Quote:
Originally Posted by Eclectic Guitar
My research so far tells me that the Heil PR-30 is the one for acoustic guitar & vocal recording.
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I'm curious what your research says? I've not come across that mic, but I have never heard that it's one that commonly used for recording acoustic guitar. When I think about using something that no one else is, I start to ask myself if there's a reason. But maybe this is *the* mic to use, and I've just been oblivious.
I'm sure I've said all this before, but just in case :-), I doubt you can find a mic that will solve noise and bad acoustics. if you really want a good sound, you need to fix the real problem. Any mic sensitive enough to pick up your guitar will also pick up the fridge, or the truck across the street, or....
If I'm remembering, it sounds like you may have 2 issues you're trying to address, bad acoustics, and noise (right?)
The real cure for bad acoustics (which is very common) is room treatment. Lacking that, you can reduce (but not eliminate) the problem with close micing. There's actually a new ribbon mic that sort of is meant to address this issue, the AEA N22. Even tho they're figure 8's, they have so little proximity effect (and a big low end rolloff), that they seem to work best literally 2-3 inches away from the guitar. That tends to reduce the room sound relative to the guitar. Not perfect, but one option. Mics that have tight patterns may help, but there's a catch-22, mics that are more directional tend to have more proximity effect, so you may not be able to get them as close to the source, with the result that they pick up more room.
If you have noise, that's tougher (and very common). The only real cure is to get rid of the noise. Send the kids to bed, turn off the TV or the fridge, record at 3am when there's less traffic, whatever. Lacking that, again *very* close micing can increase the guitar volume relative to the noise, which helps. You have the same catch-22 with directional mics in this case, tho. In addition, a good noise reduction program, like iZotope RX can be a life-saver for a home studio.