[Doug]

Hi,
I've got a set up at home using two mics on booms to record my steel string guitar. I aim one mic at the lower bout behind the bridge with the mic aimed slightly away from the sound hole and the other aimed at about where the neck joins the body again aimed slightly away from the sound hole. The mics are about 12 inches (30 cm) away from the guitar. And this works fairly well. However, when I try to record my nylon string guitar - especially fairly loud strumming, I just get a bunch of booming. I've tried re-aiming the mics and moving away back but so far not very satisfactorily.

Does anyone have any help to offer for classical/flamenco guitar recording?

thanks,
Doug

[gollo]

I read somewhere about this kind of problem but I can't seem to find it now, so I'm going from memory.

Try placing the mic's close together at about a 90 degree angle from each other and at a 90 degree angle from the guitar. Then position yourself or the mics so they are about 2 - 3 feet away from the 12th fret.

microphone placement.JPG

The booming sound indicates that the mic(s) are getting sound straight from the soundhole, which is probably a bit to bassy for them to cope with, so experiment with aiming them more away from the soundhole towards the neck. This will reduce the bassy booming but might increase the sound of your fretting hand, and it might be hard to find the right compromise.

You could also try having the mics close to the ground and pointing upwards, or I have heard of people placing the mic(s) over their shoulder.

If you can manage to get a sound without too much booming you can always use EQ to reduce the bass whereas if you try to increase the treble it will just sound noisy.

If you would like you can always post me a recording and I will try to see what I can do with it, I've got plenty of spare time at the moment so it wouldn't be a problem.

In the meantime I'll see if I can find the original article for you. Good luck!

[namiguShin]

Hi Doug,

can you please post an example of both acoustic and classical guitar recordings... I'm very interested in this subject and I would like to hear that difference you're talking about...

Thanks

[Doug]

thanks Gollo.
I'll try your suggestions. The mic over the shoulder idea sounds intriguing since this should be in essence what the player hears. Funny that there's such a difference between a classical and a steel string in this regard. I might simplify the situation and just use one mic.
The other thing I'm experimenting on is the placement of a small lapel type mic in the body of the guitar. But I haven't made much progress on that yet. i found a good thread by googling rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic on placing a mic inside a guitar. They suggest just in from the soundhole and placed up near the 14th fret area. I'll let you know how that works.
-Doug

[Doug]

Originally Posted by namiguShin

Hi Doug,

can you please post an example of both acoustic and classical guitar recordings... I'm very interested in this subject and I would like to hear that difference you're talking about...

Thanks

i'll try to post some examples soon...