Recording mic'd up or plugged in?

[ctvolfan]

Sorry, if this needs to be moved to the recording forum I understand. But there are so many more people on this general forum that I hope I can get more responses. I just have a simple question. I live in a small house with a wife and two yappy Yorkies. It is never ever quite in the house. I have had recording equipment and software for about three years now and I have not recorded anything but a little bit of playing around and exploring the process. I gave up on even trying to record because of the background noise in the house. I have electronics in my acoustics. I know that the purist would say it is always better to record via microphone pointing towards the 12th or 15th fret or something. My question is, how many of you record your acoustic plugged in? I plan on adding effects to it anyway so that seems to me to be getting away from the purity of recording with a mic anyway. My Taylors have the Expression 2 system and I am using Presonus AudioBox iTwo hardware with Sudio One 3 software. Thoughts on recording plugged in vs mic'd up? Mic'd up overrated? Plugged in sufficient? Thanks!

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by ctvolfan

…My question is, how many of you record your acoustic plugged in?
…Thoughts on recording plugged in vs mic'd up? Mic'd up overrated? Plugged in sufficient? Thanks!

Hi ctv-etc

Depends on if you want recordings to sound like an acoustic or not.

I have never recorded plugged in, and have always managed to find a quiet space to record in…with the portability of today's equipment, it's not hard to find 'spaces'.

If you don't don't do both and compare, you'll never know which you prefer.

[Rudy4]

You have to take the reality of your situation into account. Even a cheap condenser mic will sound "better" than a pickup if you're looking for true acoustic tone, but if you are shackled by extraneous noise sources then it's better to record with a pickup than not to record at all.

Unless you're going crazy with plug-ins / effects you can't hide the difference between a miked and direct in recording.

[lkingston]

With the S-Mic on my Schertler AG-6, I never turn it up more than an eighth of a turn live because it will feed back, but for recording turning it up all the way gives me a beautiful miked sound where I really don’t hear the pickup even though I know it’s there. It is a dead easy miked guitar any time I want to record it.

[Brent Hahn]

I have a client who has gotten so accustomed to the sound of a piezo pickup that he thinks it's "his" sound. So does Willie, near as I can tell. And Diego y Graciela certainly don't shy away from it. If the checks clear, who am I to judge?

[Glennwillow]

I record my guitars with condenser mics. But as Larry notes above, for you, it depends on what you want your guitar to sound like. Any recorded sound is better than nothing at all if it gets you started on recording.

[Doug Young]

it all depends on the sound you want. I personally would suggest using mics - and finding a way to work around noise issues - wait till others go to bed, and so on - even the dogs must sleep now and then?. I suspect most people who care about acoustic guitar sound would dislike a pickup recording, but of course there are lots of people who wouldn't even notice. So it's all up to what you are trying to do, and how much you and your audience cares. If you absolutely need to use a pickup, but would like it to sound better, you might consider a gizmo like ToneDexter, which can do a pretty good job of making your pickup sound more acceptable. I have heard some recordings made with an Aura that were reasonable as well.

I posted 15 different ways to record with a pickup a while back, using various post-processing tricks to try to get a better sound. Most (well, all...) failed to sound good enough for my taste, but you might find something here that would be useful (this is a 15-part playlist, so go to SoundCloud to listen)

https://soundcloud.com/doug-young/se...-a-pickup-demo

Here's an example using ToneDexter to create a stereo recording from a pickup:

https://soundcloud.com/doug-young/tonedexter-stereo

[JohnDWilliams]

An AKG C411 stick on can sound pretty good. Better than a pick up but not as good as a real mic. You have to experiment with where to stick it on the guitar.

You need an XLR connection with phantom power

I’ve used them to solve problems in the studio with a player who can’t stand still in front of a mic or one that breathes heavy.

[muscmp]

i've never liked electrified acoustics so i always use at least one mic. to me this sounds much more accurate.

play music!

[FrankHudson]

Folks here are telling you what you already know: it won't sound like the acoustic guitar in the room if you use the pickup. That doesn't mean it won't work musically.

I've never used one, much less with your Taylor ES-2 system, but the Tonedexter might help with approaching the timbre of the "unplugged" guitar.

There is also the iRig Acoustic Stage, Currently less than $100, and dead easy to use. It is a microphone, so it's not immune to room noise, but it's much more so that the typical external condenser microphone you'd use in it's place, and I'm no golden ear, but I think it sounds pretty good., particularly when you think about how inexpensive it is.

Here's couple of comparisons I made just after I bought mine

[Doug Young]

I can't get those videos to play for some reason, but I agree, the iRig is an option, as are other contact-type pickups, like the Dyn-G. I reviewed the iRig for AG a while back, and it recorded surprisingly well.

Another approach, BTW, is just to embrace the fact that you're plugged in. Use effects, chorus, lots of reverb, etc, and go for a heavily processed sound. It won't sound like a natural acoustic, but you may be able to sculpt a sound that is musical and interesting in its own right.

[Gordon Currie]

There are two factors to think about:

1. Are you intending to release your music commercially? Or are you interested in at most passing it around to family and friends? The former is going to more strongly require a mic'd sound.

2. What is the music like that you are recording? Solo guitar? Voice and guitar? Guitar as part of a larger ensemble? Again, solo guitar may sound odd plugged in, but less so when there is a voice, and not at all in a larger ensemble.

Since you clearly have no practical option to use a microphone, I'd just use the pickups and get on with it. Hopefully the *next* three years will see you learning a ton about actual (as opposed to theoretical) recording.

I am starting to do a lot of demo recording with my ToneDexter. No microphones to set up, no worries about ambient noise, it's so productive and the sound is excellent, if different than a traditional setup. I can see there are going to be commercial releases using this technology for anyone who can comfortably move away from the 'gold standard' approach (which I love for certain applications).

[KevWind]

If the environment is too noisy for mics , then it doesnt matter what others think, just go for it and see what you can come up with.

This fellow made a whole album featuring "plugged in acoustic" sound

[Acoustic_Stevo]

I use a Zoon H5 and I record using the built in xy mics and with my guitar plugged in. I pan the x and y left and right, and keep the plugged in track in the middle with a lower volume. Fills the sound out a lot.
Sounds alright to me.

[Joseph Hanna]

Here is a track I did with a Taylor GS-Mini. I primarily used the pickup that came with the guitar (I don't even know what it is) and an old SM-57 that I used just for added ambience. Admittedly there's more going on with this track than just a solo acoustic guitar so there's a little wiggle room to hide the pickup-ness.

Still I think the track came out ok and certainly feels acoustic enough in this environment.

YMMV

https://soundcloud.com/joseph-hanna/taylor-mini-v2