This is exactly the way how you should teach sound engineering. Examples, explain what is bad, how to fix it in recording or even mixing phase. Wish there are more videos like this.
@Dumble Door you're an audio engineer? When and where did you get your degree? All the programs I've looked at for audio engineering/equivalent degrees require extensive study in electrical engineering, some computer science, and all math courses that would be necessary for that level of electrical engineering (probably linear algebra and diff eq). I know other sound engineering programs that are actually offshoots of electrical engineering programs rather than being through the music schools (there's an affiliation of course, but the brunt of the coursework goes through the engineering school). This isn't to say you can't be or aren't a fantastic audio engineer! I have no idea how good you are and I agree with you that knowing the technicals is nice, but knowing your ears is what makes good recordings. I am legitimately just curious because what you described is not what I've seen. Maybe things changed over the years or it could be that my sample size was an I'll representation of the general experience.
@@tjkim1999 For real! I went to school for audio engineering and had to do a lot of algebraic mathematics that were not covered in regular college algebra classes. I'm currently going to school for Electrical Engineering now and I'd say that Audio Engineering is closely related to it and acoustical physics. If you actually want to understand what you're doing to the signals you're recording and etc.. You have to at least have a basic understanding of what's going on under the surface. These days a lot of these people are just producers with a lot of understanding in how they want it to sound, but never really know how to achieve those sounds properly and used massive amounts of compression, EQ, distortion/saturation to get it. Audio Engineering is an art, but it's also a science. A lot of people forget that.
@Dumble Door Engineering as a noun: "the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures" // "the action of working artfully to bring something about" // "the work done by, or the occupation of, an engineer" As a verb: "design and build (a machine or structure)" // "skillfully or artfully arrange for (an event or situation) to occur" You're really just mistaken as to what engineering is. The reason the profession of civil engineering and things adjacent to it demands an incredible level of education has more to do with the fact that lives, money, and the very functioning of society can be at stake. In many cases the extreme academic demands for the profession are written in blood. Make no mistake, though, the term "engineer" includes what you perceive as engineers, but it is certainly not limited to it. Civil engineering may protect the title of "engineer" for the reason of being very clear and specific as to qualifications in that field, but if you look to other industries the game can change, and according to definition engineering is a very broad term that can require wildly different requirements.
@Gary Winthorp Title isn’t clickbait thought. The video is exactly what you clicked on, it’s comparing a bad guitar mix to a good one. UA-cam has lost the meaning of clickbait when everyone just says something is clickbait when it’s not.
@Gary Winthorp Complaint: “ a statement that a situation is unsatisfactory or unacceptable” You: “Calling the video clickbait and saying you don’t care about the video.” That’s called a complaint bro.
One thing home producers may forget is that great bands ’mix themselves’ both in how they sound and play to get through and be in a sweet spot of the ’live mix’. A bass players tone solo for example may sound quite awful or not so ear pleasing, but cuts through and works just perfectly in conjunction with the band.
Absolutely. If you're mixing and mastering for perfection, you'll soon realize it's unattainable! I'm also in the camp of "Get it right in the raw recordings."
The flashlight comparison is just brilliant! I tend to favor warmer acoustics(thanks Wilco), but the best lesson I've learned recording them is to give the mics some space.
The thing though is that depending on the mood of the song and of the arrangement I might favor one or the other. Think about how Nigel Godrich used tons of compression on some of the tracks of OK Computer but it helps to convey a certain vibe. I think your demonstration is interesting because it teaches about the proxy effect and understanding the song you get form positioning a mic a certain way. But in the end if you know what you are doing there is no right or wrong. Bad or good can only be assess in the context of a mix.
Even though I've been using DAWs for over 20 years, and having just moved from Pro Tools to S1 5Pro, your tutorials are invaluable to me Joe. The little sign you have behind you in this video is also very heartening to me...I've seen it in other vids where I paused and read the message. In these trying times it's always good to see a clear and simple message about putting trust in God, because there sure are a lot of people around who are trying to deny God, or that God exists and created this world especially for us. Keep on Joe...C Ya
Soooo true! And acoustic treatment is also very important. Lately I built some absorbers for my recording room. Now I can place the mic further away from the guitar without getting these ugly small room reflections. I was very surprised when I started mixing. It was boring. Almost nothing to do. 😀 That's how good mixes start. I guess.
This is the closest I've come in 20 years to finally understanding why my acoustics always sound scratchy, harsh and boomy all at the same time. I think I've always mic'd as close as possible in order to try and eliminate as much hiss and room as possible. My rooms have never been treated well due to budget, so I'm constantly trying to cheat my way around it. Now, my NY resolution is: move further away... and finish those acoustic panels... Thanks so much for all this incredible content man, you've no idea how helpful it is.
I really like the sound I get with a classic technique. I use a condenser mic, aimed at the 12th fret from my right-hand side as I sit, at a 45' angle to the guitar & roughly 6-8 inches away from the guitar. It picks up the transients from the right hand without the woofing sound from the soundhole, and a very pleasing range of the guitar's tone.
You mean I'm not the only one with a bump? Sweet! Spent the last 53 years thinking I was a freak! Great lesson on acoustic guitar recording. Would love to see one with actual mic placement and results. :) Be blessed!
this was a great comparison, but the second one's boomy pop sound everytime it gets strummed down on the beat gives me the tension at the bump of my head (yes I've got one too ;P) thanks for relieving me with the one-small-EQ at the end. I like the sock covering image you described, because that's close to what I imagined when you asked to close eyes. It was like hearing guitar behind a curtain.
@@DKinMN you can have a song that you like but it doesnt sound good. Personally, i hear that a lot from stuff I made a few years ago. People like what it was made but it sounds weird, mostly due to the inexperience I had (not that I have a lot now) and what I used to record
I put a 421 (a very boomy mic) right on the sound hole, cut out the mids and highs on my preamp, then record DI through another preamp and cut out the lows. Mix them together and you have an absolutely incredible sounding acoustic
I appreciate the comparisons, that is very helpful. Acoustics are certainly difficult to get right in the mix. At first, the first example sounded decent to me, but hearing the second one put it all in perspective, much better!
This is great - thanks. Also worth mentioning that the age / cleanliness of the strings on the guitar will also have a big impact on the quality of the recording.
Great video! I know you've been preaching this for years. I'll second everything you're saying. Recording your tracks well on the front end can save you a massive headache on the back end. Thanks to one of your old videos, I've been trying to dial in the mic placement, tone, overdrive level (on electric), dynamics, and overall performance so that it fits perfectly into the song before anyone even starts mixing. After I finished some electric tracks for an artist, I actually had the mix engineer call to tell me that the tracks sounded amazing and that he didn't have to do anything to them in the mix. That's the goal! Anyway, thanks for all of the good work that's helping a lot of us to make good music!
This is the most useful home recording video I've watched in a long time. Joe- this is a huge help, I've been struggling to figure out what I've been doing wrong and this absolutely nails it down 100%. It's so obvious the way you explain it- awesome content!
All the recording, mixing, producing, home studio tips and tricks and such on UA-cam I’ve witnessed and there are so so many, many of which are great … and I only just now happenstance across you … how frustrating… The pace you moved at is great. Direct and concise to the topic with a little personality and quirk sprinkled tastefully throughout, specific examples, no tangents on other things that tend to surround the intended topic, utilizing your own personal experiences and growth as the reference instead of some random recordings we know nothing about… I could go on. Great content my friend! Subscription earned!
HEAR YE, HEAR YE: This video should be the #1 go to video BEFORE ANYONE THINKING about recording/mixing gets started with their endeavors. You Tube is absolutely full of SNAKES feeding off of the inexperience of new comers; use this plugin, buy that plugin, mix like this, boost this, cut that.....It's pretty much all bullshit to make sales. I CANNOT AGREE MORE: It starts at the source and then the capture!!! If you watch the recordings of artists in studio, the mix is dam near complete just after the recording stops!! These studios have mics, pre's, and boards that most people will never own as it is out of their price range. The equipment is expensive for a reason; the powers that be don't want the average joe to have the technology easily available to them, or the market would be flooded with great music made at home, and thus put many studios out of business. I actually think that is starting to happen. ANYWAY: Don't settle for junk....Get the BEST SOUNDING, well made instrument that you enjoy, one great mic, one great pre, a great interface (RME here or you could save for a lynx system), and a decent computer. You will be spending well over 5k, so you are aware...unless you find great used gear. Great sonics dont come cheap! THANK YOU Joe........KEEP IT REAL!!!
I'm in college and I'm regretting that I didn't pick a music program but I found this vid and it gives me hope that I could still pursue music!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
to me the problem is phace correlation, you can clearly hear it when collapsing to mono... and honestly is pretty easy to fix, secondo rec is less stereo, less sustain on the bass and more attack which I don't personally like...
11:14 That gave me a really good idea of what it was you were addressing. To me, I (would have) preferred the sound of the first guitar of how it was naturally brighter where the second one sounded cheaper or like it was being played through a cheap direct output from the internal pickups. But playing the two back to back I can see the potential of how the first guitar could have sounded if it was mic'd with a little more care and backed up to ease up on the low mids. Great insight!
Thoughts on vibe vs a technical better sounding recording? The reason I'm asking when writing/producing a song I always record some scratch guitars without thinking too much. When the song is almost done (except the vocals) I will do the "real" recording of the guitars. And sometimes the scratch guitars just sounds better, not speaking of the sound but the energy and vibe just sounds better.
So, MIC further away to not get too much mids and low-mids. Easy. You can see it in the waveform right away. And of course you can hear it. Very good explanation.
Currently in the process of recording my acoustic guitar, I I was guilty of putting the mic up too close to the sound hole. I will try this technique of putting it further away, now I know what to listen out for. Great video Joe! Thank you from UK.
Great demonstration. First recording did not sound all that bad, but once it was compared to the second recording I could really hear the difference. Recording 1 sounds like the richness of the upper mids are scooped out leaving brittle highs and muddy lows and low mids. Getting it right in pre is something I've been learning a lot more about lately, thank you for the vid.
Even though I have my ears trained well, I find myself mixing guitar as a guitarist, which means I favor the sound of a guitar from the auditory perspective of my head above the guitar and down close to the strings and sound hole, which sounds very low-middy and rich. As a result, a lot of my acoustic recordings have more of that low-mid. As I watched the video, I went back and listened to some recordings from years ago and sure enough, they have that 150-200hz information because TO ME that's what a guitar sounds like when I'm playing it. As I go through to the later recordings, I seem to have figured it out along the way, not sure where. I remember scooting the mic back to 12-14" pointed at the top of the sound hole and positioned directly in front of the guitar. It's so good to know WHY they sound better so I can make sure to replicate it going forward. Good subtle lesson in guitar sounds for a mix, thanks Joe.
I feel like I just learned in 14 minutes what it should take hours to teach! Loved it!!! Subscribed to hear more of your wisdom! Thank you, good sir!!!
Hey. I must say: you are one of a kind! I think you stand out in a good way in the world of music production youtubers! Keep up the good work and THANK you for your great e-mailing list e-mails :)
My current setup is two small diaphragm condenser mics (sE8), XY pattern, 8 to 10” from the sound hole. One is pointing at the bridge and the other at the 14th fret. So far I’m liking the result.
One thing I've noticed is that a great sounding "strumming" guitar takes up a lot of space in the mix and if it will be fighting for space with drums, bass, some keyboards, vocals, an electric guitar, a sledgehammer, and a refinery, it might be best to do a "bad" recording that sounds a bit thin. That way it comes through the mix without pushing away the other instruments. I usually just use a dynamic super-cardioid at a 45-degree angle aimed at the 14th fret. The angle (imagine your flashlight example but pull it away from the fretboard a bit and angle it so it also shines on the edge of the soundhole) allows some of the sounds from the body so that it still sounds like a guitar, but the low frequencies are not there. It is certainly possible to use an EQ instead, but as your example shows - surgical EQ'ing on a complex source as an acoustic guitar tend to move the problems around instead of solving them. It might have something to do with the fact that the microphone only has one membrane and any frequencies it had to deal with during the recording affected all the others.
Jazz iii are the best picks joe. I mostly play finger style but when i use a pick its one of those. Tortex is nice, but lately ive been changing it up and trying the carbon fiber jazz iii and the gator jazz iii
Thanks for the great video! Really very well done. I was just wondering, since 1st guitar is recorded 9 years ago, that probably means that both tracks are recorded using different sound interfaces, right? It just sounds like there is something other than mic position only. It sounds like 2nd guitar might be recorded with brand new clarett or something with similar preamps, while 1st guitar might be recorded with something much older. Please correct me if I'm wrong - I'm just a boring dude with a guitar and 2 condenser microphones, haha
THis is what I was looking for. Thanks. GIRATS. I appreciate some of the demos on mixing differences, ie. on reverb and compression. But most of the effects were too subtle for me to care.
Hi Joe, All of your videos well portray home recording successes and challenges... I'm starting a solo vocal w call and response w call gtr doubling vocal melody and response is a guitar army. No pitch fixing or time alignment used. I plan to do starter ref track, w me playing both gtr parts and singing together, click in my ear. This done for feel w several ritardandos and stops crossing click lines. Then I will replace vocal w overdub to new track following ref track as close as possible. Same for call guitar, then guitar armory in turn. Guitar army will be diff gtrs, some std, some open tunings, mixed diff distances and diff axes to mics. All to simulate several people on diff gtrs sitting in diff places from mic, plus high strung Nashville Baby Taylor, open tuned. I hope I am able to follow strumming feel closely, since it's me....ah, best laid plans, eh?
Hey Joe, love the video and all the insightful information! Where would the best placement for the mics (not the distance, but location of the mics on the guitar).
thank you very much for sharing your tips and techniques, i follow your channel for some years now, and you inspire my mixes at my studio, even though i am hiphop oriented your content is gold. lots of thanks from bucharest!
Try using a medium pick. That big heavy pick you are using is causing that low-mid bump. With a medium pick you will retain the nice highs, and also reduce that low-mid bump and keep warmth. I used to use a heavy pick as well until I heard the difference.
The A/B comparison model is really cool Joe - thank for sharing. Really helpful to have it focused on one instrument / element too - I’d love to see more of these - really instructive to be able to directly compare. Cheers.
Look man, I get it; I have a mom who went to berklee, quit school because of my dads job and the only traces of some of the songs she wrote are on cassette. Being able to polish up bad recordings (and yes, even my own recordings of improv where I had a mic and a very poor understanding of recording and Audacity) is a skill that’s needed.
It would have been helpful to have a detailed description of how you recorded the second one. I have watched countless videos on how to record acoustic guitar, and I always just end up doing it the way that works for me, which is a close mic'ing, usually below the sound hole or in that vicinity. That seems to be the best way to get a full, pretty, flat-picking sound, which is important to me. Then when I strum, I just back away a little. It's tough to find that balance, but in the end, I just go by what I'm hearing. Good job.
Thank you for great tips on this, the A/B comparison is amazing, so much cleaner with the right space. I love the flashlight analogy, definitely going to remember that! Despite playing for years, I'm very new to home recording (yay quarantine!). I noticed that the "better" sound still has a lot of the same "muddy" frequencies in the EQ chart, but they are very transient and fade very fast. I think that is what you mean by the nice thick pick sound. It sounds full but its short and doesn't dominate the sound. In the boomy first recordings, those frequencies just ring on and on. This is something that I'm just starting to understand: EQ is a permanent fix to boost/cut frequencies but sometimes the problem is actually how those frequencies evolve in time. It's ok if they are short booms, but you don't want some muddy drone over the whole song. Cutting makes it worse, because you don't want them gone completely, you just want them to die off faster. And yes, some fancy filtered compression treatment can probably fix it... but that is so much harder than just doing it right from the source (as you said!)
I recorded my acoustic electric direct out through my line 6 amp on a clean channel. Came out pretty good. And in stereo. I do all my guitars in stereo from the line 6. But I keep hearing instruments are supposed to be mono but my guitars come out just about finished while the drums and vocals always need a ton of mixing.
Thanks for this! Your channel has helped me out a lot (I've been doing home recordings since April of last year--Covid) and have learned a lot. I'm not the best by any means but I have learned and been able to put out some nice sounding songs. I played guitar on a cover I did last year and I thought it sounded 'weird' because I'm not a guitarist...I'm just as saxophonist who knows a little about the guitar, but I definitely had the microphone about 3-4 inches away from the guitar (wife and daughter were asleep). Now I'm interested in seeing if I hear a difference with my stance /mic placement from the sax (I pretty much set it up how producers set me up in college and other recordings). Thanks again!
Oh wow, are you still using Jazz III for acoustic? I use the Dunlop Jazztone picks (also thick), they are my favorite, but when it comes to acoustic guitar, I have 5-6 different picks that I choose from depending on which sound I am going for. Especially thin picks are able to EQ the guitar perfectly in certain situations and give the right amount of pick noise you want. I think choosing the right pick for your recordung fits very well with your GIRATS concept. Nice video, thank you! :) Recommended thin picks for acoustic: Tortex (thinner than the green ones), Nylon (max .88mm) and Ultex (here I often even like the thicker ones)
This latest series of videos are some of the best. You make it so simple and to the point. I would have traveled to Ft. Wayne to catch your Meetup last Feb., but Covid came along. I'm from that area. If you don't mind me asking, where'd you jet off to? Some place warm? lol I'm up near Johnny Geib now, so celebrating double digit temps today.
The diference is astronomic! You could make a video making a visual example and using mics of how you recorded before and after, it would be very interesting. Good video man.
I enjoyed this 15min of recording lesson, I've just arrived in this mixing world. Great lesson and nice english to understand from non-english people! Thanks again!
I'm just starting out and I'm probably doing super obvious mistakes. But I tried to set up a microphone (a cheap sm58 knockoff from 10 years ago) and i aimed it at different points of the guitar, from different angles while listening through direct monitoring in headphones. It made just about no difference at all however I moved. The headphones were crappy 60 buck pc headphones, Qpad I think. Also, my room is super tiny, it is barely any bigger than a full size bed. I don't know what to make of this...
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Amazing! And yes, it would be great to have other vídeos like this.
I hear that too. My first instinct is to listen to that track in mono and see how bad it sounds. Remember when using multiple mics to record one source, problems could be caused not only by distance from the source (guitar), but distance between the mics.
Use a delay pedal to pan two of the same signal. Helps beef it up a little. How does NO ONE know this??? Its an old trick on the albums we all listen to.
Joe, there's no denying that a good recording makes your life easier. But your problem with the first recording isn't *just* the EQ, yet it's the only correcting tool you use. This is what limits you in how far you can adjust (and hopefully improve) the sound. Three things come to mind that I would try on the first recording: 1. The proximity effect will have a different effect on the Attack of the strum and the Tail/Release part. A dynamic EQ, or multiband compressor, would bring you closer to the 2nd sound because you can adjust the EQ for both the Attack and Body/Tail/Release part of the chord differently. 2. Treat your transients further with a transient shaper or some sort of boxtone analog device (or digital sim plugin) to change the perception of the sound. It eill change how clear and direct it will sound. 3. Try a different moxing technique. Example: Throw away one of your stereo captures, just use the best Mic and put it in mono. Then use the other one with a very wide reverb to get depth. Best, John
GIRATS is such a HUGE concept that many people should learn first when getting into audio engineering! Once was in a band with a drummer who had a setup on his drums. The kick and snare (top and bottom) mics were so rough, I had had to learn about sample replacement just to get a decent sound over the drum tracks. Even had a music/audio friend get his hands on the track to hear the raw tracks for themselves.
Great demonstration Joe. 4 Years ago I bought a Rode NT2a mic, why, because I finally heard about recording M/S for acoustic guitar. While I know that's not what you're talking about here, that is what enabled me to finally get it right first :). Until then, I had been struggling to hear back what all my nice acoustic guitars sounded like. Never cut corners, get it right first :).
I recently treated myself to a Yamaha FGX5. I can't wait to get recording with it so any tips like this are very much appreciated. I'm hoping to do an xy and DI recording to see how they all compare.
@@nomandad2000 it was nice to play just it off the box but took it for a professional set up. My guy dropped the action a lot and now it's a dream to play! He was also showing it off to his other lutharians online cos he loved it so much and had tons of praise for it!
My opinion: never point a mic at the soundhole. The sound you want to record does not come from the soundhole. The sound of an acoustic guitar doesn't come from the strings, it comes from the sounding board, the big piece of wood that the strings are attached to. You should point a mic at that. I also point a mic at around the fifth fret, to catch high end and string noise. This gives a couple of feet of separation of what the two mics are hearing, which can make for an amazing stereo field. The main point, tho, is the weird but true fact that the sound of a guitar doesn't actually come from the strings.
This is exactly the way how you should teach sound engineering. Examples, explain what is bad, how to fix it in recording or even mixing phase. Wish there are more videos like this.
@Dumble Door you're an audio engineer? When and where did you get your degree? All the programs I've looked at for audio engineering/equivalent degrees require extensive study in electrical engineering, some computer science, and all math courses that would be necessary for that level of electrical engineering (probably linear algebra and diff eq). I know other sound engineering programs that are actually offshoots of electrical engineering programs rather than being through the music schools (there's an affiliation of course, but the brunt of the coursework goes through the engineering school).
This isn't to say you can't be or aren't a fantastic audio engineer! I have no idea how good you are and I agree with you that knowing the technicals is nice, but knowing your ears is what makes good recordings. I am legitimately just curious because what you described is not what I've seen. Maybe things changed over the years or it could be that my sample size was an I'll representation of the general experience.
@Dumble Door bro have you ever met a real audio engineer?
@@tjkim1999 For real! I went to school for audio engineering and had to do a lot of algebraic mathematics that were not covered in regular college algebra classes. I'm currently going to school for Electrical Engineering now and I'd say that Audio Engineering is closely related to it and acoustical physics. If you actually want to understand what you're doing to the signals you're recording and etc.. You have to at least have a basic understanding of what's going on under the surface. These days a lot of these people are just producers with a lot of understanding in how they want it to sound, but never really know how to achieve those sounds properly and used massive amounts of compression, EQ, distortion/saturation to get it. Audio Engineering is an art, but it's also a science. A lot of people forget that.
@Dumble Door Engineering as a noun: "the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures" // "the action of working artfully to bring something about" // "the work done by, or the occupation of, an engineer"
As a verb: "design and build (a machine or structure)" // "skillfully or artfully arrange for (an event or situation) to occur"
You're really just mistaken as to what engineering is. The reason the profession of civil engineering and things adjacent to it demands an incredible level of education has more to do with the fact that lives, money, and the very functioning of society can be at stake. In many cases the extreme academic demands for the profession are written in blood.
Make no mistake, though, the term "engineer" includes what you perceive as engineers, but it is certainly not limited to it. Civil engineering may protect the title of "engineer" for the reason of being very clear and specific as to qualifications in that field, but if you look to other industries the game can change, and according to definition engineering is a very broad term that can require wildly different requirements.
Bad one: 3:16
CHONKY GUITAR: 9:37
Tengs
@Gary Winthorp So why are you watching the video? The entire purpose of this video is to teach inexperienced sound engineers on what NOT to do.
@Gary Winthorp Title isn’t clickbait thought. The video is exactly what you clicked on, it’s comparing a bad guitar mix to a good one. UA-cam has lost the meaning of clickbait when everyone just says something is clickbait when it’s not.
@Gary Winthorp Dude. Aren’t you the one who literally complained because the video is exactly what the title said? The one crying is you bro.
@Gary Winthorp Complaint: “ a statement that a situation is unsatisfactory or unacceptable” You: “Calling the video clickbait and saying you don’t care about the video.” That’s called a complaint bro.
@Gary Winthorp Woah now Gary, relax there buddy. Keep raising your heart rate like that and your heartburn may kick in.
“Our ears are first class instruments to ignore things”....Haha real life!!
😂 they're tricky little buggers
That a good one!
I just recorded accoustic guitars this morning and you just described everything I did wrong.
One thing home producers may forget is that great bands ’mix themselves’ both in how they sound and play to get through and be in a sweet spot of the ’live mix’. A bass players tone solo for example may sound quite awful or not so ear pleasing, but cuts through and works just perfectly in conjunction with the band.
You have no idea how much your videos help me, Joe. Thank you so much.
Knowing when to move on is what makes someone a good producer.
Absolutely. If you're mixing and mastering for perfection, you'll soon realize it's unattainable! I'm also in the camp of "Get it right in the raw recordings."
I put mic pretty close and aim at the 12 the fret. Always sounds pretty good and balanced.
The flashlight comparison is just brilliant! I tend to favor warmer acoustics(thanks Wilco), but the best lesson I've learned recording them is to give the mics some space.
Yeah it's wild how warm they can feel even if the mic seems too far away.
The thing though is that depending on the mood of the song and of the arrangement I might favor one or the other. Think about how Nigel Godrich used tons of compression on some of the tracks of OK Computer but it helps to convey a certain vibe. I think your demonstration is interesting because it teaches about the proxy effect and understanding the song you get form positioning a mic a certain way. But in the end if you know what you are doing there is no right or wrong. Bad or good can only be assess in the context of a mix.
Yeah
Exquisite presentative description of realistic issues that one can deal with recording an instrument! Thanks a lot for the video!
Even though I've been using DAWs for over 20 years, and having just moved from Pro Tools to S1 5Pro, your tutorials are invaluable to me Joe. The little sign you have behind you in this video is also very heartening to me...I've seen it in other vids where I paused and read the message. In these trying times it's always good to see a clear and simple message about putting trust in God, because there sure are a lot of people around who are trying to deny God, or that God exists and created this world especially for us. Keep on Joe...C Ya
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Soooo true! And acoustic treatment is also very important. Lately I built some absorbers for my recording room. Now I can place the mic further away from the guitar without getting these ugly small room reflections. I was very surprised when I started mixing. It was boring. Almost nothing to do. 😀 That's how good mixes start. I guess.
This is the closest I've come in 20 years to finally understanding why my acoustics always sound scratchy, harsh and boomy all at the same time. I think I've always mic'd as close as possible in order to try and eliminate as much hiss and room as possible. My rooms have never been treated well due to budget, so I'm constantly trying to cheat my way around it. Now, my NY resolution is: move further away... and finish those acoustic panels...
Thanks so much for all this incredible content man, you've no idea how helpful it is.
And in the meantime, hang up a blanket or lean a mattress against the wall. 👍
Not even stumbling upon the thought of moving the microphone further away in 20 years is impressive. I applaud you
@@Mueseek MY FIRST APPLAUSE!!! 🥰
I really like the sound I get with a classic technique.
I use a condenser mic, aimed at the 12th fret from my right-hand side as I sit, at a 45' angle to the guitar & roughly 6-8 inches away from the guitar.
It picks up the transients from the right hand without the woofing sound from the soundhole, and a very pleasing range of the guitar's tone.
Your way of explaining, the movements with your hands the tone of your voice you truly make me want to learn
You mean I'm not the only one with a bump? Sweet! Spent the last 53 years thinking I was a freak! Great lesson on acoustic guitar recording. Would love to see one with actual mic placement and results. :) Be blessed!
this was a great comparison, but the second one's boomy pop sound everytime it gets strummed down on the beat gives me the tension at the bump of my head (yes I've got one too ;P)
thanks for relieving me with the one-small-EQ at the end.
I like the sock covering image you described, because that's close to what I imagined when you asked to close eyes. It was like hearing guitar behind a curtain.
I understand why the first one is bad and it is, but there's something about it that I like
So then it's not bad.
@@DKinMN you can have a song that you like but it doesnt sound good.
Personally, i hear that a lot from stuff I made a few years ago. People like what it was made but it sounds weird, mostly due to the inexperience I had (not that I have a lot now) and what I used to record
@@pedrosilvaproductions can you see what you just said ? I want you to go sit at a corner and think about what you ve done .
@@icy_0_182 okay :(
@@icy_0_182 damn don't talk like that to my man Pedro :(
Great video John would love to see one on vocals also very good thank you
I put a 421 (a very boomy mic) right on the sound hole, cut out the mids and highs on my preamp, then record DI through another preamp and cut out the lows.
Mix them together and you have an absolutely incredible sounding acoustic
Interesting. I have a sneaky suspicion I would not like the sound. The highs on the DI are the part that sounds the worst.
I appreciate the comparisons, that is very helpful. Acoustics are certainly difficult to get right in the mix. At first, the first example sounded decent to me, but hearing the second one put it all in perspective, much better!
This is great - thanks. Also worth mentioning that the age / cleanliness of the strings on the guitar will also have a big impact on the quality of the recording.
Especially on bass, the difference is noticeable on guitar but bass is painfully obvious when they're old.
Great video! I know you've been preaching this for years. I'll second everything you're saying. Recording your tracks well on the front end can save you a massive headache on the back end. Thanks to one of your old videos, I've been trying to dial in the mic placement, tone, overdrive level (on electric), dynamics, and overall performance so that it fits perfectly into the song before anyone even starts mixing. After I finished some electric tracks for an artist, I actually had the mix engineer call to tell me that the tracks sounded amazing and that he didn't have to do anything to them in the mix. That's the goal! Anyway, thanks for all of the good work that's helping a lot of us to make good music!
Yesssss...well done.
This is the most useful home recording video I've watched in a long time. Joe- this is a huge help, I've been struggling to figure out what I've been doing wrong and this absolutely nails it down 100%. It's so obvious the way you explain it- awesome content!
Didn't know I needed this!!
All the recording, mixing, producing, home studio tips and tricks and such on UA-cam I’ve witnessed and there are so so many, many of which are great … and I only just now happenstance across you … how frustrating…
The pace you moved at is great. Direct and concise to the topic with a little personality and quirk sprinkled tastefully throughout, specific examples, no tangents on other things that tend to surround the intended topic, utilizing your own personal experiences and growth as the reference instead of some random recordings we know nothing about… I could go on.
Great content my friend! Subscription earned!
Isn't it interesting that this video is uploaded on the one day I wake up with the motivation to record some acoustic
Joe, more videos like this with different instruments would be awesome. This helped me a great deal. Thanks
HEAR YE, HEAR YE: This video should be the #1 go to video BEFORE ANYONE THINKING about recording/mixing gets started with their endeavors. You Tube is absolutely full of SNAKES feeding off of the inexperience of new comers; use this plugin, buy that plugin, mix like this, boost this, cut that.....It's pretty much all bullshit to make sales. I CANNOT AGREE MORE: It starts at the source and then the capture!!! If you watch the recordings of artists in studio, the mix is dam near complete just after the recording stops!! These studios have mics, pre's, and boards that most people will never own as it is out of their price range. The equipment is expensive for a reason; the powers that be don't want the average joe to have the technology easily available to them, or the market would be flooded with great music made at home, and thus put many studios out of business. I actually think that is starting to happen. ANYWAY: Don't settle for junk....Get the BEST SOUNDING, well made instrument that you enjoy, one great mic, one great pre, a great interface (RME here or you could save for a lynx system), and a decent computer. You will be spending well over 5k, so you are aware...unless you find great used gear. Great sonics dont come cheap! THANK YOU Joe........KEEP IT REAL!!!
I'm in college and I'm regretting that I didn't pick a music program but I found this vid and it gives me hope that I could still pursue music!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
I don't really record or mix music anymore, but somehow i stumbled onto this video, and somehow it's almost changed my life lol.
😊
to me the problem is phace correlation, you can clearly hear it when collapsing to mono... and honestly is pretty easy to fix, secondo rec is less stereo, less sustain on the bass and more attack which I don't personally like...
11:14 That gave me a really good idea of what it was you were addressing. To me, I (would have) preferred the sound of the first guitar of how it was naturally brighter where the second one sounded cheaper or like it was being played through a cheap direct output from the internal pickups. But playing the two back to back I can see the potential of how the first guitar could have sounded if it was mic'd with a little more care and backed up to ease up on the low mids. Great insight!
Thoughts on vibe vs a technical better sounding recording? The reason I'm asking when writing/producing a song I always record some scratch guitars without thinking too much. When the song is almost done (except the vocals) I will do the "real" recording of the guitars. And sometimes the scratch guitars just sounds better, not speaking of the sound but the energy and vibe just sounds better.
So, MIC further away to not get too much mids and low-mids. Easy. You can see it in the waveform right away. And of course you can hear it. Very good explanation.
Currently in the process of recording my acoustic guitar, I I was guilty of putting the mic up too close to the sound hole. I will try this technique of putting it further away, now I know what to listen out for. Great video Joe!
Thank you from UK.
Rock on!
Great demonstration. First recording did not sound all that bad, but once it was compared to the second recording I could really hear the difference. Recording 1 sounds like the richness of the upper mids are scooped out leaving brittle highs and muddy lows and low mids. Getting it right in pre is something I've been learning a lot more about lately, thank you for the vid.
Even though I have my ears trained well, I find myself mixing guitar as a guitarist, which means I favor the sound of a guitar from the auditory perspective of my head above the guitar and down close to the strings and sound hole, which sounds very low-middy and rich. As a result, a lot of my acoustic recordings have more of that low-mid. As I watched the video, I went back and listened to some recordings from years ago and sure enough, they have that 150-200hz information because TO ME that's what a guitar sounds like when I'm playing it.
As I go through to the later recordings, I seem to have figured it out along the way, not sure where. I remember scooting the mic back to 12-14" pointed at the top of the sound hole and positioned directly in front of the guitar. It's so good to know WHY they sound better so I can make sure to replicate it going forward.
Good subtle lesson in guitar sounds for a mix, thanks Joe.
I feel like I just learned in 14 minutes what it should take hours to teach! Loved it!!! Subscribed to hear more of your wisdom! Thank you, good sir!!!
Thanks Pedro.
This is great! Would love to see a similar one where you actually demonstrate mic placement and how to get better recordings that way too.
Hey. I must say: you are one of a kind! I think you stand out in a good way in the world of music production youtubers! Keep up the good work and THANK you for your great e-mailing list e-mails :)
Starts at
Bad 3:17
Good 9:37
What an AWESOME video. Crystal clear explanation from someone that loves what he does. Thanks so much Joe! You've got a new follower here.
I'm recording my first ep and these videos are so incredibly helpful, thanks!
Definitely can hear your point. We need more content like this. A/Bs are really helpful. Thank you
Getting right at the source is always should always be the priority. Thanks for proving it once again...!
My current setup is two small diaphragm condenser mics (sE8), XY pattern, 8 to 10” from the sound hole. One is pointing at the bridge and the other at the 14th fret. So far I’m liking the result.
One thing I've noticed is that a great sounding "strumming" guitar takes up a lot of space in the mix and if it will be fighting for space with drums, bass, some keyboards, vocals, an electric guitar, a sledgehammer, and a refinery, it might be best to do a "bad" recording that sounds a bit thin. That way it comes through the mix without pushing away the other instruments. I usually just use a dynamic super-cardioid at a 45-degree angle aimed at the 14th fret. The angle (imagine your flashlight example but pull it away from the fretboard a bit and angle it so it also shines on the edge of the soundhole) allows some of the sounds from the body so that it still sounds like a guitar, but the low frequencies are not there. It is certainly possible to use an EQ instead, but as your example shows - surgical EQ'ing on a complex source as an acoustic guitar tend to move the problems around instead of solving them. It might have something to do with the fact that the microphone only has one membrane and any frequencies it had to deal with during the recording affected all the others.
You have a great attitude when teaching! Whenever I get stuck when recording acoustic guitar I always seem to land on your videos! 🫵🏼👍🏻
Jazz iii are the best picks joe. I mostly play finger style but when i use a pick its one of those. Tortex is nice, but lately ive been changing it up and trying the carbon fiber jazz iii and the gator jazz iii
Thanks for the great video! Really very well done. I was just wondering, since 1st guitar is recorded 9 years ago, that probably means that both tracks are recorded using different sound interfaces, right? It just sounds like there is something other than mic position only. It sounds like 2nd guitar might be recorded with brand new clarett or something with similar preamps, while 1st guitar might be recorded with something much older. Please correct me if I'm wrong - I'm just a boring dude with a guitar and 2 condenser microphones, haha
THis is what I was looking for. Thanks. GIRATS. I appreciate some of the demos on mixing differences, ie. on reverb and compression. But most of the effects were too subtle for me to care.
Hi Joe,
All of your videos well portray home recording successes and challenges... I'm starting a solo vocal w call and response w call gtr doubling vocal melody and response is a guitar army. No pitch fixing or time alignment used. I plan to do starter ref track, w me playing both gtr parts and singing together, click in my ear. This done for feel w several ritardandos and stops crossing click lines. Then I will replace vocal w overdub to new track following ref track as close as possible. Same for call guitar, then guitar armory in turn. Guitar army will be diff gtrs, some std, some open tunings, mixed diff distances and diff axes to mics. All to simulate several people on diff gtrs sitting in diff places from mic, plus high strung Nashville Baby Taylor, open tuned. I hope I am able to follow strumming feel closely, since it's me....ah, best laid plans, eh?
good points ... i have a lot of problems recording accoustic instruments
Hey Joe, love the video and all the insightful information! Where would the best placement for the mics (not the distance, but location of the mics on the guitar).
Great video Joe, underrated channel
thank you very much for sharing your tips and techniques, i follow your channel for some years now, and you inspire my mixes at my studio, even though i am hiphop oriented your content is gold. lots of thanks from bucharest!
I found the mic placement or head placement works like that on comdenser mics too.
Amazing vídeo John! Never noticed what i was doing wrong trough acoustic guitar recording until today. Thank you so much. Regards from Brasil.
Thanks!
Thank you for this, im a sound engineer student and this helped a lot. I'll check all of my guitars again to do a better work, Greeting from Chile
Try using a medium pick. That big heavy pick you are using is causing that low-mid bump. With a medium pick you will retain the nice highs, and also reduce that low-mid bump and keep warmth. I used to use a heavy pick as well until I heard the difference.
The A/B comparison model is really cool Joe - thank for sharing. Really helpful to have it focused on one instrument / element too - I’d love to see more of these - really instructive to be able to directly compare. Cheers.
Look man, I get it; I have a mom who went to berklee, quit school because of my dads job and the only traces of some of the songs she wrote are on cassette. Being able to polish up bad recordings (and yes, even my own recordings of improv where I had a mic and a very poor understanding of recording and Audacity) is a skill that’s needed.
It would have been helpful to have a detailed description of how you recorded the second one. I have watched countless videos on how to record acoustic guitar, and I always just end up doing it the way that works for me, which is a close mic'ing, usually below the sound hole or in that vicinity. That seems to be the best way to get a full, pretty, flat-picking sound, which is important to me. Then when I strum, I just back away a little. It's tough to find that balance, but in the end, I just go by what I'm hearing. Good job.
Thank you for great tips on this, the A/B comparison is amazing, so much cleaner with the right space. I love the flashlight analogy, definitely going to remember that! Despite playing for years, I'm very new to home recording (yay quarantine!). I noticed that the "better" sound still has a lot of the same "muddy" frequencies in the EQ chart, but they are very transient and fade very fast. I think that is what you mean by the nice thick pick sound. It sounds full but its short and doesn't dominate the sound. In the boomy first recordings, those frequencies just ring on and on.
This is something that I'm just starting to understand: EQ is a permanent fix to boost/cut frequencies but sometimes the problem is actually how those frequencies evolve in time. It's ok if they are short booms, but you don't want some muddy drone over the whole song. Cutting makes it worse, because you don't want them gone completely, you just want them to die off faster.
And yes, some fancy filtered compression treatment can probably fix it... but that is so much harder than just doing it right from the source (as you said!)
I recorded my acoustic electric direct out through my line 6 amp on a clean channel. Came out pretty good. And in stereo. I do all my guitars in stereo from the line 6. But I keep hearing instruments are supposed to be mono but my guitars come out just about finished while the drums and vocals always need a ton of mixing.
does line guitar recording effective than using VST ?
Thanks for this! Your channel has helped me out a lot (I've been doing home recordings since April of last year--Covid) and have learned a lot. I'm not the best by any means but I have learned and been able to put out some nice sounding songs. I played guitar on a cover I did last year and I thought it sounded 'weird' because I'm not a guitarist...I'm just as saxophonist who knows a little about the guitar, but I definitely had the microphone about 3-4 inches away from the guitar (wife and daughter were asleep). Now I'm interested in seeing if I hear a difference with my stance /mic placement from the sax (I pretty much set it up how producers set me up in college and other recordings). Thanks again!
Man, half a second in; amazing microphone and voice.
Oh wow, are you still using Jazz III for acoustic? I use the Dunlop Jazztone picks (also thick), they are my favorite, but when it comes to acoustic guitar, I have 5-6 different picks that I choose from depending on which sound I am going for. Especially thin picks are able to EQ the guitar perfectly in certain situations and give the right amount of pick noise you want. I think choosing the right pick for your recordung fits very well with your GIRATS concept. Nice video, thank you! :)
Recommended thin picks for acoustic: Tortex (thinner than the green ones), Nylon (max .88mm) and Ultex (here I often even like the thicker ones)
Joe, you have some of the best content and information. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾. I for one REALLY appreciate it.
Thanks Harry
Thank you, man.
Its so crazy to think about what it would be like without help like this.
This latest series of videos are some of the best. You make it so simple and to the point. I would have traveled to Ft. Wayne to catch your Meetup last Feb., but Covid came along. I'm from that area. If you don't mind me asking, where'd you jet off to? Some place warm? lol I'm up near Johnny Geib now, so celebrating double digit temps today.
This is great stuff! Going to be using these tips when recording
I really love the flashlight analogy Joe!!! That is really gonna help many people (myself included) improve the way they place mics!! Thank you! :D
Great - tx Joe. Is like night and day - yes please - it would be very interesting different instruments or vocals to hear!
👍
Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Cheers from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I definitely want more videos like this one
Great application of sound differentiation!
Damn... my recordings are just like the first one. Great info, thx!
Same lol
The diference is astronomic! You could make a video making a visual example and using mics of how you recorded before and after, it would be very interesting. Good video man.
@jay nice video. why does it sound like the second one has a totally different stereo image?
I enjoyed this 15min of recording lesson, I've just arrived in this mixing world. Great lesson and nice english to understand from non-english people! Thanks again!
I'm just starting out and I'm probably doing super obvious mistakes.
But I tried to set up a microphone (a cheap sm58 knockoff from 10 years ago) and i aimed it at different points of the guitar, from different angles while listening through direct monitoring in headphones.
It made just about no difference at all however I moved.
The headphones were crappy 60 buck pc headphones, Qpad I think.
Also, my room is super tiny, it is barely any bigger than a full size bed.
I don't know what to make of this...
Amazing! And yes, it would be great to have other vídeos like this.
Planning an electric guitar and vocals one...maybe drums. Any other ideas?
First one sounds like when you try to artificially add width to a mono acoustic guitar recording by panning EQ bands. The stereo image is off.
Phase imterference
I hear that too. My first instinct is to listen to that track in mono and see how bad it sounds. Remember when using multiple mics to record one source, problems could be caused not only by distance from the source (guitar), but distance between the mics.
Use a delay pedal to pan two of the same signal. Helps beef it up a little. How does NO ONE know this??? Its an old trick on the albums we all listen to.
Whenever I place the mic to the guitar bridge it sounds more warmer which is great for fingerstyle.
Hey Joe...great tip!!! Would be nice to see a similar tutorial with vocals.
So helpful to hear your comparison tracks Joe. Yeah, do it for other instruments and voice please!
Joe, there's no denying that a good recording makes your life easier. But your problem with the first recording isn't *just* the EQ, yet it's the only correcting tool you use. This is what limits you in how far you can adjust (and hopefully improve) the sound. Three things come to mind that I would try on the first recording:
1. The proximity effect will have a different effect on the Attack of the strum and the Tail/Release part. A dynamic EQ, or multiband compressor, would bring you closer to the 2nd sound because you can adjust the EQ for both the Attack and Body/Tail/Release part of the chord differently.
2. Treat your transients further with a transient shaper or some sort of boxtone analog device (or digital sim plugin) to change the perception of the sound. It eill change how clear and direct it will sound.
3. Try a different moxing technique. Example: Throw away one of your stereo captures, just use the best Mic and put it in mono. Then use the other one with a very wide reverb to get depth.
Best, John
Awesome guide man. THis is really educational and propably the right way someone should explain audio engineering. I did all those mistakes.
GIRATS is such a HUGE concept that many people should learn first when getting into audio engineering!
Once was in a band with a drummer who had a setup on his drums. The kick and snare (top and bottom) mics were so rough, I had had to learn about sample replacement just to get a decent sound over the drum tracks. Even had a music/audio friend get his hands on the track to hear the raw tracks for themselves.
Really helpful thanks
Thanks Joe, unique approach to make a good point about getting it right a the source.
Great demonstration Joe. 4 Years ago I bought a Rode NT2a mic, why, because I finally heard about recording M/S for acoustic guitar. While I know that's not what you're talking about here, that is what enabled me to finally get it right first :). Until then, I had been struggling to hear back what all my nice acoustic guitars sounded like. Never cut corners, get it right first :).
I recently treated myself to a Yamaha FGX5. I can't wait to get recording with it so any tips like this are very much appreciated. I'm hoping to do an xy and DI recording to see how they all compare.
That’s my dream guitar too!!
@@nomandad2000 it was nice to play just it off the box but took it for a professional set up. My guy dropped the action a lot and now it's a dream to play!
He was also showing it off to his other lutharians online cos he loved it so much and had tons of praise for it!
Timely advice. Thank you! I have a beautiful old Gibson that sounds great acoustically but muddies up when recorded. Now I know!
My opinion: never point a mic at the soundhole. The sound you want to record does not come from the soundhole. The sound of an acoustic guitar doesn't come from the strings, it comes from the sounding board, the big piece of wood that the strings are attached to. You should point a mic at that. I also point a mic at around the fifth fret, to catch high end and string noise. This gives a couple of feet of separation of what the two mics are hearing, which can make for an amazing stereo field. The main point, tho, is the weird but true fact that the sound of a guitar doesn't actually come from the strings.
Thank u so much, really nice video!
Love to see one for vocals