Recording an Emerald

[Earl49]

Nice playing, and lovely tune! You might think about using the on-board pickup (if present) as part of the signal chain and sweeten that with some mic on top. That depends on your equipment's ability to mic the signals.

The SM58 - like any dynamic / magnetic mic - has a major proximity effect. Being 12" away is beyond its primary sensitivity area. Moving it closer is worth a try to see if you get a hotter signal. That is why it is a good vocal mic for individuals, but not very useful for choirs or groups. Condenser mics don't have the same profile. But they need a power source - either a battery, USB power, or phantom power from the mixing board.

On Captain Jim's recommendation my wife recently bought a Shure MV88 which is what he uses to do his videos. It works well, plugs in through a USB or Lightning connector and her iPad and Macbook. She will be using it heavily this weekend for a virtual bass flute retreat that was cancelled in person. I believe it was $249 and came with useful accessories. Who knows? maybe I will get around to making some videos too..... Video is a whole new world for me. My picky ear has been an obstacle to recording. It takes a lot of time and effort to get a good sound that I'm happy with, plus many repeats to get a "take" that is acceptable. I probably need to just pay someone to do the recording engineer part, while I play. Doing both is too much for one brain.

[Chipotle]

An SM58 might have a bit low output for the Solo preamps, but as long as you can turn up the gain without noise (or at least, noise that you think is bothersome), turn the knob. Are you getting indicator lights for the signal when you play? It doesn't need to go into the yellow/red... just some green is fine. Digitally, you can record okay with far lower signal than in ye olde analog days.

In the same vein, crank the headphone volume if you need. Maybe try some other headphones; they might be more sensitive. Whatever you need to do to hear the result of moving the mic around.

And sometimes if you're doing it all yourself, it's sometimes easier to leave the mic still and move the guitar (and yourself) around! Turn side to side, slide your chair left, right, forward and back until you find a sound you like.

FWIW, Warren Huart ("Produce Like a Pro") seems to favor pointing mics at the lower "corner" of the upper bout, basically at the top below the fretboard extension (see video about 11min in). That seems like it might work well for an Emerald with its soundhole placement. Another common spot that might work well is pointing just past the bridge or between the bridge and the end pin.



Condenser mics will have higher output and capture more detail of acoustic guitar, especially if you're playing fingerstyle. But you can still get pretty good results with a good old 58 if you experiement a bit.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

An SM58 might have a bit low output for the Solo preamps, but as long as you can turn up the gain without noise (or at least, noise that you think is bothersome), turn the knob. Are you getting indicator lights for the signal when you play? It doesn't need to go into the yellow/red... just some green is fine. Digitally, you can record okay with far lower signal than in ye olde analog days.

Yes, I'm getting some green, with the gain up to about 3/4. Similarly, I have to crank the headphones up to about 3/4 to get sufficient signal.

Thanks for the suggestions about mic placement and so on - I need to spend some quality time downstairs in my nice cool basement room over the next few days!

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by EvanB

David;

Beautiful guitar work! You make the Emerald sing. Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Earl49

Nice playing, and lovely tune!

Thank you - I appreciate the compliments, very much

You might think about using the on-board pickup (if present) as part of the signal chain and sweeten that with some mic on top. That depends on your equipment's ability to mic the signals.

No pickups in either of my Emeralds - by choice, obviously - so mics are the way to go for me.

The SM58 - like any dynamic / magnetic mic - has a major proximity effect. Being 12" away is beyond its primary sensitivity area. Moving it closer is worth a try to see if you get a hotter signal. That is why it is a good vocal mic for individuals, but not very useful for choirs or groups. Condenser mics don't have the same profile. But they need a power source - either a battery, USB power, or phantom power from the mixing board.

I believe I'll be going the condenser route very soon - my interface can provide the necessary power. I can have an AT2021 here tomorrow for a princely $89

[jcub]

For an alternative "in the box" approach, you can use the pickup and process using an impulse response (IR). 3sigmaaudio has great IRs for a variety of acoustic guitars (https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/acoustic-impulses/) and there are plenty of free ones online.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by jcub

For an alternative "in the box" approach, you can use the pickup and process using an impulse response (IR). 3sigmaaudio has great IRs for a variety of acoustic guitars (https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/acoustic-impulses/) and there are plenty of free ones online.

Intriguing technology, for sure - but as I mentioned in the post above, my guitars do not have pickups installed.

[futboljim]

Dave - when we finally get together, maybe we can play around with this a bit. I’ve been using an apogee thru either my iPhone or iPad.

When I did my comparison videos with my x20 and APLE, I was curious about mic position, too. I think I just pointed it between the sound hole and twelfth fret, but prolly further away than would be optimal. Now I’m curious and will have to play around a bit with it.

[zeeway]

Hey David,

I know nothing about recording...but I really enjoyed your playing.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by zeeway

Hey David,

I know nothing about recording...but I really enjoyed your playing.

Why, thank you! Much appreciated

[GuitarLuva]

David, that was a fine display of playing. In my experience so far with Emerald guitars and recording/micing I still find the same general rules apply. Earl makes a good point about the room you're in. That being said I've been placing my mics about 1ft away pointing toward the 14th fret though just slightly upwards for the Emeralds. Using that general position I was able to make some really nice IR's for both my Emeralds.

I've been using a Slate ML-2 primarily for its flat frequency response but I also have a cheap Audix i5 that does a great job capturing the acoustic voice of any guitar.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by GuitarLuva

David, that was a fine display of playing.

Thank you!

In my experience so far with Emerald guitars and recording/micing I still find the same general rules apply. Earl makes a good point about the room you're in. That being said I've been placing my mics about 1ft away pointing toward the 14th fret though just slightly upwards for the Emeralds. Using that general position I was able to make some really nice IR's for both my Emeralds.

That seems to be roughly where I'm settling. I'm using an AT2021 at around that distance and placement, although for me the most pleasing sound (so far) comes from positioning it more at the height of the soundport, and angling it down. Pretty happy with the audio results I'm getting - next step is figuring out how to include the video so that I'm not scratching my head every time I do a new recording.

I'd like this to become 'second nature', as far as that's possible - I've got a ton of stuff I'd like to record, so the more straightforward it is, the better.