Recording Classical Guitar

Daniel Nistico had asked me to do a demonstration of recording classical guitar using the software I have developed in conjunction with existing digital audio workstation (DAW) software and here it is. It is highly recommended that you listen to this through HiFi or Headphones. Without high quality sound reproduction at a good natural (ie. how loud the instrument would normally sound) level, you are unlikely to hear the effect of the demonstrated changes.
0:00 Introduction
1:33 The Guitar I Recorded
3:56 Overview of the Microphone Technique Used and Why
7:44 General Discussion of Possible Microphone Techniques
11:29 The Problem with a Simple Monophonic Microphone Recording Technique
15:17 The Solution to Making a Monophonic Recording Sound Real - Introduction
18:19 Ideal Room Acoustics
25:54 Synthesising Ideal Room Acoustics - Early Reflections
32:01 Synthesising Ideal Room Acoustics - Diffuse Reverb Tail
36:14 The Recording Session in Logic Pro
37:46 Equalising the Guitar Recording in Har-Bal Harmonic Balancer
47:13 The Mixing Session in Logic Pro - Multiband Noise Gating Discussion
50:03 Spatial Pan Discussion
53:26 Synthetic Space Discussion
53:43 Limiter Discussion
54:47 Demonstrating Noise Gate
57:48 Demonstrating Spatial Pan / Early Reflections
1:04:06 Demonstrating Synthetic Space / Diffuse Reverb Tail
1:06:39 Simply Panned Monophonic Recording
1:07:11 Monophonic Recording with Spatial Panning and Synthetic Space Room Simulation
Note that the Har-Bal software used in this video is available for purchase at a 75% discount from,
www.har-bal.com
by using the discount coupon HB5 on checkout. This offer expires on the 1st of April 2024.

[@mrpog6541]

thank you this helped me a lot

[@paavojumppanen914]

Glad it helped!

[@herveplez7170]

god bless har bal masteing!

[@ilblues]

Thank you, Paavo. Your guitar looks similar to an old Lyle classical guitar my parents bought new for me about 1970. It was bass heavy and had a better sound with rectified strings, in particular a wrapped G string. I wish I still had it, but migrated to a steel string guitar for a number of years, before buying another classical. These days, I have greater love for nylon strings as they're more soothing with my worsening tinnitus. I wanted to ask about your recommended order in an master bus FX chain for Spatial Pan and Synthetic Space. I've swapped their order several times and putting Spatial Pan after Synthetic Space greatly reduces the reverb effect. Are they meant to be used in any particular order? Again, thanks Paavo! You really contribute to my understanding of sound. Jack in Sequim

[@paavojumppanen914]

Yes, I too actually prefer the more mellow sound of nylons over steels. They're also more comfortable on the fingers, and you are spot on, the guitar I have is bass heavy too. It's actually quite attractive except for it being a bit peaky on particular notes. When I'm more competent I likely try and find another classical guitar.
On the order of things, yes, spatial panning should be before reverb and not after. It is to be expected that the reverberation collapses when fed through spatial pan (it gets monofied, collapsed into a single channel). If you look at in the perspective of the underlying physics of sound in spaces, the early reflections come first and the reverberation comes from those reflections being diffused around the room, so in nature the early reflections come first and the reverberation comes after. If you want to experiment with reverb first you should create a parallel path for the reverb to get to your master bus without going through spatial pan (pass through off). I guess this is equivalent to using the reverb in a separate reverb bus and using channel sends. However, this will have a less rich reverb than the recommended approach, because the input to the reverb will have added richness from the spatial pan. This augments the character in the same way as recorded room ambience does.