Does any of you prefer the sound of the onboard electronic for recording ?
 

I usually record acoustic with external mics, but have problems with recordings at my place as the room is small and not treated, plus the fact that there's much noise from the street. That's why I start more and more to consider onboard electronic as an option, and that's also why I was wondering if any of you had better results with onboard pickup/mic than with external mics, for recording purpose ?

I'm in much the same boat (or room as the situation may be).

For that reason I run my UST into an M-Audio M Track USB interface straight in to Reaper on my laptop.

There are EQ settings in the DAW, but I'd rather have the sound shaped before hitting that, so I can fine tune later.

Of course, there are times when I'll wait until the middle of the night and there's a small bathroom on the main floor in the back that I can isolate from the HVAC (either turn it off, or throw a thick towel over the vent). Get really good results from a condenser mic (Shure SM57) hanging about a foot down from the shower curtain rod.

I can get a clear guitar and vocal sound from that set up. The flat surfaces give just enough openness to the sound without being too echo-ey.

Mic modelling is your friend. Pedals include The Fishman Aura and The Zoom A3. Yamaha made a pedal, I forgot the model, but they have integrated that technology into their modelling amps, which I also believe have a usb/digital out.

Unless your getting a lot of extraneous noise bleed (traffic, your pet, the phone ringing, kids, etc.) record both the mic'd guitar and run a direct line from your built-in pickup. Give each of those sources their own channel when your recording and you now have choices when you mix. If the external noise with the mic is not audible (you record when the house is empty, and there is no traffic), you can blend the direct tone with the mic tone and you just may find the right guitar tone that way.

I'll do it (use the guitar's pickup).

First off I'm sometimes recording with a band. The pickup is just easier to deal with and there's more freedom when mixing. The results on tracks when the acoustic guitar part aren't featured don't really suffer that much I think. And even when it is, dealing with a guitar mic and a band in my recording space is just awkward, and the sound you get can be valid musically even if the timbre isn't the same as the guitar acoustically alone in the room.

I'll also do it when recording solo or in a duo situation, where I could mic. My reason to do that: I sometimes like to record a "scratch vocal" to help guide my guitar playing, and that'll leak into the guitar mic. Depends on the song or the arrangement if I do that. I prefer the sound and fullness you get with a stereo mic setup. Often I'll record the guitar pickup too even if I think I'm recording a final vocal, so if I find I'm in a situation where the guitar track is good enough, but the vocal isn't, I'll revert to using the pickup in the mix and redo the vocal. So, in solo or sparse mixes, though I prefer the sound of mics, my lack of skill with vocals means I sometimes need to fall back to less than ideal guitar sound to make the resulting track listenable. If the vocal isn't working, no one will care about how the guitar sounds.

Solo guitar (instrumental): always mics for me. If you have intermittent leaked background environmental sound there are ways to "fix it in the mix". I wouldn't recommend that if one has substantial or common environmental noise leakage, but things like Izotope RX can allow mic'ed tracks to be used where there are smaller issues.

The AG-Stomp?

I've recently been experimenting with a blend like this, and it's a great idea . Surprised by how well this works. One thing is that with a blend approach , you can afford to get the mic much closer, eliminating a lot of the room noise etc. anyway.

I get great results with microphones and I have a nice recording space. What really bugs me is professional artists who record in a real studio and use a pickup! UGH! I HATE that sound, especially when someone has a wonderful acoustic guitar and uses a pickup to record it and it sounds like a rubber band. Eric Johnson recorded an acoustic album recently and about half the songs he used a pickup on and it sounds horrible. Even if you have a really good pickup system, if you are recording in a studio you will always get the most natural sound with mics.

In a word - no.

This fellow does or did for this album

I mostly use my microphones to to record my guitars. A few times I used the onboard pick-up. Two instances:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_9asGl3O6PA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MYBnUQDzmJ0

After all these years I still love this CD. The melodies are so strong. I've been lucky enough to hear first hand how the idea of this project unfolded and why he decided to use the direct piezo approach. This will of course never, ever fly with the purists here but the idea of recording, playing and listening at a decent volume levels, in stereo and without headphones certainly proved to be a creative approach and one I wouldn't mind revisiting someday.

The music is pretty but I find that rubber band sound unbearable.

No. Never.


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Yes of course. If you come from the perspective of the purity of an acoustic guitar it's gonna sound like a tribute to a piezo pickup :) In the end the album was never meant to be it's own namesake. Further it's not only an endeavor of an acoustic guitar pickup but it whole heartedly embraced both digital chorus and heavy reverb. Two additional elements that most purists avoid at almost all costs.

His intents (and I'm paraphrasing) was to create an environment that was loud enough to maintain the feel and volume of a band environment while slightly shifting from the "all electric" project he had just abandon. It also gave him the ability to work later into the evening with headphone (or even just lower volumes) as as I recall his wife was pregnant at the time. I really do love the purists approach even with all its pratfalls and foibles but this idea (large, wide and loud) still appeals to me. Probably for the same reasons it appealed to Craig. Now....if I only could come up with an entire album of melodies I could set the plan in motion.

At any rate the project was enough to get him a Grammy and by any measuring stick, piezo or not, that probably should be considered a successful effort :)