Home Recording: Three Types of Mics for Recording Acoustic Guitar
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- Опубліковано 22 жов 2023
- This is a simple comparison of 3 different types of mics that you might consider for recording acoustic guitar. While most people recommend condenser mics, dynamic and ribbon mics also have potential. In this case, I'm using the very common Shure SM57 dynamc mics, a pair of Schoeps condenser mics, and an AEA N22 ribbon mic.
Note that, in an effort to only change one variable in these comparisons, I'm placing all mics in the same location, with the same mic configuration. But in reality, there are infinite variations possible. One mic or another might shine when placed differently, or when used in a different mic configuration (XY, ORTF, MS and so on). And of course, your results may vary, with you playing, your guitar, your room, etc. So just take this comparison as just a single data point!
If anyone wants to try their hand at EQing these tracks - everyone's taste is different, of course! - here are the raw un-eq's tracks:
dougyoungguitar.com/files/125...
Nicely done Doug. Your demos are the gold standard for how this kind of video,should be done. I especially found the strumming part of the demo useful. I would have just assumed the Schoeps would be the best in all categories, but those ribbon mics really excelled there. Thanks for doing this.
The best tutorials on UA-cam. Period
Excellent. Thanks Doug. And this reminds me that I need a 12-fret guitar!
Very excellent demonstration. These types of videos are incredibly useful for folks just getting into recording fingerstyle acoustic guitar, or even recording in general. I got my start from your now quite-old posts on some acoustic guitar forum from over a decade ago, so thank you!
My personal preferences for my own playing and recording setup, after plenty of experimentation, is to just play into a pair of condenser mics arranged similarly to this demonstration. I also prefer your playing through that same microphone setup. I have a pair of Rode NT5-MP which are substantially cheaper than the Schoeps CMC6/MK41 but still sound very nice to me.
The ribbon mics have a wider stereo image compared to the others, I suppose because of the wider polar pattern. Conceptually, this should be nice for solo fingerstyle guitar but it just doesn't sound as rich to me. Maybe gussied up a bit with some low-pass saturation and shimmer reverb it'd sound more full, but that would sound unnatural really quickly.
Can it be that the sm57 is performing very good in comparison to the expensive ones? Would it do a goodjob on classical guitar. The rodes nt5 that I have sound harsh on classical guitar.
The Schoeps are so expensive, even the camera's frame rate dropped. :P Great work, Doug. Strumming sounds best on the SM57s, Fingerstyle sounds best on the ribbons. Interestingly, even though the Schoeps are the most expensive, I preferred them the least on all applications.
Amazing tutorial, what is the song that you’re playing? It sounds beautiful
Thanks, there's 3 different examples. The strumming one is just a random simple chord progression. The fingerstyle example played on the Traugott is just a noodle, maybe it will get developed into a full tune someday. The fingerpicking on the Schoenberg is a tune of mine called Dreamscape, that you can find on the various streaming services.
I like the condenser mics.