Acoustic electric classical for direct line recording

[TBman]

Does anyone record this way? Just curious if it is workable. It would cut out the "room" from the recording chain.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Does anyone record this way? Just curious if it is workable. It would cut out the "room" from the recording chain.

Hi Barry,
It certainly is feasible.
In fact, when I started recording back in the late 80s/early 90s, that's exactly how I used to do it. My first recorder was a "Tascam Porta 2" 4 track analog cassette recorder, and I was mainly recording with my Gibson Chet Atkins CE (still have it). I would plug it directly into the board. I have hours of cassette recordings to prove it!
Caveats though: I wouldn't call that guitar an acoustic. It really is a nylon string electric. It has a piezo type pickup. Not the best, but the Tascam recorder did a great job of recording it, and then mixing the results. I had a great time doing all these recordings.
Today's classical electric/acoustic have much better pickups, and in a digitized environment, you can get a much better sound.

For the heck of it, I posted a sample here of a Bach duet I had recorded just as described above, i.e. in analog fashion, with the guitar plugged directly into the board, and then later digitized the file so I could post it. Here it is in Soundcloud.
As I said, not the best of sounds, but you have to consider it was an analog "Cassette" file that was digitized and compressed.
I'm sure a much better sound could be realized today.

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by TBman

Does anyone record this way?

Yeah, I've done it, but of course, I'm strictly a non-pro home recording artist. I do it with the keyboard all the time, so why not an acoustic/electric guitar? You can tweak the sound from the DAW. I've also tried running into an amp, then directly out from headphones to audio interface to DAW. That way you can use the amp's EQ and reverb etc. Just trial and error, which hopefully doesn't blow up the interface....

[Gcunplugged]

Hi Barry,

You might consider adding an iRig to whatever guitar you already have. In the video linked below, I used an iRig Acoustic, straight into an iPad. It is essentially a clip on condenser mic, and definitely cuts the room effect out of the recording.

You will hear a lot of reverb in that video, which I added in post-recording (some will say too much :-). The original recording is quite dry.

https://youtu.be/vJWaMbCDj6c

Hope that is of some help,
Gary

[TBman]

Originally Posted by AndreF

Hi Barry,
It certainly is feasible.
In fact, when I started recording back in the late 80s/early 90s, that's exactly how I used to do it. My first recorder was a "Tascam Porta 2" 4 track analog cassette recorder, and I was mainly recording with my Gibson Chet Atkins CE (still have it). I would plug it directly into the board. I have hours of cassette recordings to prove it!
Caveats though: I wouldn't call that guitar an acoustic. It really is a nylon string electric. It has a piezo type pickup. Not the best, but the Tascam recorder did a great job of recording it, and then mixing the results. I had a great time doing all these recordings.
Today's classical electric/acoustic have much better pickups, and in a digitized environment, you can get a much better sound.

For the heck of it, I posted a sample here of a Bach duet I had recorded just as described above, i.e. in analog fashion, with the guitar plugged directly into the board, and then later digitized the file so I could post it. Here it is in Soundcloud.
As I said, not the best of sounds, but you have to consider it was an analog "Cassette" file that was digitized and compressed.
I'm sure a much better sound could be realized today.

That sounded pretty darn good. I'll have to think about this. When the time comes I could just order an acoustic electric and test it out. If I don't like the result, I could send it back for exchange or just mic it and play plugged in for my own entertainment.