Baffles for recording acoustic guitars?

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  • #23513 Reply
    Gre
    Guest

    I recently purchased a Rhode nt2-a large diaphragm mic and am not happy with the room sound it’s picking up, so I’m looking for ways to eliminate as much of that as possible. I was thinking some sort of baffling around the mic could would be sufficient.

    Anyone here recommend either home made or commercial options?

    #23514 Reply
    Paolo
    Guest

    Hi Gre,

    First, if you haven’t tried this – try moving to different parts of the room – experimenting with different angles from guitar to mic to walls.

    Second – hang heavy drapes; check which wall reflections when eliminated kill the sound you’re unhappy with

    Third – some years ago, I bought an acoustic panel kit (can’t remember the name). It came in the mail in many boxes and when assembled, I had two 8 foot tall folding bi-panels. They can be placed to form an isolation booth / or U shape. Step inside of that and it’s like “the cone of silence.”

    #23520 Reply
    OverDub
    Participant

    Also you can get closer to the mic to capture more guitar and less room. I use some homemade baffles made from semi rigid rock wool covered in cloth. I put the gobo behind the mic and play into it. Works great. Good luck!

    #23521 Reply
    MichaelL
    Participant

    Disclosure: I’m not a guitar player.

    A friend of mine bought this tutorial on how to record acoustic guitar and was very happy with it.

    https://homestudiocorner.leadpages.net/recording-acoustic-guitar-61515/

    #23523 Reply
    Chuck Mott
    Guest

    After watching this video, this pretty much sums up the only kind of mixing I need most of the time. Warren was a producer to the pros, no slouch. My favorite acoustic guitar mixing vid, and I’ve seen many.

    Part of the idea here is micing close enough, no baffles needed .

    #23524 Reply
    Greg
    Guest

    Thanks for all the tips.

    #23525 Reply
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    I have three homemade baffles in my “live” room. I built frames out of 1×6 pine, mounted to a plywood base with angle brackets, filled them with six inch open face fiberglass, covered them with cambric cloth and painted them black. The three are all two feet wide, two are four feet tall and one is five feet tall. They’re good for many uses; I’ve placed them on the sides and in front of acoustic guitar before. These days they are mostly left in the corners of the room to absorb bass frequencies. I’ll try to attach a picture.Home made baffle.

    #23526 Reply
    Michael Nickolas
    Participant

    P.S. the back is a sheet of 1/4″ Masonite hardboard.

    #23529 Reply
    PolarSounds
    Participant

    As someone mentioned, moving the mic closer could eliminate some room sound. I would probably position the mic towards where the neck meets the body on the guitar to avoid the potential boomy sound you can get in front of the sound hole.
    If you haven’t already, try to experiment with the different polar patterns of the mic. The omni pattern will give you more of the room sound. If thats not a desireable sound, try using the cardioid or figure 8 pattern.
    SE Electronics have some reflection filters which mounts on the mic stand, I haven’t any personal experience with these though.

    #23532 Reply
    ENW1
    Participant

    SAIL AWAY Guitar is my instrument. Acoustic is still always a challenge. The guitar, room, mic, preamp, compressor/limiter, reverb, & EQ are all key. Real Traps in the corners. Foam on the walls. Enough to damp the room without totally killing it. Small diaphragm condenser mic where the neck & body join. Definitely avoid the sound hole. I select reverbs for the color they add. In my experience, each recording is different. No matter what I do, I will still fight with the EQ & Verb in the mix to get the desired sound. Frequently some unexpected plugin will do the trick. I never know until it’s done.

    #23533 Reply
    Art Munson
    Keymaster

    Acoustic is still always a challenge.

    Yep, me too, still after all these years. Never happy with my acoustic sound. Martin D18 and I use either a Neumann U89, AKG 414EB or Shure SM81. Real Traps throughout the room. It all drives me a bit bananas! Still looking for the definitive acoustic guitar and mic.

    #23534 Reply
    ENW1
    Participant

    Let me know when you figure it out 🙂

    #23535 Reply
    OverDub
    Participant

    Acoustic stuff is my bread and butter, and I think the most important parts are the player and the instrument. Acoustic string instruments for me are cake, but drums are a curse! Think less is more. Try just a low cut at different frequencies. They help tremendously, especially in the mix.

    #23536 Reply
    ENW1
    Participant

    Definitely, cutting the lows in a mix (especially with bass) helps a lot. Solo stuff I don’t cut the lows as drastically. Depends on the instrument & mic. I do a lot of nylon string guitar. It’s different from steel string.

    The UAD Ocean Way Studios Plug-In can sometimes be nice to supply a desirable room sound.

    #23605 Reply
    Enda Reilly
    Guest

    Hello,

    I use a very cheap reflection filter/shield http://www.thomann.de/ie/the_tbone_micscreen_pu_mini.htm?ref=prod_rel_223803_4&sid=8ce5c16346ae7fc628e1e85251400e1c

    and The primacoustic voxguard mainly when i’m doing vocals but they also work on anything to tame the room sound. The ultimate one of these seems to be the Kaotica Eyeball.
    I’ve read about the Heil PR40 dynamic mic which supposedly doesn’t pick up room as much as a condenser but has a warm tone.

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