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Old 05-31-2018, 08:05 AM
AlfredFelix AlfredFelix is offline
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Location: Kentucky
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Default LR Baggs Anthem Direct Recording

Hey guys! I'm AlfredFelix, and while I have read a ton of your posts and appreciated your experience and guitar wisdom, I am just now joining the community! So, preemptively, thank you and hopefully I can contribute too now.

Do you guys have any advice on the following recording situation?

(I know a good mic is best, but I'm hoping to figure out if the LR Baggs Anthem can be used otherwise)

I have a Martin DM with an LR Baggs Anthem (full version).* It sounds fantastic through my Roland AC60.* I mean, as good as I could hope for an amplified acoustic to ever sound & truly like a real acoustic guitar.

However, when I try to directly record, my sound is lacking... Kinda thin and brittle...

I have tried the following combinations:

Anthem -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 -> Cockos Reaper
*** - Result is thin & brittle

Anthem -> Roland AC60 -> AC60 line out -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 -> Cockos Reaper
**** - Result is a bit thicker but still not good

Anthem -> Roland BR-600
**** - This is the best sound by far for recording, but it's slow and archaic, and I really want to get more used to and learn to record through the DAW.

Also, all of these sounds sound much better through my little Sterling monitors than earbuds. (Tiny ones, maybe 3") but when I listen later through a pair of boss earbuds it sounds so brittle and thin.* I know the earbuds aren't meant for studio sound, but my thought is that if I listen to a Damien Rice/Jim Croce/Whatever acoustic song through the earbuds, it still sounds acoustic.* However, when Iisten to my own recordings, it doesn't translate well at all.

I appreciate any advice if any has been able to get a good recorded sound with the LR Baggs Anthem! In my head it just seems that if it sounds that good amplified, then it ought to record similarly...
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Old 05-31-2018, 10:02 AM
Monsum Monsum is offline
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If you really need to record a direct pickup sound (as oppose to a mic which is always better) the best approach is to keep it as simple as possible, so in your case I’d go for Anthem>Focusrite>DAW.

The rest is a matter of using mixing techniques in your DAW.
There are a few things I do to improve a direct guitar sound. The most important is equalization and in my opinion cutting out some middle frequencies always helps. I often centre at around 800Hz at bring it down by something like 9dB. The exact frequencies and amount removed differ but that's just a rough guide.

Add some reverb but not something obvious like a Hall setting. I like adding some ambience reverb, very short and subtle, felt rather than heard and then a Room or Plate (short) reverb.
Another trick you can try is to ‘stereoize’ a mono signal, for this I use a free plugin by iZotope Ozone Imager, it just adds 3-D dimension to the direct signal.

Sometimes I use IR impulses of acoustic guitars through a plugin IR loader such as NadIR.
There are other ways of improving direct recordings: compression, saturation, exciter plugins can add to the overall effect.

Instead of EQing inside a DAW you could use a pedal like TC Electronic BodyRez between your guitar and an audio interface. Or even better but more expensive option – Tonedexter, in this case you would probably need to use the element pickup only rather than the Anthem mic.

If you want you can record some direct audio of the Anthem, put it onto Soundcloud (enable downloading a file) and I'll try to make it sound better.
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Old 05-31-2018, 10:38 AM
AlfredFelix AlfredFelix is offline
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Monsum,

Thank you greatly for your thorough and kind response. I had never heard of NadIR and for that matter, only knew of impulse responses for electric guitar cabinets... I will also try messing with EQ to see what I can do. I am fairly ignorant about much to do with this all, and I believe/hope your initial advice will help immensely! I will do some recording/editing and see what I can do. I may post to sound cloud for examples of what I was saying if I can get an account created, but you don't need to spend your time editing it. I do greatly appreciate all that you have already advised!
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anthem, direct, lr baggs, martin, recording

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