And it's not my lead because I've tested it and it's fine. I'll replace it eventually.

 

[LeSedna]

In case my idea wasn't clear, it was proposing recording each guitar one after the other, but recording for each one both microphones at the same time. I say that cause once I used a dynamic microphone and a really shitty one to junk-record a friend's guitar voice song, and blended the built it mic just a little to add a little room to the main mic. So the main mic was the main "quality" part of the sound, and the built it was just here to give some space and was so low it couldn't alter too much the "quality" of the main mic, so maybe you could do a similar process.

 

[Mm1066]

I know what you mean, although I don't know how I'd be able to do that in a single DAW, unless I open up two project files at the same time. I'd need to wear headphones for sure though.

I could just record the direct track, then record the input mic and blend them like that.