The acoustic guitar has its place in almost every style of contemporary music. So how can you use the processing tools of
Cuts centred at 100-300Hz and 1-3kHz can help if the sound is a little boomy or needs to be more open and transparent. Adding a few dBs around 5-7kHz can add a little presence. There can be very few instruments whose use is as ubiquitous as the acoustic guitar. In almost all branches of contemporary popular music — from folk through to heavy rock — acoustic guitars have their place. While there have been some dramatic improvements in sample-based 'virtual' acoustic guitar instruments during recent times, even a half-decent guitarist is likely to produce a more realistic performance by playing the part.
Using Q to roll off the lows and add a little high-end sparkle makes a good basic starting point for acoustic guitars in a full mix.
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However, the performance is not everything — the recording also has to be a good sonic fit to the musical piece as a whole. So, what can
Offer if you are looking to get the perfect, hand-crafted acoustic guitar part into your mix? Clearly, different sounds are needed for different uses, and the likely processing choices will depend upon whether the acoustic guitar is being used for accompaniment, as a rhythmic element or as a featured (solo) instrument. As with many mixing questions, frequency balance and level are the key issues — so it is no surprise that the focus is on EQ and compression. However, before considering the tools
Offers for the post-recording (mixing) processing that might be applied to acoustic guitars, some brief comments on the recording process itself might be worthwhile.
Processing Acoustic Guitars
, Paul White (with a little input from Mike Senior) produced a very useful technique column called 'Recording Acoustic Guitar'. In the main, this focused upon the recording process itself, rather than the subsequent processing that might be applied while mixing. Paul and Hugh Robjohns also produced a video tutorial on the same topic that appeared on
). It covered issues such as microphone choice, microphone placement and stereo recording. Interested readers can read the original article, so there is no need for me to repeat the excellent guidance already given. However, it is worth emphasising one key issue that comes out of these guides.
As mentioned above, within a mix, acoustic guitars are often shaped tonally in a way that would perhaps sound unnatural if heard in isolation. However, it is very difficult to pre-judge what will be required prior to the mixing stage. Therefore, when recording parts, the best method is to go with the most natural reproduction of the guitar sound that your instrument, recording room and equipment (mic/preamp) allow. Keep any EQ processing to a minimum and change the recorded sound of the guitar via mic positioning, if possible. If compression is required while tracking, then keep it gentle. By sticking to these basic guidelines, the recorded track should be a faithful reflection of the performance with a well-balanced frequency response. If your mix does then require you to radically cut, or perhaps more subtly enhance, particular frequency bands then fine; with a well-balanced original recording, free from over-compression, you will be keeping all your mixing options open.
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If the guitar is being used as a featured instrument — perhaps a solo guitar or a solo guitar accompaniment to a lead vocal — then the guitar sound will probably need to be left as natural as possible. If the recording process has been well done, then little or no further processing may be required — perhaps a subtle EQ cut in the dominant frequency range occupied by the lead vocal (the
Spectrum Analyser, from the Audio menu, can be used to help identify where this might be) and a little gentle compression will be all that is required.
Go easy on the compression. In this example, a gentle 2:1 ratio is being applied above a -15dB threshold to only catch the peaks. Things can get a little more tricky when a place for the acoustic guitar has to be found within a more complex mix. EQ can be used to shape the tonal balance of the guitar part so that a suitable balance is achieved between giving the guitar part its own space within the mix and making sure that it does not tread upon the frequencies required by other instruments. Compression can help even out the dynamics of the guitar part to ensure it neither gets lost in a busy mix nor that it overpowers other elements of the arrangement. My personal preference is to place EQ first in the signal chain and then drive the compressor with only the guitar frequencies that are going to be important within the mix, but there are no fixed rules here and so some experimentation is often required.
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Plug-in list), there are a few fairly standard EQ adjustments that can form a good starting point for acoustic guitars. In a full mix, perhaps featuring drums, bass guitar, some keyboard parts, vocals and possibly some electric guitars, there are going to be plenty of other instruments that are competing for space (and carrying the power) in the lower end of the frequency range. Cutting some of the bottom end below 100Hz thins out the acoustic guitar sound a little and, if there is plenty of kick drum, bass guitar or powerful electric guitar present, all these frequencies in the acoustic guitar track will do is make things a little muddy. If the part needs to cut through a mix more clearly, a little extra 'sparkle' can be applied by boosting by a few dB above 10kHz. This does need to be done with some care, however, as it can give the sound a little too much sizzle if overdone, creating a very unnatural result, even within a full mix.
The Multiband Compressor can be used to control both tonal balance and dynamics. In this example, the gain of the various bands is used to roll off the lower frequencies and boost the upper two bands for presence and sparkle. Between these low-end and high-end extremes, there are three other frequency ranges that are commonly worth experimenting with. First, if the guitar sounds a little boomy (perhaps a little too much soundhole in the microphone positioning during recording?), sweeping a parametric band from
Through the 100-300 Hz range may help identify where the problem lies. Once the offending frequency is identified (and this may depended upon both the guitar and the part being played), it can be gently cut by 2-3 dB to reduce the problem. Second, applying a cut within the mid-range can help to make the sound a little more open and transparent. Again, sweeping one of
Best Compressor Pedal For Acoustic Guitar
's parametric bands through the 1-3 kHz range will soon identify whether this helps or not. Finally, a modest EQ boost somewhere in the 5-7 kHz range can add a little presence to the sound. In some cases, this may be preferable to the high-end sizzle added above 10kHz, especially if there is also plenty of high-frequency energy provided by the various cymbals within the drum track.
While the combination of these EQ changes may, in isolation, make the acoustic guitar part sound a little weedy and perhaps a touch too bright, it is likely to sit much better within a busy mix, while occupying less space. Until you become more confident in your ability to judge these sorts of EQ changes, plenty of A/B comparisons are needed, both with the EQ applied and bypassed and also with the guitar soloed and heard within the context of the full mix. Again, unless the guitar is the featured instrument, it needs to work within the mix rather than in isolation, and in this context, a 'natural' sound may not be what is required.
It is quite difficult to give very specific advice about suitable compression settings for acoustic guitar when mixing — the details will depend upon both what the role of the guitar part is within the mix and the style of the part played. However, it is probably true to say that the more exposed the guitar part is, the more subtle the compression needs to be in order to maintain a natural dynamic to the performance. With
Top Effects For Acoustic Guitar
Plug-in, it is probably worth starting with a fairly gentle 2:1 ratio setting and adjusting the threshold downwards until gain reduction is only really being applied to the peaks of the performance rather than continuously.
Magneto can be a useful alternative to standard compression. It can also be useful to warm up a DI recording made via the guitar's built-in pickup. In terms of attack times, a setting somewhere between 10 and 20 ms provides a decent starting point. Some care is needed with really fast attack times — while they will control the level more severely, they can also rob the attack of each note or chord strum of its natural character, resulting in a very weak and lifeless sound. For most acoustic guitar material, I've
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