have you ever recorded live guitar?

basically i play the guitar (to a very basic standard) and I've written quite a few songs on it. i don't have a clue how i would go about recording it though as i want to approach an artist with my songs. I'm using logic by the way.

many thanks

I am working on an acoustic/vocal project right now with a guy. I am using 2 Shure SM7b mics through a Great River MP-2NV into a Digi 002.

Basically I set the mics about 3 to 6 inches from the hole and the frets, and space them out about 2 feet or so.

There is a rule that says something like for every 3 inches the mic is away from the guitar, you should have 7 inches between the mics to prevent phasing. I try to follow that and have had great results so far. I don't break out the tape measure or anything, but I guesstimate.

For electric guitars, you have to decide whether you are going to record through an amp, or direct into Logic. If directly into Logic, it should be fairly simple. Just watch your levels. If you are going to mic an amp, I would experiment with the distance between the mic and the amp, as well as the position of the mic. I mean whether it is head on, or sideways or anywhere in-between, if that makes sense.

I can't add much to what has already been said above as I know very little about micing techniques.

However, using my Edirol R-09HR I've had some excellent results. What I do is use it as a mic, put it in standby mode and then record via the headphone monitor socket directly into my interface. It's a cheeky workaround that lets me use a field recorder as a very useful stereo mic. The recordings are awesome!

I've also tried using a more traditional Shure mic (SM58, which is more suited to vocals) but the less said about that the better haha.

Recording electric I've either gone directly in through my interface, or via my little mixer first for some distortion.

If I was you I'd google the basics of micing up a guitar, there's bound to be some excellent tutorials online.

if you have two of the same condenser mics, try the xy blumlein technique.

you put the mic a foot or so away from the guitar, while one points twoards the frets on a kickdrum mic stand, use a regular one, to go on top of it and point the mic at the hole in the guitar.

heres a better explanation



use some baffles if you do this too, i got the best acoustic guitar sound ive ever recorded using this technique.

you have to have 2 identical mics though or it wont work so well.

\ / <------- aim a pair of mics like that, approx 120degrees apart with one pointing at the hole and one at the where the neck meets the body.

i've been recording various stringed instruments for a while now, guitar included, through a pair of little blondies omni mics>DAV BG1>Sound Devices UBSPre2.

i favor the omni mic because of the clarity and life like representation of the guitar, the plucking and the fingering.

like others have said, one at the hole one at where the neck meets the body and you should be good to go.

the beauty of the omni mic though is that since there's not proximity effect, you can get really close to the hole and capture the bass sound honestly without it swallowing everything. the down side is that since they're omni's your environment becomes more important as they will pick up a mouse fart in the next room. there are ways around it, but if your space isnt treated then cardioid or dynamic would be the better choice.

good luck.

Depends on what type of guitar; electric or acoustic? But if you're familar with the projection of sound, its pretty much like positioning the mic to record vocals. For electric, position the mic from the amp about a foot or two away. Depending on the sound you going for, but as a quicky, position the mic center to the speaker for a loud and clear sound, or position the mic to the left or right of the speaker for a dark tone. Just play with mic-positioning.