recording guitar = more finger/string/breathing noise, less dynamics/vibrato

[mc1]

i've been doing a bit of recording, and i noticed that dynamics and vibrato seem much less obvious in recordings. i'll play something that i think ranges from fairly quiet to fairly loud, but when i listen back, the volume differences are quite subtle. same for vibrato, if i add a little, it is lost on playback. adding what seems like too much plays back about right.

on the other hand (ha! literally), finger noise like my thumb resting on a wound string (or sliding along it when not playing), nail noise, sounds from shifting my arm closer to the bridge all seem exaggerated and really annoying. same for breathing. so annoying that it's distracting.

is this the same for others? could it be due to using spaced pairs that are pointing toward my picking hand? i'll experiment, but i just felt a bit like taking a break and posting.

[KevWind]

Yes you always deal with this when recording vs just playing live in a room and listing to what you are playing. It is two very different situations with two different sets of multiple various acoustical properties at play . And they are never going to sound exactly the same.

That said:
Couple of thoughts, are you using headphones when tracking ? This is going to be closer ( not exact but closer depending on the particular HP) to the sound of the recording than just listening with your ears to while you are playing and recording.

Also remember when you are playing in a room and just listening you are also hearing how all of the particular acoustical properties of that room react to the guitar. Which no matter the mic position will never be the same as what you hear with just your ears

When using mics ( which will be picking up different set of acoustical properties than your ears because of being in a different position than your ears and not actually being the same transducer as your ears ) then playing back through a monitoring system, speakers, headphones etc. (also different properties than your ears and also a different property set than the mics as well ) you are now at two powers of magnitude of variations of acoustics, away from just sittin' and playin'

Yes experimentation is a big part of the answer.
In general mic position is always compromise.

in general the closer the mic to the sound source (to a point) the more subtle detail will be recorded but less room interaction will be recorded.

The further away from the source the less detail and more room interaction will be recorded. But these are only general and subject to a whole host of room acoustics issues . Welcome to the challenge of recording

[MikeBmusic]

Kev has pretty much nailed it all! Experiment with different mic setups and distances. You mention 'spaced pairs' - are you using an X-Y pattern? If so, then try one at the 12th fret pointing slightly towards the soundhole and another pointing to the lowr bout of the guitar. or the second one on a boom over your shoulder pointing down towards the soundhole.

[rick-slo]

When you are in the moment and physically involved, that extra volume by a greater push of you finger on a note, that vibrato from a wiggly finger, seems more real and apparent. Also you are quite close to the guitar.

Dynamics even out with greater distance from the guitar. You have to play around with mike distances from the guitar and room acoustics.

The other ancillary noises can be reduced by careful mike placement.

If you pile on reverb post recording you will accent the squeaks and blur the overall dynamics.

[Rudy4]

What you hear on playback is a reproduction of what the mics hear, not your ears. You must realize that the ears hear from an entirely different perspective, and what we perceive is even heavily shaped by the convolutions of the ear lobes.

The only way that you would be able to hear the same sound as reproduced would be if there were perfect mics that were placed at your ear positions, and those "perfect mics" don't exist.

[mc1]

interesting and helpful thoughts. thanks kev, mike, derek, rudy.

[islandguitar]

Yes, very interesting thoughts.....thanks guys! I appreciate the perspectives.

[DesolationAngel]

It is a heck of a challenge and I can't pretend to have 'solved' it myself... and the irony, for me, is that sometimes I get a more satisfying recording with a single Apogee Mic in the lounge than when using multiple 'proper' mics in my little studio. But most of the time a small diaphragm close-mic'd and a large diaphragm further away (sometimes over my shoulder) seems to give me the right combination of sounds to blend and make into one. I'm also experimenting with some acoustic pickups to add a third source.

The journey is fun though. I've found that I listen to my house more these days and hear resonances in rooms and corners that I never heard before.

My current bugbear; a momentary scrape, when fingerpicking, that comes from a fraction of a second of finger skin rubbing the string before my nail plucks it. Driving me crazy.

[rickwaugh]

It also points out one of the reasons to record yourself. What you think you sound like may not actually be what you sound like. We layer on personal expectations and thoughts. The only way you can step back and listen is by recording. It's an eye opener.